Mareeba, Queensland, Australiafrom WA across NT into QLD.July to
August 18 2017
After stocking up with food , water,
fuel in Kununurra we head across into the Northern Territory -NT..
Our first stop is at Keep River
National park.
This is similar to the
Bungles-Purnululu in its geology mostly sandstone and has
Aboriginal sites.
It has rock wallabies, White Quilled
rock pigeon, and endangered Sandstone Shrike Thrush .
So here are our walks.
Cockatoo Lagoon which is around the
ranger information centre, as plenty of birds and butterflies.
Jarnem walk- a 7km loop with an extra
bit up to a lookout. This walk also takes you to an Aboriginal Art
site.
Jinumum walk follows the Keep river to
sites used by the Miriwoonong people as wet season shelter. We find
fresh water crocodiles on the river bank.
The Gurrandalng walk is from our camp
ground and goes 2km up and over rock formations and sandstone. Here
we find he rock pigeons and some skinks and on one early morning
walk a northern death adder which had killed some frogs.
After a few days its on to Gregory or
Judbaroo national park. We had a sunset boat trip up the Victoria
river last time here. There are lots of people here this time , we
walk down to the river and then just down the road to the Bradshaw
bridge. This bridge crosses the river into the Bradshaw army
training area and you can walk on the bridge but not across into army
area. We can, with our cameras, see down to the banks of the river
just down from camp and there on the bank, is of course , a salt
water crocodile. We have a look from the area next to camp but can
not see him because of the plants, bushes etc. So we do not get a
good photo.
We wanted to stop at Flora River
national park again but when we got there it was closed because the
wet season floods had done too much damage , so we will have to call
in next time.
Its on to Katherine and a stay at
Manbula again , its gone up and not so nice this time.
I did trip coming out of the caravan
during the night and twist my ankle. Looking back maybe I should have
gone to the hospital because 3 weeks latter its still giving me
trouble if I walk too far.
Its on to Leliyn or Edith falls for a
couple of nights so I can snorkel and swim in the pool at the bottom
of the falls. Get exercise without walking.
I could not make the walk to the top
falls so spent my time in and out of bottom pool.
We saw 2 black whip snakes on one walk
to the pool and of course it was when we did not take our cameras
with us.. Snorkelled down under the walkway bridge at the end of pool
and down the creek a little way and found a crocodile trap. It was
empty but set, they occasionally get in here during the wet season
but are not here now.
It was then back down to Katherine as
we do not have time to go further north on this trip. Stay in the
caravan park so we can walk to the Katherine hot water springs for 2
days. Water is crystal clear and at 32deg c, with lots little areas
to get in but also lots of people in them.
We move on to Elsey NP on the Roper
river a few kilometres south of Mataranka. The Elsey homestead was
home to famous author Jeanne Gunn how wrote “We of the never
never”. Its about life on the Elsey cattle station. We are staying
in national park so we can drive to a few places we have been to
before but were good.
Now at the homestead is the Mataranka
thermal pools which is water from Rainbow springs at 34deg c and
flowing at 30.5 million litres a day. These pools are man made with
steps. They were built by the army for the officers to sit in during
the war. Each time we go they are full of people.
The best place is Bitter springs . the
thermal pool here you get in and float down stream get out at a set
of steps walk back get in again or you can swim against the flow back
to the start. We got there early to beat the crowds, its school
holidays up here. We snorkelled -floated down the clear warm water
with the fish and turtles, swam back did it all over again and again.
Then we went for a walk around the area when it got too busy.
The last time we stayed at Elsey we
went swimming in the Roper river well they have stopped this because
of the crocodiles that maybe there.
So its onwards to where the Carpentaria
hwy from Alice Springs to Darwin meets the Savannah way. We stay at
the crossroads at 'The Hi-way Inn' motel Daily waters, for just the
night to boost our battery power for the trip across to QLD.
A van pulls up behind us and the man
winds his jokey wheel up too far and it comes apart, they are on
their first caravan trip. Larry helps and gets the van onto our jack
so they can see if the jokey wheel can be fixed , the mechanic fixit
man at roadhouse will fix it in the morning if he can. So we lend
them our spare jockey wheel until either its fixed or they hook up
the car in the morning as we are leaving for our trip on the
alternate route across to QLD.
This is single sealed road to Cape
Crawford of 267klm. We do it in jumps , first 82klm to a roadside
stop. This takes a while as with only a single lane we move off the
sealed bit to allow people to pass or overtake on sealed strip. If
you don't the silly people go onto gravel and do not slow down so
spray you with stones. They seem to think they can still go the legal
in NT 130km per hour.
Plus any road trains have right of
sealed road- who’s going to argue with them , don't want all those
stones thrown at windscreen or windows.
We were going to go only 90km the next
day to next stop but ended up travelling 185km as the next stops were
horrible. We stop just 10km from Cape Crawford next to Little river
for 2 days. Then into Heart Break Hotel roadhouse at Cape Crawford to
boost batteries again before the dirt part of the road. The lady
running the roadhouse is vegetarian too and had just made veg Lasagne
so we had dinner there that night. Larry had 2 pork loin chops with
chips and salad and I had my lasagne and salad and chips . Plates
pilled high so I got to take half mine back to van in a take away
container as it far too much for one meal.
Our next place to visit is The Lost
City-- this is big rock formations you can walk around with
explantions why this happened .This is not far from Borroloola so we
called in here on our way. Borroloola is 54 km from Cape Crawford.
We get to Borroloola and then decide to
go to King Ash bay for a couple of days. This is a fishing club with
camping on McArthur river , its tidal out to Gulf of Carpentaria.
Its advertised as natural setting so we thought we would go look. It
might be good for fishermen but did not live up to natural as it gets
burnt yearly so not much wild life here.
We had to pay $37 a night but they did
have a new shower block. Its cheaper for members of the fishing club
because they stay longer and the rates are less weekly than 7 times
night rate.
So we leave early to travel the bad
dirt road back into Borroloola with the intentions of maybe staying
there., but we get fuel and leave , there is rubbish everywhere and
it is not inviting at all.
Its 262km of bad dirt road from
here to the Qld border and then 59km to Hells Gate roadhouse on
Queensland side.
This again was done in a couple of
stops. Our first stop is 105km along at Robinson river crossing, this
took over 3 hours to get to.
Its a little area full of weeds so you
can not see river, we walk down the road to look at the crossing .
Its steep in and out but not deep or too wide or running too fast so
we can make it over ok.
The next stop was 72 km more at Calvert
creek crossing. This is steeper in and out with just as many weeds
in the surrounding area. Its called a river on coast side and creek
on the inland side of the track/ road we are on. We had seen a snake
on the road that had only just been run over so we stopped to see
what it was-do not know yet so took photos to check.
Its cloudy and muggy so my ankle is
hurting so I did not make the walk down to the crossing as I did not
like the idea of walking back up the slope.
Its on into QLD.
After the very steep exit of the river
crossing the road does not get any better. The photo shows river
crossing steep sides so you can imagine how much water is rushing
down this in the wet season. Next year we are going to have to see
some of these places across the top of Australia in the wet with
flowing rivers and waterfalls.
On the way we pass a sign for Redbank
, we do not know what this is , just that the creek/river close by
has a contaminated water sign.
From here the scenery changes its gets
hilly and more alive. The plants, trees seem healthy and we see more
wildlife. It looks like this area still gets to be burnt but maybe
not yearly like everywhere else we pass. Which would give things time
to recover maybe. We see wallaby, Bustards -birds, but all to soon it
gets back to the same burnt struggling bush and no life but
occasional cows /steers.
Its 85km to the QLD border from our
night stay then 59km to Hells Gate roadhouse. We stay the night
here, still no phone coverage or wifi.
The next stop was to be Tarana road
house but when we get to the road house its been closed down.
Larry wants to stop the night on the
Gregory river on a little bit just off the road I did not. We pulled
up and walked around and across the road crossing with its signs to
tell of fast flowing water and crocodiles. Do not walk in the water.
We would have walked down here from the roadhouse but to stop the
night on a little patch of dirt beside the road , no.
So we went on to Burketown and pulled
up for a couple of days on the wharf where we stayed last year when
we were on the way to Lawnhill NP.
There are more people here this time
but we are still beside the Leichardt river estuary. Some people are
fishing from the pontoons but most come here and take their boats out
into the gulf.
We do see a white bellied sea eagle and
a couple of kites having arguments over fishing rights. The sea eagle
did grab a fair size fish from the water and make off with it in the
end.
g]We leave Burketown stopping in a little
bakery selling bread made at the Aboriginal settlement of Doomagee.
Then stop to walk around the Hot water bore in town that was used for
the water supply for years but proved to be only good for some stock.
We then stopped at the Albert river
bridge , you used to be able to overnight here but it is now gated
off and you have to get a permit to camp from the local people. We
kept going to Leichardt falls and river for a couple of days. You can
park at the top of the falls in the dry season , right on top of the
rocks. Found some fresh water crocodiles in the pool below us.
It was then into Normanton after a
night at Bynoe river. Here in Normanton we get our permit to camp
just outside town beside the Norman river. You are allowed 48 hours
out here and we get the same park as we had last year right beside
river bank , straight opposite where the big salty sunbathes. The
information centre told me it is the same old croc and some times he
has a friend with him, we only see him and only during the day. He
could be any where during the night when he is out hunting, including
on the bank beside us. The river is tidal and he could easy make it
out to the ocean to hunt and back. Its a longer trip to Karumba from
Normanton by road. As soon as he is not visible I look at river bank
beside us before going too far outside.
We walk down to the Corduroy crossing
of the Norman river. This is the site of the early days river
crossing on a shallow bit. The crossing was made by placing logs
alongside each other, now there is a good causeway crossing to get to
Karumba and coast. On one of his walks Larry found 3 crocs just
laying on the banks not far from the crossing,I never got to see
them.
In Normanton outside the Council
offices is a model of the largest crocodile every killed in the
world. Killed by a lady back in the days hunting was allowed. It was
8.63m long . See photo.
We have to keep moving to make Mareeba
in time for our cruise.
We stop at Leichardt lagoon again for a
couple of days. Do the walk down to this part of the Norman river. We
see both fresh and salt water crocs so still there is no swimming
for us . There are plenty of birds on the lagoon but the fishermen
say they are not catching much in the river this year. This lagoon
is on a private station and is open in the dry season at $8 per
person per night. No power but hot showers and flush toilets. Its
quiet relaxing apart from not being able to swim during the hot days.
Our next stop is Croydon to do some
shopping. They have opened the Rodeo grounds to freedom camping for
$5 permit which gives you 48 hours. Use of a toilet and shower block.
Most of the stops across to Mareeba are
places we stop when we are in North of Queensland.
Next was Gilbert river found
butterflies , then Cumberland chimney historic mine site for crushing
gold. Here is also a lagoon for birds , and is home to a couple of
Yellow spotted monitor lizards ,that most people never see. On one
morning walk we find a bat still alive and caught in a barbed wire
fence across the nearly dry creek. We had to rescue it of course ,we
could not just watch it die slowly in the heat of the day.
We asked the closest campers for
scissors and gloves but no one wanted to be nice so had to run to our
van, first Larry went for gloves as bat was trying to bite, then I
had to go to car for scissors ,while he supported the bat , because
the only way we could get it out was to cut its wing membrane. We new
we could do this as long as we did not cut bone. Well we had to stand
in ankle deep water , one each side of the fence, me holding while
Larry cut . His eyesight better than mine. I did not need gloves as
the little bat settled in my hands hanging on to my fingers with its
feet never trying to bite just looked at me.We got him free
,checked damage and all we found was whole in membrane so we hung him
in the shade in a tree. He looked at us and climbed a bit higher. We
watched for awhile then walked the creek for half hour to give him
time to sort himself out and on our return he had flown away.
Then its Innot hot springs which is
only a little place with a caravan park that has hot artesian water
pools of different temperatures, a roadhouse , pub and a few houses.
We stay at the caravan park for 2 days. Nothing much to do just a
short walk around the lagoon and down to river bed with not much
water in it. Water and sand at different temperatures from too hot to
stand on to normal.
So most of the time is spent going from
one pool to another , some with spas a little waterfall and all full
of artesian mineral water. Temperatures go from cold swimming pool of
27deg c to the hottest at 47deg c.
We are now on the tablelands and only
97km from Mareeba. As we go through Atherton we stop and shop at
Woolworths, we have not seen a large supermarket since leaving
Katherine in the Northern Territory. Mareeba has a Coles but we had
some discounts to collect from Woolworths.
We spend the night at Rocky creek war
memorial campground before heading to Mareeba and the caravan park
where the car and van are staying while we on cruise.
Wilma
2017-08-19
A fantastic report Jan. the photos are wonderful. I so enjoyed reading all of it.