The Outback

We have been in the Outback for the past two weeks, only passing from remote Queensland to the Northern Territory a few days ago (everywhere in the NT is remote). We now have 10,000kms on the speedo. It’s been about 35 degrees most days, so it’s bloody hot. For the past week or so we’ve been mainly staying in van parking areas behind pubs (the pub is also a servo and bistro and there is usually nothing else at most of these Outback towns). Combine pubs and extreme heat and you end up with a lot of alcohol drunk (drunk being the operative word, but not for us). It’s so hot most pubs have a pool.

We have just arrived at Katherine and the heat and humidity is only going to strengthen as the dry season moves way and the wet is about to begin. We will be in Darwin in a few days so luckily the wet really doesn’t start for about another few weeks or so. We are thinking we will then drive 500 clicks to Kununurra to see the Kimberly region before doubling back all the way to The Three Ways (or Tennant Creek) and doing Central Australia, which in contrast to this region is fairly cool, especially at night.

Anyway, picking up from the last blog, we really enjoyed Port Douglas and that region, visiting Mossman Gorge, the Mossman Sugar Mill, the Daintree River and Cape Tribulation. The reason why we are a bit late here at the Top End is because we spent so long in FNQ. From there we drove through the Atherton Tablelands into what is called the Savannah. The Savannah stretches all the way into WA and includes virtually all of the Gulf country, which is spartan but beautiful in a wild sort of way. Hot springs surprisingly spring up all over the place, with the water being supplied by the Daley and Barkley artesian tablelands here in the NT.

We went to a God forsaken place called Mount Surprise, which as we’ve since found out is symptomatic of most Outback towns (as described above). But we loved it. When we go to a pub now, the kids walk right up to the bar and sit down on stools, just like locals. We will have to change this behavior when we get back to the civilized States. Tabitha was even allowed behind the bar at Daley Waters. We then went via Normanton to Kurumba (see if you can find it on the map) to see sunsets over the Gulf. Around this part of Australia you don’t get much dual carriage roadway. They are often just a single bitumen lane, and a very narrow one at that. So when a road train comes towards you, you slow down real quick and find somewhere safe to pull off the road, hoping (praying) you can do this before he gets to you. We stumbled upon the Gregory River at Gregory Downes and were able to (free) camp on the pebbly river bed next to the fast flowing river. We held on to air tubes and blown-up wine cask bladders as we floated on the current of the river. Snorkeling, I could see huge barra under the old bridge in this river hundreds of kms from the gulf, where all female barra are supposed to go to reproduce. In the pub there is a photo of a 4m saw fish caught by a local in the river. Scary!

We saw the gorge at the Lawn Hill National Park (no sealed roads out there where the Century zinc mine roadtrains come from) and back to the Burke and Wills Roadhouse before going to Mount Isa for some relative luxury (flush dunnies and hot water). Isa had an underground mine tour but poor Charlie was too little to join in. We then stayed at various homestead/pubs before arriving at Katherine today, again for more luxury. Our most embarrassing moment was at Isa after free camping when our fridge just failed to work after being powered on gas for a while (as opposed to AC mains power or running DC off the car). We got a “fridgee” to come and look at it and after scratching around and his head for some time, he asked if the plug switch inside the van was turned on (just as for a fridge at home). Ah, nuh. Oops. We managed to keep him for the whole hour to check a few things to get our money’s worth (I should have just called you Ben!). But the grey nomads in the van next to us had a better story. The old bloke took off one morning for a 400km trip and when he finally arrived at his destination, after several stops, he noticed that his bikes and the bike rack had clean broken off the van’s rear bumper bar. We laughed for ages wondering what might have happened if a car/van was behind and what they might have witnessed. He said he didn’t see anything - like most grey nomads he had a big van and you can’t see much behind you.

Anyway, we are all well and looking forward to seeing my mum, Liz’s mum Kay and sister Sally with her daughter Sophia in Darwin for a week from 10 Sept. I have a 27th year school class reunion on that night in Sydney and am thinking of flying back to join in for the night. Anyway, all the best for now. Some great pics here – check out the roads.

The Snell clan.