17 - Tjuwallyn (Douglas) Hot Springs

17 – June 2016 - 27/6/16

Over the last week there seemed to have been an increase in the volume of school aged children around us. Northern Territory school holidays were due to commence in around a week for a duration of a month and it seemed quite a number had started holidays early. 

This was adding to the congestion at our current location and would create additional impact at the various locations we had been planning to spend time at during the next month. Our topic of conversation regularly included ideas and strategies we could utilize with our travels around the top end of Northern Territory during these busy periods. Other than evacuate and return once the peak period had diminished. 

One of our ideas was to bypass some of the less patronised areas we would normally avail time for exploration and we relocated to one of the publicized locations that appealed to us at the Tjuwallyn (Douglas) Hot Springs about a 160 kilometre drive hoping to experience this location before the additional increase of people with the onslaught of the forthcoming school holidays. 

There were a few areas in close proximity where very hot water bubbled out of the ground forming pools that overflowed into other shallow pools and also mixed with some cooler water flowing from the Douglas River in other pool areas.

Hot bubbling waters

We found the pools close to the hot springs far too hot for us and we settled for soaking our bodies in the cooler waters further down the stream. The base of the pools consisted of coarse river sand which was ok to walk, lay or sit on. It was lovely to immerse our bodies in a few different temperature pools. We would start warm and when our external body colour turned to a pretty red, we would then move to another cooler pond to cool down.

This water hole felt a bit on the hot side

Early morning pools

This one felt just right

Once again we were reassessing the publicity literature we had been able to obtain describing the highlights of this area and areas in close proximity. A drive to a publicised swimming area “To Be Experienced” at The Arches and The Waterhole was a fizzer due to the presence of crocodile signage and verbal recommendation by the caravan park owners not to enter the water that as it turned out controlled this location.

Another drive to Butterfly Gorge with allegedly thousands of butterflies ended up after a couple of hours with sighting of 3 butterflies. It was a beautiful gorge with a rather difficult not well presented trail to gain access. We did get to catch up on some exercise which had been absent over the last few days.

Walking trail to Butterfly Gorge

Butterfly Gorge

Butterfly Gorge road Termite Mound

Unfortunately once again we were questioning the literature provided by “Tourism Top End” promoting our present area and areas in close proximity (Daly River area). This is where the friendly travel community do help by providing descriptions of their experiences and views for areas they have travelled. After chatting with people, some around the campground and many scantily clad people relaxing in the hot spring waters amongst us, we came to the conclusion that the Daly River region catered for people with boats, focused on fishing and there weren’t any references to any other activities or highlights.

We did enjoy the experience of soaking our bodies in the hot flowing waters produced by the Tjuwallyn (Douglas) Hot Springs creating a happy environment amongst its visitors.

Six days at this location could have easily increased to more but we had a minor hiccup where we needed the services of a dentist. So we made our way to Darwin instead of in a month’s time.

16 - Spiritual waters of Edith Falls

16– June 2016 - 17/6/16 

We spent one night at Katherine in the caravan park which was virtually at capacity, full of travellers. With our washing, shopping and a clean tow tug / caravan chores completed we joined the hordes travelling north. 

About 40 kilometres up the road we propped at Edith Falls in Nitmiluk National Park, (Katherine Gorge). We now had to gamble with availability at the different locations for camping vacancies. Like Edith Falls where there are no booking options, rather first come, first in with a maximum permissible stay of 14 days in a 28 day period at National Parks. On this occasion we were lucky to have a camp site allocated to us by staff and we hoped the luck continued with our travels. 

We had spent a couple of days at Edith Falls 5 weeks previously (entry 7) while exploring areas near Katherine and yes it was now very crowded compared to our previous visit. The temperature had dropped about 4 – 5 degrees over the last few days providing a far more pleasurable ambient day time temperature from the energy sapping hotness combined with the humidity of the last several weeks. The maximum daytime temperatures were now 32 – 34 degrees with night temperatures staying just above 20 degrees C and the humidity had thankfully gone. 

Edith Falls camp ground is typical of those locations we immensely enjoy located in a bush setting with walking tracks and several water fall pools to dip ones hot body into its cooling fresh running water. At times fish would take a fancy to you providing a different sensation pecking away at your body.  

We immersed our bodies in the fresh waters of Edith Falls (about 200 metre walk from our caravan) from ½ to 2 hour periods every day with the aid of swimming noodles for floatation. It was a great past time watching new arrivals cautiously enter the water (beware of crocodile signage everywhere) not knowing that the water hole had been checked of crocodile presence prior to permitting people to enter the water. Every now and then someone would scream out and scamper out of the water when a fish would latch onto them panicking them into thinking it might have been a crocodile.

Walking tracks

Edith Falls & swimming area

We walked along the available walking trails, regularly cooling off in the various water holes located along these trails, chatted with other travellers and soaked in the bush setting. In the evenings when the human noise and breeze rustling the tree leaves dropped off you could hear the roar of the water fall creating an illusion you were camped close to an ocean with the sound of pounding surf in the background. 

The majority of people walked the shorter Leliyn Trail with a swim in the upper falls pool which we also partook. One day we walked the less patronised track, Sweetwater-Falls hike which was about a 9 kilometre return walk, a 5 hour hike for us. There was a lot of rock scampering combined with plenty of propping, looking around for signage arrows verifying the direction or whereabouts of the track. The constant background noise along this track was very pleasurable and noisy at times provided by chattering birds in the bushes and trees around us. 

It was worth the effort once we laid eyes on Sweetwater-Falls and the large area of water near its base. We slid our bodies into the cooling waters swimming about slowly cooling off. When we swam up to the base of the water falls our bodies were provided with a gentle massage from the bubbling waters at the base of the falls which we most thoroughly enjoyed.

Long Water Hole

Long Water Hole falls

Sweetwater Falls

Sweetwater Falls

Sweetwater Falls

Sweetwater Falls

Sweetwater Falls

Most mornings by around 11.00 am the entry gate to the campground was placed in the closed position showing campground “FULL”. At least people arriving after that time had access to a large vehicle parking area and still had the option of walking the trails along with a plunge in the water pools.

Our initial thought of a two day stay progressed out to a 7 day stay at this awesome location and even then we procrastinated over the logic of leaving. The campground was beautifully laid out with most sites facing onto a lovely grassed area which was utilized for communal gathering / chatting areas or families with kids for a great play area while mum slaved in the caravan kitchen providing the energy (tucker) for the family to operate on and still monitor the kids from the caravan window whilst dad supervised the drinks fridge positioned in the tow vehicle.

Bush setting campground

Admittedly most of our current presentation of photographs shows us swimming in various inland waterways which are quite a unique and a rare experience for the majority of Australians. Our water encounters over the last month or so would be our first, lifetime encounter of spending so much time immersing our bodies into inland waterways in comparison to the ocean waters where the majority of the population are located around the coastal regions which includes us.

We left Edith Falls feeling like we had experienced a week of spiritual blessings, cleansing our souls in its holy waters.

15 - Kununurra W.A. to Katherine N.T.

June 2016 - 12/6/16 

After a couple of days at Keep River National Park we decided to continue east towards Katherine, primarily as we had already consumed a fair bit of our ice-cream and we needed to pace our consumption till the next shop location about 500 kilometres drive down the road. 

Travelling through Keep River NP

We managed nearly 10 kilometres along the main road from the National Park when we saw a sign for Zebra Rock Mine and campground. A quick discussion between us, yes let’s have a look and we did stay the night.

 It was a very commercial small time operation where your movements were limited to the fenced in smallish bush campground. The operators were a bit over the top promoting and pushing their wares and tours. 

They did provide a nice café type area offering free self-serve coffee or tea and naturally they would deliver the best scones ever with jam & cream for $3 each. We did participate in the scones and free tea enjoying chatting with other campers. While in the café area you could openly hear staff talking with other arrivals and it was blatantly clear to us they had no scruples when it came to speaking the truth. In a sense we did enjoy our time there, finding it quite amusing observing staff tactics, preying on the west bound travellers who had no idea what was available about 70 kilometres further down the road at Kununurra. 

Zebra Rock Mine café with nice rock tables

Continuing east we stopped at a road side stop for a loo break at about 11 am only to find it nearly ¾ full with people in the process setting up for the night. The peak season of the travelling tourist was definitely upon us for the northern areas of Australia and it felt a little disconcerting. We knew the next location of a reasonable stop over within our range was somewhat chaotic when we stopped there a month earlier and we preferred to avoid the frenzied atmosphere of this nature. Thus a little further along the road we found a disused road works gravel pit and that became our location for the evening. 

What a relaxing stopover. We made a fire, cooking tea in our camp fire oven. 

We moved on to Timber Creek exploring its other attractions we had missed on our previous visit. There wasn’t a lot to see or do and the atmosphere created by chaotic caravan drivers jockeying for positions near the fuel station disregarding all laws and common sense helped us with our decision to get out of Timber Creek ASAP. Even travelling along the highway out of town we saw a caravan cutting across a grassed area off to the side of the road at 45 degrees toward us and if we hadn’t braked they would have crashed into the side of us when they drove onto the highway without slowing or looking. 

With the silly season upon us our conversation now included strategies we could utilise dealing with our fellow wayward travellers. 

We decided it was time for some R & R of sorts and we thought the walk at Joe Creek in the Judbarra Gregory National Park we had missed on our way across would do it for us. 

What a great walk it was. There were plenty of steps up the steep slope to the base of the escarpment where you scampered across a base of fallen rocks along the face of the escarpment. It was a great setting walking amongst palms at the base of a towering colourful rock face. As an added bonus there was a reasonable amount of aboriginal rock art still distinguishable along the cliff face. We so enjoyed this walk.

 

This walk revealed our fitness level had certainly improved with all our walking over the last month. It was graded as a level four track requiring a reasonable level of fitness to complete which we managed without much fuss. 

We found another gravel pit for our overnight stop in a beautiful setting with forested hills all around us, all to ourselves and it was peaceful. This more than likely was to be our last quiet night for the next couple of months as we were expecting the volume of people to dramatically increase around us once we start to travel between Katherine and Darwin through a much publicised area including the likes of Kakadu National Park. 

Once again we had encountered a long weekend with closed shops along with the possibility of no accommodation available, so we propped at a road side stop about 60 kilometres from Katherine for the night. That makes a total of 4 times a long weekend has thrown us out in the last 6 weeks. 1^st time at Tennant Creek (Anzac day) waiting for our mail, 2^nd arriving at Katherine (May Day), 3^rd travelling to Kununurra (Western Australia day) to address our battery issues and now Katherine again (Queens Birthday). It almost makes you wish you were working again getting paid for a long weekend. Not really!

14 - Keep River National Park N.T.

June 2016 - 09/6/16

When businesses reopened at Kununurra after the long weekend we took our caravan to an auto electrician who utilised an instrument to assess our batteries. The battery assessment result was similar to our prognosis where one battery was announced as kaput but it was a different dud battery to our assessment. Naturally there were no batteries available for our requirement. The auto electrician also thought we should be able to survive with 3 batteries for our needs instead of our configuration of 4 batteries. We changed the batteries around to align all the good ones together and resumed our travels a bit puzzled by the whole scenario. 

The caravan park seemed quite full during our last couple of nights at Kununurra and as we drove out of the caravan park first thing in the morning there were about 7 caravans lined up down the street waiting to get in. It certainly looked like peak season was upon us. 

We had visited all of the locations we had on our wish list in the north eastern corner of Western Australia and it was time to execute a U turn to travel back to Katherine in the Northern Territory, where we would continue with our wish list of areas to visit north of Katherine.

Cat Fish also known as Silver Cobbler in abundance in the water ways

We travelled about 70 kilometres east, returning to Keep River National Park, (refer to entry 8). 

Last time we camped at the Gurrandalng campground and this time we decided to camp in the other campground at Jarnem. The 31 kilometres of dirt road was still in good condition suitable for a 2 wheel drive vehicle. 

We set up camp in a sunny location to assist our batteries with solar input hoping that our batteries would cope. 

It was still very hot with daytime temperatures feeling every bit of the forecast 36 degrees. There were less people in the campground than the month previous. We shared the campground with two other couples who had also arrived the same day and they voiced their unhappiness about the hot temperatures. They only stayed the night and moved on in the morning claiming it was more pleasant travelling in the cool of their vehicles than sitting around in a hot environment. 

Yes it was hot but we had a good strategy in place. Good fans circulating the air in our caravan and a four litre tub of ice-cream in our freezer. The feel of ice-cream travelling down to our stomachs felt delightful.

Campground before sunrise

 We were up early in the morning to complete the main walk from the campground, carrying plenty of cold water. We were on our way during the twilight hours before the appearance of the sun and were captivated by the effects of the rising sun on the landscape with the changing colours.

Effects of sun rising on landscape

Effects of sun rising on landscape

Heading up to the lookout

Heading up to the lookout

Heading up to the lookout

View from lookout

Looked a bit like Wilpena Pound - Flinders Ranges S.A.

Mary always gets Steve to walk in front to clear obstacles

It took 3 hours to complete the 7 kilometre loop track with stunning morning views from a lookout. Back at the caravan we striped off our soaked clothes, had a wash down followed by some nice cold ice-cream cooling our bodies.

Nice internal cooling

We were back in the country environments that we enjoy so much and as a bonus we had it all to ourselves.

13 - Return to Kununurra / Lake Argyle

June 2016 - 06/6/16

We were still having some issues with our caravan batteries not being able to maintain a high level of charge. This may have been to do with our fridge running most of the day and not cycling on and off every half hour or so as per normal. All of these issues may have been compounded by the day time temperatures ranging from 33 to 36 C and night time temperatures in the 20’s.

We spent two days on power at Wyndham hoping that some 240 volt charging would assist the batteries to recover.

Our next planned stopover was to be at Lake Argyle with estimated daytime temperatures of 36C for the next 7 days.

We purposely left Wyndham to find somewhere to free camp to test out how well our batteries would cope with our independent living in case we needed to replace them before heading to Lake Argyle.

Leaving Wyndham we just had to stop again at Marlgu Billabong where we spent about 4 hours watching the bird life, adding another crocodile to our previous days sighting of 3. A little further down the road we found a nice quiet area away from the road for the night. 

We stopped at Kununurra to make some enquiries about our batteries to find another long weekend was upon us with most businesses closing early for the weekend. A reassessment of strategies and we decided to stay in a caravan park at Kununurra over the weekend providing us with more time to evaluate our options. 

Naturally we utilised the caravan parks swimming pool each day, spent time at the local weekend market, took a drive where we visited the publicised Ivanhoe water crossing which had been just opened to vehicles in the last week, viewed the Ord Valley produce fields, the Sandlewood factory and the Hoochery rum manufacturer.

Ivanhoe water crossing and we weren't temped to cross with our vehicle

Ord Valley produce paddocks - curtesy of Lake Argyle water storage area

Another day we participated in a cruise on Lake Argyle, Australia’s largest artificial lake where we were transported from our accommodation to the lake, viewed a museum at the areas famous pioneering families residence, (Durack’s) before boarding a luxurious 55 foot catamaran for over 5 hours of cruising on the lake.

The original Durack Homestead

Removing our footwear prior to boarding our catamaran

 The setting and scenery was brilliant. As a bonus during the day we were permitted to jump overboard a couple of times to immerse our bodies in the very pleasant 25C waters. The whole setting made for a great atmosphere and the conversation amongst all the vessels occupants flowed till the days end.

Sunset on Lake Argyle