Entry 5 – Home time and travel north from Adelaide to Litchfield NP 4th April to 22nd June.
Our planned travels for 2021 were taking a hit with what we thought to be a conspiracy of hiccup’s disrupting our travel plans. We had returned home in early April to address some “things,” thinking we would be all done and dusted with our home needs, within the month. We were already planning our next route for the continuation of our travel lifestyle, off exploring Australia.
We ended up spending virtually three months at home, dealing with “people creating dramas.” “Grr.”
Happily, we did get away for a few days respite during this period travelling south about 75 kilometres to the coastal township of Goolwa, enjoying some scallywag time with long term friends.
We also spent time, chilling at Point Sturt with a no cost camp near Milang overlooking the Coorong’s Lake Alexandria.
We were stuck at home with autumn replaced by winter with the onset of its cold temperatures further affecting our spirits.
We did get a boost from a family gathering compliments of a long weekend. Steve enjoyed some time relishing his youth sharing swing time with his younger nephews and niece.
We found ourselves feeling frustrated with the ongoing drama created by people whom were constantly telling us they were acting in our best interests. We suspected “not” and were determined to resume our caravan lifestyle travelling Australia, the best tonic for one’s well-being.
We decided to set a departure date and to be firm with our decision. Well, we did delay by another day, due to finally being able to obtain our first covid-19 vaccination, another one of those ongoing dramas of the time we had been dealing with, compliments of incompetent governments.
It was a wonderful feeling, driving down our street with our caravan in tow, resuming our travels. We spent six continuous days focused on just driving. It was winter in the southern hemisphere with uninviting cold temperatures providing the incentive to travel north, seeking out the soul pleasing warmer climate of northern Australia. We were averaging about 500 kilometres per day with regular swopping of driver duties to keep us fresh. Travelling through central Australia involves vast distances of harsh dry country.
We knew Mary’s brother was travelling south somewhere along the same road and with little mobile phone reception away from the populated regions of Australia we were unable to contact one another. After about 1 ½ hours driving on day three we pulled into Cadney’s road house for a change of drivers (northern South Australia) and were pleasantly surprised to see Mary’s brother Patrick and partner Tamara stopped just in front of us. We spent the next hour and more chatting in the comfortable environment of the road house catching up with one another’s news. It was a good feel boost, lasting us the rest of the day.
We had read some news where an unusual weather pattern had deposited a lot of rain in parts of central Australia with a prediction this had created an environment suitable for an explosion in the population of the native Budgerigars. Over our last eight years of travel with plenty of time spent in remote regions we have only seen a flock of Budgerigars on about three occasions and no photographs for proof of our sightings. From around the Northern Territory/South Australian border we were regularly seeing flocks of Budgerigars as well as some Eagles. Unfortunately, with each sighting we were unable to stop safely hoping for that great photograph. We did manage a dash cam picture of a couple of Eagles at one time, disappointingly of poor quality with the Eagles wings as wide as our tow tug. On one occasion we found a safe road side stop and Steve walked back about half a kilometre with the camera seeking out a flock of Budgerigars we had sighted.
Even when we re-fuelled at Alice Springs the weather was still very cold. Travelling north of Alice Springs we passed the Tropic of Capricorn and ironically the weather finally started to warm up as we travelled further north. Our bodies were enjoying the gradual increase of warmer conditions and the country side was also appreciating the weather conditions providing some beautiful scenery.
Day four’s driving stopped about 150 kilometres south of Tennant Creek and it was our first night without the need to run our caravan’s diesel heater and electric blanket to combat the bitter cold temperatures. We were glad to be past those horrible cold temperatures.
The roads were becoming busier with other caravan travellers and all the road houses with caravan parks attached seemed to be bursting at the seams with campers. Even the road side stops we would normally frequent were very crowded. Day five we ended up driving around 650 kilometres, until we found a suitable road side stop less crowded. We had never visited the Gorrie Airfield rest area. It was a couple of kilometres off the main highway where you drove along an old-World War Two airfield until you found a spot to your liking. We will definitely stay at this location again when in this area. It was a fabulous setting and without the back ground highway noise.
Travelling plenty of kilometres each day not only comes at a cost on the discomfort to our bodies from sitting for long periods, it also takes a chunk of money paying for the fuel bills. We were needing to refuel daily with an average daily cost of about $140 for fuel. It was good to be able to free camp along the way, lessening the financial impact from travelling vast distances over short periods.
Arriving at Mataranka we headed straight to the thermal hot pools for a good body soak. It was a delightful sensation signalling we had arrived at our targeted area of Australia.
School holidays were due to start at the end of that week for a period of four weeks. We decided to bee line to the beautiful setting of Litchfield National Park hoping to secure a camp site for the best part of the school holidays.
We stopped at Katherine where we topped up the tow tugs fuel tank and stocked up our pantry. We obtained a lot more fresh food than normal, hoping to negate the need for a couple of hundred kilometre round trip to obtain further food with our planned extended stay. This was the first time in our travels we had utilised our eski (cooler) as well as our fridge to keep our food cool and fresh.
Leaving Katherine, we were feeling weary, deciding to deviate into Edith Falls for a swim, with some wishful thinking there might have been a vacancy for us. Well, the carpark was overflowing with so many caravans and motorhomes all probably thinking the same as us and yes, the campground gate was shut with signage “FULL”. We did enjoy the cool refreshing 300 metre swim out to the water falls helping to rejuvenate us for more driving later into the day.
We still had a few hundred kilometres to our destination and there were more road hazards to contend with. First the sun disappeared due to heavy smoke and we had to slow due to reduced visibility. The Northern Territory country side experiences many slow-moving fires, nearly all unattended. We are always on the alert for wandering cattle or kangaroos jumping across the road. A mob of horses bursting out from the roadside scrub causing us to brake hard, added to our list of road side hazards to contend will when travelling out back Australia.
We arrived at our target location of Wangi Falls camp ground early the next morning where we were delighted with a choice of four available camp sites, (first in gets the choice of any available camp sites.) Within 15 minutes of our arrival all the available camp sites had been filled. We were very pleased having some luck go our way.
Wangi Falls campground in Litchfield National Park would be one of our favourite locations in the Northern Territory. One of its main attractions is to immerse one’s body in the beautiful waters of Wangi Falls pool. Unfortunately, there had been a crocodile sighting with removal of a 2.7 metre salt water crocodile with the pool still closed to swimming until it was deemed safe. It was still a great setting and the orb spiders were enjoying their close water encounters without the annoying human presence wanting to share the water.
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