Category Archives: WA NT Trip 2016

Long time between Geocache stops …

Once again we awoke and the caravan was fairly deserted as most of the grey nomads had already hit the road, gee the sound deadening qualities of this caravan are good.

Just as we left the caravan park, I received a text from the bike riders and they had just arrived at Tennant Creek and we having a rest and refuelling so we continued on our way south – they would catch us soon enough.

It wasn’t until Devils Marbles that they caught us and overtook us. We caught up with them again at around the 200 km mark as they stopped to do a “splash and dash refuel” in a rest area.

At Ti Tree, we all met up again for lunch with the bikes refuelling. I didn’t bother as there should be enough fuel to get us to Alice Springs, besides I wasn’t going to pay $1.75 a litre for diesel.

This would have been the longest distance I have driven without stopping for a Geocache. I have been up and down this road quite a few times in the last 5 years and have found all the caches in this stretch. For the record, it was 500 kilometres without a cache find this trip.

We all arrived in Alice Springs at 3:30 pm. After we all refuelled (we ended up with 10 litres of my 125 litres left in the tank), the bikes went to Alice Springs Harley for bike bits and we went across the road from them to Alice Springs Hydraulic Service for caravan bits.

When we left Jayco Darwin on Monday, they were organising for a part for the bed slideout to be shipped to Alice Springs to be ready for Alice Springs Hydraulic Service to do the work. I walked in and they looked blankly at me. It appears that they hadn’t been told the work would be carried out by their workers and also the part hadn’t arrived. After a few phone calls it appears that the part had only just left Melbourne so it will arrive after we have left Alice Springs. Looks like we will be getting it fixed in Adelaide. Hopefully Jayco extend our warranty until it is fixed.

The fun continued when we arrived at the Big 4 Caravan Park. I had booked our site for 4 days online from Tennant Creek last night and included the length of the van as requested. Apparently the online site takes no notice of the length added and just allocates the next available site. The site we had been allocated was way too small for our van.

The woman behind the desk was doing her hardest to get us onto an appropriate site with some chess moves over the 4 days when her supervisor came across and grabbed to site we were being put onto for someone else. A woman that had been here for 11 days was not happy that she was opposite where all the school tours were camping and wanted to move, so she grabbed the site that was being made ready for us and we took her site. The only problem is that she had to pack up here van to move.

We went and parked next to the site and waited for them to move, it looked like the husband was about to have a heart attack doing all the packing up while she talked with the neighbours. I know who wears the pant in that relationship. While we moved in another 2 school tour buses arrived and camped across the road from us – this could be interesting. After they were all set up, the drivers parked the buses between us and them and we didn’t hear any noise from the school kids at all.

It was $10 schnitzel night at the Todd Tavern and it was organised to meet up with the bike crew for tea and a few drinks. It was very busy but we availed ourselves to some tables outside. This will probably one of the few nights left where we can enjoy a meal outside as we are headed back to winter with a passion down south.

Soaking in the morning – this is what it is all about …

There is nothing quite like an early morning swim at Mataranka. While Jenny kept sleeping, I headed down for a morning soak. With the steam rising off the pool, it was too good to get out and pack up the caravan. An hour later it was time to get out after having the pool virtually to myself for that time.

One of the first stops of the day was to the Gorrie Airfield, an airfield from the WW2 era which has been long abandoned and the scrub has taken over but there is a geocache there. This also was an opportunity to put the offroad caravan through its paces with skinny dirt tracks, bull dust holes and trees down. It didn’t take too long to get in but I decided to take the shortest track out which ended up not being the quickest having to remove fallen trees and to do some off road bush bashing.

Our original plan for the day was to stop at Daly Waters Pub but as it was just down the road from Mataranka we arrived at lunchtime which is way too early for us apprentice grey nomads, but would be perfect timing for the seasoned grey nomads so we continued on our journey.

The next plan was to stay at Renner Springs after catching up with the guys coming home on motorbikes. We both managed to get phone coverage – us at Elliott and them at HiWay Inn and came up with the Plan B. On arrival at Renner Springs there was no phone coverage and no spots in the caravan park to suit our van and still at least 3 hours of daylight, so we continued on our journey. The bikes ended up staying at Renner Springs but it sounded like we made the better choice to continue on.

Our Plan C was to camp at Banka Banka Station but with still daylight left and only 100 kilometres to Tennant Creek we continued on our journey. There is a pattern starting to form here.

Plan D and the final plan for the day was Tennant Creek. We arrived well before sunset (that doesn’t happen all that often). After refuelling it was around the corner to the Outback Caravan Park for the night.

Time to get down to some serious soaking …

This morning, the big thing was to move from our unpowered to a powered site which meant that we needed for those moving out to vacate their sites. Well that wasn’t a huge issue as by the time we woke up all of the grey nomads had already left so there were plenty of sites to choose from.

Once we had made the move, we headed up to Bitter Springs. I had been here before but Jenny had not. It is a different experience to the Rainbow Spring Thermal Pool at Mataranka Homestead. To enjoy Bitter Springs the necessities are a noodle and some thongs (the type you wear on your feet).

Instead of soaking, you grab your noodle and float downstream relaxing until you reach the footbridge (a journey of around 150-200 metres), get out and walk back to the start then float down again. The water is a similar temperature to Rainbow Spring and the water clear until the kids and swimmers get in and stir up the silt on the bottom of the creek. It was a popular spot today and soon filled up.

With the car park being 200 metres from the Springs, you certainly didn’t need to take a towel as you were dry by the time you returned to the car. We continued floating for a couple of hours before heading back to Mataranka Homestead.

Back at Rainbow Springs, we continued with our soaking until dark. It was interesting at dusk with the Little Red Flying Foxes started flying around, some of which came very close to hitting you. They must have been grabbing insects near the water surface.

It is going to be a shame to be heading on tomorrow.

Finally have made it to the Northern Territory …

Well is has taken 3 weeks and 7000 kilometres but we have made it to the Northern Territory or at least to the border and with that we lost 1 ½ hours as we also moved into the Central time zone. This meant that there was 90 minutes less daylight time for travel before sunset and even with leaving earlier than out normal 10 am, we still arrived in Katherine around sunset.

I am not sure what it is but the red rocks and ranges always look better in the Northern Territory and it was no different on the Victoria Highway particularly around Timber Creek and Victoria River Roadhouse. It was also around Timber Creek that we saw our first “saltie” or saltwater crocodile sunning himself on the banks of the Victoria River.

It was a pretty easy drive for the 500 kilometres today finishing up at Manbulloo Homestead just out of Katherine for the night. There was power, water and plenty of room so not squeezed in like a caravan park and cheaper too. All of the free camp parking areas we passed along the way were packed so I think we made the right choice.

Now that is a big dam …

Today was all about water and lots of it. This morning we made the drive to Lake Argyle on the Ord River. It is an impressive dam and lake but you could tell the water level was down a bit judging by the marks on the rocks. We found out later that it is normal as Lake Argyle is only there to maintain the water level of Lake Kununurra and even if it didn’t rain for 5 years there would still be enough water to do all the irrigation, power generation and maintain environmental flows.

In the afternoon we took the Sunset BBQ Cruise on Lake Kununurra. It didn’t take long to spot a crocodile with a Freshwater Croc sunning itself on the lawn of the caravan park just down from our caravan. Apparently it is the resident croc that is old and lacking a lot of teeth so is not considered all that dangerous – nice to know.

While on the cruise heading upstream on the Ord River towards the Ord Dam, we passed the annual Dragon Boat race boats making their way down from the Ord Dam, a distance of 55 kilometres and they had been paddling all day. I would imagine that they were glad it was near the end of their journey. Oh and the local team was winning.

We cruised upstream to the “Sleeping Buddha” rock formation before heading back down to the Diversion Dam and into Packsaddle Lagoon. In the lagoon we were treated to sunset whilst wining and dining on steak and barramundi.

It was an enjoyable and relaxing cruise and would recommend it to anyone – just look up Kununurra Cruises.

Another big drive …

It was not our biggest drive but was not far off it with a distance of 650 kilometres to travel from Fitzroy Crossing through to Kununurra. So it was up early to get on the road but not too early. We woke at 6:30 am but decided even though it was daylight it was still too early. We eventually got on the road at 8:15 am.

Again there were plenty of cattle and boab trees in the morning but that gave way to more horses than cattle in the afternoon.

We had a break for fuel and lunch at Halls Creek. At the Shell servo in the Main Street, there was a queue to get to the fuel bowsers but I found the truck bowsers around the back and they were empty so no waiting around here.

Once again we arrived just before sunset – nothing unusual there as we like to use all the available daylight (well in the afternoon anyway).

At least we won’t be doing an overnighter as we will be staying Kimberleyland Caravan Park for a couple of days. The park is nice spot on the water at Lake Kununurra but electricity dropped out a few times both for the caravans and the cabins.

Jabba the Hutt is everywhere …

A pretty cruisey day today with a 400 kilometre drive to Fitzroy Crossing from Broome. The weather was perfect – not too hot and not too cold and a slight breeze.

Apart from the road, there were a lot more cattle, road trains and boab trees of all sizes. Another thing there were a lot of was termite mounds. These ones are different than those in the Northern Territory as they resemble Jabba the Hutt rather than the tall spear like shape.

Single laned bridges started making appearances today and being big has its advantages with cars tending to wait for me to come through.

We stopped for lunch at Willare Roadhouse which has now taken the mantle for the most expensive fuel so far at $1.89 a litre for diesel. The price dropped 50 cents to $1.39 at Fitzroy Crossing.

Today was one of those rare days where we arrived in daylight and it was good to see the Fitzroy River Lodge caravan park in daylight. It is an impressive place with the amenities up on a hill with the sites all radiating out from it. The sites are also grass.

It was a bit overcast for the sunset and a few drops of rain starting dropping. A quick look at the radar and it appears we have driven into another tropical cloud stream. How much water drops this time, we will have to wait and see.

Don’t get blown away …

It was definitely a good decision to have an extra day in Broome but it was more by good luck than good judgement. We awoke to gusting winds up to 50 kph and it continued for most of the day so travelling would have been almost impossible.

Nothing better to do but to check out Broome and its history. First port of call was the Broome Historical Museum which provided a good insight into the history of Broome including its pearling and World War 2 attack.

Following around the coast we visited Entrance Point (with wild weather), Gantheaume Point with its dinosaur prints (although they were under metres of water) and finally to Cable Beach were we went for a paddle in the Indian Ocean. It was not a bad beach but the wind today was not a huge welcome to enjoy it.

Finishing up the afternoon, we used the Jetty to Jetty Trail app to find out a little more history of the town leading into a sunset to the west.

The highlight of night life in Broome is the Sun Picture Gardens which is the world’s oldest picture gardens still in operation. Tonight’s offering was You Can See Me 2, so we grabbed some popcorn and took our seats in the front row. With the sun setting and the moon and stars appearing, the movie started which was only interrupted by 3 planes flying overhead taking off from the nearby Broome International Airport (they came straight over the centre of the screen). A good night out followed up by pizza back in the van.

Tomorrow is another travel day to Fitzroy Crossing and it looks like the wind has stopped for now.

Starting to feel some warmth …

Today was a big travel day with 600 kilometres to our camp at Broome tonight. Before leaving Port Hedland, we did a quick “mainy” to see the sights of the Port. It very much is a port that moves a lot of raw materials – iron ore and salt.

Finally we are starting to see some animals with cattle and kangaroos (all alive) alongside the road and some points on the road but they didn’t pose any issues. It would probably be different at night.

One of the highlights was coming across a degree confluence which of course had a geocache. For those wondering, a degree confluence is the intersection of the latitude and longitude integers. Today I visited the degree confluence of 20°S 120°E. There are somewhere around 727 degree confluences in Australia but not all are easily accessible.

The wind for the first 400 km was of course a headwind which blew out the fuel economy to 28 litres per 100 km but at least for the last 200 kms, the road swung to the north so ended up with some wind assist.

As usual, we arrived in Broome after sunset but not by far, managing some sunset photos about 40 kilometres out from town.

We have a bit of a rest day tomorrow looking around Broome before making the move toward the Northern Territory.

What sort of fuel economy do you call that …

After last night, today was totally different. It was still overcast but the cloud base was very high so no rain however there was some wind – head wind in the morning then a tail wind in the afternoon.

A quick look around Newman with the chance to get up close and personal with one of the big mine dump trucks and we were soon headed to the coast.

It was a little worrying as I looked at the fuel gauge – it was going down way to quickly even with the head wind. Then a light bulb went off in my head, I must have forgotten to release the hand brake on the caravan. Lucky we had only gone about 20 kilometres. At least the brakes pads are now bedded in. After letting them cool down before using the brakes again and they are working a treat now.

We passed through some amazing country with the Hamersley Range and in particular the Munjina Gorge.

The Great Northern Highway is a very busy road with a constant stream of Road Trains with 4 trailers hauling iron ore to Port Hedland and returning back to the mines. As they are very heavy, even I could overtake them with ease hauling the Thommo Taj.

It is not often that we arrive at our campsite before dark but we managed it this afternoon with half an hour to spare. After setting up the van at Blackrock Tourist Park (we got the last available site), time to watch the spectacular sunset, then let Jenny loose at the shops.

Tomorrow we head to Broome for a couple of days.