Fitzroy Crossing

We are camped at the Fitzroy Crossing Lodge for 2 nights which is quite luxurious park.    Huge sites and very shady.    After setting up camp we drove to Gieki Gorge and took a boat cruise down the gorge & saw some spectacular views....the boat was quite long we were on with 107 people on board, including the 2 men below!!  They seem to keep following us around!

After our cruise it was time for a drink at the local 'bar with bars' at the Fitzroy Crossing Pub!!!

Enjoying a drink at the bar with the "town folk"...

The guys had a mid strength beer & I had to have a cruiser drink as they can't serve full strength beer or wine until after 5pm...   We didn't stay long..... was very smelly, outnumbered & we weren't sure if our fishing rod would still be on the roof racks when we got back to the car!



Just an update on Maria.... she has definitely turned native.....   this afternoon (with only her reading glaasses on) mistook a tall, dark aboriginal man for Ozzie.     He was walking past our camp & Maria said "I have some exciting news Ozzie!" and then she realised he was aboriginal and said "I'm sorry I thought you were my husband!!!"   Well the aboriginal could see the funny side and so did we (well....all but Ozzie).   We nearly wet ourselves laughing.....  He has 5 children & is camping not far from us... the jokes are still going on!!!!

On to Derby tomorrow for our nexr adventure!

Mary Pool - Free Camp

Our next stop was Mary Pool which is a Free Camp before Fitzroy Crossing.    By 5pm there were over 100 vans and camper trailers set up for the night.   Tony & I arrived early & found a camp site for 2 vans as we were meeting up Ozzie & Maria (friends from Black Point).     We decided on a "family meeting" before our Happy Hour to make sure we were all on the same page for our trip!  

The guys decided they would try for yabbies and maybe a bit of fish for tea, so Maria & I packed a picnic lunch to have while we were waiting for the big catch.    Lucky Maria had some Silver Cobler out for dinner just incase!     When we arrived back at camp we were told there was a crocodile over the side of the river we were fishing on!!

Tony & I looking a little too relaxed at our camp at Mary Pool.    Here we are watching Sunrise on TV in the morning (with the Gennie going), around a smokey fire in my dressing gown & Tony hasn't walked to the rubbish bin in days & of course, no shower for some time!!!!   I think it is time to move on..

Seriously though, these people looked like they were living there.... no showers, just a long drop toilet!

Maria has also gone a little native....


Even with a few wines she still couldn't play a tune!!

After listening to Maria's Didjeridoo playing we decided we would see if the music we could hear playing in the distance was any better, to find there were about 70 people sitting around listening to someone play the guitar, singing & also a little comedy.   We had met the singer, Ray, & Helen back in Kununarra on the flight over the Bungles!


Next stop is Fitzroy Crossing

Kununarra 2

I was blogging away this morning when we heard a large crash on our awning & thought the whole tree had come down on top of us..... was only a frong from the palm tree above.  Luckily it didn't damage the awning, van or our BabyQ &  please note in the photo Tony has started to look like all the other "grey nomads' in the park with his T-shirt off (though he was washing the car)!   

Nikki this photo I thought you would find interesting.... we were at the Kununarra Markets & saw this stall with the nappies & the leg-ins you are selling.....

We thought this was an interesting way to buy our vegies at the market.... we walked in one end of the truck & picked out our fruit & vege & walked out the other door to the cash register to pay...  nice vegies though followed by a great Mango Smoothie after our shopping.

 Here we are at Ivanhoe Crossing. Normally cars can drive over this causeway but thought we would give it a miss as the river was too high & fast for cars to pass!

We are off to Mary Pool next which is a Free Camp

Flight over the Bungle Bungles

Firstly I have to apologise for my vidoes on my last post.  As I said am still learning to Blog & now know how to send a video.

The alarm was set for 4:45am on Friday morning to meet the bus outside the Van Park at 5:15am & off to the Kununarra Airport to do the Sunrise Flight over Kununarra, Lake Argyle, Argyle Diamond Mine, Bungle Bungles and some large Cattle Stations for 2 hours and then back to the Ivanhoe Cafe for a cooked breakfast & coffee under the trees.   The plane below is our small 8 seater plane "Alison-Jane", our pilot was Ken & Tony volunteered to be the co-pilot.  He was quite excited to be sitting up the front but I was a little nervous as I was at the back with another female & had no-one to grab if I was worried!  

 

After a beautfiul sunset on take off we flew over Lake Argyle.   The small buildings dotted on the top of this hill is our camp where we stayed in Lake Argyle.    Ozzie & Maria (friends from Black Point) were staying here the day we flew over, but think they would still have been alseep as we passed over their camp!

 This photo does't do the Bungles justice, but the colours and shapes were spectacular and were exactly how we imagined they would look.  

After our flight we were taken to the Ivonhoe Cafe for a cooked breakfast & coffee ... nice way to end the morning!







I now have to confess that the 3 photos of our plane trip have been downloaded by some friends of ours on the same tour.... 

I think getting up so early had something to do with it.......Tony forgot the camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kununarra

We are now settled in Kununarra & finally have vegies & fruit again!  

Not so with the red & white wine.    Our supplies are slowly dwindling now & to purchase alcohol in Kununarra is quite an event.    You can only purchase wine between 5 & 8pm and only 2 bottles per person per day!!   So at 5pm with all the other tourists we went to purchase our 2 bottles.   Tony picked out 2 reds & 2 whites for me & to pay for our wines we had to queue through the shop, along the supermarket (where the food ckeck-outs are) into the mall nearly back to where we parked the car.   In the photo if you look really closely you can see me at the end of the line talking to the other tourists!!!   The sad part is, at 5pm we should have been back at camp enjoying our Happy Hour as it gets dark here about 5:15pm....

Interesting though..... there were only tourist on this line getting their 2 bottles & no indigineous people anywhere.    Evidently they pay $15 for a taxi to drive them around the corner to the Drive-In Bottle Shop to purchase their alcohol & then on the next one.    Taxi drivers are evidently allowed to do this!   So much for trying to help them!

Tony is here at the Pump House Station Restaurant enjoying a coffee on the river.   He is pointing to his new hair cut....   we both tried out a hairdresser living here in the park......
$15 for mens hair/ $20 for women

I was a little nervous, but thought it would grow back before I got home, but I was very happy with the result (& the price!)






After a little retail therapy visiting The Zebra Rock Shop, Sandalwood Factory & a few Nic Nac Shops we enjoyed a lovely sunset meal at the Pump House Station Restaurant overlooking the river.

 The sunset was spectacular as were the large mozzies that bit us.............. but the meal was great!

Our day at El Questro & Emma Gorge

After much deliberation talking to other tourist & Information Centres we were still not sure whether take our van into this area.    The Gibb River Road is quite a rugged 4WD only road with lots of corrugations and a few river crossings.    We decided it was easier to do a full day visiting Emma Gorge and El Questro and maybe a 4WD track while we were there.

Check out the small video below of the first 20kms of rough corrugations along the first part of Gibb River Road!

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First stop was Emma Gorge after battling the rough corrugations.   More mountain goat climbing over rocks and bolders to get there.   Here  I am at the first rock pool along the way with more bolders to tackle from here.... 

Emma Gorge had a beautiful rockpool at the bottom of the falls which we were able to swim in but had to keep moving though to the Zebedee Thermal Springs as they closed at 12 noon to the public so the tourist buses could use them privately!    We were lucky we left early for this walk as on the way back we passed quite a few tourist heading up for a swim!!

Zebedee Thermal Springs was relaxing after our hike up to Emma Gorge.   The temperature was around 30 deg in the water so quite warm & so clear you could see everything on the bottom of the river.






Saddleback Ridge was a 4WD track for experienced 4W drivers only, which we did from El Questro.  Tony hadn't driven on many 4WD tracks for some time so I was a little nervy taking off!   We drove through a rocky river bed, up a steep, rugged, narrow track along the top of this ridge to some spectacular views at the lookout.  The lookout is at the very peak of the hill in this photo.  Dean & Jude you would have loved this drive!  

This is what we saw quite a bit along the Gibb River Road - the dust was incredible & seeing how dusty & rugged the roads were at El Questro we were glad we decided to leave our van back at camp in Kununarra.  We did see quite a few large vans challenging the roads into camp & wandered how they actually managed to get in without doing any damage! 

This is a small video of us crossing the Pentacose River to get into El Questro.    As we were driving through we heard other people who had just crossed the river talking on their UHF about us.....They recognised our WILKS1 number plate and said they had seen us quite a few times in various parks.... they got a shock when we spoke back to them over the radio.    Tony & I had nicknames for our UHF given to us by other travellers...........Tony (forward scout) & me (stalker)     Will let you know why when we get back!

Lake Argyle - Western Australia

After resting at Victoria River we set off for Lake Argyle knowing we had to get rid of all our vegies & fruit before going thru the Quarantine Station.  We made enough Vegetable Curry to last us nearly 3 nights & for breakfast ate most of our fruit.    Arriving at the Quarantine Station Tony polished off 1/2 tub of cherry tomatoes and we ate our last 2 apples hoping we could stock up at Lake Argyle.   Wrong....... $1.30 for a tomato, potato or an apple so decided we would see what we could cook with no vegetables or fruit!

Today was Boab day!!!    They are amazing trees and come in so many interesting shapes and forms & we now understand the concept of the "upside down tree".

We didn't quite know what to expect at Lake Aygyle......maybe a lazy few days with the sound of water gently lapping the shore near our van..........NOT!  Instead just the largest body of inland water in the Southern Hem that sits inside a giant crator.......and man made at that.

And all that water (70k by 40k) held back by just a few hundred meters of stone and clay!






On the day we arrived there were only two spots left on the Sunset Cruise on the lake & as there was also a full moon that night we couldn't say no.  The lake, especially at sunset, was spectacular, and then over the other side of the boat, within a minute, came the full moon.


 


Tony joined the others for the sunset swim while I stayed back to mind the towells.  See if you can see Tony in the photo swimming in the moonlight....






Tony thought I was minding the towels, but I was actually sipping on champagne and enjoying the nibbles....






Tony (after 3500 odd kilometers) finally managed to have a kayak in Lake Argyle.  There are lots of  'freshies' in the lake which are of course not dangerous.  They are obvoiusly very timid though as two of them hit the water so fast that the splash nearly reached him. You need to look closely for the blue spec in the centre of the photo near the cliff.





The 5 km walk around the escarpment was well worth the effort.  We were able to look over the full length of the lake and back to the caravan park (just behind Tony).

We couldn't walk past the pool after our walk.







The pool is called 'infinity pool' and it's not hard to see why!!









Didn't even feel the cold!









In this shot below you can see the sea plane landing in the background.....hard to take after a full day in the saddle & this is where everyone comes to have a happy hour & watch the sunset!!

Tony still learning to play a tune..... has improved a little.......

Victoria River Roadhouse - Gregory National Park

 Victoria River Roadhouse is a great stopover to catch up on washing, cleaning and resting (or so I thought).  For those of you who have travelled & encountered "Laundry Protocol" in caravan parks you will appreciate that there are never enough washing machines in any parks, so when I discovered there was only 1 washing machine for the whole park which, because of the low water pressure, took 1 hour to complete a cycle, I was "not happy Jan"   Lucky I was 2nd in line for the machine. It is like "peak hour" at the laundry in most parks to get a machine & have come to the conclusion that Happy Hour is probably the best time to wander over to the laundry but I am not prepared to give up my "wine" time.   It is a great place to gather information from other travellers tho while you are waiting!

Victoria River Roadhouse is a very transient caravan park and most people only stay for 1 night......   Tony &  decided on 2 nights just to have a rest from all our mountain goat tracks and bolders!     By 10am the next morning we looked like we had parked in the middle of an open paddock until about 4pm the park was chockers again!

Tony & I met an interesting couple at the Bar who were from Scotland.   They own a car and campervan in Australia and also do house swapping to get a break from the dust and dirt & have seen more of Australia than many of us.   We are continually amazed at how much people from overseas love Australia and getting into its far away corners.

Next adventure is Lake Argyle!

Kakadu

For those who have been anxiously waiting for our next blog we can finally update you with our travels after having no internet or mobile phone coverage for 9-10 days.   For those who haven't been waiting you can stop reading now!!!  

After a farewell dinner in Cullen Bay, Darwin with  Banjo Boy & Blogger (Mark & Karen) we  realised we were still heading in the same direction to Kakadu.   Karen & Mark were impressed so far with Forward Scout (Tony's) research & spreadsheets so decided to head off to Mardugal Camp Ground in Kakadu.....

 These signs are everywhere in Kakadu & you start to wander whether there are actually any croc's around but after setting up camp we saw a salt water croc cruising by the boat ramp near our camp (about 200m away) so we didn't have to be told twice not to go near the water.  Up until now we thought these signs were just to entertain the overseas tourists.........not any more! 

Due to the late wet season the road to Twin Falls had just opened the day we arrived.   After a hairy 4WD track we came to Jim Jim River and a 750 mm deep river crossing which came over the top of our wheels.  The parks ranger said we would be OK as long as we had a snorkel.....we don't.    Tony & Mark covered the front of their cars with tarps to protect the engine but we didn't count on water coming in through the doors and inside the car............. it was scary but exciting crossing the river & glad we didn't start drifting off the causeway into the river (as we saw in the floods).....& of course to get back to camp we had to cross it again.   

We spent the next 5 days with all the windows and doors open to dry out the car! 

A small shuttle boat took us across the part of the river where there was no other access to the Falls &  after scrambling over bolders & rocks like mountain goats we reached the spectacular Twin Falls.  The Parks and Wildlife people here do a great job.  Further on It was hot & late so we only walked to the lookout at Jim Jim Falls.  We could have gone on further to reach a rock-hole for a swim but we had a 1.5 hour drive back to camp & didn't want to be on the road too long after dark.  Tony and I nearly had emu for dinner the previous afternoon!

The Didgeridoo Boys entertained us most nights. The local aboriginals told us women are not allowed to play the Didgeridoo or light fires so Karen & I had to be content listening and watching.   Still a lot more practice required for the didg...........and fire lighting by the looks.  Like all good indiginous women Karen and I held our tongues & drank our wine.  Luckily the boys had much more luck with the hunting and gathering as we finally settled down to a great camp fire meal.......(sausages in bread)

Noarlangie Rock Art Site is some of the best aboriginal art we have seen so far.  This is Nabulwingblwing.... he is a dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam!  We moved the boys on quickly!!

Next on the itinery was the Guluyambi Cultural Cruise down East Alligator River by an Aboriginal Guide who explained their culture & bush survival skills.   There are so many croc's in this river we were told to keep our arms in the boat. No-one needed to be told twice once the guide showed us how high the crocs can jump! There was a bend in the river where seasonally around 150 crocs gather to ambush and feed on anything from buffallo to fish.

   The middle spear in the above picture is used for punishment.....   If you steal or break clan rules the spear is driven into the calf of your leg.    The spear stays in for up to 6 weeks and slowly becomes infected and wiggles its way out of your leg.   Do it again, and it is speared into your groin.   Do it again & the spear goes in your chest!!!   You don't do it again......... 

Next stop was to see the Ubirr susnset with a few hundred other people scrambling over masses of rocks & bolders (some days I think am a mountain goat) to reach a plateau with 360 degree views of spectacular wetlands and grasses..........& then scramble back down the mountain in the dark!!!

Still a lot more to see in Kakadu next time we visit!