10^th Newsletter. On the road again.

After spending a week in Walkiman cleaning, washing, buying and just generally enjoying being in one place for a short while we were ready to move on again. It was also time to have the car serviced for the next leg of our travels which afforded us an opportunity to go to Cairns and a we bit of shopping. Actually we had a lovely lunch on the waterfront and also took in a movie, most enjoyable and different. Saturday 1^st Aug we had a lovely lunch at Robyn and Warwick’s house at Clifton Beach and caught up with their extended family.

Monday 3^rd August stopped in Atherton on our way out of town for a few last minute supplies and experienced rain for the first time in weeks. We made our way south on Savannah Way heading for Ravenshoe, Mount Garnet and finally Undara Volcanic National Park. Traveling through such diverse country is really strange, one minute you are in tropical rain forest and the next in pastoral countryside with its rock wall boundaries and cattle grazing on steep hillsides. Out of nowhere and in amongst the fog, huge wind turbines appeared across the hills as if they belong in a science fiction movie, very surreal and disturbing to me but for Ken he found them to be fascinating. The place they can be found is Windy Hill and apparently they (the wind mills) put out enough energy to supply power for the towns of Atherton and Mareeba, both considerable in size. Next we experienced open grass lands and kilometers of straight road, we decided despite our problem with National Parks re Wendal, that we really wanted to see Undara larva tubes so made our way to Undara National Park. The place is very eco friendly and a good deal of the accommodation is refurbished railway carriages, very nicely done. We were offered a quite camping spot with no power or water but a great bush vista which is what we wanted, however all this does come at quite a cost.

Tuesday 4^th August. Our first activity for the day was a walk around some of the bush tracks that Undara has to offer which ultimately took us about 1½ hours. We headed back to ranger headquarters to be counted as we had booked a tour of the Lava Tubes and didn’t want to miss out on going. The two-hour tour was well worth the $45 per person. The guide took our group into 3 huge lava tubes entering via collapsed roof sections. The tubes were magnificent. As the sun was setting we climbed Kalkani Crater and had the opportunity of walking around its rim, enjoying the view of what appeared to be the entire country. At the end of a very long day of activity we were feeling our age.

Wednesday 5^th on the road again and today we are hoping to put some kilometers behind us to step up our pace somewhat. A very good straight road and we managed to clock up 550klms arriving in Karumba at about 5.30pm to search the caravan parks. It turned out there are three, two out on the bay and one in town. They were all wall to wall or chokers as the saying goes, the only one who had any room left was the one in town so our camp was on the oval. Ken has made claim that Karumba was the Prawn capital of Queensland and I do believe he may be right. King Prawns are $12 a kilo and are fantastic so need I say we are Prawned out. Almost everyone who comes to this town comes to fish and they all seem to catch their share. It’s a very small town with one general store, one pharmacy that also sells furniture and electrical goods, a café attached to the general store and 2 fish co-ops. Oh yes, a few Pubs that I guess must sell meals. We are going to stay two nights here, as we want to give Wendal and ourselves a lay day. He was like a limp rag when we arrived having nothing to drink all day, because at lunchtime he was only interested in his cave.

Friday 7^th, Found out yesterday that Mt. Isa is fully booked out over the weekend because of a rodeo so we are going to have to take 3 days to get there. Challenging as it’s only 600 klm away. Our camp for the night is a Free Camp beside the road called Cowan Downs Rest area. We pulled in at about 4pm and am enjoying the solitude of being by ourselves with nature. Ken is having a well earned snooze as he does all the driving and I am enjoying just sitting and watching the beautiful Doves doing their thing foraging for food.

Saturday 8^th. first stop Burke and Wills Roadhouse, one wonders what this one will be like as they are always a surprise and different. Horrible toilets but at least they work; the sandwiches look like they are a week old and so does everything else. Bought fuel as its 200klm to next town. The countryside is really spectacular, long straight roads with unusual rocky outcrops. Very similar to a painting I have that portrays the incredible contrasts of the color of earth in harmony to the sky. Interestingly some people who have viewed the painting proclaim the colors are not realistic, well they have not been in this part of the world because the colors are a perfect match. We have arrived at Cloncurry a very dry town that has two main streets (no don’t get to excited) there both short. The caravan park we chose is one that is part of a group we are members of and therefore receive a discount on the fee. Slightly out of town but the areas allocated to each van are a wee bit bigger than the norm and come with a country visa. Its 30deg in the van and we are talking WINTER. Sure glad we don’t have to live here!

Sunday 9^th. Spent another day in Cloncurry and the highlight was searching the old cemetery for the headstone of Dame Mary Gilmore. We finally ended up asking one of the neighbors (that is still alive), it turns out her ashes are buried along with her husband’s body. She really was a remarkable woman, ahead of her time. What struck me, were just how many infant graves there are in these old cemeteries and how sad the lives of the early settlers must have been, having to bury their wee children.

Monday 19^th and we are on the road to Mount Isa. The countryside is beautiful, full of magnificent red rock formations and really quite hilly. The roads are remarkably good and we are pulling our big van at 100k with no problem. Mount Isa is bigger than I imagined, but dryer than dry. A wonderful Information Centre accosts you on your way through town, but to be honest it is full of great information and we are glad we dropped buy. We spent the afternoon at the fossil museum talking with an anthropologist about the finds at Riverslea dig. Very informative even if one is not really interested in old bones.

Tuesday 20^th we are up bright and early for our tour of ‘Hard Times Mine’, an underground mine in the centre of town. Wow what an experience that was. We were underground in the mine for about 2 hours looking at skips, air-leg drills, track shovels, rock bolting and so much more, again very informative. Ken took a drive out to Lake Moondara in the afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed himself although I don’t believe the dingy came off the roof of the car. Probably just some peace and quiet by yourself will do it every time are my thoughts. I also enjoyed some solitude in the van at 30odd deg feeling sorry for Wendal in his huge fur coat.

Wednesday 21^st. Time to leave the security of a big City and head out West. This is what I expected the countryside to look like, flat as flat with hardly a tree to be seen let alone a hill. Long straight road ahead with what looks like a lake straight ahead just beyond the bitumen, a mirage everywhere you look. We stopped for lunch and fuel some 189klm down the road at Camooweal. Hot and dry is the best way to describe the town, however I noticed a butcher shop that claims to have ‘fantastic sausages’, so we will give them a try tonight. Some 261klm further on we stopped at Barkley Homestead, which was a pleasant surprise from the homesteads we found in Cape York. They even had electricity and water although a wee dribble coming out of a tap can hardly be called ‘hooking up to water’. Today we heard the news of an aircraft crash in Papua New Guinea and the unfortunate loss of life. Dr June Canavon was one of the people killed in the crash. This is a great loss to the Sunshine Coast, the Australian sporting community and also her medical patients. She was a remarkable woman.

Thursday 22^nd. After rising at our usual civilized hour, which at this point I shall not disclose, one of our remaining neighbors pointed out that our left rear Disco tyre looked decidedly DOWN or FLAT. Alas he was right however luck was on our side because the Roadhouse had all the facilities to fix the problem. All that was required from us was money. 187klms on we were at a junction called Threeways. This is where the Barkley Highway runs into The Stuart Highway. At this point we decided to turn left and have a look at Tennant Creek, which we have all heard of but few of us have seen. Lucky few! It’s a much bigger town than I had thought, it does boast quite reasonable accommodation and their was evidence of a couple of ok looking motels, it is however difficult to critique a town when only passing through. The population, as in every other town we have passed through since leaving Atherton is at least 90% Indigenous. The women I have noticed particularly seem to have unique voices (from an Anglo Saxons perspective) very high, loud and shrill. It appears that they are fighting with one another but after hearing it so many times I think it is just their way of communicating. Perhaps they are discussing ‘secret women’s business’!! Stopping at a place called Renner Springs for the evening was met with mixed emotions, as basically it is not worth paying $16 for the use of the toilet. We did however find ourselves a spot by a spring and enjoyed the company of very beautiful Chinese Geese.

Friday 14^th already, time is going by for us very quickly. The landscape changed quite a bit from Elliot onwards. Trees now replaced flat grasslands, but the ground however still remained very dry. At lunchtime we veered off the highway near the junction of Stuart and Carpentaria Highways to a town called Daly Waters. Its pub is said to be one of the Territories most famous watering holes and one of its oldest buildings. It’s a corrugated iron affair draped with Bougainvilla on the outside whilst the inside plus courtyard is decorated with decades of memorabilia. The lunch we ordered was delicious; Barramundi wraps and lemon squash just the thing for our next leg of the trip. Some 180klm further on we turned right into Elsey National Park, and discovered Mataranka Homestead which much to our delight had great walking tracks and Thermal Pools. This as I was to learn later is one of the biggest draw cards in the region and was just a wonderful experience. It was not however mentioned in the Camps 4 book which so many of us consider our traveling bible. This was the first occasion the cozys (swimming costume or bathers) came out of the closet so far in our trip.

Saturday 15^th Katherine was not so far away only 105klm so basically we were there for lunch. We booked into ‘Riverview Tourist Village’ because firstly it is cat friendly and secondly because we are members of Family Parks so get a discount. Unfortunately we were jammed packed in, almost touching distance, but the plus was we were to discover the park backs onto Katherine Hot Springs. A wee walk and you are in heaven. SO GUESS WHAT WE DID YESTERDAY AFTERNOON? Too lovely to talk about except to say there is also a waterfall so you can enjoy having your cellulite worked on while standing under beautiful warm falls of aqua clear water. Being there is beyond words, except to say, “how come this oasis is in the middle of such dry country”. How lucky were we to be there.

Sunday 16^th. A lovely sleep in and another warm day. We have booked in to do a cruise in Katherine Gorge at 2pm but before that a bit of house cleaning, washing etc and the long awaited WASHING OF THE CAT. How he loves this time, being trapped in the shower recess with Ken who holds him while I kneel outside and wash and shampoo. Petrified is the closest emotion I can ascribe to explain his experience. We wash him as expediently as possible and in the heat we are experiencing at least he is cool for the day. It is now evening and I need to report on Katherine Gorge or Nitmiluk National Park as it is known by its’ Indigenous owners. It’s a breathtaking place to visit, huge sandstone escarpments broken only by fissures displaying tropical foliage. We were fortunate enough to see a fresh water Crocodile basking on his rock, his place of belonging. It would be difficult not to feel the spirituality of this place, regardless of ones beliefs. Nature has a wonderful way of humbling us to the reality of the world we live in.

Monday 17^th on rising I felt that this was not a day I was going to enjoy, didn’t feel wonderful plus just something I couldn’t explain. Ken had difficulty on sending an important email and in fact persisted for an hour to no avail. On leaving the Caravan Park after someone decided to park in front of us so we couldn’t get out, we both said to each other ‘lets drive carefully today, things don’t feel good’. We left Katherine and pulled off the highway for some lunch at Pine Creek. As always we pulled a reluctant Wendal out of the car and put him in the van as we do at lunchtimes. We had decided to block off his CAVE (Ken’s Wardrobe) in order that he should spend his time drinking and weeing before the afternoon stint. He tried to get into THE CAVE and realized it was blocked off then the next I saw of him he was sitting on Ken’s pillow doing a huge WEE. Oh yes one annoyed cat and one very pissed off Ken. We grabbed all the bedding and washed what we could with water we had in the caravan tanks. As well as Ken’s pillow, even the top of the mattress bolster was soaked, not to mention the sheet, woolen underlay, normal underlay, latex mattress and innerspring. Didn’t miss a thing, and boy there is nothing like the smell of cat pee. Ken did not mince his words, statements such as ‘the cat has to go’ etc, fell on deaf ears. I negotiated I would change pillows with him as Wendal did not pee on MY Pillow, smart cat, this seemed to have the desired effect as he stopped huffing and puffing about it. Two hours later our washing was dry and we headed off on the Kakadu Highway hoping to get to Jabaru by nightfall. Some distance down the road Ken felt the engine was missing and showed concern. Not long after I started hearing a very strange noise on my side of the car, Ken could not hear it (due to industrial deafness, as a result of taxi driving) so of course we went on until the noise was quite scary (similar to dragging a muffler down the road). The road conditions at this stage offered no shoulder to pull onto and of course winding hilly fast (110klms/hr +) road section to boot with double white lines. We could only half get off the bitumen. What had happened is the van had lost its rear tyre on the passenger side. All that was left was a lot of wire tangled around the axle and wheel rim, which we had been driving on for some time. The van at this stage was on about a 50deg slope and no chance of getting off the road. Yes things looked particularly grim but it gets worse. A lovely young English couple stopped to see if they could help only to inform us, ‘were we aware the remaining tyre was loosing air at a great rate of knots’. With only one spare tyre, no phone coverage and a rough idea how far we had come or how far the next town was it was not good news. It was also about 35deg in the shade of which we had none and every fly in the region must have sent out a message to gather around us and add to our frustration. At this stage I put on my CROCS and did some serious walking to see if there was any chance of us getting off the road further on. No idea how far I went but I came back with good news that over the next hill it seemed as though there was some flat land. We traveled on, crawling along on the rim with hazard lights flashing over the hill for a couple of klms until we found a place to pull into. Two or more hours later the spare tyre was on and we headed to nearest roadhouse, which was Mary River some 8klms on. What a relief the day was over. No not quite, Ken found that a bottle of diet coke had leaked all through the back of the car, not a happy camper.

Tuesday 18^th we woke up to find that the tyre with the leak was indeed flat, so we got out the compressor and blew it up and headed back very slowly to Pine Creek to have it fixed. Found someone to plug the hole and then headed to Darwin to buy new tyres. Fortunately we had an uneventful trip here and booked into Coolalinga Caravan Park, which is approximately 25klm from the city centre of Darwin. It’s a nice park with space for everyone to feel comfortable; it also has the luxury of green lawns, which is something we had almost forgotten about. We will be here for a week before moving on to dryer pastures.

I hope this finds everyone well and as always happy. I will start my next newsletter in a week or so, before leaving Darwin. We are both looking forward to exploring this new city and tripping into Kakadu with only the car. Until next time take care. Elizabeth. P.S. Wendal sends a big hellow to everyone and says he feels better now that he has taught his fellow travelers not to mess around with his territory, its been hard for them to get it through their heads who really is boss around here.