26 – September 2016 - 5/9/16
We spent two busy days at Katherine where both the tow tug
& caravan obtained an external wash down, the tow tug was serviced, the
fridge & pantry were restocked, completed all our laundry needs, caught up
with our electronic correspondences and attended to several other wish list
items obtainable from a largish town like Katherine.
The climatic conditions were still amicable, adding to our
relaxed sense of well-being which our bodies were appreciating. As an
additional bonus the scenery in this area of Northern Territory was certainly
impressive which all adds up to, “why not stay a bit longer?”
Leaving Katherine we headed north again to Edith Falls
campground where it was much easier to obtain a camp site than our last visit
two months previous, credited by the decline in the number of tourists about, now
at the tail end of the peak tourist season, (reference entry 16).
We set camp and then resumed our affiliation with those water
activities, immersing our bodies in the fresh waters of the pandanus fringed
plunge pool with a swim out to the water fall before drifting along the gentle
flowing waters back to shore. The water was certainly cooler than the waters of
Douglas Hot Springs but wasn’t cold. It was a tranquil setting floating in a large
pool, gazing up at an imposing backdrop of a rugged, beautiful looking cliff
face.
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| Sunset Edith Falls |
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| Sunset Edith Falls |
During the coolness of the early mornings we resumed our
walking activities completing the loop walk of the upper falls trail and yes we
did immerse our bodies into the waters of the upper falls pool each morning.
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| upper-falls pool |
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| upper-falls pool |
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| upper-falls pool |
One evening at Edith Falls we experienced an added bonus of
sitting at a camp fire watching and listening to a digeridoo being played.
The atmosphere of Edith Falls was lovely providing a
peaceful state of mind as we started to contemplate our next strategies and
wishes whilst in this area of Australia.
Another one of our long time wishes had been to travel to
Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park located in northern Queensland alongside
the Northern Territory Border. A walk up the nearby Telstra hill to get phone /
internet reception and we managed to book a campsite for a week at Lawn Hill in
18 day’s time. We hoped we had allowed enough time to make our way to this
location at a pleasurable pace about 1500 kilometres away by road.
We spent 3 days at Edith Falls before starting (reluctantly)
our journey south to explore other areas on our way to Lawn Hill. The
“reluctantly” was credited to the beautiful weather with daily temperatures in
the mid 30’s that we had become so accustom to over the last 4 months and knowing
it had been a cold wet season south.
At time of departure from Edith Falls the tow tug wouldn’t
start and we needed a jump start from a fellow traveller. At Katherine we had
the batteries tested with a result showing them to be ok. We knew we would be
travelling through some very isolated territory once we headed south of
Katherine and we decided to err on the side of caution replacing both our
vehicle batteries as they were 7 years of age. As a minor consolation, the 2
vehicle batteries cost a bit less than 1 of the caravan batteries.
We headed south from Katherine somewhat later than
originally thought, making our way to Bitter Springs. What a great experience
was Bitter Springs with its unique calming environment returning us to a
relaxed state of mind?
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| Floating along Bitter Springs |
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| Floating along Bitter Springs |
The water flows out of the ground at about 33 C and runs
along a canal type waterway. There were some platforms with stairs leading into
to flowing water from where you float with the aid of flotation devices
(noodles) downstream for about 15 minutes before exiting the water at another
platform. From there you walk back along a track for about 1 to 2 minutes
returning to the entry platform to do it all over again. The water was quite
clear and pleasantly warm. There was a steady flow of people floating and
walking at Bitter Springs.
We found a free roadside stop about 15 kilometres out of
Mataranka for the night but there was a choice of 3 caravan parks to stay at
Mataranka for those wishing to stay longer. This so happened to be our first
free road side stop for 68 days. We had been very happy with our travel
encounters over the last couple of months experiencing a plethora of
magnificent scenery, predominantly in national park locations.
Next was a night spent at the publicized must visit “Daly
Waters Pub”. It was a hot dusty location with a steady stream of people
stopping for a look at the unique historic Aussie Pub during the day. Typical
Aussie style, the pub came alive at night with live entertainment and we downed
their signature dish, local wild caught Territory Barramundi & premium
scotch fillet which was absolutely delicious and possibly the best Barramundi
meal we had ever experienced. We not only had an enjoyable meal but were
provided with great entertainment by a couple of singers, all creating a great
environment with plenty of talkative happy people around.
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| Us in the far corner of campground prior to arrival of many caravans |
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| Daly Waters Pub |
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| Evening meal Daly Waters Pub |
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| Evening meal Daly Waters Pub |
We had a 3rd day in a row of travelling which was
becoming monotonous and just no fun. We had about 130 kilometres to cover for
the day and we took a break after nearly a 100 kilometres to view the drover’s
memorial and old buildings of Newcastle Waters, once a main stopover for
drovers and stock along the stock route between Queensland and Western
Australia which included a store and pub.
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| Newcastle Waters book statue |
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| Newcastle Waters old style fridge |
It felt very hot outside on arrival at our next destination
at Longreach Water Hole near the township of Elliott. We drove along a dirt
track past plenty of caravans overlooking the water hole till we found a quiet
spot past the congested areas with a view of hundreds of birds consisting of
pelicans, cormorants, darters, whistling kites along with a few other
varieties. It seemed if one bird caught a fish they would be immediately
swamped by many other birds wanting to share the spoils. The flocks of birds
were constantly moving up and down the water hole whenever a bird was sighted
catching a fish.
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| Location of our van with views at Longreach Waterhole |
Other times hundreds of birds would combine to spread across
the water corralling the fish for a feed.
Early during our second day we were greeted by our new
neighbours, Deane and Yanina who were having a sea change from life on their
cruising catamaran and doing a loop of Australia by road after parking up their
catamaran at Cairns.
They were a beautiful couple whom we hit it off with from our
first introduction resulting with us enormously enjoying one another’s company
over the next 3 days.
Next on our wish list and the reason for making our way
south was to head for Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park in Queensland.
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