Adelaide River and Darwin

Water buffalo from Crocodile Dundee

 

Having only passed through Adelaide River and visited the War Cemetery before, we decided to have a night at the Adelaide River Resort. It's a lovely shady park, close to the pub and bistro. There were some markets in the local park; I bought some local seafood and jam. The caravan park had good amenities and a pool. It was quite warm; our temps this week have been 32c daily. The park was $28 per night.

Jumping Croc Cruise

Leaving after breakfast for Darwin, we detoured off at the Arnhem Highway and joined the morning Jumping Croc cruise. Well worth doing, We enjoyed seeing crocodiles and bird feeding.

                        

We had booked four nights in the Discovery Park, Shady Glen, closer into Darwin than our previous trip.  I had heard it wasn’t the best of parks, close to the airport and crowded but it is fine for $45 per night. We have a nice spot close to the amenities and the laundry. It is a bit noisy, near an industrial area, but not too much airport noise.

Darwin Sailing Club.

We found the Darwin CBD has all meter parking and no provision for motor home parking. We went further out to the Museum and art gallery, there is a coffee shop overlooking the water. We had lunch at the Darwin Sailing Club. Such a beautiful spot on the water. John and I both had barramundi and chips.
Tomorrow we might try catching a local bus to take us in to the city. The Mindal Beach sunset markets are on Thursdays and Sundays. It's a "must see" in Darwin.

 

August 7^th.

Daly Waters and Pine Creek

 

 

Daly Waters historic pub

 

 

John drove from Barkly Homestead to Threeways Roadhouse, where the Barkly Highway meets the Stuart Highway from the south. We booked into the roadhouse van park, cost $30 for the night, basic amenities, ok for one night.

 We moved on to Daly Waters after breakfast, we managed to get away before 8 am. One of our longer days on the road; close to 400k. Arrived at Daly Waters historic pub and had a late lunch. It’s our third visit, so we looked forward to the same routine, the barramundi meal and a show. A guy meets you at the gate after booking in and escorts you to your site on his motor bike, only power; and if water is needed, just fill the tanks with the communal hose. It was $20 per night which for a popular park is reasonable. Everyone goes for the outback experience, the place is old and hasn’t had much done to it for years. I hope it stays that way.

 

A drover's memorial at Newcastle Waters

As in other roadhouses etc around Australia, backpackers are hired as staff, moving from place to place to areas they want to visit. They come from all different countries.  Some are back for their second time here; they stay for months at a time then move on. They are provided with food and lodging and some pay. It would be hard to find young Australians to work in remote areas. Their travel visas can be extended by working and not just holidaying.

 

 

 

Boab trees in Pine Creek.

Daytime temp Saturday 3^rd August 32.7c

Giant termite mound in Pine Creek.

Pine Creek is 226 klms from Darwin. The Lazy Lizard park is $25 per night, we booked in for two nights.  We found enough to do this morning. There was a small market in the nearby park, a lookout and a few historic sites to see. We had a coffee at Mayse’s Café, we had visited in 2007 on our previous trip to the Top End. It’s hot here but a cool breeze during the day, which sounds strange but this is the Top End in the Dry Season.

An old gold mine hole filled with water. From the lookout.

 

 

Baby python

Tomorrow we drive 113 klms to Adelaide River for a night, then Darwin on Tuesday for four nights.

 

August 4^th

Camooweal and Barkly Roadhouse

Cattle on the road.

It was nice to leave the mining town Mt. Isa and head back on the road. The drive to Camooweal was an easy one, under 200 klms. We saw a wedge-tailed eagle on the side of the road but were past him without getting a photo.  Feel sure we will see more eagles on the Stuart Highway in a couple of days. Up till now we had only seen one other and that was a few days back. Kites seem to be the norm in channel country.

Camooweal is the last town on the Barkly Highway in western Queensland; before crossing over into the Northern Territory.  We booked into the Post Office Pub van park for one night and were pleasantly surprised. For $30 per night you get a large powered site with water of course; the use of the pool, a dump site and basic amenities. The benefit was a short walk into the back of the pub. They served meals although we decided to wait until Barkly Homestead to buy a meal.  It was a better park than what we had in Mt Isa.

We had a good night’s sleep and left the park at 8am for the longer drive of 370 klms to Barkly Roadhouse. John and I were surprised at the lack of roadkill, we saw none today.  And the speed limit is 130 klms per hour!! That meant no crows or kites either, as they are usually flying off the middle of the road as traffic approaches. The only living animals we saw today were cattle.

Barkly Roadhouse is a welcome oasis in the dry. Well watered green grass and palm trees. In the outback the Artesian Bore supplies the water needed to sustain communities.  It’s a major fuel stop for the road trains and holiday traffic.  This is peak travel time; for it’s the dry season between May and September. The wet season is not the time to be on the roads.

 

From here its 200 klms to the Stuart Highway, the main route to Darwin from the south. We will travel tomorrow after a stop for the night in the shaded caravan park site. Fuel here is $2.059 for diesel, the most expensive yet.  The roadhouses are powered by heavy generators, which are very noisy and are at the back of the park. So it’s good to be early and pick a site as far away as you can.  We were here before lunch and have a good spot. Even so we can still here these essential work horses.  The park is $35 per night.

The roadhouse itself has a take away section, a dining room and bar. There is no television service (unless one has a satellite dish). The good news is we have mobile and internet reception.

July 31^st.

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Side Trip.

John and I have a few silly moments on the trip. I laugh at his bad sense of direction in the caravan parks. Granted, we stay in lots of different setups, sometimes close to amenities sometimes not.  At Blackall, a small park, we were in view of the amenities. John went off for his shower and while I was making the bed, I glanced out to see him looking very puzzled and as I later told him; it looked like he was waiting for a bus! I tapped the window( that’s how close we were)  and over he came. He had no idea where we were parked!  The trouble is he usually gets up before dawn and one morning walked the whole way around a bigger park before he found “Syd” We now joke about “catching a bus”

Another morning when he asked me the time, I told him it was 6.15 am. Off he went to the shower and later realised it was only 4.15 am, when it wasn’t getting light! Oops.

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Winton, Cloncurry and Mt Isa

Winton sunset

Winton is dinosaur country. The oldest fossils found in Australia of dinosaur roaming our country were found in the Winton area. Lark Quarry, 110 klms from Winton is a very interesting historical record of an actual stampede millions of years ago.

Mel and Susie, bush poets.

Winton camp

Matilda Country Tourist Park is $35 per night; they put on a roast dinner, soup and dessert for $20. I had the meal and saw the two resident bush poets, Mel and Sue. We have seen these ladies before and they put on a good comedy show. We met some new friends from Tasmania and will probably see them again as they are going up to Darwin.

In Winton

 

Waltzing Matilda centre

John drove the 350klms to Cloncurry, stopping a couple of times for a break. It is very windy in Channel Country, we sat at the table and chairs at the rest stop but nearly got blown away.

We went to the supermarket and booked into the park about 2.30pm. This park has seen changes since our last visit two years ago. It is now mostly accommodation for the miners.

Today was a short drive to Mt Isa. We booked into the park for two nights, at $34 per night and went out to Lake Moondarra for a picnic lunch. John has booked the City Tour tomorrow. I have been to the underground hospital before and the city lookout we saw today, so thought I would spend the two hours reading etc.

Lake Moondarra

July 29^th

John enjoyed his tour this morning. Mt Isa hasn’t seen rain since February, it Is very dry here. It was warm last night, today is expected to be about 29c. The tour went to the mines, the city lookout and the underground hospital.

 

 

The Underground Hospital

 

The underground hospital was built in the event of an attack by the Japanese during WW2. They had already bombed Darwin after Pearl Harbour; and the city sustained more damage and loss of life than Hawaii. The hospital was never used, however the nurses coming off night duty at the Mt Isa hospital slept underground during the day to escape the heat.

We were back in the park after doing a bit of grocery shopping and having lunch.

Tomorrow we go to Camooweal , our first stop in the Northern Territory. Darwin is still 1600 klms away, it will take us about a week to get there. Our nightly stops will be roadhouses, usually with no mobile or internet reception.

We are booked into Darwin for 4 nights. Then we will head south towards home.

Blackall and Longreach

 

 

 Tambo

We had a morning stop at Tambo halfway to Blackall. Its a little oasis amongst the dry country side.
Blackall’s claim to fame is the “black stump”, used for surveying purposes around 1887. Surveyors placed their transit on the stump for latitude and longitude observations and a stump was used rather then a set of legs to give more stability to the transit. At that time any country west of Blackall was considered to be “beyond the Black Stump’

 A cane chair and a purple bougainvillea lead up to a timber cottage, which is Blackall caravan park office. The park fees are $28 per night, we just booked for one night. The amenities are basic and the sites very close together; however they have the tastiest roast dinner for $20.

Graham Rodger

Kites

the campfire crowd.

 

 

Graham Rodger, a Tamworth Golden Guitar winner, entertained us with his singing for an hour or so at sunset and John bought two of his cds. A flock of kites hovered overhead, swooping gently on the air currents. It was a typical Aussie outback experience.

 

We left for Longreach after breakfast, stopping halfway at Barcaldine for morning tea.  Morning tea in these parts is still called ‘Smoko”.

 The channel country is harsh and dry, with long distances between towns. Roadtrains are king out here, the road kill numbers are high. We saw lots of kangaroos dead on the road and beside it on the 215 klms drive to Longreach . Its hard to avoid them and the many crows and kites fighting for their share of the spoils. Luckily we have seen a lot of live animals on our travels.

Emus in town

 

The large Qantas plane is one's first sighting of Longreach. The jumbo has a permanent home in the grounds of the Qantas museum.

Any one for a stage coach ride?

As we have been to Longreach twice before, we didn’t want to do the tourist things we have done on previous visits. We have been on the Cobb and Co stagecoach ride, the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and the School of the Air. We decided on a quiet morning in town.

Tomorrow a drive to Winton for the night and then Cloncurry.

25th July.

Two days in Charleville

Charleville

Charleville is your quintessential outback town, John and I have been here three times now and always enjoy discovering new things to do. This time it was the tour of the Hotel Corones, a very large and beautiful hotel that we had been to see but hadn’t done the interesting tour. There is a lot of history on the man who owned the hotel, Harry Corones.  He was a Greek immigrant who arrived in Australia penniless and went on to buying an old hotel, renovating it and hosting famous visitors, including the American pilot, Amy Johnson. We had very interesting afternoon, with tea and scones at the end.

Campfire dinner

Bailey Bar caravan park is very popular, the camp oven dinner was on on Sunday night.  The menu is delicious, beef and red wine stew with mashed potatoes.  Dessert is apple charlotte and custard, followed by billy tea. It’s  very pleasant sitting around the camp fire with like minded  people, traveling our country just as we are.

Beef stew

The park is $34 per night for a powered site. We expect to pay this as it is high season in these parts.

Hotel Corones.

 

There is a Bilby experience at night that we have been to before and its well worth seeing. The bilby is an endangered animal, the Queensland government have an on going  programme  where the bilbies are released in a safe location after spending time in Charleville. The location is a large area of land protected from predators, some where in far western Queensland, I think.  

Another attraction in Charleville is the Cosmos Centre. I found it an interesting experience, star gazing on a clear cold night.  I was happy that I had been on a previous visit as there was a lot of cloud around this time.

There are a few shops in Charleville worth visiting and a lovely bakery that serves coffee and the nicest mini chocolate eclairs.

The Flying Doctor is based here and it has a visitor centre with interesting information on the history of the service.

 

Tomorrow we head to Blackall, 300 klms away. Goodbye Charleville.

22^nd July.

Cunnamulla to Charleville.

Before the rain

 

 The first hour out of St. George was warm and sunny for the drive to Cunnamulla, 300 klms away. However then we drove into rain and it followed us all the way to Cunnamulla. We had a brief stop in Wallam Creek, looking for koalas who are supposed to be in trees along the creek. John and I were getting wet so we gave up and headed back to the truck.  

I realised that we had gone through Cunnamulla before but hadn’t stopped over.  There is a big statue “the Cunnamulla fella” outside the information centre, immortalising the young men who worked on the vast sheep and cattle stations in the 50’s and 60’s. These young men, some 15 and 16 years old, worked long hours seven days a week, mustering sheep and breaking in horses etc.

Slim Dusty recorded the now famous song,” The Cunnamulla Fella”. Up till now I didn’t know the story behind the song.

Cunnamulla Fella

Mural in Cunnamulla

A new caravan park has opened on the outskirts of Cunnamulla, the Cunnamulla Tourist Park, on the Warrego River. The owner has turned her farm into a lovely park with lots of powered sites and the best amenities’ we have seen. The grounds though aren’t sealed; the place was a mud mire. Shame we hadn’t gone when it was fine. We decided to only stay the one night. They usually have a campfire by the river, but because of the rain it was cancelled. The sun was out this morning but the place would take a week to dry out.

Shame about the mud.

Campfire spot on the Warrego

 

I rang Bailey Bar CP in Charleville and luckily booked a site for the next two nights. We have been to this park twice before, it’s basic but friendly and they have camp dinners several times a week. We paid for the beef and red wine stew with mashed potatoes that’s on the menu tomorrow night.

It was a great day for a drive, we saw lots of emus along the way, along with kangaroos, and some were seen hoping across the Mitchell Highway. Wyandra, half way to Charleville, had an unusual display on town fences; rows of bras of every shape and size.

Rows of bras in Wyandra

20^th July.