A very short 'other home' visit..MUNBILILLA, on the Roper River, Suvannah Way.. NT

August is almost done and dusted alittle quicker than we thought as I write this in Mt Isa.
 Further to the end of our last blog it is with great sadness we honour the memory of our friend Jimmy.

Jimmy and Mick last year

 Jimmy passed away, after 1 week of travel home to Vic, 1 week with family and in the 3rd week he went to hosp on a Monday and passed away on Thurs 22nd Aug  in the south Gippsland Hosp, exactly 3 weeks after a lung cancer diagnosis in Katherine. So devastating  for Meliada and their daughter Rebecca, we look forward to seeing them again one day.

Katherine, south to Mataranka and then eastwards to the Roper River in all approx 320 km, last 90 km dirt, corrugated bulldusted road.

 40km /hr and pray you have packed down the van interior properly

these roads do get graded annually but unravel and turn to bulldust/powder quickly

We arrived on a Sunday to the new look MUNBILILLA camp ground, (ex Tomato Island) now part of the Limmen National Park..and I must say we liked it....less than $100/ week camp fee and great showers, water and free gas BBQ's, end of the 'season' when we arrived so not at all crowded, and probably never will be as there is plenty of room.

 Monday night BBQ nite, happy hour etc.

 amenities block and laundry troughs, plenty of hot water

Rangers Residence/Office, water from bore and generator for power.

The first 2 hours we caught up with Roper Mates and worked out the best place for us to camp.
The area is dry and dusty as it is the end of the dry season and as it happened  there was not a very good wet season earlier this year so  the river had not fished as it normally had in other years.
We are disappointed but we have had 10-12 good years there so 1 dud year due to weather conditions is a reality check!

plenty of room..Peter Molik and Lucy Gaylard camp on the right

Doug and Jean were in front of us 'across the road'

the amenities were around 200m away, some exercise!

 



Mobile library

 the plan that sprung to mind, last blog,  but did not work.

Attempting to make a bowl out of the termite mound mud...failed!

Some campers run generators for their washing machines, we took ours up to the laundry area, used 240 power, charged batteries and did some internetting etc, nice shady area and not much else to do except when Mick had a hair cut and Jean had a hair cut and colour by me! and the library box is there too. There is water at most site areas but no power.

 

Collecting bait 'cherabin' prawn like critters was a challenge for everyone this year. We are allowed 5 opera house nets each and they are baited with flavoured dry dog foods and various other concoctions, pure soap, stock cubes!! allowance is 30 cherabin in your possession, hard body lures are not real successful here so cherabin are the preferred bait, and our preferred food too!! We eat the larger ones. Mick is up early and checking traps at sunrise sometimes they are many km away, and sometimes full of surprises!!

 eel and small turtle

Cherabin classified too big for bait so an eater!!

I like eating the bait!



Angel fish in net..bad luck , shark bait! and a turtle, must look up a recipe!!

 

Last years' fish

 115cm released

 110cm  released



  90cm eaten!!

 

This years fish, average size 65cm....

 

 

Pete and Mick, all smiles after a boys day out, 3 good fish including a threadfin salmon.

A 60 +km round trip, that is a big day out.

 

 And so 'a big day out' is down to Hawkes Nest about 35km towards the mouth of the Roper, which is tidal, so change of tide is an important fishing time..hence a 6am departure time. Often there is a river fog, it is not cold, 20 degrees, but wet and on this day we travelled for about 1.5hrs in it..you have to laugh...we were drenched!!

We never go this far without two boats..if you cannot see them you can hear them!!

SO LIVING ELSEWHERE  ON THE ROPER IS NOT ALL ABOUT FISHING...

We all contributed to a roast pork and 9 veg! dinner for 8

Shopping day..5km by boat then a walk into Ngukurr...the building on the right is the only shop/supermarket, Lucy and I did 3 weeks work there 2 years ago when it was being set up.
The only other place of interest there is the art gallery..nice to look at and very productive this year.



and back down to the river bank with our take away lunch...one boat is empty on the community side, the other boat full of our fishing gear is on the other side..no need to explain..unfortunately!

 a birthday party for Bruce

 A croc trap set near the community as there  is/was a a nuisance croc in the area and quite large 3.5m
About the size of our boat!! This year the crocs did have us on alert, seemed to be in hunting mode!!

 This was not the target croc, but now if he ever becomes a problem he will remember being trapped and perhaps will never be trapped again...some 'local' let him out!

This is the 3.5 m croc they removed from the river and took to Darwin Croc farm, he was also shown to the kids at the Mataranka primary school as Croc Wise education. He could have been around 80 years old. There are still many big crocs in the area and the 10' crocs are quite healthy and active.

If there is a croc in the area we are fishing we moooove!! 

I like to see them on the banks warming..that way we know where they are but as soon as they slide back into the water we are off..

some signs of interest...at Ngukurr

 The mothers of these young kids have been 'educated'?? but still notices like this go up..

and with respect I post this notice..in Fitzroy Crossing, different sides of the family were requested to wear  either yellow for one side and purple for the other side of the family and 'no drunkards'.

Note there is no time stated on this notice..and as in Ngukurr there seems to be a funeral weekly but the store never knows the time and can be shut spontaneously and also when the body is bought back into community the store is closed down, can be for an hour or two and is also dependant on staff available! Many dollars are generated in a community when there is a funeral.

This is the flower and the pod and kapok of the Kapok tree, edible flower, like marshmallows and the kapok is quite flammable and good for lighting fires but also the kapok is used as a stuffing for pillows, it  was said to be also used during WW2 for stuffing life preservers. I think it is right that the Afghan cameleers in the early days are credited with spreading the seeds as their camel saddles were stuffed with the kapok. Worth a Google if interested.

 After 3.5 weeks we decided to move on and Pete and Lucy had a plan change, it was getting dustier, hot 35+ and we had 8 fish in the freezer and had eaten many...not many campers left so there would not be many if any boats on the river which becomes a safety issue, so we hit the road P& L to catch up with us in Mt Isa...on the way out on the aforementioned awful roads yet another flat tyre this time on the caravan....another repair by Mick...good man!

 

August has been a month when we appreciate that your life can be changed in a moment..

The road out of the Roper had become challenging due to two newish mines in the area and the roads totally unsuited to all the heavy duty traffic and haul trucks.  The bitumen and bridges are one lane and the sides of the roads have dangerous edges and drop offs. For all passing oncoming traffic it is one on the road and one off and if it is a large truck etc then anything smaller is right off the road!!

We arrived on the scene of this accident luckily after the ambulance persons had arrived.

 On the way out and only 20 km from Mataranka these people from Berwick in Melb had the luckiest escape....their camp trailer which is on the right was across the front of the truck!! A one lane bridge and bad judgement by the tourist the poor truck driver towing 4 ore haulers was braking for over 200 meters but was unable to pull up and had no where to go as there were high banks either side of the road and a drop off into a creek..no braking by the prado driver obviously not thinking about the prevailing road uses..luckily the couple in their late 50's sustained minor injuries and of course shocked, the truck driver unhurt, but damages +++++

 

the bridge was blocked completely and the emergency services were from the other side which meant getting personnel and stretches down and thru the creek. The area was blocked for about 4 hours and we had to wait for a second 2 berth ambulance to arrive from Katherine, an hour away.

The Mataranka ambulance arrived first staffed by 2 nurses from the clinic. That is what happens out here no ambos.

 

Ironically the day before I had put some rubber gloves in the  the car... just in case!

assistance was required, 1 nurse for each victim, putting IV,s in and shock treatments and my set of gloved hands ended up very bloodied when one of the veins had a bad bleed and pressure required. When I asked about the truck driver..Oh can you please check him..so off I went down the bank thru the creek up the hill and found him, checked him out and settled his upset daughter. Mick helped carry the stretcher out thru the creek and into ambulance, then I sat with lady for an hour while her husband was being sorted and another ambulance arrived. These people were travelling with relatives who live in Albury/Wodonga, they were ahead of them but came back looking for them when they had not turned up at the Stuart Hwy..what a shock they got..

so yep life can change in a moment...

written off vehicle, camp trailer, hospital, injuries, police, insurance etc etc

 

so road cleared, thanked profusely by police and ses crews,

off we went by 4pm to Bitter Springs..the hot springs in Mataranka, we wallowed there but didn't talk much..just thinking...

Mick did not sleep too well that night, me ...we all do our best...and that's it...

please put some gloves in your car....

 

 After our soak in the spring we off road camped along the Stuart Hwy, next day ended up doing 700+ km and got to Barkly Homestead around 6pm for a powered overnight, 38* so work out for the air con, charged anything that needed charging made a slice and had a roast turkey leg dinner and slept well at last.

Friday was to be a 2 night stay at Camooweal water hole on the Georgina River, redclawing (like yabbies) and yellow belly fishing, this ended up being a lunch stop, hot dry and windy, little water... ahhhh into the Isa for 4 days....

 

This is what our Kim and her partner Linda have done to the white laminate kitchen in the rental unit they have bought...it is carbon fibre wrap in red black and silver. The wrap is used on the exterior of cars so they have tried it here..looks great, she had also replaced the toilet cistern, patched plaster and painted thru and rechalked the tiles..all ready for tenants. Gun girls those two xxxx Only wish we were there to help them.

 

here is a project Kim had lined up for me when we get to Byron Bay, should be fun!!

 

The Whorouly crew are as busy as ever, I have some great calls from the  g kids with their news, Hayden shooting his first deer, Amber and her netball finals and selected to do discus and hop step jump in the zone sports on the 19th Sept..more excited about that being on her 10th birthday!! Ebony is somewhat quieter but lovely to chat with. Linda has permanent 2 day teaching position at Everton now but is working 4...as well as.......Trent is to do a 20 min presentation at a Water Conf in Melb in Sept. My mum has recovered from her frac hip earlier in the year and is back driving when she feels confident. My sister Wendy and her husband Les have just returned from a 'not a holiday' in Northern Europe, and on facebook I can keep up with most happenings of friend and acquaintances...

And so from here on in..we are at Mt Isa, touristing, car service, shopping and on Tuesday 3rd Sept together with Pete and Lucy, who have changed their plan from WEST to EAST we will head towards Townsville and see what we can find!! Looking like end of Nov before we hit the North East Vic! Cheers M x

 



there is a BUNGLE somewhere amongst this...half a tale...and a sad ending.

OUR TRAVELS FROM BROOME ACROSS THE TOP OF WA TO KATHERINE NT

A 'bucket list' destination DERBY...11th July 2013

 We visited Derby, pop now 5500,  many years ago but it was a very wet so we were unable to do what we needed to do so a revisit was warranted. Doug and Jean spent a night here and early the next morning headed off for the Roper River, we will catch them there later, perhaps mid August.

The boab 'Dinner Tree' at sunset...we had a little session here but later read we could have been arrested for drinking in a public place! oopsie!! The tree is in the area where the cattle drovers rested when they were bringing in the cattle to be loaded at the nearby wharf.

 

The wharf at Derby can be driven on and is a great attraction for fishing and crabbing, neither of which we were successful at BUT what we really wanted to see was the huge tidal movement and we saw it.. there right on the right tide it is truly phenominal!

 10 am in the morning.

Derby has Australia's highest tidal range (11.3m) and the second highest in the southern hemisphere.

 

10.7meters of muddy sea drained!

same location as above photo at 4pm a 10.8 m tide..awesome..

 

At the end on left is  part of the original wharf built in 1894, wool and pearl shell were the major exports then. In 1964 the new jetty was built, live cattle were exported and fuel, oil and provisions were the main import. The last passenger ship visited in 1973.

 During the 1990's barges were used to export lead and zinc from the Cadjebut Mine at Fitzroy Crossing several hundred km away.

 

part of the signs on the jetty..whatever the language rubbish DOES NOT GET IN THE BIN!!

 

6km  from Derby on the Gibb River Rd  is the indigenous MOWANJUM ART AND CULTURE CENTRE.. above pic is the aerial view of the building, the roof appears as a giant Waniinaj.

very impressive in the middle of no where.

These indigenous people and their ancestors have been painting Wandjina and Gyorn Gyorn figures on rocks and wall, in river gorges and on bark for millennia.

 A very unique style of indigenous Australian art.

This is a really nice gallery with some very intricate art work.

 Near the  Art centre the Prison Boab Tree, believed to be 1500 yep 1500 years old, history++

 and an absolutely beautiful pearly pink sheen.

 It was used by policeman as a holding cell until prisoners could be transported to Derby.

 some of the not so good history.....lots of this all over the top end!

 close up of one of the many shapes of termite mounds

Near the Prison Tree, Myall's Bore and cattle trough. The bore dug in 1910 and is 322 m deep.
 It replaced the original well dug in 1890's.
 The cattle trough is 120 meters long and was built around 1917.It could handle 500 bullocks at one time.
Water is now pumped into the trough by windmill, 120m away !the other end of the trough.

We enjoyed our 3 days in Derby, often laughing about the grog run we had to do for the Pascoes and Daws whom we were catching up with in Fitzroy Crossing...Brodie and Adam P and 3 kids had just moved to FC for a short term nursing stint to find there is no 'take away alcohol' in town!!! Nearest was 250 km away where we were!! So an outback Woolies and BWS outlet attached we head in to buy their supplies...nup...Th and Fri between 12md and 1 pm only light beer sold!! HUH???back we go at 1 pm...RUSH HOUR, people of all COLOUR of various Aussie decent, 2 security guards on the door and it was game on!! trollies of grog being bought. No alcohol limit...$1000's in 5 minutes!!! An eye opener for us. So off we go load into the back seat of our vehicle 2 slabs of this 2 slabs of that and a few bottles of spirits for our FC mates...grog runners!!!

The unfortunate part of all this is the huge problem in 'communities' these rules are an attempt to solve the problem but it is not really working, young guys heading off home, slabs on their shoulders, we saw a group of persons sitting under a tree at 2.15pm, in the supermarket carpark, with their grog, along come the police, 2 males,1 female and the grog was immediately confiscated! ah the stories ....not good!

 Off to Fitzroy Crossing via Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. We attempted this back in '99 but it rained so 150+km  of some sealed and mostly ' rough shitful hard rocky road'

 we arrived and it was well worth the effort.

 Windjana Gorge is a spectacular canyon created over millions of years by the flow of the Lennard River. The gorge is 3.6 km long and 100 m walls in places. We only did the short walks!! not 7km.

.

 many many 'freshie' crocs here, could guess around 60

 

 

The area around the gorge is an important site of the Jandamarra stories and his fight to protect the Bunuba lands from white settlers.

 

a fat freshie...croc is a croc, they still bite!!

 

The river only flows thru here for a short period in the wet season.

 

Some of the Jandamarra Story..started here and ended at Tunnel Creek 35 km away.

 

 

 

 

 and so with all this history we had to drive in and look at the Police Ruins....

 

then 35km dirt, dust, rough to Tunnel Creek, apparently were the Jandamarra story ended in 1897

...or did the conflicts ever end!!!

TUNNEL CREEK was lovely, pitch black in parts so a torch was a necessity and wading shoes as often we were knee high in water..other times of the year it can be deeper.

Tunnel Creek is WA's oldest cave system. It is a 750m tunnel and runs thru the Napier Ranges, which are part of the 350million year old Devonian Reef system...

I read all about this but too much info makes my head hurt!!

great shawls, stalagmites and tites..and some very small bats

 

 

 the way in and out, bit out of order but hard to navigate around this blog!

 a huge shawl...how old, made from little drips...

 

 parking area, no one around when we came out around 4 pm, what a nice place to spend a Saturday night...and wake up to beautiful outback colours in the morning..

very nice, thankyou..did the NO CAMPING sign worry us....NAH!

 

Some very handsome country on the way down to the Great Northern Highway, we hit the junction of the rough and the bitumen and stopped for a coffee before Fitzroy Crossing and the mob..

opened the fridge and everything was covered in mayonnaise!!!

 Ah well the fridge needed cleaning anyway..BUT in the middle of nowhere!

 

 

FITZROY CROSSING

 

 Fitzroy Crossing, the town is surrounded by some of the largest pastoral holdings in Aust

 and provides many services to more than 30 Aboriginal Communities in it's valley.

 

 pop 1500, plus the Pascoe family..looking pretty evil eyed, must have been the lack of alcohol supplies!! and Pam and Garry Daws (Brodies paros and our mates from Gapsted Vic) 

 

Pascoes on an Aussie working adventure, Brodie, nursing at the  16 bed local Hospital, Adam home schooling the kidlets. We spent 4 lovely days in their yard..having an adopted grand child fix, Pascoes are also great friends of Trent and Linda and the kids.

 

 

 We found these holes in the lawn..the kids are very fishing/outdoor and nature loving types so this was fun to see what was making these holes and night under the light of the torches there were heaps of WOLF SPIDERS

 

There is lots of construction in most communities but of interest was the mesh over the solar panels..for storms or vandalism!!! the later I be thinking!

 

Pam, Bella and I went shopping in Fitzroy Crossing, mobile clothing stalls.

 

then to the Art gallery at the Fitzroy Crossing Inn

 

Bella already had a carved boab nut, takes this man about an hour to carve a nut, very skilfully with a sharpened knife. He sells them for about $35, and then goes and spends his money at the inn!

 NO takeaway, eat and drink inn!

 

 

  The Art Gallery was of some interest in FC...dubious originality!! White and coloured Aussies painting there. The  Dr Sawfish Glass blower was excellent and great to watch. The Supermarket was reasonably price for location, one section with the meat and vegs etc was a whole 'cooled room', nice and cool in there, the supermarket quite new and overly staffed by young Chinese persons, an employment contract!! La la la!!

 

The Fitzroy Crossing, low water levels at this time of year not the best fishing time so quite frustrating for Adam.

my little pancake maker!!

 

kicked back...'freedom lifestyling' at Pascoes..thanks guys. Good luck for the future.

We parted here from Pam and Gary planning to meet them at the roadside camp near the Bungle Bungles.

 96 KM WEST OF FITZROY CROSSING AND 192 WEST OF HALLS CREEK

NGUMBAN CLIFF LOOKOUT & REST AREA. Morning tea stop.

 

MARY POOL by lunch time, 108 west of destination Halls Creek..too nice, so stayed the night. Ended up with about 80 free campers, all respectfully camped, couple of ladies strumming away on guitars and quietly singing some of us just chatting about and so met a Wang couple who had recently built a house so lots of good info gleaned.

 Nice stop over no rushing...so why did I walk side ways the next day????? Blood Pressure up, rested in a caravan park and ended up with a bad sinus...antihistamines and all good in a day...problem solved!! I had been in CIVILISATION!! BUGS!!

Big rigs, very flash, bigger than a house I need one day.

very pretty Mary Pools on the Mary River.

 

HALLS CREEK

pop 4000, steeped in gold history from 1885 starting WA first gold rush.

We stayed in a caravan park here, nearer to a hosp if needed due to the aforementioned crab walk!!

Nice community well cleaned up from previous visits, although a few 'green cartons' and clusters of people sitting under the trees on the edge of town but no drinking in town ands some grog rules once again.

 

eye catching sign..

Caroline Pool out towards Old Halls Creek where we intended to stay, very pretty but quite sand boggy, just as well we were in town.

 Not much left 15 km out at Old halls Creek but a huge shelter has been built over the old PO ruins, built of termite mound mud and spinifex...later to spring an idea in my head for a fiddle!!

very dry hot and harsh area, Old Halls Creek.

 signs!!

the China Wall a natural quartz vein it is quite huge and spectacular in this environment, Mick was sitting on the bottom step.

So  much looking around HC and a not so good Art Gallery..we headed out the road to wait for Daws' and the long awaited walk into the BUNGLES... 

and to be politically correct!

The BUNGLE BUNGLE RANGE in the World heritage-listed PURNULULU NATIONAL PARK

 

First seen by Alexander Forrest in 1879, who recorded it as 'nothing promising, rough and rangy'.

Few Europeans knew of its existence til 1980' sand the area was established as a National Park in 1987.

Purnululu translates to sandstone. Bungle Bungles  is believed to have been derived from the misspelling of the Kimberley grasses found in the area - the 'bundle bundle' grass.

 The Daws' arrived safe and sad after leaving Brodie and family, we camped in a designated free camp area where many people leave their vans safely to head into the Bungles..the area not suited to caravans, but camp trailers and tenting permitted with permits.

There is a commercial camp grund at the gate..a station stay where helicopter tours are operated from and also they have 4WD Bus tour in daily at the cost of $250 each.

 

Sunday 21st July...We were up and away at 6 .30 am the 4 of us in our vehicle.

53 km to the Park office..a 2 hour trip..road conditions rough! by the end of the day we had driven 250km taking in all the tracks/sights/sites we wanted to do...Great day!!

 

 

 

Cathedral Gorge.

How long would it take to make these rock holes...

unusual sky, complimented by the sandstone formations

Echidna Gorge area

 climbing, looking, walking...puffing!!

 

 I took many pics..a place for a good camera!

 

one of the best experiences this year..with good friends of similar interests..a great day.

WARMUN,
a small community with a Contemporary Art Centre which is the largest and most significant cultural institution in North West Aust, the artists are recognised for their use of natural pigments and ochre.

I made a phone call to ask permission to enter community, huge fines apply if not done so.
These info photos taken with permission.
 

   

 lovely construction, check it out at www.warmunart.com

 confusing!!

77 yr old Lena Nyadbi from Warmun began painting in 1998 and on 7/6/2013 her painting titled 'Barramundi Scale' was transposed on to the roof of Quay Bronly Museum in Paris and can be seen from the Eiffel Tower. The museum has the largest collection of Aboriginal art works in the world outside Australia.

Much of the art work in Warmun is very expensive many around the $22,000.

Great to see the ochre used and not acrylics andt he colours and textures I loved.

 

WYNDHAM

geographically the top town in the west, pop1000.

the port there services the cattle and mining industries,

the Cambridge Gulf is home to some of the largest crocs in the world.

We had only day tripped here in the past so 2 nights in a very busy caravan park at Wyndham.

 The summit of the Bastion range 350 m above sea level at sunset.

The five rivers lookout..Ord, Forrest,King, Durrack and Pentacost Rivers.

 

the ore loading facility mid pic, loaded onto a barge then taken out to a hauler out further, Cattle loading wharf nearby also.

 recently constructed jetty, the end section moves with the tide, we fished from here, no fish!

 yet another.... the Wyndham prison Boab

 the magnificent Cockburn range

 

the wattle...hmmm homesick for a bit!

We also visited an aboriginal art site, the Moochalabra water supply dam and the Afghan cemetery.

The graves there are large as the head of the lead camel was commonly buried with its master!

 The bird hide, out near Parry's lagoon..a big day of touristing.

 

Next plan/stop was to head to KUNUNURRA

 after finding out about the dirt track... but our Gary with his ipad of maps took off at 5.30 am and  went investigating, came back with some inspiring pics of a river ..
"out near where we were yesterday'

so that was it lets go there...us off to buy bread and meet you in town, unfortunately we were parked behind an ore truck and Daws' zoom out of town ...to where????, so we tried to find them travelling 'where we went yesterday' and so a long story short, no mobile services and 2 hours of rough road travelling we were about to give up and then they found us. almost back in Wyndham .on one of the roads we were only 2 km from them at one stage but by then 45km away!!!

 ahh and it was all on the dirt road we were planning to take...the old saying

'failure to plan is a plan to fail' almost,  but then we ended up on the Lower Ord River

at the

MAMBI BOAT RAMP on the Lower Ord River

 We had 5 lovely nights there, beautiful free camp, green grass, boat ramp, nice water, wide river, big crocs, a few barra, a nice place to go but not suited for future fishing location...the rules, 1 fish in possession, 55-80cm, quite prohibitive for future visits when it is quite expensive/remote  to get to, we were hoping it was an alternative to the Roper River.

  our camp from the river, the banks lined with beautiful flowering Sesbania Trees

 the flower of the Sesbania, the flying foxes loved them during the evening and night.

 AND HALF A TALE!!

Garry using a lure hooked this large barra only to get just over half, 78cm of barra the shark far too fast for him. We have now estimated it may have been around the 110cm mark.., he ended up with 78cm of fish so we reckoned a legal size!! was very yum!!!

Half hour later he lured another around 86cm, too big back in the water!

 in our boat we only managed 2 small barra, but a very beautiful and interesting river, shallow,small tides and lots of weed beds, flushed/regulated by the Ord Diversion Dam and tidal influences.

 

 

 There are many huge ,active, spine tingling crocs here, on the Saturday, for unknown reasons 3 crocs in one area all had wallabies in their jaws, they held them for hours.

A few days later on the ABC Country hour there was an interview with the manager of Carlton Station which runs along 50+ km of the river and he stated that they loose a beast a day on average to croc attack..we watched as young Brahman cattle came down to drink, easy food for a croc.

 

 KUNUNURRA

pop around 6000 the town was established around 1960 to service the Ord River scheme.

The Ord river was dammed in 1971.

We tried to book into a caravan park around 9.30am, as needs be in these areas and we had to take a number and wait!! We eventually got 2 sites one in the dog area and us in a very squeezy site, but we were out looking looking most of the time.

 sunset from kellys Knob

 

In our vehicle we headed out to the Zebra Rock Gallery: Kimberley Siltstone, including Zebra rock is found at the northern end of Lake Argyle and found nowhere else in the world.

Dating back to more than 1200 million years old.

 The next day we looked at the Diversion Dam, a new housing estate boat ramp area, pinched a blood orange from a old orchard..I ate it, went to Ivanhoe Crossing, the Sandalwood Factory and plantations, the Hoochery/Rum Distillery, Melon farm areas, Ornamental stone craft show room, Rockalong stone works, all nice local rockwork, Argyle Diamond Mine shop, Nina's diamond jewellery shop, Artlandish, more aboriginal art work and the Visitors info centre..and COLES Supermarket! 2pm lunch at SUBWAY, a first for the Daws', then 78km out to Lake Argyle and the resort area and Power Station, Ord Hydro which powers Wyndham, Kununurra and the Argyle diamond Mine.....Phew what a day!!!

 Lake Argyle, 1000 sq km.

 

 Since 1935 , when they were introduced into Qld the toads have spread and area pest across much of Qld, NT and into WA. Female toads can produce up to 75,000 young per year!!!

 

we said bye bye to the Daws'...for the first time...

as we headed into the NT we met up with them again ...so we travelled to our next stop

TIMBER CREEK.

 Tidal Victoria river is the NT's largest waterway

 

  This is near the area known as Big Horse Creek, now controlled by the Gregory national Park and no camp sites suited to us when we went thru...very dry and dusty!

The Bradshaw Bridge across the Victoria river built by the Armed Forces in 2002, CLOSED.

We had always hoped it would open up the area between the Victoria Hwy and Daly River, but it never will as is part of Bradshaw Field Training Area.

low level of Victoria river..normally an excellent fishing river.

a sunset view from the lookout over the little stop over ..timber Creek

unusual flowers off a tree on the lookout.

 

That evening we had a message from Jim and Meliada, Jim had just been admitted to Katherine Hosp at 5.30, having driven  out from the Roper River..immediate reaction from us was...we will be there tomorrow!

 At Timber Creek yet another bye bye to the Daws'...us off to the Boab Caravan park, Katherine where Jim and Meliada had booked into...

 

near old Victoria Crossing



 The Stokes range between Timber Creek and Victoria Crossing, some of the most

 'handsome, rugged scenery in Aust'

The Gregory River at Victoria crossing and about 190 from Katherine, we were focused on getting to our mates and arrived by lunch time..and guess who was there as well ..the DAWS'..fantastic,

but the next day it was really bye bye....xo x me abit puffy from the Jimmy tears!

 

Our Jimmy's story, he was unwell coming up to the Roper, pleurisy type illness, at the Roper good friends took him to the Ngukurr Clinic by boat, they wanted to medi vac him to Darwin, NO!, so he packed up and Meliada drove their rig around 300km into Katherine, an excellent effort .Dieter and Jenny, their friends from home base went with them. When we arrived Jimmy was to have a CT scan at 1.30 pm, around 4 he was back in the caravan park, with a diagnosis of cancer of his lungs. An evening of many tears and thoughts amongst us all, Jimmy and Meliada went back to the Hospital to 'sleep' the night. Our plans, Dieter and Jenny did all the research into how to RACV etc van and vehicle back to Vic, Mick and I sat with Jim and Meliada as the Doctors with all compassion went thru the diagnosis, I was able to ask all the hard questions for them, this is an awful time in ones life where emotions make your head go fuzzy...in conclusion the Doctor was adamant that they must leave Katherine by around 2pm that day and head for home..we got them away by 4 with  many medications and injections. Meliada driving, Deiter and Jenny would go as far as Alice Springs with them and then come back up north to head for Qld...

 Jimmy and Meliada are a lovely couple and their friends would do anything for them, and we all did, we wish them well in the challenges ahead and know they are now near family and the services they will need.