Fri 28th on, The Long Road Home

Friday 28th

The holiday is over, the l3,800km long journey home now starts.

We are on the road by 8:40am, stop when we hit the bitumin to put the solar panels up on the front of the CT, can't charge while driviing as the dead auxilliary battery is sucking everything.

Finish up going to Katherine skipping the Flora Nature Reserve, probably a good thing. Got the aux battery replaced, rang the Big 4 Low Level Caravan Park and booked ahead (good thing as otherwise we would not have got in, really nice park), solar panels on the CT while driving did not put enough charge in. A powered site overnight hopefully will put the CT batteries in good shape for the rest of the trip home.

Saturday 29th

On the road by 8:30am after a refuel. We look like being at our target campsite Banka Banka by about 2:30pm despite strong crosswinds so decide to push onto the Barkley Homestead Roadhouse so that we can finish up in Mt Isa on Sunday night. We turn left for the run to BHR and are now driving into,the wind, diesel consumption climbs to around 22l/100km.

We complete the 840km to BHR by about 5:15pm, it is blowing a gail so do the minimum setup, shower and go up to the bar/restuarant for dinner, we both have Borroloola Barra.

CT batteries appear to have more charge in them than when we left this morning, a positive sign.

Sunday 30th

Our CT battery problems appear to be over, the batteries are still at 75% in the morning. The auxilliary battery must have been dieing for the entire trip. I should have gone with my instincts and replaced it in Karatha early in the trip instead of relying on a auto electrician who seemed to think it was a charging problem.

More headwinds and revolting fuel consumption. Arrive in Isa, refuel, go to the Riversleigh Fossil Museum which was not as I remembered it (not worth it). Go to the Buffalo club for lunch, not a good Sunday roast. Continue to the Sunset Caravan Park which we have pre-booked an unpowered site. Not a good site in the conditions, next to a creek that has water but the area is dusty and clouds of dust are being driven by the wind.

Monday 1st

Drive to Winton, more headwinds, stay in a caravan park in town.

Tuesday 2nd

Drive onto Longreach, do the Stockman's Hall of Fame and then onto the Ilfracombe caravan park. Nice park, clean and well maintained. "Happy Hour" is a talent show not to be missed.

Wednesday 3rd

Continue on east through Emerald rather than going south to Blackall. Drive onto Duaringa where we stay in the large free camp. 550km for the day, both of us are somewhat tired with 3,150km of the 3,800km home completed.

Thursday 3rd

Drive home the remaining 650km arriving at about 4:10pm. Rosie, Chris ' dog has not forgotten us!

Posted with Blogsy

Thurs 27th, Keep River NP

Campsite

Up reasonably early to do the local 7.5km Jarnem walk with the early morning light and before the heat of the day. A lovely walk, photos follow:

Spend the heat of the day relaxing then at about 3 pm drive over to the other campsite for the walk that starts from there. Talk to Jeff & Helen for half an hour before starting the Gurrandalng walk. Very pretty, photos follow:

Keep River is lovely, worth a spot on any itinerary!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Wed 26th, El Questro to Keep River

On the road by 8am. Couple of vehicles in front of us doing 30km/hr on the dirt road out to the GRR. Painful on the corrugations.

Onto the bitumin and the end of the GRR, the holiday is fast approaching the end.

Stop in Kununurra for fuel, water, tyres and a little shopping. No word from the James' as to where they are, try calling but out of range.

Leave WA for the NT, no queue at the WA quarantine station, we wind our clocks forward an hour and a half.

Keep River is only a few K's down the road followed by 32km on the dirt into the Jarnem campground. Countryside looks interesting, shades of the Bungle Bungle. Setup camp, quite warm 33C, spend the rest of the day relaxing.

Pulled the Unifilter airfilter sock out from the snorkel which has been in for the whole GRR. The interior is covered in dust and we've missed most of the traffic on the GRR, at least the Prado's air filters are still clean.

Jeff and Helen appear in the camp late afternoon to do the local walk, they sre here but camped at the other campground which permits generators.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Tue 25th, El Questro

Figured we better do something at El Questro apart from sit in our campsite and watch birds. This morning we went over to Emma Gorge back on the GRR as we won't have time to do it tomorrow on our way out as we intend to go through Kununurra on our way to Keep River NP.

We started our walk into the gorge at about 8am, when we got to the pool at the end there were already about 20 people before us. Took some photos and wet my ankles, too cold for me to swim.

Back to the campsite after the gorge, not as many birds as the previous day. Have thoroughly enjoyed our stay at El Questro even though we have not utilised a lot of their attractions. Would recommend it to anyoe, lovely camps on the Pentecost, lots of stuff you can do without paying more than your wildernesss pass.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Mon 24th, El Questro

Chris gets up early and goes bird watching, we get an hour and a half in with other birds before the corellas finally arrive. Turns outma good day for bird watching, only a few Corellas come in and we see and hear many other species including: Jabiru, Goshawk, Egret, White-Bellied Sea-Eagle, Cormorant, Black-Fronted Dotteral, Red-Winged Parrot, Bowerbird, Red-tailed Black-cockatoo, Willy Wagtail, Black Honey Eater and Bee Eaters.

Went for a drive to Pigeon Hole in the afternoon but chickened out on a section of downhill rough stuff, our vehicle has not had a lift and I didn't feel like taking a chance at the end of the trip. Went to the lookout on the way back. From there you can see the trees of the homestead but nothing more of it. The only campsite visible is would you believe our own, I hope no one has been using their binoculars on us!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Sun 23rd, El Questro

We are enjoying the camp and the antics of the mad Corellas as well as the other birdlife so decide not to do anything much but hang around the campsite. We go into the township for an ice cream, coffee and to fill up a jerry can and two solar showers with water. We drop in at Jeff and Helen's campsite on the way back out.

I shift the shower tent to under a tree so we can use the solar showers. The rest of the day is spent around the campsite until it is time for showers and to get ready to go out for dinner.

View downstream from our campsite

Dinner at the Steakhouse, Chris acts as driver for the evening. Nice environment looking out to the lit river, BYO. Good quality food though a tad on the expensive side. Jeff, Helen, Mike & Sue shout us as part my belated birthday dinner and as a thank you for putting the trip together.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Sat 22nd, Home Valley to El Questro

Pack up time again, on the road by 8:10am. We have heard the road to the Pentecost River and El Questro is bad. Notging wrong with the road at 60 to 80km per hour, we make the El Questro turn off in 45 minutes, the only traffic we met going our way pulled over to let us pass.

Cockburn Ranges with Pentecost River in foreground.

While driving in we realise that the Pentecost River at El Questro is no longer tidal and should not be the muddy mess that confronted us at Home Valley. We cross the Pentecost again just before the station township and it looks quite pretty. A private campsite on the Penecost is back on the agenda. We pull into the El Questro reservation car park and just as we are getting out see Jeff and Helen pull in. They are camped on the Pentecost and confirm that it is lovely.

We register and pick up campsite 21 "Cormorant" which is bush camp with no facilities 7.6km from the township. Cost is $50 per night for two people plus the wilderness pass. There is a $10 a night discount if you book four nights which we did. We have to wait an hour before we go out to allow time for the previous occupants to leave. We go over and talk to Mike and Sue who are over in the camping ground with a very shady camp.

Get there and it takes a while to setup camp as none of the site is level and manouvering the CT is not easy amongst the trees. Nice camp though overlooking the river which is reduced to a small stream between two waterholes. Lots of bird life but overwhelmed by a flock of noisy Corellas.

Setup everything including porta potti and shower. Have a look for some live bait but can't see anything worth throwing the castnet over. Try flicking some soft plastics for a while with no result, there are some big swirls in the water though in relatively shallow places.

"Cormorant" campsite on the Pentecost River

Jeff and Helen plus Mike and Sue drop in just before 5pm after their 3 hr boat rental on the Chamberlain Gorge. Dinner is booked for all of us tomorrow night at 6pm at the steakhouse. The boat rental was a mixed success, the time starts when you icik up the electric motor from the township, you then have to drive out to the gorge or whatever, fit it etc, they also issue paddles that you will need to make any sort of headway.

The only thing wrong with our campsite is that we are close to the El Questro Homestead, the luxury $2,000 a night resort for the rich and famous. We get a few helicopter fly overs during the day but we also get the noise from their generator which presumably runs 24/7.

The 12V shower is cactus, motor won't run then when I get it running nothing is coming out. Wipe down tonight instead of a shower. Pizza in the Weber Q for dinner followed by drinks around the fire.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Fri 21st, Home Valley

More sprinkles overnight with increased wind. Another dull morning.

Chris drives off to the homestead to do some washing. Steve, who we know from several shared campsites offers to let me share his generator output. With another dull day and no hope of solar power I gratefuly accept. Hopefully this will give the batteries a much needed lift.

Try fishing with a variety of lures over several sessions to no avail. We will move on tomorrow even though we have paid for another day. Hopefully the flies won't be as bad at El Questro.

Fishing from the muddy banks

Campsite with Pentacost River and Cockburn Ranges beyond.

CT batterIes gets over 9 hours charge hopefully that helps them over the next few days. Wind has dropped by evening however there is still cloud cover.

Home Valley has been a wipe out. Cloudy so you don't get the view of the Cockburn Ranges either during the day or at sunset plus the ever annoying flies. We later learn that the flies came in with the cloud and the rain.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Thurs 20th, Ellenbrae to Home Valley

Up at 6:20am and on the road before 8 am. Chris had suggested we trued a new setup and keep the food storage drawers in the camper so that we did not have to unpack/pack them up, this saved some time in the morning.

Road is good then 50 odd Ks out from Home Valley we strike road works where they have a stop and go, we had to wait 15 minutes before we can continue on. They have laid a new road base of gray rocky material and are in the process of grading and compacting that. 15Km before Home Valley we come up to a Nissan Patrol towing an Ultimate doing around 30km/hr, painfully slow, you can feel every bump every corrugation on the road. No way to pass with a winding road all the way to Home Valley.

Drive into Home Valley and book a campsite for 3 nights on the Pentacost River where hopefully I can do some Barra fishing. We a driving out to set up camp when who do we see driving in but Jeff and Helen, they have just packed up and are on there way to El Questro. We drive down to the river and setup camp, campsite is dry with dead grass and dusty underfoot. 14 combined loos and showers though, a bit of a change from many places. Flies abound, sticky ones that want to crawl into your eyes.

The day is still cloudy and the ranges over the Pentecost River are dull instead of being alive and beautiful. The river banks a muddy and the only real spot to try and fish is at the start of the campground where a creek joins the main river. The river is tidal here and we've heard that the best fishing is towards low tide. Nothing is caught by anyone apart from a few catfish.

We lunch at the restuarant, a burger, the biggest chunk of meat I've ever seen in a burger, all we need for dinner is some noodles.

There is not much you can do at Home Valley unless you want to fork out big bucks for their few tourist activities. We looked at the walks but all seem to be exposed with no cover so we decided to give them a miss. The occasional salt water crocodile can be seen on the far bank of the river.

Run the car for an hour to put some charge into the battery as there is no sun to power the solar panels.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Wed 19th, Mitchell Plateau to Ellenbrae

Say goodbye to Foxy who is heading for Ellenbrae in the hope of accomodation and food. Some of his packet meals of late have been very ordinary.

Up early and on the road by 8am. Chris driving, we cross the King Edward River to find two four wheel drives stopped on the other side with two trucks waiting to come through the other way. The two 4Xs park up and practically block the road, why do people find dickhead spots to park?

Lots of traffic heading north on the Kalumburu road while we travel south. We are warned of approaching traffic by Bob on UHF 24.

Dump our rubbish at the Wyndham turn off and continue on east. The first two free camps are ordinary so we decide to go into Ellenbrae for tea and scones and to camp there overnight before continuing onto Home Valley. There has been no sign of Jeff and Helen at Miners Camp or any of the free campsites on the way. Weather is turning dull with clouds rolling in.

Ellenbrae is OK apart from a single combined shower and loo in the Ringers camping area. Queueing is a bit much in the morning for the loo especially with people who shower in the morning. The tea and scones are good but the camping lacks. Spits of rain off and on through the night.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Tue 18th, Mitchell Plateau

A rest day at the King Edward River campground. A lovely campground, possibly the best we have had so far. It has good ambience, birdlife and a river nearby.

Discover that my solar panel Andersen plug extension cable has got a connector that has been pushed back, this is why we got no charge the day before.

In the morning we drive to two nearby indiginous art locations each of which feature Bradshaw art. We walk around the rocks at both locations seeking art.

Bradshaw's at 2ndnsite

In the afternoon we walk down the river 600m to a waterfall then comeback a bit and have a swim and sit in the rapids. I have a light hearted flick with my fishing rod and soft plastics but nothing shows any sign of interest. Chris watches the abundant birdlife.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Mon 17th, Mitchell Plateau

We want an early start to the day for the drive out to Mitchell Falls so up at 5:30am. Fortunately despite the car auxilliary battery reading dead the car fridge is still running and is reading 4.5C so I don't transfer the contents yet. We have coffee and breakfast then drive off. We are not early enough to beat the traffic so have to sit back and avoid the dust of the car ahead.

Takes 1'50" out to the falls, pretty good road, some corrugations, exposed rocks and rough bits but pretty good all round. The following day Steve actually manages to get back in 1'30" without any impeding traffic.

At 8:20am we book a return chopper flight for 1:45pm, I wonder if this is a bit late. Takes a while to get ready for the walk, put stuff from the fridge in our packs, sunscreen, shoes on etc. We start the walk out and continue onto Little Mertens where we take the track under the falls and look at the indiginous art work down there.

Behind the Waterfall

Continue onto Mertens Gorge where we cross sides.

The walk then continues onto a ford where we cross the Mitchell River in knee deep water. From there we walk to various viewpoints of the falls.

We lunch at a spot that provides a good view of the four levels of the falls. Quite stunning with a good flow of water over the falls.

Just before 1:00pm we walk back nearer the helicopter pad and sit in the rapids to cool off. Comes 1:45pm we take our 6 minute chopper ride out. The 4.5 hours from the start of the walk to the chopper worked out well giving plenty of time to explore viewpoints etc.

Chopper View

When we get back to the car I check the fridge temperature, it is up to 8C, I'm going to have to transfer the contents. The drive home is also around 1'50", 4pm when we get there to find the CT has got no charge at all from the solar panels during the day, no idea what went on.

Transfer meat and other items to CT fridge, put vegies, chocs, tim tams and water in the car fridge which can function as cool storage. Hook the car up and run it to charge the CT.

Time now to relax with a cup of tea, light the fire followed by some red wine.

Chris reassesses and votes this the best ,day so far of the trip.

 

Posted with Blogsy