Katherine, Daly Waters, Borroloola, Hell’s Gate – 21 to 26 September 2010

We left Darwin and stayed overnight at Katherine Low Level and Daly Waters, two campsites we like.

At Daly Waters being cloudy we succeeded in photographing the tree blazed with an “S” by John McDouall Stuart on 23rd May 1862 on his successful journey from Adelaide to Darwin.
After Daly Waters we took our National Highway [Highway 1] also known between Broome and Cairns as the Savannah Way and in the section from Daly Waters to Normanton as the Great Top Road. 
We stopped at the Hi Way Roadhouse for diesel and a last coffee before embarking on the Carpentaria Road section of the Savannah Way.  At this point it looks like an old WW2 Road as the bitumen is so narrow. It is also as straight as a ruler.
Our next stop was the Heartbreak Hotel for lunch. It was so hard for the contractor to build this Roadhouse owing to the difficulty of getting deliveries and hiring workers that when it finally neared completion his name for it was the Heartbreak Hotel and despite the publican’s pleas the name stuck.
There is a Ukrainian girl working here at the moment; the place is spotlessly clean and the meal is good.
This is where the Tablelands Highway and the Carpentaria Highway diverge and the road is not so good although still bitumen. We stopped at the Caranbirini Reserve and walked through the eroded limestone pillars.  From there we drove to Borroloola where we spent the night in a nice quiet campsite.  Borroloola was a rough and tough town during the Gold Rushes but has quietened down and is now a transit stop for those who are traveling West and East.  The hotel provides an adequate meal.


After Borroloola your car should be 4WD and your caravan outback capable. We saw one camper trailer in pieces by the side of the road.  The next day there were frequent river crossings and the road was mostly dirt however the surface is reasonable. We crossed the border into Queensland.  Wollogorang Station and Roadhouse has ceased trading so we drove through to Hell’s Gate Roadhouse.
       
Hell’s Gate derives its name from the fact that the native Police could not guarantee your safety beyond this point if you were traveling West.  At Hell’s Gate there was wood ready for our fire which was helpful. The Roadhouses have very minimal supplies at the moment as the wet is due and travel by road will cease shortly but Hell’s Gate did have fuel, apparently not always the case. We spent the evening talking to fellow travelers round the fire. and watching a spectacular lightning show from a nearby storm.
From Hell’s Gate we tried to drive in to Kingfisher Camp and Lawn Hill.  The road in was cut by a large sheet of water so we had to turn back. Our thunderstorm had dumped some water near Kingfisher Camp, cutting the road.
Consequently we drove to Normanton, a long drive but a reasonably good road, although large portions of it are still dirt. We passed through Burketown, the prototype for “Willstown” in Nevil Shute's novel 'A Town like Alice'.  There was nothing to keep us there as nothing was open on a Sunday. 
We stopped at Leichardt River.  The falls were dry, although the gathering storm clouds threatened to change this.
We drove to  Burke and Wills base camp number B119, their furthest North Camp. From there they made a dash to the Gulf of Carpentaria.  Although they reached the shore by their maps they were unable to see or reach the open sea because of the impenetrable mangrove swamps. Burke and Wills expedition to find a North- South Route across Australia  was in competition with John Stuart. It is hard to have a lot of sympathy for Burke and Wills.  Their deaths on the way home were the final disaster for what was a well financed but badly prepared and managed expedition.  The actual route was discovered by John McDouall Stuart and is now the Stuart Highway from Adelaide to Darwin.
We finished the drive into Normanton late in the evening.