Campfires No 5 - Boulia to Katherine

Hi all,

Can't believe how quickly time passes.  We have now been on the road for 7 weeks.  In my last blog we were at Boulia and had the perfect spot.  Well that was until I had sent the blog.  Unknown to us at the time there was a funeral in town for an Elder and relatives had come from all over Queensland. Now we had the perfect camp ground, so perfect that following the funeral a group of 30 or more (some already very intoxicated) decided that they would set up  bush camp on the sand in front of us.  

They were kind enough to let us know that they would be playing loud music that we "would" like it and also that they were from Townsville. So now knowing this, in record time packed up our gypsy wagon and we were off.  We only had to drive about 10 minutes out of town were we found a spot to have a peaceful night sleep. 

Our new overnight spot after the invasion

Enjoying our Yabbies

Beautiful Sunrise

Passing a couple of Road Trains

NT Border going to Tobermorey

Len & Judy at the Border

We then drove out to Tobermorey which is in the middle of no where on a road known as Australia's longest shortcut (full length goes from Laverton WA to Winton in Qld).  This road will take you from Boulia to Alice Springs but a majority of it is dirt road.   Tobermorey is a 1.8 million Acre working cattle station that also has a caravan park and a Bar for the dry season and sites on the NT side of the border but as their closest facilities are in QLD they work off Queensland time. Upon our arrival we met up with Tannas and her family who were in the process of cutting up a couple of cows and making a shed load of sausages so they and the staff would have meat for the next couple of weeks or so.  That evening we were asked to join them for a few drinks and a bbq where we met some of the ringers that work on the station and also that come in from stations nearby for a catchup.  It was a great evening spent standing around an awesome BBQ and Firepit (Pic below)

We awoke to a beautiful day and decided to do a 200km round trip down toward the bottom of their station to Aroota which is where the staff stayed when out doing fencing and mustering etc. The drive was amazing and we got to see so many different landscapes.  (Pics below).  

Arriving at Tobermorey

Camp ground

Tricia feeding one of the Poddy Calves

Best BBQ Ever

Aroota (Camp for Mustering and Fencing work)

Aroota Camp

The following morning we were off again  but this time we heading back into QLD and making our way to Mary Kathleen which is an old Uranium site just outside Mount Isa  the free camp is in the old town square which is now just cement blocks and if you get in early you can set up on one of these.  We unfortunately didn't get there early enough but still had a good site. Once unhooked we headed off to see the mine site and were not disappointed.  It was a beautiful clear blue hole where you could still see the yellow in the cliff walls. 

Mary Kathleen

I decided I would put the new drone up for a look and learnt a very valuable lesson in the process.  In my haste to get some great shots I forgot to reset the Return to Home altitude which was set at 40m.  What this means is that if the the drone needs to return to home or I request it to come back, it will will either rise or lower to the set altitude and will automatically return to its home position.  Well as I said I had it set at 40m and hit the button to Return home.  That's where it all went wrong.  The Hill that I was flying over was apparently 44m high so as my drone dropped to 40m it flew into the side of the mountain.   All I can say is, lucky it had GPS and after some very steep climbing up the side of the hill I was lucky enough to be able to recover it.   

View after the crash

The next morning we did a resupply in Mount Isa and also had an Auto Electrician look at our Caravan battery as it was still loosing power quickly.  $2500 later and a new battery we were off this time heading to Katherine.  This took us a couple of days with an overnight stop at a spectacular Billabong at Camooweal. There must have been 20 plus caravans already there and more arrived after we had set up.  Rumor has it this free camp site won't be available for much longer as it being handed back to the  local First Nations people.

Drone photo of Camooweal Free Camp

Sun Setting over Camooweal

The next morning we crossed the border back into NT and then spent a night at the Barkly Homestead and then the following night at Daly Waters which was packed with grey nomads.  Our next destination was Bitter Springs where we stayed for 3 nights.  Tricia's brother came down from Darwin and we spent the weekend swimming in both the Bitter and Mataranka Springs. My favourite however was Bitter Springs as you were able to float down stream for about 400m and then a short walk back and do it all again.  (Not sure I would have done this but Deano, Tricia's brother did it by himself at night).

Sunset at the Barkly Homestead

Sunset at the Barkly Homestead

Rolling Cloud Sunset at the Barkly Homestead

Daly Waters Hotel

Enjoying a nice cold drink at Daly Waters Hotel

Happy Snap

Mataranka Hot Springs

Tricia & Deano

Our final stop before heading west was Katherine.  Now this town does have a reputation and I can say it lives up to it.  We decided not to stay in town and were lucky enough to get a hip camp about 20 Km outside the township near Katherine Gorge.  The four of us were the only ones there and were lucky that there was still water in the creek.  We were assured it was croc free so spent most of our time sitting in the cool water however we were attacked by a critter that I have never seen before.  It looked liked a cockroach and would bury itself in the sand and then when you weren't looking it would nip your skin.  It didn't hurt to much and didn't leave any marks. It just took us by surprise every time.

Our Creek to ourselves

We are now on the road again and heading west toward Kununarra with the many many many other caravanners doing exactly the same thing. We hope everyone is well and that you don't miss us too much.