Mawle Family

Tuesday 23rd – Wednesday 24th:

Spent a couple of days in Bowen.  No children on the campsite, just Grey Nomads (and probably a Child Catcher).

Thursday 18th: Up and away very early.  Stopped at the local cafe in Julia Creek to buy coffee and brecky to have in the car.  Refuelled at Hughenden and Charters Towers (where we also jet washed the car and trailer), arriving in Townsville at about 5:00PM.  Glad to be near the sea again and to see hills and green trees.

Friday 19th -Monday 22nd: Have spent most of the time catching up with school work, journals and laundry – the Lawn Hill dust got everywhere.

Saturday afternoon went for a stroll along the Strand seafront in Townsville; not much to write home about.

Starting to get excited about our sailing trip in the Whitsunday Islands with the Campbell team from Perth.  We just hope we don’t get bombed by the Americans!

Disturbed night.  A group of old blokes set up camp next to us then went straight to the bar.  They returned late into the night swearing and singing loudly.

Now, when I was a kid I remember Libby Neutron Bomb singing Country Road Take Me Home.  Though I never admitted it to my mates, I quite liked the song, or perhaps I just liked Libby.  Of course, my mates all liked Libby in her “let’s Get Physical” phase!

Anyway, back to Country Road.  I knew the words and can still remember some of them today.

Being woken up by a drunk bloke singing is bad enough.  But it’s worse when he can’t even remember the words!

“COUNTRY ROAD WHERE I ROAM”…

I wanted to shout “THOSE ARE NOT THE WORDS!” but there were six or more of them so I lay there trying to block out the noise.  I wasn’t concerned that the children would wake up, after yesterday’s adventures they were out for the count.

“COUNTRY ROAD TAKE ME HOME TO THE PLACE WHERE I ROAM”… “WEZ VIRGINIA TO MY MOMMA”…

What?  NOOOOooooo!  That’s not how it goes!

Even after he’d stopped and presumably passed out, the wrong words kept going through my head.  It took ages to get back to sleep.

De-camped and left Adels Grove at 9:00AM.  We headed 90 km along another unsealed road to Gregory Downs.  The road was incredibly dusty – so much so that we had slow right down when cars came the other way and stop when Road Trains came the other way.

Dusty Roadtrain

At Gregory Downs we stopped to refuel, pump up the tyres and get some coffee and snacks from the Roadhouse.  The it was 383 km along a mostly single track road to Julia Creek.  That was the bleakest landscape that we’ve encountered, I could never live there, it felt so desolate.  It was flat, parched savannah with occasional dry creek crossings lined with tired looking Gum Trees.  Apparently in the Wet the road floods and the verges are deep mud.  Some Trucking companies don’t let their drivers use the road because they bogged if they pull over to let another truck pass the other way.  Presumably, after the Wet, the landscape comes alive but, in my opinion, it would still be pretty bleak.

We pulled in to the camp ground at Julia Creek at 5:00PM.  It had been a long day!  Emily quickly set to work and cooked pasta and bacon whilst we set up the trailer.  After dinner we packed as much as we could so that we can get an early start tomorrow.  We’ve had enough of savannah and really want to get to the Queensland coast (probably Townsville) tomorrow.

Drove a few km to Lawn Hill Gorge, hired a canoe and paddled up through the gorge.  It was absolutely beautiful!  The river is deep and clear,and the gorge is alive with the sound of birds.  There were lots of fish:

Lawn Hill Gorge Fish

We arrived at some small waterfalls, where we had to left the canoe out and carry it to the river above, then we continued upstream to where the river runs through some shallow sections into a deep and wide pool.  We just sat quietly and looked and listened as we drifted back downstream.

Lawn Hill Gorge

After carrying the canoe back past the waterfalls we had a swim then continued downstream to our starting point.  The two hour trip cost $75, well worth it!

Back at Adels Grove we had lunch then went down through the Grove to the river for a swim/swing.

Dinner was followed by marshmallow toasting and a walk down to the Grove to see if we could see any snakes, apparently there are lots of pythons but we didn’t see any, just hundreds of Cane Toads.

Sunday 14th: Drove to Lawn Hill National Park which is just inside Queensland and 197 km north of Camooweal.  The last 141 km is along an unsealed road and it was rougher and much dustier than the Gibb River Road.  There were a couple of Creek crossings but they weren’t too bad.  We’re camping at Adels Grove.

Monday 15th: Spent most of the day catching up with journals and school work then went down through the Grove to the river for a swim.

Charlotte in Lawn Hill Creek

There’s a small swimming pontoon in the middle of the river and, believe it or not, an excellent rope swing!

Woohoo!  Ollie Swinging at Lawn Hill Creek

Hot showers then dinner followed by an evening by the campfire (and we toasted marshmallows!):

Lawn Hill Campfire

All in all, a good day!

Friday 12th: Spent the day driving south along the Stuart Highway from Litchfield to Daly Waters where we camped at the Highway Inn.

Saturday 13th: On the road early and headed south to the Three Ways junction where we turned east along the Barkly Highway towards Queensland.

Stopped at the Barkly Homestead for the night where we met some Chinese teachers on holiday from Beijing  who camped next to us last night.  Ge Ding and his wife were kind enough to spend some time helping Emily with her Mandarin.  Ge Ding’s wife is a music teacher so Emily had to get the violin out too.  They rounded off the evening with some songs and were joined by Jay who was camping next to us:

Mandarin Song 1

Mandarin Song 2

Drove to Florence Falls.

Florence Falls. Very crowded.

We didn’t think they were as nice as Wangi Falls and they were very crowded – guys were jumping off the cliffs into very busy (and shallow) pools.  It felt very dangerous so decided to head back to Wangi via the giant Termite Mounds, this one is made by Cathedral Termites.

Cathedral Termite Mound

The children spotted this giant Orb Spider by the footpath:

Orb Spider at Wangi Falls

Another swim at Wangi Falls then prepared for tomorrow’s long drive south towards the Three Ways junction where we will turn east towards Queensland.

Darwin, Saturday 6th – Wednesday 10th:

Have arrived in Darwin.  The campground is nice and convenient for the city, the airport (we’re under the flight path) and, should we require it, the scrap metal yard.  We’re also camped next to some French Backpackers who like French RAP music.  Terrific!

Now, we love France and we like the French.  France has marvellous and diverse landscapes, beautiful architecture, excellent food, fine wine, and friendly people (some even in Paris!).  It has a rich culture and is famous for its artistic talent.  But French RAP music is absolutely dreadful (sorry Tristan!).

Anyway, we’re only here for a few days to get Ollie’s tooth fixed and have a quick look around before heading back down to Litchfield National Park then on to Queensland.

Darwin has changed a lot since Charlotte and I were here in 2001.  Lots of new buildings and attractions – one of which is the Wave Pool.  The children desperately wanted to go so, reluctantly, we agreed to go on Sunday afternoon.  I’m glad we did, we had great fun riding the waves – the machine can create different wave patterns so, each time the waves started, we didn’t know what to expect.

Afterwards we went to Mindl Market which is at Mindl Beach (obvious really).  It had a great atmosphere and there was lots going on.  Lots of good food stands along with the usual knick Knack stands, some interesting Aboriginal art and the best Didgeridoo player I’ve ever seen, he must have breathed through his ears!.

Ollie’s Dental appointment was on Monday then we mooched around Darwin for a couple of hours.

Saltwater Crocodile at Corroboree Billabong

On Tuesday we drove to Corroboree Bilabong and went on the boat.  We saw several Saltwater Crocodiles (Ollie and Ems were very excited) and loads of colourful birds.  When we arrived Charlotte and I realised that we’d visited the Billabong in 2001.  Still, I think this trip was better than then.

We’re now in Litchfield National Park staying at the Wangi Falls Campground.

Wangi Falls

The Wangi Falls are very beautiful but very busy compared to the Gibb River Road Gorges.  It’s been hot so we spent the afternoon in the pool at the foot of the waterfalls.

Decided to stay another night in Katherine so Charlotte went to the campsite office to book it.  She returned looking a little bemused.   The campsite was not busy, and one would think that additional business would be welcomed.  Not at this campsite!  Apparently the woman at the office had just qualified with Merit at the Attila the Hun School of Business.  And she was not happy at all with Charlotte’s request.  Why?  Because she had allocated our spot to someone else and didn’t want to alter her nice tidy booking system.  She seemed unable to grasp the fact that there were loads of other empty spots around the campsite.  Anyway, she grudgingly booked us in whilst muttering something like “Attila would never have allowed this… mutter mutter mutter… should be thrown from the battlements… blah blah blah”.

Went to Katherine Hot Springs which weren’t very hot because the air temperature was 32 degrees.  The pools were very crowded and there was a lot of litter.  We didn’t think much of the place but that’s probably because the Gibb River Road Gorges were so pristine.

Dinner was at the campsite Bistro.  Charlotte and I decided to have the “famous Curry”.  Whilst we were waiting for our meal to arrive we pondered how the Curry had become “famous”.  One and a half hours later we realised that it was because the food was delivered direct from Calcutta.  By Rickshaw!  It wasn’t very good either.