28^th June: Darwin

Karen came over and asked Gail and I if we would like to go to breakfast with her and her girlfriends. So, we went with her and had a lovely easy social time. Then, as Peter was in Melbourne and the two boys went camping, Karen decided to “play” with us all day and so we visited the Air Heritage museum. We spent a lot of time reading about early female fliers and watching a video on Darwin's war years. I know, Denis, that this is one of your favourite haunts up here and I can see why. Glen was very enthusiastic about the planes. The centre piece, of course, was the B 52 bomber. Huge black thing that looked so menacing. (Almost as large as the Globemaster that looked like it was falling out of the sky on top of us as we travelled past Amberley on a back road a year ago!) Everything else was dwarfed underneath it,especially the tiny Ultra Light that looked like a dragonfly! Very flimsy! Glen also enjoyed the Tiger Moth and the Spitfire and its story. But the Bomber over awed every other plane there. The hanger must have been built that size just to fit it in !

After a couple of hours there, Glen was craving coffee and we went to a cafe with a great view of Fanny Bay. The others ate but I was still dealing with my breakfast of salmon with hollandaise sauce (with 2 poached eggs and toast!) Then we drove around looking at various points of interest including the view from Charles Darwin National Park where we side stepped a welcome smoking ceremony. (Gave me the wheezes!) Shopping and extended drinkies completed the day. Very nice!

27^th June: Darwin.

We played the tourist today. Berry Springs is about 30 kms away and I had remembered visiting it the last time we were in Darwin. It is a lovely spot with a spring and a little waterfall into the first of three large pools of clear, deep, moving water. This is where Cherie at 18 months would launch herself into the water,expecting to be caught and then repeat the process endlessly as children do. The other two could swim. This time, even Glen went swimming as the water was so pleasant. Despite it being so far from Darwin,(we are 27 kms out of the city) there were lots of people there – but then, distances mean nothing out here. It was very enjoyable but not as refreshing as the icy cold water of Katherine Gorge or Edith Falls. Gail and I are swimming our way around Australia. 

 

We had lunch and came home via Howard Springs which is just up the road from here. I remember it too. A children's water sliide with pools has been built but there is no swimming in the large pool fed by the springs. Bacteria- causing algae makes it unhealthy – apparently. No fishing either and so, as the barrimundi of substantial size (Jarred says there were a couple over a metre long) are often fed pilchards & other little fish by hand, they and the turtles etc are not afraid to show themselves

At both places, the pools have rock walls and stairs built by servicemen during WW2 so that they had something to do when stationed here. These became useful places for recreation and helped stem the boredom. They also completed a number of other civil engineering works including Manton Dam which is now the main water supply for Darwin and the Mataranka Hot Springs pools.

Mossies are rampant. Jarred has bought for each of us from his Camping World where he works, a gas driven repellant device which puts insecticide into the air. They really work and we put them on every evening. I am so allergic to the mossies and midges!

26^th June: Darwin

After Glen had finished shifting the water tank which took him 5 hours, we checked out the famous Mindil Markets. Gail really wanted to visit them and so we arrived early as advised, found a shady park and walked over to the Botanic Gardens where we saw the biggest python I personally have ever seen. Not in capitivity, it was stretched along a very visible branch of a large tree, sunning himself. 5 – 6 metres long, maybe longer. Huge and fat – thee bulges of recent meals very obvious! We saw lots of trees too! Unfortunately, very few were named. Only two small orchids were flowering. But it filled in the 3 hours we had before the markets opened.

At 5.00, we retrieved our chairs from the car as well as the eskie with our cold bubbles and glasses and fouind a spot in the shade to sit. Glen stayed while Gail and I investigated. The markets were mostly food stalls, selling the cuisine of the world, a half dozen clothing places, children's clothing, some leather goods and lots of jewellery. We took food, pizza , baklava and delicious honey puffs to Glen who was enjoying himself watching acrobats. We had inadvertantly placed our chairs in front of a major entertainment spot. Watching the sun set overf Fanny Bay is obviously the thing to do as people streamed to the beach. After a fantastic display of fire twirling, Gail and I went shopping and Glen finally found a cup of coffee while we bought a couple of tops to wear. As we drove out we realised why we were advised to arrive early. Hundreds of vehicles were parked in every space possible for a km or two around the market space. It seems that going to Mindil Markets is what you do here on Thursday night! Darwin's version of late night shopping! Mind you, there are a number of other markets around here, including another at Mindil Beach on Sunday night!

25^th June:Darwin

If you haven't worked it out yet, I write the blog for the day early next morning as I still wake up early regardless. That's why the verb tenses are sometimes a little odd, seemingly!

Glen did put the X-trail on the hoist with Peter's help and they did do an oil change. Glen also started shifting the water tank and will finish it this morning. Gail and I did go shopping and so a successful day was had by all. I found Casuarina Shopping Centre and we all know where Bunnings and Supercheap are! In fact, I am beginning to know my way around Darwin.

I had my nails done at one of those nail parlours. They seem to be the only people who do acrylics. In fact, they have that business sewn up! Gail was able to buy two pairs of shorts. The end of Financial Year sales are on but you have to be Size 8 to buy anything. It seems almost nothing else is available! Glen forgot to bring his cord for his now flat shaver and I was able to buy the same thing for $40. Bargain! And then we went to Bunnings for him and bought a 8.5mm drill bit. We went home very proud of ourselves!

We went to dinner with the mob in the evening. The men, except Glen, stayed after dinner as there was a bucks party on in the strippers bar. Peter flew to Melbourne at midnight. Did we all give him heaps as it is snowing, raining and flooding in Melbourne. He was so looking forward to it – not! The temperature here has dropped to just below 20 degrees at night and the Territorians think they are freezing! They break out in sweat shirts and ugh boots!!

The dogs are digging holes under Gail's van. She is in danger of losing the van down one when she moves it!

24^th June: Darwin

Not much to report today. We spent Monday washing and shopping for groceries. Not exciting!

Today, we drove into the city and with a hundred or so other tourists, we hit the Information Office about what to see in Darwin. (Not much unless you are into Jumping Crocodiles! Which we are not!) We all went shopping in the mall which is orientated towards tourists. No real shops! So after a picnic lunch in a very nice park overlooking the wharf area and then went driving to explore. We found Cullen Bay (lots of very expensive looking apartment blocks, large yatchs in the marina and large 80's mac mansions),Darwin Sec College, a museum and an old Army installation on East Point with lots of relics of WW2 when the threat from the Japanese was very real. We then joined the peak hour traffic on the Stuart Highway and came home. (It really is busy especially as there are some very large road trains that use this road. Difficult when the one in front has faulty blinkers!

We did explore the museum. It is very good with lots of displays on local fauna especially birds, aboriginal art especially string art and a great display on Cyclone Tracey which happened on Christmas Day 1974. Actually more devastating than the Japanese bombing in WW2. There was still widespread evidence of it in 1977 when we came here. And that was one thing we noticed about Darwin: lots of new architecture. Parliament House is a rather interesting new building, Christ Church Anglican Cathedral has the stone front porch (added to a 19^th century classical Gothic – type church in WW2 by servicmen to honour those who had died in NT) incorporated into a very modern looking structure, and some semi-circular concrete and glass towers being built in the centre of the city. Most of the houses are very 80's except for a group of 4 or 5 heritage listed Burnett houses on the cliffs facing the sea - remnants of colonial times with sturdy posts holding up substantial louvred fibro houses,the macmansions of 1920's. They withstood Tracey while the flimsy 60& 70s buildings did not. 

 

We have enjoyed catching up with Peter, Karen and Mark (who is here for a couple of months as the wages are better) as well as meeting the boys who are now grown men and their girlfriends. We have talked late into the night (while Peter works on his laptop) and the two dogs have adopted us, greeting us like long lost friends and camping under our vans waiting for a pat and a tummy rub each morning!

Glen is putting the X-trail on Peter's hoist today and doing a oil change. Gail and I will go shopping!

23^rd June: Darwin

Here we are in Darwin after an ambling trip down the Arnhem Highway. Great road over floods plains between the East, South and West Alligator Rivers (misnamed before explorers understood that these were crocodiles not alligators!) and through dry rocky ridges between.

We called into the Mamukala bird hide in a large wetland area where there were few birds and then the Fogg Dam Reserve where there were huge flocks of Magpie Geese and lots of egrets. This was the site of a large experiment to grow rice for the Asian market in the 1960s. (Humpty Doo) It failed due to lack of finance and difficulties with transport to Asia. (Sounds like the Ord River project!)

We arrived at Howard Springs and Peter & Karen's place due to the very clear instructions Peter emailed me. I sat beside Gail reading the directions from the computer. Never done that before! It was strange to be driving into someone's back yard and setting up camp without greeting the owners! Still haven't seen them! They were at the V8 racing yesterday and out at a business dinner last night!

This may be a semi-suburban area but the corellas and curlews were going berserk this am with a rooster in the background! Glen is talking about doing an oil-change and shifting the water tank under the van - further back for better weight distribution! The front of the van is very heavy this trip.

One thing I did forget to mention was the rock art at Ubirr of a thylacine (?) ie a Tasmanian Tiger which suggests they were more widespread than first thought. Probably 5,000 yrs old when fish also entered the menu. Interesting!! 

 

Our hosts are at the door. Must away!

19^th - 20^th June: Jabiru

I didn't post for the last two days and this will probably not go onto the blog until tonight, Sunday, as we are moving to Darwin today. We have been enjoying our Kakadu experience and so have been out all day and exhausted at night!

We started on Friday (after waiting until 9.30 for a phone call re flight which never came) and went to Nourlangie Rock, a place we didn't see last time as the poor little Mazda was floundering in the sand patches in the road. Sealed road and so it was easy. We had to climb rocks and walk to the overhang where all the art was and then up to the lookout over the flood plains to the escarpment. A very knowledgeable ranger gave an hour long presentation on the history of the site and so of aborigines in this area, with archeological evidence. Amazing stuff and we learnt so much. (He's only been here 3 years but is certainly passionate about this living culture. ) An archeological dig found evidence of habitation for the last 20,000 yrs and what was happening in the environment at the time. For example, during the last ice age, the boomerang was invented because the kangaroos etc were larger and the plains were arid. As the ice cap melted and the sea level rose (at 30 cms a year) more trees grew and so the fauna became smaller as a response to bushier surroundings and the boomerang was useless. Hence, the development of stone points on throwing sticks (spears). There are no paintings of large kangaroos done in the last 5,000 years.

After a couple of hours there, we went to another site nearby, used by the same people: Nanguluwah Rock. A very hot walk to the base of the cliff which was facing the sun and radiating heat – the hottest I've been for a long, long time. But it was worth it as the art was fantastic, including a ship in full sail, probably from 1890 – 1900's.

 But we all became so dehydrated there! Although it was late, we decided to go to Uburr Rock which was north of the main road to Darwin and 65 kms in. We had been here before and I have of photo of the children on one of the rocks under the shelter. We knew it as Obirri Rock,which was probably a whiteman's approximation. About 100 people there to hear the aboriginal ranger talk about the art, his family and country. He was interesting but he spoke so softly and in such a rambling manner that he was difficult to understand. This rock overhang was a shelter after the ice age when rivers were developing and fish became an important part of the menu. The art here showed the barramundi, bream and catfish, turtle and file snake.

We then drove down to the crossing near which we had camped. Cahill's Crossing it is now called and it is much the same: people fishing for barra; cars crossing over in a foot of water pouring past to go to Arnhem land and Oenpelli; crocs cruising up and down. (One had a monitor on his back.) But our camping spot was very diff erent: it is covered with trees, all younger than the big ones near the river. 

 

That evening we heard another very interesting talk from the first ranger we had seen, about the work that Parks & Wildlife do up here. Heis a very good communicator and we came away with a real respect for the few men and women actively involved in caring for this country!

(Flocks of corellas are flying in! They are so noisy!!)

 Saturday, we had to be up at 5.00 am (amid protests from the other two!) to drive to Cooinda for a sunrise cruise on Yellow Water. What an experience! Probably100 people or so! Flat bottomed aluminium punts cruising across the wetlands in the early morning using only the light of what Mum called “picaninny dawn” to see birds as well as numerous crocodiles (including two pairs having territorial issues with each other. Glen has a great photo of two fighting!)

 The reflections in the still water were beautiful.

 

A Jacana-a lillypad strider.

 A fabulous trip! It was followed by a sumptious breakfast at the Cooinda lodge – as good as we used to pay $30 for at the Hilton years ago!

We left there at 10 am to go to Jim Jim Falls, 50 kms down a corrugated dirt road (like the roads all used to be! ) Glen let air out of the tyres which was just as well given the nature of the final 10 kms of the trip! It really was 4WD country – lots of deep ruts in sand patches, rocks in places that have flooded and 1 metre high, sharp speed bumps! Gail's commodore would have had hystericsat the first speed bump! But the X-Trail ploughed on – literally! (That's why Glen fitted a very expensive set of bash plates before we left! Their job is to be bashed! And to save the sump etc!) It was slow going into Jim Jim Falls and we decided to walk up to the falls. 2 kms return the info said. With some boulders to walk over! Well, I will never believe such brochures again! It had to be more than 1 km in as that was only to the large pool away from the falls. The falls themselves were twice as far again! And over large boulders most of the way. Gail and I didn't get there. We were just exhausted. I found a hole were the stream trickled in pools under a rock and I took my shoes off and sat there dangling my feet ion the cold water. It looked so inviting Gail joined me while Glen went further to photograph the falls and plunge pool close up. ½ an hour later he came back and joined us. Then he found his camera had played up and we had no photo to prove he'd got there. Ah well! Too bad, so sad!! Then we had to scramble and clamber over these boulders to get out! 3 hours this all took. I've used muscles I haven't used in a long time!

What amazes me is the sheer number of people at these places! All with much larger 4WDs but many with little children and arriving at 4.00 pm. I don't know what they think they are going to be able to do then.

Well, we came home. It took us over an hour just to get to the sealed highway and I for one was totally exhausted. But a good night's sleep has revived me and I feel truly satisfied with our Kakadu experience!

19^th June: Jabiru

It is hot, still,smokey and steamy. Despite the fact that it is the beginning of winter, you really know you are in the tropics. And everyone is applying insect repellant! I am breathless and, as I told my lungs while swimming at Edith Falls, they have no business protesting; their job is to exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide and they should just get on with it!

Katherine is so dry at the moment. Plenty of water in the river but the area around is grassless and even the eucalypts are dying. It is hard to imagine water 5 metres over the bridge which is 10 metres above the river!!

We drove up from Katherine and the Parks &Wildlife people were obviously burning off. Finally, they have learnt something from the aborigines: burn to clear in the early dry in small patches. That way most trees survive because it is not so intense,the weeds burn, the birds and animals survive and seeds are germinated ready for the rain. Dew will extinguish the fire at night. It creates a mosiac pattern of burnt and unburnt, green new shoots and brown old growth.

I forgot to mention the aircraft at Katherine. The Tindall Air Base is there and planes take off and drone across the sky frequently, Hercules mainly. Then there are the fighter jets; they scream overhead in pairs at any time of the day. Noiser than Cockatoos! The kookaburra here is the same one as up the Cape:small,blue wings and unable to laugh properly. They do make a racket at first light1

The roads up here are excellent. I can't help remembering the dusty, rough extremely corrugated roads we travelled on last time. Even the road to Nourlangie Rock which was all sand and impassible, is now sealed and all weather! Jabiru is a small community, mostly mine related but now involved in servicing the tourist industry. (Despite this, Glen has so far been unable to book a flight over Kakadu because nobody is in the office and they don 't return calls.) Imust say though some of the road-users leave a lot to be desired: huge vans travelling too slowly or ridiculously fast; road trains slowing down on hills; a Peter's icecream van that raced past another truck, 2 vans and a car – all at once on the wrong side of the road, around corners,over crests! X-ray vision!

We wentto the Visitor's Centre herethis afternoon. Excellent display.

Mossies are making their presence felt. Time to pack up!

• 18^th June: Katharine
  I was tired last night! All that swimming! And I repeated the activity today. After picking up the medication, we went to Edith Falls, just up the road. It was a very hot dry place but the falls, although small, rushed into a very large deep plunge pool. Gail andI went swimming while Glen went for a 3km walk up to a lookout over the next two falls. Gail and I swam the 150 metres accross to the falls against the current. I haven't swum that far for years! But we had current ssistance coming back, thank goodness. It was cold, very deep and so clear. Lovely! But there is a restriction against swimming between 7.00pm and 7.00 am – croc eating time. That was for their sake not ours! They are freshwater crocs but still, when a fish nudged Gail, she nearly fell off the rock she was perched on
  Glen bought a hat this afternoon- a brimmed one similar to mine. He really needs something better than a cap up here!
  Off to Jabiru tomorrow.

   

  

  17^th June: Katharine
  
  
  
  A lovelyday today. We went to the shops to pick up our medication but found they hadn't filled them and couldn't find them. 1 hour later, we left with most of it. We'll have to go in tomorrow for the rest.
  We booked a 4hr cruise on the Katharine Gorge or Nitmiluk as it is called. It hasbeen a National Park for manyyears. Then, it was returned to the local Janowyn people but they wanted to keep it open for all to visit. The only way to do it was to lease it back to the government and so there is a joint board of management to run it. They have made some improvements since we were last there – some concretepaths, a couple of landing jetties and more boats – aluminium punts with a roof and an outboard motor. Same boats, just more of them.
  
  
  
  We set off after observing the thousands of black and little red bats hanging in the trees beside the river. They were making a racket and they smelt! The gorges are beautiful, straight sided 60 – 90 metres high and there is more than that underneath. The cliffs glowed red in the sun and the water was cool and black with the depth. At the end of the first gorge, we had to clamber over rocks to the path around the rocks and falls. Yellow canoes wandered all over the river!
  
  
  
  
  We went right up to the third gorge and there we were able to swim. Glen didn't of course, but Gail and I did. It was rather cool but so refreshing! We were in for ½ hour! On the way back, we swam again and then further on, we saw 2 freshwater crocs- one rather big: 2 metres! Fortunately, Johnson River crocs eat only what they can eat whole. It would take a very large croc to swallow me! 
  
  
  
   
  We saw Jedda's Rock again. I remember it from last time. It is a huge slab wall. It was so named as a result of one of the first films to be made in Australia, called “Jedda”. It was the tragic love story of two aboriginal teenagers who escaped pursuers by jumping over the cliff to their death. I remember seeing the fi8lm as a young teenager in Caboolture.
  A great day!

   

  

  16^th June: Katharine

A beautiful morning but very cold. (8 C). We went for a walk to Stevie's pool – a lovely part of the Roper River.

 We went out on the highway to play with the very big trucks. Dozens of caravans on the road. Half the population of retired people are obviously nomadic! We met up with some people we'd seen at Julia Creek and Glen did his good Samitarian act and loosen all the wheel nuts on the campa with his very long spanner (lever principle)so that the guy could actually undo them if needed.

We arrived at Katharine for lunch and went shopping. We wanted groceries and medication. We also visited the Tourist Information Office and came away with all the necessary stuff. This is a very busy park. We are staying 3 days and seem like permanents. So many come in for 1 night!

11^th June: Camooweal

We are camped,with about15 other vans & tents in a park behind the BP roadhouse. Truckies stay in the various cabins and although this is a very remote place, it is very busy!

The road today was a repeat of yesterday to start with, except with more trees and fewer cattle. News is that most graziers have sold off their cattle as they can't feed them. Then suddenly, as we crossed a dry creek, the terrain changed from black soil plains to red clay

and as we approached Cloncurry, red, hard, rocky – centred mountain ranges started to appear. It really did look like mining country. The number of ore-carrying road trains seemed to increase and lots of caravans were trundling down the road. In Mt Isa, we were given directions “Turn right at the mine.” You literally drive almost into the mine and turn right. The mine with its tall chimney stack dominate the surroundings. No parks and so we drove out to Lake Moondarra for lunch. The dam is very low, the water asaresult of one decent storm after reaching empty status earlier this year. Prospects are not good. Everytime bwe curse the rain, we will think of the people up here!

Not much in Camooweal: roadhouse, a PO and General Store and trucks, trucks, trucks!

And of course, grey nomads and their vans, mostly enormous. They must chew through the fuel!

12^th June: Cape Crawford

An intersting night at Camooweal. Cattle trucks stopping outside the park for a rest with all their attendant noises :air brakes, motors stopping and then winding up and cattle bellowing and moving; Gail had a couple beside her who didn't say a civil word to anyone including each other, with two spaniels which whinged all night; we had a gvuy playing a guitar and singing off-key one side and a television playing so loudly I could follow the plot of the movie through the dialogue and music on the other!

And Glen had an argument with Telstra – again! Optus has no coverage out here and so we have a Telstra sim card. However, when he rang up to register it, he was told, after some toing and froing on Gail's phone, that his sim card was invalid and could he please just take it back to where he bought it. He couldn't seem to get the girl to understand that no, he couldn't; that was 2000 kms away! Well,to cut along story short, he went to buy another sim card. Not possible as none were available at the roadhouse, the only place

open by this time. So he bought a new phone, Telstra locked. So now we have a new Telstra number! The irony is that there is no coverage of any type here!

We got up early and left Camooweal, along with all the other vans, by 7.30 am as today involved over 600 kms. We crossed the Georgina River which is wide with some water in a pebbly flat depression. We were able to see the old road and bridge a long way down from the new high bridge – a testament to the fact that there are substantial floods here. I remember dribing the Mazda with the Chesney Campa down onto the creek bed for Morning tea and to allow the kids to run around and play. How things have changed!

We crossed over into the Northern Territory on a great road on which one could travel 130 kph. One didn't, of course! But it was nice to think one could! This was the southern Barkley Tableland, the place where I learnt 37 yrs ago that I had a budding satirist in my son. (The children were in the back seat absorded in their reading and when told to look out the window to see the scenery, 3 yr old Richard looked up and said “Ah, yes. I see a tree.” Cheeeky twerp!) But, once again very flat black soil plains with very few trees. Absolutely featureless scenery!

                          

After 21/2 hrs of nothing, we arrived at the Barkley Tableland Homestead where petrol is $2 a litre and diesel $2.20. (They use 500 litres a day to run the generator. No wonder the diesel subsidary is so important!) It is a necessary stop for everyone as that is it for another 200 kms. Galahs, the feathered type (& the others too), everywhere and underground water constantly sprinkling the very green grass. An enjoyable pause for us! We then turned right and headed north to Cape Crawford. It took us the rest of the day to get here through very isolated and uninhabited country. Fabulous grasslands, well watered, even swampy, and well stocked, as we came north. 337 kms of single lane bitumen, without even toilet stops and virually no traffic. 3 cars and 2 roadtrains provided the only 3 excitement in 6 hrs driving! We did stop for lunch and afternoon tea and stretch our legs! We saw a flock of brolgas near the road.

Cape Crawford is over 100 kms from the gulf So why the name, you ask? So did we! A cape is also where a river meanders on itself and creates a “cape”. The Mc Arthur river is an important feature here. We booked into the Heartbreak Hotel Van park and found we had to share the few facilities with the general public at the pub. But it was only $10 perperson and so we will make do! Some awful live music at the pub this evening- a very flat and nasal Country & Western singer who whined along for two hours!

13^th June: Cape Crawford.

Full moon tonight. We have had an interesting day. This morning we thought we would drive to Borroloola to see this legendry fishing spot. It is an aboriginal community with a school, 3 petrol stations, a pub and a caravan park as well as lots of houses and a museum. It is 25 kms from the gulf and we couldn't find the road to King Ash Bay where the Fishing Club Campsite is. We also couldn't find a park with toilets and so we had MT in the showgrounds. Nearby, the McArthur River flows under a very high new bridge on the road to Doomadgee – a lovely spot. Fuel was cheaper - $1.80 because it is 100 kms closer to a port facility at Bing Bong (I kid you not!). Copper & silver ore from the McArthur mine is shipped from here. There is also another new mine, the Roper River mine, to the north but I have yet to discover what the mineral is.

                        

We came back to go on a helicopter flight into the closest Lost City. The map shows 2 Lost Cities way north in the Limmen NP but this one is just on the range on McArthur station, and not marked. Fascinating place. 1.4 billion years old(twice the age of Uluru), it is a part of the sedimentary range that has eroded into hundreds of tall columns up to 20m high. The structures to the north are similar but inaccessible except by a very long, rough 4WD track. We walked around for 11/2 hrs. The only access is by helicopter for which one pays dearly but it was well worth it.

Half a dozen road trains have passed down the road so far tonight, lights like long elongated Christmas trees.We have come to the conclusion that travelling at night on the road to Barkley Homestead could be hazardous! The singer is back at the pub. We think we will go to bed and read to block his voice out.

14^th June: Mataranka Hot Springs

It was an uneventful trip today – in fact boring! We arrived for lunch here and then wen for a swim in the springs, along with dozens of others. The vans and campers are packed in like sardines and at nearly $30 a night, there is a goodly income involved. But the swim was lovely and as the water is only just warm and a cool breeze was blowing it was very refreshing – in fact cold when we got out. Glen went swimming with the van keys in his pocket, he discovered once in, and then he lost them. Panic stations while Gail and I searched in the clear water which was too deep for me to touch bottom. (Glen couldn't see anything and had to come back in with his glasses on!) Gail found them and asked someone to dive for them as she had contacts in!

A band is playing here tonight. Very good and the guitarist is excellent. We are having a rest day here tomorrow. Glen had another argument with Telstra this afternoon and now we have access. I will finally be able to post the last few days” blog.

10^th June: Julia Creek

We have spent today rolling across seemly endless flat, black soil plains that stretched as far as the horizon and beyond. The road of course was undulating as a result of this self-mulching soil and the road construction gangs were out in force, rebuilding 5 km stretches every 10 kms. Apparently, (one of the workers lives in this caravan park and we were chatting), these are experimental builds in order to find a way to stablise the foundations of the road – a formidable task given the size and weight of some of the trucks. They are removing the bitumen, scaping up the dirt underneath, laying down lime, then the dirt they had removed,then a layer of rocks and then adding more dirt and bitumen. 41/2 months to complete 5 kms!

We were grateful for the road works as it broke the monotony of 300 kms of straight, featureless road. Some cattle were nibbling despondently at scattered round tufts of inedible-looking grass in the dust. It is so dry from before Richmond to here. The creeks are empty sandy gullies! They absolutely depend on underground water for the cattle and the outlook is very depressing! All these small country towns are built on a square grid pattern with extremely wide streets, a hangover of the bullock teams of the past. (You need a lot of road to turn a bullock dray!)

Two emus,dozens of kites and eagles were dotted along the way as well as some road kill. The trucks drive 24/7 and they are huge – 4 and sometimes 5 full trailers (dogs) behind. We don't pass them; they pass us - faster than us – carrying cattle or ore in closed containers. No wonder the road sinks!

Many of these caravan parks have good camp kitchens and we are using them when we can, meeting other interesting people as we cook and eat and wash up. There were two young men there tonight and they wereaskingabout places to visit on their travels. By the sounds of it, their map was inadequate and they were relying on Google maps. Technology is not always the answer! Maps are good! Especially when going to Lawn Hill Gorge (of which they had never heard) and then on the Savannah Way through the wilds of NT!

6 - 8^th June :Mackay

After a fairly uneventful trip (despite the large number of very large trucks that always seem to be in a hurry), we have arrived in Mackay. We left an hour later thyan planned as there are always so many things to do at the last minute! (It was, at least, not as bad as 37 years ago when we finally left at 5.00pm and went as far as Toowoomba!)

The date of our departure and the length of stay in Mackay, a place we are very familiar with, was predicated on the timing of Glen's reunion. His Yr 8 class group had a 55^th reunion this weekend. There were over 300 of them in the Year group in 8 classes of 40 students each. This mob like to party and there are gatherings every year in Mackay, Brisbane and Townsville. Up here there are 3 events this weekend. It is just as well that we go to them all as I am becoming to know well a number of people. In fact, I'm have been accepted into the inner circle! Much fun and hours of conversations about times gone past and the present circumstances was had. In facts these 69 yr olds last night voted to have a 60^th Reunion! We will need to have more room for all the wheelie walkers!

It is raining, windy and 21 C – of course, as there is a BBQ on today! Andergrove Van Park isn't as full as normal as there has been a downturn in the coal industry. There are 1600 houses for sale in this town and 2000 for rent! But the bird life is as prolific as ever as we are surrounded by numerous lagoons and wetlands. Ordinary ducks by the dozens, the very pretty whistling ducks by scores, water fowl that sound like cross monkeys and climb trees, crows and plovers all squarking! In fact, there is one large plover who is calling for his lost mate, tapping on windows at his own reflection. Very sad. They mate for life. Of course the lorrikeets chirrup loudly and fly off in a flurry of wings.

We have visited Glen's brother Bill for a pleasant morning. They are both unwell with viruses caught on their travels. We'll go out for dinner tonight although goodness, I don't think Glen and I need any more food!

We leave for the west tomorrow.

9^th June – ChartersTowers

We have arrived at Charters Towers. They are squeezing vans in everywhere. We are tucked in beside the camp kitchen where a bush poet is entertaining people with ballads. (I have never had much time for such “poetry” and even less for expletive filled ryhmes but the listeners are laughing spasmodically.)

We pulled into a Rest Area at Ayr to have lunch. There's a great installation; the local totem is a carpet snake and the dreaming of the local area tells the story of the snake (the Burdekin River) and its journey from the mountains to the sea, the droppings forming the islands. The site is where the Old People were buried and nearby the children were born. They found bones when they built the road and the bridge.

It is raining and blowing and it's cold. I think we'll have to get out the heater. Cold,wet weather does my lungs no good.