9 June – 14 June Litchfield NP . Florence Falls 4WD camp We packed up camp and headed out before 0900 which for the Bauers is some sort of a record and a prize Im sure will be in the mail. To be a lazy bastard and not have to let tyres down and pump them back up so that I could go through the soft sand to get out onto the road I decided to drive out from our creekbed and then reverse Hervey and Bay back up the same track the we had come down which was quite solid and firm under rubber. Took only a few minutes and we were back on the gravel road and then heading back into Katherine for a quick stop and then back on the northern trail. We stopped at Edith Falls just north of Katherine where I prepared a appetising brekky out the back of Bay while Tracy and the boys headed down to the pools and falls to have a look. A few photos were taken and we left Edith falls behind and arrived at Pine Creek where we stopped briefly to fill up and then through Batchelor and into Litchfield NP. Geoff had mentioned that Florence Falls 4wd camp was pretty good so we headed towards Flo Falls and stuck the hubs in once we reached the start of the 4wd track and set off down towards the camp. Fairly average track with nothing too horrible and only a bit of a slope towards the end with a few ruts in it. Got to the campground to find about 6 or 7 sites around a bit round about type area. Only a few of these were big enough for Bay and we got the last one so there we plonked ourselves and set up camp. There was another family there Anna ,Tony and their two boys Oscar and Ben. They were from Wilson’s Prom region in Victoria. Matty and Liam had great fun playing with the two boys and we ended the night with a chat and a few drinks over at their camp fire. The following day we had a restful day doing a bit of schoolwork ( this is never restful) and some washing and then venturing down to the nearby creek for a quick extremely cold swim. We took the 30 min walk along the creek edge to the plunge pool at the base of Florence Falls where we all had another swim , along with the 5000 tourists , and started to enjoy it and the big black fish in the clear water once we had become numb from the cold. The fish apparently were black fish and ranged from about 15cm to 30cm long. There wasn’t any fishing or feeding them allowed but they were pretty cool to look at. We took a drive around the park and stopped at Wangi Falls where we had a Hervey lunch and took a look at the falls and pool there. Unfortunately the pools were closed due to crocs or possibility of them but the boardwalk gave a good look at the pool and falls. We continued on our backtrack and got to Tolmer Falls where we walked to the falls lookout which was quite high above the surrounding area so I had a quick look and returned to Hervey. Unfortunately due to the floods that had been in the area previously all the 4wd tracks ; Reynolds River, Lost city ; were closed and waiting for the road crew to come and repair them. I was a bit disappointed about this as was looking forward to having a bit of a look down them at some of the places further out. After we had seen our fill of Tolmer Falls we drove to Buley Rockhole where we went through the full carpark and out the other side after reading a helpful sign ”If the carpark is full , then Buley Rockhole is very busy”.We got back to our camp and went for another swim in our own creek. We ventured up to the Plunge pool again and then continued up the 139 steps to the top of Flo Falls and walked along the easy track to Buley Falls where again there were quite a lot of people but the pools were still extremely pleasant , if not a bit cold, and we had a great time swimming there. We ducked into a few of the other pools as we walked back along the track and took the opposite side back to the plunge pool and took another dip before heading back to camp again which had started to fill up again after emptying out in the morning. The following day the camp eptied out pretty quick to leave only a couple of us there. One was a troopy that was having trouble getting started from what sounded like a flat battery. The guy came over and we attempted to jump start said troopy from Hervey to no success. Stewy was his name and he proceeded to ensure that there were no diesel delivery probs. The rangers came around and although we borrowed there heavier leads we still were unable to get the troopy kicked over. The rangers kindly called one of his mates in Darwin who came down ( 2 / 24) and apparently after putting a new battery in the troopy it kicked into life with no difficulty at all. Some good shots of the troopy in distress. No wonder I bought a Nissan. We finished off our week long stay at Florence falls by more swimming and schoolwork and fires and sheperds pies. It was another great spot to camp and we had a great few days there and nice way to relax into croc country.
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| Edith Falls - Matty and Liam |
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| Litchfield NP - Wangi falls |
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| Litchfield NP - Tolmer Falls Matty and Liam |
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| Litchfield NP - Florence Falls 4WD camp |
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| Florence Falls |
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| Buley's Waterhole |
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| Sometimes you just need to shoot the things. |
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| Florence Falls 4WD camp creek |
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| Florence Falls 4WD camp creek |
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| Litchfield NP Magnetic termite mounds |
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| Its bigger than my camper trailer |
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| Litchfield NP Magnetic termite mounds |
15 June – 18 June Darwin Lee Point van park We packed up early and after a quick stop at the Magnetic termite mounds on the way out of Litchfield we were on our way to Darwin. We made our way into the city via a stop at the harbour where we had fish and chips for lunch. We dropped into the Post office where we collected a heap of stuff for the boys schoolwork and a new lower skirt for Bay and a few other goodies from Austrack. We did a bit of calling around and found a van park out on the north side of town and headed that way and set up in the corner of the grounds. Ground was very hard but if the pegs went in at 30 degrees I worked out that they went past the rocks a bit easier. I was reminded by a fellow camper that it was the second State of Origin on that night. It was amazing to think that three weeks had zipped past Watched the game on a neighbours tele and was stunned by the loss. The following day I dropped the skirt and the cover from Bay to The Canopy Man in the hope that he would be able to fix the zipper problem for me. I left Tracy and the boys at Crocosaurus where they had a fantastic day with the crocs and reptiles. The V8s were in town for the long weekend at Hidden Valley and Fabian Coulthard was the lucky one that was put into the Cage of Death at Crocosaurus. Tracy got a few photos of the action. The trucks went through the centre of town on display and we both got some good shots from two different angles before we met up again and headed to Macca’s for lunch. After we left Macca’s we headed to Canopy Man and after parting with $20 I picked up the cover which they had been able to replace the puller thing on.As we left the shop there was a heaviness in the steering and a noise from the general front area of Hervey. I pulled over and found that there was a lot of powersteering fluid that had been sprayed over the engine bay . We had a look in the yellow pages and went to one of the two power steering places in town that we could find. It was right beside Macca’s where we had lunch – bizarre or what. I pulled into the shop drive and went into ask the bloke if he could have a look at it for me. I found the problem as I walked back to Hervey – there was a big pool of fluid on the ground and getting bigger. I put Hervey on the street in front of the shop and found that the hose from the bottom of the reservoir to the box had exploded. The bloke from the shop, Craig from WEFIX POWERSTEERING was a great help and after flapping our jaws for a bit I tried to get some more hose from Repco around the corner. Craig unfortunately didn’t have any the size that I needed. After not being able to purchase any I put on a bit of heater hose that Craig said would do for the short duration and then we were back in business. Extremely helpful and talkative fella and would recommend his business to anyone needing his services in the area. We finally got to the Lee Point free water park which the boys had been eagerly waiting for while the steering was being fixed.We ended the day by visiting the Mindil Markets which turned out to bea great spot and sunset was excellent and the fire juggler topped off the visit to the markets. Tracy and I had a disagreement over phone charges to call the post office so I left them at the movies and went into town where I picked up the much awaited injector for Hervey that Ian had arranged for me. I picked up the post cards that had been taken of the boys and Tracy at Crocosaurus and then attended to a few other jobs before picking them up and dropping them at the water park while I went and had a look at the Aviation Museum. This was worth the effort as there were several large planes and a B52 that took up the entire hanger.
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| Boys at Crocosaurus Darwin |
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| Crazy boys |
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| Pleased i wasnt there |
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| Trying to catch somethin big |
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| Something worthwhile |
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| Dont put heater hose for power sterring |
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| Darwin |
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| why cant i have thhis much fun |
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| If only i could |
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| Darwin sunset |
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| Wish that boat would get out of the bloody way |
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| firestarter |
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| Darwin |
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| Darwin |
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| B52 - Darwin |
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| b52 Darwin |
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| plastic buckles didnt last long |
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| leaving Lee Point Darwin |
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| Kakadu |
19 June Kakadu NP Merl Campground. We had packed up and left Lee Point by 10am which is pretty good for us. We stopped briefly at Woolies to stock up on some food and take a few photos of a new FJ Toyota. We continued out to Kakadu and stopped at Aurora where we picked up our passes for the price of $25 ea.We decided to camp at Merl Camp for $10 pppn and then have a look at Ubirr and see the sunset from the top and have a look at the view of the surrounding wetlands. Several good examples of painting in the surrounding rocky areas. Merl camp that night was quite heavy with mossies and midges so the Rid and Bushmans got a bit of a caning.
20 June – 23 June Kakadu NP Malabanjbanjdju Camp We left the lovely, if not mossie ridden, Merl camp and headed to the next one. The name is above so wont repeat it as takes to long and I am definitely not going to say it. How these things are interpreted from the aboriginal name to the English name is a real wonder. We went down to Cahill’s crossing to have a look but unfortunately no crocs or anything in the place. A few people fishing from a boat over the other side but they weren’t reeling them in by any stretch of the imagination. We took the Bardedjilidji walk where we came across lots more of the artwork on the walls of the areas. Rocks were very weird and looked like a heap of pancakes sitting on top of each other.We stopped at the Bowali visitors centre for a bit of a look see. They had quite a good display with various artwork and animals and library where Matty spent quite a bit of time reading some of the local stories. Who would have thought? Went from there to the current camp ground as above. A few skeeters around the place but nothing that wouldn’t get elsewhere. Got a call from Gary that the bloke renting our house and one of his mates had been seen by Paul breaking into my shed. When they were questioned by him about it they said they were trying to catch a snake that they had seen go in. He is apparently a security guard and his wife works for Q Health. I was on the phone for quite a while that night with the boss of the real estate to arrange for them to go around and have a look to see what the story was. The following day I had a call from Kenny saying that he was going around with the real estate people to the house. Unfortunately he didn’t have the right key for the shed with him so they were unable to get inside to see if there was any damage or stuff missing from in there. He sent me photos of the side door jam and it is easily seen where they have jimmied the door and the frame. Tracy took over from here as I was starting to get a bit heated about the whole thing. She had to go to Jabiru and ask the police there to contact Hervey Bay police which they did. Tracy spoke to one of the Hervey Bay D’s who arranged for an officer to go with Kenny back to our house and have a look at the shed inside. From what Kenny could see there hadn’t been anything touched or damaged in the shed. The real estate agent spent her time with the wife of the bloke and apparently she was quite upset. Sounds like she should be keeping a bit more of an eye on what her husband and his mates are doing while she’s at work. Gary is going to go around and put a heavier lock system on the shed for me . It is a very worrying situation to say the least. We visited the Gubara pools walk but it was about a 6k return so decided against it and went and did the Nanguluwur walk – there were lots of rock paintings and one was a sailing ship that had been of a ship that had resupplied the buffalo hunters in days gone by.From here we continued onto the Andbangbang walk and l’out which was full of more painting and great views of the nearby mountain.We finished our walking day by walking up the slopey rock to the l’out there. We arrived back at camp where a young couple , John and Mindy, and their three kids, Sam josh and Amy , had set up camp so our boys had great fun playing with the kids. We struggled to get any school work done while the kids were having such a great time playing . On the Thursday John and Judy and their young boy Shaun rolled up in the arvo and as well as about 15 other vehicles of varying descriptions. The camp area was pretty packed that night . We spent our last night at camp by having drinks and talking with the two Johns and their wives while the kids watched movies.
25 June – 26 June Kakadu NP Gunlom Falls. Tracy was awake for part of last night with some noisy neighbours rocking up late and keeping her up with their talking and laughing well into the next day. We left Jim Jim and drove to Gunlom and set up camp and then took a short walk to the base of the falls but decided against a swim as irt was a bit cold like Jim Jim. That night we were kept awake as most of the campground was by a bunch of yobos yahooing and carrying on well past 200am. There were some unhappy campers the next day let me tell you. After a bit of a sleep in and a late brekky we headed up to the top of the falls via the 15min walk. Great spot where there are several pools and small waterfalls that although a bit cool still worth a swim. The boys spotted a water monitor cruising through one of the pools. It was a great spot with a few people around but plenty of room for all. On our arrival back to camp Tracy spotted Ross and Fran that we had met a few nights ago at the camp before Jim Jim Falls. They came over and setup near us after Tracy warned them about the rowdy mob who had packed up and were vacating the area. We had a campfire and a few drinks while Ross was kind enough to let the boys watch TV on their box.
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| Anbangbang lookout |
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| Anbangbang lookout |
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| Malabanjbanjdju camp |
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| Jim Jim Falls |
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| Jim Jim Falls Camp |
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| Gunlom Camp |
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| Top of Gumlom Falls |
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| Gunlom Falls |
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| Gunlom Falls |
27 June – 29 June Katherine Northbank c’van park We packed up and said our goodbyes to Ross and Fran. They are heading the same way as we are but will be going a bit slower so may catch up to them somewhere on the way. On the way into Katherine Tracy got on the phone and called a few places from the phone book and got onto the Northbank Van park $22-night pwered and no charge for the boys. All the others were $37+ and well out of town. We drove past the place , at the end of a dead end road, and were a bit reluctant to go in as looked a bit dodgy but in we went and turned out to be a great little place. Doesn’t advertise anywhere and only has 4 casual spots with the rest of 10 to 15 spots all permanents. Goats and dogs and cats were all out to meet us as was the owner Elona. The place reminded me of a combination of The Krait , Uncle Tom’s at Brawlin and the Coconut Grove park at Hervey Bay. My kinda place. Soon after we had arrived and talking to Peter, Elona’s husband , and Mark , a permanent , Peter had brought over his heavy duty battery charger and set it up on the spare battery under the hood. I proceeded to charge all three batteries while we were there. We got a bit of schoolwork done while we were there until the boys met some of the resident kids – Lyndull , Gregoreece , Frank , Aiden and Zoey. We weighed up the benefit of the boys having a play or schoolwork and play won out. We drove to Springvale Homestead and attempted to spy the crocodile that lives in the billabong and apparently comes up for a feed in the arvo. Needless to say we didn’t see any croc. Im sure that this croc stuff is all a figment of someones imagination. Went to the Katherine hot springs where the boys had a dip and took a few photos that I was later told was a bandy bandy snake. Peter told me that you would have to weak hearted to have any damage from it. I took his word for it. We restocked in town for the next leg and bought a barby plate and got gas bottle refilled after some moderate drama with the test date.
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| Matty Liam and Nanny (Goat that is) |
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| Katherine van park |
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| Frank,Lyndal,Liam,Matty,Gregreece |
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| My sorta van park |
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| Katherine Hot springs |
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| Katherine Hot springs |
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| Hervey at work |
30 June – 3 July 2011 Gregory NP Bullita Homestead We packed up and said goodbye to Northbank van park and started west towards Gregory NP. Northbank had been a great little spot and we were glad that we stopped. As we went out of Katherine we drove past a few other van parks and they were absolutely chockers. We had the best spot by far. We got to Bullita Homestead and set up and relaxed for the rest of the day. While we were there we visited the Limestone Gorge and took the walk to the Calcite flow walk which overlooked a dry waterfall which was entirely white from all the calcium buildup from the water. We walked the 2ks to the old campground and passed the Limestone creek billabong which was very enticing but all this croc mumbo jumbo has me a bit concerned. We finished off the day by visiting the Bullita homestead 10 mins walk from camp. It is well looked after and the cattleyards are still in reasonable repair for their age. We also did the 70k+ Bullita stock route drive across a few creek crossing and some very rocky country. It was a long slow tiring day and took about 6 hours for the trip. Not much on the track to look at plenty of boabs and a few roos is about all. Havent taken the machete or drill to any boabs yet to se if they have an internal water supply but there is plenty of time yet. Apparently the seeds in the big pods are full of vitamin C. The stuff inside the pods have the texture of firelighters. After we got back to camp there was a new crowd of people and a young family from Sydney that had just spent the last 6 wks travelling the Kimberleys. We had a bit of a chat and the boys had great time playing with the kids Leggo
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| Bullita Station |
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| Bullita Station |
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| Gregory NP |
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| Calcite Falls |
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| Gregory NP Camp |
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| Welcome to WA |
4 July – Present (5 July) WA Kununurra Black Rock Falls Well we are finally here in WA after an epic voyage so far. We packed up yesterday and headed out of Gregory NP by about about 900am.It seemed a lot longer trip to come out of the park than it took to go in. We stopped at a few spots on the way to the famous Kununurra – Bradshaw’s bridge and a sideroad to top the tank up just before we got to the quarantine stop at the border. Im sure that there is some sort of scam that they run there with the taking of all the fruit and veg. They have a few pieces that they throw in the bin while the public are watching but im sure the rest would go in their vege pies for lunch and they probably have shares in the local fruit market. All that said the lady that searched us , no internals only the fridge and Bay , was nice although she did leave the bag of fruit that we gave her on Bay and I only discovered it just before we left when the boys came back from a pit stop. We left the border and and the antics that we had there and headed into Kununurra. Apparently this place was made to service the building of Lake Argyle about 50 yrs ago and has become a bit of a tourist macca since then, It was full of the grey nomad creature and their vans that they lug behind them. We have noticed the proverbial shitload of tourists on the road in recent weeks but thankfully they haven’t been able to get to the places that we have. We travelled back in time an hour and half when we crossed the border so we could tell the boys that it wasn’t lunch time yet as they cried for pies from the back seats. We stopped briefly at the info centre to grab a few maps and then headed west out of the big K for about 10k and then hit the Parry Creek road where we turned north. I had read and spoken to a few people about camps along here so decided it was worth a try. We travelled past Valentine springs which looked a nice spot but a few people there so got to Button’s crossing which wasn’t much chop so backtracked about 500m to Black Rock Falls. And here we are. Great spot with no one else around . Plan to hang around here for a few days and chillax and try and finish unit 7 for the boys and see a few things around the area. Will try and get some fotos on soon.
