Speedykniebe; life in the fast lane!

Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Lorella Springs Station NT

Mataranka to Lorella Springs

Monday 11th to Tuesday 12th August

Good Advice in Roper Bar

Heading out from Mataranka before most campers were awake put us on the road with plenty of time to enjoy the lengthy drive to Lorella Springs. Our first stop was Roper Bar which heralded the end of the bitumen and the beginning of the dirt road component of the Savannah Way. Visiting the shop at Roper Bar proved to be an experience in its own right; it’s like a Tardis starting with the usual groceries then morphing into a hardware department before finally transforming into a clothing boutique!! When we asked the lady about fishing she in the Roper River she said fish from the sandbank, enquiring about crocs she confirmed that they have some large salties lurking but her advice on how to spot when your on the menu was gold!.

‘If you smell… excuse me boys’ she stated in a matter-of-fact tone looking from Jacob to Logan,
'sh*t then you know he’s watching you. That’s cause he’s just vented and the smell of sh*t will come from nowhere, then you know he’s near you.’

Well advice like that couldn’t be ignored so I was on smell alert while the boys fished, and woe-betide anyone who trumped!! Needless to say we didn’t smell sh*t and nobody caught a thing!

Fishing at Roper Bar

Limmen National Park

Our journey continued on fairly corrugated roads through passed Tomatoe Isalnd (which Simon was keen to avoid!) and into Limmen NP. We saw lots of grass fires and could feel the heat through our windows as we drove by. More fishing at lunch time on Town River in Limmen, where we spotted crocs sunning themselves on the banks, but no bad smells and no more luck with catching anything. We arrived hot and tired at Lorella just in time for happy hour at their rustic bar! After a couple of coldies we set up camp, enjoying the relaxed ‘camp anywhere’ attitude.

Controlled burning very close to the road

Lorella Spring Station

Having checked out the facilities I found the toilets were very basic but flushing, the showers unisex and open air, (with nothing but a flimsy curtain blowing in the breeze for privacy). The notice ‘light a fire under the donkey boiler for a hot shower’ was not a joke but genuine instructions!!

We had a mixed bag exploring Lorella, as the lack of guidance from staff the previous evening led us to dry waterholes and stagnant pools. Our highlight was nudie hot springs, a large natural hot pool where clothing is optional! Unfortunately we were too far into the dry season to see Lorella at its best, and we decided to leave a day early, promising ourselves a return trip when the water is flowing again. Lorella has a great atmosphere, but you need a swag, a couple of weeks and $$$ to fully appreciate the vast wilderness it encompasses.

The bar - jerry can bar stools

The showers with freaky guardian!

Sunday, 10 August 2014

Katherine Gorge to Materanka, NT

Edith Falls (Nitmiluk NP)

Friday 8th to Sunday10th August

A spur of the moment decision took us to Edith Falls and I am so glad we made this detour! What a beautiful little secret this end of Katherine Gorge NP is! The plunge pool is only a couple of minutes from camp and the camping is quiet and personal, and cost $20 for us all for a night!! We walked to the upper pools the next morning to before setting off to restock in Katherine.

Hairy scary quite contrary, how does your beard grow?

Katherine Gorge

Re-stocked and on the move again we headed out to Katherine Gorge for a dinner cruise. The camping was expensive and crowded so luckily we spent very little time at the site before heading out to the gorge. The dinner cruise was wonderful and included lots of information about local history, rock art and geological formations before transforming into a floating restaurant for a 3 course meal which included crocodile! This has been one of our most special evenings yet as I’m sure the photo will testify.

A slight hiccough when we got back to the tent still couldn’t spoil the evening, but had a bloody good go! We hadn’t had time to put away our shopping in Katherine, so had piled it all in the tent, only to find that about a million ants had found it and were inside the bedding and bags!! After a full scale evacuation war was waged and won by Simon the Destroyer and the food was saved!

Mataranka Bitter Springs

Wow, this place is a must if you are ever travelling nearby, the bitter springs in Elsey NP are just fantastic; warm flowing water that carries you down stream surrounded by lush plants and a few huge spiders!! This was another afternoon of R & R which rates among some of the best!

Crystal clear water

Darwin to Kakadu, NT

Catching up with Friends in Darwin

Monday 4th – Friday 8th August

Taking the car into Darwin provided an opportunity to visit some old friends and we enjoyed a relaxing time at their house with hot water on tap. Thankfully Sophie handed washing machine rights over to me and we had clean clothes again! Sophie and Martin took us to Darwin which has changed a lot in 7 years, we enjoyed the newly developed outdoor wave pool and had a lovely sunset dinner at the boat club catching up on news, meeting new people and feeling as if time had stood still!

Spectacular Jumping Crocodiles

Wow, this was an awesome experience, great value for money and one off the boys top 3 picks so far! The crocs have meat dangled from a rod on the 2^nd floor of a boat and they literally jump out of the water to reach it! Not only was it amazing to see their agility but a chilling reminder to keep well away from the waters edge when camping in croc territory.

This is a wild Salty that knows she can get an easy meal

Looks bizarre but this is how they lunge for prey

Kakadu

Expectations were high when we entered this world renowned park, and although I’m sure it deserves its heritage listing we were underwhelmed. I think the lack of opportunities to swim was always going to be a disappointment, but the intense mosquito action in the East Alligator region left us drenched in repellent and still fighting the critters off! Logan ended up with 37 bites on his legs alone, and the subsequent itching and complaining made us all miserable!!

We stayed one night at Merl and caught the beautiful sunset at Ubir before moving onto the off road campsite near JimJim falls. This had less mozzies, but was crowded and bereft of vegetation. We walked into JimJim Gorge and were impressed with the sandy beach-like appearance of the banks along the gorge. The next morning we headed out to Twin Falls gorge, took a short but enjoyable boat trip into the gorge and admired the waterfall. We found huge Golden Orb Weaver spiders and the boys had a selfie with them! Although Twin Falls was our highlight in Kakadu, we left a day early ready to escape the crowds and get back to the real wilderness!

Sunset over the wetlands

Bravely sitting behind a huge spider!

Look how big it is!

Lovely Litchfield, NT

Air conditioning nightmare continues…!

Thursday 31st July Monday 4th August

Two days of driving without air conditioning certainly took its toll on our sanity! We stopped in Kununurra hoping to sort out the aircon and faced our first stumbling block – the Nissan dealer has switched to Toyota!! After many attempts to get Nissan dealerships to communicate and work together we may well follow suit and switch to Toyota too lol!! We detoured to Darwin to work with the dealer there but left 2 days later still without any joy! The saga continues as we hope to have Cairns line up the parts for us to get it fixed when we arrive…watch this space!

Litchfield NP

What an amazing place Litchfield NP is! We entered through the Daly River road to the south and took a challenging but beautiful 4WD journey up to Tjaynera Falls, which had a small and secluded camp site. We spent one day exploring the park and found anywhere accessible by 2WD beautiful but overcrowded. We loved the falls where we were camping and spent 3 nights relaxing. The boys made bows and arrows, Simon attempted to make fire traditionally and I wrote some poetry. Bliss J

The track had just opened as we arrived

Deep water crossing justified the snorkel!

The iconic magnetic termite mounds

Tjaynera Falls

Bungle Bungles, Northeast WA

Amazing Drive

Wednesday 30th July

The road into the Bungle Bungles was predicted to be very rough but proved to be a

smoother ride than expected, with amazing scenery all the way. We set up camp with an expected 3 night stay, and chilled catching up on travel journals and blogs. The next day we set out to see the south side of the park with the classic bungle landscape. We took lots of water and set out to do a 10km hike that would take in Cathedral Gorge and Whipsnake Gorge. We were trekking on a dry river bed and the combination of sand and rock underfoot with very little shade made for very hard work. By the time we reached Whipsnake Gorge we were exhausted and desperate for a swim! But there’s no swimming in the park as it was desert like terrain.

Although we were impressed by the scenery, we discovered that we only enjoy walking in the heat when there is a swim at the end and without showers at the campsite we were hot and bothered. Simon and I decided to quit while we were ahead and packed up the next day!!

The closest we came to a shower

Tuesday, 5 August 2014

El Questro Station, Kimberly, WA

Gibb River Road

26th -29th July

Zebedee Hot Springs

After crossing the Pentacoast River behind a film crew we arrived at El Equestro Station early enough to get into the Zebedee hot springs before noon. These beautiful pools of warm water were shaded and perfect for wallowing away the hours.

Base Camp

Having booked a private riverside campsite we found setting up camp a little more challenging than we anticipated. The level ground was limited and we ended up winching the trailer into position! After we established camp we went to explore the ‘croc free’ part of the river, still wondering how the river to our right could be croc territory when ours was croc safe! Anyway it was shallow enough to see anything coming so the boys dammed it to see if they could get it deep enough to swim in.

Our camp across the river

Sunrise Horse Trek

It was an early start to the day but well worth it as the horse riding was an awesome experience and included several river and creek crossings with steep descents! Logan had a naughty little horse called Rusty who seemed to think the trek was a breakfast buffet! Jacob rode calm fella called Moonshine while Simon rode a big beastie called Bobcat. I rode the matriarch who liked to nip the others and keep them in line she was called Mum! The trek took about 2 hours and after we went back to camp with a bit of saddle sore, cooked a breakfast and set off to Moonshine Creek for a walk.

Wild West country!

Moonshine Creek

This 5km circuit proved to be hard work! We were all feeling a bit lethargic and anticipated an easy walk to some pretty swimming holes, but what we got was a tough climb over boulders with some green slimy pools! However, we persevered and were rewarded with amazing views towards the end. We celebrated with a game of cards by the fire, listening live country music and dinner in the ELQ!

Amazing panorama from Moonshine Creek

Cards and music in the bar

Exquisite El Questro Gorge

We set of with the intention of completing one of the toughest gorge walks this station had to offer, with terrain described as challenging and only for the adventurous; it didn’t disappoint! The gorge was stunning from the outset with lush palms and towering red walls, with sparkling swimming holes and pretty waterfalls. With some tricky climbing and unstable footings we were literally kept on our toes! The reward at the top of the gorge was a clear cold deep plunge pool fed by a droplet waterfall which we had all to ourselves. This turned out to be everyone’s favourite gorge walk, and my favourite swimming hole so far.

Wading through deep water to climb up

Waterfall hoping

El Questro Pool

Home Valley Station, Kimberly, WA

Gibb River Road

Friday 25th July

R&R for a while!

We decided that we would have this as a rest day, and not get back in the car but make use of the facilities at Home Valley (HV8 is their brand). I spent the morning re-organising my kitchen and got through 3 loads of washing, while Simon organised some repairs at the HV8 workshop and managed to obtain another cow skull! The boys played ball and caught up on their travel journals.

Arriving at HV8

We made use of the shaded tables behind the ‘Dusty Bar’ and both boys completed a couple of hours of school work while I uploaded my blog on the slowest wifi connection ever and Simon read his survival guide! We treated ourselves to HV8 Burgers for lunch, which don’t beat the Kimberly burger at Drysdale but come pretty close. After some serious foot washing we went for a swim in the pool and suddenly it was wine o’clock!