Borroloola 5/7/2015

Borroloola

At least someone is having fun with the corrugation. Surprise creek crossing. Old Borroloola police station

Finally! After another 80 km (nearly 3 long hours) on these awful corrugations we reached Bitumen!! Oh, yes, and Borroloola. It was a very close draw, I assume. Just 5 km more on the Savannah and Martin would have bitten into his steering wheel... We found a nice campground and apart from one load of washing and making friends with the neighbours 4 dogs we didn't do anything for the next 2 hours. The afternoon went by with shopping, a visit to the local museum which was the oldest police station in NT (sorry, forgot the details) and more playing with the dogs (lucky Martin even got invited for a beer).

Next morning we decided that we need another day rest to fully recover from the horrors of corrugation. After we booked in for another night and drove 40 km (on bitumen - I wouldn't go on any other road today!) to visit Caranbirini Conservation Reserve to see the 25 m high sandstone pillars that make up a spectacular 'lost city'. Sarah did well on the 2 km walk around and through the 'city', collecting sticks, trying some free-climbing and telling us where to stop for a rest and Morning Tea :-) We also had a look at the waterhole which apparently provides an important source of traditional food for the Gadanji people (mussels, water lilies and turtles).

The Lost City in Caranbirini Conservation Reserve

Back at the caravan park we did a thorough check and cleaning of the Jeep and caravan - everything is covered in red dust and sand. Welcome to the outback! Sarah enjoyed the break from driving as much as we. She was riding her balancing bike, practicing new hula hoop tricks, throwing ball for the dogs to fetch and relaxing with her Peppa Pig DVD (thanks, Anne & Viktor!)
We would have loved going to the local pool in Borroloola, but despite 30C temperature it is closed during winter.

Hells Gate - Northern Territory 1/7/15

Which way to go? A wedge tail Eagle! And yes, we're still in fly country

Doomadgee to Hells Gate – 1/07/15

After a quiet night we drove into Doomdgee, Martin wanted to fill up Diesel. I wasn’t really keen on drive through the town centre but we did just to see how it would look like. A lot of good facilities: state school, playground, health- and a family centre and a pool all looking really good and fairly new. At the end of the road we found a grocery shop and decided to check for fresh milk since we ran out (breakfast cereals without milk isn’t that good). Big surprise: for such a remote area this shop was superbly stocked and ridiculously cheap. Good for us, fresh milk, bread, cookies and some fresh vegetables…

That day we drove the 80 km to Hells Gate, the last fuel stop before Borroloola, which is already in the Northern Territory (NT) . The road wasn’t too bad and nothing else happened. We cooked all our vegtables (apart from the stonelike avocados) because for quarantine reasons you’re not allowed to bring FRESH fruit and veg into the NT. We had a nice little camp fire, without marshmellows (but a glass of Appenzeller after Sarah was asleep).

Last stop in QLD: Hell's Gate Roadhouse and Dilldoll Rock

Northern Territory – 2/07/15

We left Hells Gate and planned to have Morning Tea at the border. Unfortunately there was only a sign and no good spot to stop so we drove on. 

NT Border, Grader, Road train approaching and view just after it passed

The sign that made me most happy was “grader ahead”! We had a lovely, smooth road, no corrugation at all. Happy driving and soon we found an abandoned hut to stop and have coffee. Sarah had fun with the hula hoop (she’s getting really good now!). After another 90 km and a little water crossing we stopped at a nice little campsite next to the Calvert river. A couple of other vans came in during the afternoon. 

As it was rocky and safe from crocodiles we did explore a bit of the river crossing. After dinner we watched the full moon rise and chatted with 2 couples at the campfire - this time with marshmellows :-)

Calvert River Crossing, Campsite, Kookaburra and Full Moon over Calvert River Crossing

Gruel Gravel – 3/07/15

This one had a broken axle. Termite mount

A happy good-bye in the morning quickly turned into grumpiness the longer we drove. The road conditions had deteriorated quickly and the corrugations were as bad or worse than the 10km into the NP in Lawn Hill – but here it just kept going on and on. At our Morning tea stop right at the road after nearly 2 hours of driving and only 60km done Sarah was the only one fairly happy (because she could play with the hula hoop. And the perspective was not promising. Sarah had an energy rush and was happily singing, better: roaring in the back of the car. Not helpful if you try to concentrate on the holes in the road in front of you, watch your dusty back for cars from behind and look out for oncoming traffic and obstacles. So both Martin and I were more than happy, when it went quiet in the back. Sarah had been rattled to sleep – thank God. We stopped at the Lily Lagoon, not wanting to drive another km. The place was nice, a bit too much garbage lying around (hint: we’re in Aborigine land) but otherwise no one else around. A lazy afternoon, early dinner, a “Sendung mit der Maus”- DVD for Sarah and the hope that the road soon be better saw the day fading away in light orange and purple colours.

On the way to Lilly Lagoon

Doomadgee - 30/6/2015

After fixing our car in the morning we headed North towards Doomadgee. This route will bring us back to the original Savannah Way from our de-tour to Lawn Hill NP.

We weren't quite sure about the condition of the road. The locals don't travel that way and we only spoke to one other guy who came from King Fisher Camp (KFC) and warned us that the road is pretty rough that way. Let's just say the worst part was the first 15km out of Adels Grove. Soon after we headed off it was time for Regine to get out of the car and open/close gates again. ;-) 

Not long after we had to cross Lawn Hill Creek at a crossing. So again I've sent out Regine to wade to the other side trough croc infested waters so I could gauge the depth and Regine could take some photos of our first ever water crossing.

Crossing Lawn Hill Creek, local rubbish and fly country

The rest of the way was an un-eventfull drive trough some picturesque landscapes and some varying conditions on the gravel road. It took us about 4 hours for the 120km drive.

We wanted to stay at a little spot just outside of Doomagee (this is an aboriginal community and you are not allowed to stay within the boundaries of Doomagee). However the closer we got to Doomagee the more rubbish was laying beside the road. Unfortunately it seems to be the locals that can't pick up after themselves. We didn't feel comfortably to stay there, so we headed back about 15km towards where we came from - well off the main road on a nice flat campsite we spotted earlier, only spoiled by thousands of flies. (Where can we buy fly nets around here?)

Adels Grove – 27 to 30/06/15

Just a quick word about supplies (For my sister back in Germany :-). Karumba had a great supermarket. We were lucky that the weekly delivery had just come in a day ago with a lot of fresh fruit and veg and heaps of fresh milk. 2L costs around $5 here. In Normanton we couldn’t get any because it was the day before the delivery. Apples are great to take along and they are $7 a kilo while potatoes are cheap with $2.50 a kilo. Lettuce is a treat that we couldn’t get but two cucumbers for $4. Cheese is also more expensive ($9 for 500g), as well as butter ($5.40 for 250g). You do get a lot of tins at fairly normal prices and stores are stocked well with them. You can find flour in the cold section (2-5 kg packs) as well as sugar and big packs of salt (2kg pack). Here in Adels Grove you can only get frozen toast but at least you can get it! (but the only milk available is long-life skim milk, yak!)

Getting to Adels Grove

Another Gravel Road - time to let the tyre pressure down

Driving to Adels Grove we had our first bad encounter with the aborigines: A slow car (on bitumen road) was driving in front of us, swinging from left to right or staying right in the middle of the road. We could see kids climbing around the back seats and next thing was a beer can flying out of the window. Martin slowed further down to stay away and good so because the car then just turned right on to a smaller track without any indication. We were just glad that we could safely drive on from there.

The rest of the 90 km wasn’t too bad. Opposed to what the maps said, 50 km of the road was sealed for the mine trucks (even though it’s just a thin layer, it’s so much better than gravel). From the Century Zinc Mine turn off, we had another 40 km of gravel, which I found very exhausting. Also Sarah was more than happy when we finally arrived at the caravan park.

Lawn Hill National Park – a little gem

On our first day in Adels Grove we drove the 10 km to the Lawn Hill NP to go on one of the 6 hikes. It was a beautiful landscape just driving there, a rocky range in the usual light-brown colours with bits of green and white against a blue sky. The Duwadarri Lookout-hike lead us up onto the ridge of the gorge, a great climb for Sarah and she enjoyed that part a lot. We got rewarded with a view over the turquoise water of the gorges, palm trees and the endless country in the back. Following the path further to the Indarri Falls opened the view into a little paradise: palm trees, a little waterfall, and the colours were just beautiful. And you haven’t have a clue what’s hiding behind those rock walls when you drove towards the National Park and even climbing up the rocky path…

Lawn Hill National Park

The next day we came back to hire a canoe to paddle through the gorge and see it from the other side. …

Paddeling Lawn Hill Gorge and the Cascades walk

After a little morning tea we hiked to the cascades but the water levels were too low and it was just little ponds. Never the less we enjoyed the walk and Sarah was dragging a palm leaf behind her half the way, “cleaning” the track (Irina, do you remember Gosha doing the same thing on one of our hikes when he was much younger :-). We had lunch, Internet connection and a dip into the water before we went back to the campground.

Later that afternoon someone told us that our underbody protection plate at the front of the Jeep was loose. We were really glad that we found out before heading off again. Luckily there’s a mechanics workshop at the campgrounds and Martin was able to get some bolts to fix the problem.

 

Leichhardt Falls


Karumba – Walkers Bend 24/6/15

We only stayed one night in Karumba, so we missed out on fishing or checking out the trawlers. But we didn’t forget to fill up the freezer with some Barramundi, Grunter, Mackerel and fresh Prawns from the local fisho. The grocery shop in Karumba was better stocked than the ones in Normanton, so we filled up our supplies with fresh fruit and veg and soft white bread :-). 

The drive to Walkers Bend was un-eventful. We have to take a 50km Detour on our way to Burketown as they are just building a new bridge on the Savannahway. We free-camped beside Flinders River, already spotted 2 freshwater crocodiles and talked to the water-truck drivers filling up their tanks with the remaining water.

After enjoying our fresh prawns for dinner and a fantastic homemade garlic sauce, we figured out, that we forgot to stock up on beer and wine. Not sure where the next bottle shop is. Normanton is 50km back and Burketown 150 km ahead. Dry season for us, too :-(

Leichhardt River Crossing/Leichhardt Falls – 25/6/15

Regine getting dusted with opening and closing gates, Termites mounts

After a nice sleep-in (7 a.m.) and another hour of cuddling and reading books we finally had breakfast. We planned to drive all day on gravel roads, so Martin let the tyre pressure down and we drove off to the first long stretch of gravel road through a cattle station, the 46 km detour to get back to the Savannah Way. It was so windy (and cold – 19C) that opening and closing the gates on the road wasn’t much fun – more due to the dust that was blowing into my face. The Savannah Way turned out to be gravel road as well (different maps showed different road surfaces) but fairly smooth. There’s nothing between Normanton and Burketown so we had a lunch stop at the side of the road, Sarah did a bit of Hula-hoop dancing and hopping around. Another hour on the road and we finally crossed a very dry Leichhardt River. 

Wow! I’d love to see that river in the wet season. I just want to see how wide it really is or can be. We set up camp on the far side, high up on the bank and went for a walk across the dry riverbed. Or better, for some rock hopping. On and on we walked, up and down, over rocks and stone, through little channels to the rim of the main riverbed.  We looked down what in the wet is must be a nice waterfall to the water, about 10-15 m below. What a view. I’m sure Sarah climbed and hopped a good km without any complains. But give her a straight road in town and she can’t walk 10 m ;-)

Rock-hopping across Leichhardt River, our camp side on the bank

After a little rest Sarah and I went to collect some kangaroo-poo to light the fire. Martin had arranged a little fireplace with stones and Sarah was eager to throw the poo in to get the fire going. After 5 min we had a nice little fire going, and half an hour later had dinner around the fire pit (fresh Spanish mackerel and pasta, roasted marshmallows as desert). The sun went down, lighting up the opposite river bank in orange and purple, kangaroos sat in the golden light and the first stars started to twinkle. What a beautiful country!

Sunrise over Leichhardt falls

Gregory Downs 26/6/15

Pub at Gregory downs and some countryside

Everyone is telling us how beautiful Lawn Hill National Park is, so we decided to take a 300km detour to have a look at it. We headed South through some cattle stations. After about 40km we saw another caravan at the side of the road, so we stopped to see if everything was all right. The couple was waiting for the other two vans they we driving with and asked if there has been a problem on the road. They had been waiting for some time now. It turned out that they wanted to go to Normanton and had missed a big green sign and a left turn while their Navman happily kept on telling them they were on the right track… Thanks for the Hema maps that Martin bought. We can see nearly every little track on there.

After another 40km of gravel road we had bitumen under our vehicle for the rest of the trip to Gregory. It is really just a big parking lot for the road trains, but it has got a pub, fuel and more importantly: a big playground - so we stayed for the night. There is a lovely free camp down beside the river – but it was so packed with caravans (school holidays) that we decided to stay up on the riverbanks.




Normanton to Karumba (Gulf of Carpentaria) 22/23 June 2015

The Gulflander train runs 151 km between Croydon and Normanton, leaving approximately 160km stretch of land between the 2 train lines (to Forsayth) un-serviced. Blackbull is an old station hut but now it's more of a stop for caravaners and trucks to have a tea and a wee. But the scenery is quiet impressive.

The old water tank at Blackbull sideing and a kite

Normanton

The biggest croc in the world was shot nearby. Road Trains and the Pubs of Normanton

Normanton is the service hub for the region and has about 1500 inhabitants. It is famous for the largest croc ever shot (actually by a woman croc hunter), measuring 8.63m. In front of the information centre is a full size replica and Sarah is pretty small against that. I don't know why someone would try and shoot a croc like this. It must be similar to the gold rush, you just can't stop yourself... I would just run as fast as I can! Otherwise Normanton has super wide streets, a purple pub, 2 petrol stations, 2-3 well sorted supermarkets, 2 butchers, a bakery, a school (with playground) and an indigenous art gallery with good coffee. We had a little stroll around and then went for a quick dip in the campground pool.

Karumba 

Sunset over the Gulf of Carpentaria, Hermit crabs and the girls dancing

Next morning we headed down to the Gulf of Carpentaria to Karumba to see the sun setting in the water. (On the east coast of Australia the sun rises out of the sea, but sets over land, so seeing the sunset over water is very special for most Australians) Busloads of people come to see it and the pub is well filled. Sarah didn't see much of the stunning and colourful sunset but enjoyed hopping up and down and around the rocks, eating fish & chips (or better chips & fish). On the Way back to the Camping ground Sarah was still happily singing to her favourite song. After that there was silence and when we arrived Sarah was sound asleep. Not even wiping the sand of her feets with a brush could wake her. What a lovely evening! :-)

The scenery towards the Gulf and some red-tailed Black Cockatoos

Contact Details

If you try to reach us - please use Martin's phone number and send us a text or email. (We also enjoy reading your comments on the blog! Do so frequently - it's nice to get some feedback!) We'll be heading towards the Northern Territory soon and we will be in really remote areas and most likely the only reliable communication will be our satellite phone. We'll keep the blog updated as often as we have internet access, but it could be a while until the next post...

Croydon – 20-21/6/15 - see a different life

Instead of digging for gold in Forsayth to finance our journey we decided to enjoy life and drive to Croydon (150km west) to see the Poddy Dodgers Festival, presented by the Croydon Rodeo & Campdraft Association and taking place over the whole weekend.

On the way we stopped at the Cumberland lagoons which is somewhat surreal: A beautiful green oasis in the middle of dry land, a paradise for birds and ducks – and caravanning ornithologists.

Cumberland lagon

On the way we've seen our first wild emus. And exactly as we were told: they showed up in pairs. If you see one, always watch out for the second one, so it doesn’t take you by surprise. We also saw the remains of wild pigs and a huge bird of prey which we think might even have been an eagle.

Arriving at Croydon, we set up camp next to the rodeo grounds and headed over to the festival since Sarah was keen to join the "party".

our camp, Galahs, a Kite and Sarah's breakfast

Some of the activities taking place here were: Team Roping, Steer Wrestling, Stockmans Challenge, Greasy Pig Chase, Mechanical Bull Competition, Camp Oven Competition and lots more. Just to give you the right idea: this is serious sports and not all fun, the prize money for some of those challenges were between $500 and $3000.

The greasy pig chase was the favourites for the kids. And serious action from the grown ups.

Sarah enjoyed the big party, having her first encounter with a pony and making a sand picture. She also loved the horse competitions and the steer wrestling. The historic side of the town itself weren’t that interesting for her but she danced on the stage in the old Town Hall and all in all adapted quite quickly to the lifestyle: hanging of the fence and playing in the dirt.

The pony 'Twinkle', Sand Art, Croydon and kids at work

It was amazing to see those little kids doing exactly what the parents do (except beer drinking and smoking): riding horses, wearing hats, boots, jeans and a shirt, roping, bull riding and chatting (or playing) with the other kids.

While we had lots of fun, just spare a moment for the farmers. In 2009 the area was affected by the largest floods since 1974. It's estimated that about 100,000 head of cattle drowned. It took months for the water to disappear and many houses were flooded up to the roof. The water also created high vegetative growth and by the end of that year there was a huge uncontrolled fire. Stations were lost and Croydon itself just managed to escape the flames. Since the 2012/13 wet season Crydon has seen very little rain and the area is in sever drought. We've heard stories of farmers having to shoot their cattle, so they don't starve. Who wants to be a farmer?

Cobbold Gorge

Getting there

Getting to Cobbold Gorge from Forsayth is roughly a 1 hour drive on gravel road. It's not a bad one and the surrounding landscape is beautiful and even over only 45 km always changing. Roadsigns are getting interesting, too: you really have to stop if you want to read the whole thing.

The hidden beauty

Cobbold Gorge from above and from the boat, our first "wild" Freshy

The only way to see Cobbled Gorge is by booking a guided tour which is expensive but well worth the money. The gorge was only discovered 23 years ago and made accessible to the public about 3 years later. The owners of the farm developed a vision to protect the natural beauty and to make people aware of it by sharing the history. We heard interesting stories about the land, the nature and how the aborigines used different fruit, leaves and bark for nutritional, medical or hunting purposes. After a 1.5 h hike, including the little climb to the top of the gorges, we entered the solar powered boats and escaped into the quiet world of shimmering stones and water - only Sarah was happily crunching her crackers.

Spa-bath in the middle of nowhere

After this wonderful 3 hour tour we - meaning Martin and I - had a refreshing dip in the pool. It's the best setting I've come across so far. What a beautiful view! Sarah obviously hadn't had enough exercise yet and dived, jumped and swam in the pool for another hour, just interrupted by a lunch to get the energy levels up again.

Surprise, Surprise

It was Regine’s Birthday and we decided to have a bit of a rest day. We stayed at the Bedrock (Yabba Dabba Doo) Caravan park in Mount Surprise. The birthday started with breakfast at the caravan park café (real coffee), then we played a round of Putt-Putt (Minigolf for our German friends), tried our luck with fossicking for gemstones at the nearby gem-shop (instead of driving for 1.5h over gravel road and get sunburned sieving sand, rocks and dirt, getting the same result: nearly nothing) and had a stroll to the nearby Elizabeth creek. For dinner we enjoyed lovely home-made pizzas out of the big wood fired oven and a cold beer. Who could ask for more?

I got in big trouble for taking Sarah onto the Train bridge over Elizabeth Creek, Elizabeth Creek, Putt-Putt and Pizzas

Georgtown – Forsayth

Today was another driving day. We left Mount Surprise and headed towards Georgetown (92 km). Soon the countryside got dryer and in parts the road was now single lane bitumen. If you have oncoming traffic you have to move a bit to the side onto the gravel so that the roadtrains can stay on the bitumen. We crossed a little mountain range and stopped for some great views over the surrounding Savannah.

We can only imagine how much water there is in the rivers during the wet. Some of the bridges are more than 100m long and several meters high, yet there is no water, or at best maybe a puddle left at the moment. Apparently they haven’t had a decent wet season for 3 years now.

Pictures of the drive between Mount Surprise and Forsayth

After lunch in Georgtown we headed towards the old gold mining town of Forsayth. There were about 15 km of gravel road, so we stopped and let the tyre pressure down. This helps for a much softer ride on the rough sections.

Forsayth has about 50 inhabitants, one caravan park, a school with 11 students, a library, a Pub/Store/Post office/Petrol Station and a train station. 

Sarah is getting better at making new play-friends and soon she was playing with some local kids. Turns out the weekly attraction for the kids in town is The Savannahlander – a tourist train which takes two days to get from Cairns to here.  As Forsayth is the end of the track, they have to turn the train around. Once the tourists have left the train, the local kids - and we - were allowed to go inside and stay as they turned the train.

Most people in the caravan park are here to fossick for gold with detectors. And some locals can find enough gold to live of their finds. But I don’t know if I would like to do that. During summer it can get to 48C. During winter (as in now) it’s a pleasant 29C.

The Silver Bullet, the pub/store/PO/petrol station and great sunsets in Forsayth


Undara Lavatubes

Good Weather

Finally we left the rain behind and got some good weather. We are currently at the beginning of what is known as the Savannah Way. This tracks begins in Cairns and pretty much heads West to Broome in Western Australia. The total length is about 3700 km without detours. There are also several alternate routes to choose. Having finally started on our outback track feels like the real beginning of our adventure.  

long empty roads and roos - The Savannah way
We thought on our first leg from Cairns to Normanton (just underneath the Gulf of Carpentaria) we will encounter the first test for our caravan with narrow roads in poor condition. Well, if you live on the east cost of Australia you haven't seen a major road as good as this. It's wide, not a bump in the road, excellent maintained and apart from the occasional caravan and road train traffic free!

Undara lavatubes

We made a small detour (again fully sealed roads) to the Undara lava tubes. They got formed when the Undara volcano erupted some 190,000 years ago. The lava flow was apparantly about one olympic size swimming pool every second! Over time the top of the lava flow cooled down, but beneath the lava kept flowing and when the volcano finally stopped it left behind those gigantic tubes. The total length was about 140 km - The longest lava tubes in the world. Today a lot of the roofs have collapsed, but some of the tubes are still intact and look like gigantic tunnels. The ones we visited were about 30m wide, 10m in hight and about 200m long. Erosion and water ingress has left behind some beautiful coloured walls and ceilings. 

Undara Lavatubes, a bat, some speargrass and the resort built out of old railway carriages

We didn't stay at the resort, but it is build out of old railway carriages. Certainly a great dining experience.

In the ares grows a grass called spear grass. The individual seeds look like miniature spears that start to twist when they get wet. They can twist their way into the wool of sheep and eventually even penetrate the skin. So the early settlers had to give up on sheep farming pretty soon.

Kalkani Crater

On the way back to the main road we visited the Kalkani Crater. Access is by about 5km of badly corrugated gravel road. So we finally had a 'shake down' of our caravan. Apart from some mashed up Avocados no damage to van, car or passengers.

It's a 2.5 km hike up the crater and walking around the rim. Even Sarah walked most of it. It's very interesting seeing all the basalt lying around and looking down into the crater. It's obviously all overgrown now, but we still enjoyed spectacular views across the vast landscape.

Check out Google Earth for an image of the crater:  https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Kalkani+Crater,+Mount+Surprise+QLD+4871/@-18.2237267,144.6669688,1515m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x6980fbbd86ac4897:0x45f7ef360bf23be8 

Walk up Kalkani Crater, some pictures looking down into the crater and the vista from the rim walk