28 September 2010 to 4 October 2010

30 September 2010 

Well, we spent a lovely few more days at Miaree Pool but then we had better get back on the road.  It was a lovely spot but we only JUST had internet and it would cut out at midmorning so I would have to get all work done by then. 

We hit the road and spent the next 2 days heading to Carnarvon as there was really nothing in between Karratha and Carnarvon. 

1 October 2010

We arrived in Carnarvon this afternoon and I spent the afternoon working and it was getting late by then so and there was nowhere nearby to free camp so we decided to stay in a caravan park - I KNOW, I KNOW!!  Goes against our religion but I really wanted a hot shower - so sue me!! 

2 October 2010

We are both a bit crook in the tummies today so we didnt do much and decided to stay in the caravan park again to stay near a toilet!! 

21 - 27 September 2010

21 September 2010

We headed into Broome today to the information centre and I worked while Ross did some shopping, etc.  We then filled up with water and headed out to Quandong rest area - we have found pariadise!! What a beautiful place!!  We have set up directly overlooking the beach and the water is that beautiful aqua colour you see on all those island paradise pitures!! 

We headed down to the water and had a look in the rock pools and talked to some other campers - we had a great afternoon. 

22 September 2010

Well, our perfect paradise has been rudely interrupted by a bushfire!!  We were just lying about relaxing and enjoying ourselves when our neighbours pointed out a bushfire just over the hill so we thought we had better keep an eye on it.  It kept coming closer and closer and we could then see the flames not too far away from us so we decided it was time to pack up and get ready for evacuation!!  The people who were closer to the fire just decided to abandon their vehicles and take all their most valuable possessions down to the beach (esky full of beer) and watch the proceedings from there!! It kept getting closer though it seemed to be heading inland rather than towards us but it was still too close for comforte, especially seeing as there were freak gusts of wind about - one picked up our solar panel and dropped it down the gully - how rude.  We decided to get mobile and headed over to have a closer look and it seemed to be ok.  The fire brigade arrived and said it should be safe but keep an eye on it.  We decided we didnt want to take the chance so headed further down the beach to a campsite that was nowhere near the fire and set up there for the night.  It had blown itself out by morning and we found out that the way it had started was by some guy lighting his toilet paper after going to the toilet!!  Dont know about you but I wouldnt be admitting that!! 

23 September 2010

We went for a drive this morning - south - past where the fire had been.  We kept driving until we came to an intersection and took a right and then came out onto an open area and headed left along the coast again and eventually came out to a creek where some other people had just arrived and were about to go fishing.  They said you could catch just about anything there but you could only get there and leave on low tide and the tide was on its way in so if we werent staying we had better hustle.  We had a quick look around and I can surely imagine that it would be the perfect fishing spot as there are some rock cliffs that arent too high that go directly into deep ocean - it would be great but we didnt want to stay for several hours waiting for the tide to turn so we headed on out - lucky we did because we already had to drive through some water to get out!! 

We then headed back north again and took another turn to the left that took us towards the beach (there are several turns here but you have to take the one with the red soil rather than the white sand) and it comes out again onto a beautiful beach with the same type of rock/cliffs (only about 10' tall).  It was just lovely so we decided to throw the lines in but werent very successful because, unlike the other fishing spot, you are fishing straight off the beach and we dont have beach rods so we couldnt cast very far.  There is a bit of a cave there too that you can shelter from the sun in - what a great place!! 

We headed back to camp and had a swim then I worked in the afternoon - tough life!! 

24 September 2010

I worked this morning then we headed into Broome as we want to see the Staircase to the Moon tonight and maybe see a bit of Broome before we head south again.  It has been beautiful here but its still a tad on the hot side and there is no water out at the campsite (other than the ocean of course but not much good for drinking or washing in) and it is an hour's drive back to Broome to get more water.

We got into Broome and spent the afternoon looking around - we went out to the big jetty and wandered around, went out to have a look a the dinosoar footprints in the ocean but it wasnt quite lowe enough tide so we couldnt see them.  We went out and had a look at the Buddah temple with the 4 m hand, carved quartz crystal - pretty impressive!  We did some shopping etc and then went to watch the Staircase to the Moon http://www.broomevisitorcentre.com.au/events.asp which we were really lucky to see because it had been really cloudy all afternoon but it managed to clear up just enough for us to see a beautiful Stairway to the Moon - it was a great end to the day. 

We headed out of town for a rest stop just south of Broome for the night. 

25 September 2010

What a stinking hot day!! We took off in search of the elusive Telstra signal so I could work, dropping in at Barn Hill station on the way to see if we could be tempted to spend a week there if it was a nice enough place – you can stay there for $15/night for an unpowered site but there was very little shade and it was very hot so we decided to press on until we found reception which we eventually did at a little roadside stop with no shade but we had no choice but to stop because we didn’t know how long reception would last for as there was nothing showing on the Telstra map that they so kindly provide but it tends to be rather unreliable. (go figure). So we sat in the stinking hot sun for about 5 hours while I worked – I normally only do 3 – 4 hours but my boss is away so there was heaps of stuff I had to deal with.

We were eventually underway and just kept on driving into the night until we reached De Grey River rest stop about 80 kms north of Port Hedland which is a lovely stop right on the river– there is really nothing in between Broome and Port Hedland – bit of a boring drive. It was still hovering around 40° at about 5 o’clock!

26 September 2010

31° by 8 am this morning! There was no reception at De Gray so we headed into Port Hedland and I worked there - it was so much cooler being right by the ocean!!  Port Hedland isn't much to look at, it's primarily a mining town so unless you have a burning desire to go visit a mining town there probably isnt much point in going there.  We moved on after lunch and doing some shopping and started looking for a place to spend the night.  It is so hot and dry around here, every river we go across is dry so we dont hold out much hope of finding a nice spot by a river to camp.  We had a bunch marked on the camps book to look at but every one of them was next to a dry, hot river, bleh.  We eventually reached Karratha and just past Karratha there is a rest stop that we found that actually has water in it, not only that, it beautiful and clear and cool - yay!!  We obviously decided that was the place to stop for the night.  We are even out of croc country now so Boris can safely swim which he is very pleased about. 

27 September 2010

I worked in the morning - yes - finally a nice place to camp that has internet!!  We have a great spot on the river though it seems to be the local swimming hole so all the locals come here to swim.  Apparently only a few weeks ago this hole was almost dry but they had some rain and it has filled it up again - what a relief!! 

Boris was run absolutely ragged by all the local kids today - he sure is going to sleep well tonight.  There are a bunch of Aboriginal kids that come down to swim - what a great bunch of kids - they are like little energizer bunnies though - they just dont stop - they run Ross and me ragged too!!  Its all fun and we had a great afternoon. 

14 - 20 September 2010

14 September 2010

We headed back down to the jetty and I worked while Ross went to find out what the action was at the jetty, but there was none. There were some guys who had been there all night and between the lot of them they had caught one fish. Ross took Boris for a swim (a very careful swim mind you considering there may be crocs) and then read while I worked. We aren't going to hang around as there are no fish to be caught it seems. We will go to Berry Springs for a swim on the way out and head down to Oolloo Crossing to see what that's like.

It was HOT – it got up to 40+° in the late afternoon so we kept driving – there’s not much point in stopping when the weather is like that. We didn't end up going to Ooloo Crossing as there is no mobile reception there.

We arrived at Katherine at about 8ish and went straight to the springs for a refreshing dip and we weren’t the only ones there – lots of other people had the same idea! After our swim we went looking for a campsite to stay for the night and we ended up opposite the Big 4 caravan park in a little car parking area for a nice park.

We have been tossing up whether to go to Alice Springs now or later and we decided to leave it till later so we are going to head across to Broome. The next decision was whether to go the Gibb River Road or the Great Northern Highway. We had a look at the map and with our circumstances we unfortunately have to follow the road that has the most mobile reception so we decided to make a dash along the Great Northern Road as there is absolutely no reception along the Gibb River Road and we really felt that to do that road you need to be able to take your time and enjoy it. There is reception at Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing so we are going to aim to do it in a few steps of big drives between those two towns and then on to Broome. We also want to try to get out of the heat. We have definitely acclimatised over the past couple of weeks but still find it too hot to find the energy to want to do anything during the day.

15 September 2010

We noticed this morning the sign for the park where we stayed overnight saying that dogs weren’t allowed – oops! Oh well – ignorance is bliss!

We went back to Katherine Hot Springs and I did my work while Ross went into town to do a few things. We worked out today that Boris actually isnt allowed in the Hot Springs as we thought – we had looked for signs about dogs but hadn’t found any but we talked to a local this morning who told us that they definitely weren’t allowed and we went looking and eventually found the sign – another oops! There was even a ranger on the prowl today – lucky had hadn’t been around the other two times we had Boris in there swimming!

We went for one last swim (without Boris much to his disgust) and then headed off towards Kununurra. It was HOT. By about 4 in the afternoon it was hovering around 40 again – phew!! We drove through Gregory National Park which had absolutely fascinating mountains with exposed rock seams through them. The countryside around here is just brilliant – something different around each corner. We stopped in the Gregory National Park to have a look at the Old Victoria Crossing and went for a quick dip – including Boris but don’t tell the Rangers!! Poor boy was nearly passing out with the heat!

We pushed on after dark and eventually arrived at Saddle Creek rest area where we thought we would have trouble sleeping because of the heat but a bit of a storm blew up and cooled everything down, including Ross who hadn’t bothered to put the fly on over the bed and he was getting dripped on half the night!!

16 September 2010

We got up early and headed across the border. The border guards weren’t nearly as scary as everyone had told us and didn’t pull our car apart looking for things we shouldn’t be bringing across. We checked a couple of things with them that we weren’t sure about and they had a cursory look around and in the car and van and that was it.

We headed into Kununurra and I worked again while Ross did a few things and then we headed off the back way to Wyndham over Ivanhoe Crossing – that was pretty scary and up Parrys Creek Road. Ivanhoe crossing is a bridge with reasonably deep water flowing over it that you have to cross. The scary thing is that there are concrete bollards to guide you across it which are the only thing stopping you from going over the edge and half of them were missing! But we made it in one piece and headed up Parrys Creek Road where every wallaby in the district decided to come out and play chicken with our car!! What’s the deal with that!!?? We managed to drive right by Middle Springs and Black Rock Falls and miss the turnoffs and be too far up the road to turn back and have a look – duh!! WE stopped and had a look at Mambi Island camping area which was quite a nice spot right on the river which would be a good place for fishing but you couldn’t swim there of course because of crocs and there was no mobile reception so we pushed on to Marlgu Billabong for a look which was just beautiful with lots of birds but no Jabiru’s!!

We finally got back onto the main road and stopped for the night at a little rest stop not too far out of Wyndham. Again the wind came up and cooled things down nicely so we all managed to get a good night’s sleep again.

17 September 2010

We drove into Wyndham so I could do my work and Ross had a bit of a wander around town and chatted to some of the friendly local Aboriginals who told him we definitely needed to go up to the lookout so once I was finished off we went to have a look to find a FANTASTIC lookout way above the town with a magnificent panoramic view of five different major rivers flowing into the ocean – what a sight!! The lookout area itself was also great with a big covered area and free BBQs. The only bad thing about it was the toilet – man – I cant tell you how many horrible toilets I’ve seen on this trip – gross!! I literally had to break my way through to the toilet seat through all the golden orb spiders and then sat cringing on the seat in case any of them decided to take revenge on me for destroying their homes!!

After that we drove back into Wyndham to have a look at the big statues that the Aboriginals had made that were Dreamtime Spirit statues and quite well done – very interesting.

We then wanted to go and have a look at the prison boab tree which was on a side road that we had to go past. On the way through were some Aboriginal paintings on some rocks that we stopped to have a look at too. Just before the tree there was a little billabong where we saw our first Jabiru for the trip!!

The prison tree is an enormous boab tree, bigger than any others we had seen – it was very impressive!! There was a little hole cut into it where they must have got the prisoners to go through and once they were in there they would be very easy to keep an eye on and it was also nice and cool inside though I can’t imagine they would have been able to fit too many people in there at once – it’s a big tree but there was still only so much room inside.

After that we headed for Grotto Creek for a swim as it was still in the high 30s. When we got there it was only a fairly small swimming hole but it was wet and cool and we all had a nice refreshing swim before heading off to “The Grotto” which was only just on the other side of the bridge from where we just had a swim. The Grotto is a fantastic waterfall gorge that is really deep and steep and even though there were no waterfalls running when we were there, you could just imagine how it would be in the wet season. There were stairs carved into the side of the gorge that looked very narrow and steep but we just had to go and have a look so we went down the stairs into the gorge – very harrowing and pretty darn scary but worth the trip – there are no rails or anything to stop you falling over and it would be a long trip down if you went over. The water at the bottom of the gorge didn’t look all that appealing so Boris was the only one who went for a swim down there but it was very pretty and lovely and cool down there.

We decided not to go back to Kununurra. We originally were going to go back for a look around but there wasn’t a lot we wanted to look at there aside from the numerous galleries that sold the zebra rocks but we decided against it. We pushed on until we hit a campsite near Halls Creek called Leycesters Rest which is a huge rest stop that was dedicated to a young boy who died near there in a car crash. It was actually almost cool when we arrived – looks like we have finally gotten out of the worst of the heat.

18 September 2010

Nearly had to put a jumper on this morning – only 21°! I couldn’t sleep so got up at daybreak and went for a walk to have a look around and found an old bridge and did a bit of exploring before heading back to camp to wake Ross up and pack up camp to head into Halls Creek. The countryside has changed again and is much greener now though there aren’t the fascinating mountain ranges with the exposed rock seams running through them like there have been for the last few days. There also aren’t nearly as many boabs as there have been over the last few days – they are fascinating trees and there have been thousands of them over the last few days but they have definitely petered out now.

We arrived at Halls Creek and decided to have a look around there area so we headed out on the road towards Old Halls Creek.  On the way out there is the China Wall which is a natural white stone wall which looks just like a miniature "Great Wall of China".  The wall itself was very interesting and the gully it is in was extremely pretty and we spent a fair amount of time walking around exploring.  We then headed out to Caroline Pool which is a swimming hole in among rocks on a river bed - the rest of the river is dried up at the moment and it was also a very beautiful area and we decided we wanted to stay there the night but there was no mobile reception - typical!!  Nonetheless, we went out and had a look at Old Halls Creek and wanted to go out to Sawtooth Gorge but the road out there is closed at the moment so we couldnt go so we went back up the road a bit to where I could get reception and did my work and then headed back to Caroline Pool for the night - it was just too pretty a spot not to camp there!!  We had our first fire in ages and cooked damper on a stick and had a great night - very relaxing!  Unfortunately the wind came up and it got very blowy and COLD!!  Would you believe it got down to 16°!?  We had to put jumpers on! 

19 September 2010

We took our time packing up this morning and Ross found that the 4wd had a flat tyre so we went into town looling for somewhere that would repair it - the Toyota place repaired it for $50!!  (usually around $20).  Oh well, what can you do.  I did some work while the tyre was being repaired and then off we went towards Fitzroy Crossing.

WE stopped at the Mary River campsite on the way through - what a lovely place - we would have loved to have stayed there but as usual - no reception - that's really getting annoying!!  We pushed on and arrived at Fitzroy Crossing and turned off before the town past the old Pioneer Cemetary and pas the Inn and past there was a dirt track leading off so we went to have a look - it was a rough 4wd track that was a bit hairy but not very long and we ended up next to a creek in a lovely little spot out of the worst of the dratted wind!  WE decided to camp there for the night and then head off in the morning after I did my work. 

20 September 2010

Got up this morning and there was no work on so I have decided to work this afternoon instead.  We will head into Fitzroy Crossing and have a look around and then on to Tunnel Creek and then on to Derby.

Tunnel Creek was fantastic!!  Its like a huge cave about 1 km long with water flowing through it - it's everything you could want - comes complete with wading through hip-deep water in total darkness, bats, crocs, stalagmites, stalagtites and a great little swimming hole at the end - had a ball!!  The biggest problem wsa the road - it was awful!!  Corrugations enough to rattle your false teeth out! 

WE didnt end up going to Windjana Gorge because of Boris so we kept on along the horrible road and ended up just this side of Derby and found an information bay that we intended to stay at and go into Derby tomorrow but when Ross went for a walk he discovered a no camping sign so we had no choice but to move on. It looks like Derby is one of those towns that has nowhere you can free camp so we might have to keep moving because its getting late in the day.

We decided to have a look at the attractions that Derby did offer including the Prisoner Boab tree, the big water trough and Frosty's Pool which were all together so it only took a very short time to see it all!!  There are other things to see like their jetty as they have huge tides here and you can catch all sorts of fish as well as mud crabs but because we couldn't camp we decided to move on.  We met some friendly locals out near the boab tree who said that we could camp on the right hand side going south out of town - there are a bunch of tracks leading off into the scrub where we could have camped but we decided to move on and headed for Willare Rest Stop which shows as day only in the Camps 5 book but is actually an overnight stop. 

7 - 13 September 2010

7 September 2010

At least the nights have cooled down enough to sleep now and we are getting decent nights sleep - there is nothing worse than being too hot to sleep!! 

Ross did a bunch of stuff on the caravan while I worked today and this afternoon Roundy and Janine turned up who are friends of Michelle and Peter's and who also keep their rig at the property.  They also brought Beaky with them - a friend of theirs.  We had a great afternoon drinking beer and swapping stories in the cool shade.  They are a great bunch of people and we had a top afternoon.  They are planning to to out to West Alligator River to fish for barra and have asked us to go with them so we are definitely going to seriously consider it!! 

We found out through talking to them that the had just been on a car rally that my Uncle Max had just been on too and they all knew each other - small world!! 

8 September 2010

More work on the caravan today and I cooked curried sausages for everyone. 

I worked this morning while Ross did stuff on the caravan again then we went into town and checked out the Botanical Gardens and did some shopping.  The Botanical Gardens were nice but none of the water features were on or had water in them so it kinda detracted from the whole thing! 

Stacey and Michelle asked me to go to Zumba http://www.zumba.com/us/ with them so we all went along and had a great time and worked up a sweat and came home and had curried sausages and fell into bed!!

9 September 2010

We were up early and went to Litchfield National Park today and stopped in at Berry Springs on the way through - what a fantastic day!! 

We stopped first at Berry Springs and had a quick swim and then headed into Litchfield.  First stop was Bamboo Creek Tin Mine which was very interesting and we had a great time exploring there. 

Next stop was Wangi Falls - just beautiful!!  We first walked right around and up and over the waterfall and by that time we were well and truly ready for a swim.  We managed to get right in under the wafterfall and get some photos too! 

Next on the list was Blyth Homestead which was a very sombering reminder of how harsh people had it way back then.  It was very interesting wandering around trying to imagine living there. 

Next on the list was The Lost City which is a bunch of sandstone rocks that haven't been washed away from weathering like everything else around them resulting in an absolutely fascinating spectacle!  You would swear that it was the remnants of an ancient civilisation with structures that looks like castles, statues, columns and walls.  We had a great time exploring there!

After that we were pretty well buggered and apart from stopping to have a look at the magnetic termite mounds decided that we had had enough for the day.  There were a couple of other things we could have stopped to look at which were mostly swimming holes and waterfalls but it was getting late so we headed home after a wonderful day!

10 September 2010

This afternoon we decided to go the the Darwin Museum.  What a great museum and it's free!!  It has to be one of the best museums I have ever been to and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  It has lots of info on the 1974 Cyclone Tracey including a sound room where you go into a dark room and they play the noise of a cyclone outside and you can try to imagine how terrible it would have been being in the middle of that cyclone or any cyclone for that matter.  They had lots of other fantastic displays and we had a great couple of hours traipsing around looking at them. 

We went to the pub for tea with the gang and had a great night. 

12 September 2010

We spent the afternoon looking around Darwin - we went to the WWII Oil Storage Tunnels which was interesting and cost $6 each to get in.  We then went and had a look at Stokes Wharf precinct which was just lovely and then went out to East Point and had a look at Lake Alexander and the Military Museum which we didn't end up going in as it was $12 per head which is probably quite reasonable but we have been spending too much money so decided not to.  It was a lovely afternoon. 

When we got back Peter and Michelle had returned from going to Shady Camp with Roundy and Janine and brought a couple of barra with them which we had on the BBQ and I made a fried rice and a salad to go with it - very yummy!! 

13 September 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!! 

We decided to move on today as we have pestered Peter and Michelle enough.  It has been wonderful having a toilet, a shower and a washing machine for awhile but it's time to move on and Stacey and Tony had been to Mandorah which is on the opposite coast to Darwin (you can see Darwin from there) and said there was a big jetty there where people had been catching fish so we decided to go there.  When we got there it was VERY windy but Ross threw the casting net in and got some bait fish so we decided to stay for a bit of a fish.  There are MILLIONS of bait fish here just sitting under the jetty - I've never seen so many in my life and there are big fish feeding among them - just cant catch any of the buggers!!  There is a guy here who has been here for about a month and has caught quite a few fish but didnt get any today - typical - we always arrive when the fish arent biting.  Nevertheless, we had a great afternoon and when it was nearly dark we went looking for somewhere to camp and on the way had a look at the plane wreck just up the road which was quite fascinating as I had never seen a plane wreck before - I think it was from WWII?  B52 bomber - something like that anyway.  We ended up just camping on the side of the road as it is a very quiet road that hardly anybody uses.

31 August 2010 to 6 September 2010

31 August 2010

We had a good start to the day with Ross, on about his third throw with the casting net, bringing in about 50 herring!!  Never seen so many!! We threw most of them back and gave a couple to the kites that hang around waiting for tidbits and went on our way with great expectations for the day - pfft! Stupid fish - what's their caper?  Got us all excited about catching fish and then - no more!!  We lost a few lines to sharks and goodness knows what else but for the rest of the time there was nothing!!  Stupid fish. 

We had fish and chips for lunch - we got 4 big fillets off the fish from yesterday which will do us for 4 meals which is some consolation I guess.

1 September 2010

I got up and worked and we didnt get going from Borroloola until about 11:30ish after filling up with fuel, doing a little shopping, etc.  We decided to do a big run today as we need to get to Katherine because this morning Ross' computer died again!!  Grrr!!  WE have to take t in to either Katherine or Darwin to get fixed again.  Hopefully they will get it right this time!! 

We had a big drive and drove past the famous Daly Waters Pub and almost stopped there for the night but decided to push on to a rest stop showing further along the way.  It seemed to have everything we needed including water which is always handy - we didnt expect drinking water as its very rare to come by but water for washing dishes etc is always good. 

We got to the rest stop at about 5:30 and started setting up while I went to the toilets - EWWW - they were pit toilets that were literally full to the brim!!  All the rubbish bins were overflowing and there was no water!!  Far out - bummer, but Ross had already set up camp so we decided to stay anyway.  We made the rest of the queen fish into a nice curry and hit the hay.  It had been a long, hot day and so far we have been luck in that the nights cool down nicely for sleep. 

2 September 2010

Well, that had to be the worst night's sleep in the history of bad night's sleeps!!!  Ok, so this rest stop has disgusting toilets, overflowing rubbish bins, no water - to top that off it was stinking hot and poor Boris couldnt sleep - was panting all night, we had huge road trains going past all night including driving right through the middle of the rest stop (what the heck is that all about?), people deciding to leave at like 5 o'clock in the morning and running their very noisy, stinky 4WDs for a long time right next to our van before they left, and just in case that wasnt enough to keep us awake, we had friendly locals driving past at about 5 am also, beeping their horns just in case we had managed to get any sleep at all during the night!!  So if you are ever contemplating stopping at South Warloch Rest area - DON'T DO IT!! 

The rest of the day was lovely though as we headed in to Mataranka and first went to the thermal pools and had a bit of a look see but Boris wasn't allowed to swim there so we headed over to the Bitter Springs to also have a look see after letting him have a swim in the Little Roper River for a cool down.  We went to the barra feeding at the homestead which is free and was good but its not quite hot enough for them yet so they were still a bit sluggish.  After that we headed to the Bitter Springs for a swim - HEAVEN!!  Just beautiful!!  http://www.matarankacabins.com.au/bitter-springs-thermal-pools.html.  There was a film crew there filming so we couldnt go in the main pool but it wsa still lovely.  After that I wanted to have barra and chips at the homestead restaurant so we headed there and let Boris out of the car.  He had just hit the ground and I had his lead in my hand ready to put it on him and he spotted one of their pet wallabies!!  Well, you can imagine the rest for yourself - very embarrassing with me having to apologise profusely to the owner!!  We still had barra and chips tho!! 

We then headed into Mataranka township so I could sit in the park and work before heading to another campsite closer to Katherine.

3 September 2010

Well, that campsite wasn't much better than the last one though it did have water in the tanks - that was the only improvement!  Some sleep anytime soon would be very nice!! 

We headed on into Katherine and to the Katherine Hot Springs http://www.google.com.au/images?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENAU352&q=katherine+hot+springs&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=UkKETMPmDs3QceOjvdAL&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=5&ved=0CDoQsAQwBA&biw=1440&bih=657
which weren't really hot but juuuust right!!  I sat under the tree and worked for a few hours while Ross ran some errands in town including dropping off his computer for fixing again.  When he came back we spent quite a bit of time lazing in the hot springs - Boris joined us too and had a wonderful time!! 

We headed north again and found a bit better campsite for the night about an hour and a half shy of Darwin to camp the night.  They had been burning off during the day and some of the big logs were still burning around the campsite which was very handy for boiling the billy! 

We met a lovely couple who were travelling on a 3-wheel motorbike towing a trailer - had a great chat and then it started raining - blissful - certainly cooled things down!!  It wasn't stinking hot so we managed to get a fair night's sleep though it was still pretty darn hot!! Boris has taken to sleeping outside because its just too hot for him in the caravan.  I have never wanted him to sleep outside before because who knows what mischief he might get up to in the night or what might come along to make him bark or he might get tangled in his rope but so far when he has slept outside over the last 3 nights he has just plomped down and not moved till morning!! 

4 September 2010

We headed into Darwin to try to sort out my ebook reader at Angus & Robertson which is the only Angus & Robertson in the whole of the NT and guess what?! They don't carry ebook readers!!  Aagh!!  The girls were just lovely however and very helpful and they are going to try to sort something out but we won't hear until Monday as the company they have to ring wasn't open today (Saturday). 

We had been trying unsuccessfully to get hold of Michelle and Peter who we wanted to visit while we were here and Michelle rang while I was in Angus & Robertson and we worked out that she works just 2 blocks away so we wandered around and said hello. She wasn't going to finish work for a couple of hours so she gave us their address and we headed out there to set up the caravan and I did a bit of work while we waited.  They don't have a house here as they are not planning to stay for any length of time but they have rented a shed in a paddock and both Michelle and Peter and Stacey and Tony (their daughter and her boyfriend) plug their caravans into the power from the shed and live in their vans.  The shed has a petitioned off area that has a full kitchen and bathroom in it as well as air conditioning and fans so it is actually more than just a shed and is quite comfy. 

When Michelle and Peter came home it was wonderful catching up and we had a BBQ tea. 

5 September 2010

It was hot again last night but managed to sleep ok again. 

I got up and worked while the boys fiddled around with trucks and caravans, etc outside.  After I finished work Michelle and Jules (Michelle's sister who lives in a unit in Darwin) took me house hunting for a new house for Jules. 

At about 4ish, Ross and I wandered off to the Mindil Beach markets for a bit of a looksee - they are an icon around here and we couldnt miss the opportunity to go and see them.  They are primarily food orientated but have craft and other things there as well and we had a wonderful time wandering around sampling different foods.  I had tempura camembert and squid on a stick because I wanted to try stuff I had never tried before and Ross had a hash brown and two spring rolls!!  Typical!!  We also stopped to watch eMDee http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooFcm9by8F0 who were just unreal!!  There was also a guy there who sold stockwhips and gave demos as well as taught the kids how to crack them.  It was a great afternoon and then we headed back to Michelle and Peter's for another BBQ. 

6 September 2010

Peter was up at 5 am for work and even though he was very quiet I heard him and so was up with him so I decided to start work early and get it over and done with.  Ross headed off to buy some bits for the caravan.  I heard from Angus & Robertson who told me that the only store of theirs in WA who stock the ebook readers are in Perth!!  I told them that we wouldn't be there for a couple of months so I rang the Perth store and they are going to express one over to the store here - yay!! 

24 - 30 August 2010

24 August 2010

Up early again and on the road looking for mobile reception. We reached Normanton and there was reception there but nowhere to stop in the shade and work so we decided to keep going to Karumba which turned out to be a great little riverside town right near the ocean. There was a lovely shady spot right next to the Information Centre where I stopped to finally do some work!

Would you believe it - there were brolgas just hanging around the town like every other bird - couldn't believe it - I thought they were solirary shy birds!

I finished up work and we decided to have a look around town. We have pretty much come to the conclusion that the people in the Information Centres aren't very informative when it comes to free campers, which I can't blame them for I guess.  We were told that there was no free camping at all in the area and the Ranger moved everybody on who tried.  There are three caravan parks here and they all seemed pretty busy so I guess they don't need free campers like us hanging around.  Problem is that we can't afford to pay to stay in a caravan park as well as spend any money in the town! 

We were driving away from the Karumba Point area when I spotted what I thought was a horse stuck in a bog in a paddock.  I could see it trying to get up and it was obviously in great distress so we turned around and headed back to the servo to let the people there know and they made some phone calls and got onto the police, etc.  We went back out to see if we could help the horse and I walked over to it while Ross stayed with the car to tell the rescurers where to go.  When I arrived at the horse it turns out it wasn't stuck in the mud, it was starving to death instead and had obviously fallen over and couldn't get up again.  It had blood running out of its mouth where it had injured itself trying to get up and it had bones sticking out everywhere - it was just a skeleton!  I was very distressed and went back to the road to meet the police who had just arrived and the owner of the paddock next door who said that there were a bunch of wild horses living in that paddock that nobody looked after and he thought it was just an old horse that had just gotten too old and needed putting down.  I could see the sense in that but it didn't change the fact that it was a very horrible experience  but I did feel good that we had gotten to it early enough that someone could put the poor thing out of its misery rather than let it die a slow death. 

That kinda killed the mood for the afternoon.  We did go into the tackle shop back in town and the lady there was very helpful (me still blubbering over the horse) and gave us some tips on how to catch barra but we didn't really have the energy for it by then.  She also told us about Walkers Creek nearby that we could camp at for free so we headed there and set up camp for the night.  We went for a bit of a walk for a look around and spotted our first croc for the trip.  It was only a little freshie but it was a croc!!  We put the yabbie traps in but didn't hold out much hope as it looks like a fairly well-used campsite and we reckon plenty of people would have the same idea.

We got to know our new neighbours - Pete and Mary and Phil and Maryanne who were great company and we spent the evening chatting to them.

25 August 2010

I got up and did some work and we decided to have a day off and do nothing, though I was still keen to go barra fishing.

Ross went down and checked the yabbie nets and found the biggers cherabin we had ever seen in it!! He put it in one of those big white washing pails and its body reached right across – that’s a big cherabin!! Unfortunately it was the only one so we put him back hoping to catch more tonight.

After I finished work we took the fishing lines down to the creek and joined Pete and Phil for a spot of fishing and introduced Pete to our Chux cheese which he tried out and no sooner did he put some on as bait than he started getting nibbles and not long after landed a fish!! Neither Ross or I could catch one – what’s the deal there??

It was pretty hot by lunchtime so after lunch we wandered down to the water and threw the lines in and sat in the cool for a while but the fish weren’t biting so we got bored and decided to go for a walk along the river bank. It’s a nice enough spot but nothing too exciting where we are camped. However, we soon realised that we were sitting on an absolute gem!! Being dry season there is not too much water around though where we have been camped it is a fairly sizeable creek which we presumed kept going further on but when we started walking, the water finished not far from where we were and then broke off into smaller pools of water, leaving the creekbed dry to walk on. The wonderful part was that it was like walking into an enchanted forest right out of a story book!! The trees had so much shape and character that you expected them to just up and start talking to you!! Walking through the dappled shade from those trees was just glorious with long corridors of trees where the water must go down in the wet season. There was even a few trees that had hundreds of butterflies around them and when you walked through the butterflies started floating around your head – wow – it’s amazing what beauty you can find in such a harsh area!!

After dinner we sat down and talked with our neighbours again, swapping stories and had a lovely evening again – tough life!!

26 August 2010

We packed up and left camp after I worked for the morning - we had one last go at catching an elusive barra in the creek before we left but no luck - oh well!!  It had gotten quite windy overnight. 

On we went until we reached the Albert River just this side of Burketown.  We found a nice little spot to make camp for the night and then went for a bit of a walk to introduce ourselves to our neighbours.  Turned out they were expert barra fishermen and they were more than happy to share information on how to catch them - yay!!  They even gave us some tracer line because we didnt have any and they reckoned you need heavy tracer line so they dont snap your line.  We went back to camp to try our luck with our new knowledge but couldnt catch much in the way of bait so we didnt last long.  It had also become very windy and gusty, making it very unpleasant. 

27 August 2010

I got up and did some work and then we went into Burketown and decided that we would go out to Lawn Hill.  Some campers we had met at Leichardt Lagoon told us about Adels Grove who allow dogs and even look after your dog for the day while you go into the National Park.  We rang up and booked and were on our way.  The road in was quite good.  We got to Gregory Downs which is a very tiny town with not much other than a pub and no mobile reception.  We got out and had lunch and had a bit of a look around and decided to go down to the river where we came upon quite a surprise - a lovely free camping area with probably about 20 or more vans camped right on the beautiful Gregory River!!  We had a wander around and came across a couple we had met earlier at Leighcardt Lagoon who had little twin boys.  We got talking and the offered to look after Boris for the day if we wanted to go into Lawn Hill, rather than paying for a caravan park at Adels Grove.  We were very tempted but as there was no mobile reception I couldnt have done my work so we reluctantly declined and thought we might get back there later. 

On we went to Adels Grove and found it to be another lovely paradise in a very dry, dusty landscape.  We had a swim, had some showers, talked to some of the people we met along the track to and from the showers - for some reason we had been put at the very furtherest campsite, away from EVERYONE!!  I know we were in the dog area but there were other dogs there and they weren't nearly as far away as we were!!  We headed down to the eating area for a drink at the bar and caught up with the people we had talked to on the track again and had a lovely evening chatting away and swapping stories - they are from WA and are going in the opposite direction to us so its interesting to know what to look forward to on our way west. 

28 August 2010

I got up early and did my work before we headed off to Lawn Hill, leaving Boris very upset with us for leaving him behind at the camp. 

We weren't really sure what to expect - how far we were going to be walking, etc so we packed our lunch and some water in the backpack and headed off.  We could have hired canoes for $40 but we couldnt see the value in it.  We also could have lugged our boat down to the gorge but it looked like it would have been a bit of a struggle to get it down there so we decided to walk.  Well, it lived up to all of our expectations - what a beautiful place!!  I reckon if someone wanted to do a movie and was looking for the perfect paradise they should go there!!  We had a wonderful day walking around, chatting to different people we met along the way, taking millions of photos, etc, etc.  I think we ended up walking about 10 ks in the end - up and down the gorge - we were bushed by the end of it!!  I think next time we went we would do the rest of the walking tracks and even take the canoes or the boat down the gorge - it would be good to see it from both angles. 

Back to Adels Grove to pick up Boris and have a swim and then we headed out again - we were tempted to camp on the creek just outside of Adels Grove but it is actually somebody's property and even though it looks like people do camp there sometimes we thought we had better not.  We also werent getting good enough reception for me to do any work. 

We decided to go out the Doomadgee road which was quite a good dirt road though there were heaps of gates I had to get out and open!!  We finally got mobile reception when we got close to Doomadgee itself and it was getting late so we decided to camp by the river there.  It is an Aboriginal settlement and we werent really sure if we were supposed to be camping there so we were very unobtrusive and didnt light a fire or draw attention to ourselves.  While I was on the computer catching up with work my wonderful friend Joi called me on Skype to say hello and we caught up on news - it was great to hear from her!!

29 August 2010

Big day of driving!!  We kept heading west and got to Hell's Gate and needed to refuel only to find out that they don't have eftpos!!  AAGH!!  Luckily we could get on their internet and organise a bank transfer as there was no mobile reception either.  The lady there was lovely and told us what to expect on the road ahead which included a couple of rough creek crossings that needed to be walked before driving if you were unfamiliar with them.  We got through all creek crossings in one piece and even found a few really nice places next to creeks that we would have loved to have camped at but there was no mobile reception at any of them so we pushed on until we hit Boroloola.  Mum had told us to go to the first boat ramp for camping which we thought we did and when we got there there were a bunch of very noisy, drunk locals (dry comminity!).  We weren't all that impressed so I contacted mum to make sure we had it right and found out that we must have passed the sign to the first boat ramp so we headed back out and found the right one - much better.  Apparently it is normally fairly crowded but there was no-one else in sight when we arrived so we had the whole place to ourselves!! 

30 August 2010

We decided to put the boat in the water and try our hand at fishing.  Ross caught some bait fish in the local creek (herring nearly big enough to eat!!) and we headed out in the boat.  We put the lines in and Ross only had his in the water for about 2 minutes before he landed his first fish - a big queen fish - couldn't believe it!!  We aren't very good fishermen but it looks like almost any dummy can catch fish around here!!  Shortly after he landed an even bigger queen fish as well as losing a few bigger fish (sharks?) that cut the lines before he could land them.  I got nothing!!  Didn't even lose my bait!! Ah well, we had fun and will go out again tomorrow for another go. 

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading - tough life.  Fish fried in butter and mashed taties for dinner - yum yum!! 

17 - 23 August 2010

17 August 2010

We were up and away early - Boris had a 9.30 appointment at the vet to get his three-monthly Cartrophen injection for his arthritis. 

We also had to pick up our new fridge that we won - very excited about that! We also bought a few other bits and pieces from the camping store including a new throw net to replace the one we destroyed at the Jeannie River. 

We also had to run around and do a few other things like pick up Ross' compuer that had been fixed under warranty and buy me my early birthday present of an Ebook!! Yay!! 

Mum and dad had stayed behind at Mount Molloy and were going to meet us back at Mareeba Rodeo grounds and we got there by about 4ish.  Did all our washing, etc. 

18 August 2010

We had a couple of hot-air balloons land in the paddock at the rodeo grounds this morning - very exciting stuff! 

Mum and dad have booked into a resort at Cairns on the weekend to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary coming up next month.  We were going to start heading up the Savannah Way today but Ross wanted to do a couple of more things on the car and van first so we all trooped back to Mount Molloy - again!

On our way through to Mount Molloy we found some great firewood to take with us so we strapped it all to the trailer and took it back to camp.  Mum made a fruitcake and a banana cake in the camp oven - both turned out perfect!! 

Ross spent the afternoon attaching the solar to the pod and I spent the afternoon transferring all the programs, etc from my computer onto Ross' which was the one that was fixed under warranty that we picked up yesterday.  My poor old computer is literally falling apart at the seams - you should see it - so funny poor thing - there are bits hanging off it everywhere, the casing is broken, it has bolts through it trying to hold it together as well as duct tape.  The hinges are also broken so its very hard to get the screen to stay where I want it - it keeps flopping around!!  I am going to start using Ross' computer for my work and he is going to try to "steampunk" mine which basically means that if the computer itself is ok but the case if broken then you recase it in something else - let your imiagination run wild!!  Can't imagine that anything too exciting will happen to it but Im sure Ross will come up with something to make it functional again! 

19 August 2010

I was all ready to start working on Ross' computer after having spent the afternoon putting all the new programs on, etc and went to start it up and - nothing - exactly the same as what happened before when we had to send it in for warranty!!  Couldn't believe it!  When it was sent in before they changed the motherboard because it had blown and Ross thinks the same thing has happened again so there is obviously something causing it to blow - maybe the power supply?  So now we have to wait around to get it fixed again with an hour and a half trip in to Cairns to drop it off.  We are waiting to hear back from HP to find out when we can take it in and hopefully they can fix it on the same day that we take it in so we don't have to have two trips to Cairns. 

It's raining and miserable today so we have the annexe up - thank goodness we have it!  Everybody is having a quiet day - the first quiet day we have had the whole time really!

It cleared up in the afternoon so mum and dad walked into Mount Molloy while Ross and I rode the bikes.  (its only a kilometre away).  We went to the general store and did some exploring around the town. 

20 August 2010

Well guess what?! Ross' computer has decided to work again - go figure.  We had been waiting on a phone call from HP about when to get it fixed and their tech guy was on the phone and they got it going again - no idea why it stopped working in the first place but we are going to turn it off and on a bunch of times before we trust that it wont do it again.


A young couple pulled in in the afternoon in a Patrol that had an annexe attached to it for shelter and Boris decided to go and visit while we weren’t looking. Luckily the young couple – James and Rebecca like dogs and Rebecca even gave Boris a biscuit! Spoiled doggy!! We invited them over for Happy Hour as I had just made a bacon, cheese and sundried tomato damper – turned out pretty good I must say and James was quite taken with it though Rebecca is a vegetarian so James had to eat her share. Turns out they are a really nice couple and we had a great chat with them and swapped lots of stories. Rebecca is an avid reader and we seem to like similar things to read so we had lots in common. We told them of a few places we had been and they told us a few places they had been and in the morning the boys are going to get together and swap movies, etc.

21 August 2010

We didn’t get going until after 12 in the end by the time I did some work and we chatted with James and Rebecca some more, swapped movies and information, etc. We headed towards Chillagoe but didn’t get there until about 3ish – too late for the last cave tour of the day. We didn’t really want to hang around till the next day because there was no free camping in the area so we decided to explore a couple of the caves that you didn’t need a guide for. The lady at the Information Centre said they weren’t very good caves but we went anyway and had a great time climbing around in them. Im sure the bigger, guided caves would be much better and if you like limestone caves it would definitely be worth the trip out there.

We were all hot and sweaty by than and ready for a swim so we headed to the town’s swimming hole which was just fabulous. It wasn’t all that big but oh it was refreshing!! There was a little waterfall and the water was crystal clear and just wonderful. Unfortunately you can’t camp there the night so we headed out looking for a campsite for the night. We started down the Savanah Way which was a dirt road that connects Chillagoe to the main highway. There was NOBODY on the road and we came to a river crossing that looked ok but Ross wanted to push on for some reason and it was getting dark.

We kept going because we could see other rivers on the GPS that we would have to cross and thought we could camp at one of them but unfortunately they were all dry so nothing looked very exciting. We finally decided that we wouldn’t find a nice campsite and pulled off the road and camped for the night – our first time on this trip alone in the wilderness!! If was a beautiful night with an almost full moon and a lovely breeze. We didn’t really set up camp as there was nothing to hang around for so we hit the hay early ready to head off again in the morning.

22 August 2010

Up early again and on the road. We crossed a few more dry creeks and then came to two beautiful little fast-running creeks with crystal-clear water in them – we think they might have been springs because they were too clear to be normal creeks – they were Salt Water Creek and Fossil Brook.

We weren’t too far out of Mt Surprise – a tiny town back on the Savanah Way. Mum and dad had told us to go and have a look at Cobbold Gorge which was on a bypass off the Savanah Way so we headed off towards Einasliagh down a rough dirt track and finally reached a beaut little river crossing just shy of Einasliagh and stopped for lunch. It was such a beautiful spot that we decided to stop there for the day and head off again in the morning.

After lunch we went for a bit of a walk and introduced ourselves to the other campers on the other side of the river – they were from Cairns and said they had been to Cobbold Gorge but that it was $70 each to visit!! We couldn’t believe it could possibly be that expensive but thought we would ask when we got to Forsayth which is at the turnoff to Cobbold Gorge. If it’s that expensive we won’t bother going.

We got the boat out after that an went for a putter up the river after putting the yabbie traps out. It was a gorgeous afternoon spent with our fishing lines in the water (using our Chux Cheese bait as we didn’t have anything else with us). We didn’t catch any fish but we just drifted with the current and had a lovely time. Part of the way we had to walk the boat because it was a shallow little bit of the river and on the way back I spotted a yabbie under a rock which we tried to catch but it was just too quick for us!

When we got back after we had a swim we checked the yabbie traps and we had 2 big yabbies – yummy!

We also put the fishing lines out and although we got lots of bites we didn’t actually catch anything. It was a beautiful night and a great campsite.

23 August 2010

We were up before the crack of dawn this morning – a beautiful morning! Checked the yabbie traps but all we had were some little fish - ?herring? Ross managed to catch a fish though it wasn’t very big – it looked a bit like a bream? We were on the road by 8am and we drove into the town of Einasliagh and had a look at the Copperfield Gorge which was just lovely!

We called in at Forsayth and the guy at the shop there confirmed that the price to go into Cobbold Gorge was $69 per person for a three-hour tour – out of our budget I’m afraid!!

We kept on going until we reached Georgetown which is back on the Savanah Way and stopped at the information desk to find out what was to see in the area and the girl there talked us into paying $11 each to have a look at the mineral Terrestrial centre which is a display of one guy’s lifetime collection of minerals and rocks – a huge collection that was definitely worth the money to have a look at – absolutely fascinating! We’re glad we stopped and let her talk us into it!

Back on the road again and were planning on stopping at one of the rivers along the way to camp for the night but for a start there was no phone reception at any of the places we were thinking of stopping at so I couldn’t do any work and secondly there was no water in any of them!! It was HOT and DRY and DUSTY and did I mention HOT? So we decided to keep going an headed for a place that was showing on the Camps 5 book just shy of Normanton at Leichart Lagoon Camping Grounds on a lagoon that said it had mobile reception. Unfortunately, when we got there the only reception available was if you plugged into a lead at the toilets that was attached to a big antenna on top of a water tower – not somewhere that I could work!! It was getting late and we were tuckered out and looking forward to a beer so there was nothing for it but to stay for the night and pack up early in the morning and head off again in the search of mobile reception as it was getting too late in the afternoon to push on.

We tried rigging up our extension aerial and although it was NEARLY picking up reception, it just wasn’t quite there – bugga!!

10 - 16 August 2010

10 August 2010

We packed up the campsite and were on the road by 10ish by the time we all had a swim, etc before heading off.  The weather was still a bit iffy so we thought it was a good decision to move on.  We took the new track out and hit Wakooka Road within the hour. We thought that would be a much better road than the road in and it was but it still had lots of challenges and was a very interesting run! We came across Wakooka Outstation which was part of Kalpowar Station when it was running. Everything was deserted and there were old windmills, burnt out trucks, old cattle yards, old sheds, etc, etc - it was all very interesting!

We got back to the Starcke River campsite where we stayed on our first night out. We enjoyed the pumpkin that we picked from here so much that we decided to pick the other one to make pumpkin pie from somewhere down the track.  We had lunch there and decided to push on as the weather was still doubtful and we wanted to get past the swampy bits before too much rain came down.

We headed off again and had a slight detour to go and look at the mouth of the Starck River - looks like it would be a great place to throw the boat in (which we still  haven't managed to do yet!!) but we had to keep moving to beat the weather. Lucky we did because it was raining when we went through the swampy bits and it was very slippery and slimy then with more rain on the way. We reached Isabella Falls at about 6ish and took some time to wash down the caravan which had about half a tonne of mud on it by then!! We only had time to quickly set up camp before it was dark and we were all in bed early after a long day!

11 August 2010

We were all up and went for a swim early this morning under the waterfalls at Isabella - Ross managed to find a way into the heaviest fall and we all got under for a very good massage - it was tough staying under there - the water pressure is so hard!!

We toddled off back to Cooktown and reached there by about 12ish and went to vote only to find out that lunchbreak at the courthouse is 12-2 so we had some lunch and had a wander around before we voted and then headed back to Steve's place to start repacking - again!!

We have made a decision that between here and the Old Telegraph Track there are about 2 million corrugations and we had just done a run that was equal to or even more challenging than the Old Telegraph Track so we aren't going to do it now!!  We had a great trip and really enjoyed ourselves but we have decided that we really want to start thinking about heading over towards WA before too long with a stop in Darwin on the way to visit some friends.

12 August 2010

We spent most of the day sorting stuff out and the boys spent some time fixing the suspension on the trailer. Steve came to visit in his lunch hour and we told him we wanted to take him and his wife out to dinner as well as buy him a carton of beer as a thank you for letting us stay at his place while we were here. He said they were going away Friday night and would be back Saturday night and he would ask his mates whether they want to all go out fishing on Sunday instead so we are going to wait and find out what happens there.

13 August 2010

We all decided to troop into town this afternoon to try our luck at fishing from the wharf.  When we arrived one guy had just caught a big barra off the wharf so we thought we would have a good day's fishing - no such luck!!  I managed to hook a "wolf herring" but didn't land it - one of the locals reckoned they weren't worth catching anyway.  Ross caught a small trevalli but had to throw it back because it was undersized.  Nobody else caught much either so we weren't the only ones - it was a nice afternoon though and got to talk to some of the locals. 

Looks like Steve is going to be a way for the whole weekend so we may as well pack up and get back on the road tomorrow. 

14 August 2010

ROSS' BIRTHDAY - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSS!! 

Mum and dad popped into town to grab morning tea for Ross' birthday - dad and Ross are always going on about wanting "home made pasties" so they went to the bakery to get some but unfortunately there was only one left so Ross got that while we had to suffer with pies and sausage rolls.  We put candles on his pastie and sang happy birthday to him.  Mum had started making a fruitcake for him and hopefully we will get somewhere this afternoon where we can finish cooking it for him for his birthday. 

We had put up a sign in the local shops and post office to sell our old fridge because we will pick up the new one when we hit Cairns and we thought lots of people in Cooktown would want that sort of thing which proved correct because we sold it this morning after having the signs up for only one day!!  We then had to try to fit everything into mum and dad's little fridge - luckily we had been letting the stocks run down because we managed to fit most things in and will just have to go without cold drinks in the fridge until we get the new one. 

Mum and dad had heard from the locals about a great waterfall and camping spot so we decided to check it out on our way south.  Just before you reach Black Mountains you turn off on Mt Amos Road and go down there for several kms and then follow the signs to the Falls. The road was pretty rough but we arrived eventually only to find that mum and dad had broken the suspension on the trailer on the way in!!  We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere with no way to fix it so we decided that after we had looked at the waterfall we would move on - the "campsite" wasn't much anyway.  We walked down to the waterfall and it was SPECTACULAR!!  It was gorgeous!!  We all went swimming (even dad) the water was quite cold but it was definitely worth it and you could stand underneath the waterfall and it just took your breath away - just beautiful!  Definitely worth the drive and breaking the suspension! 

When we left there we found a campsite on the other side of the Black Mountains at a river crossing where they had a sign up for toilets.  The campsite itself was quite nice but the drop toilets were very smelly!!  We had a great little campfire and had a really good night.  We managed to cook the fruitcake but burned it on the top and it wasn't quite cooked in the middle - bumma - still tasted good though! 

15 August 2010

We were back on the road fairly early (for us 9:30) after a walk down to see another beautiful waterfall near where we had camped - what a life!! 

The trailer is still struggling along and holding together ok and there will be nowhere we can get it welded until we hit Mareeba so we just have to keep going until then. 

We reached Mount Molloy campsite at about 12 and decided to have another go at getting some of those famous Mexican Burgers - SUCCESS!!  They are just huge and very yummy - we had two burgers between us - they are too big to eat on your own! 

We cooked pumpkin pie from the last pumpkin tongiht and it turned out PERFECT!!  I's sure it's not as good as my mother-in-law's pie but I reckon we did a pretty good job of it!! Mum made a blackberry jam tart from the leftover pastry which also turned out perfect - yay!! 

We were in bed early tonight as I hadn't been feeling well all day. 

16 August 2010

The boys worked on the trailer and managed to fix the suspension themselves - very clever! Ross fiddled about doing stuff to the caravan and I worked all morning.

Pretty quiet day - we packed up camp ready to leave early in the morning for Cairns. 

2 -9 August 2010

2 August 2010

It was nice to have a good night's sleep last night - apart from a couple of drunken ladies having a noisy conversation up till about 10:30. We set the yabbie traps last night and had two cherabin in them this morning - our first ones ever!  We cooked them up and ate them at morning tea time just for a treat - yummy!  This creek is pretty fished out because it is such a popular spot but hopefully we will find other places where we can get more and make a meal out of them. 

We decided to head up to the Mexican cafe in Mount Molloy for lunch as they have world-famous Mexican hamburgers that we had last time we came through and were dying to have again.  Unfortunately, when we got there they weren't making them today!! We were devastated!!  We ended up getting a bacon and egg burger - one between each couple - they were HUGE, but just not the same as the Mexican burgers - ah well - maybe on our way back through.

Got an email this afternoon from Dometic saying we won a competition that we entered recently and won a $1200 Waeco fridge - BONUS!!  We had to send in a funny photo with a caption - not sure which photo actually won yet as we sent in a few - so excited!!

3 August 2010

We were up early this morning and headed off to Cooktown.  We stopped to look at Black Mountain on the way which we have seen before - very interesting to see the whole story behind it as to why it is like it is (or should I say why they are like they are as there are a couple). 

Stopped for lunch at Cooktown and did some shopping before heading off to drop the trailer off at Steve's place (a guy who Ross met through the Land Rover forums).  When we arrived Steve was there - what a great guy!!  The place we are leaving the trailer is on his property where he has a shed but no house - he works in radiology and they supply him a house in town.  We dropped off the trailer, met the horse and the local dogs and Steve suggested a place to camp down on the beach nearby but it was blowing a gale so we decided against it and ended up staying overnight at the property at Steve's place. 

4 August 2010

I got up to do some work this morning and Ross did an oil change on the Land Rover and Steve turned up at about 8ish to do some work on his property which Ross helped him with (Steve has the week off work).  Then Steve helped Ross make a bracket for the back of the caravan.

Its a glorious day but still quite windy - we are hoping it will calm down soon.  Steve is a keen camper and told us lots of great places to visit on our journey north so we are definitely looking forward to that!

Ross & I rode the bikes into town - no mean feat as it was quite hilly!! Mum and dad took the 4x4 in and we had a bit of a look around town before riding back and having a hot shower compliments of the solar showers.

By this time it was getting late and we hadn't organised anything for tea so we took a ride into town in the 4x4 and had barramundi and chips - yummy!!

5 August 2010

I got up and worked again while the boys worked on the caravan again. By the time they finished it was too late to pack up for the day again so we hand washed our sheets and orgainsed a few more things read to hopefully set off again tomorrow. We have decided to just take a quick trip to Starke River goldfield and then come back and vote on the 11th before we head up to the Cape - we will get there eventually!!

6 August 2010

We packed up and left this morning but by the time we stuffed around and went into town and filled up with fuel, etc, etc we didn’t end up leaving Cooktown until about 11:00.

First stop was the lovely Isabella Falls where we stopped to take photos and have morning tea. We were back on the road by about 12:30 and headed down Battle Camp Road and it wasn’t long before we were off the bitumen and onto dirt road. The countryside was absolutely lush!! It was just beautiful and was interesting the whole way.

After about an hour or so on the good dirt road it started getting a little rougher – we were driving through swampland and although it was dry today when we were driving over it, you could see where other people had driven when it was wet which made for lots of ruts in the road. The road steadily got worse and worse, but nothing that was overly concerning but we wanted to get to a the Starke River crossing before stopping for lunch so we pushed on and got through at about 3ish before we stopped for lunch and only one broken egg! What a lovely little place! We decided to stop for the night so set up camp, went for little walk to explore, set out the yabbie nets, had a swim, etc. Dad and Ross found some pumpkins growing near the campsite so they picked one and we will do something with it tomorrow night probably. 

We had chicken casserole on the camp oven for dinner followed by damper on a stick filled with golden syrup for dessert – yummo!!

The only other car we saw all day on the dirt road was one other 4x4 that came through a little while after us and was heading for the Jeannie River mouth.

For more exciting pics see here - http://picasaweb.google.com.au/rosscoe68meister/StarckeRun#

7 August 2010

We were up early to check the traps but we didn’t catch anything at all . We had managed to catch a small eel on the line the line last night but that was all – not a very good fishing spot!

At about 8:30 two more cars came through and they had come most the way last night but it had started getting dark so they had ended up camping about 100 m the other side of the river crossing – never knowing there was a river there!! They were spewing!! We had a bit of a chat and worked out they were from Foster – which is only about an hour south of Port Macquarie – small world!

We were back on the road again by about 9ish and headed off knowing it wasn’t all that much further to the spot we were heading for that Steve had told us about.

We saw our first bustard http://birdsinbackyards.net/species/Ardeotis-australis today – we had never seen one before – they sure are funny looking birds – big and awkward!!

It wasn’t long until the road started getting quite rough with lots of washouts and creek crossings that were quite hairy to say the least!! We got some awesome footage of both vehicles doing some pretty tough 4WDing – not to mention the little caravan – what a trooper –never missed a step!!

We ended up coming to another river crossing that Steve had told us to be very careful crossing – that very nearly made us turn around and go back but in the end we braved it and went across – there were big washouts coming into it and was very scary looking but in the end we all got across safely and were off again.

A bit further along the track we came to another crossing that I thought looked a bit scary and asked Ross to get out and have a look at it but he thought it would be no trouble and didn’t really have much of a look at it before he got back in the car. He had also forgotten to take the brake off of the caravan, which is important on river crossings. Coming up out of the crossing there were some big rocks on one side and when the wheels went over it, it made one of the front wheels come right up off the ground and it looked like she was going to tip – needless to say I panicked a little then and dad ended up standing on the front bumper to put some weight on the front and Ross managed to drive out ok. When we reflected back on it – the actual crossing probably wasn’t that bad but it was more that he didn’t pick the line very well and the fact that he forgot the brake off the caravan didn’t help!! All in a day’s work!!

There was a lot of driving through very rough terrain and it was very slow going and some of the time we were actually questioning whether we were on the right track but we eventually arrived in one piece very relieved and very elated to have survived such a tough journey and only one broken egg again. It is a lovely little camp site. There is a freshwater river that has a little waterfall running into a saltwater river. The freshwater river is croc free and fine for swimming and the saltwater river is good for catching fish – apparently. When we arrived we had a look where the waterfall went into the little saltwater creek and could see lots of big fish swimming about so we got the fishing line out but no luck. Later in the day a couple of people dropped by to say hello as they were passing through and he was a local and reckoned the fish were mullet and you would never catch them on a line.

We went for a swim.

We made banana and honey scones and had bacon and eggs for tea – tough life!!

8 August 2010

Ross and I were up early and went down to have a look at the river and the tide had been up overnight but was down again this morning – missed the tide!! The river is quite low when the tide is out and not worth fishing in so we will wait to see what its like this afternoon. We threw the casting net in to try to catch some bait but managed to get it tangled in some tree roots instead – thought we had better wait till the tide went right down before we went in and got it – we weren’t going to take any chances with any crocs.

Ross and I decided to go for a drive to see what the track was like leading out of here that the people had told us about yesterday. Well, that road was almost like a highway after what we had been through!! It took us 40 minutes with only a couple of toughish crossings before we hit a proper dirt road that is part of Lakefield National Park which leads straight back to Cooktown the easy way – phew!! We really enjoyed the trip out here but none of us were looking forward to tackling it all again in any great hurry – that was the most 4WDing any of us had done in a long time – we won’t forget it in a hurry –the Telegraph Track is going to be a breeze after this!! Ross wanted to see how the caravan would go on a short local run before heading up the Cape – we sure aren’t going to come across anything we can’t handle anywhere along the Telegraph Track!!

We spent an hour or so fixing the casting net this arvo before taking it back down to the river to see if we could catch any mullet for bait for fishing when the tide comes up. We saw a school of really big mullet and couldn’t resist throwing the net over them. Unfortunately there was a big snag right where the fish were and although we caught a big mullet – the net was completely destroyed in the process – bugga!

Seeing as the mullet cost us a net we decided to bring him back to camp and eat him!! Turns out that mullet is nice to eat.  We also fried up some of the pumpkin that the boys had picked up from the last campsite - it was a good pumpkin! 

We went back down to the waterfall tonight to see the height of the river – it was WAY up – it was amazing how high it comes up – couldn’t believe it. We tried our luck at night fishing but didn’t catch anything.

9 August 2010

Up early and down again to try our luck at fishing while the tide was still reasonably high. I caught a “giant herring” on a soft plastic but nothing else.

The rest of the day was taken up with doing as little as possible swimming, etc. We made pumpkin soup from the rest of the pumpkin that the boys had found - yummo! 

It started raining later in the day and we started thinking that we should pack up and head off in the morning as some of the terrain we had come through to get here would turn very slippery very quickly with not much rain.

26 - 1 August 2010

Bushy Parker Park 27 July 2010

Outside Laundromat at Townsville 26 July 2010

26 July 2010

We were up and going early as it wasnt a very exciting capmsite - we are trying to find somewhere that we can stop for a couple of days and relax!!

We travelled through to Townsville and stopped to do some washing. Us girls were in charge of the washing at the laundromat while the boys went to Supercheap looking for bits and pieces that they needed for cars and caravans. Seeing as we were going to be there for a while we made ourselves at home and set our chairs out on the footpath outside the laundromat and put the kettle on - may as well be comfortable! Boris was a hit for some reason - everybody wanted to pat him and feed him - he didnt seem to mind!

You wouldnt believe it either, towards the end when we were drinking cuppas and eating cake i said to mum - we should put a sign up - cuppa and cake $2 and we could make some money back for what we paid at the laundry and she did and people were actually interested!!

We moved on and found a great little park about 45 ks north of Townsville called Bushy Parker Park - strange name but the guy they named it after was called Bushy Parker. There is a 48 hour limit for staying here, it's free and, there are cold outside showers and a great little creek for swimming in - ahh - we have finally found somewhere that we can stay and rest for a ccouple of days!

27 July 2010

Nice relaxing day today - swimming, bike riding, Ross did a few jobs on the caravan, etc. 

We had a great casserole made on in the camp oven and then sat down to play cards afterwards only for it to start raining.  We only had a couple of very little awnings up to sit under so we were having trouble staying dry!! It was fun though and the temperature is great at the moment with us being in shorts and T-shirts all day without it being too hot. 

Mum and dad are definitely out of their comfort zone in the car and trailer rather than their usual motor home - they are being great sports about it though - I keep telling mum that she must be having a good time - Im sure I will convince her of it one day! 

Paronella Park

29 July 2010

We decided to stay one more day as it is such a lovely place and headed off fairly early today.  We had heard about Paronella Park- http://www.paronellapark.com.au/ - so we headed towards Cairns and there is a turnoff at Silkwood to go there. 

We arrived at around noon and from the moment we pulled up there were ladies out the front making sure we had somewhere to park, offering to look after Boris while we were in the park and generally not being able to do enough for us. Once we got in there it was the tour guide was great, she knew heaps about the place and great to listen to. The place itself was just incredible and I cant even begin to imagine what a brilliant man Jose Paronella was. What a FANTASTIC place to visit!! I can't even describe it - it was like a fairytale - I would have loved to have seen it in its heyday.  They are working on restoring it as much as the Heritage Listing will allow. 

It had been raining quite a bit when we arrived and we could have stayed in their carpark for free overnight and used their amenities but mum and dad had found a quiet little park down the road that had been recommended by one of the locals so we camed there for the night - great little spot with a creek running through it for swimming, etc.  There was a sign up saying no camping but the locals reckon people camp there all the time so we didn't take any notice of the sign. 

Mum and dad had been to Paronella Park before so they didn't go again but we decided to take the night tour which was on offer too because we couldn't get enough of the place - it was a totally different experience again with lots of wildlife spotting including snakes, frogs, turtles, etc.  We also went to the "bamboo forest" and turned out all our lights and it was almost like "Avatar" with all the mushrooms and fungus glowing in the dark - it was great!  They also lit up the waterfall and the main buildings - we got some great photos. 

We would definitely go there again, absolutely loved it. 

30 July 2010

We headed off again to go to Cairns for some last-minute shopping - we thought we would only be there for a couple of hours - BIG mistake that was!  Trying to navigate your way around an unfamiliar town (thank goodness for the GPS) - trying to find the shops you need and it is such a BUSY place - it was a total nightmare!!  We didn't get out of there till about 4 pm after a whole day of driving around in circles trying to do what we needed to do in the last big town before heading up the Cape. 

We originally were going to go to Mount Molloy campgrounds  for the night - a great little freebie camping spot but by the time we got up the mountain it was getting late so we stayed at Mareeba Rodeo grounds - you wouldn't believe how many caravans, RVs, etc were there - very popular spot with $12 unpowered and $14 powered sites with a laundry and hot showers - it was great to have a hot shower at the end of the day and we did some washing and made some new friends with the people we were parked next to. 

31 July 2010

Up early again because our neighbour was an early riser and decided to unzip and zip up his annexe several times - in the end we decided it must be time to get up! 

We took Boris for a walk around the park and there were kangaroos everywhere!  Boris of course thought that was great but we had to keep him on the leash so he didn't get in a fight with the big buck that was there looking after his harem - we had been warned by the caretakers that he was notorious for standing up to dogs.  Saw some hot-air balloons - it was a beautiful morning. 

By the time we got our washing dry and headed off it was 10 am and by the time we stopped to refuel, grab some shopping and water it was 12 so we headed for Mount Molloy which was only about an hour's drive away and set up camp there.  We are going to be dropping the trailer at Cooktown at our next stop so we decided we had better make camp for a day or two and do some sorting out.  Went for a walk down to the creek and Boris had a great time swimming.  Cooked on the campfire again - chicken satay - big day!! 

1 August 2010

Far out - what hit me??!!  What a night! Started out with some of the locals deciding to come and visit the park after they had gotten themselves well and truly smashed at the pub and going out of their way to wake up the enitre campsite including banging on the sides of peoples vans etc.  After that a stoned/drunk woman spent most of the night driving around the campsite alternating between wailing/singing/making a lot of noise.  After she left at about 3 am I did manage to get some sleep but then at 6 am one of the neighbours, for some unknown reason, decided to start their 4x4 right next to our van and leave it running.  After that there was a REALLY noisy bird in the tree above us.  At about that time I gave up trying to get any sleep and got up at about 6:30. 

I worked in the morning and the rest of the camp spent all morning organising the stuff that is going to be taken to the Cape and the stuff that is going to be left behind in the trailer - I helped after I finished work.  We were all pretty buggered by the end of the day and really appreciated Happy Hour!