Elliott to Mataranka

19/03/2010


There are 4 other vans in this place called ‘Elliott’ what would bring other people to here? Interestingly they are all very experienced travellers, 1 has been travelling since the early 90’s. Just when I thought that I was the cursed one I found out that one of the vans lost a wheel, all the studs sheared off and he could not find the wheel. He is stuck in ‘Elliott’ as they are special studs and the only place you can get them is from Melbourne so he has to get them trucked up Then the 2nd vaners decided to go for a drive only to be towed back as he had gotten a tank full water contaminated diesel at Renner Springs. He is now waiting for new filters to be loaded onto a bus out of Darwin and delivered to the mechanic sometime in the next day or so.

Today we are off to Daly Waters to have a counter lunch and a beer. Just outside of Elliott there was a guy sleeping right on the edge of the road with his backpack. At first I thought that he may have been hit but he was all cuddled up to his backpack fast asleep. This area is renowned for its WWII and telegraph memorabilia from old airfields, an old hospital and where the original telegraph line was joined in 1872 which allowed instantaneous communication from Adelaide to Great Britain. The landscape has changed with larger trees very green and animals and birds, we couldn’t help but notice how devoid of wild life the centre of NT was and we are still yet to see a kangaroo, we have more wildlife in our front yard..

Daly Waters hotel what a hoot, a van of young backpackers had just arrived when we got there so tonight will be a big night. We sat down to a Barra burger and Scooner of Lite Ice and took copious photos of bras and knickers (they were on the wall, not the backpackers), I must say there must have been some very well proportioned girls who previously owned this equipment. Trice and I stapled our business cards in a prime spot on the front of the bar so when you are there you will see ‘Eternally Yours’ and ‘Tee Pee Threads’. See the photo at the end. We are going to call in on the way back as the nights just sound like they would be fantastic.

We then were on the lookout for the Stewart Tree, this is a trunk of a tree with a big “S” that was carved into it which everyone has assumed was Stewart on his way from Adelaide to Darwin. It would be a shame if it was in fact Steve on his way back to ‘Elliott’ to see his mates.

The old airfield was a hit, onto the airfield we went with our vans behind us and ZOOM down the strip trying to get lift off, even flapping my arms out the window didn’t help. This place was amazing, the old hanger was still there with part of the original communication board, a couple of old plane wrecks in the long grass and a lot of memorabilia still in the shed for all to see. The old hanger you can see in an old photo is the same hanger I parked the van in. Trice was saying OK let’s go I have had enough of this place, I could have just hung around there for ages.

Not a big day of driving today, we could have made Katherine but decided to pull up 100klm south in a little place called ‘Mataranka’ and are staying at the Manor Caravan Park. Very neat and tidy with barramundi feeding twice a day and this area has hot springs, barramundi fishing and walks so we will probably stay a couple of days and take it easy.

Still no phone service so I am no clearer on my sister Jo’s diagnosis so we are taking it as it comes and hopefully will know more once we get to Katherine. We are going to stop there for a couple of days and hopefully get the indicators fixed so Patrice is not panicking every time we are near other cars, she does not see the that putting my hazard lights on when we want to make a turn is working.

Must be beer o’clock I have a strong desire to partake in a beer chilled to perfection at -2 degrees in our wonderful Waeco fridge. (Just caught up with Jo on a borrowed phone not real good so we may have to cut a bit short).

Devils Marbles to Elliott

18/03/2010

Woke to the sunrise as I wanted to get some more photos, where do those flies come from, they just about knocked me over. No use trying to brush them away as the cheeky little buggers just stay there. It was like a mass exodus just as quickly as everyone come in they all left, we were the last to leave. Got some more great photos and headed off back to Tennant Creek to have a look around. It actually looks like a ghost town no real action unless you are getting fuel and yes it is cheaper than all the other stations in that area. Cut it a bit fine taking on board 161 litres, meaning I only had 19 litres left which when you are using on average 23 litres for every 100 kilometres, I probably only had about 80 kilometres left. I have now spent $1,056 in fuel. Now I have had the air-conditioning fixed, a new UHF antenna, then the Anderson plug replaced and the tail lights for the caravan fixed and then.......

What do you mean the indicators are not working, Patrice is now in a panic. I don't know what black cat I have kicked but I am starting to imagine noises now. For some unknown reason I have no indicators, the hazard lights work which run off the same fuse as the indicators, I have checked all the fuses and still nothing. I will wait until we get to Katherine and will go and see the Toyota dealer. We left Tennant Creek and headed up to the old telegraph buildings 10 klm north of Tennant Creek, it is out of tourist season so it was locked up, if we wanted to drive back to Tennant Creek we could borrow a key to look inside but that means that we would have had a 40 klm round trip and I am not sure of what is inside, so we just looked through the windows and had a wander around. It is

an amazing story of hardship that the early settlers went through to open up this arid land. There were plenty of information signs that gave you a great insight into this time. Back on the road again, we have now travelled nearly 3,000 klm in 11 days, I am looking forward to getting to Jabaru where we will stay a few days and have a break, we have probably overdone the driving but there is very little to see in this area.We intended to only drive around 200klms today but we got to Renner Springs a little after 1.00 and decided to simply stop for lunch and keep going. We met a lovely English couple who are seeing more of Australia then most Australian will ever see, it is embarrassing to hear where they have been and also how excited they are to have seen the things they have seen.

We were given a heads up on a small town called Elliott, so off we go. We arrived in Elliott around 4.00 and there are aboriginals everywhere, the caravan park is like something out of the dark ages but we are tired, there are 4 other vans here so what the heck let's get some rest and head of for Daley Waters in the morning. Trice and I decided to go for a walk and meet the locals, funny thing is that they are very shy and have a lot of difficulty in making eye contact. It is very sad when you have a look around the town, there is an alcohol ban so the pub has been closed and with that most businesses. The young Aussie guy in the shop has come here from Brisbane, has only been here for 2 weeks, his girl friend has just got a teaching job in Elliott so he decided to tag along, all he could do was apologise for everything. As I sit here you can hear tin cans being kicked around with people wandering around aimlessly, they have nothing to do. Quiet night tonight just doing the blog and catch up on some reading.

Devils Marbles

17/03/2010

A beautiful sunrise saw us up have a wander around at 6.30, a great time of day out here and surprisingly no flies to speak of. We headed off to Barkly Homestead at 8.30 where I was going to top up with fuel, 178.9 made me do a few calculations as I was told it was cheaper in Tennant Creek and I decided to go for it. We left the Barkly Highway and turned right into the Stewart Highway to check out the 3 ways for fuel, same price!!! We turned around and headed to Tennant Creek, we pulled over only to discover that the Anderson plug which supplies power to the caravan from the car had come undone and had ground itself to a pair ragged wires from dragging on the bitumen. I found the only auto electrician in Tennant Creek and I think that the only reason he is in business is that there is that no one else wants to live there. Well at least he was able to supply a new plug and had the appropriate gear to fix it, he also managed to work out why my parking lights on the van were not working. It would seem the person who had connected it had mixed up 2 wires, I will give myself a good talking to. On to the Devils Marbles which is 11 Klm south of Tennant Creek, we were told that it was well worth seeing and they were fantastic. They just look like a giant has been playing with huge boulders and stacking them up. It must be popular as when we pulled in around 3.00 there was only 2 other campers there by the time sunset came it was packed and the red of the sunset was fantastic. Did I say something about flies, these little micro flies just about carried us away so we decided to just put our fly hats on spray ourselves with fly spray and have a few quiet wines into the night. We did with great passion while working out where the stars were and how to calculate due South from the Southern Cross. Bed was a welcome destination after climbing the rocks, John and I climbed to the top of the highest rock which gave me a severe case of vertigo but it was worth it. We walked down all the dry creek beds the water that came through here during the last rains must have been enormous, it was great to just have an explore.

Mt Isa to Devils Marbles

16/03/2010

Left Mt Isa a little later than expected, we started talking to Peter and Wendy who are long time travellers into the NT. They have invited us to meet them at Sinclairs Fisherman's retreat on the Daley River where they will take us to an aboriginal community and go Barra fishing with them, we are to meet up in about 5 days, can't wait. We crossed the border at 2.00 where we took a few photos etc, not much to see out here, no big trees, no animals but plenty of wedge tail eagles. There is no phone, no internet and no radio out here which when you are used to this type of stuff it is a little bit daunting We thought that we would have a shortish drive and stay at a free stay opposite the Avon Downs police station as we were quite nervous about our first free stay in the middle of nowhere. When we arrived it was around 2.30 in the afternoon and considering the sun doesn't set till around 8.00 we would have had a long stay in the sun as there was little or no shade. So a decision was made to drive for another 1 1/2 hours which would not get us to Barkleys Homestead but we got to Wonarah Bore. There was water everywhere and I went for a walk to see if I could see any signs of crocs, I got back safely. No toilets or showers a very large parking spot a fair way off the road and in the middle of nowhere. We watched the sun go down, had a couple of beers and we had to decide if we left the windows open to allow a breeze into the van, it was very hot so we had no choice, were we going to be attacked by dangerous people during the night. Around 10 a car came into the grounds and drive up past our van which made us a bit nervous but it was simply other campers weary from a days driving. It became freezing during the night which meant climbing under the dooner but we woke the next morning alive and safe. Today the intention is to drive through to Devils Marbles to witness the sunset and sunrise and then we will drive back to Tennant Creek.

Mount Isa Day 2

Well what do you know we decided to stay an extra day in Mount Isa. Even after speaking to many folk in the park who all suggested that we move on as there was nothing to see. I must say that today was the highlight so far. We booked in to see the mine tour at "Outback at Isa" what a great day. We were dressed up in mine gear and taken 27 metres underground to have a look at how they work on a day to day basis. It was a simulated mine but at the same time we experienced the heat, the smell, the fumes and the total blackness of being underground. After you are loaded up with everything from battery packs and helmets and lights and boots etc, I don't know how they manage to work an 12 hour shift, we were buggered after being down there for 2 1/2 hours. Even the movie in the theatre afterwards was fabulous, if we had known how good this was we would have come earlier and spent more time there. If you come to the Isa make sure you come here. Went for a drive around the back of the real mine later on and to see the size of this operation is mind blowing and to think that the mines are up to 2 klm below the ground. We are having a leasurely start in the morning and heading off to Camooweal around 10 in the morning. We may lose contact for a couple of days so I will update when I can.

Winton To Cloncurry and on to Mount Isa

Sat 13/03 Left Longreach and headed off for Winton. We drove to the Dinosaurs and had to unhitch out van to get up a 'Jump Up' a big hunk of rock that just pops out of a flat plain, this is where the display was, lots of secret stuff that was so secret that tthey could tell us about it. Our tour guide was Freddy a young aboriginal fellow who went to Caboolture high. We arrived at Winton around 1.00 only to find that everything was closed except the pubs, we pulled up a stake out the back of the Gregory Hotel for a free stay only to hit a post with the van and now we have some extra yellow paint down the side. John and I spent the afternoon having a few beers and betting on the horses with the locals and arrived back at the camp a little worse for wear but we did have a good time. Met the local school principal nice guy arrived from Brisbane a couple of years back. He believes that the School of the Air will take over small county towns.

Sun 14/03 Went to the musical fence for a laugh, I tried to upload a video of Tricebut it wouldn't work a real shame because it was a good laugh. Left for Mount Isa, very flat plain land nothing much to see other than a couple of emus and lots of ant nests.We lost John and Will while we were at the musical fence so we headed off hoping to catch them. We pulled in the "Walkabout Hotel" which is where Crockodile Dundee was filmed and had a refreshing ale 250 klms down the road. We found John and Wil, they were actually behind us trying to catch us. We met our first crowd, some people from Melbourne who were taking their dutch friends for a site seeing tour around Australia. We pulled into Cloncurry for lunch, nice little town, and headed off in search of the Burke and Wills memorial as well as the Mary Kathleen ghost town, we found them but didn't stay for long. After over 400klms here we are in Mount Isa at the Top Tourist Caravan park, having a rest ready for tomorrow. We have now passed the halfway mark with Darwin 1600 klms and Brisbane 1850klms.

Longreach Day 2

Had a leasurely start to the day and wandered off to the Hall of Fame, turned out that we are a month early for the live shows etc so it was just the museum which was very well done. It makes you realise how hard the early settlers had it. Matter of fact it is still damn hard for the current longreach folk. Quite a slow day getting ready to depart for WINTON first thing in the morning. We saved our energy for the night life of Longreach on a Friday night. We sta in the Bistro of what we thought was the happening pub, we sat by ourselves. I went for a wander through the pub after dinner and there was 1 other person besides us. We went outside and stood in the middle of the main street and had a chat so here we are at 8.15 watching the football and deciding what we are going to do tomorrow.