Get the hell out of here!!

G'day Mates!

With the car fixed again we now finally can start our journey towards Queensland. Its still a long way so it will take some time before we hit cooler weather. OK lets go, Queensland here we come!!;

From Katherine we decided to have two stops at roadhouses before we would take the road to Queensland but we were soo fat up with the heat, we halfway decided to go straight to Tennant Creek and stay there for two nights, it was terrible hot but we still did the 660 k's in one go and were exhausted when we came there.

OF COURSE, the last 20 k's we had to drive like a snail as the temperature of the engine went into red and on top of the 42 degrees I had to turn on the heater to get the engine cooling off a bit. My God what now, again issues with the car!! Fred poured three litres water into the radiator and we hope it was just because of the heat. When we later realised that we had this heat already for a few months and never looked at the radiator fluid, we hoped that it was just that, and I can tell you to my relief that it's still OK now. (28th Nov.)

We had a caravan park in Tennant Creek what was run down a bit when we were there two years ago, then we went to another more expensive one. Now this first one in town looked better and I read already on Wiki camps that it was better now and it was!  Can you imagine, the first pool in ages that was nice cool!! And this was our view;

After Tennant Creek we drove back the 20 k's to the intersection and turn onto the Barkley highway to Queensland. We are hoping for cooler weather but it looks like that not coming soon, we have to cope a little longer.

Again we went in one go to Camooweal, just over the border in Queensland.

It's still hot. We stopped at the Post Office hotel caravan park and that was great. We can't do free camps at the moment because it's too hot. After this we came in Mount Isa were we stayed 2 nights at the Sunset caravan park, also very good, nice pool which you really need with these temperatures. By the way, the road to Mount Isa and from Mount Isa to Cloncurry was very beautiful. We have been here 2 years ago so if you want to know more of Mount Isa, go to my story of 27-09-2013.

Just after Cloncurry we took the road to Winton, the Landsborough highway and from there all the way to Longreach, is incredible boring!! But that's not the only matter, this was the first time we had the same what happened years ago, we didn't had seen another car for about an hour and that's not so common anymore.

Our goal was to stop in Mc.Kinlay behind the Crocodile Dundee Hotel

which has a few powered spots, but we were there already at noon and there was no shade and only dust so we decided to drive on to Kynuna.

Its just a roadhouse but these people hadn't seen rain for 5 years and maybe that's why the lady was so grumpy, Crikey, was she bad! Because it was a roadhouse where people come and go tanking, Fred didn't want to be in the way so he already drove into the caravan park and waited for me to come back. The lady came with me and saw Fred there then she yelled at me that he had to wait because she decides where we were parked! Jeez.... there was only one caravan parked so the park was empty for god sakes!!

Anyhow, we had a nice spot with lovely visitors;

And then......... it started to get a bit dark and there it was, RAIN!! Yeeeh!!

So no cooking outside tonight;

just be creative, a can Tuna and a can beans will do....

Next day we drove off but not without taking a picture of Fred's fascination;

We passed a few nice little towns, like Winton were we stopped for two nights.

 As soon as we parked at the caravan park and started to get organised, we saw we had a hitch hiker;

Winton is a very nice little place.....

Banjo Paterson's song Waltzing Matilda was first song in public in 1985. The song is most loved and embraced by the Australian people as their unofficial national anthem.

And to bring back memories (we've been here years ago) we went for dinner at the pub at Tattersalls Hotel which is a gracious old building, built in 1882 and is also the owner of the caravan park opposite the hotel off the main road were we were staying.

Next day we visited a few more things to see in Winton like Arno's Wall.

The wall is 2 metres high and 70 metres long and is made of concrete and rocks brought in from Arno's opal mine and is studded with old lawnmower parts, boat propellers and other old machinery.....

and we went to the Musical Fence.....

So grab a stick and head on down to make some music,

its music...   uh, movie time;

I'm pretty close catching up with where we are now, just a few more k's with little towns and then we are at Gladstone where we are on a house sitting right now and guess what:

 Its a lot cooler, thank God!

Next; the last few k's to the coast!

Cheers!

Adelaide River,Litchfield

G'day Mates,

On the road again!!

From Katherine our way was going back towards Darwin with the first stop in Adelaide River, a small town with some WWII history. The biggest attraction was Bundy Station were we stayed 2 nights and it was just lovely.

Wildlife and farm animals everywhere and the "kids" even saw a snake, and there was a swimming pool! How great can it be, cooling off in the pool, overlooking the farm!

We had a nice shady spot under the big trees....

Look at this tree, like Tarzan you could hang on the roots!

Boots walking to heaven

 Never knew geese could sit in a tree haha!

Gee, did we had a good time here!......

We did a little tour and ended up at the war cemetery which was very well maintained.

And when we came back, Fred had a little job to do, making a new 12 volt plug for a light, with the assistance of Danny....

After leaving Bundy Station, we drove to Litchfield National Park and stayed at Wangi Falls. At the beginning of the park we stopped at the Magnetic Termite Mounds

Fred and I were here in Litchfield just 2 years ago so when you want to see some more pictures or want some more information I maybe forgot this time, you can always go back to the story of 02-11-2013.

Anyhow, as well as in Kakadu we had showers and toilets on the camp ground, these are not really free camps as you pay a fee for it but that doesn't matter as these facilities are of course great and has to be cleaned. Wangi falls was just $ 6,60 per person and it's an honesty box. So please people, when you go to these parks be honest and pay otherwise these  accommodations will disappear one day.

The first night we had in mind to make a shashlik from chicken and some salad. We already thought something didn't smell very well but at first we thought it was the water coming out of the tank. At the time Fred had finished cutting the chicken into cubes we noticed it was the chicken. An hour work in a stinking hot caravan, no power so no aircon, all for nothing.

We checked the rest of the chicken, as we bought a lot in Katherine and it was all vacuum packed and not even near end of use date, but it was all rotten, we had to chuck 2 kilo chicken away. But there we had a problem; there are no bins in the park and there were signs to take your rubbish with you. We are staying another two nights so what do we do with 2 kilo rotten chicken?? You can't leave it out side and can't leave it in our bin in the caravan. Several suggestions passed and at the end we decided to leave it somewhere in the bush, of course without plastic package and nature will do the rest.

Anyhow what do we eat now?  Luckily we had bought salmon for my birthdays planned champagne breakfast which will be in two days so I took that to make a salad and it tasted well.

Next morning the "kids" went for an early walk and saw a snake again near the falls on a platform.
From Wangi we made a tour, first to Tolmer Falls where we walked a loop from about 2 k's;

After Tolmer we went to Florence Falls

and Buley Rockholes. It was very hot and busy as it was in a weekend and it actually wasn't much fun at the falls but at the Buley Rockholes we had a great time, we had lunch and beer with us so didn't had something short.

We had planned to stay in Wangi falls with my birthday but because of the meat we had to throw away and the heat, we decided to leave Sunday morning 18th October and go back to Darwin, to our previous caravan park. There we can have champagne brunch in stead of brekkie.
Because we didn't want to throw more meat away if we kept it too long, we ate on my birthday what we still had in stead of going out for dinner which was the original plan.

On Monday the 19th the boys had a father and son day and I cleaned the caravan inside, Patricia started packing a bit. On Tuesday we went to the big shopping centre in Casuarine where Fred and I bought new supplies for our trip to Queensland.  At night we had a lovely meal in Palmerston at the Palmerston Sports Club...very nice;

On Wednesday we had our last picnic together of course with bubbles,

Afterwards we cooled off in the swimming pool and the home goers had to pack their suit cases. Their flight was Thursday morning 10 minutes to nine so they had to be there at least seven o'clock so it was an early getting up.

Of course saying goodbye is always emotional so the tissues did their jobs. When they disappeared from our sight we drove off towards our empty accommodation but on our way back we also had to buy a new gas bottle as ours was empty.

We took off the same day as we had to be at the mechanics in Katherine early next morning. We went to the same caravan park we had been before the kids came, north bank caravan park, and the woman owner gave me a big hug as she recognised me. They are lovely people and although there are a lot permanents and the place looks like a museum, it is a very nice and relaxed place to be.

The "kids" are save back home and we are getting the hell out of here; so next;

Queensland HERE WE COME: (hope it cooler there)

Cheers!