All posts by Scott

Windy with some wildlife …

There was no chance of a sleep-in this morning with the plumbers and road workers turning up in the caravan park to start their day around 7:30am.After putting up with the noise for a little while, it was time to get up and pack up. They had already pegged out the next lot of digging right up to my car so I guess they were keen to see me pull out.

A quick stop at the Wax Garden just out of St Arnaud for a few geocaches then westward bound for South Australia.

At Rupanyup, there have been a few additions since I was last there. They now have chainsaw cut sculptures up the main street and a mural on the Shire Office as well as the Silo art. Of course there are some geocaches near all of these so some time was spent in town, checking out the art and grabbing the caches.

Just before Nhill, I got the evil eye by a highway patrol stopped on the side of the road with his roof lights on. I slowed down to 25kph even though it only has to be 40kph in Victoria. I guess he wasn’t happy that I didn’t slow down far enough back.

It is good to be able to drive over the Border into SA without having to do COVID checks and the associated permits.

It was into Bordertown for a pasty, vanilla slice and iced coffee from the Morning Loaf Bakery (a bit of an institution here).Another stop for some geocaches just out of Bordertown at Poocher Swamp. It was a little dry here today. We will need to come back here when it is full of water and a bit greener.

It was back onto the Dukes Highway to Tintinara, then left turn to Woods Well on the Coorong to my final campsite for this trip at Parnka Point (Pelican) Campground.

Even though the website had a number of the campsites booked, I was the only one here. Maybe it was too windy for them. I had meant to book site 3 on the waters edge but my fat fingers picked 2. On trying to book site 3, it was already gone.

Site 2 was a little protected from the wind but it came with a pet.

After parking up, I went to walk around the back of the van and found a 1 metre Eastern Brown snake taking in some rays. I pulled forward to give him some room while keeping an eye on which way he headed. Luckily it was into the scrub away from my van.

It ended up that Site 3 didn’t turn up so I could have grabbed it.

We have Arrived at the Mountain …

Another easy day, leaving West Wyalong at 10:00Am.

The roads again were not fairing well with all the water recently with more pot holes and road surface breaking up. There were a lot of lakes on the sides of the roads where paddocks once stood and the creeks were full. You did not dare pull off the black top for the fear of sinking in the mud.

A lot of roads were closed due to flooding but not the track we were taking to Bathurst.

We stopped for lunch in Blayney at Goose Park which apparently was under water a week ago.

The clouds were building as we got closer to Bathurst but there was no rain to fall today. Jenny was a little excited as we drove up Panorama Avenue to the Mount Panorama Race Track. It was a seamless pickup of credentials, shirts, passes, caps and other bits and pieces from the Officials Credential Office.

Off to the Officials Campground. There is 2 ways to access this campground. The first is to wait for the racing to finish for today then take the circuit to the infield.

The second is to use the tunnel under the circuit. There is a height limit of 3.1m for the tunnel and I was pretty sure that we could fit through.

The guard at the tunnel had a pipe jig to check heights and it looked like I had a few cms to spare. Down and into the tunnel and we didn’t hear any scraping so foot down, close eyes and we were through and into the campground.

Managed OK to get the Taj onto our site (228), with room for the caravan with awning out and car across the front.

The Fire Chief stopped by and took me on a tour of the Pits, Support Paddock before picking up a fire truck for a couple of laps of the track to get my bearings and where all the fire trucks will be located. Jenny even tagged along for the ride.

My role for this weekend is in Race Control looking after the Fire and Supply crew.

280 kms today with fuel at an all time low for the moment at West Wyalong of $1.459 a litre

Great day for travel …

No rush today to get away, leaving the Yanga Creek Rest Area around 10:30Am. Our travels took us across the Hay Plain which is normally dry, and dusty except for the rice and cotton fields. Not this time.

With all the recent rain, the place is very green with standing water on the side of the road and all the creeks full. We even didn’t see any kangaroos along the road, dead or alive, which is unusual for this run.

The roads have not weathered the rain well with a lot of damage and pot holes.

We did see some animals today. A farmer was moving his sheep along the highway north-east of Hay to take advantage of the abundant grass available on the roadside.

Our digs for the night was the Ace Caravan Park in West Wyalong. We had a great grassed site but unfortunately the mozzies came out enforce at dusk so couldn’t take advantage of the site.

Only 380 kms of travel today with fuel of $1.629 at Hay.

Run away …

Even though I was involved in the Adelaide Rally for the last 4 days, I have a capable Deputy so left the Event around 2:00Pm only leaving 3 stages left for Kieran to look after.

After dropping the gear at the Rally Office, picking up the caravan from the Showgrounds then home to get Jenny, we were on the road around 4:00Pm for the run to NSW.

My plan was to get to around Balranald tonight.

An hour into the drive, I contacted the Rally Office to see how the last 3 stages went. It appeared that they didn’t.

On one of the stages, SAPOL and SES needed access to find a missing child possibly in a dam. This stage was cancelled.

Another stage had a car flip over and block the road. By the time this was cleaned up, this stage was also cancelled.

That left only one of the three going through to completion.

We arrived to the Victorian Border before sunset. There were a couple of SAPOL members checking arrivals from Victoria but no Victoria Police to check travel passes into Victoria.

We only had a couple of hours as we traversed Victoria to the NSW Border and the road was very quiet with a couple of trucks and cars over the whole journey in both directions.

We arrived at the NSW Border at Tooleybuc around 10:00Pm and there was no-one to be found and no traffic either.

It was onto Balranald for fuel then just down the road to Yanga Creek Rest Area for a sleep.

We travelled 524 kms today and fuel at Pinnaroo was $1.649 a litre and Balranald $1.619 a litre.

On the Road Again …

With all good plans there are some wrinkles along the way. I was supposed to do the final readiness yesterday in preparedness for a quick getaway this morning.

That plan came unstuck with a overtime shift following a standby shift making it 24 hours at work. By the time I got home last night, all I felt like doing was to hit the sack. Despite this setback, I managed to get most done last night with the finishing off this morning, before hitting the road a little after 1030 (a bit later than I planned).For a Saturday, South Road was still a car park and it took a lot longer than expected to get away from Adelaide, however the delays didn’t stop there.

Both on Port Wakefield Road and Augusta Highway there were roadworks which either had us slowing down to 60kph or stopped and waiting for an escort.

There was the “compulsory” stop at Port Wakefield for a couple of pasties from Kiplings Bakery. The seagulls certainly like them too with a scene resembling Alfred Hitchocks “Birds” around our car when we threw them the scraps.

What would normally take around 4 hours and change to Port Augusta, today took 5 and a half hours.There is not as much daylight these days but we kept moving arriving at Wudinna around 7pm, staying at the Wudinna Showgrounds.

The plan is to make haste to the Western Australia border, then take it easy when we are within the State. With COVID, the State Borders can go up in a heartbeat so we would like to at least get into WA, even if we have to bypass Perth due to any snap lockdown.

We managed 576 kilometres for the day with fuel being $1.319 a litre at Port Augusta.

Look out for Wildlife …

Another relaxing start to the day as we were waiting for my sister Diana and brother in law Danny to arrive from Mataranka. They rolled into Litchfield at 1:00pm. A quick catch-up then it was onto the Old 4WD Campground at Florence Falls to set them up. We are continuing to stay at Litchfield Tourist Park, while Diana and Danny want to stay off the grid at the National Park campground.

Back in the day you must have needed to have a 4WD to get to the campground but it is a bitumen road all the way now. It wasn’t full but it filled later in the day. There were a couple of big vans in their so we could have stayed but there was no power or generators allowed.

It didn’t take long to setup the campsite, some lunch then it was an 800-metre walk to the Florence Falls. The advantage of being down at the Old 4WD Campground is that it has flat walking track to the Falls whereas the 2WD Campground and Carpark requires a 135 staircase to access the Falls.

Once again, the Falls were a lot quieter than I have seen in the past. The other difference is the Falls are not as fast flowing as when we normally visit a couple of months earlier. This is a combination of being later in the dry season and a relatively lower than average wet season.

It was a refreshing couple of hours floating in the Falls pond which ended up being a bit of a spa treatment with the small fish starting to nibble on the dead skin of the back of my heels. The first bite was not expected and gave a bit of a fright, given that crocodiles are known to be in these waters.

After making the 800-metre walk back to camp, we headed off to Buley Rockhole to finish out what was left of daylight for the day. The water up here was 2C warmer (28C) than Florence Falls (26C) even though it is the same water only 1km apart. We enjoyed some beverages in the Rockhole, was visited by one of the local Water Monitors before heading back to Diana and Danny’s camp for tea.

We still had a 30-minute drive back to our camp and was worried about wildlife crossing the road in the dark. I would have expected at least wallabies but did not expect echidnas and snakes. I missed the echidna that was using the bitumen as its own road but hit the snake coiled in the centre of the road.

On return to camp and phone service, there was a email confirming the 2nd Darwin Supercar race on the weekend of 22nd and 23rd August. I guess we have to stay a bit longer up here in the warmth and blue skies.

Change of Scenery …

With the first Race Meeting being postponed, it was time for a change of scenery, and we made our way down to Rum Jungle for a week.

We based ourselves at Litchfield Tourist Park with the plan of making day trips into Litchfield National Park each day. The caravan park has shady sites as well as green grass.

Although being an hour or so south of Darwin, the lack of phone coverage and wifi meant that we were also “off the grid” as well.

After setting up camp, there was still a couple of hours of daylight so it was off to Buley Rockhole to relax and see the sun set.

We are not completely off the grid with satellite television, electricity and water. We also have ants, cane toads and other bugs but they are not too annoying.

Jenny saw an advertisement for a small LED projector and said that would be good to have. I mentioned there was one in the caravan, so we set up a towel outside for a big screen and watched TV out under the awning. Camping at its best.

Cahills Crossing Crocs …

Talking with Sean last night at the Wharf, a day trip to Cahills Crossing in Kakadu National Park was the plan for the day.

It is a 3-hour drive from Darwin and we left just after 9:00am this morning.

First stop was Jabiru. With the mine closed or closing, it is a very quiet town now. Jenny went shopping for lunch at the supermarket but found the shelves were very bare. They did have pies and pasties, which were probably the hottest (temperature) we have eaten. I reckon that I burnt all of my mouth.

Another 30km and we were soon at Cahills Crossing. This is a concrete causeway between Kakadu and Arnhem Land. There are many videos of the crocodiles on the causeway on the Net and peak viewing of crocs is at high tide. To drive across the causeway requires a permit from the Aboriginal Community.

We arrived about an hour before high tide and was met by a number of fishermen on the causeway trying to snag a Barramundi before the waiting crocs grabbed them. There was one guy that must have had the right sort of lure as he was pulling a Barra every couple of minutes, although they were all undersize.

One of the “local” fishermen was not very happy as he managed to snag sticks, trees and lost a couple of lures. He was good to chat to with plenty of stories. He was not too happy when a car of tourists went over the causeway and turned around and drove back over. I guess I won’t be doing that, unless I want a “bone” pointed at me.

Even though the tide had not pushed over the causeway, the crocodiles seem to know it was going to happen as they all started making their way from upstream.

There was a point when the downstream flow and the high tide was at equilibrium and it all went quiet. The crocs all started to move into their positions.

The high tide then overtook the river flow. This was the time the crocs were waiting for. There were around 35 of them all on the upstream side of the causeway awaiting the Barramundi trying to get over the causeway.

Some were on the edge of the concrete with their mouths open waiting. Others were further back. It almost seems to be a pecking order to where they are located. Occasionally there were skirmishes if some got too close to another.

Another interesting thing was they used they front legs as outriggers with legs out to the side flat then lifting their claws vertical. At first, I thought it was a croc with a gammy leg but then there were more and more doing the same.

For the 3 hours observing the crocs, we only ever see one get a Barramundi. I guess they will all be back again tomorrow to try again.

It was also interesting some of the traffic going across the causeway to / from the Aboriginal Communities at various times of the high tide. At some times the vehicles had to wait for crocs to get out of their way.

We stayed down on the causeway with the fisherman but there is a viewing platform up higher on the bank. We found out the next day that Sean was up there somewhere but never knew.

We can recommend making this trip to see Cahills Crossing but make sure that it is timed with a high tide to see all the activity.

Another 3-hour drive back to Darwin for the completion of a good day out.

Floating in Berry Springs …

Jenny wanted to get to Berry Springs while we were up here this trip and today was a good day for it. Berry Springs seems to be closed more than open when we are up here due to crocodiles found in the pools. Luckily today there were no crocs.

It is only short drive from Darwin and given it was a Saturday, the springs were not too busy. Part of the COVID-19 requirements is that if the carpark is full then the Springs are at capacity. There were no problems with that today.

We spent a couple of hours soaking and floating from the Falls to the Upper Pool and Lower Pool.  Another good day on vacation.

Tonight, was wharf night, with the Adelaide Fire crew having a meal at Stokes Hill Wharf. The wharf has many different cuisines, with varying price levels in a great location with views over Darwin Harbour and fish swimming up to the wharf but not allowed to be fished.

For a Saturday night, the wharf was remarkedly quiet. This seems to be the norm in these COVID-19 times.

Some more Geocaching …

Another day of Geocaching with Jenny staying back at the Taj and me undertaking some of the caches that required some walking.

There were a number of caches in the Holmes Jungle Nature Park and I probably should have brought some shoes with me but I managed to do the walking in NT safety shoes (thongs). It was warm but not uncomfortable.

After tackling the Park caches, I headed into the Berrimah Industrial area for some urban caches but shouldn’t have bothered with a few DNF’s.

I eventually gave up and picked up Jenny from the Taj as we were meeting up with a softball buddy of Jenny and Rachael for a BBQ at their house in Leanyer.

Danielle And Troy had moved up from Adelaide after Troy started a new job with NT Police in their call centre.