Adelaide to Darwin Part 5

Daly River

Lee and Jenny's Bushcamp

Sunday morning and off around 9:30 so not too early! We said goodbye to Janet and Tony as they were leaving for Church and our journey of 275 kms begins. We had a very smooth tow until we left the Stuart Highway on to a one lane road for approximately 35 km. We came across some very fast drivers unusual for a Sunday morning.  At last we came to the Daly River Road which was a really good two lane road.  We saw a few Kangaroos on the way down Daly River Road but really the land was scrub and very dry. We turned off on to Wooliana Rd towards our destination and the landscape changed significantly it was lush, green and very flat with mango trees all set in line, in a number of paddocks. We past a campground that was very shady where caravans were parked under mango trees.

 

Practise shot

We eventually arrived at Lee and Jenny’s Bushcamp where there was lots of space, no regimented lines of caravans, it was just like being in someone’s garden. Jenny helped Richard put our big rig in a wonderful spot where we will be for the next 10 nights….. We had dinner and walked across the site to where we sat a listened to a fantastic trio of guys, two Kiwis and one Aussie, playing their amazing music. The two Kiwi’s worked at a place called Port Keats which is over 200kms down a dirt road.  The night sky was amazing and seemed so close that we could touch it, no light pollution here!

Our pitch for 10 nights...wonderful



The Band




Jenny had heard from Jackie and so we knew now that her and Bob would be arriving on Thursday. Jenny gave us lots of information about her site, it was over 300 acres and we could go offroading through the back of the site.  Another important piece of advice was about the electric fence surrounding the garden, this is to stop the wild buffalo encroaching into the campsite. We will go and look for said Buffalo one day!!

Most of the men on site were avid fishermen just wanting to catch a Barra! They even set pots to catch their bait which was called Cherubim a fresh water prawn!

Helen intended to just chill out here and read, knit or walk etc…. but, the first few days saw us sorting out the caravan and storing various items of clothing that we knew we would not need…..

We were 20kms from the nearest pub the Daly River Inn and the supermarket was about the same distance in the local community.  We went for a drive to the Inn/pub and found the new bridge that had been built over the Daly River. We discovered this bridge was so needed as the only the river crossing was being washed away.  This new bridge is the only access to the dirt road which goes out to a place called Port Keats (Wadeye) where there are 3000 people living, apparently it’s not a very nice place!!

Our general daily routine became quite regimented as the only spot where we could access phone and internet was over the road on the bank above the river. We were inclined to visit this spot sometimes three times a day as it was much cooler here than camp. We christened this spot “The Office” and would refer to it with our neighbours and new neighbours as they arrived.




A decent sized Croc catching the sun

 











Richard did manage to throw his line in using pieces of chicken for bait… Yes, he did get a bite or two but unfortunately he had to run down lots of steep steps from the office and missed the opportunity to bag us a Barra!!

Just two of the 10 or so chairs at "The Office"
this is where Richard had to run from, down
steep steps!



View of Richard from "The Office"

 

Jackie and Bob arrived along with other new campers, Bruce and Sheila from Tambourine, Gold Coast.  Richard had acquired a fire pit from Lee and proceeded to light a super fire.  Helen had already prepared a very large casserole for dinner so the six of us had a very nice evening. Talk of campovens and how to make Damper ensued round the fire it was agreed that Jackie will bake us a damper tomorrow night she has a camp oven.

Casserole night together
from the left, Bob, Sheila, Jackie Helen, Rich and Bruce (with back to us)



We said our farewells to Bruce and Sheila in their Maui motorhome, they had been away from home for three weeks and would fly back on Sunday.  It wasn’t long before we had new neighbours, Gary and Traci… They came Croc watching with us at “The Office” and then helped Rich to light the fire where Jackie would bake her Damper, yummy…  The damper was brilliant, we used the fire to cook our dinner too.  Gary and Traci went off in their Land Cruiser to find buffalo!! Don’t think we will bother.

Sunday 14th Helen sighted a very large Croc swimming up the river he was just taking his time, she ran for the better camera through three sets of water sprinklers and got soaked, no worry as she soon dried off! Boy oh boy he was a big fella!!



He was a big one!!

 











 



Bob and Jackie cooking their evening meal
after she had made her lovely Damper

The baking of a Damper became a bit of a ritual and Traci made one the next afternoon then Helen had a go the next day but Traci wasn't able to sample as she and Gary had left… all were delicious. See photos. Unfortunately no photos of Jackie's boo hoo

Traci's Damper ready to be baked

Traci's Damper



Helen's Damper



Helen's baked Damper

We had to say goodbye to Gary and Traci, they, like Jackie and Bob were heading back to Queensland. Jackie and Bob left on Monday morning, it was sad to see them leave. We set to and did a little spot of van housework, cleaning inside and some outside. We had to put the aircon on as it was so, so hot.

Eventually it was time for us to leave this wonderful piece of outback bush camping, Helen didn’t really want to leave, she said she could spend at least another ten nights here! Helen went off early to "The Office" to take a few more photographs, it was foggy and eerie over the water and the road.....



Early morning mist over the camp

View from "The Office" misty morning



Goodbye, so sad to leave

Lee and Jenny are just two beautiful people with a passion to create a little paradise. They have owned the land for 5 years and have developed a super Bush Camp by just sheer hard work. They have some wonderful friends who have helped clear the land and who also look after the camp for two days a week, when Lee and Jenny go into Darwin for work. Obviously we will try and visit this little paradise again, but when?? We hope to meet up with Lee at the Casuarina swimming pool one Thursday whilst we are in Darwin and treat him to a coffee.

When driving back to Daly River Road we did see a small herd of Buffalo and goodness they were really, really large animals. It was the first time we had seen Wallabies in the wild for a number of weeks too, this morning. One, just hopped in front of us missing us and a Road Train, a little scary, as, do you break or carry on? Everyone says carry on an hit it!

Adelaide to Darwin Part 4

Katherine

3rd - 6th June

Driving into Katherine was very different to other large towns we had visited her roads were wide with a kind of very large avenue air about it.  Here, off the main street we sighted many caravans parked up in only what can be described as massive paking lot. The nomads were here to stock up at Woolworths and the local BWS liquor store, obviously we will be doing the same later today!

We travelled down Gorge Road to our camp ground called Shady Lane Tourist Park and it was shady too… it was like a south sea resort with palm trees and a beautiful swimming pool that our pitch was quite close too.  We soon caught up with friends from the track, Pete and Caron, they had been here two nights and this evening they were going on the Katherine Gorge dinner cruise..which sounds just lovely. Pete and Caron gave us some great tips and suggested we visit Edith Falls which is a 62km drive north. 

Shady Lane pool area

We had to go out for supplies to the wonderful Woolworths supermarket, I say wonderful, with tongue in cheek as we have not seen a decent supermarket since Alice Springs. Firstly, a visit to the library and some printing off of documents, then posting the said documents, a note was made that people with Seniors Cards were able to use the internet here for free!! Well, we spent a small fortune in Woolworths, but it was necessary as the cupboards are bare so to speak.  Our friends Pete and Caron left early the next morning so we didn’t get to hear about the dinner cruise until Caron posted her story on her Facebook page and it sounded just wonderful.  We discussed this cruise but due to the fact that it cost $154 per person we didn’t really know whether to partake of it…..

Our pitch, backing on to the pool

An afternoon in the library helped with the catch up and up to date version of our blog.  We left the library feeling a little relieved and walked out into the steaming hot sun.  A trip to Edith Falls the next day saw us packing a small picnic lunch along with our towels and swimming gear. 

Edith Falls

Edith Falls

 

We didn’t realise that Edith Falls had a National Park campground which looked really nice and outback.  After finding ourselves a nice grassy spot to leave our towels we ventured towards the waterhole, but as we did we turned and found ourselves face to face with a couple we had last seen at Alice, they were on their way back to Katherine after having been around Kakadu and Darwin….people do travel a lot faster than us it seems!!! Tony and Janet asked about our camp we told them it was good and we had a pool, they would try to ring for a pitch there, we did see them later.  The waterhole here was very big and we really didn’t want to swim to the small water fall as we were told there were fresh water crocs!! But they only come and feed at night, Oh yeh???

Some young people were swimming out in the middle of the hole and it seemed OK. But, we are still here to tell our story. After a refreshing swim a lady approached Richard and asked him about a snake that she had just seen disappearing behind a rock….needless to say a crowd suddenly gathered, as a crowd I mean 6 or 8 people. We all eagerly awaited a sighting of the said snake and yes, there it was moving fast in the undergrowth. Everyone agreed that it was a King Brown, only the second deadliest in Australia.  Helen soon made a fast retreat to gather her belongings ready to run back to the Ute.  Back at Shady Lane we spotted our friends, we arranged for a little gathering (happy hour) back at our van after we had cooled down in the pool.

Look carefully for the black snake

 

  

Tony and Janet remembered our other friends Bob and Jackie, we told them about the bad luck Bob and Jackie were having with their Motorhome. Bob and Jackie have had to spend $7000 on the engine but we are lucky as they will come and have some time with us on the Daly river at Lee and Jenny’s Bushcamp and we are so looking forward to that.

Saturday morning and we made a decision to go on the two gorge cruise $84 each this afternoon. Richard managed to get us booked in OK for the 2p.m. one. We had a lot to do today as we wanted to see the Museum and stock up on food before we leave tomorrow!!

Dr Clyde Fenton's Tiger Moth


The Museum was only a 5 minute drive away, so off we went. The DVD of the 1998 Katherine flood was so good, we didn’t realise how far the water travelled from the Gulf of Carpentaria, between 25^th and 27^th January 17.6 inches of rain was recorded falling over the Katherine River. On Australia day the roads north and south were closed due to the massive rising of flood water. 200 km downstream at Daly River community the flood waters had risen to massively and it peaked at 55ft (16.8m) on the 3^rd February 1998.  The whole community of 400 people had to be evacuated by helicopter, not all at once you understand.

An amazing story of a local GP (flying doctor) called Doctor Clyde Fenton is told in the Museum and even his little plane a Tiger Moth is here. He used to take his wife to the pub in the plane and park it outside, the police didn’t know what to do and neither did the Aviation authority a great story.

 

We managed to make our 2 p.m. appointment in the Gorge for our cruise, but, we were held up because of coach loads of people from the train The Ghan had turned up and they were given priority!! We forgot about the Ghan being here on Saturdays.

Our tour/boatman was very knowledgeable and passionate about the Nitmiluk National Park and Katherine River, he shared and pointed out lots of information about the Jawoyn traditional owners of the land.  It is all so interesting and if anyone does feel they want to know more about it after reading our blog please have a look at www.jawoyn.org/governance/history

Our young tour guide sounded more and more Kiwi and so Helen not being able to resist asked the young man! It turned out his father is Samoan and his mother Aboriginal and he did spend a lot of time in Auckland but was born in Australia and was so adamant that he was Australian, we had a wonderful afternoon in the Gorge and so pleased we did the cruise after all, even if we didn’t get fed.



1st Gorge

 

There are a few sand banks too



On route to the 2nd Gorge



 

  

2nd Gorge

Freshwater Croc sighted on our return
in the 1st Gorge



Nice little chap

 

 

 

After our wonderful trip in Katherine Gorge we drove to the nearest supermarket, Woolworths and spent lots of money stocking up for our next 10 day bush camp! We intend to head off early tomorrow for Lee and Jenny’s Bushcamp on the Daly River.

 

Adelaide to Darwin Part 3

Tennant Creek to Matarnaka / Bitter Springs


Monday morning saw Helen up and off to the Library in Tennant Creek, she needed to print off some emails and then post on to the UK! This done she drove back to campground where Richard hitched up. We towed again north on the Stuart Highway to a recommended camping ground called Banka Banka Station where we could connect to water but not to electricity. We arrived early and Bob the manager put us on site and within the hour there were another 25 or so caravans rolled in. This station is a very convenient stop off on the Stuart Highway as distances are so huge between places. We booked in for 2 nights but stayed for three. There was free entertainment every night by a country and western singer. By the time we got to our third night we were a little tired of hearing the same old, same old renditions of Jonny Cash, Willie Nelson etc, etc.......

Photographs below:

THE BAR

View from the hill behind the Station

Toby, the Station/campground worker's dog
a red Kelpie had given birth 4/5 weeks
ago to 8 puppies here are just a few!

 



We had a really good time here and again met some lovely people, a couple in particular we now keep in touch with. Pete and Caron!
Leaving Banka Banka our planned route to Daly Waters was interrupted by our reversing camera connection failing. We pulled into what we knew was a free camp and Richard decided to try and fix our camera problem.  We had lunch and Richard pondered for a few hours over the situation...he decided it was knackered and we needed a new cable!! We stayed here overnight by ourselves, we thought, until approximately 8:30 p.m. a car came towards us with a young couple who wanted to camp for the night. It was good to have company and we all sat around the fire. The couple Kane and Margot (she was Canadian) had travelled from Mount Isa today and we decided it must have been 800 + kilometres they were really trying to get to Darwin to find work!!
Sun up very early and we all had coffee and chat before we said farewell.

Daly Waters pub is famous on the Stuart Highway as a watering hole and entertainment place with a large campground. It is particularly famous for its "Beef and Barra" menu, the Barra being Barramundie fish...Helen sampled the Barra twice as we decided to stay for three nights. Entertainment here was a different type of music to the last place. Steve was more of a rock and roll artist he seemed to specialise in one hit wonders!! which was very good. Daly Waters has a really great system of feeding lots of people, they give you a time between 6:30 - 7:30 with three cookings. The chef was amazing at preparing and cooking the fish and beef! Sorry, I didn't get any photographs of him cooking!

Daly Waters Photographs below:

 

Sorry the large piece of Barra is under all the salad
Yummy food

Had to show this van with wind generator, talked to the owner
and it works really well!

We had some very nice neighbours for two days but, here again we came across a strange man who told us he was a Commercial Pilot!! he had a Jayco silverline similar to ours... Well I could go on to tell you a few stories about this person but I had better not....So if anyone does want to know I will tell privately, yes got you all intrigued now!! one snippet to tell you is Richard gave him a nickname of "Flying Officer Kite" and also "Biggles" he was a very strange character!!

We left Daly Waters needing supplies and headed toward Mataranka which was 160kms away. After a very quick journey we located our chosen campground and booked in for two nights. Here in the small town there was a small supermarket which was very very expensive!! a few basics bought and then off to the nearest Thermal pool we went. Bitter Springs was an easy walk from the campground and here we used noodles enabling us to float with the flow of the water. Everyone attached their thongs/jandals to either end of the noodle and once at the end we were able to walk back with said jandals and do it all again. Very pleasant to say the least.

It was a very hot evening and it was pleasant to sit outside for a few hours. We had a small frog or toad come to visit us too!
Our next day, we decided to visit the Mataranka Homestead where the novel "We of the Never Never" was based the author Jeannie Gunn lived here in the area and wrote of her time living in the outback in 1902/03. The film was shot here and they built a replica of the Homestead using information from her book. There is a large campground here too we had a look around the old replica then into the bar where the film "We of the Never Never" is shown everyday at Noon!
The thermal springs here were just lovely and we stayed floating around for well over an hour.

Watching the film

Helen in the thermal pool a beautiful 34C

 

It is just like being in the tropics Helen said to Richard..... Its not like it Helen, we ARE in the tropics he replied!!

 We moved on after a long talk with our neighbours and headed to Katherine only 114km where Helen was in awe of seeing some famous sights e.g. McDonalds!!!