The Long Way to Adels Grove

Sunrise through the mist at Tomato Island

We safely negotiated all the water crossings along the Savannah Way!

Sadly most of the rivers are dry or just large puddles.

Butterfly Springs

 26/6/16

I was right the generator went all night and a rooster started crowing from 3.15am, so not much sleep to be had. 

Today was about retracing our steps to get to the turnoff before Cloncurry, towards Burketown so a lot of driving today and a free camp about 70k from Barkly Homestead, that is very, very popular but quiet.

Sunset at free camp 

A howling southerly came through in the night and cooled us right down but the temperature continued to rise to about 21, just nice for travelling.

The roadside changes every few kilometres

It was like this 360 degrees every now and then on the Tablelands

Wattle lining the road

Close up of the above wattle

We called into Mt Isa and tried to find a caravan parts dealer to repair our hot water service and get a new catch for the door without success, so continued on. We’re having bucket baths, having to heat the water on the stove. Makes you wonder why we paid so much to get an off road van! Stopped at another lovely spot 60k from Cloncurry, though it was down beside the highway and noisy when we arrived, the traffic wasn’t bad at all. No photos of this as we've deleted them!!

28/6/16

A freezing 7deg this morning but soon warmed up in the car and the temp rose again as we continued north but the wind the last 2 days has not done our fuel consumption any good. We’ve gone from 14litres/100ks to 24/100 so finding ourselves filling up a couple of times in a day to make sure we have enough fuel out on the remote roads.

This formation of clouds as we neared the Queensland border
very interesting

Overtaken by a plane

Got an early start this morning, catching the sunrise on the road. Seemed a very long drive but we got to Adels Grove, as recommended by so many people, for a late lunch. We were fortunate enough to get a spot for 3 nights so hope to explore a bit tomorrow. No hot showers here either and the water pressure is practically non existent and we are surrounded by people with generators. Ray had his campfire tonight and all have settled down now for a quiet night.

Burke & Wills fuel stop

29/6/16

We decided to go hire a canoe for a trip up the gorge at Lawn Hill NP. Stunning! We were on the water by 8am to avoid the heat….it was freezing again but we were into the sun at the beginning and Ray did all the paddling (I don’t think I was doing it well enough for him) so he warmed up though got pretty wet from the paddle and I was the photographer. Such a beautiful gorge, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, though I was using the Gopro and didn't really know what I was doing or if I was aiming it properly.

We then got the proper camera and set off on the long walk to the top lookout. Lovely and cool in the dappled shade as we followed the river up the gorge we’d just paddled and further as we didn’t port the canoe into the second section. I don’t think our backs could have handled it anyway.

Lawn Hill National Park

Are we having fun yet?

23/6/16

Expecting to take another couple of weeks to get across to Cairns so I’m not sure how much internet service I’ll have to keep this blog up to date during that time.

We travelled to Katherine for lunch and work out how far we could get and still be in phone contact for Friday as we were expecting a very important phone call.

23/6/16

We got to Mataranka thinking that was the safest to be in range but had no service and didn’t want to stay in the van park or in town, so headed out along the Savannah Way to get as far as we could and be able to get to phone range early Friday. The road started out one lane of bitumen, supposed to run for about 100k but they are upgrading so we were on and off side tracks all the way along.

Found a nice quiet spot with plenty of room, ended up with one other person there from Caloundra and knows my cousin, who lives there. 

Had a good nights sleep as it cooled down a bit. The only down side of this site was the flies.

Sunrise on the Savannah Way

The Roper River at Tomato Island

Sunset at Tomato Island

The road changed in colour as well as condition

 

24/6/16

Headed off along the now completely dirt road not too bad but occasional corrugations, the car still throwing up the suspension warning light, Ray stopping to restart the engine and cancel the warning every now and then. It’s getting very tiresome and stressful for Ray particularly. The van rode along really well and not much dust got inside as we headed to Tomato Island campground in Limmen National Park. It’s not an island and no tomatoes in site, don’t ask me why it’s called that. $6.60 each per night with toilets & showers and again plenty of room. The river is huge and obviously a popular spot for fishermen to spend the winter months at each year. The hosts invited us all to Happy Hour around one of the campfires so we thought we’d better be sociable but that will be the last one we probably ever go to. One other couple we’d been talking to earlier felt totally uncomfortable and left early with us to get tea then met up later for a game of cards. Had a lovely night, made the stay much more enjoyable than sitting around reading until bedtime.

The reason we had to be in phone contact was that our daughter in law was having a Caesarian to deliver their 4th child which is a healthy boy, can't wait to meet him on our way home back down the east coast, in a couple of weeks.

25/6/16

Left the campground, planning to call into a few places on the way across to Borroloola but we must have been distracted by baby photos that came by message as we were locking up the van and we might not have actually locked the door, though we are positive we did but it seems it flew open a bit on the way so we had lots of dirt inside the van and now have a slightly damaged door letting in dirt still. The car is worrying Ray and we are not enjoying this dirt road anymore so have made the decision to head out to Cape Crawford and down to the Barkly Hwy to stay on the bitumen and perhaps more accessible road if we break down. We did go into Butterfly Springs and have morning tea and a stroll down to the waterhole which looked lovely, then onto another spot by a waterway for lunch, another lovely spot but 400 odd kilometres will have to be enough of an adventure this time.

After we’d made the decision to not go further on the Savannah Way the car behaved itself right until we got to Cape Crawford Campground, behind the Heartbreak Hotel. Lovely grassy spot with quite a few vans in. It could be noisy with generators etc. running tonight.

Apparently the hot water heater didn't like the bumpy ride either and we now have no hot water.

26/6/16

I was right about the noise, not only the generator going all night but a rooster started crowing from 3.15am. 

We continued on the Tablelands Highway which again was a one lane bitumen road and though no corrugations it's a bit like a roller coaster but much more pleasant than yesterday. The door was unlocked again when we stopped for morning tea and we know we locked it. We found a catch missing in the top of the outer door so it's not closing properly. We have had to push the top of the door when closing it for a while now so obviously it had a faulty catch and that's what caused it to fly open yesterday. 

The suspension warning kept going off this morning but between morning tea and lunch it didn't come on once and this afternoon it only came on as we got close to Barkly Highway. We have stopped at Barkly Roadhouse as it's the only place there is Telstra service for a few more days, we think. Heading for Adel's Grove hopefully.

Darwin

21/6/16 - 23/6/16

Spent 7¹/₂ hours in Darwin city while the Land Rover dealer looked at our car, thankfully got a courtesy ride. Headed for the water as it was too early for much to be open. Lovely parklands here in Darwin, plenty of shade and beautifully maintained grass. We followed our map around to the official ‘Waterfront’ to the wave pool but it didn’t open until 10am. Had a coffee and rethink about what we should do for the next 6 hrs, thought we’d see a movie and go to the Crocosaurus.

Too late for one movie session so went to the Crocosaurus, deciding not to do the cage of death due to cost. Spent a couple of hours looking at the croc and reptile displays which are pretty well set out, glad we didn’t pay to go in the ‘cage of death’. A more docile croc you'd find hard to come across, it’s so well fed that they have to coax it into any action. I’d have been very disappointed if we’d paid to do that, not that I was so keen but Ray would have liked to. 

This is the view opposite our van.
We're wishing we were kids again

By the time we left there and had lunch we missed the next movie session and would have been too late for our pickup if we’d gone to the one after that. So we went down to the waterside again and sat or laid in the shade in the park for a while then went back to sit in the Library and read some magazines, as it was too hot to go to the wave pool. Those librarians earn their pay, it’s so busy in there, so many tourists using the photocopier and the computers to check emails etc.  It was very interesting people watching! We then went to the shops to try and get some souvenirs before meeting our lift. The trouble is the good souvenirs are expensive and the cheaper ones are tacky or we could find something for one and not the others, so again came away with nothing. Got our lift back to the dealer and $400, a clean car and apparent fix later we came back to the van before Ray went off to table tennis. As soon as he started the car the same thing happened so I guess we have to pray it gets us across to the coast without the computer shutting off power. 

Feeling very tired after all that walking and feel a bit deflated after wasting a lot of time and money when the problem isn’t fixed. 

We have decided we shouldn't be let out without a minder. I got the camera ready (with card in) for our trip into the city and left it on the table so again all photos are from my phone which went flat by the end of the Crocosaurus. Apart from the few things we left at home, we both keep misplacing or not seeing glasses, phones, keys etc. and turn me around and I have no idea where I am, thank goodness for Apple maps and Siri.

23rd - Ray did enjoy his night of Table tennis last night but his back is not too good today, probably good that we aren’t doing too much today. Laundry done and dried in a couple of hours in this weather and stocked up on groceries for our trip across the Savannah Way. 

We will set off early to go back to Mataranka tomorrow. It’s annoying that we have to go back over almost 400ks to get to the start of our trip across but we will hopefully find some more nice free camps on our way to spend a few nights in. 

Big drive to Darwin

View through our windscreen today as we get closer to the city with divided road and double lanes

We drove a huge 60k today to get to Darwin.

We wouldn't have been able to put up the awning even if we could
get in here between the two trees.
The van that has gone in now is on the diagonal, well over into our site.
It shouldn't be a van site at all. Very grateful we were able to change.

Arrived at Howard Springs Caravan Park along with many others and the site they gave us was nowhere near wide enough for our van. The guy who guided us in rang the office to see if we could get onto the site next to it which was vacant and huge. Though they were run off their feet at reception, they accommodated us, even though they had just told someone else, when I was paying, that they couldn't choose a site number when they wanted to do the same as us to be near friends.










We've been getting a warning signal in the car about suspension and we just pullover, stop the car and start again but sometimes the warning comes back on, other times it's fine so Ray wanted to get to the Land Rover dealer in Darwin to get the computer reset. They are booked out until July but made a slot for us this afternoon and have put it on the computer to see what the fault is and it's something to do with the suspension exhaust valve and they need to get it up on the hoist. We don't want to get caught on the Savannah Way with the computer shutting us down again so they are checking it out at 7.30 tomorrow morning and want it for the day. At $220/hr we hope it doesn't take all day.

We had a bit of a look around Darwin while in there and were glad to come across a pre polling office, enabling us to vote as we don't know where we'll be on election day.

Back to the caravan park at Howard Springs, which is packed and it's not school holidays yet. Refreshing swim in the lovely pool now planning our day in the city tomorrow.

Litchfield Park

17/6/16

Though we had service in Batchelor, internet was unbearably slow so here is the last 3 days.

Glad we have the caravan or Ray would be
definitely trying this out

Left Katherine for Batchelor just outside Litchfield National Park and arrived for early lunch then off to explore the NP.

We decided to go to the Lost City first as it was more a drive and less walking in this heat.  On the way we stopped to look at the Magnetic Termite Mounds. These fill an area like soldiers on parade. Rather than the round ones that line the highway they are thin and directional, to minimise the heat and only on black flood plains. There are also the cathedral termite mounds nearby as well, they are over 4m high and a must photo opportunity for the overseas tourists, it seems.

Just one of the many road trains we've passed or have passed us

The drive out the the Lost City was a fun 4WD only track. The Lost City is what is left of a mountain range as most of the sandstone eroded away and the strongest rock formations remain, resembling a city in ruins. It’s fantastic that, in the middle of nowhere, all these formations are clustered together.

 

 

The kids would have had a ball in what is essentially a ‘Flintstone’s fun park’. Though there was a designated track around the rocks there was nothing to stop us walking over and through the rocks.

View of Florence Falls from lookout. We sat under the one on the right.

We then went to the Florence Falls and plunge pool. What a beautiful site from the lookout,  then a walk down 135 steps or 1.1k walk around the back. We chose the steps and they weren’t that bad.

Though I got my swimmers and towel out, I left them on the bed so had to go in for a swim, clothes and all. The water was cool but not hard to get into and we made it across to the falls, stopping at the rock ledges dotted around the pool for a rest on our way. The power in those falls, was like standing in a hail storm. The water was so clear and what looked like Sooty Grunter fish (according to Ray) were in amongst everyone obviously used to all the people there. A very popular spot.

We’re stopping here for 3 nights as we don’t want to be in Darwin for the V8 supercar race this weekend.

18/6/16

Went to the furthest we are going in Litchfield this morning. Some places are still closed due to flooding or works being undertaken at the moment, so we went to Wangi Falls. Before swimming we did the walk up and over the back of the falls so were well ready for a swim when completed. 

The top of the waterfalls

Picnic area

What a top site! We thought Florence Falls was great yesterday, Wangi is much bigger, easier to access and get across to the falls themselves. We made our way over to the falls and again were hammered by the flow. So refreshing and the beautiful picnic grounds provided, are well used, probably mostly because there is free Wifi available there. Had an early lunch in the grounds and prepared to do a few other walks to falls and swimming holes but closures and length of walks in the midday heat made the decision for us to not do any walks except the short one to Buley Rock Hole, a series of small falls leading into deep pools. 

These were very crowded and though inviting themselves, due to people bombing and taking up most of the pools we gave it a miss and returned to the van and a swim in the park pool. 

While in the pool, the usual question of where everyone is from was asked and 2 other couples travelling together are from Forster. You wouldn’t believe it! One couple we had met at Scotts Head in February and have never seen them at home, though they live in the same estate as us, near some friends of ours. There are a few different parks in and around Litchfield and we pick the same one! Having a rest day tomorrow and trying to decide whether or not to go to Kakadu  after Darwin. So many people say Kakadon’t that we wonder whether it might be better to spend more time on the Savannah Way. Ray is feeling like we are going to run out of time.