Three days in Kununurra gave us time to enjoy the area and see the flooded Plains and waterways.
Not far out of town is Maggie’s Valley which we passed through on our way to Wyndham for the day.
We went up to the lookout, which we had been to before, but have never seen so much greenery around the flats.
We spent quite some time up there, then met up with friends from Ballina for Lunch
The Croc Cafe, is well known for its pies, they were huge and very tasty. It was nice spending some time with Marty and Deb, before we travelled back to Kununurra via the back gravel road.
We called into Marlgu Billabong and what a spectacular sight it is at the moment. So much bird life and water lilies, just a picture perfect time to be there.
I had to zoom right in for this next pic. Can you see him?? No doubt he was watching us across the other side on the board walk. Obviously the birds new he was there, and giving him a wide birth.
Just so peaceful there I could sit in the bird watch hut for hours.
We took the 80 klm of dirt road, crossing many flooded causeways, and some we had to detour around as you don’t want to walk into water around here if you can’t see the bottom.
It was getting late in the afternoon when we went into Black Rock Falls, and this was one crossing we didn’t venture into
It was nearly dark by the time we got back to the van. It had been a big day out.
Guy and Annie, Chris and I drove out to Ivanhoe crossing for a look. It has been closed since the floods. The amount of water that is flowing over the crossing is amazing. Don’t think it will be opened anytime soon.
Such a shame to see all this water going to waste.
So thats it for now as we head out again . Annie cooked a lovely BBQ, as a parting dinner, they have more time in Kununurra as we keep going West.
Our next stop, was to view the mighty Ord River Diversion Dam ,on our way out of Kununurra, so much water!!
Then onto Molly spring, and a very rocky road in . We drove 2 thirds of the way in ,then walked the rest of the way as it was not the best road for the van.
It was worth the effort as it was beautiful in there, the water looked so inviting, but I just had to be contented with paddling in the shallows and watching little fish swimming around my feet.
I guess there was phone service in there,! But we won’t talk about that.. I’ll just enjoy the natural beauty of the place.
By mid afternoon we pulled into a nice little spot near the Dunham River. Hills in the background and flowering wattle all around.
We never know what tomorrow brings, so till then keep safe our family and friends.
Well we ended up staying at the Rapids, farm stay for 8 days, a bit of a forced stop ,due to my back. But that’s OK as it gave Annie and Guy time to catch us up for a night, before we went our separate ways again.
We were the longest staying guests so far this season, apparently. The Care Takers were great and made us feel very welcome, being given fresh out of the oven slices of sour dough bread, most days.
Sunday nights is camp oven stew and damper, night, then the owner entertains with his poems and songs. around the camp fire.
As Annie and Guy were there we went for a drive over the 600 odd acres, mainly bush tracks along the river banks. Rough but I survived!.
This photo of the boys, amuses me , Chris says he is not worried about Crocks, the pic tells a different story.
I am terrified of the Crocks in NT waterways , however I did get out to take some photos. Sure is a beautiful property.
we ended our stay the next morning and went back into Katherine to do some shopping. Also took some time to have an hour or so in the hot springs there.
This area has changed so much ,since we were here . It used to be a bush track down to the springs, now it’s all paved and prettied up.
We made a big effort after our relaxing swim and drove about 20 minutes till we pulled up for the rest of the day. First into the camp and last of about 10 others to leave the next morning.
The drive between Gregory and Timber Creek is lovely. The highway follows the Victorian river, and after the recent floods the river is still flowing and quite picturesque against the red cliffs in the background.
We drove down onto the rocky river bed and parked, while we went down to the river edge, no I didn’t get too close.!
From there we drove up to a lookout with views over the river, but for me the bush flowers were starting to shine through.
The kapok trees are looking great against the blue ,cloudless sky and red rocky cliffs
Because of the light it was hard to get a photo of the palms growing in the rocks, quite interesting when you see them in natural colour. This is the best I could do to show them up.
The view of the Bradshaw bridge over the Victoria River from the lookout ,with flowering NT Eucalyptus in the foreground
We had a quick stop for a cuppa at Timber Creek.
We drove down to have a closer look at the bridge and maybe drive over it but were stopped, and had to back off as it is a government reserve on the other side.
From the bank where I took some photos, you could see how high the river was during the floods, and the bridge was well under water.
Some of the many Boab trees, as we neared our last stop in NT for the night.
We pulled up just after the East Baines crossing . Again first in and last to leave this morning. There were probably about 15 other campers there last night.
Our drive this morning was nice as we headed towards Kununurra.
We gained an extra hour and a half, timewise as we crossed the Territory border into WA .
We are now staying at the Showground in Kununurra, we have a good spot, and who should be next to us but Annie and Guy. We will stay here for 3 nights. Had cute little zebra Doves picking around the van as we ate dinner and watched footy on the field. And a full moon as well .
A town with so much history. Now that we are north of Three ways, we have been to most of the points of interest, but it’s still nice to make a stop and see what’s changed. And Newcastle Waters didn’t disapoint. They have had so much rain and floods around these Northern parts, the landscape is lush and has plenty of bird life.
The old store and pub have had a bit of a tidy up, whilst still maintaining their historic features. Newcastle Waters was a stopover town for the Drovers taking their cattle up the Centre. When the droving days stopped, the town became deserted.
The memorial park has had a couple of new signs and a statue of a Drover added
We walked around town, then down to where the river runs through town. A few days earlier the town had been cut off. We met the school Teacher with his class of 8 pupils. that day, (7 were away attending a funeral ) they had been down to empty their yabby trap. They were so happy with their catch, that was to be cooked for dinner that night.
We were offered some of their catch. I said no thanks, as I would have to cook them, One little girl of about 7, then decided to give me a cooking lesson, and vinegar, must put vinegar on them, cause it makes them taste better.
Whilst they were down the river, a couple of the boys found an (almost dead) bird, they had it wrapped up in one of their hoodies and told the teacher they were going to make it better. With my cooking lesson over and the yabbies left in the care of the teacher, the kids, off down the road, making a detour into the old church. We and the teacher amused that it would take more than divine intervention, for the bird to survive. We didn’t find out what the church stop was for, but next they went into the school grounds next door.
We stayed talking to the teacher about life and kids in these outback places, and of course the lesson that afternoon would be looking up what kind of bird they had found. I presume the next days lesson would be organising a funeral 😪 what an interesting morning. And Education these kids get.
We drove further North to a roadside stop and stayed the night. Moving on, early next morning, our next stop was the Historical town of Daly Waters. We lined up and were given a good spot in the camping area ,then booked our Beef “N” Barra dinner for that evening.
The donkeys and horses roam free around the park and streets, getting treats from the the owner of the Pub as well as the visitors. The whole area is one big happy family atmosphere..
As well as the animals there is other interesting bits of junk to look at
Some pretty birds , some rather ugly birds.
Some nasty critters, with unusual signs on their cage.
Other signs worth reading, and others to give you a laugh.
Inside the pub ,the walls are covered with all sorts of clothing and stickers. We couldn’t find the Jodies Inspiration sticker we left there some years ago.
The Donkeys and horses also lined up at the bar, till the girl behind the bar told them to get out. Bit unfair as it was a hot day.
Our Beef “N” Barra, that night was very yummy, we sat out under the stars, ate our dinner and listened to a great country music show. Most pubs have entertainment at least 4 nights a week in the top end. It provides an income for the travelling musicians as well as more income for the pubs. The travellers like nothing more than a good feed , cold drink and a sing-along at the end of a hot day. A lot of the retires live this lifestyle between 3 to 6 months of the year.
On the move again ,the next day, we drove out to the Daly Waters Aerodrome and had a look around the WW11 hanger. The airstrip is still being used for small planes.
Further North is Larrimah, a town made popular by the disappearance of a local bloke, back in 2017. Believed to have been murdered and last seen at the Larrimah Hotel.
We had some lunch there and took some photos. The pub is now known as the Pink Pub, and lots of pink paint used to brighten the place up.
There is another one of those interesting critters in a cage out the back. It wouldn’t be hard to get rid of a body around these parts.
That night we stopped in to the Territory Manor. A big park with plenty of spots available. We ended up staying for 4 days . Mataranka is a handy stop as it is not far from some of the popular thermal springs, and where the Author of ” we of the never never ” was written in a tribute to the women, who did it so tough in the early 1900s.
I am still in a lot of pain with my back, I think the massage I had in Alice Springs did more harm than good ,and by the time we travelled to here, the mussels in the lower back were going into spasms and I could hardly move. So the next three days I floated around in the thermal pools, on a noodle ,it seemed to help.
While trying not to do too many rough roads, we still got to see some of the points of interest around the area. Crossing over an old bridge, there was more evidence of the recent floods through the area .
We visited the old town of Elsey, and the historical cemetery there. The gravesites tell the story of the early settlement and the people of “we of the never never.”
The Cemetery is well presented and maintained so a nice place to wander through.
We were enjoying our stay at Mataranka, with its water, birds wandering around the camping areas and nightly country music show.
We decided to stay another day and go to the markets in the park, last Sunday
The next day we moved on to Katherine. Chris insisted I go to outpatients and have my back checked out. Nice young Doc !! And he and I agreed that it was continuing stress to the mussels doing all the Gorge rock climbs, day after day, that was causing the pain. Some strong painkillers and try to avoid strenuous exercise for a few weeks should fix it.
We are now at a lovely farm stay ,about 20 Min out of town . Just what the doctor ordered. Yes the back is feeling a lot better. The painkillers do work.
A few days ago we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, I think it could do with a freshen up, looks a bit dilapidated to me.
At Burt Plain there is a Cain, marking the highest point on the main road between Adelaide and Darwin.
We didn’t get far that day, so we pulled up after lunch at a roadside camp, and watched the clouds close in. Rain was forecast so it could be interesting times ahead.
It rained all night, so our camp area was flooded, when we stepped out in the morning, not bad ,just enough to be annoying getting from the van to the car.
It was still raining as we moved on .We stopped at Aileron Roadhouse for fuel and a pic of the Anmatjere Man and the Woman and Child statutes. Nothing else worth looking at.
Our travelling friends are sill back in Alice Springs, so we are travelling alone now. Just wandering along., the rain seems persistent so we pulled into another roadside camp just out of Anmanjere. There we were able to get phone service from a satellite dish. It was cold and wet ,but quite a novelty to be making calls like this from the centre of Aus.
A point of interest that we passed was Mt Castle, looks more like a small hill , but I guess in the plain, it’s a mountain to them , no we didn’t climb it, I’m still suffering from back problems after our Kings Canyon adventures. 😞
All the creeks have running water now and the roads are a mess. Lots of washouts and water over the roads in some areas.
We called into Barrow Creek and went for a walk around the old Telegraph Station there. Still a few showers hanging around, but it’s so nice to see the red inland turning green, the country is beautiful after so much rain. Sure to be a lovely wildflower season.
We pulled up early again that afternoon. Opposite the Devil’s Marbles pub. . We were first there so had a top spot on the end. Slowly the area filled up and by dark the place was packed, There is a lot of vans on the road now, and the popular free camps are also packed. No wonder with the cost of staying in a caravan park being so expensive. Lucky if you find one under $ 45 a night. Some I’ve seen as much a $165.
We were first in and last to leave the camp the next morning. Not far up the road is the Devil’s Marbles. The rain had cleared so it was nice to do a bush walk around the Marbles . It’s an easy walk, and somewhere where we hadn’t been before. Can’t say it’s anything spectacular compared to other rock places we’ve been.
We stopped for lunch beside a creek, then headed into Tennant Creek, for a look around town and grab a few supplies at the I G A, which are few and far between around these areas.
The town wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but still not a town I’d stay in. This is as far south that we have come to on the Stuart Highway in all our travels over the last 17 years. So we have now completed the trip up the Centre. Which was our aim, when we set out on this trip. Yes it was worth doing. Now what..?, sure there are still plenty of places we haven’t seen. So we’ll keep moving along looking for what’s changed and towns we haven’t been to.
Nothing new at the Theeways, but we still made a short stop there.
Then we camped for the night at Attack Creek. It was interesting to see how much water must of been going through there ,as there was flood debris half way up the trees.
A nice sunset completed another good day of travel.
The next day we were travelling along and passed a Lady doing a charity walk. Chris recognised her as an acquaintance from Ballina when he lived there.. So we turned around and spoke for half an hour or so. She is walking from Darwin to Adelaide raising money and promoting awareness for Beyond Blue and Black Dog.
On our way again, we decided to find another camp ,so not far out of Elliot there is some old cattle yards off the road a bit and surrounded by natural bush. Just perfect !
We have the place to ourselves ,most of the time ,also have phone service.
Weve been here two days now , just chillin, surrounded by bush flowers, no flys, and blue sky’s, what more could we want.
Keep well ,till next time, it’s bye from us,Merelyn and Chris. Xx
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