Entry 8 – 21th Sept. to 26th Sept., Heading for Queensland.
We spent two rather busy days at Katherine. Well it was a busy period for Steve as Mary spent most of her time resting her injured leg.
We paid out nearly $300 restocking the pantry and fridge or should we say Steve did the shopping, making sure he checked Mary’s list twice. It was nice having the use of a washing machine, so much easier than washing by hand our bed sheets and clothing as we had been over the last few weeks.
Our allocated caravan park camp site was under some nice shady trees but unfortunately, we discovered the flying foxes also liked these trees during the night and we woke in the morning with our tow tug covered in their excrement. The flying fox excrement is very acidic and wouldn’t wash off. Steve purchased some polish and ended up polishing most of the vehicle, successfully removing the offending stains before it ate further into the paint work. Several hours of work he would have happily been deprived of, especially considering the 37-degree temperature. Mary was quite content resting up in the airconditioned caravan.
It was nice to catch up with all our electronic stuff including a video chat with our Canada based family and our future travelling Canadian team members.
It was hot while we were at Katherine and the 7-day weather forecast showed the temperature predictions to be at 39 degrees each day. The doctor had advised Mary to keep her wounds dry negating our plans for water activities at nearby Mataranka. The top end of the Northern Territory was now getting uncomfortably hot for us and we decided to head south about 650 kilometres to the longitude near the town of Tennant Creek with daily temperature predictions around 5 degrees cooler most days.
In the morning adding to the mix of annoying items the external caravan lights lit up when Steve connected the tow tug. He found a bent pin on the plug was creating a short circuit and he undertook a temporary fix, stopping on our way out at an auto shop, where he purchased another plug to be fitted some time down the road.
We were now travelling south away from the top area of the Northern Territory, through those long stretches of road with little to see or do. The required objective was to, “just drive!”
About the only highlight for the day (about 400 kilometres of driving,) we did get to see an eagle near the side of the road. Oh, it was nice and cool in the tow tug with the outside temperature hovering around 36 – 37 degrees all day.
At around the 650-kilometre mark, south of Katherine we turned left to travel east, with another stretch of about 450 kilometres of just a road to our next planned destination.
There are a few publicized accommodations and ‘water hole’ stops along that long boring stretch of road. We have previously visited a few of those establishments and found we didn’t enjoy their tactics to fleece you of as much money as they are able in tin shed environments. Our preference for those locations with scenic nature environments or other interesting locations minus the tactical scheming from commercial operations.
After three days, with a focus on, just driving, we arrived at the Northern Territory and Queensland border. We had pre-filled our required Queensland entry permits on line, now a requirement for the various Australian states whom would accept people from other states, due to the current covid-19 pandemic. We spent about 5 minutes answering police questions and were welcomed into Queensland.
About 10 kilometres down the road we arrived at our planned destination of Camooweal. There is a billabong on the outskirts of town with permitted free camping. Our hope was to see some large brolga birds related to the crane family of birds. As we drove along the dirt track leading to the billabong at about the 50-metre mark from the water’s edge we were delighted to see our first sign of bird life and they just happened to be our targeted brolgas.
We took this sighting as a sign and set camp next to the water’s edge nearby our first brolga sighting. It was a lovely setting and we were feeling ecstatic after our first 10 minutes of arrival counting 13 different varieties of birds.
We made ourselves comfortable, seated under our awning and watched the bird activities on and around the billabong. A mob of cormorants led a group of pelicans around the waters’ edge of the billabong with a group of spoonbills keeping pace at the rear all hunting for food in the water. About 100 metres to the rear were three brolgas keeping pace with the group in front. It was fascinating viewing. After about three laps they all decided to rest up or possibly had their fill.
We watched the gathering of birds circumnavigate around the billabong around a dozen times each day and thoroughly enjoyed it when they stopped in front of us, excitedly digging into the depths below the water surface for food samples.
Each day we would see about 20 different species of birds, some stopping to have a look at us and others flying by at rocket speeds.
Our third day of just bird watching Steve decided to replace the broken caravan plug for connection to the tow tug. Rarely are things straight forward and issues with some unwanted sparks reiterated some difficulties he had with the plug rewiring. First none of the lights operated on the tow tug or caravan. Steve couldn’t find or decipher which were the right lighting fuses. Mary read the booklet provided with the tow tug and said they were the 40-amp fuses. There were two 40-amp fuses and they both looked ok, so Steve swapped them over and problem fixed. Then there was a ticking noise coming from the area near the caravan interior batteries. Steve deciphered there must have been a power feed from the caravan to the tow tug and disconnected the least needed wire connection at the plug and the ticking stopped.
We decided to pack up and drive down the road a bit to get closer to the next largish township to seek out the help from an auto electrician at Mt Isa the following day.
After three days of ‘just driving,’ Camooweal billabong with its variety of bird life was just the tonic to reset our bodies providing us with an abundant of smiley faces.
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