Great Central Road Day 20

I had this strange suspicion it wasn't going to work.
I got up at dawn and rode the bike around to all the spots I could get.
The sun came up way too quickly and with no clouds around there isn't much in the way of favourable light.
















And by the time the gates were open it was all over. . .





























So back to the campground to work on my professional camper skills.
I decided to fix the roof vent as although I had power for the air conditioner last night I wasn't sure about tonight and definitely not the next couple. Also a few squeaks and rattles needed attending and I may as well wash bedclothes etc. as it is cheap to wash here and everything dries instantly with the lack of humidity. Surprisingly little humidity compared with the NT parks even though right on top of the dam! Then of course there was lunch, read a book, have a nap, read some more, put the motorbike back on the truck, fill the water tank, empty the toilet tank and before you know it it's 3pm and time to move to the next camp in Kununurra itself. I keep running into a bloke "John" (and his apparently nameless wife); with whom I was discussing this business of moving and camping etc. . In his enquiries of others "in the trade" it appears that the average move per day is between 80 and 150km. I think that means I can't go anywhere else for another two months!! I knew I was doing something wrong.

The bloke at the quarantine station crossing into WA said the Hidden Valley caravan park was the cheapest so I went straight there. $29 per night down from $35 but because I "bitched and complained" they would make it $25 so I decided on "no power but generators allowed"for $12. The only problem is they have very restricted generator hours until 7pm. Normally it's 9am to 9pm everywhere else. I guess I still haven't got it quite sussed yet, but I'm working on it . . .

Great Central Road Day 19

Day 19

Well no breeze but plenty of lightning and at some time 20mins of what sounds like heavy rain. You know that stuff that comes down in drops the size of golf balls but no wind at all. Still it does cool things down a little and I have worked out how to make the roof fan draw in outside air through the windows at each end of the bed so it does get a little cooler. But the vent opening handle has broken so I am going to have to fix that tomorrow or the fan/venting system is not going to work properly.

Packed up at dawn but it’s pretty uninteresting light wise so try to creep the truck out of camp without waking everybody. I think the reason people are relaxed about travelling is they sleep a lot and every time they do anything it’s a great accomplishment.

There is not really a lot to see until the Victoria River area, part of Gregory National Park which is in several chunks along this road. It’s quite a large area but I’m pretty sure it’s for those serious off-road people and their tricked out 4WD so I am not inclined to get too far off road in this part of the world.

The Victoria River is quite large and meets and/or crosses the highway at a number of places for the next 100km or so. It is of course very seasonal but like all these northern rivers when they flow they flood. I’m standing here on the old bridge, which replaced the “crossing”, and looking at the new bridge which now does away with the annual week or two wait during the rainy season while the water flooded over the bridge.

There is still quite a lot of water around and they run cruises up and down the river, billed as the last of the true “wild water” tours. I’m pretty sure it’s not actually during the wild season that they run the tours however.

A little further on I stopped for lunch at this bridge to nowhere. There are locked gates on the other end and the sign says “Defense Department” , never heard of it!!

River is still pretty big at that point.

After chatting with a bloke I had met before in Katherine and Kakadu who was sitting in a roadside stop i.e. parking bay, at least with trees and BBq’s and even toilets if you’re game, for the second day and night in a row while waiting for mail to catch up in Kununurra I decided to go on a bit further. The guy at the quarantine station at the WA border recommended a few stops down the road and a caravan park in Kununurra but the turn of to the Ord River Dam appeared and I decided to turn that way instead. It’s quite a spectacular area in many ways. The caravan park offers $20 powered sites with all the facilities and is actually quite nice and I do like to be able to run the air con all night in this weather so here I am. It’s only 4pm (we are back on WA time I realise) so I take the bike off and go for a ride around the dam area while I still have time. It’s absolutely beautiful but they kick you out at 5pm and won’t let you back in until 7am tomorrow.

But I’ll be waiting at the gate . . .

(This is my favourite photo so far.)

Great Central Road Day 18

Day 18

100% Humidity is not my idea of fun.

I have had two cold showers while packing up this morning.

I drive down to the end of the bitumen just to have a look at the “Safari Camp”, a strange place which is a mixture of permanent tent on raised floors and other odd scattered tents around the place and a couple of converted containers for an office and a shop. It really does somehow remind me of those big safari camps you see in movies. Hatari or something??

Here I have to decide whether to complete the loop back into Darwin via 50km of gravel or turn around and go out the way I came in via Batchelor. I can’t see the point in looping back to Darwin and I quite like the road through the park so it’s back the way I came. Only a quick look at the attractions which are on the main road none of the 20-30 km side tracks this time and before you know it I am back out on the main highway. This time I am filling in the bit I missed by going through Kakadu and get to see Adelaide River on the way. Railway Museum or War Memorial ?? Should have gone to the War Memorial. Nuff said!

This way is much shorter to Katherine, where I have to go to turn off to Kununurra. I really need to do a load of washing but I cannot find a laundomat that is not in a caravan park, and I refuse to pay $25 so I can pay $8 to do a load of washing. It will have to wait, I still have clean clothes and the old ones can go in a sealed bin for a day or two.

Today I am determined to stop before it gets too late but 3-30pm is just too early and all the rest stops are grotty. About 4-30 I spot one with toilets and tanks and shelters and BBQ’s etc and just one little Toyota van parked up the far end. I pull into the near end about 60metres or so from the van because I intend using the generator to keep the air conditioning going for a while tonight. I decide to go and say “Hello”, as there appears to be somebody sitting in a deck chair in the shade near the van, and to explain why I pulled up so far away, and I think it is less scary for other people when you say hello in day light rather than just wandering around at various times. It’s a lady about 50+ something who has spent the last 5 months getting from somewhere in Qld to here and thinks it will take several more months to get to Perth. She is giving herself a year to see how she likes it . . . well that’s the story. Must have nerves of steel I think to just be out in the boonies by herself. I know that’s a bit sexist but I do think it’s different for guys.

So we’re both settled in at opposite ends of the park for about ¾ of an hour and someone else with a motorhome arrives and pulls up about 10metres away from this lady right alongside her and proceeds to set up camp. What is wrong with these people?? Eventually over the next hour or so there are another 6 vans and cars etc. and then for some reason the dickheads with the motorhome decide to move it another 10 metres away. At least now it’s not right in her face.

I start the generator up about 6pm and go for a walk. It’s funny but the sound of the air conditioner is louder away from the truck than the generator. I deliberately have the generator side away from the camp and that seems to be working. For some reason however it all then goes haywire. The charging system keeps tripping over the air conditioning or vice versa and keeps overloading the generator so it shuts down. It takes the next two hours of reprogramming re-routing cables etc. to make sure what is working and what is not. It appears the air conditioning start up is confusing the charging system so I reprogram the charger to less than it’s rated capacity then start up the air conditioner and then gradually increase the charge load to what it should be. It’s been running now for an hour so it’s time to turn it all off and open up the windows and let the heat in . . .

I hope there is a breeze out there tonight.

Great Central Road Day 17

Morning spent cleaning camper (inside) and a bit of reorganization. Every time I got that "I must go somewhere" feeling I made myself do something else.

Finally left about 11 am. which must be something of a record for me.

The drive through Litchfield is much more convoluted horizontally and vertically!

A slope marked 400 metres at 10% - selected 2^nd gear as being overly cautious. Only just made it and fading, 500 metres would have seen a hill start in 1^st gear!

The first item on the agenda was the famous “magnetic” termite mounds.

There is a quite large area, which you can see here, of about 30 hectares where all the mounds are this slab like shape arranged E-W to minimize sunlight exposure. Absolutely fascinating! What’s more fascinating is how they trained them do it. Well they must have! It’s the only place I have seen them for 1000 kilometres through here. In fact if you just turn around from looking at them you will see

This fellow and his many companions blatantly exposing all aspects of themselves to sun and tourist alike.

Never the less the Buley Rockhole was calling

And so were what seemed to be about 100 other tourists having fun in them.

I was told by everyone that the waterfalls were much better in Litchfield Park.
Silly me . . . I thought they meant to "look at them".
Still they were pretty spectacular to look at as well.
Next on the list was Florence Falls.
















I was ready this time . . . .
















and at Tolmer Falls as well . . .

















The most interesting thing around these falls was the loop trail right around and over the top which took a couple of hours. The trick is the lookout is half way but everyone seems to turn around and go back, I'm not sure why!! On the way you pass through an area of quite "jungley" looking trees and vines etc. which are infested with bats.
What a racket they make!
















I have some video footage but at the moment my mouse is playing up and it's too hard to edit and get on-line. This bit is just a nice little area about 80% of the way round.

I was hoping to get some pretty good bird photos here
















but all I did get was some nice swamp photos
















but I wasn't about to photograph white cockatoos screeching "Idiot"

Last on the list was Wiley falls which were quite interesting. You couldn't actually get to them as they went into a canyon which was pretty inaccessible but they looked pretty spectacular (for a small volume of water as it's just about to get wet).























In fact there was incessant thunder and lightning and some rain down on the lowlands but it didn't move out way thankfully.

By this time it was 4pm so following my new rules I stayed in one of the bush camping areas in the park. They actually have hot showers, toilets and free gas barbeques after paying the $7 camp fee so they are actually quite good.

Great Central Road Day 16

Day 16 - Good Part
Up bright and early and down to the "touristy" part of the park
















No. I didn't get a ticket. The safety rails round the edge of the boat weren't high enough for my liking.
















Mind you there was plenty of other croc. food available.
















So I went walking in the wetlands instead . . . much safer.
















Then on to the next attraction.














OK That's not too bad. I've walked around Kings Canyon.
Path starts like this
















and then keeps on going and gets steeper. There are NO flat spots for all 1.6km!
Mind you there are some nice views at the top.
This is 9am and 99% humidity over the wetlands.
















Coming down is easier. Just slip once and you'll be down in no time at all.
Oh for a Zimmer frame.
Then on to the aboriginal rock art.
There is some nice country here as well. It's in the base of the hills etc. from the previous picture. There is a brick paved pathway for about 2km with short excursions for each site or you can walk through the hills from site to site through places like this . . . much nicer . . . no Japanese tour guides saying "Keep to the path."























You'd have to carbon date some of this stuff while I was there to get me to believe it wasn't done by a couple of kids who stole a box of chalk but then it doesn't say "ancient" anywhere does it?
















Day 16 - Other Part
I don't think I have this touring thing quite worked out. At least in this part of the world anyway. I don't mind being out in the heat and humidity where you have to drink litres per hour until you feel nauseous and sweat litres per hour but it doesn't evaporate so you don't get cool and it trickles down into your eyes all the time and stings and drops onto your glasses where it creates visual distortions so you try and step over or around or on a rock which isn't there and there is no breeze and there are lots of flys as long as there are interesting things to see but to just sit around and "relax" . . . you have to be kidding me.

When you get to Jabiru where you turn left and start to work your way back to Darwin there are many fewer things to see along the road and the "creek walks" have less attraction. I've seen enough crocodile warning signs that I can't get excited by a mudhole with a sign anymore.
In this part of the world there are no simple little places to spend some idle time and I've already commented on the weather so you tend to keep moving and lo and behold there is the Stuart Highway and a sign saying Darwin 35 km. For reasons entirely unexplainable by me I actually turn toward it! I get all the way into downtown Darwin before it occurs to me that the only thing I can think of that I would like to see here, at the moment, is the aviation museum but it's Sunday and 5pm and I really should stop.

A call into a couple of parks reveals that a single person site is on average $25-30 per night. It seems a bit excessive so I decide to buy a meal and then head on out of Darwin toward Litchfield Park which everyone assures me is nicer than Kakadu. I've made this dumb decision a couple of times now and should know better. For any sort of stress minimization technique to work while travelling like this you need to be stopped and camped by about 4pm. The only consolation is that there is a particularly nice sunset, and then I kick myself that I should be somewhere nice with a tripod and some time instead of pulling to the side of the road and taking a quick shot from the window of the truck.































I tell myself I'm going to pull into the first reasonable parking bay I can find and set up camp.
Finally I get control of myself in a place called Bachelor which is the gateway town to Litchfield and pull into the first campground. "$30 per person per night thank you."
I don't care. I plug in the air conditioner and just sit until I cool off mentally and physically.
A good nights sleep will help I'm sure.

Great Central Road Day 15

First thing I see coming into Katherine is the Visitor Information Centre so ignore all the traffic and cross to the other side of the street and pull into the very convenient parking area. A good collection of brochures and a complete overload on information only took about 20 mins..

Water and fuel (ouch, but not as bad as a lot of places as it was only $1.38/l) and heading out of Katherine following the Information Centre Advice, Kakadu first and Litchfield second. On the way out stop at Edith Falls for a nice little 2.6 kilometre walk which loops around the falls. Takes about an hour including 10 mins to dangle your feet in the water to cool off.

[Update]

[End Update]

I’ve worked out a new system for controlling the water pump. I have a second electrical switch right next to the pump in the outside shower compartment which I installed when having a few problems with the pump during installation. It saved me from running up the stairs every time I wanted the pump on or off. So I have finally worked out I can leave the inside switch on and turn the pump on and off in the compartment, where the water tank tap is also, when I want to use the outside shower head. Came in very useful after the walk for sticking my head under to cool off. Takes a while sometimes . . .

Then off toward Kakadu again. Just about lunchtime I reach Pine Creek. I am continually surprised that the places I have heard of are generally sh*tholes and the places I have never heard of are just nice little country towns. I saw a “Lookout” sign on the way into town so when I see the turnoff I thought “Why not lunch on the lookout?”.

Well it did say “No walking on the road” and “No Caravans” so I should have thought about it . . . About half way up there was a tight turn with a little flat spot . . .thank goodness . . . no way to back down and what looked like a 45 degree slope in front of me.

My truck won’t go into low range without also engaging four wheel drive, not good on the bitumen and especially under these circumstances. So, first high range gear and pray, did OK actually but it sure wouldn’t have made it in second!

Just have a look at those dates. How on earth were people managing out here in 1871???

Just as I was leaving town I took this one especially for Rosemary.

Finally into Kakadu Park and the first recommended walking tracks. I was told the dirt road was fine so off I went about 30kph. I went about 2km down the road and saw the tracks of 6 others who had turned back before me! No shame in being 7^th.

This road defeated me. Those corrugations are not just a simple set of ripples. There are about 4 different sets of ruts which mix and cross over all the time. The worst ones are those long flat bits with speed bumps every 600-800mm apart.

So I left that to another time and went on to the next spot. This was only 8km down relatively smooth dirt road. Looked like this.

Nice walkways to get through the muddy bits.

Wait a minute whats that little sign say??

Let’s have a closer look . . .

Hang on a minute. It’s about 4pm. Isn’t that when they used to feed the croc’s at the zoo? Do I really want to walk in there? Why are there 6 cars here and no people around? There are some voices up ahead and I don’t hear screaming so maybe it’s OK. Actually there are some quite nice spots

along the way to the “Plunge Pool”!!

I won’t go into all the other warning signs along the way but there is no chance of dangling the tootsies anyplace near here.

Finally back to the car park about 5pm and stick my head under the shower to cool off again and the damn same joint which came undone on the first part of the trip (and caused the near loo lock in disaster) has done it again but no leak to warm me so as I turn the pump on it’s worse this time and floods the compartment.

Clean up takes about half an hour and despite the time I dislike the campground here enough to make me move to the next one. This one is quite nice and generators are even allowed. This appeals to me greatly as I really can't quite understand how anyone can enjoy this sub-tropical heat and humidity! So on with the generator and the air conditioner. Disaster strikes. The generator runs long enough to overheat and overload simultaneously! The over heating can be dealt with by just leaving the compartment open for the time being. The next guy along just has a little two pot screamer sitting out on the ground. The overloading takes a bit of thinking about. The electrical control system, the "Quattro", has been programmed to allow for a draw of 17 amps as that's what the original generator could provide but this one can only deliver 10 amps. After hunting around on my laptop I eventually find the software to control it and manage to reprogramme it to 10 amps. Yay!! Success.

Generator installation is still crap really – something else to fix!.