September 23rd and Susan, a friend from Albury is on her way to join me. I picked her up from Darwin airport at 12.30 & we headed back down the Sturt highway to Katherine. I parked the van at Riverview CP again where I had stayed with Sara and family a couple of weeks ago. Before setting up the van, we went straight down for a swim at the hot springs as it was getting dark...sooooo noice!! 💖😃
Alongside the path to the hot springs there were heaps of Bower Bird nests.
We even saw the Bower Bird enter this nest, but I wasn't quick enough to get the photo 😞
It was late to cook, so we took the courtesy bus to the Golf Club for dinner and ordered a seafood basket each. It looked sensational, but I'd have to say the barramundi and calamari were OK, the prawns and oysters were not!!! Oh well. lesson learned...don't buy seafood unless you're near the sea!!
Next morning we had another swim before leaving for Timber Creek Roadhouse heading west on the Great Northern Highway (Savannah Way).
Susan enjoying Katherine Springs 🤩
Around 300km later I parked the van at Timber Creek Roadhouse...there’s nothing much in Timber Creek except the CP/Hotel/ Roadhouse!! But it was a shady little oasis for the night with great facilities including a pool and a delightful Irish lass (Helen) who came out to Australia and Timber Creek six years ago as a back packer and never returned. She now runs the park and pub and loves the place. It had a great vibe....and a beautiful Boab tree. You couldn’t ask for more 👍😀
I'd bought fresh fruit & veg when in Katherine forgetting it would be confiscated at the WA border!!! We were not going to get it all eaten so while in Timber Creek I did a cook up & froze it.
WooHoo...we are in Boab tree territory and this one at the CP was a beauty
It's now 25th September and we are currently travelling through Victoria River country at the northern end of Gregory National park on our way from Timber Creek to Lake Argyle about 240kms west.
We are passing through some amazing scenery. The vegetation and landscape is constantly changing. From beautiful soft coloured savannah pastures and vegetation to iron rich red soil, to stone country and beautiful mountain ranges...it's all breathtakingly beautiful. (One day I might get time to do a video of all the roadside photos I’ve taken...and I've taken a few!!) The blackened landscape from fires is everywhere. It adds to the starkness and picturesque quality of the landscape.
Burnt pandanus beside a river...We stopped off at a free campground for a break and went for a short walk....too hot to walk for long, and fires were still burning and smouldering.
A pano taken near the Victoria River Roadhouse. Photos do not do the countryside justice!!
We're passing by lots of cattle in very large groups
Another National Park free campground we drove into just for a look and just for the fun of it. It was fairly corrugated and added some time to the trip, but it's all about the journey and there was no rush!!!
We are now seeing heaps of Boab's and still loving the landscape. This one's trunk (and many we've seen) look like burnished copper
We crossed the NT/WA border and passed through the quarantine station without mishap (apart from the grumpy expressionless attendant!!), put clocks back 1.5 hours and arrived at Lake Argyle at 1.30 WA time at another OASIS!!!🌴 I parked my van at a lovely cool spot in the Lake Argyle Caravan Park. We were in time to quickly set up the van and catch the sunset tour/cruise which left at 2.15. There’s no daylight saving 😱 so it was dark by 5.30pm!!! Felt weird🤔
The tour included a bus trip and commentary around the lake wall before being dropped off at the boat for the cruise component.
Lake Argyle from the dam wall. Classified as an inland sea, it is the second largest man made freshwater dam in Australia with a catchment of around 1000km2 (behind Tasmania's Gordon Dam) It's 18 times the size of Sydney Harbour.
We motored out on the water looking at crocs, wallabies & birdlife against a stunning backdrop of amazing rock formations. We stopped late afternoon in the middle of the lake and went for a swim off the back of the boat and enjoyed champagne & nibbles as we watched the sun set... MAGIC!!
Lake Argyle from the boat. The boat tour took us on a small fraction of the lakes 1000km2. It's huge!!!
Enjoying a glass of champagne before diving in for a delightful swim before the sunsets.
Sun is almost down...I loved the reflected light on the bow of the boat in this photo
On our way back to the CP
By the time we arrived back it was too late to swim in the “Infinity” pool, but we checked it out...Swimming in this pool is a bucket list item for many people and you can see why!!!
First thing next morning we spent quite some time just enjoying the ambience and cool waters of the pool. After packing up the van we had another leisurely swim before leaving....the pool was hard to leave behind!!!
After a late checkout from Lake Argyle we arrived at Kununurra (only 75 kms north) early afternoon and I parked my van at the Kimberlyland Waterfront Caravan Park on Kununurra Lake for 2 nights. We had shade, a beautiful outlook and another cool pool... not quite Lake Argyle standard but extremely nice nonetheless.
Delightful park by Lake Kununurra with loads of bird life. This photo was taken from the point where the palm tree is in the following photo.
This photo is also taken from the same place as the first photo, but if you look carefully between the concrete block on the left and the greenery you'll see the head of "Gummy" the CP's "pet" fresh water crocodile!!
A bit about the weather...It getting VERY HOT AND HUMID. Temps are between 34 and 40 and humidity is creeping up. I'd only seen clear skies for the last 2 months, but lately clouds are forming and the humidity is starting😅...the build-up season
We stayed two nights in Kununurra because we did a side day trip to Wyndham (the most northern town in WA) 70kms north of Kununurra. We had lunch at the “Croc Cafe Bakery”, which we'd been told about and I had Crocodile pie & Susan had Barra pie. Both were delicious.
Yum....Croc pie 😃
We drove around the wharf area and then up to the “Five rivers lookout”😱What a panoramic view that was. Stunning rivers pattern formations.
This photo shows the wharf area and although the photo is taken from the lookout we actually drove along the wharf road as well.
Looking over the town of Wyndham
I think this trip has really made me so much more conscious of what indigenous artists see and paint. The patterns, shapes and colours of the Australian landscape are so incredibly authentic in indigenous art. This Five Rivers scene, the mountain ranges I'm passing through, the panorama vista's seen from Nabdab lookout at Ubirr, the savannah grasslands, the fire burnt country,side the stone country landscapes. It's all so clearly visible in indigenous artworks and it’s stunning....ie. both the art & the landscape.
On our return trip we called into “The Grotto” another small but interesting rock formation just off the highway.
We never climbed down the step walkway into the Grotto, but Sara, John and the girls did when they visited a few days later and they said it was a great swimming spot and very deep. It was very hot and getting late in the day when we arrived so we just took in the view!!!
We called into a local art gallery on the way back and drove up to Kelly's Knob lookout before heading back to the caravan. This would have been a fabulous place to take a drink and sit & watch the sunset, but it had been a long day and a swim in the pool then a drink by the lake at the caravan park was more appealing.
The view from Kelly's Knob lookout over Kununurra.
Next morning, September 28th I filled the car with petrol and we headed along the Great Northern Highway to Halls Creek. Around 360kms. It was hot and there was a cross wind so I had the air con on and although I was only travelling at 85kms we chewed up some petrol. Arriving in Halls Creek I went straight to the service station to get fuel only to find out the town had no unleaded fuel 😱The pumps weren't working. It had only just happened 1/2 hour before we got there. We'd planned to stay the night anyway, so we booked in to the Halls Creek Caravan Park and waited for information as to when the pumps might be fixed.
I happened to notice a convoy of single female travellers so I approached them and introduced myself as I suspected they were heading for the "Rolling Solo" event in Exmouth that I am attending in October. Sure enough they were and one of the ladies was also waiting on unleaded fuel. They too booked in to the CP and alongside us. The following day (Sunday 29th) we were informed that a tanker was bringing fuel to one of the other service stations that was also out of fuel. It was a 24 hour card payment bowser connected to a mechanical business and Monday was a public holiday in WA so the business was closed until Tuesday. I took a bit of a gamble late Sunday and it paid off...I drove to the pump thinking, if the tank had dropped off fuel the bowser would be full. The "No Fuel Available" sign was still on the pump, but I put my card in and authorised $100 and sure enough it gave me the OK to fill up. My car got a full tank and I also filled my spare 10 litre jerry can, which I'd used to do some sight seeing earlier in the day. I then let Leonie (Rolling Solo group) know there was petrol available. She immediately drove to the pump, but it turned out there wasn't enough petrol left in the pump to fill her tank. Obviously the tanker hadn't filled it and I was just lucky😌😀
The pool at the park was great...clean, cold and refreshing, but the park was dry and hot!!! Susan and I drove out to the China Wall tourist attraction about 6kms south. We had been seeing snippets of lines of white rock protruding from the stone ridges leading up to Halls Creek and the "China Wall" was exactly that... A natural vein of quartz up to 6 metres high in places and looking like a miniature "Great Wall of China". If you want to check it out see this link...
https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/business/attractions/china-wall
The road in and the first view of the wall
This is another section of the China wall further along the road and shows the surrounding landscape.
The following morning we all left in convoy to travel to Fitzroy Crossing. My tank was full and I gave Leonie my jerry can fuel, which gave her enough fuel to make it there.
I'm still loving the changing landscape.
We all stopped for a break as we crossed the Muellers Ranges
The Mueller Ranges stopover for lunch
Another free campsite by the river, which we stopped in at for a look. A huge space with great toilet facilities, but lots of red dirt!!! and more cows.
We arrived at Fitzroy Crossing and I parked my van at the Fitzroy River Lodge. Again, it had a fabulous pool, which is a huge bonus in the weather conditions we are travelling through.
We finished off September with another beautiful sunset, this time from a vantage point in Fitzroy Crossing.
Total Distance travelled to date 19,305 kms
March....764km
April .....1225km
May......3435km
June....2800km
July.....2606km
August....3908km
September.... 4190km
OMG...I didn't realise I'd done so many kilometres until I added them up.
I'll finish off this post here. Susan is still travelling with me on our "Thelma and Louise" jaunt with another week still to go. You may be glad to hear we have not driven off any cliffs AND we are no longer searching for Brad 🤪😳😱🙄... WE FOUND HIM...You'll find out all about it in the next edition.
Until then keep enjoying the journey with me 🥂