Thursday 31 July 2014

OK it is blog time again and we are sitting at a rest stop just north of the turn off to the Bungle Bungles. At this stage there are half a dozen other vans here and not much room for many more. The drive down was fairly ordinary small trees lots of small hills as part of the local ranges. We stopped at a place called Warmun to look at their local gallery of indigenous art. Big but, there were signs telling us to check in at the admin centre and we could not find the admin centre, so we moved on! Anyway now Elaine is talking me into taking a day tour of the Bungle Bungles, this will involve staying in the caravan park on the highway (53km of 4wd only road from the actual park) and it is an expensive all day trip which she won't do! I have sent off an email to check availability so we will see what happens. 

Wednesday 30 July 2014

We didn't get into our camp until dusk yesterday, which is my excuse for missing a day!
We left Lake Argyle, regretfully as it is a lovely spot and we could have stayed longer (but home and our grandchildren beckon), but the specified time of 10am. Always intrigues me this checkout time irrespective of ones arrival time. First stop was reconstructed, the original site is under the lake but the house was rescued stone by stone, Durack homestead from Argyle Downs, their station. It was very interesting, giving an in site into the life and times of the Durack family. From there we went into Kununnurra fuelled up, shopped and made a few phone calls. Kununnurra is a reasonable sized town now, somewhat bigger and busier than it was the last time that I visited about 20 years ago. Then it was time to head north, we had chosen a campsite for the night, but as dusk closed in we chose another next to the junction of Victoria Hwy & Gt Northern Hwy. Luckily as this turned out to be quite a nice roadside rest area and the other when we found it today no good at all. 
This morning it was pack up camp ( this takes very little time depending on the mess we have made inside the van) and continue our progress northward to Wyndham. Wyndham is still a sleepy little hollow although the port area had a little bit of activity, otherwise nothing much has changed, the town has not found an attraction to get much of the tourist dollar. We drove up to the 5 Rivers Lookout, the road is steep, very windy with some real hairpin bends, but the view from the top is huge or even huger! The local Lions club has put quite a bit of effort into the lookout, I presume with some help from the shire. It has a picnic area with tables, roof and lights, a very attractive and pragmatic stone fence, parking area etc. From the lookout one can indeed see 5 rivers, indentified by a bronze map on a pedestal, the port, the town and large amounts of the surrounding countryside. Well worth the drive up but after a good look and lots of photographs we headed down and drove out to the port. Not much there but it is low ground and judging by the buildings not really cyclone prone. There is also an old cemetery where the 12 workers who died during the meat works construction are buried along with a number of relatively young people. I guess the young people bit is endemic of areas like this where the conditions are still fairly tough. Then back on the road to last nights campsite. 
Tomorrow we start heading south, paradoxically on the Great Northern Highway. 

Monday 28 July 2014

Well we are in Kununnurra and have coverage for the next hour or so, soooo here comes the catch up blogs
Monday July 21
For us it was an early start today, we actually left the campsite at 0840 (for landlubbers 8.40am). There were a few other people at the campsite, a group of 3 caravans, 2 camper trailers together and a group of young people sharing a camper van and a station wagon. The reason for the early start was a 225km drive to Edith Falls where we had been told to arrive before lunch to have any chance of a spot. 
First stop was the southern end of the billabong on the South Alligator River ( so named by one of the early British navigators who thought that the crocodiles were alligators and there were plenty of them here) called the Yellow Water place, strange name because the waters were a lovely blue colour. The cruises here must be popular as there were 4 quite large flat bottomed boats tied up at the purpose built jetty. There was also a raised, above the water and grasses, walkway. A fairly pretty place with the green water grass stretching of into the distance. The bird life was reasonable with white storks (or brolgas??) ducks and I got a good photograph of a eagle sitting on a tree stump. The scenery whilst driving is fairly ordinary, lots of small trees, undergrowth and termite mounds, this park like most parks relies upon the various special spots to create interest and those spots are generally very nice. In this case we appeared to be surrounded by a low mountain, or hill, range.  We cleared the park threw the exit gate/pillars, but due to my camera not behaving properly missed a photograph 
So back on Stuart Hwy to Edith Falls which is about 19km the other side of the hwy.  This place is busy, we arrived at about 12.40pm and wren the last van in, although later in the day a couple more vans and some tents came in. So we parked then I went for a swim in the lovely plunge pool at the foot of the waterfalls, Elaine had a nana nap then joined me at the pool. 

Wednesday July 24

Well not much happened yesterday and we were out of range, so no blog yesterday and this blog probably won't go live until tomorrow. 
Yesterday we stayed at Edith Falls, I did the so called loop walk in the morning to justify my breakfast. The walk is 2.6km up over and down again, mostly over rocky ground so it is rather good exercise. The time suggested is 1.5 to 2 hrs, as I started out I met a lady who does the walk daily (she must be one of the local staff although I did not see any staff quarters) and had just completed it in 31mins!!!! Anyway I took just under 1.5hrs and it was a great walk. We then had breakfast, swim, did a couple of jobs, swim and read in that order. This is a typical national park campground, reasonably set out, basic facilities and to our mind much better than the more caravan parks which have more facilities, but we don't need pools etc, usually pack the vans in tighter and charge considerably more for the privilege. 
Today we got going fairly early in the hopes of getting a wheel alignment in Katherine as our front wheels appear to be out of alignment, no such luck. So we settled for swapping the front wheel, left to right etc, to even out the wear. We probably won't get an alignment until at least Kununnurra or maybe Broome. So with a bit of shopping done we started our journey west. Tonight we are at a roadside rest are called the Limestone Creek rest area, a very basic but pleasant enough spot. When we pulled in there were 5 vans here, but as we go to bed there is more like 20. 

Thursday July 24

Day 3 without coverage but we soldier on regardless!
This morning I went for a walk to find Limestone Creek, but despite a 2km trek that ended when the track turned to high grass, I had to walk 2km back without sighting the creek. So we left our camp, ax usual well after most of the others and continued west. We are travelling on the Victoria Hwy which stretches from Katherine to Kununnurra and crosses the border into Western Australia. The scenery today had been quite spectacular as we passed through the mountains surrounding the Victoria River. The vegetation is still relatively low trees and scrub but the mountains, not very high, are varied and rocky. After thinking about stopping at the Victoria River road house we continued on to Timber Creek where we refuelled as this will be our last chance before Kununnurra   We then found a side road, at least Elaine did because I was driving. Up the hills we went, steep road at that but good sealed road, to the lookouts, 2 one after the other and the view from both was well worth the effort. Then to our campsite for the night, Big Horse Creek campground which is very expensive at $3.30each !!!! It is the usual basic camp, some marked specs but mostly just fit in where you can with basic long drop ablutions and in this case close to the river. We got here about 2.30pm and there was very little space left, but after cruising round we found a spot and backed into it (we like to be facing out whenever we park for the night) with a bit of help from Elaine and our neighbours. More people have arrived, most could not find a spot but a couple of the smaller units have squeezed in. 

Friday July 25
We decided to spend an extra day here at the Big Horse Creek campground for 2 reasons. Firstly the rather magnificent Victoria River which is a couple of hundred metres from the camp and second because we needed to prepare for the border crossing into WA. Sounds drastic but the issue is quarantine, you cannot bring any foodstuffs into WA, that includes honey, wood for fires etc. So Elaine had a big cookup and cooked all the extra stuff that she bought at Katherine. We now have a cooked stock of potato lutkas, hooray! and some other stuff. Still no coverage so this goes into storage with the last few days. 

Saturday July 26

Still no coverage so this will also be put on ice. We headed out this morning back into Timber Creek to send of an important email. We had intended to take advantage of coverage to make some phone calls, but it was only telstra and we got involved with other things and left without doing the phone calls. So of to a rest/camp area close to the border intending to stay overnight. On the way we saw a turnoff to something that I wanted to see, so after some persuasion my driver headed down the unsealed road, a kilometre or so further on we decided that it was too rough, turned around back to the Victoria Hwy. Then on to the border where there really is a serious checkpoint. However other than a red apple that Elaine remembered there was nothing for them to keep, so after a quick walk through we were off again. Next stop was Lake Argyle and the first view of this was mind blowing, later viewing has confirmed the unbelievable magnitude of this man made lake. We are booked into the resort caravan park for 3 days and will do a boat cruise before leaving, my aren't we getting extravagant! I have just found out that free wifi is available in the beer garden so will try and send this missive. 

Sunday July 27

Day 2 at Lake Argyle, or to be strictly correct day 1.5. This morning a 3 km walk to the dam lookout up and down some fairly steep inclines. It is hard to comprehend the big picture thinking that preceded the creation of this project. The damming of the Ord River, some 40 years ago, created a lake some 21 times larger than Sydney harbour, that is very hard to comprehend (same word but I can't think of anything else). Every where you look there is water, bays and islands. After early teething problems there is now, if my maths is correct, some 20,000 hectares under irrigated cropping of various sorts. I can't begin to describe the wonder of it all. 
The other thing is this resort. It is relatively young, holds about 250 vans or similar, has a very busy shop come restaurant come bar and takes bookings for tours etc. 

Monday July 28

Ok today was pretty special! We are still without coverage so this will be added to the last 7 days worth of blog. 
This morning I bush walked on a trail up the hill next to the caravan park to look down into the Ord River Gorge. The view was, like everything else about this place, magnificent. Then this afternoon we went on a sunset cruise of Lake Argyle. This lake is more like an inland sea, at times the view was just like being on the boat. We were informed that it is actually only 19 times as big as Sydney Harbour, although that would vary a bit with the quality of the wet season. We saw a number of fresh water crocodiles, who I am reliably informed are shy creatures who do not normally attack humans. We also had a swim and photographed a very nice sunset. Everything about the cruise seemed to emphasise the size of this lake. I could go on forever but I think you get the picture, incidentally photographs will not do it justice. 




Sunday 20 July 2014

Ok day 2 of cruise part 2 and after checking on the albino buffalo who lives at the caravan park, in a fenced enclosure, we took off to head into Kakadu National Park. We had to negotiate some roadworks with traffic light controls and I had a thought that there have been only a small proportion of our actual travelling days when we have nor experienced some roadwork - I wonder what proportion of our population works on the roads or allied industries? We also passed a roadworks dump and again there are lots of these all over the place, ideal for a free overnight spot if needed. By the we were in the Mary River National Park (tenses national parks are quite a large industry, particularly in this part of the world, and deservedly so) and stopped at a story board. These story boards have been a feature wherever we have travelled and are a fantastic insight to the areas that they describe. Entering Kakadu there is not a big change in scenery, just bush with medium sizes trees, some gumtrees and palms, etc. There is also, of course, a story board, again very interesting. On to Jabiru which is sort of at the apex of the triangular road system which is (coming from Darwin in the north) the Arnhem Hwy into Kakadu then the Kakadu Hwy running sthwest down to Pine Creek on the Stuart Hwy. jabiru is a very small towns owe fuelled up, got some bread and headed out, stopping at the Bowali interpretive centre which like all the others that we have seen up here was great. Then down the Kakadu Hwy to our overnight stop at Jim Jim Billabong, a very very basic spot. The billabong is quite nice but you don't see much of it from the campground and the presence of crocs discourages swimming. 

Saturday 19 July 2014

Well we have finally broken away from the gravitational pull of Darwin and are on our way again. We really enjoyed our time with our grandchildren and their parents. Up here they have a 4 week break for the 3rd term due to the weather conditions, the dry as it is known is hot and humid so they have the same break over the Christmas period. For our kids though it is a difficult time as they are shifting back to Perth with all that that implies.  Anyway our 6 weeks is up, we have seen how well darwin caters for school holidays, visited a few places that we hadn't seen and had a couple of weekends of, which we spent in Litchfield park. 
Today we have driven out to the Arnhem hwy which will, tomorrow take us into the Kakadu National Park. On the way we stopped at a place called Window on the Wetlands, this is a purpose built and rather spectacular building on top of one of the few hills in the wetlands. The building by the NT government is staffed by locals from  theLimilngan-Wulna tribe who are trained by said government and if the lovely lady called Lynette we met there is an example both the training and the people are great. The wetlands themselves are what you would expect, flat low lying ground as far as you can see and quite a sight. Inside the building there is an explanatory display showing the ecology of the area, on the next floor is a balcony with tables and binoculars and story boards describing what you see and some of its history. 
Tonight we are in an informal park that is part of the Coroboree Tavern, quit pleasant, reasonably priced and with a 4mtr sestuarine crocodile, a 1.6mtr freshwater crocodile plus some buffalo. A nice spot to spend the night. 

Monday 14 July 2014

Well what a week that has been......lots of school holiday activity with Acacia and Zimra, then Acaia's birthday on Friday, Zim's on Sunday and their joint party on Saturday. We also a couple of jobs on the van and started to get ready for our departure late this week. One of the things that we did was get a portable solar panel kit because we can't use our generator in a lot of the national parks. 
On Tuesday I walked from the Waterfront to the mall in town. First the Waterfront this is a development on the city side of the harbour, that is the city harbour. So a little explanation  is called for, there is another wharf called the East Arm Wharf further out of town and this is where most of the commercial shipping calls. The Waterfront has lots of high rise buildings, some specialised retail, a wave pool, a netted swimming area and an extensive grassed recreation area. Every day during the holidays there has been activities for kids, we have attended a few, the most popular being karate which we attended twice. Back to my walk, in all the years and all the visits I have have never been to this part of town..... My misfortune! It is a fairly short walk that starts with a lift ride up 5 floors followed by a walk over a footbridge and a fabulous view of the Waterfront and the nearby road etc. Then there is a very well presented heritage walk with restored buildings, very good explanatory story boards and the most magnificent modern Anglican Church. 

Sunday 6 July 2014

We have just finished another lovely week with our Darwin family. We took the kids to some of the well organised school holiday activities here in Darwin and had some good conversations with their parents. Then we were again granted leave of absence and took of for Lichfield park on Friday. We spent the night at Florence Falls in the camping area above the falls. This is a bush camping area and we had the the pleasure of cooking on a bonfire. However the pool is 2 tracks and 135 steps down, and of course up again so we packed our bags Saturday morning and went back to Wangi falls. Here we met a very nice couple with a van similar to ours and spent some time chatting. This morning I did the so-called Wangi loop walk, 1.6km up and over the falls and down the other side really earning my breakfast. On the way back we stopped one of the roadside airstrips that housed both the American and then the Australian Air Force during the northern defence of Australia. This was all very serious as the Japanese forces put a lot of effort into preparing Darwin (and other places) for invasion and the Air Force was the stopper. This particular airstrip has story board telling about these roadside airstrips plus cut outs from heavy grade aluminium properly painted to represent the types of fighters using the airstrip.
We are now parked back at Tudawalli street ready for the next week.