Cape York
A few weeks back we rolled out a large map of Australia on the back deck of the pub, grabbed a black texta/nicko/sharpie whatever you fancy, a few beers and sat down to mark out our trip. Most people would call it step one!
It was fun to traced our steps on the map of our journey over the past couple of years and drained our drinks in the FNQ night heat, we found a couple of gaps in the map far to large to ignore, north of cooktown was bare of a black line and the centre of our large dry land. We still had three months of our contract to run but after 4 months of tourist season (known as terrorist season to the Helenvale & Rossville locals) at the Lions Den Hotel we had managed to organise a week off thanks to owners Max & Faith.
Having started our year in the lands most southerly state Tasmania we had no option but to head north being so close, only 1000 kilometres of dirt road between us and the tip. We dusted off the Prado, now considered family after growing so close and having served us so well, organised a few repairs to the penthouse from a local canvas dude who just moved to Cooktown from the Kimberley and we were ready for another unplanned adventure.
Rob had arrived from Tannum Sands a few days prior to join us, like us he hadn’t ventured north of Cooktown but for one difference, he’d studied the history of our country and the people who’d sailed, rode, walked or crawled north from our starting point. From Cooktown we headed north/west to Laura on the Battle Camp Road a dirt road that would ultimaltey reach out north to the tip of our amazing land.
You could always take the road from Lakeland to Laura but its sealed, a black top why bother with a few ks of black top when you have a thousand of red dirt in front of you. The population north of Cooktown is only in the thousands so the services aren’t great we rolled north on the battle camp road through old Laura to join the developmental road only a few ks north of Laura a town best know around here for its annual rodeo that attracts thousands of large wallets and belt buckled cowboy hat wearing men and women.
As we were returning through Laura we didn’t bother heading back into town for a look, we made the right turn and headed north on the red dirt with one goal in mind – the tip was ours, we are coming like it or not…
Within 10 kilometres we had come across our first of many road trains heading south, it ripped past us without regard as it would, on it’s mission south to reload before heading north to do it all again.
WHOOOOOSH….. A RED DIRT explosion, our view had been undisturbed until now, clear window projecting a red dirt road back at me, a clear dividing range that ran from my home town in southern Victoria thousands of kilometres north to a sharp point that most Australians never visit.
The road may be dirt, dusty and little traveled but the people of the north rely on the supply trucks as much as the people in the south, maybe even more so, 1000 ks on the perfectly sealed roads of Victoria take 3 times as long to transverse when suppling the people of Saisie, Bamaga and Weipa.
When you think dirt road I guess you think impassable bog heap, the dirt roads of outback Australia are actually pretty amazing in parts, the Battle Camp Road was ok, winedy and plenty of acceding before descending but as it disappeared in the rear vision mirror a flat wide road appeared out the windscreen.
With little between Laura and Coen we didn’t make any stops before we rolled into Coen, a one street town with a pub a post office and a mechanic, the Coen pub began its life as the Exchange Hotel but somehow gained and extra letter. The letter S now stands in position one of the Exchange making it the Sexchange Hotel. The old pub had a few old local pictures on the wall and an old dog asleep at the bar, somehow Rob overlooked the mut and gave it a good old kick as he approached the well named Shellys Bar. The very pregnant barmaid served us a cold beer and decent burger for lunch before we continued our trip North.
Around 20k north of Coen we were pulled over by three police vehicles, after I passed a breath test a second officer approached the window and held out a small piece of plastic to drag down my tongue, we waited for ten minutes to find out I had passed my first ever drug test.
After 650 long dusty kilometres we were pointed west and looking into the sun setting over Weipa, the remote minning town reminded me a little of Port Headland, much smaller but similar in some ways. A quick drink in the local and we set up camp on the edge of the Gulf of Carpenteria.
With less than 400ks to Bamaga and Seisia we had and easy drive on some great roads mostly at 100ks an hours, we passed the entry to Bramwell Station that we were planning to stay at on our return trip and pulled in just up the road at Bramwell Roadhouse to check out the the beginning of the Old Telegraph Track, a tough 4WD track that atracts thousands every year to bump their way a couple of hundred ks north to the tip of Australia. We took two things, a picture of the sign then took the easy track to Fruit Bat falls, Rob had us all looking out for the Kennedy Memorial but like the explorer of all those years ago it was lost.
Fruit Bat falls was a pretty place, a great place for a swim in crystal clear water after Shell made us lunch in the car park. I had seen many pictures of the falls with a crowd as big as the Cairns pool in peak backpacker times but on this warm overcast day we had the place to ourselves. Shell as always tested the water to make sure is was ok for the boys to have a swim. We had the GoPro in the water so check out the video to see how clear it was.
After our refreshing dip we continued north and had to fight for space on the track as some dickheads tried to force us from road as they tore up the dirt at way over 100ks an hour, the same dickheads were terrorising the locals at the Jardine River Ferry. The ferry was the moving bridge that allows travellers to the north and the local Aboriginals have got a great thing going. The Jardine River is named after Frank Jardine who explored the area in the 1880s before setting up a cattle station. The river wouldn’t have spanned more than 30 meters but that didn’t stop the locals from charging us $129 for the short trip. With only a few kilometres to go we had a look around Bamaga then headed out to Seisia to set up camp only meters from the water at the Loyalty Beach camp ground.
Breakfast by the water is always a great way to start the day before you explore the northern most part of the country, the sign didn’t say to the top or the tip it said Pajinka 33ks another dirt road winds its way to the top. We figured Pajinka was a local name for the tip but it turns out someone built a luxury resort only a few hundred meters from the tip before walking away and leaving everything in tact from the business, its just a run down overgrown resort now standing in front of us.
Rob wanted to check out the ruins of a town known as Somerset we didn’t find much at Somerset, a few grave sites a few old rusty cannons and a plaque for Herbert Somerset Vigden, turns out this guy is the grandson of Frank Jardine and lived in Somerset representing the government.
With only a kilometre separating us from he beach we drove down the sandy track to check it out, the Prado didn’t handle a two hundred meter section of soft sand very well at all, we forced our way through and walked the littered but otherwise perfect beach before heading back to the road to the tip. I gave the Prado plenty of fuel to help force our way through the soft sand but as it turned out not enough, we could force no longer as we came to a stop before seemingly sinking. We tried a few things before realising we needed help if we were getting out of this remote part of Australia. Shelly and Rob set up the chairs under a tree offering shade from the midday heat and the burning sand under foot. I grabbed a bottle of water a hat and started the long walk back the turn off where we would have a better chance of finding help.
A few ks back along the road a car pulled over wondering why is was out walking in the heat, once I explained Tony and Jill had no problem dragging us out. It took a few attempts but we got out then sharing a few beers and stories before we headed to our main destination of the trip.
We passed the empty buildings of Pajinka and rolled into a carpark on possibly the best beach in Australia where Shell again made the lunches, we spent a bit of time enjoying the peaceful beach before taking off in search of the way to the tip, a couple of ks back down the road and we decided the carpark we had made lunch at must have been it? Back to the car park and great beach where we noticed a worn path over the rocks, no sign nothing!
The worn path was the track to the tip, a short walk over the rock past many rock piles, Rob stopping at each one to place a rock for reasons known to him like many others who had placed a rock. Half way on the journey we came across a large metal disk a bit like a sun dial bolted to the large rock it pointed off in all directions tell us the distance to each destination listed, Somerset 9 KM, Wellington 4630 KM, Melbourne 3020 KM, Honolulu 7410 KM. The track was all down from here, the end of the Great Dividing Range that stretches from Victoria to the Thursday Islands.
The final few meters revealed the sign that marks the tip of Australia, we did as all do and took a few snaps and I know we all felt pretty good with our selves standing out on the point that afternoon. We stopped in at the Bamaga Tavern for a beer to discus our eventful day, the Bamaga Tavern wasn’t Australia best in looks or smell.
Whilst enjoying a beer back at our camp ground we tried to book a boat to Thursday Island, the main ferry had cut down on days traveled now that main tourist season was behind them, the sad part of that for us was no ferry to TI on a Thursday. The private tour didn’t have enough going so they called it off unless we wanted to pay $1200 for the day trip.
We decided a rest day was in order so we headed to the Seisia Jetty said to be in the top two fishing jetty in Australia, we parked next a couple of locals, one carrying a spear the other a fishing rod and as well walked on the jetty together the girl dropped her line over and pulled up a bait fish, she turned and walked to deep side of the jetty and as the bait hit the deep blue water the tip of the rod near touched the ground as a Mackerel began its fight with the local, a shark joined the fight not long after as the excitement built on the jetty. The Mackerel did its best to avoid the shark hunting it, the local did her best to fight the fish. The Mackerel jumped high out of the water to avoid the shark and reveal its powerful shape to the few of us overseeing the fight.
The local with the spear helped as it neared the jetty but the fish was to large to just pull up, he held it close the large pole holding us up as the shark cruised by like a security guard on watch, we flagged down a boat and the boys pulled out a large gaff to help the local bring in the family feed.
Later in the day we enjoyed another fine lunch from Shell on a beach in a neighbouring town before checking out the plane wrecks in the area and the Jacky Jacky Airport. Jacky Jacky an explorer with Kennedy that we couldn’t find back down the track.
We sat in the dark that night only broken by the dim light of our camp fire, a large ship cruised in and tied up just off from us, by the time we woke it was tied to the Seisia Jetty and unloading supplies for the locals. MV Trinity Bay is an 80 meter cargo ship running weekly up the barrier reef from Cairns. We decided to check it out before we started our 1000 trip south, a local on the jetty explained the ship to us and that it was the only cargo ship in Australia that carried passengers 40 in all. The couple who had camped near us for a couple of night were boarding the ship as we talked and their broken down vehicle would be loaded on later.
A boat trip sounded great but we had good car and plenty of time to make it home in time so we headed out of Seisia towards Bamaga before I turned to Shell and said (as i have in the past) “lets turn around and catch the ship back” we discussed it for a bit before making the uturn to get us back to the Seisia Jetty. I pulled the car in at the Sea Swift office and we again discussed the options before we decided I would at least ask the question… “can we come and what would it cost” I held little hope when I noticed the sign behind the lady that read “No vehicle bookings after Thursdays No Exceptions”
She looked me up and down and left plenty of silence in the dusty room before answering “maybe, how many people and what type of car” putting hope back into my mind. She made a couple of calls and said your in luck today they have room for you and the car. I ran the price by the passengers waiting in the car and we decided we were cruising back to Cairns.
We quickly packed a bag, handed over all our food the lady in the office and found ourselves boarding the ship just in time for lunch and a beer. They feed us well and had the bar well stocked so we could sit up on the back deck enjoying the view as the ships crew loaded the ship with nine million dollars worth of prawns from the Gulf prawn boats. Sleeping wasn’t easy due to the loud roar of the ships engines for the 40 passengers most of whom had taken the week long round trip, but we did get our own room as did Rob.
The ship sailed down the east coast inside the reef so we got to see land most of the way we also got to spend time on the bridge with the captain and his first mate (a fellow Bomber) the wind blew 25 knots but the old former Korean ship handled it well. The Captain of the ship approached me after lunch and said we have met before, last time you told me you were going to manage the Lions Den. Neither of us could work it out both knew he was correct. I joined Captain Will on the bridge the next morning to let him know we had met when doing a government liquor managers course just prior to TC Ita.
We made a quick stop just off Lockhart River to tie up with a small barge that had come out to collect supplies for the locals before heading south through the reef past Cooktown and on to Cairns on Sunday afternoon.
The trip now completes the line we have draw on our map around Australia the only main area to draw on our map is Tennent Creek to Alice Springs so we can look forward to another adventure in the new year.
TC ITA & The Lions Den
Tasmania
We decided it was time to move on from Gladstone after stopping for a few months to make some money. Our choices came down to two, head North to Cairns or South to Tasmania, we decided North would still be far to wet so it was south to Tassie for us also the timing was perfect for us to attend our friends wedding before we loaded the Prado on the boat and steamed south to the apple isle.
We checked out of the Reef Hotel and headed for Melbourne before making another late call to change direction, this time in the middle of the night we decided we would head for the coast and our old hometown of Tathra to catch up with Shells sister and Dad who was in town, this meant driving through the capital in the middle of the night before pulling over and setting up the penthouse just out of Cooma in the dark and a crisp temperature of 4c.
We spent a great few days in Tathra, even the weather turned it on enough for me to have a swim in the clear southern NSW waters in the shadow of the best looking old wharf in Australia. Sadly a few weeks later a local lady was taken by a shark swimming from the wharf to the surf club.
Cloe & Howies wedding was a great night at a great venue in Sorento and it was great to catch up with some friends we hadn’t seen in some time.
Ash’s 25th Birthday passed by as quick as all the years we have been fortunate enough to have her with us and before we knew it we were on the floating sickness machine and heading south for our first look at the island that doesn’t make every map when it comes to Australia. The trip over wasn’t so bad with not many times where I looked to make sure the vomit bag was close by, we arrived at Devonport booked into a really crap caravan park for a cold nights sleep in the penthouse before setting off on our Tassie adventure.
The drive south to Hobart was surprisingly short but what stood out was the landscape, we both pictured Tasmania with green rolling hills but all we could see out our window was a dry almost baron landscape. Our first impression of Hobarts outer suburbs wasn’t great but things improved as we got closer to the city centre. Hobart reminded me of Christchurch in some ways but old school Australia in others, a cross between Melbourne and the Rocks in Sydney.
We had come to Tasmania to complete our round Australia trip and to catch up with Jim & Maxine our friends we had met in Kunanara and traveled the Gibb River Road with last year who lived in Bellerive just near the cricket ground with a great view of the city of Hobart.
After a couple of days of sightseeing around the city we headed south to the Huon Valley looking for the some locally grown food, Cygnet didn’t disappoint where we purchased some local potatoes, bacon and veggies that we cooked up by the water at the Port of Cygnet under a shining southern sun. It was a great feed grown, cooked and eaten where it was grown.
Jim & Maxine have what it seems many people have in Tassie have “A Shack” it’s a term that is used a lot down there. This Shack was 40 minutes south of Hobart at Connellys Marsh. I guess they were lucky (or not) to still have a shack after a huge fire stormed through the area 14 months ago that claimed many other shacks, their caravan and this a kids play car that Jim is holding. If you look close enough you can see part of sailing jacket, some electrical wire and some other all melted together. The fire made it to the house, claimed the water tanks and the house only meters away before going out and sparing the shack from devastation.
We spent the afternoon on the water in a tinny enjoying a few beers and good company as we hauled in enough flathead for keep us in food for a few days. With the girls in the kitchen preparing the salad I kept an eye on Jim to make sure he put enough beer in his famous beer batter. The outdoor cook up of flathead tail was enjoyable but eating the fresh fish was a real highlight of our trip.
After a few days of relaxing by the beach down at the shack we headed back into the city to check it out and the famous Salamanca markets, they are huge each Saturday morning and attract far to many people compared to the narrow gaps between stall holders. The market was good but we had hoped for more local food being cooked in front of us, we purchased a small piece of Bruny Island cheese from one of the guys on the Gourmet Farmer show @ $100 per kg and some Fat Pig Farm bacon by The Gourmet Farmer Matthew Evans @ $45 per kg.
A Taste of the Huon is a food fair in the Huon Valley showcasing the fine local food with loads of people flooding through the gates to eat and drink from the hundred or so food stalls. I had the finest pork ribs I have ever tasted at this event, perfectly cooked so the meat fell from the bone with a great rocket and wallnut salad on the side that I washed down with “a little cascade”.
After a few mores days down at the shack we decided to head south to Port Arthur for the day, its an historical site but it didn’t do much to keep me interested long. I found the monument to the people who were shot at Port Arthur and looked for a few names in particular, I had read the book by Walter Mikac a long time ago about when he lost his wife and two young daughters, I looked for these names also because Ashleigh is now employed by the Alana & Madaline Foundation in Melbourne.
A boat trip, a boring walking tour of the site and a bad lunch had me ready to leave but not before Shelly made me film a couple of videos to send up to Queensland for Brodens birthday.
Next we headed up the East Coast to a place called Coles Bay in the Frycenet NP, the weather was great and the locals tell anyone who will listen that its the best climate in Tassie. A walk of two ks up a rock lands you at the lookout to Wineglass Bay we hadn’t done much exercise of late so the walk wasn’t as easy as it should have been but it was worth it with a great view out to crystal clear bay of water in the shape of a wineglass.
We explored the area before heading further north to find a camping spot at Friendly Beaches a great spot on the beach that offered free camping with a great view of the calm water, we spent the night in the Penthouse after sharing burgers and few beers with the local kangaroos.
A few more days in Hobart and we headed to the north west coast and the towns of Burnie and Stanley, Burnie is a large town for tasmania on the water looking directly North to Melbourne, we spent the night in the only caravan park in town with a view to taking the managers job of the park but it wasn’t right for us so we moved the next day to check out Stanley.
We went through a town called Irish and figured we must have a beer at the local pub being St Patricks Day but he town of Irish didn’t have a pub, no St Patricks Day celebrations for us.
Stanley isn’t a huge place but it lays under a huge rock know as The Nut and under the nut is a very old cemetery where we found the graves of Rockets father and grand father and no doubt many other family members. Stanley is a very old place and they have done a great job keeping it that way with most of the building in the area looking more like they belong in a small english village. We checked out the local pub that opened in 1847 (featured in MasterChef last year) and sampled a beer or two with locals.
After a cold and wet night in the North West corner we headed down the West coast through Smithtown and Strahan to Queenstown. It was cold and very wet in Queenstown that is surrounded by mountains that drifted in and out of our view as the dark storm clouds rolled through the area know for its mining and its footy ground. We went for a walk up the main street in the rain and it had a feeling that we were on a movie set, it had an eery feeling looking up the main street with many old buildings lining it towards the storm clouds rolling east towards Hobart.
At the bottom of the main street is the old Empire Hotel, we had a chat to a local guy at the pub who told us about a couple of guys who had died in a mining accident late last year then another more recently “the towns doing it a bit tough right now” he told us.
The local guy told us his son worked in the mine and was the ruckman for the local footy club The Queenstown Crows. This was no ordinary footy club, these guys played footy on a gravel forty ground, the annual rainfall in Queenstown is so high that when they built the ground in 1880 it had to be gravel in place of the soft grass we are used to. The Gravel as the ground is known was home to nine football teams at its peak was replaced in 1969 by a softer silica sand surface.
We tried to book our car and selves on the boat to head back to Queensland when we got a shock response “you can’t get on for two and a half weeks” this wasn’t what we wanted to hear but we did have a chance of getting out in a week when they offered us the only waiting list position.
Back in Hobart gave us a chance to explore the places we hadn’t seen, one was the Cascade Brewery built in 1824 directly under Mount Wellington to haves the pure water runoff for the famous beer. The brewery tour was good especially the samples that came with the tour ticket, it didn’t take Shelly long to jump behind the bar, pour a beer and have yet another photo taken for her growing collection.
One great story from the brewery tour told of how the workers up until the mid 1990s were allowed to sample the product to ensure its quality two times a day the whistle would blow and employees would gather around a single beer tap with 7oz glass in hand and down as many as 20 glasses in ten minutes before commencing work this took place twice a day. due to work health and safety employees are now given a carton of beer each fortnight to take home for the purpose of quality control.
Jim was asked to sail the maxi yacht Wild Thing back to Sydney that had been docked in Hobart since the Sydney to Hobart race, we got to have a good look at the large boat on the morning they left Hobart, they covered the journey in around four days before Jim flew home to skipper his own boat.
Shelly joined Jim, Maxine and the crew for the final wednesday night sail out of the Bellerive Yacht Club where they finished second and secured the 2014 Bellerive pennant and second in the Hobart pennant.
In anticipation on getting a call for an early release from Tasmania we headed North to Launceston only 100ks from Devonport the home of the Spirit of Tasmania. After some very cold days in the south of the state we enjoyed the heat of the north the locals told us “its always cold down there and always hot up here in the best part of the state” Launceston was a nice city so we decided to wander the streets on a balmy sunday afternoon and do some much needed research into the local hotel scene.
We stopped in at about five or six establishments before making our final stop at the Royal Oak close to our accommodation. This old pub had a couple of guys in the corner playing a guitar and singing some irish song before the barman grabbed his guitar and joined in, the sound was great for two drunk guys a barman and another local drinking tea playing his harmonica.
We got the early morning call to tell us our papers had been stamped for release from the convict island, we had around seven hours of our sentence to serve. This gave us time head north and check out Beaconsfield the home of the now closed mine that became famous when it collapsed killing one guy and trapped two others for two long weeks a couple of ks underground.
The ride back to the mainland went quick this trip done overnight, we had a morning breakfast with Ashleigh in South Melbourne before heading north and arriving back in Queensland 20 odd hours later.
Thanks to Jim & Max for being such great friends and hosts, we are looking forward to returning the hospitality in Cooktown.
Champion
Ross Bridge
Coles Bay
Sailing
Devonport
Blondes
Ross Bridge
Melbourne
What The!
Oatlands Mill
Stanley Hotel
Bellerive
Fraycinet NP
Fat Pig Farm
Queenstown
Not a real banner…
Dinner @ the Shack
Port Arthur
Great Effort Camo
Devonport Local
Connellys Marsh
Oatlands Mill
Hoabrt
Salamanca Market
The Shack
Stanley
Bellerive
Mnt Wellington
Beaconsfield
Boat
FIRE!!!
Local Produce
Salamanca
Beaconsfield
Bogan
Burnie
What The
Fountain Shell
Local Catch for Dinner
Queenstown
Cascade Brewery
A Taste of the Huon
Rockets Grandfather
mmm…
Queenstown
Hobart
Sandy Bay
Cygnet
Bellerive
Strahan
Hawks other Home
Connellys Marsh
Queenstown
Connellys Marsh
Fraycinet NP
Cygnet
Queenstown
New Break Pads
The Shack
Hobart
Port Arthur
Wineglass Bay
Gourmet Farmers Shop
Oatlands Mill
Ribs & “A little Cascade”
The Shack
Local Produce
Oatlands Mill
Cascade Brewery
Cascade Brewery
Sailing
Scollop Pie
Queenstown Oval
Sailing
Wineglass Bay
Mnt Wellinton
Hawks other Home
Queenstown Oval
Pops Eggs
Boags
Bellerive
The Nut
Drunken Shell Stew
Beaconsfield
Queenstown
Tathra
Tathra by Bike
Gladstone
Pictures – Gladstone (Traralgon on the water) to Victoria return trip.
Mount Isa
Our trip south started at around midday once we were all packed up and ready to leave Darwin, south back through Katherine where we noticed the sign announcing that Cadel Evans was born here. Of all the northern towns Katherine had the most number of Aboriginal people just sitting around the city centre under trees. Only another 300ks to our destination of The Daley Waters Pub.
The Daley Water Pubs is in the middle of nowhere or close to it and only 4ks off the Stuart Highway you can find the tiny town that is only a pub and a campground that belongs to the pub. Its an iconic pub and not to many who pass this way who don’t drop on to check it out, like most outback business its employees are mostly backpackers.
This was no ordinary pub its full of crap, crap ranging from bras to shirts, stubby holder and plenty of licences and cash from all over the world is hanging from every inch of this place. We sampled a couple of beers before setting up our penthouse and heading back into the pub for a couple of games of pool and a feed, the camp ground only had around 8 vans and tents but had plenty of room for more, the picture inside the pub showed times of hundreds of vans in the camp grounds.
The feed was ok and I won the pool easy but I didn’t have much competition, only had to beat Shelly and some old grey nomad who was keen to see Shell clean me up. A Greyhound bus pulled into town at around 9:00pm and the locals came from everywhere, this was no small occasion the arrival of the greyhound, it was the biggest thing to happen around here since the last bus came through town. The air breaks of the greyhound made a loud noise at the front door of the pub as it came to a stop just as the barmaid wondered past us with a mail slung over her shoulder like Newman on his mail route around New York.
The driver jumped down three steps from the bus before his work boots hit the warm dirt next to the backpacker mail girl, he opened up the cargo door under the bus and started tossing out all kinds of packages and supplies for the pub and the few locals who had come out to greet him. After they handed out a few parcels to the locals like Santa they swapped mail bags and the greyhound was on its way leaving the locals to open the mail and parcels like 5 year olds on Christmas morning, we had a feed and a few more beers before heading home to the penthouse and a very warm night ahead.
Up early and on our way south we were into our 1000k day to Mount Isa, we made great time with the 130k NT speed limits before we came to the Queensland border marked by a sign full of graffiti and a 1000 head of cattle on the road, with only a couple hundred kilometres to go we were back in our home state for the first time in over 12 months.
As we passed the 60ks to Mount Isa sign the Prado failed for the first time since we purchased it new 6 years ago, we had ran out of fuel, all power had gone from the vehicle, then it came back before leaving us again, we can’t be out of fuel the gauge shows 40 litres remaining plenty to make it to Isa. Then the power drained out of my foot on the accelerator, out of the motor and out of the wheels…
Not knowing much about cars we checked out the basics and tried to start it again but this Toyota that had been so good for so long gave us nothing as did our phones, stranded with no phone service in 42c heat of the outback isn’t great. Shelly jumped on top of car to find phone service and rang the RAC who organised a tow truck to come and collect us. The wait was hot but not so uncomfortable and as we finished the last of out very cold beers in the fridge the tow truck appeared in front of us. It was near dark by the time we checked into the Bourke & Wills Motel in Mount Isa.
The next morning we rode the scooter out to the mechanics to grab some gear out of the car and see if they had done anything yet, the guy who towed us was working on a truck and said he could have a look until he finished with the truck, we grabbed our gear to headed for the Mount Isa Bowl to do something we hadn’t done in many years. We are possible the worst ten pin bowlers of a generation even the guys in wheelchairs using a ramp to roll the balls topped our pathetic scores, after leading for the entire game Shelly lost after the only 3 bowls I got near the pins for the entire game.
Bad news from the mechanic, he found the cause of our sudden power loss but he had no clue how to fix it, come and get your car we can’t help you and we can’t find an Auto Electrician for a week! “You have no power at the relay to the fuel pump” they told me.
I arranged to have it transported whilst Shell hit the phone to find someone who could have a look at the car inside a week, she found someone who could look at it that afternoon if we could get it there now. The tow truck driver had only had his truck a couple of weeks and we were his first tow so it took forever to get it loaded, we made it on time and a young guy was waiting for us but we couldn’t get it under cover until a truck moved out, the same truck as this morning was now stopping us again.
I had a chat to the trucks owner he was from Toowoomba on his way to Kakadu with 6 other trucks to collect a temporary camp and deliver it back to Brisbane, his A/C had packed it in so he spent the day in Mount Isa the same as us, Kakadu is no place to be without an air conditioner I told him. He had never been to the NT so he was keen to hit the road, he told me most of work was for Santos out at Moombah on the SA/Qld border that place get hot but also very cold in the evenings. The trucker made room for our Toyota as he pulled out and headed north after giving me a big smile and a wave.
Peter the young South African guy assigned to check out our car had it running within 10 minutes but my excitement from this was short lived when he tried to drive it where the truck had been in the shade of his shed, whilst it idled well the fuel dried up once he hit the accelerate, we had to push it into the shed not an easy task considering the huge load its carrying.
I left him with it and we agreed to talk in the morning, he would keep working on friday night then come in again on Saturday morning to continue. We hit the Buffs Club across the road for dinner and its 1980s drinks prices. I arrived back at the car around 10am the next day to find Peter and the car in 1000 pieces, he said he had found the fault but couldn’t fix it, “I rang Toyota and they can look at it on Monday for you” he said. He traced the fault down to the fuel tanks and the fuel pump that transfers fuel between the two tanks. I didn’t even know I had two tanks I was told it had one tank of 165 litres when we purchased it.
Being Caulfield Cup day and nothing else to do in the 40c heat we headed to the Mount Isa Races, a race meeting on a sand track with 5 races and fewer horses in each. We got dressed up Mount Isa style and rode the scooter to the track to join the 80 other people silly enough to be out in the heat. With the horses for race 2 parading in the mounting yard we used Shells method for picking winner “that one looks good” so we backed one each and settled in with a cold beer to cheer home our winner.
Race 2 was a 1200 meter race and the horses ran out of sight not long after the start, we had forgot the direction they run and a large shed blocked our view until the first 3 horses appeared again 60 meters for the line, we found a problem with this thou none of the horses were ours! some time later Shells appeared then some later again mine wandered past the shed and into sight, its 42c we can’t punt so we checked out of the Mount Isa races and headed for the comfort and 1980s prices of the Buffs Club.
Monday morning and I helped the truck driver load our Toyota for the third time since Thursday for the short trip to the local Toyota dealer, The guys at CAVA were great and only charged me for the tow and not for the time spent looking at it, I was shocked and grateful for this, if anyone ever needs an auto elec in Mount Isa try these guys first, great service and friendly people who sent me to Toyota knowing it would be my cheapest and quickest option to get back on the road. Maybe we should have just gone to Toyota from the beginning but the original tow truck driver never gave us this option last Thursday night.
We spent the rest of the day doing a Mount Isa pub crawl, Google told us we had eight establishments to drink in so we started with the Barkly on the outskirts of town, the Barkly was a large pub that needed a couple of million in repairs done to it and the bar only had a few locals staring into the bottom of there pots at the bar. By the time we went to the Overlander, the Club, the Isa and the Red Earth we had drank the town dry of its six drinking holes, we searched for the other two but they are long gone and only vacant land exists on the sites.
My phone rang at 5:00pm on Tuesday afternoon with news the car was fixed and ready to go we collected it first thing next morning and packed up to depart Mount Isa, it was a costly stay dropping near $3000 into the local economy and we were very happy to leaving town. Within two days we will be in Tannum Sands with the 3000ks from Darwin complete.
Darwin
By the time we arrived at Fitzroy Crossing for the second time in a few weeks we were stuffed and ready for bed it had been a great time touring the Kimberley for a couple of weeks but very tiring and once we had the tent setup and had the last of our beers our day was over. The next day we collected our gear that we’d left in storage at Kununara gave the car a wash to get the Kimberley dust out before departing for Darwin.
We spent a night camped at Katharine Gorge, it was ok but we are all gorged out, the drive into Darwin was good with plenty of WWII air strips lining the highway. Darwin has plenty of building going on in the city mostly apartments like all other Australian cities. We booked into the Shady Glenn caravan park 10ks out of town and headed for town on the scooter. We ended up in the Darwin Hotel on Mitchel St talking to guy who runs Flemington Race Course in Melbounre, funny considering we had planed on being here for the Darwin like him but missed it for the Kimberley trip, turns out the Darwin cup was a pretty sad day with a female jockey having a fall and dying before the races were called off.
A couple of days after we arrived Chris played footy in the local masters comp and copped an elbow to the head so we spent 5 hours in Royal Darwin getting 9 stitches above his eye. The next day we ran into Bob and his Winebago in our park, we had last seen him back in Kununara. We then went camping out at Litchfield National Park and the camp ground guy sets up a projector and plays a movie a couple of times a week, tonights film was Death at a Funeral, that was pretty funny and enjoyable sitting out under the stars with a few cold beers among the old grey nomads.
After Litchfield we went to Humpty Doo and had a few beers in the well known Humpty Doo Hotel who had plenty of people getting in the Friday afternoon with a band playing some pretty good music out in the beer garden, we enjoyed it so much that we could drive back to Darwin so we drove a few ks out of Humpty Do and camped out in the wild for the night where we light a big fire and listened to the footy before playing some loud music to keep us entertained.
The Darwin Museum has a display on Cyclone Tracey that is worth checking out, plenty of pictures and a tv report that runs on a loop from the original ABC news reports, they even have a room where you can be in total darkness and hear the sound of Tracey as they were on the night.
We spent plenty of time sitting around the pool at the Darwin Waterfront and for our 25th wedding anniversary we caught the ferry over to the Cox Peninsula here we had lunch looking back at the city from the old Mandorha Pub that closed it doors at the end of September. Cyclone Tracey departed Darwin a long time ago but you can still see the effect in many ways, the buildings in the city are new nothing of any great age to speak of as they were mostly blown away by bombs from the Japanese and Tracey, the twisted power pole at the foreground of our view from the pub, the force to twist metal must have great.
We went on one of many pub crawls that afternoon and ran into some good people, a couple of older guys were on the ferry to the pub and we ran into them again later on Mitchel Street (the pub street) they were brothers from South Australia both farmers ridding their motor bikes around Australia. Walking back to our room at the Hilton we ran into a guy Chris had played footy with 20 years ago in Caloundra, Rohan Gazzard was in town doing a show he is now a hypnotist “The Amazing Gazzard” we went to his show later in the week and had a great time neither of us got up to be hypnotised but enjoyed the show anyway, he puts on a funny show.
Sam and a couple of her friends stopped in for a few hours on their way to Bali so I got to spend a few hours with them on the sunday and again a week later when they had to spend the night in Darwin on the way home.
Chris started his week long footy carnival on a very hot Sunday a day after drinking all day with Ronny Jones and Kevin Rutter from Traralgon watching the Grand Final, not a great preparation for sport in the heat, after getting beaten by Tasmania in the over 45s he kicked a few goals in the 40s who easily beat Vic Metro where he ran into Darryl Mayman on the ground another guy he played footy with years ago. We also caught up with a few guys from the Broome Pearlers and another guy Chris played with in Perth. By the time of his 5th game in 6 days way played he was over footy for a long time. The Northern Territory over 40s won the final against WA so the pain was all worth it, to finish the carnival off we had a great night at the Darwin Convention Centre with over 600 others in attendance.
Over the last couple of weeks the weather had changed dramatically, they call it The Build Up and its easy to see why, you can feel the wet season building up along with the temperature, the humidity and storm clouds build up each day and its tough to get motivated to anything other than hide from it. We got a few good storms that put on a great show and made plenty of noise these storms clear the air and reduce the temperature but this only results in a hotter more humid day the next day. As the build up continues we know its almost time to leave we don’t want to get stuck in the wet season and not be able to cross back over to the east coast and we don’t want to be caught in this extreme weather for the next few months.
We spent a couple of days out at Kakadu National Park thats around 200 ks south east of Darwin, we had lunch at Jabaru before going out to Cahills Crossing thats a road that runs through the East Alligator River and is the border between Kakadu and Anham Land. Its an odd name the East Alligator River when they have a public viewing deck over the crossing where you can see many crocodiles chasing the birds and fish and some times cars as they cross. We went a further 5 ks up the road to the lookout and aboriginal art site, the lookout was packed for sunset and is a bit of an iconic place, its where Mick Dundee pointed out across the vast land and said thats my back yard in the film Crocodile Dundee.
The rock art was good mostly the food they ate turtle, roos and other animals very different to the art we had seen in the Kimberly. We camped close by but it wasn’t the most enjoyable evening, the temp didn’t drop at all from the 40c it had been during the day and with no wind at all it was the most uncomfortable night we had spent in a long time. We went fishing in a couple of spot on the river and had to compete with many crocs but we didn’t land any Barra.
We enjoyed our time in Darwin, I even got to catch up with my Aunty Marianne for a few hours in Darwin before she left for Cairns where she was meeting my dad. Thanks to Kristy and Rene for getting us somewhere to live for the duration of our stay. We are heading east and will be back in Queensland within a couple of days.
Gibb River Road
We spent a couple of nights at Mitchel Falls that included our first helicopter flight but only after a long 70k bumpy ride from the camp ground to the falls, the helicopter ride was short but worth the $115 to see the falls from the air before being dropped off to explore and walk back. From Mitchel Falls it was a night at Mount Elizabeth Station on the Gibb River Road before the Tassie Toyota of Jim and Maxine failed and Jim decided they needed to dash to Derby for some new front shockers.
It was decided that Windjana Gorge would be our last night together before we headed in different directions, we had to travel 200ks south along the Gibb to cross Napier Range an old reef that was under water 350 million years ago but now looked like a man made wall near Windjana Gorge, we got our first flat on the Gibb here we had done well to only get one as most get many. The Napier Range is around 40 – 50 meters high and similar in appearance to the great china wall in parts, much higher but similar in shape.
Our final night camped under the Napier at Windjana Gorge was shared around a camp fire and another great meal cooked by the chef as the rest of us watched Shell do her stuff. In the morning it was Shelly doing the job and serving up some pretty good pancakes whilst Maxine served up the champagne. A champagne and beer breakfast was a brat way to finish our trip together. Windjana Gorge was ok and the Lennard River was home to many fresh water crocs but it wasTunnel Creek that had us impressed with this part of the Kimberley.
Tunnel Creek is east from Windjana, still part of the Napier Range but not the type of creek we were expecting, Tunnel Creek runs under or through the Napier Range for about 750 meters, its 12 meters high and 15 meters wide, we walk through the tunnel in water and by torch light most of the way. This cave had some smaller caves along the way that we explored that go a long way into the mountain we couldn’t access it all the way as it gets very small or maybe we are just to large right now with our larger holiday bodies.
We walked out of the mild conditions and bats of a 350 millions year old cave to the harsh 40c heat of the Kimberley and said our good byes to the Tasmanians we had spent 2 great weeks together with but it was time for us to head north again, in a few days we will be in Darwin.
The Kimberley – Video
Video may not work on smart phone
CameronCorner 