The Top End and East Kimberley

We’ve just been into Western Australia to see the East Kimberley region. After Kakadu and the surrounding areas of Darwin and Katherine in the ‘Top End’ of the Northern Territory, we thought the natural beauties of this country couldn’t possibly get any more spectacular. But the Kimberley is just amazing – and we only saw a relatively small portion of it and none of the northern coast line of WA and none of the Pilbera region.

Currently we are about to travel back through the NT to make our way to Central Australia over the next two or three weeks. But for now, and the sakes of the chronology of this blog journal, I’ll go back a few weeks to when we arrived in the Top End.

Katherine

Katherine contained some beautiful springs and swimming holes around and within the Katherine River – you need them because it is so hot up here (ranging from 34-38 degrees). The Katherine Hot Springs are absolutely pristine, which is pretty amazing considering they have been a refuge from the heat for many thousands of years. The town itself wasn’t much, but there was a Woolies there so we could do some decent shopping after the small, essentials-only Outback road stops. You can’t buy grog (take-away) before 2.15pm in the Top End.

The Katherine Gorge is some way out of town and is well worth the visit. There is ancient rock art and the river/gorge system is vast and impressive. There only seems to be fresh water crocs inhabiting these waterways, which is ok because from what I can tell there haven’t been any freshie attacks for yonks (although dogs don’t seem to count). And they don’t have the orthodontic equipment to maim in the way that the salties do. It is only a ‘no go’ for swimming if salt water crocs are known to have inhabited the waterway in recent times.

Some of the locals don’t seem to worry too much at all, while others don’t go near the water. To help get a better understanding of this area, I bought the book ‘We of the Never Never’ which was based on life at a cattle station in this region over 100 years ago. It was one of the best reads I’ve ever done, giving an insightful feel for this land, its raw, harsh beauty and those who inhabit it.

Darwin and surrounding regions

We then continued on up to Darwin where we stayed for a couple of weeks to explore and spent a week with mum, Liz’s mum Kay and sister Sally and Sally’s daughter Sophia. Over several days we drove around the various natural springs and waterways in the region, and in and around town itself. Berry Springs and the many spectacular falls and plunge pools in Litchfield National Park (Buley Rocks, Tolmer Falls, Florence Falls and Wangi Falls) afforded much needed respite from the heat. Darwin itself is fairly modern with good infrastructure. Nice place, but the f$#@ing heat… The ‘blow ins’ did a coach tour to Kakadu one day while we did some domestic stuff (we would be taking our van there soon).

Another day the kids went to a croc park in Darwin and handled snakes etc, and we found an out of town Aboriginal cultural centre (run by a really nice white bloke who thought he was one of them) where there were more snakes and birds to handle, along with paintings and other stuff that cost up to $15,000 a piece. We bought a small didgeridoo for two hundred bucks. (See Katherine and Darwin region pics here.)

Kakadu

After farewelling the relos, we headed into Kakadu and based ourselves at Cooinda. Many more kilometers were covered in a few days exploring this area, visiting rock arts sites and lookouts to some of the most exquisite and vast country we’ve seen. We did a scenic tour in a plane for an hour and it was only by doing this that we were able to fully grasp the scale and varied beauty of the Kakadu landscape. It really is an awesome place – massive escarpments, huge wetlands, incredible bird life, huge tidal rivers etc.

A boat trip on the Yellow Waters takes you into the heart of this place for close encounters with the wildlife. There are crocs everywhere, and they’re all salties (they eat all of the freshies). Returning from a day’s outing in the car one day we picked up an Abo guy who was hitching in the 37 degree heat half way between Ubirr and Jabiru. He got in behind me next to the kids and wanted to go to Jabiru (which was on our way). He smiled after I gave him some water and the teeth he did have were the same colour as his skin. We drove him right into his community and on the way out Charlie asked why ‘Abodijines don’t brush their teeth’, and Tabitha added ‘and use deoderant?’. Then she said ‘they only have enough money for beer’. To which Charlie concluded, ‘everyone needs money for beer’. There are so many ants in Kakadu that when camping you need several cans of insect and surface spray just to keep them at bay every few days. (See Kakadu pics here.)

East Kimberley

It was then ‘back on the road again’ (which we play each time we move on – even Charlie knows the words to the Willie Nelson classic) to make our way 800km west over two days to the Kimberley. We based ourselves in Kununurra, and to our amazement it is even hotter in this region than the Top End. When you cross the border, quarantine inspectors check your car and van, and we accidentally forgot to discard some veges that morning but the inspector was happy to take them off us. We later found some potatoes we all missed which are the most offending item.I was in the van park pool and noticed our inspector in there, too. I told him about the potatoes and he looked like he saw a ghost. Hed reckons we got away with paying a $250 fine. ‘Where were they,’ he asked desperately. I told him and I think he’ll be more vigilant next time. WA doesn’t allow any fresh fruit and veges into the State, the wowsers.

We drove the 200km round trip (including creek crossings) to the El Questro Wilderness Park which, naturally, contains various beautiful gorges and hot springs (but it’s not much relief going from 38 plus degree heat into 34 degree water, no matter how scenic it is). Yesterday was a huge day. In the morning we did a two and half hour scenic flight over the Kununurra region (which includes the irrigation area, the massive Lake Argyle, the huge Argyle Diamond Mine, and the Ord River which runs out from the Lake, and, confusingly, with a part of the river itself being dammed to form Lake Kununurra although it just looks like a wide section of the river) and then over 200km south to the Bungle Bungles.

All very awesome, including landing on the lake and having morning tea on a deserted island. While there the pilot had to clean up after both kids had vomitted. He cleaned while we sipped tea and looked for diamonds in the rocks on the beach. The lake is so big it is classified as an inland sea and gives off a horizon like the ocean. For the Pratts, there are some impressive power lines around the lake, which contains millions of very tasty (no joke) catfish.

That night we went to a rodeo (pronounced up here ‘row-dee-o’, not the American way ‘row-day-o’). Some of the cowboys (or stockmen) got absolutely smashed by their bucking broncos. One got hammered up against the fence right next to us and Tabitha had to cover up her ‘steak burger’ to stop the dust getting onto it. The people there were fairly wild. We left early because we were buggered but it looked like it was going to be a huge night of partying on. (See East Kimberley pics here.)

Currently we are preparing for our return to the NT. By the time we get back to Katherine we will have done over 3,500km since we were there nearly four weeks ago (and our last blog post). We’ve met some incredible people: locals, other travelers and those who started out travelling but became locals. All the guides are passionate about their jobs and are so knowledgeable. Surprisingly, there are many families doing what we are doing, only most are taking several years to do it (with most of those picking up work along the way to keep them going). One thing I’ve noticed as a VB drinker travelling around Oz is that every pub sells the stuff, AND in my favourite vessel, a tinnie. Otherwise you’ve got to drink what the locals drink (whatever that is). Got a love this country!

All our pics can be found here.

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.

Far North Queensland

We are in the Far North Queensland (FNQ) enjoying the warm weather (27-29 degrees in the days). We are currently based in Cairns and the day before yesterday we went crab fishing on the Trinity Inlet and not only ate loads of fresh mud crab, but we saw a couple of crocs sunning themselves on the muddy mangrove banks (see the photos link at the end of this post). Our host Tony was a typical Aussie character: he was a rough as guts, swore like a trouper and didn’t hide his racist attitudes, even to the polite but shocked Chinese guests on board. And he seemed to get more and more inebriated as the day wore on even though we didn’t see him imbibe. His little operation was so laid back that even Charlie was allowed to drive the boat for quite some time, or Tony just left the wheel alone and we would slowly swerve towards something we shouldn’t until someone raised the alarm.
Picking up from our last blog post, we left the Bundaberg district for the Yeppoon region, where we stayed at a great caravan park on the lake and causeway at the northern end of Kinka Beach. From here onwards and upwards to Mackay, which we would rather forget because the town and cara park were simply the pits (no offence to anyone born/bred there). My advice to anyone travelling the Queensland coast is to give Mackay a big miss. Then on to Airlie Beach where the cara park was a mini resort. The kids (and us grown-ups) loved it there. The next destination was Mission Beach. Another lovely region, but the thing about FNQ and its beautiful beaches is that while they are very picturesque, they are treacherous. Why? Because if the rips and currents and stingers (mainly in the summer months) don’t finish you off, the sharks and crocs will. To live near such beautiful beaches you can’t really use doesn’t make much sense to us, but we are, after all, in Queensland and the Queenslanders are a “unique” bunch.

From Airlie it was a short drive to Cairns where we were meant to stay five nights but have spent nearly two weeks here. The reason is because I’ve a debilitating and deteriorating condition in my elbows which required some cortisone injections (again) and I need to rest my arms (as much as possible and constantly moving a caravan doesn’t help). Anyway, all is ok with that for now. The cara park here is not a mini resort, it is a big resort with large resorts pools and various playgrounds and parks for the kids, so it’s a nice spot to stay put for a while. Touring the Cairns/Tablelands region is fun (and the waterways and reef), even if Liz has to drive (Liz has just told me to clarify that she drives well and I mean no inference by the earlier remark). We head off to Port Douglas for a week in a few days before making our way across the gulf to the outback (I'll be back behind the wheel for the towing).

We have taken quite a few photos over the past two or so weeks, and thought you might enjoy them. There are a couple of good ones of Liz enjoying herself in the caravan if you look carefully.

Till next time…

Adventures begin

It’s been almost three weeks since our first blog post – how times fly (or is that “how time flies”). So I’ll try to keep this blog post reasonably short. We looked around Tamworth for a couple of days and then went (slowly) east through the beautiful mountains to Port Macquarie on a very windy and steep Oxley Highway. I remember coming to this area (Mt Seaview) for a school geography trip 29 years ago (God I feel old). As we came into Port Macquarie, we visited Watsons Caravans to get something checked on the van, and also looked at possible trade-in options (for something a little bigger but with much less set up time).

We were meant to stay at the Rainbow Beach Holiday Village at Bonny Hills (which is 20km south of Port and about 10km north of Laurieton) for three nights, but after considering and then accepting a trade-in offer for a second-hand upgrade, we stayed five nights (it was nice to get offered what I paid for the van). We toured the region again (having been to this area a few times before) and had a great catch-up with Aunty Denise (she knows the best shops in the area!). On the last day at this stop we did a six-hour change-over of caravans, clearing out our Jayco Flamingo camper for a Jayco Expanda pop-top. Drove back inland through the mountains for our first night in the new van at Walcha. Bloody freezing, and most people wondered why we were going there. It was a matter of time and travel convenience because we wanted to do the whole New England. We really liked it at Walcha and watch the third (sad) Origin footy game at a great pub.

We continued up the New England Highway and stayed at Armidale, and then had a six-hour drive to Toowoombah, going through Tenterfield, Santhorpe and Warwick. Upon arrival, we clocked up 2,500km on the speedo, even though a straight drive to Toowoombah would be just 1,000km. From there it was to Golden Beach just south of Caloundra at the southern end of the Sunshine Coast. The warmer, coastal locations are just swarming with grey nomads, and the caravan park was chock-full of them. Mind you, most have travelled extensively so they are great information repositories. Charlie had his 4th birthday here (there are some pics on our photo site; all of the photos are in chronological order and are in sync with this post). Visited Australia Zoo - saw crocs and a great show - and went to Glasshouse mountains where we went strawberry picking (eating more than we handed in to pay for!). We continued north to Rainbow Beach just north of the Sunshine Coast and a 10-minute barge ride from Frazer Island. There are huge pine forest plantations in this coastal region. We spent three nights at Rainbow, and Liz celebrated her birthday there (she loved her locally purchased pressies and had a great day on the beach).

We then left the car and van in a secure parking paddock and took a three day trip to Frazer, staying at Eurong. Amazing island, if somewhat desolate. We did 4WDing all over the island and saw some great formations, particularly the inland freshwater lakes and the coastal Champagne Rocks. Also saw some dingoes (see pics), did a scenic flight from the beach and a bit of fishing (without the fish). On the way back to the barge our 4WD bus nearly got stuck in the high tide at dusk which the driver pretended was all part of the tour. At the other side at Inskip Point a family of Indians managed, somehow, to get their 2WD sedan across a few hundred meters of soft sand almost to the barge for the crossing to Frazer. Lots of people were looking and laughing, wondering what they would do next. I think that car is still stuck there, nincompoops. We are now at Bargara Beach which is about 10kms east of Bundaberg. No surf here because Frazer acts as a huge breakwall for this part of the coast. Did I mention last time the kids are driving us nuts, well I’ve figured out how to imbibe wine intravenously.       Stu

Message from Tabitha:

We went to Rainbow Beach and had a great time. After we got to a boat over to Frazer Island we had a huge history tour. We saw two dingoes. After the tour we checked in to the hotel. That will probably be our last time of luxury. When we arrived at Bargara we saw a wild possum right next to our van. We even patted it – wow. Missing everybody.      Tabbi

All photos here.

Our first week

Our first week is nearly up and it's been so cold that we are thinking of heading straight for the far north. But, alas, that would be cheating ourselves of the beautiful central and northern districts of NSW. How cold? Record low temps, apparantly. We are now in Tamworth where it has been minus 5 and then just 4 degrees in the mornings. Up the road at Armidale it has been minus 9 and then minus 10 for the past two days. Talk about timing your run!

We started our trip just outside Mudgee at a wonderful retreat owned by media celeb Scott McGreggor. The accommodation (and lounge/kitchen) is in refurbished train carriages. There is so much rail paraphernalia that train buffs like our Charlie find themselves in proverbial heaven. That's right, we didn't even stay in the van for our first two nights away. The first bunch of photos (click here) on our photo site give a feel for the place. Roaring fires kept us warm and a visit to historic Gulgong (the "Ten Dollar Town", the home of Henry Lawson and featured on the old $10 note) kept us entertained.

It was then off to Dubbo where we naturally visited the Taronga Western Plains Zoo. We hired some bikes and cycled around the 5km course to see what was mostly African wildlife. The kids were more interested in the bikes and play equipment on offer. At the caravan park we had a van site with an ensuite (which is basically an outhouse on your site), but ours was on another site across a street and it was painfully cold running to the loo in the middle of the night. A bucket and an empty Powerade bottle came in handy after that first night. After two nights we headed to Gunnedah via Coonabarabran. Minus 5 in the morning meant we had to wait for a couple of hours before the ice in the hose to the water supply thawed. I've never seen so much frost. Gunnedah was just a stop over on the way to Tamworth, and before leaving we went to an ancient wildlife park that looked as if its hey-day was in 1950. But it was the best park with native animals and the bloke there let us go into the koala enclosure. Better than the Dubbo zoo, we reckon.

Saw the giant golden guitar and Oxley lookout at the country music capital of Oz. Tomorrow we make tracks for Bonnie Hills just south of Port Macquarie for three nights. We might then backtrack most of the way to Tamworth so we can go to Armidale, but with temps there of -10 degrees we are not sure what to do.

The kids are already driving us crazy, the blessed little souls. I think we've all got a little more adjusting to do ... just please pass me the wine, and make it quick and don't expect the bottle back. Next blog post is expected to come from Tabitha in the next week/few days.

Stu
PS: bunch of pics here.

Dolphin Point

We have just finished our second and final planning trip in our caravan. We went to a great place just south of Ulladulla, where we visited Uncle Bob and Aunty Dorothy, and Aunty Mad and John. Aunty Betty and cousin Peter and Kaye were also there as was mum Annie and Gordon. This was our second and final planning trip in our new little caravan as we prepare for our trip around Oz. We had great company and enjoyable food and a little wine and beer, too. Dolphin Point caravan park is the best van park I've ever been to; it's right on the beach of the lake and is just a short walk from the ocean beach. However, not all memories of the beach are worth remembering: my surf board snapped in two in some dumper surf.

Here are some more photos from the weekend.

Planning for our trip

It is the start of May 2010 and the Snell family is now in full swing planning our trip around Australia. To date, we have purchased a second hand caravan (technically it is called a "camper trailer"). It's a Jayco Flamingo which collapses into a neat unit for the constant traveller. The roof winds up and the beds fold out from the sides. When set up, it's quite spacious and comfy. We gave it a trial run at Anna Bay a few hours north of Sydney. All went well. I've made a few modifications to the trailer (storage box, a second bike rack etc) to help make the trip as smooth and enjoyable as possible.

Our second trial run is to take place this weekend at Dolphins' Point, just south of Ulladulla. I expect a few other modifications/adjustments will be made following that trip. Other arrangements for our Allambie home (thanks Karen!) and pets are also being finalised for what is to be a largely un-planned, unscripted, multi-month road trip around Australia.

We plan to post blogs fairly regularly so family and friends can see what we are up to and stay in touch.