Well the bed seemed too enticing this morning and we didn’t manage to get the early morning dip in. Even with not feeling like getting out of bed, the van was packed up and we were on the road before 9am and heading north to Darwin.

The Stuart Highway was certainly busy this morning with road trains and convoys of caravanners, some of them slow with little opportunity for overtaking.

It should have taken a little over an hour to get to Katherine but of course with a few geocaches along the way, it was closer to 1.5 hours.

With fuel around $1.30 a litre in Katherine, we managed to find a truck stop not that well known in the industrial area for 10c a litre cheaper. And once again we were soon on the way again.

More traffic and road trains with a smattering of road works and we could finally smell Darwin around 3pm. But with all the traffic lights, it wasn’t until 330pm before we made it to the Discovery Tourist Park.

There was just enough time to set up everything then have a shower to wash off the sweat and it was time to head into the Darwin Ski Club for the Officials Welcome Dinner.

There is nothing that compares to a Darwin sunset and tonight didn’t disappoint. It is always good to get free cold beer, a good meal, a chance to catch up with all the firies for the V8 Supercars that make their way to Darwin from all over Australia and the spectacular sunset.

Something that was visibly absent was the midgies. For some reason they didn’t seem to be biting. That will be a welcome change. I have since found out that the moon has a lot to do with them and there is such a thing as a Midgie calendar where you can find out when they will be bad and this week is not one of those week, what a bonus.

Back to the caravan park, with what was going to be an easy day tomorrow.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Not having power overnight meant for an early to bed and early to rise but still managed around 10 hours sleep for the night. A quick bite to eat and on the road by 800am. That is the earliest we have hit the road this trip. We even beat the grey nomads out of town.

After an easy drive with a few stops for some geocaches, we arrived at Mataranka Homestead just after 1000am. You would think that would be early enough to get into camp but there was 10 people in front of me in the queue and another 6 behind me. It was going to be interesting to see if we get power.

We didn’t need to worry too much as there was a lot of other campers moving out after their stay and we managed a site right next to Gary and Deb who arrived yesterday. They even had scones with jam and cream waiting for us.

After a bit of relaxing, it was time for a bit of soaking. Headed down to the now expanded thermal pool for 3 hours of soaking. Gee it is hard to take. My gout infected toe even felt great after the soak. Will need to go again. Oh wait, we are here for a couple of days. 🙂

Another night of dining out, this time at the Mataranka Homestead and a feed of Barra for something different. The Barra at Daly Waters Pub last night was better though.

There was supposed to be a band for a couple of hours but someone forgot to tell the band as they were still up in Darwin. Whoops.

A little later on, Nathan “Whippy” Griggs, a whip cracker put on a show and it was a great show. If you ever get a chance to see his show, don’t miss it. Plenty of tricks, cracking of whips, audience participation (great to see the looks on their faces as whips crack around them) and a grand finale of flaming whips. He certainly made up for the lack of the band. And I even bought one of his stubby holders.

In all of this, we held a geocaching event but the only attendees were myself, Jenny, Gary and Deb. We have another event planned for Thursday at Mindil Beach. Maybe we will get some more attendees then.

• 
• 

Last nights cartons must have quietened down the locals overnight as there was no sign of any when we left Borroloola this morning.

Today’s journey is on the Carpentaria Highway through to the north-south Stuart Highway. It consisted mainly of single lane road for most of it with some normal two lane road on the crests and where the road has been replaced after being washed away.

Not far from Borroloola is the Caranbirini Conservation Reserve, which we were told by the caravan park is a must stop for with a permanent waterhole and sandstone pillars. So I guess we had better stop.

We are glad that we did stop. There are a couple of different loop walks and we took the 2 kilometre walk around and through the centre. From the outside, it looked like any other sandstone outcrop seen in the Territory but once you got into the centre area, wow.

The pillars and sandstone features were spectacular and well worth the stop and the walk.

There were a constant stream of 4 trailer road trains coming our way once we were back on the road and given it was single lane road, they were welcome to it and I pulled off as each of them passed. Soon we found out where they were coming from, the McArthur River Mine. I believe it is a bauxite mine and they ship out of Bing Bong, not far north of Borroloola.

We stopped at an oasis called Cape Crawford for lunch which had a nice spot with shade and green grass. Jenny had a craving for hot chips and luckily they cooked them here. There was a variety of bird life here and Jenny made the mistake of tossing the Apostlebirds a couple of chips, they are now her friends for life.

It was just now time to sit back for another 270 kilometres on the single lane road, getting off for the occasional road train.

Pulling in Daly Waters, it was like Rundle Street with cars, caravans, motorbikes and trucks. By the looks of things, it looked like the caravan park was full and it was only 330pm in the afternoon.

A quick abandonment of the van in the street and I joined the queue of hopeful travellers. The powered sites had all gone but the overflow unpowered site was filling fast. We were lucky enough to get one of the last sites. It wasn’t long after we parked up that the chains went up on the main park and the overflow, with all others being moved on.

Last time I was through, the Daly Waters Pub was up for sale and finally the pub and caravan park has sold to a bloke from Coober Pedy who has a number of businesses around Australia. He takes over in October.

Meals are a little different at this pub due to the large number of people needing feeding. They do a “Beef and Barra” meal with $32 a head. There is then a number of different meal times starting at 630pm then each half hour after that. Ours was down for 730pm. In the meantime, it was drinking and music time while we waited in the beer garden. Tom Maxwell was a country singer that wasn’t too bad and he was followed by a rock and roll guy that was pretty average.

I estimate that there would have been close to 200 meals served tonight and this happens every night. There would be some pubs back in Adelaide that would kill for those sort of meal numbers. Oh and the “Beef and Barra” was good too.

Back to the van for some reading before hitting the hay. Tomorrow is an easy drive with 168 kilometres to Mataranka but we will need to get on the road early to beat the grey nomads to the powered sites.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•