FAREWELL TO THE OUTBACK

We are now back on the East Coast of Australia after experiencing the Red Centre and the Outback of this great country. What marvels we have seen. This has been the most amazing trip of our lifetime. You think you have seen the ultimate and then around the corner there is always something to surpass it. The National Parks are just fantastic with great facilities and walkways leading to the most amazing scenery. It has been a totally mind blowing experience. I know we have the greatest scenery in New Zealand and it is all compressed into our marvellous little country but it is the distance and the vastness of Australia that makes everything seem so much bigger. The first day when we left Port Augusta on our way north on the Stuart Highway way back in May we were amazed to see a road hoarding advertising a superette 418 kms. away!! We thought it was a great joke, but it was true. There was just nothing for 418 kms. We haven't seen farmhouses as we know them in New Zealand all along the side of the highway. We have seen road signs to cattle stations that are over 100 kms. from the highway. These are huge stations with thousands of acreages and cattle spread over vast distances. The wet season was very wet in the top of Australia this year and in the Gulf of Carpenteria area it is estimated that there were over 10,000 head of cattle lost but they won't know until the muster is completed in a few weeks time. The Norman River was over 20 metres above normal and was 12 kilometres wide instead of about 300 metres. There were crocodiles swimming at the end of the main street of Normanton during this time. The locals showed us photos of all this but were very stoic about the whole thing. No wonder Australians are so competitive. They have to fight the elements the whole time.

We have had some difficulties with our communications this time. First of all we lost the Vodafone we bought last year so had to buy another but got the same number. What they failed to tell us is that Vodafone just doesn't work except on the East Coast so when we got Cooper Pedy we bought a Telstra phone which we thought would give us better coverage. It was a slight improvement but not much so when we got to Katherine we bought another Telstra phone, this time a NextG one, which according to the blurb put out by Telstra, will cover 90% of Australia. It certainly is better but we now have 3 phones! Last year I just used internet cafes or caravan park internet access to do my emails and blog but this time it has been much harder so after a lot of research among my caravan friends, we have bought a pre-pay wireless modem. This has been a great improvement and I can now use my computer nearly every day if I can get Telstra phone reception. These little hassles, plus losing all the data from our hard drive on the computer, have certainly made a hole in our budget.

Anyway back to our travels. We had our golf game in Mount Isa and what an experience that was. The course was just red dust and stone for fairways and the greens left a lot to be desired. Needless to say the golf wasn't a great success. The exercise was needed though. Mount Isa was very busy during our stay and all the caravan parks were fully booked out every night. The grey nomads are certainly making their presence felt on the roads around Australia.

Our next stop was Normanton which is a town of about 1,500 situated just south of the Gulf of Carpenteria. It was originally a mining town and it was hoped that the river would become the main port for the area but once the gold ran out, so did the big plans. The road from Cloncurry to Normanton was our first experience of driving on a single lane road, not 2 single lanes both going in the same direction but just a single lane road with red dust on the sides of it. If we met another vehicle, especially a road train, we had to pull off and just stop until they had passed as we couldn't see for the dust anyway. We went for a ride on the Gulflander train during our stay in Normanton. This is a vintage railcar that travels on a line that was built in the late 1880s. The train only travelled at 24 kms. per hour as any faster would be dangerous for the passengers. It was great fun and we stopped out in the bush by a billabong for billy tea and cake. The next day we drove up to Karumba which is a port town situated right on the base of the Gulf of Carpenteria. It is also known for great fish and chips and fresh prawns. We bought 1 dozen prawns for $12 to take back to the caravan and then bought some cooked barramundi and chips to eat on the beach while watching the sunset. What a sight. There were people all along the beach doing the same as us and having a great time.

Our next stop was Mount Surprise which is situated near the Undara Volcanic National Park. We stayed at one of the best caravan parks we have stayed in yet. It is called Bedrock Caravan Park and the owners have done a great job building this park up from just a bed of rocks 10 years ago. The facilities were 5 star and the staff and the owners cook meals each night, have a bonfire with entertainment and take guests on a surprise tour of the area. There are only 65 people in Mount Surprise so they are trying all different things to get tourism into the area. We climbed up the top of Kalkani Crater and walked around the rim of the crater. There have been lots of volcanoes in this area.

It was then onto Cairns where we were to meet up with Sue and Bev, 2 of my golf friends, and their partners in Trinity Beach. It was great to catch up with them and get all the news. We went out for dinner a couple of times and one night they put on a BBQ for us at their apartment. We were really spoiled with garlic prawns for entree and steak, chops, sausages and salads for mains. They decorated the table with candles, balloons, sparklers, party hats and we all had a great time. It was certainly a night to remember. We went with them to the Trinity Beach Hotel to watch the first Bledisloe Cup game. I had a silver fern flag in my bag but we weren't confident enough to brandish it about until the final whistle. What faith!!

Our last stop before we start the long trek back to Brisbane was a trip up to Cooktown. This area was only accessible by dirt track up to about 4 years ago but it is now sealed all the way. The road was very good and only a couple of parts near Cooktown where the road had been washed away by the heavy rain in wet season made for a bit of a rough ride. Cooktown is like the last frontier really but the little town is just full of history. This was where Captain Cook pulled in to repair “Endeavour”. There is a lovely old building that was a convent and boarding school for Sisters of Mercy from the late 1800s to 1942 when all the nuns were sent down to Cairns while the war was on and the USA army took over the building. The nuns thought they would return but the building was left to rot until about 20 years ago when restoration was started and it now houses a great museum. It's amazing what these little towns do to promote themselves. Cooktown is typical of old towns in Australia, especially in the outback, with at least 3 pubs remaining of the 65 it used to have!! There are at least 4 caravan parks in Cooktown and they were all full up the whole time we were there. It was certainly busy and on the road from Cairns to Cooktown we saw more traffic than we probably saw on the whole of the Stuart Highway.

We are now in Port Douglas and civilisation again. We really loved the Outback with the changing scenery, road kill, road houses, and camaraderie we enjoyed on the road. We have met some great people and friends and look froward to keeping in touch with them.

It should be beaches and hopefully sunshine all the way back to Brisbane now so until my next epistle which will come from somewhere on the Bruce Highway we say Goodbye.

DARWIN TO MOUNT ISA

We have now left the Top End of Northern Territory but before we move on there are a couple of observations that we have made. The roads in this area, in fact all of Victoria, South Australia and Northern Territory, are just marvellous. We dread crossing over the border back into Queensland because everyone says that the roads deteriorate from there on. In the Northern Territory the open speed limit on most roads is 130 kms. but we have seen no police cars or cameras to police this although there are signs telling us that they are policed. Most of the traffic we pass on the highways are other caravanners or road trains. These road trains are huge and most of them carry at least 3 or 4 trailers which are fully laden. We have been lucky so far and have only passed one that we have had to move off the road for. They take a long time to get rolling but once they do, they also take a long time to stop. We have seen a lot of road kill on the side of the roads and most of that would be caused by road trains. Today we saw 2 huge cattle beasts and last week we saw a water buffalo dead on the side of the road. They are just left there for the birds to dispose of. Most caravanners don't drive after dusk as the kangaroos come out to play about that time and they have absolutely no road sense.
In the Northern Territory at this time of the year (the dry) they have “burn offs”. These are controlled fires that burn off all the undergrowth that has grown in the wet season and could cause bush fires. We have watched these guys go along with a fire lighter and just light the scrub and let it burn. As a result we have seen the greatest sunsets up there. These burn offs occur more in the National Parks so most of the beautiful bush we should see has been burnt but it is also necessary for the natural regrowth of most Australian native plants. Most days the sky has a real smoky haze.
The other odd thing about the Top End are the termite mounds. There are thousands of these mounds all over the territory. These can be only a couple of inches tall or some are up to over 2 metres tall. In the Litchfield National Park there are Magnetic Termite Mounds where the termites build the mounds aligned north and south to minimise exposure to the sun and maximise temperature control. There are four type of termites, the first build their mounds around tree trunks; the next ones build theirs with round features, the third ones build theirs with pointed tops and then there are the magnetic termites. Here ends the geological lesson for the day!!
I mentioned in my last blog about going to the night markets at Mindil Beach. I had a paddle there and the water was so warm but no more. A large saltwater crocodile ( the dangerous ones) has been spotted on the beach. It is such a shame that no one can swim in the beautiful beaches around Darwin, and there are hundreds of beaches in the area, because of the crocs and the box jelly fish that can cause death from just one little sting. Darwin is such a beautiful city with 4 lane highways on its approaches and tropical trees and plants everywhere. There is so much history there with the Japanese invasion in 1942 and Cyclone Tracy in1974. It has been rebuilt twice as a result of these disasters and is now a very modern city with a very cosmopolitan population. We just loved it and hope to return there one day.
Because everything is dictated by the weather up this end of the country, lives are regulated by either the wet season ( November to April) or the dry (May to October). In the wet season there is a build up of humidity that is only relieved by the rain. Some rivers rise by as much as 10 – 12 metres and all along the highways there are flood channels to take the run off from the flooding. It must be a spectacular sight to see. Most houses don't have gardens as we know them as nothing will grow but what does grow is bougainvillea in all the colours you can imagine; scarlet, purple, white, peach, yellow. When they are all together it is a sight to behold.
Back to our travels. After leaving Darwin we then headed south to Berry Springs and stayed at a great little camp called Tumbling Waters Caravan Park. I would recommend this camp to everyone. The shower facilities were a little basic but the owners are just doing everything right. On the Saturday night they had crocodile feeding followed by free entertainment with music, singing and dancing and a free sausage sizzle served in the lovely beer garden then we all sat outside under the stars and watched the movie “Mamma Mia”. It was a magic night. There are warm natural springs at Berry Springs in a park surrounded with walking tracks. It was a great place to have a swim and it was there we saw our first live snake in the wild. It was right beside the walking track and was a brown snake. I thought I would really freak out when I saw my first snake but I was amazingly calm. Also in Berry Springs is the Territory Wildlife Park. This is a great nature reserve where you can walk through rain forests; watch birds of prey;visit an aquarium and just enjoy nature at its best. We had a lovely day there and the highlight was watching the eagle who uses a stone or rock that it picks up from the ground to drop on to the emu's eggs and break them. Very clever.
We then moved onto Litchfield National Park which features some beautiful water falls and swimming holes. The most popular water hole is the Wangi Falls where we spent a lovely hot day just sitting in the warm water. What a great life! We drove in a 4WD track to visit the Lost City. This is a collection of rocks and stones that have formed thousands of years ago and they look like ancient ruins of buildings from long ago. An amazing sight. We just loved Litchfield as we have loved all the National Parks we have visited but they are all so different.
We then had to retrace our steps back south on the Stuart Highway on the same road we had travelled about 4 weeks earlier. We decided to do as many kilometres a day as we could as we would be travelling along this same route next year on our way west. We travelled over 550 kms. a day for the next 3 days. It was very hard going, especially for Jim doing the driving. We stayed in road houses every night and didn't even bother to unhitch the caravan. These road houses consist of a pub, petrol station, shop, restaurant and caravan park. They are all different and some are much better than others. We stayed at Daly Waters again but this time at the roadhouse on the highway and when registering we were given a voucher for a free beer and wine and that night they had entertainment. The place was full with a tour bus being booked in as well and it was really jumping. What a great night we had. On the road between Barkly Homestead we came across a remote police station at Avon Station. This station is miles and miles from the nearest town and then it would only be a road house. We travelled over the Barkly Tableland which is a plateau just covered with Mitchell grass for as far as the eye can see. This is good beef country but we didn't see many cattle because of the vastness of the area. We did see a group of drovers though rounding up a group of Brahman cattle. It was a great sight to see; just like in the movie “Australia”
We are now in Mount Isa which is a mining town of about 25,000 people. It is in the middle of the outback and the mines are the mainstay of the area. They mine copper, zinc, silver and lead. The mine dominates the whole township with shafts and chimneys and vents all over the place. It is a huge complex with road trains and railway lines linking the output to the rest of Australia and the world. Today we visited Lake Moondarra which is a vast expanse of water in the middle of nowhere that supplies water to Mount Isa and the mines. It is a lovely tranquil spot where you can swim, fish and boat. Australia is certainly a land of contrasts. Tomorrow we are going to have our first game of golf on this trip. Up to now it has either been too cold or too hot. The temperature has certainly dropped since we left Darwin and we are no back into the low 20s which seem cold to us after what we have had. There is a cool wind blowing from the south most days and this comes from the desert which is over the side of the hills that surround Mount Isa.
We move on in a couple of days to Normanton and up to the Gulf of Carpenteria which we are really looking forward to. My next epistle will probably come from Cairns where we are meeting up with friends from Waikanae and Raumati. Really looking forward to that.