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19-20 July: Bitter Springs brings the sweetest relief

Author: Mrs A

Location: from Daly River to Mataranka, Northern Territory

Thursday: Along with the masses we departed Daly River by 8.30am and continued our journey north. This time we were heading to Bitter Springs in Elsey National Park, just 2km away from the small township of Mataranka.

Before long we were pulling into the van park and booking a site for two nights, looking forward to the rest that comes with not moving on every morning. As we left the office to find ourselves a spot we looked behind us and saw a queue of eight caravans. Having just been told they have six sites left (no booking allowed for less than 3 nights) we could see there were going to be some disappointed parties.

It was so good to get properly set up on a decent patch of dirt. Yes, it is still dry and dusty, but there has been some effort at landscaping and sprinklers are on all day long to dampen down the particles (definitely no grass to water).

This area is known for its hot springs, but as we soon learn, there are none, just a beautifully warm and crystal clear river which wells up from deep underground, emerging a very civilised 33 degrees centigrade. We hired a couple of floating noodles and headed up to see what the fuss was about.

Arriving at Bitter Springs we found a beautiful crystal clear river, surrounded by water lilies, pandanus palms and melaleuca trees. Flitting around, despite the 30 or so people floating in the water, were kingfishers, paperbark fly catchers and white faced herons.After all the heat and dust of the past few days, this was just what the doctor ordered. We swam up the warm river about 20 metres and were soon away from the crowds and had a lagoon all to ourselves. Just bliss. This has to be a stop over if you’re heading this way.

Friday morning we decided to check out Mataranka’s hot springs, which are the more famous location. It was nowhere near as nice as Bitter Springs, much less natural with everyone confined to the same small area.We did a short walk along the river before returning to Bitter Springs for a dip in the serenity.Top tips for visiting Bitter Springs (Stay at Bitter Springs Caravan and Camping):

  • If you can stay three or more nights, book ahead
  • If you don’t need power, then book a riverside site – many birds, and more like bush camping with optional toilets and showers within a short distance
  • Don’t bother with Mataranka hot springs, save yourself the drive and just enjoy Bitter Springs
  • Bring along a noodle – the water is moving fairly quickly in parts, and it’s much easier to just float
  • Or if you don’t have a noodle then hire one from the campground – $5 deposit of which $4 is refundable on return – for as many days as you need it
  • Don’t just stay swimming in front of the steps into the water – swim up to the left to escape the crowds and find a little privacy

We concluded our stay with a catch up for Friday night drinks with some fellow Zoners, Scott and Jo, who had arrived for a few nights. As always we learned lots from these more seasoned caravanners and enjoyed a tour around their ‘Time Zone’.

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18 July: Off to the oldest pub in the NT

Author: Mrs A

Location: from Banka Banka Station to Daly Waters, Northern Territory

Wednesday morning saw us pull out by 8.30am, point our noses again in a northerly direction, and aim for our next destination, Daly Waters.The flat dry landscape continued, broken only by the occasional herd of cattle ambling alongside the highway and flocks of black kites feeding on the night’s roadkill.

We had decided to stop over at Daly Waters for tonight, a tiny settlement (population 9 with a roaming population of well in excess of 100 per night) with a pub as the primary feature. Another dusty dry paddock became our home for the night, the caravans all crammed in cheek by jowl – clearly all visitors are simply overnighters.

The Daly Waters Pub as we see it was licensed n 1938, but there has been a drinking establishment here since the 1890s, parts of which still exist, integrated into the ‘modern’ pub. Since the 1980s it has become a place where travellers leave their mark. By mark, I am talking about bras, underwear, badges, hats, flip-flops, name badges, paper currency…even car number plates are attached to one of the walls around the bar. It has a lot of character, even if it is not a very authentic Australian outback bar. The staff are all backpackers, with wide reaching accents from Ireland to Slovakia and it has a good reputation for its food.

We’ve not seen a fresh vegetable in a store for many kilometres and our stocks are running very low, so we decided to enjoy lunch there….and while we were waiting for lunch, what the heck, decided to book in for dinner too!

Our evening meal was set in the courtyard where perfectly cooked medium-rare steaks accompanied by a slice of barramundi were served up promptly at 7pm. We helped ourselves to bread, salad and vegetables from a buffet and sat down to enjoy. How they cook everyone’s steak to order and get it right, I don’t know, but they managed it and it was a great feed.

The backdrop to our meal was a couple of singer-songwriters from Nimbin of all places (back in NSW near Byron Bay), led by Lou Bradley wearing a dress made from a vintage Sisal sheet. She was very funny and their music wasn’t bad either. It made for an entertaining evening.

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16-17 July: Crossing into the Northern Territory

Author: Mrs A

Monday location: from Adels Grove to Camooweal via Riverleigh Fossil Fields

We left Adels Grove and drove an hour south heading to the world heritage-listed Riversleigh Fossil Fields, 25 million year old remnants of a multitude of creatures which used to live here in days gone by. In contrast to Boodjamulla National Park it was pretty quiet with only a couple of other vehicles there.Just one small part of the 40km square area is open to visitors, but it offers a fabulous window to some of Australia’s evolution. Harking back to times when this dry dusty area was instead rich rainforest peppered with spring-fed lakes and pools – now limestone beds packed full of fossilised bones.The national park seems to be in cahoots with Adels Grove, with a lot of encouragement for visitors to do a paid trip with a tour guide. We tried to get on a tour but none were running, so we did a self-guided visit. There was very limited information provided on boards, and may fossils with no details beside them. You had to use a lot of imagination to understand what you’re looking at, and a lot of Googling later on when we finally got enough phone signal to connect to internet.

Giant birds, turtles, bats, several species of marsupial lions and giant crocodiles all resided here, evidence all seen in the limestone. It was a beautiful location, so peaceful, with fabulous views across the landscape.

After an hour or so we jumped back in the car and headed off on our way. The road was dusty gravel, corrugations in some parts with a couple of picturesque river crossings. It’s just amazing driving through this dry landscape and suddenly being plunged into the land of palms, pandannas, and rushing clear water, along with the prolific birdlife that comes along with it. Only a few metres beyond the water and you’re back in the dust again, hardly able to believe what you’ve just travelled through.It was a slow old journey which led eventually to tarmac, and then another 200km to our destination for the night, Camooweal. There we did a massive clean, inside and out, to try and rid ourselves of some of the red dust we had accumulated over the past few days.

Tuesday – Location: from Camooweal to Banka Banka Station, Northern Territory

In a week’s time Mark is to fly back to the UK from Darwin, so it was time to start making more of a move towards the north. Today was a big day of driving with few breaks. We literally made three turns all day – the first out of the campsite and on the Barclay Highway, then the second off the Barclay and onto the Stuart Highway, heading north, and then finally into Banka Banka Station, where we parked up with the multitude of other caravans for the night.It is amazing how many caravans are on the road – it is not even school holidays any more, and everywhere is heaving. Stations like this are literally raking the money in. We park in rows in a paddock, each van having access to water, a shower and toilet block, and a country music singer around the campfire at night. All this for $20 a van – that’ll be around $1,500 dollars per night earned…not bad for a patch of dirt.

The station is mostly about cattle farming, but they also have a couple of camels and a number of vocal donkeys on site.

We chatted a bit to our neighbours, who are mostly heading to the same locations as us, or have recently left. It doesn’t take much to realise it’s going to remain busy in these parts for some time to come!

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14-15 July: Adels Grove and Boodjamulla National Park

Author: Mr A

Saturday

Dr Google told us it was going to be a 2hr 33 min trip of 94km, as most of the road she knew was unmade. Too long we thought…be there in 90 mins. Well if you attempt this road from Gregory Downs across to Adels Grove, DO NOT FOLLOW DR GOOGLE! We blithely took the left turn she indicated, and bumped our way down 20km of corrugations…to a locked gate. This was the road to the zinc mine, and became private before coming out by Adels Grove. Back we went.

We arrived 1 minute after the good Doctor’s initial prediction, after having to stop to de-air when the bad corrugations kicked in. Adels Grove is a little oasis sitting in the middle of an enormous dry plain of spinifex. After the area was mined for zinc, silver and lead, the property was purchased by a French botanist who worked for the government. He spent his life planting an incredible botanical garden, irrigating his prize plants from the river, and recording the flora and fauna around the property in meticulous notes, only to have the whole lot burn down from a fire that escaped from a local mine. He no doubt cried “Merde” and promptly laid down in a deep depression and passed away.

We had a bit of a wander round, its a pretty big camp area, no power but with predictable blue skies every day solar is the go. River water is pumped up to some shared taps, but we came with full tanks (300 litres) so won’t be needing to boil that, and there is plenty of shade. Just 100 metres away from where we are set up, the vegetation changes completely from the parched, dustiness of the camping area, to the lush bamboo that grows along the clear, cool water of the creek. It made a lovely change to see this oasis after the dust and dryness of the previous week.

Sunday

We headed to explore Boodjamulla National Park, just 10km down the road. This is what everyone comes to Adels Grove for, and if you are travelling with your fur buddy like us, then you have to stay outside the national park.

Our first suprise was the jam packed car park, we hadn’t expected quite this many people in this out of the way spot. As more people head out for their “wilderness experience” we must expect this I guess. We had been looking forward to getting our packrafts out here, as there is a gorge you can paddle. It was pretty busy out on the water for the first half an hour, then most of the hire boats had tuned around and we started to really appreciate the beauty of the place.I would definitely recommend not listening to the advice they give you to “come out here early”. By lunchtime we were on our own, and what a fantastic place this is. One of the most beautiful locations we have ever paddled in with absolutely prolific birdlife echoing across the gorge. Apparently there are freshwater crocodiles in here – we didn’t spot any but did hear at least one suspect splash as we travelled silently along.There’s one short portage, no problem for us in lightweight boats, then the second part of the paddle was even more spectacular. The archer fish were out in shoals, spitting water up at me (did I look like a fly?). Fly catchers darted around above the water doing a much better job of catching their prey.

On the way back to the car we stopped at the information boards and read about the significant aboriginal history of the area. The gorge and surrounding area has been lived in for 35,000 years, according to the latest radiocarbon dating of artefacts found here. Not for the 200 years as you would think just reading the information back at Adels Grove. Just think on that for a moment. A continuous, sustainable, culture in this area stretching back 32,000 years before the Pyramids were being built. Nowhere else in the world has anything like that.

I’m just reading a fascinating book about the history of archeology in Australia (Deep Time Dreaming by Billy Griffiths), which helps explain why we still really know so little about our country’s “deep history”, as he calls it. But more discoveries are being made here (like the oldest known shaped tool in the world at 65,000 years old), that are forcing a rethink of the first migrations of our species across the globe. Finally Australia’s history is being put into a proper context.

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12-13 July – From coast to outback

Author: Mrs A

Thursday – Location: Karumba Point

The news of Mark’s mum’s passing and all the planning of funeral, wake, travel and all associated details had left us tired, so we decided to book in for another night. Mark spent an emotional morning writing a eulogy, and we visited the shops in Karumba for a freshly baked sourdough loaf.

The afternoon continued in the same vein, with a short walk around the area trying to spot the elusive brolgas, ever present while in a car travelling at speed, but mysteriously vanishing when on foot with a camera. Away from the coast the land is sparsely vegetated, a low lying flood plain covered in saltbush, surrounded by gumtrees on the higher ground.After showers, we headed out to the Sunset Tavern, nestled along the coast at Karumba Point with a perfect westerly view across the Gulf towards the setting sun. We ordered dinner, a bottle of drinkable white wine and sat back to enjoy the show.

Friday – Location: Karumba to Gregory Downs

We hitched up and farewelled the fresh salty air and headed back south, into the hot dusty Savannah. We called into Normanton one final time for some expensive eggs and fuel, before hitting the road. We were unsure as to whether we would make it all the way to Gregory Downs, but the choice of roadside camps was pretty limited and unappealing.

Gregory is not a destination in itself for us, rather a half way point on our way to Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park, an oasis in the desert.

We pulled up at the free riverside camp in Gregory at around 3pm and it was heaving! It is Queensland school holidays, but I have to say we only saw a couple of children – the rest being nomads, like us – perhaps escaping the more popular coast. We managed to park up at what looked like to be the last space.

Gregory is a tiny little settlement, it has public toilets, a pub and a tiny shed which is apparently the general store. It sits on a crossroads – heading west you reach the Century zinc mine site, Adels Grove and Boodjamulla, and eventually the Barclay Highway. Heading north, the road leads to Burketown, and east to four-ways and the Burke and Wills (for the non Australians, named after a couple of European explorers) roadhouse. The landscape surrounding it is dry and dusty, with scrawny looking cattle occasionally spotted in the scrub.

The popular free-camp is alongside the crystal clear waters of the Gregory River. The tall gum trees, palms and ferns made it look like a real oasis. We saw several people cooling off in the waters, some floating down the current on inflatables.

We ambled up the road to check out the pub, but it didn’t look very inviting. It really wouldn’t take much to give it a lick of paint, a few plants, benches perhaps. Maybe our expectations are too high? But I’m certain if it looked more appealing there would be a lot more visitors. There would have been around 25 caravans and campers in the free camp – at least 50 people. If only half of those went up to the pub for a sundowner each night that would certainly bring in some funds that would soon provide payback for any expenditure on basic decorations and improvements. But no. People stayed at camp, including us.

Despite being relatively crowded, it was very peaceful and we had a good night’s sleep.

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11 July: Out on the Norman River

Author: Mr A

Location: Karumba

Karumba is really divided in two by the Norman River. There’s the commercial area in Karumba itself, comprising of the fishing fleet and port facilities, then where we are staying at Karumba Point, a long detour around the river’s flood plains, to a more tourist focused settlement with a few caravan parks, awesome sea food shops, and the Tavern.

As well as dividing the town though, the Norman River unites it by providing a year round source of economic wealth. The fishing fleets swap over from Barra to prawn and other harvests from the Gulf, during the various fishing seasons, and the zinc mining operation has its port of onward transportation here. After a 4 year hiatus, it has just restarted to the relief of the town, courtesy of a Chinese company (of course!). The gravity fed pipeline that transport the slurry stretches from the mine 302km to the south, right to the loading dock. Pretty neat and cheap way to transport it for 9 cents a ton!We managed to find a tour boat going out in the afternoon with two spaces (it’s busy season up here!) and headed out. The family running the trip gave us a good running commentary on the river and the town, of course starting as most trips do with “European exploration”, not a word about the previous 50,000 or so years of human occupation in the area. It isn’t easy to find information. I’ve just spent 20 mins with Google and have at least established that the area was home to five distinct Aboriginal groups, all of whom had a seperate language, all of which are now officially classed as extinct.

What our tour guide also didn’t mention is that the locals refer to the period when the first white settlers moved in to Karumba as “the shooting time”. The Native Police were pretty active here! Four groups of traditional owners also had a stake in the local mine. The name Karumba is even taken from the local aboriginal word meaning “this place”. I know it’s not easy to find things out about a history that is inaccessible to us who rely on the written language to pass information around, but at least acknowledge the history prior to white settlement. I’ve sent then some feedback – will be interested to see the response.

So we did see lots of bird life, including black and whistling kites, white bellied sea eagles, osprey, black-necked storks (often incorrectly called Jabiru) and crocodiles…Drinks were passed around as we watched the sun dip into the Gulf. At this moment the nearest capital city to us is Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, not Darwin.

Karumba has a real end of the road feeling, which we actually like. Almost all the tourists are fishermen and women, who like to drink beer from about noon, and talk constantly about lures and catches etc. Its interesting for us to observe as non-fisher folk, but one more day here will be sufficient though.

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11 July – We make it to the Gulf of Carpenteria

Author: Mrs A

Location: Karumba, far North Queensland

Distance driven: 372km

Tuesday: Our day began with some trepidation as we hitched up the caravan and drove to the Georgetown mechanic, earnestly hoping our final parts (the brackets for our shocks), had safely arrived. We pulled onto the forecourt shortly before 8am and Bushy came out to let us know that they had turned up last night. Phew!Before long we had backed the caravan into the workshop and Mr A was inflating tyres as Bushy did his work, welding the new brackets to the front right hand side of the van. He did a thorough check of all the other brackets, and added some extra weld where he felt needed the strength.By the time we pulled out at about 10.30am we felt happy that all was securely in place and Bushy reassured us it should stay that way for the foreseeable future.

Finally we left Georgetown and were off to pastures new. The road was in pretty good condition, mostly a combination of single lane (where you share half on and half off the tarmac with anyone coming towards you) and dual lane highway.

The landscape continued to be pretty flat and dry, but with more water than I expected, and we even crossed a few rivers and creeks with pools in them, plenty of Brolgas around (large grey stork-like birds with red heads).

We stopped very briefly in Croydon (yes, there is one in Australia too!), with a longer break in Normanton, where we did a top up of fresh vegetables. There was limited choice, and we paid $8 for four bananas – just a couple of days drive away from where we bought eight bananas for $2! But beggars cannot be choosers, and we bought whatever looked relatively fresh.

Our final destination for the night is Karumba, up on the coast of the Gulf.The air feels lest dusty up here, and it is so good to see the ocean again.

Arriving at Karumba (having narrowly missed a goanna, a baby wallaby and a couple of cows on the late afternoon drive from Normanton!) truly felt like the end of the road. People are very laid back and friendly, but all the caravan parks are booked out. We were told about a couple of boat trips – one to watch wildlife and one to see the sunset – but on calling to take one tomorrow or Thursday were told it’s all booked out until Friday. So no cruising for us.

No cycling either, since our brush with the bindi thorns on Sunday destroyed our tyres, so we went for a short walk.There’s a lovely looking Tavern right on the water front, with a surprisingly interesting menu. It has a large beer garden overlooking the water and sunset, and we have earmarked a couple of seats for tomorrow afternoon.We returned to camp to watch the sunset over the wetlands, before making dinner with our fresh veg. We watched the whistling kids flying in for the fish scraps being shared by those lucky enough to catch something today. The birds swooped down and caught snacks tossed in the air – quite a sight.Mr A had more funeral arrangements to make and accomodation to book in the UK…I dread to see what our mobile phone bill will be this month after all these calls! This is a beautiful change of scenery for us though, and we think we’ll enjoy our stay here.

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8-9 July: Georgetown and the attack of the bindi

Author: Mr A

Location: Georgetown, Outback Queensland

Sunday: Georgetown does have an excellent information centre, and very kindly they helped me with some printing of flight itineraries for the the UK dash back. They also have a brilliant (no pun intended) gemstone and mineral collection. On from there we cycled to the only tourist activity we could see in the town itself, a 6km walk/ride along the outskirts of town.We mostly followed the dry river bed, and all was going well, until that dreaded exclamation from Mrs A “Oh no….puncture”. I nipped back to camp on my bike, and returned with the car. Mrs A was soon loaded up with her bike and returned to camp, where we spent the next 3 hours picking bindi spikes out of both of our tyres! I’ve never ridden in this type of country before, so was pretty shocked how it has destroyed even my thick tyres. At least my tubeless set up kept me inflated, well until I started picking out the thorns! We are now going to have the petite (but usually very reliable) MTB that Catherine rides converted to a tubeless set up as well. Definitely worth it. So no more riding until we get to Darwin in a couple of weeks.

Another beautiful “big sky” sunset, as I call them, and the three of us (fur child included) watched it with a much needed glass of wine. These have been a tough few days, with all the hassle of sorting out our caravan to try and get mobile again, then organising everything in the UK connected with my mother’s funeral.At least we have good phone signal here in tiny little Georgetown. It’s been an experience, and makes you realise from talking to the locals, what are some of the challenges of living in a remote area. No doctors, dentists, supermarkets (one of the petrol stations stocks some basic supplies). Or any other trappings we take for granted in the city – restaurants, hairdressers, clothes shops etc. And even this place isn’t remote by some Australian standards, ie. it has tarmac road access!

Monday was a day spent organising more of my travel arrangements – booking transfers in the UK, getting menus sorted for the wake, and the myriad of other things that come with a last minute trip of this nature. The great thing is with an iPad and a 4G phone signal, its pretty easy. How times have changed.I have to say I have become a fan of Flight Centre today. I booked through them and they have provided superlative service, so easy to get hold of a real person and talk to them. As compared to going through Qantas, where I spent 45mins on hold trying to even speak to their call centre to resolve an issue. And Flight centre were cheaper for the same tickets. Excellent.

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7 July: Yes, this is our first Rodeo…

Author: Mrs A

Saturday: Location – Georgetown

Relishing in the fact we have a good mobile signal for the first time in a week we decided to do some planning. Mark’s mum’s funeral is not going to be until the 27th July, so we calculated we have time to get to Darwin, allowing us to see some new sights on the way rather than retracing our steps to Cairns plus allowing Mark to fly to the UK relatively quickly.

Finding somewhere for Tassie and I to spend time without Mark was a challenge, with most of the city centre caravan parks not allowing pets or having terrible reviews. After a lot of hunting around we eventually found somewhere about 55km outside of Darwin which sounds picturesque and full of birds with nice hosts who have already promised to make sure I do not become a lonely mad cat lady! If anyone is passing through Berry Springs towards the end of the month, please call on in and say hello to us.

After Mark booked his flights back to the UK, we roughly plotted our next couple of months of travel, taking us back to Sydney. All in all quite a productive morning.

We then decided to go and check out the Georgetown Rodeo, apparently the town’s biggest occasion of the year. What are the chances of being stranded in town on this very weekend? Clearly it was meant to be… We stuck around for a couple of rounds of lassoing bullocks and bull riding, before heading back to camp.While at the butchers yesterday we had been recommended to head back to the rodeo grounds this evening for dinner. What occasion could be bigger than the town’s Rodeo? So off we went…We had a selection of dishes from a buffet and a couple of spirits from the bar. It felt a bit like being at a country wedding where we didn’t know anyone. We sat up high in the bleachers and people watched… so many stetsons! Yeah hah!

Upon the tree beside us sat a little Grass Owl hunting insects in the spotlights. Just lovely.

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5-6 July: Welcome to the outback!

Author: Mrs A

Thursday – location: Cobbold Gorge

It was a morning of frenzied phone calls, with Mark hiking up and down to the reception to get a bar of phone signal to call family and friends in the UK as well as chase up the replacement parts for the caravan.

By early afternoon we were in need of a break and went for a stroll around the property. It’s all very beautiful in that raw, dry outback way – the yellow dried grasses and the dusty creek beds, with only the green leaves on the melaleuca trees giving away any clues to the water deep beneath.As the day drew to a close we chatted to our neighbours, a lovely family from Broome. They very kindly gave us a strap to help tie up our suspension to counteract the impact of lack of shocks. Mick (the tour guide from yesterday’s gorge trip) came down and used his mechanic’s experience to ensure we were sufficiently strapped to the right spots to enable us to limp out tomorrow.

Friday – Location: Cobbold Gorge to Georgetown

It was only a 90km drive, but travelling at an average of 30km/hr and walking pace through any dry creek crossings it was very slow going. We arrived at Georgetown’s Ampol Roadhouse shortly after midday, established that no parts had been delivered, and then drove anxiously to Bushy’s mechanic shop. There we found (with some relief) the shocks had been delivered but disappointingly, no brackets.

Several phone calls later we discovered that although the package got delivered to Cairns in good time to get on board the truck to Georgetown, for some reason it failed to make it. The next truck doesn’t leave until Monday morning, arriving some time late that evening (we hope!).

We resigned ourselves to abandoning our plans and staying in town for the next four days, booked Bushy to do our repairs early on Tuesday morning, and checked into the Goldfields Van Park.

Georgetown is a small town (village?) originally settled in 1869 following the discovery of gold nearby. There are currently around 270 residents here, though at any one time we have only seen a maximum of about 10. The streets are wide and empty. Prior to the arrival of Europeans the area was home to the Agwamin Aboriginal people.

After several important calls to the UK, Mark and I jumped on our bikes for an explore. We found the golf club, the cemetery (with graves dating back to 1877, deaths from influenza amongst others) and the large winding dry river. Back into the town centre we found the local butcher and purchased some bacon and sausages.From there we called into the local pub The ‘Wenaru’ Hotel…as in “‘When are you’ going to finish building it?” Apparently.

The beverage choice was fairly limited, with no cool climate reds or crisp refreshing whites that took my fancy, so we opted for as safe a choice as possible under the circumstances. Of course the barmaid was Irish.The 30 degree day cooled to a 13 degree night and we slept well.

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