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Week 3, Day 15
Total: 3539kms, Today: 233km
As we had a bit of time to kill before the supposed arrival of our new tyres (still a bit sceptical here as the young lady at the tyre place said, "We'll ring you when they arrive. If you don't hear from us by 1pm, then ring us as we may have forgotten...". Really inspires confidence!), we decided to fill in our time with a trip to Lake Moondarra. This is both Mt Isa's water supply and one of its main recreation areas. In an area with low annual rainfall, any large body of water is going to be an attraction, and this was really appealing. We suspect that it would be really crowded on hot summer days.
28° and a light breeze. Lovely! Out of shot on the left were picnic shelters on the lawn by the lake and a couple of obviously lost peacocks.
Back into town for a quick loo stop,then on to the tyre outlet where - SURPRISE! - the tyres had arrived. While we were a lot later than originally planned, we were still a lot happier to be back on the road with known good rubber under us. Friends and other travellers had told us about a lovely spot full of water birds called Camooweal Billabong. After refuelling and asking the cashier about its whereabouts ("Over the bridge, turn left"), we proceeded to find a rather sorry bit of damp earth below the bridge next to the highway. While it didn't look a lot like the one described by friends, we assumed that it might have dried up.
Anyway, we set up camp and had a pleasant night.
Week 3, Day 16
Camooweal Billabong -> 41 Mile Bore Camp Site
Total: 3914kms, Today: 375km
We all learn as we get older, don't we? What did we learn yesterday? Well, we learned that one should look further than the first place you see. In this case, about a kilometre further up the billabong was where we really should have camped. We'll know for our return trip.
Shortly after setting off west this morning, we crossed into the Northern Territory.
130kph? WOOHOO!! Needless to say, the van was never going to get to 130.
We never saw any signs if you happened to become one of the other six dwarves or Snow White herself.
Night time in The-Middle-Of-Nowhere, NT, is just bliss if you want to do a bit of star gazing. This camp site ended up with about 8 to10 other caravans and motor homes, but they certainly weren't putting out much light pollution.
Our Little (travelling) House on the Prairie (or Barkly Tableland)...
The magnificent Milky Way. The glow on the horizon isn't a city, it's the moon about to rise.
Week 3, Day 17
41 Mile Bore Camp Site -> Newcastle Waters Rest Area
Total: 4286kms, Today: 372km
Not much to report or view today - just a travel day through countryside that really didn't change. We made a detour into Tennant Creek to avoid getting ripped off at the Threeways where for a 40km detour we saved about 30c/lt.
Sorry - nothing worthy from a photography point of view.
Week 3, Day 18
Newcastle Waters Rest Area -> Katherine
Total: 4686kms, Today: 400km
We're now getting into an area that had been in the back of my mind since we started this trip. We are passing through an area where Chris' Dad served for the last year of WWII. One of these bases was Gorrie.
'Cruiser and van; Clear for Take-off!'
Amazingly, this runway for the abandoned RAAF base, Gorrie, still exists and has not been totally overgrown.
Just south of Katherine we came across an obelisk by the side of the road and pulled over for a closer look.
This column commemorates something that I'd read about, but was a bit hazy as to its actual position. It's the marker for where the final part of the telegraph line from the UK to Melbourne was connected, and consequently the colony could now communicate with the UK in near 'real time' rather than have to wait for months for sailing ships to deliver messages.
According to the plaque, this happened at 3:15 PM on Thursday, August 22nd, 1872. Communications have certainly come a long way since then.
Keep in mind that all the telegraph poles were metal and had to be transported across the country. They couldn't use local timber due to the presence of termites who could potentially eat and destroy the poles.
Week 3, Day 19
Katherine
Total: 4696kms, Today: 10km
Shopping, washing, reading, etc. Nothing to see here.
Also hope there's nothing to see with reference to the subject of this poster in the gent's loo at the caravan park.
Week 3, Day 20
Katherine
Total: 4706kms, Today: 10km
The caravan park is next to the Katherine River which has a very large difference in water level depending on the time of year.
This is the Katherine 'Low Level' bridge during the Dry. This bridge becomes impassable during the Wet when the bridge is under 12 metres (40') of water. All these trees would be underwater! The bridge and weir were built during WWII and this was a favourite place for troops to cool off.
Week 3, Day 21
Total: 4948kms, Today: 242km
Off again after a relaxing few days in Katherine.
One stop on this leg was to the Adelaide River War Cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It honours, and is the final resting place of, those who died in the defence of Darwin, the Top End and as far away as Timor and parts of what is now Indonesia during WWII.
As one would expect, the grounds are immaculately kept.
(Rt) Who could ask for a better campsite than one surrounded by palms?
(Lt) Under the general heading of 'Things are always bigger in the Tropics', here's a stick insect we came across at Adelaide River.
As the temperatures had not cooled down (daytime temps were around 35C/95F, nights were 26C/80F and sticky), we decided that rather than camp in Litchfield Nat Pk, we would stay at a caravan park at Batchelor just outside the park and drive in as required. This gave us power for the Air Con so we could get a decent night's sleep.
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