Heading South – Slowly!

Saturday 17th July

We decide we’ve have enough by mid’ afternoon and pull into Muluck’s Rest Area (may also be known as Fletcher’s Creek), for tonight. There is traffic on the road but we expect that it will drop off later. We have the place to ourselves until a camper trailer pulls in and then two more caravans but it’s just about big enough not to be too close.

A flurry of four satellites in a short space of time and then nothing!

Sunday 18th July

Today we will go to Halls Creek and re-fuel and do a bit of shopping at the IGA. Sometimes these country IGAs are very good sometimes not so good. This one is sort of in the middle, a lot of stuff but packed into too small a space but still no GF alternatives.

Moving on we decide that we need a few days R&R and think we’ll head for the Fitzroy river again, we’ve been here a few times and like it for the peace and quiet and crocs!

However, we need another night stop between there and our current position and again we look out for another place where we have had a pleasant evening and night, called Ngumban. The approach from the east is fairly flat but when you get to the campsite it is on the top of a very impressive escarpment and we drive to the back area where we find a good spot.

I’m sorry but ‘familiarity breeds contempt!’ and I didn’t take any photos and the ones I took last time aren’t with me! We did watch the sun go down and looked for satellites but the moon is waxing and a bit more than half full so it’s reflecting a lot of light at the moment which makes them difficult to spot. Well, that’s our excuse anyway!

Monday 19th July

A leisurely start today and about 3 hours driving bring us to Willare where we have a Telstra signal enabling us to catch up with any emails.

A boab at the Roadhouse makes a good photo.

A few ks down the road we turn off for the campsite which is about 13ks down a corrugated track which is considerably worse than it was 6 weeks ago. Never mind we find ourselves a reasonable spot.

A Black Kite poses just in front of us as we sit outside the caravan and look at the river complete with crocodiles sunning themselves on the opposite bank.

Now we can settle down until Thursday morning when we have a short run in the Broome Gateway CP for washing and water replenishment plus a shopping trip in Broome itself.

Tuesday 20th July

So, a rest day and time on my hands!

This is a video of the scenery coming through the Victoria Highway in the NT.

I have been putting together some videos that were taken earlier in the trip.

This one is of crossing the dry bed of the Bundey River back on the Binns Track at the beginning of the month.

These are pictures of the Fitzroy River, it is tidal with only one high tide per day, currently it is at 0100 so we’re not likely to see it!

Afternoon sunbathing for a couple of freshies.

Spotted a few satellites tonight but the half moon reflects too much light, which makes it harder.

Wednesday 21st July

Today we went exploring, we knew when we were here the last time that there were campsites further down the track, so we thought we’d go and have a look, for future reference.

The area is called Telegraph Pools but there is nothing to connect the pools in the river to any thing to do with the telegraph that we are aware of.

Anyway we discover that there are quite a few options for camping with our caravans over a distance of about 4ks. More interesting is that we found ‘the telegraph pole’! Complete with Sea Eagle (Osprey).

We think that this has become known as Telegraph Pools but it really a corruption of ‘telegraph pole’!

Anyway, we explored further down the track and came across Helmut’s Hut, which belonged to a guy called Helmut Schmidt, who lived here on his own, ‘in the middle of the river’ for 40 years! Pat found a recording of an interview with him which is well worth listening to. He built the house himself and as he says, when the river floods, every year, he’d just move upstairs!

We were quite pleased to find the Telegraph Pole and Helmut’s House, together with quite a few more camp sites for future reference. We rounded off the day with a campfire.

Thursday 22nd July

We woke up this morning to a very heavy mist over the river……………………………

……….but it cleared as soon as the sun came up.

We’re leaving the Fitzroy today, reluctantly, as it is a really good spot, there are very few flies and even fewer annoying bugs and mostly the neighbours are quite quiet and even reasonable with their generators.

We’re going back to our Broome caravan park at Broome’s Gateway, which we have booked for a couple of nights mainly so we can go into Broome and stock up for the next 2-3 weeks and Pat has some washing to do.

We arrive late morning to find a queue of vans waiting to get in, just as well we booked. When we were here in May there was hardly anybody here!

Friday 23rd July

My little brother’s birthday today, sent a text to his wife ‘cos he never looks at his phone! It’s been a sort coincidence that we have been in Broome for birthdays over the last few years, the latest being Roger’s at the end of May. Since it was Pat’s about a week ago we decided go out for lunch as a belated birthday meal for her today. As we approached Broome we could see a massive bank of mist (haar) sitting over part of the town. When we went to lunch at Cable Beach and incidentally, managed to get our ‘usual’ table, we couldn’t actually see the sea!

Saturday is a swing day, just pottering and doing odd jobs, plus another quick trip into town to buy perishables. It’s a full moon tonight so Broome will be packed for the ‘stairway to the moon’, not that it isn’t already packed!

Sunday 25th July

Ok, let’s get out of here, we fill all four water tanks which should be nearly enough to get home, provided we don’t have too many showers!

We’ve done about 300ks down the Great Northern Highway and it’s time to find somewhere to camp, Pat’s research has come up with a spot called Paper Bark Flats. We find it and have a look, it’s not bad, a bit close to the road but the alternative is another 50ks so this will do. It turns out to be hidden from the road and once the roadtrains stop about 6.00pm it’s quiet.

We’re afraid the the rest of this blog may be a bit boring as we’re virtually retracing our steps at the moment, no problem for us, it always looks different with the sun behind you! We’ll try to come up with interesting stuff.

Monday 26th July

It was much quieter here than we expected, so another good spot to remember.

We have a fairly uninteresting first half of today’s run, down the highway to the Boreline road where we turn inland and get back onto the dirt again. To our delight the Boreline has been graded, possibly because they are mustering somewhere as we met a few road train cattle trucks. It hasn’t been graded after Shay Gap but it’s not too bad from there to the De Grey river, where to our surprise we have the place to ourselves, at least for now.

This afternoon the the station owner turned up with her two kids so they could have a splash around in the river. Roger went to have a chat with her and discovered that they intend to close this spot next year. One of the reasons is that they’ve got a noxious weed in the river which has come from up north and they suspect that it has been brought by travellers, inadvertently of course.

Sadly, another reason is that people have been ripping about the place on trail bikes and quads, upsetting the stock etc!

Very disappointing, this is a beautiful spot and we just love looking at pictures to remind us!

After breakfast we decided to walk around the pools this morning, other than that we’re having a lazy day!

……….and a few more lazy days…..

It’s now Saturday and we do have a plan to leave on Monday, however, that might yet be changed. We have some friends who have been having to sort out a few domestic problems for several months and have finally persuaded them that they need a break.

Together with another couple who they know well, they are going to head north at the end of next week and we are currently planning to get together somewhere for a few days between here and home.

Sunday 1st August

Still enjoying this lovely spot, although the wind has been quite strong for the last two or three days and is quite cold , particularly as the sun starts to drop.

Just before lunch I went for a walk and discovered another Bushtracker nearer the road. I made contact and they sounded like well-travelled and interesting people so I said that Pat and I would wander up after lunch.

We did so about 1400 and at nearly 1800, after tea, cake and wine we decided it was time to go and get some dinner. Their names are John and Phyllis, a really friendly couple, who have done a lot more travelling than us and are a mine of information. They don’t live too far away from us, just a bit further south. The conversation covered a great deal of ground and was very enjoyable.

We said if we’re still here tomorrow we will return with a bottle of wine!

So we decided to stay another day and went to see our friends again. we exchanged a lot of interesting camping spots, and found them easy to talk to, we shall certainly try to keep in touch.

Tuesday 3rd August

Well, we finally left this morning!!! We have to get a move on today as we have a run into Marble Bar before going to find a riverside camp on Skulls Spring Road.

We had to leave this place today sadly because we may not be able to come here again. On the way out we said goodbye to John and Phylis and we promised to try and keep in touch.

The run down to Marble Bar was uneventful and Roger filled up the water tanks whilst Pat went to the General Store and Post Office across the way. Apparently, it and several other premises had been broken into yesterday!

On the way out we refuelled and then set out for the next stop. The Ripon Hills road is spectacular in parts and very uninteresting in others! It is also quite a long run to the Woodie Woodie (Telfer) intersection and we had a very strong head wind. We passed the tracks to upper and lower Carawine Gorge and then turned onto the Skull Springs Road, crossed the Oakover River and found the recommended camping spot, took a bit of shunting to get into but it is not a bad spot sitting above the river. The water appears to be a bit cleaner and wider than the De Grey but it is not so deep.

The wind was still quite strong so we decided against a campfire fire and retired to the caravan.

Pat liked these flowers, we’ll find out what they are when we get home – really must get ourselves a Book of Australian Wild Flowers.

Our camp site is between two crossings of the Oakover River. They are pretty shallow at this time of year.

Thursday 5th August

After two nights here we have to start heading back towards the highway. The road is called Skull Springs Road and its about 140ks into Nullagine. There are several old gold mines along the road and one that is still in operation.

The scenery is spectacular but the road is a bit up and down making driving quite hard work, looking out for potholes and washouts, whilst going up and down the box to deal with floodways.

Our stop point tonight is the Roy Hill RA which is simply a large flat area where you can get well off the road. We get there mid’ afternoon and have a break from the corrugations. From here it is tar so we’ll pump the tyres soon.

Friday 6^th August

We got an early start this morning so that we could get some shopping and stuff done in Newman.

Would you believe that you can’t get a gas bottle refill in this town! Exchange bottles are fine but we need to refill one of ours, maybe Meekatharra?

Talking of bottles we needed to restock the cellar but the bottle shops aren’t allowed to open until midday so we had no choice but to sit and have a cappuccino in the Dome.

Shopping and refuel complete we’re back on the road heading south, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn on the way to our camp site for tonight.

This spot is a huge area of flat country where it is possible to get nearly a kilometre back from the road. So no road noise but the wind is still cool.

We’ve been in touch with our friends and have targeted Bilyung Pool as our meeting point. Its not that far from us so we’ll stay here and leave Monday morning. Its very easy to fill in our time here, just reading and enjoying the peace and quiet, it is windy though.

We discovered that there is a really quite impressive breakaway at the back of this site.