In the mean time our son and girlfriend are back to Holland and we are continuing our travelling. But, I left you on the border of the Northern Territory so I am going back in time a bit to catch up with the story, and take you further;
After we left this paradise (I mean Lake Argyle) we came over the border from Western Australia into Northern Territory very quickly.
Roadwork with a traffic light haha
Before Katherine there was nothing so a few free camps again which actually was not much fun, it was too hot.
but these sort of things is a great advantage of free camps, that has to be said too....
The fridge and freezer could hardly cope and so we decided when we get to Katherine we will take a caravan park for a few days to recover. It was a decent thing to do as Fred saw a problem again with the car so we had to let it fix. Again $ 185.00 pfff, when does it stop. I'm trying to save for tickets to holland next year and this doesn't really help.
Katherine has hot spring which was near the mechanic where our car was being repaired so this was a nice time spending. In the caravan the aircon was running all day, what a relieve!
Hey! you people there in Dutchland, you might detest the much rain you always get but no rain at all can also be annoying! Can you remember our gold field adventure in the beginning, the rain we got and that horrible trip after Credo Station?? That the only and last rain we had for months. It's not that we long for rain but it's the dust which occurs after so much draught. It gets everywhere and then you get there willy nillies and you eat dust, taste dust, see dust, feel dusty etc etc.....and there is no hiding from it.
So all we want is: "een buitje voor het stof" as they say in Dutch, which means a little shower for the dust.
Katherine has a very high population of aboriginal people which means very strict alcohol policy. I wanted to buy a bottle of sherry, the two litre bottles I usually buy we haven't seen since Perth. Anyhow, the liquor shop opens at 2 o'clock, there are two policemen in front and you have to show some identity. Then they ask where you are going to drink the purchased liquor and then they want to know, in our case in which caravan park you are. Then finally inside the shop, finding your bottle and because it is sherry which is more heavy, you can only buy it between 2 and 6 o'clock, you get to the counter and they ask your identity again. They put your, in my case drivers licence, into a machine and then finally you can pay and leave. What a hassle! Hope it's a bit easier in Darwin, can't remember.
We stopped in Pine Creek for a night, also to see if that caravan park I chose (railway resort) is nice to go with Danny and Patricia and YES it was;
A second stop of two nights somewhere between Pine Creek and Darwin, was quite nice; Coomalie,
Just $ 20.00 but with power and, for the women, new amenities, for the gents it was a bit old but clean.
On this park I learnt that picking Mango's is very dangerous, did you know that??!!
There were a lot of Mango trees, full with Mango's but not ripe yet. A men said to me that they will ripen after picking but you had to be careful while picking because the stem contains acid. So I put my glasses on and armed with a scissor I went to the Mango tree and chose a nice big one, still green.
I cut the stem and suddenly I thought I was stung by bees, all over my arms I got terrible stings so I dropped the mango and run all the way cursing over the field till the stings stopped. Crikey what a disaster. Luckily I was warned so afterwards I new that it had to be the acid and soooo lucky I had my glasses on. What a terrible thing could happen with your eyes so people you are warned!!
The Mango did ripen after all and was lovely!!
We arrived in Darwin, actually a bit before Darwin; Virginia. We are on a nice caravan park and it looks very tropical. Guess what!! We had rain last night, after so many months of draught and dust!
Finely that "buitje voor het stof" ........
You know in the mean time our son and girlfriend are coming and that will be the 29 th of September. ...
We came a bit earlier to Darwin to arrange some things again like an appointment to the Dentist. I have a bridge and that has to come out and then I get a temporary denture. You remember our power steering wheel was leaking? Well we went to the Toyota to let it check and to get a quote; we have a Toyota Surf which is imported from Japan and when you get trouble with such a car, you better pray because the Toyota let us know, they are not allowed to work on an imported Toyota !
So they sent us somewhere else and they didn't either. After 4 addresses we came to someone in Palmerston who did the job for us. It had been dangerous to drive that long with a leaking steering wheel, even when you top the oil up every time.
Anyhow, my teeth and that major repair has costed us a fortune! Luckily I always have a panic account with some money on it but the bottom is in sight.
But we won't let that spoil our "holiday" with Danny and Patricia, we are really looking forward to it.
You know now that we had that "holiday" together so that will be the next story. In the mean time, keep safe and look forward to my next story!
After two weeks house sitting in Broome we are leaving now on the 31 rst of August.
We really had a great time and feel a bit sad, not only leaving Broome which is a very lovely town but also leaving the dog and his owner. We will miss both.
Again packed with foodstuff and the heart attack fuel ($ 230.00 and the tanks weren't even empty) we are going on our way to Darwin which is still a little 2000 k's away and we have 4 weeks to get there so along the road we hope to have some more adventures, hopefully nice ones only!
It is Aboriginal country we're going through and though there are a lot good people, there are also some trouble ones. So, no free camps when there is nobody else, but that's not new for us, we did that already, and I read that in certain towns you better even not go to a caravan park. Ok, here we go!
The first part isn't really interesting, except for some Ant-cities it's boring but still we had a nice first stop at a free camp.
Our second stop was in Fitzroy Crossing and it was not recommended to go to the two caravan parks in Town so we went to the lodge and caravan park just out of town, over the bridge. We remembered it quite well as we have been there before and it's a great and very big park, lots of shade to AND Wild life;
We decided to stay two nights and surprise, surprise; we even did a tour!! After a lazy evening and a nice sleep we got up at half pass six, prepared our brekky to take with us as it is too early to eat at that time and off we went to the Geikie Gorge were we will go on the 8.30 boat tour over the Fitzroy river.
We were nicely on time so after I bought the tickets we sat under a tree and ate our breakfast.
The boat has no canopy and it is already really hot, amazing that early in the morning. Luckily at the entrance, in the kiosk were we purchased the tickets, they had sunscreen free to use!
Movie Time;
Sometimes it was a bit scary with all these loose hanging rocks....
The tour was great.
After the tour we also did a walk and we were glad we had enough water with us because it became really hot.
On our way back to the caravan park we passed the old Fitzroy River Crossing;
Movie time;
Back in the caravan park we hoped for a relaxed afternoon reading, dozing off a bit, you know just doing nothing but then; OMG when I came into the caravan I saw thousands, maybe even millions very, very tiny ants marching over the bench, through the sink, over the stove etc etc!! They even had taken over the cupboards and so Fred started to take everything out and threw it outside were I checked on ants and so the whole contents of the cupboards lay outside in the heat of the sun, me in the middle of it!
Sticky, healthy muesli bars, chips, cereals, etc. full with ants, even between the papers of my cooking book they were marching. Anyhow, few hours later, approx. 5 o'clock , after cleaning, powdering and spraying everything were we saw ants, in and outside the caravan, we sat down with a beer and our books, nearly dark now, bugger!
Today, 3 rd of September, we left Fitzroy Crossing and heading to Mary Pool which is a free camp again.
Arriving there and after finding a nice spot, we decided to stay two nights. Lovely again with cows every where, birds (one of them just shit on Fred's chair haha).
Now and then we still see some stray little ants walking, must have been hiding somewhere and missed the battle, but we will beat them, that's for sure!!
We woke up this morning at approx. 6 o' clock and tried to sleep a little more but that's impossible! There are so many birds having discussions to and with each other and most probable there are some fights going on as well as they scream there heads off. But that's not the only issue, it's getting warm already and the only disadvantage of free camping is when it's hot, it's even hotter inside of the caravan, no electricity so no aircon or even fan. The fridge can hardly cope, it works on gas when we have no power and it cools off during the night to approx. 8 or 9 degrees. Yesterday's temperature was 35 , inside the caravan 38 and inside the fridge; 16! You can imagine that we keep our beer on top of the frozen meat in the freezer.
Have you ever been skying in Austria? We did in the past and we really loved it, especially the Jagerthee and Gluhwein, you know, the wine you drink warm. Well we like Gluhwein in winter in Austria but to drink it with your dinner in Aussie weather......., well, we have no choice!
Today the same temperature is promised so, now we are awake that early we might as well go early so we left Mary pool and drove for another 220 k's to the next free camp.
Wild Horses
Boab Trees
Just in the middle of the two free camp we came through Halls Creek, a small town with a high aboriginal population. As we already decided not to stop here, I saw with passing by that it was a good decision as the caravan park didn't look very tempting. Just outside Halls Creek is China Wall, I read about it and it was a must see so we took the little d-tour to go there. Fred wasn't that interested so he stayed at the car and I took a look. I climbed a few rocks to look at the wall and to feel the heat heavy on my shoulders I decided not to go any further as it would be a struggle.
I made some picture of the part I could see but I assume that there must be more. Sorry people, you have to look for yourself if you are interested as I didn't had the energy!
As you most probable already noticed we drive very slowly, we have time enough to get to Darwin so we go slow and stop early to enjoy the free camps and cope the heat. We don't have aircon in the car (it's broken) so we drive with open windows and sometimes when the sun is on one of our sides, you have to shut that window otherwise you get sunburn. O no, we don't complain, not at all!! Thinking of the freezing nights we had in the Gold fields, I wouldn't dare to complain! Isn't it amazing actually, that was just a few weeks ago and it's still cold there, just a few kilometres north and such other weather! Well it's a big country!
I would have liked to go to the Bungles Bungles but you can only get there by 4WD. I hear you saying, but you have one, yes we do but we had another struggle after one of our dirt road adventure, the window of the drivers seat wouldn't close anymore. Luckily where we were house sitting, the car could go into the garden otherwise we had to leave it with the window open and that's not done. Also lucky was that it only costed $ 105.00 to let it fix at the Toyota in Broome. So, no dirt roads and no Bungles Bungles.
The free camp was lovely again but like the day before we were awake very early, at 8 o'clock we were in the car and ready to go, it was already 27 degr.
As I said before that the road was boring, well that's not the case now. It's just beautiful. The scenery is sometimes breathtaking but the problem is I cannot make good picture as it is a bit misty because of the heat, I tried anyhow and you might get a bit of an impression.
Movie time;
Our mind was set on Parry creek .... a few k's from Wyndham. From the main road to the caravan park was 8 k's dirt road and yes of course, the damn road was corrugated so again the whole car and caravan were trembling. What a disaster, and then you come there, there is hardly anyone, a huge terrain with 1 small camper van, 1 tent, 1 caravan and us. We actually wanted to stay 4 night as they have this special; pay 3 stay 4, but no, sorry, there is too much wind and soo much dust and the season is over, it's too hot. I think at other times, also when there are more people it will be a great place but not now.
The restaurant looked very nice but it closed now, can imagine for just a few people it's no use. The pool was very nice and refreshing and there seems to be nice walks but for now it's too hot.
Parry is for sale, someone interested?
It's 8 o'clock in the morning and already 30 degr. We are nearly ready to go but because we want to go to Wyndham, which is only 20 is away, we can't go too earlier otherwise you might not get into the caravan park yet. Anyhow, we left at 9 and when we came into Wyndham we looked at each other and I think at the same time we both decided not wanting to stay here. We didn't even see the caravan park but we thought at least you would be able to see the sea but that's 4 ks out of town. We went to the port but it's not at all attractive. Sorry people who live in Wyndham, I don't mean to insult you but it's just not our cup of tea. Maybe other people think different.
So we decided to go to Kununurra. With the trip to and from Parry on this terrible road and the Wyndham disappointment it, for us, was a waste of the extra 100 k's we drove as you have to go back the same road to get there.
On the edge of Kununurra there is a small national park if a walk to a lookout, of course we did that;
Kununurra
Kununurra is the last town before the border with the Northern Territory and we will miss Western Australia. We had a great time and gathered some very special friends.
But before we go over the border I saw something special were I want to go and so we did; Lake Argyle, just 70 is from Kununurra and 35 from the border. And special it was, look at this infinity pool!!! Isn't it awesome!
And while Fred was taking pictures, someone just stood in front of him......
Of course we did some walks. This lake contents 21 time more water than Sydney harbour.
Lake Argyle is really really worth going to;
At the very moment (6 th of October) we are travelling in Kakadu with our son Danny and his girlfriend Patricia. Luckily I had some time to do this blog but you can understand that I will be occupied most probably for the first two weeks.
