Mt Isa to Normanton

Our first morning in Queensland was a slow start as we were only 99 km from Mt Isa.  That short trip was highlighted by the change in landscape as we travelled through rolling hills with increased trees and foliage. 

Lunch Caterers

The unfortunate part of this change in landscape was that there was a significant increase in the kangaroo population, meaning an increased rate of road kills. The only bright part of this part of nature was that we saw many wedge tailed eagles, surely the most majestic creature of the sky in Australia. It was very hard to get a decent photo due to driving a car and caravan and trying to emulate Lord Snowden (the photographer).

However I have a couple of photos for anyone who yet to see this magnificent bird (see above and below).

We arrived in Mt Isa and set up camp in the Discovery Tourist Camp, in Little East Street. We think it was Little East Street because we never found the street—just the caravan park.

At 6pm the courtesy bus picked us up and took us to the Irish club, where the Guinness and food were as good as they were two years ago. The courtesy bus driver took us to a lookout where we were able to admire the lights of the town and the Mt Isa mine.
 

Mt Isa Lights

Friday 21 June started off as a cool and overcast day, so we declared it as a “non day” and just pottered around for the day.  Washing and other little jobs were completed.

 

On Saturday we stocked up at Coles and got a 18 cents per litre discount voucher. That saved us $26.34 - yep, that value is right when you have 180 litre capacity tanks.

We had a BBQ lunch and a relaxing few hours at Moondarra Lake, formerly a water supply reservoir for Mt Isa.

It was a great  location and the views were supplemented by the many and varied birds who vied for our attention (and food). The Kites were particularly special in both their number and relaxing way of spotting food and using the thermals.

After doing a few jobs back at the caravan we had dinner which consisted of my first home cooked pizza that I have cooked in the caravan - including the base. It was judged to be OK.

Sunday started with a sad phone call about a long time school mate of mine.  But that is my issue.  The rest of the day was scones for lunch, relaxing in the afternoon, packing to leave tomorrow and corned beef for dinner from Kay & Darryl, with a glass of red or two (or was that too many).  The corned beef was pretty special.


Gregory River Free Camp Site

On Monday we Departed Mt Isa (me with a thick head) and headed to Cloncurry—basically a nice town but not a lot to keep us there long.  We had lots of stops and 445 km later we stopped at Gregory Downs. We soon decided on a  free camp by the Gregory river, which was sort of an oasis in paradise.   It was 30 degrees, and had been for most of the day.  Three of us were in our beds comfortably before 8pm.  Shirley lasted until 9pm.

It is 5pm on day 37, as I sit one metre from the running crystal clear waters of the Gregory River at Gregory Downs.  It is a camp site that does not allow caravans—but there are about forty caravans here.  Shirley, Darryl and Kay sit near me all reading, while I tap the keyboard of the laptop.  The guys have a Corona beer, the ladies have soft drink.

Ten metres away, across the water and among the pandanus palms, is a kangaroo sipping at the water.  He was obviously a male kangaroo.  The sun is reflecting off the water willing me to get the camera, and try to replicate the reflections.  This does not happen.

Gregory River

The barramundi is sitting on the bench waiting for a date with Darryl and the BBQ.  But let me backtrack to dawn this morning.

At 7am I rose, dressed and went for a walk with a camera. It was a great way to start the day in such a picturesque spot.  After breakfast the four of us headed off to Burketown, at the bequest of the ladies.  Darryl and I were not so sure as the Mt Isa tourist info promised 100 km of dirt road.  We were pleasantly surprised to see only 10 km of unmade roads, and that 10 km is all currently under construction.

Burketown proved to be well worth the visit, being a lovely clean country town with wide streets.  It is only 25 miles from the coast and gets his name from an explorer who had a mate called “Wills”.  One of the two explorers was a police officer at the town that I went to secondary school.  Can anyone tell me the name of that town? We were advised to check out the bakery for their pies, which we duly did.  The “Barra Mornay” pie seemed to be the go as Burketown is promoted as the “Barra Capital of Australia”.  So we promised to return at lunchtime.

We then checked out the hot bore which has water too hot to shower with, and the Landsborough Tree which is famous for being a depot point for Burke and Will.  However some wacker burnt it down some time ago, so it has lost its tourism appeal.


Burketown Hot Bore

By the time we retuned to the bakery the Barra pies were all gone.  However the curry, mushroom and beef n pea pies, and the pasty were excellent.  Not to mention the cream buns.

On the way home we stopped to visit Marto who is the local fish sales executive.  He had three huge bull arab dogs and when asked what breed they were he said slowly “guard dogs”.  He was happy to sell us local barramundi for $24
per kg.  We bought $40 worth and he gave us a bit of a discount.  His son is the fisherman and he fishes between Burketown and the NT border.  Do a Google Maps search and check out how far that is.

The drive home was like the drive there—better than we thought and providing a feast of wild life for photos—mostly large birds feasting on “road kills”.

Free camping in a caravan without a shower means you need to be a lateral thinker (maybe). 

So before we departed today I put two buckets of water on the roof of our car– the car we did not take. By the time we returned home the water was hot enough for a pleasant APC, but not as hot as the Burketown bore.

So now here we are sitting beside the river. 

However, time moves on, and here I sit after a dinner of barramundi and salad, and a glass of Mojo shiraz. 

So what can I say—merely “how good can it get”?  Darryl cooked the barra on our portable BBQ and the ladies did the salad. 

I got the wine.


On Wednesday 26th, the four of us departed at 7:50 for Adels Grove, with me behind the wheel of Darryl’s car (he drove yesterday).  It was 20km of sealed road and 70 km or ordinary dirt road, some of it heavily corrugated.  Adels Grove is a private station with a public campsite on the edge of Lawn Hill National Park.  It is an amazing oasis with water, shade and palms.  If you were prepared to take your caravan in there you could easily stay for a week, or more.

After a stroll and a coffee we drove the extra 20 km or so to Lawn Hill NP—and what an amazing place it was.  Firstly we did the 4 km “Island Stack Lookout” walk.  Picture a round rocky hill, with a flat top with water, palms and gum trees on three sides.  It was amazing. 


The walk both up and down was precarious and hard work, but well worth the effort.


Secondly we did a one km “Cascades” walk. As you would expect there was a lot of water cascading over a lot of rocks—so more rocks, water, palms and gum trees—and fish.

Darryl & Chris in the Canoe

Then we had lunch.

Then Darryl and I hired a 2 man canoe for one hour so that we could both admire the views from the river and test my shoulders.  Both were magnificent.

The day ended as did yesterday—relaxing beside the river followed by BBQ barra and salad (again), this time with excellent chips—cooked by me.



Woop Woop is an Australian colloquialism referring to an (apparently) fictional location in the “middle of nowhere”.  On Thursday 27th we departed the Gregory river and headed east, then north.  We had had three excellent nights camped beside the river.  We then camped at a free road side venue with the name of “Woop Woop”.  So now we know we have travelled from somewhere to the middle of nowhere. 

We suspect that someone with a keen sense of humour has “doctored” the original sign—which we suspect has a different name. 

The entertainment for the night (before we lit the fire) was me trying to find and fix a fuse for one of the 12v outlets in the car—the one that supplied power to the drinks fridge.  Yep 30 degrees and the fridge was not working.  However the job was eventually completed, power was restored and the fire could be lit.  Supper was crumpets and butter.

We soon left Woop Woop behind us as we headed north at 8am.  By 10am we had completed the 110 km, had a coffee and set up camp in Normanton.  We soon found out that I had 6 SMS messages, 7 voicemail messages and 100 emails to check out.  So much for moving away from communications networks for four days.

We drove and walked to various spots of note within and around Normanton for the rest of the day, most notable the first “Burns Philp” store in Australia, the historic railway station, the purple pub (yes, purple), the town well and Krys—the replica of a 8.63 metre crocodile.
A couple of nice steaks on the BBQ was enjoyed for dinner.

Saturday 29th saw us at the station at 8:25 for a ride on the Gulflander train, a train with too much history to mention here.   

The Gulflander

In short it was supposed to go south to Cloncurry to link up with Townsville and trains up and down the eastern coast.

However multiple changes of government and a gold rush at Croydon has the train route redirected to Croydon instead of Cloncurry.   It stopped at Cloncurry—a trip of around 150 km.
We travelled a mere 20 miles or so (all measurements for the train are still as used when it was built) then turned around (via a smart triangular turn) at “Critters Camp” - a name that was give to the location by a track construction worker who was bitten on a tender location by a scorpion.

The train track has steel sleepers because the local termites can east wooden sleepers in 3 or 4 years.

On the return trip we stopped in the middle of nowhere and had a magnificent morning tea of scones/cream/jam, damper and various croissants.

The waterhole had beautiful water lilies.

Signature Blaze from 1861

After lunch we drove the 35 km to “Burke & Wills Camp 119”, which was the last camp of the exploring expedition before Burke and Wills made a dash to the coast in February 1861.As they say in the classics, the rest is history.

Trees at the site still show the “signature blazes” that the explorers cut into the trees to indicate their presence.  Each explorer had his only “signature blaze”.  The photo shows a tree that was big enough in 1861 to allow a “signature blaze”. 

Further exploration of a nearby water hole provided us with our first crocodile of the trip—a freshwater croc about 1.5 metres long, and a couple of serious wading birds.

Fresh water Crocodile (about 1.5 m)                                                           

Normanton wetlands are apparently quite spectacular in “the wet”.  However Darryl and I decided to check them out in “the dry”.  We met at 6:30 am and found the wetlands before dawn.  There were enough birds and great sights to make the effort worthwhile.  These photos give you an idea on what we saw.

 

We finished our time in Normanton with a photo with my (sort of) namesake Krys the crocodile.  Krys is a full size replica of a 8.63 metre crocodile that was shot by a lady called Krys in 1957.

 

It was an awesome creature and (as you can see from the photo) its shoulder height was similar to mine.

This is the end of this posting. Stay tuned for future updates to the blog. 
There is a map on the blog that shows what path we have taken to date.

Alice Springs to Queensland

Our first day in Alice Springs was a casual day with a walk around the CBD and a visit to Anzac Hill—a lookout over the City. 

The car got a wash and all electrical things were recharged as appropriate.

Many more rocks were on view as we headed East.  Alice Springs has the East MacDonnell Ranges to the east and the West MacDonnell Ranges to the west.  So today we visited the East MacDonnell Ranges.

Our first stop was Emily Gap, then Jessie Gap, then Corroboree Rock where we had morning tea.  Again the scenery was spectacular and varied, with Jessie Gap providing some aboriginal rock paintings.  Many creek and river beds cross the terrain, making you wonder what it all looks like after substantial rain.
We moved onto Trephine Gorge where the first photo was of a magnificent ghost gum, estimated to be 300 years old. 

Trephina Gorge then provided plenty of photo opportunities and a pleasant 50 minute walk.  It was a great spot to break up a cooked chicken and make chicken rolls for lunch.

As usual I will let the pictures the story.

Friday 14 June had us heading West.  There were two items on the agenda, Hermannsburg and Palm Valley, both being extreme contrasts.  Just out of Alice Springs we stopped to admire the grave stone of the Rev. John Flynn (1880-1951) famous for his work in the Australian interior.

Our second stop, Hermannsburg is an aboriginal community, about 125 km east of Alice Springs. It was established by the (German) Lutheran church in the late 19th century—to bring Christianity to the indigenous heathen community (their words—not mine). It is probably fair to say that they had mixed results, too varied to describe here. Today Hermannsburg is preserved for visitors to get an appreciation as to why it was established and some of the hardships the missionaries endured. Their most well known resident was Albert Namatjira. Albert was famous for his paintings, but he was skilled in a number of other areas as well. Very clever man.

Hermannsburg

After Hermannsburg we moved on a further 21 km to Palm Valley.  The entire 21 km was a dirt road and took nearly 90 minutes to negotiate.  Some of it was so rough that I walked in front of the Darryl-driven 4WD to guide Darryl on the best path through the rocky parts.
Darryl and I loved it—the women were not so sure.

Palm Valley

Palm Valley proved to be well worth the drive with lots more scenery, rocks and the extremely rare red cabbage palm. 

Needless to day the drive out took a similar amount of time.


On Saturday we had a rest day with some shopping in the morning and all of us going different directions in the afternoon, with the two (female) gamblers going to the casino.  I visited Bunnings, which is due to open next Saturday, and filled the back of the car with fire wood for upcoming campfires—courtesy of wooden crates that Bunnings did not need anymore.  While there I chatted to some contractors who were working on the construction—they were from Ballarat (a long way from Alice Springs).

The Sabbath had Shirley and I heading back to the West MacDonnell Ranges while Darryl and Kay said goodbye to Alice Springs and headed north.  We first drove 135 km to Glen Helen Gorge which provided a quick photo shoot (see below). 


Ormiston Gorge (above & below)

We then headed back a few km to Ormiston Gorge which provided a 90 minute walk and heaps of photo opportunities. 

It was a lovely place to visit.  The well displayed and constructed path and guiding arrows eventually evaporated with each walker needing to find their own path back along the creek bed.  Presumably the creek bed path changes after each heavy rain or flood. 



The photo of me below is just to prove that Shirley can use my camera.

We then moved on to the Ochre Pits which has provided makeup for aboriginal “Dreamtime” ceremonies over many centuries.  The range of colours was amazing—much wider than that provided by my beautician.  One wonders how a “face painting” business would go at that location, but I suspect the $5000 for removing ochre would be a deterrent.

Ochre Pits

Our next location was the Ellery Creek Bighole, surprisingly called that because it identified a 16 metre deep hole on the Ellery Creek. 

This was also a picturesque location with many photo opportunities.  One of them was a local feathered fisherman ("Little Pied Cormorant") who was drying himself in the sun. 

There were signs that the water was so cold it could be harmful—but we saw a guy in bathers with towel heading that way.

The famous Stanley Chasm was the next stop (right), then finally to Simpsons Gap.  We arrived back at the caravan after around 310 km for the day.

On day 29 we checked out of the Alice Springs caravan park and visited an auto-electrician to get a 12 volt outlet in the caravan—to recharge the mobile phones and the computer.

We departed Alice Springs at 9:40 for pastures north.  A short while later we passed the above statue to indicate that we had crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and entered the tropics.
 

Some time later we stopped and checked out the Barrow Creek hotel—one of those famous Aussie pubs that have to be seen to be believed.
 

 Around 400 km north and 5 hours later we arrived at the “Devils Marbles”, now called Karlu Karlu. It had been a good trip that was punctuated by some excellent photo opportunities, such as:

-  The sight a a group of wedge tail eagles, feasting on a road-kill-cow.  They were magnificent creatures.
-  The many and various mirages that appeared ahead on the road, that illustrate how long and flat the roads are.

Now is a good time to talk about a couple of the signs that you see regularly in the outback.

Firstly, the “FLOODWAY” sign.  As the majority of the outback is fairly flat significant rains are forced to travel along any path they can find.  So a small dip in the land may become a creek or a river when it rains.  That dip may cross a road so the dip warrants a “FLOODWAY” sign.  The deeper “dips” have posts to indicate the depth of the water.

Secondly, the “GRID” sign.  Many of the sheep and cattle stations exist on both sides of roads, allowing stock to wander from one side to another—at their peril (but that is another story).  Most station owners have fences between properties/stations.  To prevent stock using the road to move from one station to another a grid is installed across the road.  This is like a one metre deep rectangular pool that has railway tracks every 150 mm (approx) that run the width of the road.  Stock cannot cross the grid, due to the risk of falling into the gap between the railway tracks.

Some ingenious cove has come up with the idea to paint lines across the sealed road instead of digging a hole and installing railway tracks (paint is a much cheaper option I would think).  One wonders if stock are mislead by the painted lines or just read the “GRID” sign and wander away.

Now a free plug.  Any of you caravaneers out there who like to stop for a coffee on the side of the road or maybe stop overnight at the zillions of free camp sites, make sure you leave home with a copy of “CAMPS 7”.  Surprisingly the “7” comes from the fact that it is the 7th edition.  It is a brilliant book and has excellent maps of Australia.  Do not rely on CAMPS 5 or CAMPS 6 as sites constantly change.

Now let me get back to the Devils Marbles. 

We built another excellent fire and christened our new jaffle irons for dinner, with some fire cooked damper.  A glass of red was also required and enjoyed.

These few photos show the scenery around the camp.

We departed the Devils Marbles and headed into Tennant Creek—not really a town that impresses.  Still they sold good diesel and fresh bread.  So on we moved.

We turned east at “Three Ways” and headed up into an area known as the “Barkly Tablelands”.  The head winds are so consistent and so strong in this part of the world that there are road signs warning about reduced fuel consumption.

A feature of this road is that there are “few features”, as shown by the photo of the three cattle road trains.  How would you like to be driving the third train on a dirt road?

Our day finished with the dusk that you rarely see—a major silhouette and wonderful colours above the dark outline.

Wednesday saw us heading towards Mt Isa.  We passed the Queensland border and were soon in Camooweal.  As Camooweal is said to be a suburb of Mt Isa it has the longest main street in the world—a mere 188 km.

After stopping for an ice cream we camped 90 km out of Mt Isa.  Darryl and I (again) built another great camp fire and we witnessed another lovely sunset.

After a beer and a red (or two) Darryl found a bottle of Muscat.

It was a pleasant evening around the camp fire.
So far we have:

• Covered a tick over 6000 km
• Been away for 32 nights
• Free camped 12 of those nights
• Had about 12 camp fires
• Taken 781 photos.

 

This is the end of this posting.  Stay tuned for future updates to the blog.  There is a map on the blog that shows what path we have taken to date.