Author: geoff

If you cast your minds back a couple of weeks, you will recall that I sent out a “mayday” call for some book suggestions.

While I am sure that you have all been worried sick about whether I found something, MBW had my back and suggested Tom Thread-someone. He has two series’ of books – the female Texas homicide detective (2 books) and the male FBI special agent (3 books).

Well it’s an indication of how much I like an author as to how hard it is to put the book down. And when I say “book”, I don’t mean that in the traditional paper and ink way, but rather in the Kindle electronic download way.

Paper and ink is so yesterday.

I’ve finished the female detective books and started on the male FBI agent.

Crawled into bed early last night, feeling pretty tired, but also chuffed with myself that we had found a nice spot with no cost, and we had a lovely big space upwind of the toilet block.

I’d had a shower and crawled into bed, and got comfy with Tom. Well, with his book. Book 1 in the series of 3 books.

90% of the book was showing as complete, so I should get it finished easily last night.

Right, but also wrong. I got it finished in about 9 minutes … and it was only about 7.30pm.

But that’s not a problem. I just need to download the next one in the series off Amazon Unlimited. Except … downloading needs network connection, and we had no mobile coverage at Bang Bang.

Bugger.

One of the things that we love doing when we travel is to stop in the small townships and poke around their Op Shops to see what stuff we can find. MBW normally tackles the kitchen section (… or toys, or clothes, or …) while I look at the books to see what I can find.

You know what? This trip through the NT has found us going through so few little townships that we have virtually had no Op Shops to look in.

No Op Shops means no books bought … so I had no backup plan for my next book.

Fortunately MBW had my back once again, and now I am reading something else by a different author again, about a female FBI agent who is a profiler.

Not that any of that has any relevance on todays blog, but I thought you may be interested.

Or not.

One of the strange things about the wind is that while you can be “upwind” of something one moment, if the wind changes you can suddenly find yourself “downwind”.

So when I woke this morning, there was an unmistakeable .. sniff, sniff … smell in the air that was … unpleasant. The wind had shifted and we were suddenly downwind of the toilet block.

Needless to say we made a pretty hasty exit this morning. We had a quick coldpress coffee and we were on the road post haste.

Before that smell really embedded itself in our clothing and hair.

We had a relatively short run to Normanton and we decided that we would stop and have breakfast there.

The roads were good. No, that’s not true. The roads were GREAT.

Flat, smooth, wide, fast. It was hard keeping Elsie below 110km/h which was the posted speed limit. Only about an hour into Normanton, and we’d be there in no time.

And then there were roadworks. And then there were people mowing along the side of the road.

There were narrow bridges with the most beautiful water flowing through them. Under them. You know what I mean.

And then we got a sign that said “single lane road for the next 20km”. So that’s OK so long as there is no oncoming traffic.

Like the trucks towing horse floats. Or the cars. There was a police car.

So there was a lot of slowing down, and pulling off to the side of the road to allow another vehicle to pass.

But we got there safely.

Normanton. Home of Krys the crocodile.

Seriously, those roads are the widest roads that I hav ever seen. In Brisbane, they could probably fit 2 or 3 houses side-by-side across those streets.

And pubs! How many pubs does a town of 1500 people need? And not an Op Shop in sight.

We stopped for breakfast, checked emails and made a few phone calls.

As my mate Jack Reacher says, “Make your phone calls and check your email when you have 5G”. He is a wise man.

That done, I reached out to one of my colleagues from (where I used to) work to find out our chances of getting onto the Queensland Rail Gulflander – one of the tourist train services between Normanton and Croydon.

And it’s looking like we may be able to do that on Wednesday. Woohoo!

Karumba – home for the next 3 nights – was only about another 75km or 50 minutes, and we were keen to get here, get set up, do some washing, and kick back for a while.

We were tired.

That road from Normanton to Karumba is probably one of the best roads that I have driven on in a long time. Honestly, you could probably land a 747 on that thing, it was so long and straight, and flat.

We got into Karumba around 11.30am, found our site, and set up camp. A beautiful spot with nice shady trees and only $39/night.

We did some administration (code for washing, emails, blogs that had been written but not posted due to the lack of mobile reception, etc) then had a quick bite of lunch and went out for a looky-see.

And we found the water.

Beautiful. I could live here.

Some groceries, fuel and a look around to orient ourselves, and we were back at Percy around 3.00pm and settled in for a quiet afternoon.

Some of the things that we want to see in the next few days require just a little bit of management – confirming dates, checking distances, confirming availability … all that sort of stuff – so we spent the rest of the afternoon doing that.

MBW’s world-famous chicken enchiladas for dinner out in the cool evening watching the sun go down.

And while I’m sure that you are getting sick of sunset photos, here are some more.

That’s about it for the day. It was a good day – not too much driving, but seeing some things that we haven’t been before. Normanton (population 1500) is very pretty, and Karumba (population 500ish) has a really casual, beachy feeling to it.

We are really looking forward to a couple of days of rest, and (hopefully) a trip on the Gulflander down to Croyden, then the bus back again.

And it looks like we have been able to plan and lock in things for the next week or so, so that is a load off our minds.

Once we leave Cairns, we will probably think about making a run for home, so it is likely that we will be back in Brisbane late June.

If you are talking to Zach, please let him know that he will need to put the diswasher on soon, mow the lawn and clean the pool.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

Another cool night last night, and another cool morning this morning. Around 7 or 8 degrees which was unpleasant for us, but must have been a great deal more unpleasant for the people beside us in a tent.

At least we had hot water for a shower.

We didn’t set any records getting out of the WWII Airfield free camp this morning, but 8.15 wasn’t anything to be ashamed of.

We are still trying to catch up days after staying longer than we planned in Darwin.

Yesterday was a long day – around 650km – so we were in the sack early and woke with the birds.

6.30am. Yikes! I don’t want to make a habit of that!

If you have been following along you will recall that a couple of weeks ago we had a 24.5 hour day when we crossed into the NT and turned our clocks back 30 minutes.

Yesterday they took it back off us again when we crossed back into Queensland, and we had a 23.5 hour day.

Today we were targeting about 400km, but the difference between yesterday and today was that yesterday we really only went through one township – Camooweal – while today we were going through a few. Well, two to be exact but they are both significantly larger in population than Camooweal.

Camooweal is a “blink and you miss it” kind of place, while Mt Isa and Cloncurry both have supermarkets, and gyms, and coffee shops, and ATMs, and Supercheap Autos.

Well, Mt Isa has a Supercheap Auto. Cloncurry had an Icom dealership.

I may have mentioned that we fill up Elsie when fuel is cheap, and top her up when it is expensive. And when I say “top her up”, I mean put in just enough to get us to the next cheap fuel location.

Mt Isa was only about 45km from last night’s stop, and the Elsie’s fuel range indicator said that we had about 85km remaining in the tank … so we have plenty of fuel to get to Mt Isa … right?

Maybe.

I obviously miscalculated how much I put in at Camooweal, because by the time we arrived in Mt Isa there was only about 20km range remaining. Or maybe the condition of the roads resulted in must worse fuel consumption than I expected.

We made it OK, but I think that Elsie was getting thirsty.

Not only does Mt Isa have cheap fuel ($2.04/litre), but it also has a Coles and a Woolworths, so we had the opportunity to stock up on groceries.

… except that both Coles and Woolworths are closed on Sundays … so no stocking up was able to be done.

We stopped at the side of the road in the Isa and had a video call with some of our favourite little people (Teddy and Lili), which meant that our emotional tanks were full also.

Full tanks, so off we set towards Cloncurry.

Our experience on the roads between Cloncurry and Three Ways (basically the straight road that runs east to west) is that a combination of bumpy roads, potholes, hilly terrain, cross winds and head winds together result in poor fuel consumption. On that east-west road – travelling in both directions – we were lucky to get below 24 litres/100km.

That situation wasn’t helped any by a large number of pushbikes that were out for a Sunday morning ride. The highway is quite narrow – only one lane each way, and quite windy and hilly with a lot of blind corners – and there just wasn’t enough space to easily (and safely) swing out onto the wrong side of the road to pass them. 

So there were times where we were stuck doing 20km/h behind them because we just couldn’t get past. Well, not without knocking them off their bikes, and I’m fairly certain that there are rules about that.

And there was plenty of chatter on the radio from truckers who were less than pleased with the situation.

Yep, pushbikes have a right to ride on the roads too, and they did it on a Sunday morning when – I assume – traffic was lighter. But it was still pretty chaotic. And dangerous.

And frustrating.

You see some strange road signs warning about various things, and this one caught our eye. I assume that it means to beware of giant cows that eat cars?

Or maybe not.

We arrived in the Curry around 11.00am with just a few things to do. Fill the water tanks again because we are off grid again tonight, empty the grey water, get coffee, and make a booking to stay in Karumba.

Cloncurry is a very RV friendly town. Wide streets where you can easily turn a bullock train around … or a caravan for that matter … and a nice rest area just out of town with a dump point and potable water facilities.

Plenty of reasonably priced fuel at stations where you can easily pull in your caravan (… many of them have low roofs, or very small spaces between bowsers which makes it very difficult to manoeuvre a van).

And it is a pretty little place to boot. We went to a local coffee shop to get coffee, but we only managed to progress one place in the queue in about 8 minutes, and we just couldn’t be bothered. Going out for coffee and breakfast must be a popular pastime in the Curry on a Sunday morning.

Someone that we were speaking with the other day said that they were heading east and planned to be in Townsville for the Super V8s racing there soon. Something that I would really like to see one day.

You don’t get an appreciation of the logistics involved in moving the racing from one location to another, but I imagine that there is a lot of complexity involved.

We saw this car carrier in Cloncurry that is obviously on its way to Townsville for the race and transporting all of the official vehicles.

I’d never really given that any thought before …

So with the water tanks filled and our booking in Karumba secured for three nights from Monday night, we set off north on roads that we have never driven on.

I mentioned that the road from the Curry to Three Ways gives bad fuel economy. Travelling north towards Normanton and Karumba, we were getting an average of 18.5 litres/100km which was far more acceptable.

But then the roads were flatter, more even, and nicer to drive on.

We stopped for lunch at the Quamby Hotel which was about 45 minutes north of Cloncurry. They get good ratings, and we were getting hungry. And it is a quirky little pub.

MBW pointed out that we have only eaten out once so far on this trip, and that was lunch at Julia Creek. Sure, we have bought things to eat, but many of them were just a quick bite and often fundraising anyway.

So we stopped at the Quamby Pub and had steak sandwiches for lunch. And because we had some network coverage, we were able to upload a couple of long-overdue blogs.

The original plan was that we would stay at the Burke & Wills Roadhouse at Four Ways tonight. Four Ways is a location north of Cloncurry where roads to Lawn Hill, Normanton, Cloncurry and Julia Creek all meet.

But we were keen to stay off the grid again (actually we were keen not to spend any money again), so we found another location about 80km beyond Four Ways. Plus some WikiCamps reviews of the Roadhouse described the owner in not particularly flattering terms and gave him increasingly poor ratings, so even though there were plenty of vans stopped there, we kept going.

We blasted through Four Ways around 2.30pm and kept on towards home for tonight – a free camp called Bang Bang Rest Area.

The section from Four Ways to Bang Bang had quite a bit of roadworks going on, with a few bits of dirt (getting ready for bitumen to be replaced), and road crews working in a few locations.

And we arrived in Tropical North Queensland.

Just like the Promised Land, only … Tropical 🙂

One of the most unusual things that we saw was a paddock of anthills, just before we arrived at Bang Bang. There must have been hundreds of them on both sides of the road. Quite unusual, but also quite stunning.

A few stops at traffic lights and a few stop/go people doing it the old fashioned way, and we arrived at Bang Bang Rest Area around 3.30pm.

Only one other van here when we arrived and they had jagged the better spot further away from the toilets. There is probably room for 10-15 vans at a pinch, but rather than cramp their space, we stayed at the toilet end, upwind of the loos.

A pleasant little free camp site for the night that serves our only purpose of somewhere to stay the night.

As a wise person once said, “Home is wherever I park my caravan”. So tonight home is Bang Bang Rest Area, about 110km south of Normanton.

I will say that despite my complaints about the cold, the further north we go again, the hotter it is getting. When we stopped at BBRA it was 27 or 28 degrees, and once we had set up for the night, we were back into shorts and T-shirts.

We bought lunch at the pub today, so dinner tonight will be eggs on toast. We figure that we had better hurry up and eat those eggs before they turn into chickens.

Although given the bird flu issues and the shortage of eggs in Coles, maybe we could sell them on eBay?

I must say that I am looking forward to a short day tomorrow and staying in Karumba for 3 nights. And getting some rest. We have done some long distances over the last few days, but that’s OK because we have travelled (most of) these roads before, and there is not a great deal to see anyway.

But now we will start to be going through small townships again, so we will have something to slow down for and look at. And because tomorrow is Monday, there is a better chance of things being open. Everything out here closes on the weekends, and in many of these small townships you could fire a cannon down the main street on a Sunday and not risk hitting anything or anyone.

Although it seems that if you fired a cannon into the coffee shop in Cloncurry on a Sunday morning, you’d probably wipe out most of the township while they sip their lattes.

The sunsets continue to be spectacular. After dinner we went out and watched the sun set over the toilet block.

The perfect end to the perfect day.

And MBW says that there is no romance in our marriage … ha!

Ciao

#Retirement2024 

#VanLife 

One of the good things about getting older is that I get to retire and go on road trips with MBW. My happy place.

One of the worst things about getting older is that your memory starts to get a bit … you know …

Bad. You start to get forgetful.

So if I’ve told you about the generator already, just skip over the next couple of paragraphs.

We decided to buy a generator to bring with us. It is only a 2kV generator, but it puts out a pure sine wave, which is pretty exciting. Well, I find it pretty exciting. And 2kV is plenty for important stuff like running the coffee machine.

So we paid about $450 for the generator and – so far – we have used it 3 times, mainly to make coffee with our coffee machine. Because we were stopped off the grid and had no access to power.

So I did a quick calculation last night. $450 for 3 uses is $150 each time we have used the generator. Each time we use it we make 2 cups of coffee, so that is $75/cup.

Hmmm. Don’t ask a question if you don’t want to know the answer.

I have no idea what temperature it was when we went to bed last night. The only way I have of telling temperature is by using my watch, which connects to my phone, which connects to the internet to give me information.

Information like the temperature.

Unfortunately Churchill’s Head is not on Telstra’s “nice” list, so no mobile coverage here, even though I could probably spit and hit a Telstra tower.

Like this one below.

My watch told me that it was 21 degrees that feels like 21 degrees. But that is what it was like some hours earlier when we had internet.

I have no real idea what the temperature was when we went to bed, except to say it was cold. So cold that I wore socks to bed and not be ashamed about it.

When we got up this morning we still had no internet, so my stupid watch still said it was 21 degrees. But it’s not my watch that is stupid – it is Telstra for having a tower but no mobile reception.

But I can confidently say that it was colder than 21. Much colder.

Cold enough to freeze the you-know-whats off a you-know-what.

To be completely truthful, I do have an idea what the temperature is. Before we came on this trip, we had been to IKEA (for reasons that I can’t recall), and MBW bought a little 4 way clock thingy.

Time. Timer. Temperature. Alarm.

Pretty smart those Swedes. Flat packs, Swedish meatballs, and clocks that also tell you the temperature. And wake you up.

I don’t know how accurate it is, but it says that inside Percy was 12 degrees. I put it outside on the step, and it told me it was 10 degrees outside.

Maybe.

I had a brain snap last night. The generator takes some time to cool off, so I had to leave it out for an hour or so after we had made coffee. When I went outside before going to bed to put it away, I decided that – in the interests of safety, and because we had finished cooking for the night – I would turn off the gas.

“Captain Cautious” is what MBW calls me. She will thank me one day.

So after reading for a while, and knowing that we were safely ensconced inside Percy, I discovered that the fridge was flashing an urgent warning message.

No gas!

Hmmm. I wonder why the fridge isn’t working and can’t get gas? We must have run out of gas on that bottle. Although that was pretty quick and the bottle should have lasted longer tha …

Hang on. I turned off the gas!

So back outside, gas on, back inside, clear the alarm message on the fridge. And all is well with the world again. The fridge is happily keeping things cold again.

I honestly can’t figure out how a hot flame from the gas keeps our milk and Tim Tams cold, but that is just another mystery of life. Like how do they get the caramel inside the chocolate?

Are you familiar with the law of unintended consequences? It’s when doing something (let’s call it “A”) in order to get something else (“B”) also causes something completely unexpected to occur (“C”).

I hope that this is making sense. I’m sure that Google can explain it better than I can.

So I got up this morning and it was cold. And you will probably know by now that there are 2 things that make me function in the morning, especially when it is cold.

Coffee. Hot shower.

Hot coffee requires the generator, and I wasn’t pulling it out again, particularly as most of the other campers around us didn’t appear to be up yet. And I wasn’t about to wake them.

So just a hot shower then.

But there was no hot water 🙁 Why?

Because when the gas HWS tries to light itself, it will try 3 or 4 times and then give up, and flash a warning message. Just like the fridge. 

When I shut off the gas last night, the HWS went into an error condition, and it couldn’t correct itself without some help.

And I never gave it any help.

No hot water = no hot shower. And no hot coffee.

Not the best start to the day.

And the toilet light had come on, so that needed to be emptied too. Does it get any better?

We had a quick breakfast and because we were already hooked up, we were driving out onto the road at 8.00am.

Yep, 8.00am.

If getting an early start was an Olympic sport, we would be within a stone’s throw of the podium.

It was only a quick run – 80km or so – to Three Ways where we topped off Elsie’s fuel tank, and then turned left to head east towards Barkly Homestead and the Queensland border.

You may recall that we stayed at Barkly Homestead when we were heading west, but we were keen to put in as many kilometres as we could today. We stayed an extra 3 days at Darwin, and we are keen to get into some new territory that we haven’t seen yet.

We love the NT, but the road from Katherine to The Three Ways isn’t the most exciting road in the whole world, and then the road from Three Ways to the Queensland border isn’t terribly exciting either.

So that’s about 1,100km of boring nothingness, with no internet coverage. Nothing to see, no ability to Google or make phone calls, and often dead straight roads.

No little townships, no McDonald’s, no nothing.

And if you forgot to download a Spotify playlist … well, let’s not go there.

The road from Three Ways to the Queensland border has suffered a bit of flood damage from the wet season. The first 75km or so from Three Ways was seriously bumpy and pot-holed and it wasn’t uncommon for us to have to slow down to 10km/h just to navigate off the side of the road to avoid dropping into craters.

The last 75km or so just before the Queensland border is also very badly damaged and you would unexpectedly hit potholes or corrugations, or the road was just so rough that you were fighting the steering all the way.

It seems funny to me that the NT Roads Department can send out a road crew to install warning signs about the potholes, but they didn’t think to fill the potholes while there were there.

Huh?

There is also still lots of water lying around from the flooding.

The roads are also very deceiving. You could swear black and blue that you are on a constant uphill climb, yet the GPS says that you are dropping altitude.

And sometimes the road is so long and straight, that it just seems to disappear into the distance.

It plays tricks with your mind.

We did have a little bit of excitement on the first half of the Barkly Hwy, before we got to the Barkly Homestead. A pilot vehicle coming towards us warned that there was a “8 metre wide following” and that we should “get off the road”.

They are not kidding when they say get off the road. The 8m wide load doesn’t leave much space for anything else, so you pull over, get off the road, and wait.

We made it to the Barkly Homestead just after 11.00am for an early lunch, and then got back on the road. Tonight we were headed for Camooweal to stay a night at the free camp we stayed at on the way over.

You remember the place? Where people poop on the ground.

Not that that is any particular attraction. But it was the right distance for the day to allow us to get in at a reasonable time and settle in for the night.

Around 3.10pm we found the Promised Land! The place where we win football games.

And where the maximum speed drops from 130km/h to only 110km/h.

We got into Camooweal around 3.20pm, gave Elsie another drink – just enough to get is to Mt Isa where fuel is much cheaper – and then made the executive decision that the more distance we can do today, the less we have to do tomorrow. The closer to Karumba we will be.

We found a dump point just outside Camooweal and emptied the toilet canister, then decided that another 120km to a WWII airfield free campsite only 60km before Mt Isa wouldn’t kill us, and we would be further towards our goal.

So off we went again.

About 10km outside Camooweal we were confronted by lots of flashing lights. A vehicle with flashing yellow lights, and a police car under lights and siren.

And once again a warning … “8 metre wide load following. Get off the road”. Nice. Twice in one day.

Fortunately they were still a couple of kilometres further up the road, so plenty of time to get safely off the road.

Unfortunately the side of the road looked like a great place to go four-wheel driving, but not a great place to try and park 2.5t of Percy in order to avoid getting wiped out by a wide load. We were concerned about tipping over. 

And also concerned about getting hit by a very large piece of machinery.

But the wide load passed and everyone was safe.

We got into the free camping ground around 5.30pm, and feeling pretty knackered I have to say.

We have done close to 650km today. Good for getting closer to the Gulf and Karumba. Not so good for neck, shoulders and back.

We found a nice quiet spot down the back of the campground, and we are a good distance away from the road. There are a couple of people camped near us … although it’s probably more accurate to say that we are camped near them. They seemed quite content and settled until we pulled up and parked in the middle.

Another stunning sunset.

Tonight was leftovers night. Quick and easy, with hardly any washing up.

It’s only early, but I am absolutely wrecked. I’d like to say that it is easy for MBW being the passenger, but she is kept pretty busy passing drinks, unwrapping Minties, and planning our trip from the co-pilot’s seat.

And managing the Spotify playlist.

One of the things that we seriously underestimated was the lack of network coverage in these more remote areas. No network coverage means no ability to use Google Maps to do planning work as we drive.

It’s not like we haven’t got books of maps. We just didn’t bring them with us because we didn’t believe we would need them.

How wrong we were 🙁

We are really looking forward to the next few days as we get up into Karumba for a few nights, see Normanton and Croydon, Cobbold George and the Undarra Lava Tubes, before heading into Cairns.

But you will hear all about that as it happens. Stay tuned.

No other words of wisdom, sorry. Just need some sleep.

Ciao

#Retirement2024 

#VanLife 

Brrrr.

Let me say that again.

Brrrr.

We went to bed last night pretty early. I think that MBW was asleep by 9.30pm, and I read a bit longer until 10.00pm.

The guy behind us (the one with the NSW plates on his LandCruiser and Queensland plates on his van) was sounding a bit emotional watching the Women’s State of Origin, with cries of “come on ref” and “no, that’s a penalty”.

I don’t know who won the game, but I have a working assumption that some of the decisions didn’t go NSW’s way.

It was warm when we went to bed last night. The air was cool when I was walking back from my shower, but it was pretty toasty in Percy. So toasty in fact that I threw the blanket off when I finally headed off to the Land of Nod.

And that was the last thing I remember … until I woke up in the dark, shivering.

I think it was about 5.30am. Pitch black. Someone had pulled the blanket up. I don’t remember doing it, and MBW swears that it wasn’t her either … so either some elves came in during the night and shined everybody’s shoes and pulled up the blankets, or one of us did it.

I don’t believe the elf theory, and experience tells me that when MBW and I have a difference of opinion I am normally wrong anyway, so I’ll have to assume that I did it in my sleep.

But even with the blanket up, my feet still felt like two blocks of ice, so I did the right thing and pulled up the quilt also.

When I emerged from under the quilt a bit later, and long enough to check the temperature, it seems that it was about 13 degrees … which is unpleasantly cold when you are becoming accustomed to 33 degrees that feels like 37.

Not a huge incentive to get out of bed.

But get up I did, and I put on the little portable heater to generate some hot air.

What a shame the lady from Bitter Springs who came in on the Ghan and was having her surprise 50th birthday adventure even though she is now 52 wasn’t in the van with us. She was full of hot air.

My mother always used to say that “if you can’t think of something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

So forgive me. My comments about the Ghan lady were not nice. They were true, but still not nice.

Psst: If you want to get the scoop on the Ghan lady, read yesterday’s blog.

Elsie was still (mostly) hooked up from last night, so with our normal morning stuff done and dusted it was a pretty quick and effortless path to departure.

You’d expect that we could have been on the road by 7.30am or 8.00am, but no … it was closer to 9.15 before we pulled out and then we stopped at Mataranka to top up the fuel tank and pay Percy’s registration that is due tomorrow.

Like my mate Jack Reacher says, “Pay your bills when you have internet available”. Or something like that.

So it was closer to 10.00am before we actually got going in earnest.

As we were pulling out of the Bitter Springs Caravan Park, there were already people checking in, and a row of about 5 or 6 vans in convoy arrived and all pulled in together. Good luck getting space for all of you … we only freed up one spot when we departed.

We were heading south today.

We were really surprised at how many vans were travelling north. It was almost like everyone with a caravan is migrating north for the winter, which is probably not too far from the truth. I’m sure that if I checked more closely, they are probably all from NSW or Victoria where the weather is cold and miserable.

We needed to decide how to occupy our tiny minds today, and the choices were to do Country & Western karaoke, or count how many north-bound caravans we saw.

Given that neither of us even likes the sound of our own voices, we decided to count caravans. By the time we had made this important decision, we had probably already passed 40 vans, so that was our agreed starting point.

So how many north-bound vans did we see today? Ha! You will need to wait until the end of the blog for that important piece of information.

There is really nothing of note to report on our trip today.

We did almost 500km, and the temperature didn’t get over 21 or 22 degrees all day. I was in jeans all day because it was so cool.

We had a couple of leg stretch stops along the way.

Comfort stops. Lunch stops. Coffee stops, which then result in the need for more comfort stops. And some genuine “get out and stretch your legs” stops because driving for hour after hour is tiring.

We stopped at Elliot for lunch around 12.30 and topped off Elsie’s tanks again because fuel was cheap.

And when I say “cheap”, I mean that it was less eye-wateringly expensive than at other places where we have filled up. If I had my time over, I’d bring a 20 litre Jerry can of diesel with me … not so we can drive longer distances without stopping, but so that we can carry enough fuel to get us past the really expensive places and allow us to fill up at the less expensive places.

As it is, I often stop at an expensive fuel stop and put in just enough go go juice to get us to a less expensive fuel stop where I can fill up.

But that assumes that we get back to the Northern Territory again some time. And given MBW’s comment the other day that she has decided she prefers beach holidays to outback holidays, I’m guessing that we are likely destined for North Queensland holidays in future.

It’s not like the NT doesn’t have beaches, but the box jellyfish and the crocodiles make them seem less … appealing.

We heard some chatter on the radio yesterday about a van that hit a pothole just south of Elliot and rolled over. That’s not ideal, but apparently the road crew were already out today filling holes.

We had an interesting game of “dodge the potholes” ourselves today – we are back on the roads that had a great deal of flood damage, and the closer we get to the Barkly Highway (the one that takes us east into Queensland), the more potholes we see.

More roadworks, more “reduce speed” signs … although to be honest I would have to speed up to achieve the lower speeds that they require around roadworks.

We are quite happy to beetle along at about 95km/h, which seems to be a sweet spot that allows us to achieve best fuel economy while also not barrelling off the road and dying in a massive fireball.

Because we will be off the grid for a few nights now, we have filled Percy’s tanks, and that extra 200kg of water sitting on the tow hitch makes everything just that little bit more challenging to keep on the road at speed.

And it messes with Elsie’s fuel economy. About 22 litres/100km average today, which wouldn’t make the environmentalists very happy.

Actually, it doesn’t fill me with joy either, but you have to do what you have to do. I’ve said it before – if I wanted fuel economy I’d have bought a bicycle.

We have been looking for somewhere cheap to stay tonight … and when I say “cheap” I mean “free”. We really just need somewhere to crash (figuratively) at the end of a long drive, have dinner, sleep, and continue on our way.

We had a few options that gave consideration to how tired we would feel, and we finally decided on one called Churchill’s Head. It’s kinda in the middle of nowhere, in between nothing and Three Ways (the turnoff back to Queensland).

According to WikiCamps, we were to look for a signpost near a Telstra radio tower. We found that and followed the instructions past an enormous washout to the parking area at the top.

I don’t know how Evil Knievel would have felt about that hole, but I was feeling pretty terrified.

There was nobody else there … which was quite lucky because if another van had been there, it would have been impossible to manoeuvre our way back out again. It was a very small space. As it was it took about a 7 point turn to get around and out.

So we resorted to following Jolene’s directions and found ourselves on a different road, and then 5km further along – hey presto! – we found the space we were looking for.

We were a bit concerned about ensuring that there was at least another van nearby. I’m sure you have seen that movie (Wolf Creek?) about the nutcase who abducts and kills some travellers in the NT … and we don’t want to be the sequel.

And I have a feeling that was on the Stuart Highway too? Spooky.

Only one other van here when we arrived, but another 2 or 3 arrived after us. Plenty of space for everyone and not much road noise. And hopefully none of them are psychopathic serial killers.

And we didn’t need to unhook Elsie.

And it was free.

Hopefully we won’t freeze to death tonight, because the weather is definitely cooling down and the little portable heater wont work without 240V.

Tomorrow is just more of the same. Drive. Coffee. Comfort stop. Fuel up. Repeat.

We are about 100km from the turnoff back east to Queensland, so we will be looking for another freebie again tomorrow night. Last time on the Barkly Highway travelling east to west, we stayed at the Barkly Homestead which is about half-way. While that was quite nice, we are happy to stay off the grid somewhere when we are tired, and stay at no cost again.

I know that you are all beside yourselves wanting to know how many vans we passed today heading north.

And the answer is 216 vans heading north. Two hundred and sixteen.

And you will recall my previous comments about how everyone wants to wave at you as you go past each other? That’s a lot of waving.

A lot of being friendly.

I think I have developed a bad case of RWI – repetitive wave injury.

I tried to outsource the waving to MBW, but she wouldn’t have any of it. So it was up to me to wave.

We also saw a convoy of Army vehicles heading north. About 40-50 vehicles in all. Not sure if they were going somewhere, or going home from somewhere, but they didn’t seem to be any great hurry to get there.

And most of them waved too.

Time for coffee. I’m going to have to get the generator out so we have 240V for a short time, but it will be worth it.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

Let’s talk about head injuries.

Yesterday MBW was doing something at the back of the van and when she stood up, she cracked her head on the corner of the overhead cupboard. It obviously hurt, because I think she muttered a bad word.

If she didn’t say it out loud, then I’m pretty sure she thought it.

I sometimes wonder if a head knock like that can cause any changes to your personality. Without wanting to air anybody’s dirty laundry, there are a few things that MBW doesn’t like.

Green peas. Sultanas. Feet.

If I had 10 minutes to live, and only a foot massage could save my life, I’d be dead in 10 minutes.

Seriously.

So I guess that if MBW asks for some of my Sultana Bran for breakfast in the morning, then I’ll know what caused it.

But what about that head knock that Reece Walsh got in the seventh minute of the State of Origin last night? Honestly, that guy will be lucky to string half a dozen words together in a few years if he keeps that up.

That was brutal.

I’ve mentioned that there is a “cool change” coming. We woke this morning at about 7.00am again.

In my defence, sunrise here in the Top End isn’t until 7.00am or later, so it’s dark really late. And I have a particular aversion to waking up in the dark.

And we stayed up late last night watching the football. And then reading for a while after that.

Anyhow, when we finally woke this morning it was very overcast, a breeze blowing, and it was only about 20 degrees that felt like … 20 degrees. Which felt almost 20 degrees cooler than what we have been used to over the last couple of weeks.

I wouldn’t say it was cold, but there was definitely coolness in the air.

The usual morning routine, then the usual pack down routine.

Inside jobs (MBW), and outside jobs (me). MBW dropped the ensuite key back to the office, and we pulled out of the Anbinik Resort.

Destination: Bitter Springs.

Not a great deal of content to tell you about the bit between driving out of Anbinik and driving into Bitter Springs.

We drove the 200km or so through Kakadu to Pine Creek in about 2 and a half hours, and stopped at a truck stop just south of Pine Creek just to stretch our legs.

I’m warning you … this is about as exciting as it gets 🙁

Another hour or so and we arrived in Katherine – home to the Katherine Outback Experience. Remember?

Two important things to achieve in Katherine. Fuel for Elsie. Fuel for us.

We went straight to the little shopping centre where there is a Woolies and got some groceries, as we were starting to run low. Almost out of milk. Almost out of chocolate and other essentials.

Back to the van carpark out the back of the shopping centre and unloaded our goodies and had some lunch.

I took the trolly back to the trolley bay nearby, because if you don’t take your trolley back and reconnect the chain, you don’t get your dollar back.

We then went around the block to the local service station and gave Elsie a big drink.

I play a little game with myself when fuelling up. I try to guess within 5 litres, how many litres Elsie will take today.

I don’t like to brag, but I’m getting pretty good at it. The fuel gauge was pointing at just below a quarter of a tank and I guessed 110 litres, and I put in 111 litres.

I also guessed that Queensland would win game 1 of the State of Origin. Say no more.

Bitter Springs is about another hour south of Katherine, so with everyone filled up, we headed off.

Bitter Springs is just near Mataranka, and we already passed through Mataranka on our way north to Darwin. But Bitter Springs is a hot spring that you can swim in, and we were keen.

And we didn’t stop at Mataranka last time we drove through.

Again, a completely uneventful – possibly pedestrian – afternoon of driving with absolutely nothing of interest to see or comment about on the way.

Lots of vans heading north for the winter, not much heading south. 

Now that we are back in civilisation (well … out of Kakadu) we are noticing that all oncoming caravans want to give you a cheery wave again. Not the caravan itself giving the wave, but the driver of the vehicle pulling the caravan.

Obviously.

We passed one oncoming van early on and I gave the usual salute, and I received a cheery wave from the front seat passenger instead of the driver.

MBW commented that the driver has obviously outsourced that function so that he can concentrate on driving. Driving with no responsibility to be friendly.

Hmmm, interesting idea. I wonder if I can outsource that to MBW. She is certainly more friendly than I am.

Anyhow we arrived at Mataranka around 2.30 and continued on the final 3 km or so to the Bitter Springs Caravan Park, and we jagged the very last powered site that they have.

And they have almost 100 powered sites.

As full as a state school hat rack!

It was a very small site without enough room to open the awning, but on the bright side I was able to leave Elsie hooked up ready for a quick getaway in the morning as we are only here for the one night.

I had a quick chat with the guy behind us. He has a Landcruiser with NSW number plates, and a van with Queensland number plates. Talk about hedging your bets for State of Origin night.

Into our swimmers and a quick walk down the 500m or so to the hot springs.

And the water was just amazing. So warm, so clear, and so pretty.

There was a gentle current flowing, and the accepted practice was to float with your pool noodle and let the current take you 100m or so down the stream. At the far end, there were stairs to climb out and walk back to the start again.

And do it all over again.

We did two floats downstream and then just floated around the top end of the stream where it was wider and much less current … so you could fairly easily stay in the one place and enjoy the water temperature.

When I was a child, one of my father’s favourite sayings was that “an empty vessel makes the most noise”.

There was a lady in the hot springs, and if you made the mistake of making eye contact with her, she’d tell you all about how she and her hubby came up from Adelaide on the Ghan. They hired a 6 berth motor home. This is her hubby’s surprise 50th birthday present to her. They are both 52, but only celebrating her birthday now.

Blah, blah, blah, blah blah … blah.

And where was this wonderful hubby? He was sitting out on a bench, watching.

Smart man. Probably got time off for good behaviour.

We have a powered site tonight (last one, remember?) so we pulled a curry out of the freezer and it was a quick and simple dinner.

The women’s State of Origin is on tonight, but we have absolutely no mobile reception here at Bitter Springs, and we also didn’t bring a TV.

So it will be an early night tonight. Read for a little while, then sleep. No nap today, so I have a sleep debt to catch-up on.

I mentioned the cool change. I don’t think that the temperature went above 25 degrees all day, although we are going south so that is to be expected.

I’m thinking I will be back in jeans again in the next couple of days.

Let me just summarise all of that for you … nothing much happened today but we travelled about 420km.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

I had a terrible sleep last night. I don’t really know why, but I just felt like I was all over the place.

I’m mentioned before that we run the aircon at night because it is quite warm. The Anbinik Resort and Caravan Park is a nice little spot, but the site that we got has absolutely no shade.

Some of the spaces here have shade, but not ours. The driver’s side of Percy faces more or less directly west, so with no shade you could fry an egg on the side of the van by the middle of the afternoon.

Yes, I know that gravity dictates that is impossible, but you know what I mean.

So it is very hot inside Percy, and that wall just seems to radiate heat. Unfortunately, that is the same side as the fridge, so it probably explains why we have trouble even getting ice to form effectively after a day in the sunshine.

Note to self. Next time we stay at Anbinik, ask for a shady site.

So when we go to bed at night, Percy is still hot. So we run the air-conditioner to try to offset the heat that is still radiating.

And then it cools off during the night and it gets cold.

Anyhow, I didn’t have a good night’s sleep.

Cold. Dreams of crocodiles that have been evolving over the last 60 billion years (according to Glen, our tour guide from last night).

And the snoring. But we won’t discuss that.

So I woke up feeling less than chipper. 7.00am and the whole day before us, and nothing specifically that we wanted – or needed – to do.

MBW put on a couple of loads of washing.

Now I know what you are thinking … Wednesday isn’t washing day. Thursday is washing day. But we are not sure where we are going to be tomorrow night, and we don’t know if we will have access to a washing machine to do the sheets and towels … so we mixed it up and did them a day early.

Goodness knows what is going to happen next Wednesday when we have been using the towels and sheets for a week already. You will need to wait until next week for that news.

Plus, Anbinik’s washing machines are free! Bargain.

Washing done and hung out. Ready to go exploring.

We had been out to see Cahill’s Crossing the other day, and we have heard that it is much better at high tide. High tide was around 10.30am and it was about a 30 minute run and we wanted to get there about half an hour before high tide, so we left at around 9.30am after ablutions and breakfast.

Such a pretty spot.

Did I mention the other day that the causeway is the boundary between Kakadu and Arnhem Land?

And when we were there, the water was flowing right to left (which is an outgoing tide), and it was maybe 30cm (1 foot) deep. 4WDs and trucks were going through no problem.

Today it was about 30 minutes before high tide, and the water was flowing left to right (incoming tide) and I have no way to judge how deep it was because clearly nobody was brave (or stupid) enough to attempt the crossing.

But if I had to take a guess, I’d say it was a metre (3 feet) deep and flowing fast enough to wash a vehicle off the causeway.

Judge for yourself …

But it looks like we got our timing wrong again anyway. I suspect that we should have arrived an hour or so earlier when the water started flowing upstream and crossing the causeway, because that (I suspect) is when all of the fish would have started swimming upstream, and when the crocodiles would have started to get excited.

We did see a couple of crocs, but they were swimming around lazily a long way upstream, so I expect that they were busy digesting their breakfast.

Nothing to see there, so we got back into Elsie and made the 30km trip back to Jabiru.

A really pretty trip back, with these unexpected rock formations along the way.

We wanted to have a look around the Jabiru town centre and art gallery, but that was a bit of a bust. There is a Friendly Grocer with a monopoly on selling groceries (… and rakes, and tools, and fishing gear, and fertiliser, and …), so we bought a couple of potatos.

MBW is keen to experiment making vodka, and she needed potatos.

Kidding! They were for dinner.

Glen (remember Glen from the Sunset Cruise?) said that the Aborigines around Jabiru and Kakadu are very traditional and nice to deal with. Unfortunately the ones who move to Darwin, Katherine and Tennant Creek try to live in two world (ours and theirs) and struggle.

Here, living their traditional lives, they are very steeped in their own rules and customs and are quite reasonable to deal with. You don’t have any fear or concerns with them, while we found that they can be quite intimidating in the bigger cities. They sit around in the shade and say hello when you walk past them, but no concerns.

Sadly it is likely our fault anyway, as when white settlers first arrived, they used a great deal of Aboriginal labour but only paid them with tobacco, alcohol and food.

Home to Percy to do a few chores and have lunch.

I had a nap to try to offset the effects of last night’s lack of sleep, and MBW read her book. We went for a swim, and then just lazed around Percy not doing much for the afternoon.

We are leaving Kakadu tomorrow and heading back down through NT and towards Queensland. I guess that technically means that we are heading home, but that will still be a while yet as we are still to cut across the Gulf and go to Cairns. Then south to Brisbane.

But because we are leaving tomorrow and plan to get away early (that’s not going to happen, but it’s good to have a plan …), we did a bit of packing up to lessen the jobs in the morning.

Lamb chops on the BBQ for dinner along with some vodka vegetables. We tried to eat outside but the files were terrible. So we moved inside Percy and about a half-dozen flies with ADHD followed us in.

Argh.

Buzzing around like their tails were on fire, and never landing anywhere long enough to be swatted.

Argh!

While I was cooking on the BBQ I did a quick reconnaissance of the neighbours and was sorry to see that the majority have NSW number plates on their cars.

State of Origin tonight, so I hope that they don’t keep us awake all night with their sobbing and crying 🙁

I said the other day that I wasn’t sure if we would have mobile coverage here in Jabiru, but it turns out we have 5G. Having said that, I’m not so sure what will happen for the next few days while we are travelling.

There is not a great deal to see between here and the Queensland border, and we have probably seen what little there is already.

I’m still hopeful that we might stop at Fran’s Tea House in Larrimah for one of Fran’s famous Paddy camel pies, but I’m not holding my breath.

We will likely blast through the townships where we have the greater chance of mobile coverage – only stopping long enough to buy fuel or groceries – and then stay off the grid for the next few nights (where there is likely no chance of mobile coverage). And to save some money.

But I’ve been wrong before. If there is no blog for the next few nights, you’ll know why.

If there is still no blog in another week, send a search party.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

MBW and I love watching “The Amazing Race”. And we are the biggest critics of the people who go into the game unprepared.

And I mean totally unprepared.

Everybody who has ever watched TAR knows that there are a few things that you will need to do during the show, including:

• Drive a manual car
• Walk up many flights of stairs
• Run like your life depended on it
• Jump off or abseil down the tallest building in whatever place you happen to be
• Eat your own body-weight in meat (or worse, some disgusting “local delicacy” that is sure to have you vomiting, or wishing you were dead)

And yet people still get onto the show with no idea how to drive a manual car, and then they seem surprised when they have to do so.

Or they proudly announce that they are vegetarian, and complain when they are presented with the meat eating challenge.

Or they have to do a big run with their backpacks on, and they collapse in a heap from exhaustion.

So today, we became those people. The people who are woefully unprepared for the effort, and the heat, and the climb.

Today we had a Yellow Water Sunset Cruise planned for this evening (at sunset, as it happens), and we had been recommended by the local Visitor Information Centre that we should make a morning of visiting some local rock art, lookouts and a billabong.

Specifically, we were told that we should do that in the morning “when it is cool”.

Honestly, the locals must have all suffered from heat stroke and had their brains fried if they think this is cool weather.

So we had the usual start to the day, eating breakfast outside in the shade of the awning while we watched a few of our neighbours moving out and heading off on their adventures.

Water bottles filled, esky loaded, snacks packed, and we set off the 30km or so to Nawurlandja Lookout, Anbangbang Billabong, and Nourlangie Rock Art.

Try saying that when you are breaking in a new set of false teeth!

And we were advised to do them in that order.

So we turned up at the Nawurlandja Lookout carpark chocked full of hope and naive optimisation, noting that the temperature was already north of 30 degrees. We had a short, but animated discussion with another couple who were roughly our age about their knowledge of CPR, and we gave specific instructions for them to send out a search party if we weren’t back in an hour or so.

And they thought that I was kidding.

The path – such as it was – to get to the lookout was classified as “easy to moderate”, and I expect that is probably a suitable classification … if you were a mountain goat.

There was mostly no defined path, just orange arrows that broadly pointed you in a certain direction.

The path, while … challenging … was certainly worth the effort as the rock face kept changing, and the view from the top was absolutely amazing.

Like most places that we have been – National Parks, lookouts, waterholes – we could take a million photos, and not one of them will do justice for displaying the greatness, grandeur and beauty of this part of the world.

But we tried, so that we would have some images to share with you.

Note the warnings below. If the crocodiles don’t get you, the buffalo will.

You can see that the track to the top wasn’t particularly steep – maybe 10 degrees incline? – but you needed to watch where you put your feet because it was very uneven. You don’t want to roll an ankle up there while you are hopping from rock to rock, because you really will need to be carried out.

The trip to the top of the lookout and back down again was probably 45 minutes (and about 4 litres of sweat). We got back into Elsie to go and see Anbangbang Billabong which was only a couple of kilometres away.

There is a walking track between the Nawurlandja Lookout carpark and the Anbangbang Billabong, except that it was closed.

There seems to be a lot of things closed in the NP, and from what I can gather they had a late wet season and they need to allow everything time to dry out, and for (some) roads to be repaired. It seems that many of the roads suffer extensive damage during the wet season, so they all need repair before tourists come in the dry season.

Oh, and they need to make sure that the area is free from crocodiles.

In any case, why walk the couple of kilometres when we can move Elsie closer, and benefit from a few minutes of aircon.

And sitting down.

The billabong is a really calm and peaceful place. Much of it will dry out over the dry season as they have no rain here for several months.

But when it does rain, it rains. We have been told that last year it rained 1600mm over their wet season of a few months, with the typical rainfall being 1400mm.

Seriously, that is a lot of rain.

The billabong comes with its own risks (which happen to be the same risks everywhere else where there is water) – crocodiles.

Very peaceful and relaxing.

We stopped for a drink and bite to eat, and then headed off to the Nourlangie Rock Art site, just another few kilometres down the road.

Many of these rock art sites require a fair bit of walking because the carpark is never close to the rock formations and caves where the rock art is located.

And without wanting to point out the obvious, rock art requires rock formations to paint on, and because this is part of their history and storytelling, the rock art tends to be up quite high and in generally inaccessible locations.

Well, inaccessible for the original painters, but made a little easier by the inclusion of steps and walkways to get access, and barriers to keep you away.

Many of the paintings are said to be sacred drawings, and some of them (apparently) contain a warning that – if photographed – will bring bad luck. Like the bad luck I had yesterday dropping a carton of eggs out of the fridge … although I suspect that the bad luck that they are referring to is probably worse than that.

So there are some paintings that we couldn’t photograph as we respected their wishes.

Although I also have to wonder if another reason is because they want to keep the rock paintings as “family friendly” as possible. MA rated, if you will.

Because – I have to say – some of the male artists clearly had a very high opinion of themselves. If you know what I mean …

A VERY high opinion of themselves.

You won’t see any of that here!

The other thing that may not be immediately obvious is that rock/cave paintings are done on significant rock formations, and there is typically – in addition to the rock paintings – a lookout and view of the surrounding area.

So you don’t just look at rock paintings. You also do a great deal of walking, and a great deal of climbing.

Remember The Amazing Race? We were woefully unprepared 🙁

By this time it was pre-lunch, and so (as advised by the Visitor Centre ) we headed back to Percy for a rest and lunch. And to rehydrate.

We had booked the Yellow Water Sunset Cruise a couple of days ago. Everyone you ask says that it is a “must do” in Kakadu.

Hey, that rhymes 🙂

We needed to be at the boat ramp 20 minutes before the 4.30pm departure, so we were advised to visit the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre beforehand, which was just around the corner.

The boat ramp and the cultural centre are at Cooinda, which is a 40 minute, 57km drive from Anbinik where we are staying.

I have to say, if you are in Kakadu you should expect to do a lot of kilometres in the car. It’s easy to do 300 kilometres or more in a day just going from one waterhole or lookout to another.

It was a very pretty drive down the Kakadu Hwy to Cooinda. We passed the turnoff to the lookout, billabong and rock art from this morning’s outing, and kept going another 30km or so.

Unfortunately because of local traditions or customs, photography was not allowed inside the WACC, so no photos to share – sorry.

There is a custom in Aboriginal culture that says if someone dies, you cannot display their photo or say their name for a period of time. Sometimes months, often years. A number of the photos in the WACC were covered up for this reason – not that we could take photos of them anyway.

We got down to the bus terminal around 4.10pm to be picked up and taken down to the river for the sunset cruise. At $130/person and probably 50 people on each of 3 boats (that’s 150 people if you are having trouble with the maths), they are making a killing out of the boat trips.

And I think that there are a total of 4 – maybe 5 – cruises per day and they all seem to be pretty full.

Ka-ching!

Our tour guide (aka boat driver) was a slight man of about mid-60’s with coke bottle glasses, grey hair, and a pony tail. Glen

He certainly seemed very knowledgeable and had an eye for crocs lazing in the water, and an eye (and a name) for each of the birds that we saw.

Although – to be honest – I have a feeling that he made some of them up. He pointed out a plumed whistling duck (actually a flock of them) and explained that they were different to another type of whistling duck.

To be fair, a quick Google search does confirm that there actually is a plumed whistling duck, but whether that’s what we were actually looking at is unknown.

He also explained that the Aboriginal alphabet only has 22 letters (I don’t know which ones that they do without), but that an “a” is correctly sounded as in “father”, and a “u” is correctly sounded as in “put”.

So when you say Kakadu like that and sound the “a” and “u” correctly, it really does sound like an aboriginal speaking.

The other interesting fact that we got from Glen (the tour guide) is that when the aboriginals believe that there is a lot of something, they say it twice. Jim Jim Falls is an example – there are a number of waterfalls so it is named Jim Jim.

A bit like Tim-Tim from Daly Waters pub. There was a lot of him too, so it turns out that Tim-Tim is entirely appropriate.

Once again, I took several hundred photos of the Yellow Water system, but I will only share a few with you. But it was absolutely stunning.

Do yourself a favour – if you are in Kakadu in the dry season, take the Yellow Water Sunset Cruise because you won’t be disappointed.

We got back to Percy at Anbinik around 7.20pm or so and decided that we would have a meal at the restaurant here.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, as it probably turned out) they had closed the kitchen by the time we arrived, so we just went foraging in the freezer for something for a quick dinner.

I say “fortunately” because I looked up the menu prices online. Kakadu Resort is run in a similar way to the Uluru Resort that we visited before Christmas and they have a monopoly on the restaurants and other facilities here.

Remember the “supply versus demand” discussion from the other day? It is definitely a sellers market here and the prices on the menu reflect that.

$57 for a steak is probably a bit rich for my blood.

One of the best things that we brought with us was a USB bug zapper. We leave it on all night and we drift off to sleep to the sound of little bugs and other flying critters being zapped to death.

Better than them annoying us all night.

State of Origin tomorrow night (QUEENSLANDER!), so it will be an early dinner and then the game. 8.00pm kick-off as I recall, which is 7.30 here in the Top End, so it will be an earlier night than usual.

I’m going to need a haircut soon. I normally get it trimmed every 4 weeks or so, and I think it has now been about 6 weeks … so I’m starting to look like a woolly mammoth. I’m not really sure where I am going to find a barber or hairdresser (that I can trust) between Kakadu and Cairns, so … hmmm.

I might just grow it into a ponytail like Glen from the Yellow Water Sunset Cruise. He seemed to wear it OK.

PS: Confession time: put your hand up if you’ve been practising saying Kakadu like an Aboriginal for the last few minutes?

Yep, me too 😞

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

We decided to live on the edge last night. You know, do something a bit … risky.

No, we didn’t go swimming with the crocodiles, and we didn’t eat day-old sushi. That would be silly.

And no, we didn’t run naked across the polo field in the dark. That would just be reckless.

Fun, but reckless.

We slept last night with the air-conditioning turned OFF. Pretty daring, I know.

I mentioned that we went to church yesterday, and somewhere during the service they made a comment about being thankful for the cooler weather. Now, call me old-fashioned, but 32 degrees that feels like 36 degrees is not – in my opinion – cooler weather.

But after being outside for dinner and reading in bed for a couple of hours with the aircon on, I will say that it didn’t really feel like we needed air-conditioning for sleep.

So we turned it off. Threw off the blanket (necessary when you have the air-conditioning set to 18 degrees), and toddled off to the land of nod.

Despite no aircon, we still woke at about 6.00am feeling cold and pulled up the blanket anyway.

We woke to our last morning in Darwin. Another spectacular day, without a cloud in the sky.

I may have mentioned that I have a favourite shower at the Robbie Robbins Equestrian Reserve (aka the RRR). Over the last couple of days – maybe Saturday night and both Sunday morning and evening – I have shared my favourite shower with a green tree frog.

Except it wasn’t green. It was like a pale beige colour. And it just sat in the top corner of the shower.

And watched me.

But when I got to the showers this morning and got my favourite shower, my little mate was gone. I suppose that even a tree frog has limits for how long it can sit on a wall and do nothing but watch people shower.

We have loved Darwin. The temperatures, the blue skies, the clean air, and the sunsets. And the people too – laid back, friendly Territorians are great people.

And Darwin isn’t huge. According to Wikipedia, Darwin has >50% of the NT population and approximately 140,000 people live there.

I guess that explains why mobile coverage is so poor. With maybe 250,000 people in the NT and more than half of them in Darwin, why would Telstra bother to roll out 5G?

Just a little, country town.

If it wasn’t for missing our favourite little people so much, we could have stayed in Darwin for longer.

Or maybe forever.

Despite that, I was glad to be leaving. Ma and Pa Kettle next door were starting to bug me. You may remember Ma and Pa Kettle? They arrived on day 2 of our stay and – in a scene that could have come straight out of a Griswold Family Vacation movie, they parked their dirty big motorhome the wrong way around so that their awning opened out towards ours.

So I felt as though my privacy was being … compromised.

On the first morning that they were there, I staggered out of Percy for my morning ablutions and they were both sitting their in their chairs, back up against their motorhome, staring at me while I collected my towel and footwear, and headed off to ablute.

Honestly, I felt like I was some fascinating specimen that they had discovered.

Ugg.

MBW tried to be the bigger person, and engaged them in conversation. Personally, I am more of a grudge-holder, but MBW did the right thing.

Where are you from? Victoria

How long are you staying? One month.

Argh!

So we packed up, shut down, connected and disconnected, hooked up Percy to Elsie, and we were rolling out of the RRR by about 9.00am.

It was good to be back on the road again, and having Percy on the back. We only had a relatively short run today – maybe 240km – but we were off.

The road to Jabiru (Kakadu) was unremarkable. One lane each way, not bumpy, but also not smooth. Lots of trucks coming the other way (back towards Darwin).

I have to say that I have the concentration span of a gnat. When there is lots of other traffic on the road and turkeys to avoid, the kilometres just seem to roll away. But when the roads are OK and there is no traffic, and very little chatter on the CB, it all seems to drag a bit.

I find myself looking at Jolene who tells me that we have 106km to go. I then look away and occupy myself with more important things, like how long I can hold my breath before I think I’ll pass out, and then look back at Jolene to find that we now have 105km to go.

Argh!

We needed to stop (… OK I needed to stop) to stretch my legs but I somehow missed the first rest stop we saw because it is a little difficult to pull up Percy at short notice, so we needed to go a further 27km to the next one – a place called the Bark Hut Inn. They had a nice parking area, and fuel for $2.06/litre, and coffee.

So we stopped and I stretched my legs and purchased coffee. Just one to share.

They had a big sign in the bar that clearly said “one size coffee only”. It also said “full cream milk only”.

So there you have it. Everything you need to know about being empowered and having a choice in two simple statements. Just 8 words.

No mamby-pamby camel milk piccolos with a twist of soy here in the Territory. You’ll get a bucket of flat white made with full cream cow’s milk, or you’ll get nothing.

Nothing!

So, a bucket of flat white on cow’s milk was what I ordered. And got. And it was very nice too, I should say.

We kept zipping along towards Kakadu. Lots of burning off happening along the roadside – I suppose that is something that they do at the start of the dry season to ensure that the rest of the fire season stays mostly under control.

So a few smoke hazards on the way.

We arrived in Jabiru around 12.00noon and checked into the Anbinik Resort – home for the next 3 nights.

All of the sites here have an ensuite which is not really what we wanted, but it was also one of the cheaper – and better rated – caravan parks here in Jabiru.

Unhooked Percy, had a bite of lunch, and went out exploring for the afternoon.

We started with the local petrol station.

Remember yesterday that I was bragging I got fuel in Darwin for $1.81 per litre? And remember that I mentioned that the Bark Hut Inn earlier today was $2.06 per litre?

According to the economic laws of supply and demand, with only one petrol station in Jabiru and lots of people wanting fuel, it’s called a seller’s market.

$2.40 per litre. $0.60c per litre more than we paid this time yesterday in Darwin. And $0.34c per litre more than at the Bark Hut Inn where I saw it earlier today.

I should have listened to Jack. Jack Reacher.

“Eat/sleep when you can” also means “get coffee when you can” and “buy fuel when it is cheap”. And I didn’t buy it when it’s cheap, and now that I have limited options, it’s expensive.

And one of the things that I don’t plan on happening this trip, is running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere. (I also don’t plan on getting eaten by a crocodile. Just saying).

C’est la vie.

We found the local water tower attraction …

… and then went in search for the local visitor information office. Who were very helpful, and assisted us in determining what we wanted to do, and what we could achieve in the time that we have.

We decided to make the 30km or so run out to Ubirr, which is a lovely spot where you can see aboriginal rock art.

A colleague had told me that we should go and look at Cahill’s Crossing, which is a spot which – at high tide – becomes a crocodile feeding frenzy because of the fish that swim upstream across the causeway.

And Cahill’s Crossing was next door to Ubirr, so we went there first.

And the first thing that we saw was …

… a crocodile. A big one. Just floating there in the water.

And then he disappeared and resurfaced directly below me, and it felt like he was looking straight into my soul.

And it scared me, so much so that I nearly choked on my own spit.

A park ranger turned up and gave us the scoop on the crossing, and crocodiles, and the idiots downstream fishing so close to the river. She said that at the hight of the wet season, that crossing would be under several metres of water, and 70km wide.

Far out!

We took off to look at the Ubirr rock paintings, and they were absolutely amazing! So well preserved, and such a fascinating part of our history.

It’s about a 40 minute run from Ubirr back to Jabiru, and we were hot and tired. Really hot.

I’m probably going to have to burn my clothes they were so gross 🙁

Back to Percy and we got into our swimmers and went for a swim at – according to the visitor information centre – the only safe place to swim in Kakadu. The caravan park swimming pool.

Kakadu is not like Litchfield NP. Only swim in your swimming pool, or risk getting eaten by a crocodile.

And getting eaten by a crocodile is not part of the plan.

Dinner, and MBW is heartbroken because MasterChef isn’t on tonight.

Tomorrow we are going to buzz around and see what else we can see. We are keen to go back to Cahill’s Crossing again at high tide (it was dead low today), and see if we can see some more action.

Then tomorrow night we are doing a Yellow Water sunset cruise, which should be fab.

Wednesday night is State of Origin, so we will be supporting the Maroon’s from here in Kakadu.

No nap today. We were too busy having fun.

And just to clear something up – I don’t really hold my breath until I nearly pass out when I am driving. That would be really reckless.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

Sunday.

I’m a little embarrassed to say that we didn’t do much today. Not very much at all.

Hardly anything, to be completely honest.

I mentioned that we were looking forward to going to church today, to the Darwin Baptist Church (DBC).

It’s funny that now we are about to leave Darwin, it is all starting to make more sense. I could have made it to church this morning without Jolene’s help, but I asked her to show the way anyway. No point in getting lost.

It was a 10.00am service, so we didn’t exactly need to get up at the crack of dawn to get going. Sleep in, ablutions, breakfast, and we were off.

It was a nice service. They have a different set of songs on rotation to what I’m used to, so it was a little bit hard to join in the worship. And they are very casual. If you were wearing thongs, you were well dressed.

Shoes? Formal attire. But then we are in Darwin and it is very hot.

And I imagine that in the wet season with monsoon rains, going barefoot probably makes sense so that your shoes don’t get wet.

The message was based on Genesis chapters 1-3 … all about creation. Which is funny in itself, because yesterday, you may recall, we were at the Darwin Museum and looking at exhibits about how the universe commenced with the Big Bang.

So the message was on Genesis and creation, and how on the 7th day, God rested.

Which is also a bit funny, because we also had a rest day today. The difference between God creating the heavens and the earth and resting on day 7, versus MBW and myself resting today, is that we actually haven’t done much for the last 6 days. We certainly haven’t created anything (other than a credit card debt, but I don’t think that counts …)

Nothing to do, and all day to do it.

Remember?

Church over, and we shot off immediately afterwards. We were near Casuarina where there is a large shopping centre, and we needed to get some groceries and some fuel for Elsie. The tank was very empty and we are leaving for Kakadu in the morning.

We were also looking for a KMart specifically because we wanted to get a wooden cutting board to put over Percy’s sink to increase our bench space.

While we found a KMart, we were unsuccessful in finding the board that we wanted.

Over to Coles to get some groceries and ensure that the fridge is stocked. While we haven’t been to Kakadu yet, my very realistic expectations are that Kakadu will not have the options for groceries (or fuel, or anything else …) that we have here in Darwin, so we made the most of the opportunity.

Groceries, then about $200 of fuel into Elsie’s tank, and we were back at the RRR and Percy by 1.00pm for a late lunch.

And I’m ashamed to say, that is about it for the day.

MBW did a couple of loads of washing for the same reason as we got groceries … we are not sure what facilities will be available at Kakadu, or how horrendously overpriced they will be.

As Jack Reacher says, “Eat (or sleep) when you can.” In our case, wash when you can.

Washing, a nap, and I needed to do some minor maintenance to the sink that still appeared to be leaving. You will need to go back several days to get the scoop on why the sink was leaking.

MBW made some pizza for dinner and I set up the radio and the vertical antenna and had a bit of a fiddle to try to get the antenna working better.

And – as usual – by the time I’d achieved that and it was cool enough to enjoy being outside, the mozzies made it very unpleasant to be outside.

So I packed it all up (satisfied that the antenna was working better than it had been), and came back inside to have coffee, watch MasterChef (MBW), and do the blog (moi).

I’ sure that tomorrow will have better news. At the very least, we will be in Kakadu and so there should be something to report.

At least we had another spectacular sunset.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

It’s starting to feel like Groundhog Day. But I mean that in a good way.

Wake, ablutions, eat, be a tourist, sleep, repeat. With an afternoon nap thrown in there somewhere.

It has been really nice being in Darwin for several days. I feel like we should have moved on before this, but as I said by staying here for the extra nights, we will be able to go to the Darwin Baptist Church tomorrow.

We did some more sightseeing today, then back to Percy for a late lunch and a nap, and had dinner.

That’s the short version. If that’s all that you need, feel free to stop reading now.

But the longer version …

We started the day in the same delightful way that we start most Saturdays … by having a video call with 2 of our very favourite little people in the world (Teddy and Lili). They are growing up so fast and we miss them so much 🙁

MBW was keen to go to the Parap Village Markets this morning. We also had an idea about either going to the WWII Military Museum that we have been told is very good, or the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery.

The Parap Village Markets are a Saturday morning market at a place called Parap Village. No real surprises there.

They are known for their fresh local produce and crafts, and MBW was pretty enthusiastic about going. I’m not really sure why … she has never been that motivated to look at fresh produce before, but what do I know?

We knew that we were getting close when Jolene hadn’t even told us yet that we would be arriving at our destination in 500m, and it was already chaos on the roads. Cars parked everywhere, people everywhere.

Way too peopley for my liking.

We drove down a side street beside the actual markets, and I was getting ready to put on my best disappointed voice and suggest that we would never be able to park, and that MBW’s sore foot would never make the trek to the markets in this heat … when we found a nice, big, shady parking space.

It was meant to be.

So off we went exploring the markets.

I suspect that many of the food trucks (and craft stalls for that matter) were the same ones that we saw the other night at the Nightcliffe Markets, because the sights and smells were all very familiar.

Plenty of people eating stuff that I wouldn’t consider “breakfast food” (eg noodles, and Chinese food), but then I’m the guy that has a favourite shower stall at the Robbie Robbins Reserve ablution block.

Remember?

But then I’m also as dull as dishwater.

We wandered around and checked out all of the stalls, and when we were done doing that, we found a street vendor selling bakery goods.

And we do like bakery goods.

So we purchased a cronut/croissant/donut baked thingumy-gig that was mind-blowingly delicious, but probably moved me a few steps further towards hardened arteries and an untimely death.

My GP has warned me over and over about this 🙁

I’m fairly certain that “delicious” = “greater chance of early death”.

We had a bit of a debate about the WWII Military Museum, but even though it rated very highly on Google, we just kinda felt that we are not military buffs that would want to see it or appreciate it.

And, if I am completely honest, I’m a little perplexed about the relationship that Darwin has with WWII. I mean, many of the souvenirs at the RFDS/WWII exhibition from the other day seemed to celebrate the attack on Darwin in 1942. Well, that’s the way that it felt to me.

They had T-shirts that had “1942 bombing of Darwin” printed on them, like it was something that they wanted to celebrate. Like it was a good thing.

So we ended up going to the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery which was in the same general area as the Parap Village Markets, and also has a display about Cyclone Tracy that devastated Darwin on 25 December 1974. And we were keen to see that.

So we asked Jolene to show us the way.

The Darwin Museum and Art Gallery (DM&AG) is an unusual – perhaps eclectic – combination of stuff that doesn’t really go together.

In my opinion. But then I’m the guy with a favourite shower.

They had some stuff that people have made/painted/photographed … and some of it was … weird.

I mean, that is seriously creepy. Even after I read the description provided by the artist, I still didn’t get it.

And I’m pretty sure that it is going to give me nightmares tonight.

There were displays of butterflies and ants, and displays of Australian history, and a giant crocodile.

Called Sweetheart. 5.1 metres of Sweetheart.

There was a maritime section that showed boats and sailing ships through the ages, and a section on dinosaurs that showed a timeline from the Big Bang through to the present day.

And then there was the section on Cyclone Tracy that was horrifying, astonishing, and emotional all at the same time.

They even had a sound booth where you could stand in total darkness and be bombarded by an actual surround sound recording of the cyclone, at its very peak.

It was absolutely terrifying.

They also had before and after satellite imagery of various areas of Darwin showing the devastation that occurred that night.

After the museum, we did a quick run to Lee Point for a quick look and a walk on the beach.

It seems funny, but on a hot, steamy day the beach was almost deserted … but then I guess that if the crocodiles don’t get you, the box jellyfish will.

Probably best to stay at home and swim in the pool.

Back home to Percy for a late lunch and a nap, and then we got to have a video call with our other two very favourite little people in the world (Elias and Isabel).

I had the OK to give Percy and Elsie both a bit of a bath here at RRR, so I took the opportunity.

Dinner, and another stunning sunset.

Does it get any better than this?

Sunday tomorrow. Church and maybe a quick spin down to Berry Springs again.

Diesel is <$1.80/litre here in Darwin ATM, so Elsie will be getting a big drink before we hook up and head off to Kakadu on Monday morning.

We are there for three nights, and then – I expect – we will do a big run over several days so that we can get back into Queensland, and up into the Karumba and Normanton area, near the gulf.

My expectation is that we will probably do some long drives after Kakadu and news will be brief … not the least because experience tells us that once we leave Darwin we will be in a wilderness of little to no mobile coverage for several days. And because there is not much to see between here and the Queensland border.

So nothing much to see, and no way to tell you about it because we will probably have no internet.

And also because we have likely done some damage to our credit cards over the last week or so, and we will be staying off the grid for a few days … just to stop after a long drive, eat, sleep, and keep driving again.

That’s about it for another day.

Thanks for tagging along!

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife