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.

Darwin – 2 to 21 September 2010

We like Darwin and were glad to be back there.

Tricia had to go to the US and John spent his time cleaning the van, riding bikes and reading.  The early storms meant that most people had left, and the normally full park was relatively deserted.  Fortunately  friends we had met while travelling, Emma and Rob were here so he had some company.

After Tricia came back we had a lovely day visiting the Rapid Creek and Nightcliff markets. Rapid Creek has lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. Nightcliff is more of a brunch spot.

We had brunch at the Box Jellyfish Cafe on Nightcliff beach. This is a trailer cafe run by Matthew a former aboriginal footballer who John had met on his bike rides when we stayed in Darwin the year before.

It has good coffee and is reputed to have the best bacon and egg sandwiches in Darwin. One can sit and watch dogs and their owners brave the crocodiles and swim on the beach.

From there we went to the Darwin Museum. This has a small collection but it is very well curated.
The exhibition comprises an excellent selection of Aboriginal Paintings, from the Hermannsburg School onwards.
There is a section on Cyclone Tracy, which demolished Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974.
There is a section on the evolutionary history of Crocodilians.
There is a short film on catching Sweetheart a 5.1 meter crocodile who took to attacking boats. As he was dangerous a team from the Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission caught him with a view to relocating him at a crocodile farm as a breeding crocodile but he died shortly thereafter, was stuffed and is now resides in the museum. The name Sweetheart comes from his former residence, Sweets Billabong on the Finiss River.
There is also a collection of unusual Boats from the Pacific Rim. Occasionally boats get blown off course and end up in Australia, or they bring a group of refugees colloquially known as boat people. Some of them are quite unique and have been bought by the museum and are being restored.

From the Museum we went to see the National Trust Collection of houses by architect Beni Burnett. Born in Mongolia and living as an adult in Tientsin and Singapore Burnett had an intuitive understanding of what was needed in a house in the tropics. There are four houses left at Myilly Point and we could see through the K house, also known as the Burnett house. Walls of louvers and casement windows meant that the house was very cool even without air conditioning. He also understood that one did not want too much thermal mass exposed to radiant heat. His house designs were graceful, original and very livable. Burnett was a Government Architect and his houses were designed for upper level public servants.

The next day we visited Fanny Bay Gaol. Fanny Bay Gaol was opened in 1883. From the outset this Gaol was thought to be badly positioned so not much money was spent on it and in 1979 prisoners were transferred to other locations. It was handed over to the Government and then housed Vietnamese Boat People in the children’s section for a while after which it was designated a historic site.

Kununurra to Darwin – 1 to 2 September 2010

From Kununurra we drove to Katherine,  leaving Western Australia after ten months of great travel and experiences. 

We passed the site on the Victoria River where the North Australian Expedition led by Augustus Charles  Gregory established their main base camp in October 1855, and spent the next eight months exploring the Victoria River Region as far as 500km south to the Great Sandy Desert.  He marked a Boab Tree with details, an early form of Facebook page for explorers!

We stopped for lunch at the Victoria River Roadhouse, which proudly announced it was “Under New [Ownership] Wife.

We then drove on to the Low Level Park in Katherine, a nice park on the edge of a tiny National Park.  It has good amenities and is great spot for an overnight stop.  From Katherine we drove on to Darwin.

Kununurra – 16 to 31 August 2010

Kununurra is a lovely town , the centre of the Ord River irrigation scheme. We were lucky to get a lakeside location by Lake Kununurra.

The Gibb River Road is an Australian rite of passage and a test for machinery. Kununurra was a good place to do some maintenance and cleaning. John replaced the suspension blocks on the caravan and we needed to replace the tyre that was punctured and the high pressure hose for the Landcruiser’s Power Steering, an emerging problem for Toyotas on this rough road and fatal for two previous Landcruiser’s which developed the problem on the Mitchell Plateau and needed the $3,000 flat bed truck ride back to Kununurra. Trish was pleased with how the interior had traveled, the only thing we had to replace was one cupboard latch. Trish’s main job was a monster wash. There is only one hot water washing machine, three cold and there is stiff competition for the hot water one by people coming off the Gibb River Road.
Trish also cleaned the interior, although as the van is relatively dust proof she was mostly able to sit by the lake and read.

We found a lovely French Restaurant called the Pump House and most evenings saw us walking down there for a beer and a frozen Margarita while we watched the sunset. Trish asked the owner, Dominique from where and why she had come to Kununurra. She said she was from Paris and had wanted to move to a country town. She had certainly achieved that. This is the second French Chef we have found in a truly remote location, the other being the Border Store near Arnhem land. Kununurra has a good Saturday market with lots of local products, and after visiting it we could see how the wonderful fresh products would be very encouraging for a chef.

The road into Wyndham is 100 kilometers of made road which Tricia really enjoyed and it has very attractive scenery. We visited the Grotto, a gorge outside of Wyndham and watched enthralled as the lizards swam in the pool at the end of the gorge.

We had lunch in Wyndham at Capt. Robb's which is legendary. What you have here is the Barramundi. We walked and drove around the town, and photographed Trish at their big crocodile. We think this house will need better stumps before the cyclone season. At present they are Brambles Chep pallets.

The best in Wyndham is the Five Rivers Lookout. There is a fantastic view of the King, Ord, Pentecost, Durack and Forest rivers flowing into Cambridge gulf. This view alone makes the drive worth while.

We made a very quick trip to Melbourne as John had a meeting and as luck would have it Alex and Sophie were also there. This was a great opportunity to catch up and see them and our granddaughter Gillian.

On returning to Kununurra we booked on the Triple J tour to see lake Argyle. This was a fantastic day. We spent the morning on the Lake, then in the afternoon we took a boat down the Ord River. There are little camps on the river for canoeists and we had Afternoon Tea at one of them. At certain times of the day you can see a WW1 soldier’s head on the rocks.We visited the Durack Station, which has been removed from what would be the middle of Lake Argyle and enjoyed the Ord River, looking at crocodiles, flying foxes and rock wallabies.

Nicole Kidman is reported to have said that the water in Kununurra is fertility water, as seven people got pregnant during making of the movie “Australia”, having spent a lot of time swimming in  local waterfalls.

Gibb River Rd – Home Valley Station – 13 to 16 August 2010

From Ellenbrae we drove to Home Valley Station, getting our first puncture of the trip, either pure luck or a credit to John’s careful driving.




The views on the road across the Pentecost River Valley were stunning.

Home Valley is run by the Indigenous Land Council and at the moment is run by aboriginal and white managers.

Home Valley Station featured extensively in the Film Australia, the Pentecost River is the boundary between it and the nearby El Questro Station. It runs training courses for aboriginals who wish to work in tourism or as land managers.

It has an attractive campsite with power and occasional Telstra NextG reception from Wyndham. There is guaranteed internet reception higher up the hill at the Home Valley lookout. We were able to get our tyre fixed here, a sort of comfort as the tyre repairer told us they had seen people puncture 3 tyres in 20 minutes.
We had dinner in the dining room, and did a tour of  the Station with one of the original owners.

Later we had sunset drinks and enjoyed the changing color of the rocks through the sunset.
The skies at night are beautiful here.