Coober Pedy

After fitting the spare wheel to the van and dumping the shattered remains of the old rim we continued on to the Stuart Highway and turned south. Fuel at Erldunda was $1.69 a litre - better than the $2.12 we paid at Curtin Springs.

We rolled on through to Marla where we bought food for the night and dumped the very few things that hadn't spoiled in the van fridge failure.

We stopped at a free spot just south of Marla and tucked into some lamb chops. The flies were awful so we stayed indoors and sweated in the 40 degree heat - the a/c only works on 240v so no cooling for us. 

Up late as we slept in with the cool morning but soon enough we were off down the road to the moonscape that is Coober Pedy, ready to book our flights over Lake Eyre.

We booked into the van park in CP as (just like Alice) the security needs to be up there and we found that they had a happy hour in the pizzeria/bar that night. N more needs to be said - we still have cold pizza to eat!

The next day we drove off down the Oodnadatta Track to William Creek and boarded our tiny light aircraft for a fantastic flight over Lake Eyre.

We left soon after dawn and found ourselves driving into the rising sun, but sunrise and sunset are always so beautiful you don't mind too much.

Not too many trees to block the view here is there? 

The obligatory photos of us with the plane we were setting off in.

It is an old Cessna 172 and the oldest and slowest plane in the fleet, but when you just want to sightsee a slow plane is the best.

Flying out early in the morning also meant that we'd avoid the majority of the thermals that get generated, and certainly the very worst of them.

For some reason they always put me in the front seat - something to do with experience and an unflappable nature? No? What do you mean it is because I am the heaviest! 

Anyway, Karen seemed happy in the back seat.

What a beautiful sight - the lake is only 25% full   but that means that we got to see the salt flats plus the water (at least in the deeper parts) turning pink and the birdlife up at the northern end of the lake. Simply magic stuff.

The following are a very few of the photos taken as we cruised out and over the lake.

The south is the place where the water lies, and this turns pink once the algae get a grip.

Further north is where the feeder creeks are and you see the channels of water feeding into the lake.

On the way back we came across a sad sight. A wild camel seems to have become lost on the salt flats and was wandering around. It's tracks were looping around as it searched for a way out and when we flew over it was just standing still. 

It probably died soon afterwards. 

See if you can spot the camel in the pic below.

Our landing was delayed by a minute or so to allow this beauty from the RFDS to get in ahead of us.

Nobody hurt - they were just flying in to conduct some surgeries.

And proof that we got to the William Creek Hotel.

Hint from the pic below - don't leave your camera in the car in 43 degree heat - it starts to lose some of the picture!

As we drove out there we came across a dingo pup sitting in the road, but it scooted off as soon as we got close to it. We spotted this skinny dingo running parallel to the road on the way back.

The drive back however ended up with me changing another damned tyre as a rock ripped a hole in the sidewall of one.

Not happy Jan! 

So, when we got back I went down to the local tyre guy and got a replacement tyre. We are booked in for the next day to get a replacement for the van too. I think I may be putting his kids through school.

Friday 20th Feb.

Yep, I am definitely putting this tyre guy's kids through school. When he pulled one of the van tyres off (to check the offset on the wheel so he could sell us the correct replacement for the knackered tyre and wheel from our trip back from Curtin Springs) he discovered that this tyre was stuffed too. It had a big chunk ripped off the tread and the steel belt wires were exposed.

Yep - that is now four tyres in a week.

On top of that, we walked up the road to a cafe (that sold didgeridoos) and they charged us $`15 for two coffees! Robbing bastards! 

On the other hand, the tyre guy was a diamond and his services are HIGHLY recommended.

He is probably the only good thing we have to say about Coober Pedy.

The Desert

Just starting the story of our trip into the desert (Pictures to follow)

Thursday saw us meandering off into the desert from Alice Springs. 

Well, that may be a bit melodramatic as we simply drove down the road to end up at Curtin Springs, some 100 odd klms east of Ayers Rock.

Why stay there? Well, they have powered sites for caravans and that meant we could use the air conditioning. In the over 40 degree heat this is an essential for Karen and damned nice to have for anyone anyway!  They will also let us leave the van there (free of charge) while we are off seeing our daughter in Warburton.

We spent a happy couple of hours in the bar there (yeah, typical) chatting to the 87 year old original owner of the place (his son runs it now) about his life and very interesting it was too. He arrived there 57 years ago with a few cattle and his wife and they lived under a bough shelter for 3 years while he built up the herd and a house. It is now a big concern with cattle and tourism being the biggest parts of the business. 

Friday 13th - We left Curtin Springs as soon after dawn as we could manage and headed west. Laura had organised a permit for us and we were happily contemplating a look at Ayers Rock and the Olgas as we drove through, but bureaucracy struck at the park entrance. 

Some officious jobs worth told us that our permit was from the NT/WA border and through to Warburton but didn't cover the part from Yulara through to the border. Go to the Information Bureau and get the correct permit she said, so we turned around and drove back to town to get it.

The information bureau was closed but a passing ranger told us to see the police.

The police looked puzzled and said "You don't need a permit".

So we drove back to the park entrance to meet the khaki clad defender of the faith back at the park entrance who told us that the police were wrong and if the info bureau was closed we'd have to organise it through the Central Land Council in Alice. Some 500 klms away. Apparently we could do it on-line (sounds like a good idea) and then print it out for her. Hmmm. We are a little short of printers in the Pajero, so after a few increasingly heated words she opened the barrier so we could drive round and return to Yulara (or Alice) but somehow I managed to mistake the road for the border for the one to Yulara and we ignored the permit nonsense and headed for the border.

Why we need permits to travel on a government funded public road is something that gives me the major irrits. I could get annoyed with the idea of needing a permit to enter a town as well - hell's bells, you don't need a permit to enter any "normal" town so why do these communities need protection? Then again, they do need some careful handling, but if we allow them to self exclude from Australian society then they will NEVER be part of our society and they will just be a drain on our economy instead of contributing to it. The best that could be hoped for (as far as the rest of us benefiting from this section) is that it will provide a training ground and an area of study for anthropologists.

Anyway, rant over.

We suffered the couple of hundred klms of pretty awful road to get to the border with the Pajero handling the crippling corrugations and soft sandy sections really well. The dash looked as if it might fly off at any time though! 

Then we hit the border and the road instantly changed to a smooth dirt highway capable of handling 100+kph speeds safely.  I love WA!

Corrugations as we leave the Olgas (in the background) but it was to get much worse.

Pretty country for the most part.

The border at last! The road improves hugely after this point.

We stopped at the Warakurna Roadhouse for an excellent coffee and a chat. We also headed down the track to Lasseter's Cave, but Karen groaned at the interruption to the journey so we stopped for lunch and then turned round and headed off to Warburton again.

On the way there we came across a Commodore full of locals with two flat tyres and while I was happy to take a message to Warburton to get them some help, Karen insisted we repack the Pajero to take one of them with us. I have to say that my nostrils objected strongly to this and I am not sure we will get the smell out of the seat. Still, we did the good deed and upon arriving at Warburton we found that we also had a puncture in a rear tyre.

Stupid 18 inch wheels! 

The local roadhouse fixed it for us for $40 so all is good again.

It is worth noting that most of this trip was done in temperatures of 45 degrees. Damned hot in fact!

Still, when we got there we were able to catch up with our daughter Laura and her dog Bruce.

She showed us around the place and while there isn't that much to see there were a few things noteworthy including just how popular the pool is with the local kids (40 odd degrees? Who can blame them?) and some of the artwork.

This mural based upon the famous flag raising on Iwo Jima shows a group of men raising the aboriginal flag. Good to see that some pride exists in the community.

We took Laura's dog for a walk to a pond formed by a break in the water supply line. The locals keep it like that to water the brumbies and the camels as well as a lot of other wild life.

These were a couple of the brumbies.

Bruce likes a jump in the water as well :) 

The camels were more wary than the brumbies, but they were still there.

As you can see, the area has a bit of a fly problem!

As we drove back on the Monday to collect ur van at Curtin Springs we came across a whole mob of camels on the road - check out the pictures. There were over 50 of them visible in the scrub next to the road.

On our way back we called into the Giles weather station and saw the grader used by Len Beadell's Gunbarrel Construction Company.

After a fuel refill at Warakurna we decided to stop at Lasseter's Cave for a sandwich and coffee and marvelled at the man who ended up camping out there for 20 days after his camels bolted, and doing it in January 1930. It must have been so hot and uncomfortable.   

The story is written in the signs below.

And this is the actual cave. As I approached it, two owls flew out of it just whistling past my ears!

Once we hit the bitumen (oh glorious smooth bitumen) we decided to go to a hotel at Yulara and grab a cold beer. Majorly pissed off when they refused to serve us as we weren't guests, ah well, there was a beer waiting in the fridge for us when we got home to the van.

Or so we thought. It turns out that the fridge failed and all our food and drinks were warm. We chucked out almost everything and ended up having beans on toast for dinner with a couple of beers in the Curtin Springs bar.

Problems with lousy roads over, we turned back  towards the Stuart Highway, but after about 30 klms I noticed that the van seemed to be at a bit of an angle so I pulled over to find that one of our tyres had totally disintegrated and we were running on the rapidly disappearing rim! Check the picture to see what it was like.

To make matters worse, the van jack could not go down that low so we ended up jury rigging a ramp to give us the clearance to allow me to change the tyre. I will have to get a new rim and tyre now.

I just worked out that visiting Laura has entailed an 1,600 klm round trip, two punctures (one repairable and one a total loss), days on end with temperatures over 40 degrees, some awful roads and some less than wonderful hospitality from the park gate ranger and the hotel in Yulara. It was worth it to see our baby girl though and to meet her cracker of a dog - Bruce.

Travelling south

Sunday 8th Feb

Well, we eventually managed to prise ourselves away from Darwin today.

Karen had an emotional last day at work on Friday and still harbours regrets that she didn't get everything done so her team wouldn't have to do anything (at least in an administrative sense) for the next six months. I am not that kind - the sooner they get to grips with things the better they will appreciate her work in the past!

It was also quite a wrench leaving behind the friends we have made. I will miss seeing Paul and Lorry and Scotty while we will both miss seeing Elaine and Steve (thanks for dinner last night once again!). Karen will, being a woman of course, also miss catching up with half the female population of Darwin and there is no way I am going to list them all. You know who you are!

Anyway, we set off into the cool of a Darwin morning. Not that we thought it was actually cool until we hit the deserts later on, but in hindsight it was a perfect morning.  We breakfasted at Emerald Creek (love that shady deck there as well as the surprisingly good coffee) and then stopped in Katherine to refuel and get a coffee with one of Karen's colleagues in Katherine (Teresa Cummings

 - it was a pleasure to see you again) before wandering down the Stuart Hwy at a leisurely pace to stop at the Daly Waters pub.

38 degrees through the evening does not make for a pleasant time, but the a/c works well and we slept soundly.

Monday 9th Feb

The morning was pleasant until the heat started to bite at about 8am, but we were just about ready to hit the road by then and we headed off into the heat haze of the Stuart Hwy again.

The scenery had already changed from the forest of the Top End to the lancewood stands of the area south of Mataranka, but soon after we left Daly Waters it changed again into the flat plains of this magnificent cattle country. 

All the way down we had been commenting upon just how lushly green the country was after the wet season rains, well on these cracking clay plains the plants change again to be dominated by grasses with Mitchell Grass being a dominant species. It is quite striking at this time of year with its tall, tall green stalks topped by a golden crown of seed head. Magic to see.

However, aside from the occasional lizard basking on the road and the bird life there was just not a lot to comment upon so we just kept trundling along until we reached Tennant Creek where we lunched and then the Wauchope pub where I write this.

It's a nice pub with the staff really wanting to do anything they can to make us feel comfortable, but as we are about the only people staying there I am not too surprised.

It is just 8 or 10 klms south of the Devils Marbles and they are a sight not to be missed.

40 degrees here with the added bonus of flies everywhere. This is of course why my plans to visit the Od Policeman's Waterhole in the Davenport Ranges took a dive - getting out into somewhere remote like that in 40+ degrees is neither safe nor fun so it will have to wait until the next time.

Hmmm

Tuesday 10th Feb

Well we left the Wauchope pub after a pleasantly cool night. It dropped down to 21 degrees overnight and we had to snuggle down under the sheet! Lots of baby grasshoppers hatchings (our morning swim was marred by hundreds of these critters in the pool mean that there will be a plague of them very soon.

No surprise when you think of the amount of rain we have had and just how lushly green the country is here right now. Yep, it is green grass everywhere in what is supposed to be a desert!

We are in Alice right now. Just like everywhere else we are the only people in the van park.

Van park? yes, we want the security as the locals here are prone to nicking anything they can.

Wednesday 11th Feb

Update. Remember I said that the locals were thieving bastards? Well last night we were woken by someone trying to open the door of the van at about 3.30am. They ran off as soon as they heard us but it seems that someone else had their money, phone and other stuff stolen last night . These little thieves can move silently it seems as those people didn't wake up.

The cameras at the van park showed two 16 year old (or thereabouts) lads who presumably came from one of the local town camps sneaking about the place.

Makes you wish you had a gun.

Heading off again

Well here we go again.  Hitching up the van and pointing the bonnet south down the Stuart Highway.

The plans are to get away from the Wet season reasonably quickly and head off to cooler and drier climes. The schedule as far as we have sketched it out will be

1) Daly Waters - we love this pub and we'll stay there for our first night.

2) Davenport Ranges NP - We'll stop at the old Policeman's water hole out in this NP near Tennant Creek.

3) Alice Springs - We have friends here to visit and we also want to see some of the few things we have missed out on in the past.

4) Curtin Springs - just a place to stop out on the way to Ayers Rock. We will leave the van here and head off solo to . . . . 

5) Warburton - A town on the Great Central Road where our daughter lives and works. We'll catch up with Laura and see a few things around there too.

6) Lake Eyre - This is filling right now so we will head down the Oddnadatta Track and stop off at William Creek where we will book a flight over the lake. 

7) Eyre Peninsula - Lots to see around here!

8) Nullarbor - We'll head across the bottom and into WA.

9) WA - from the bottom of WA we will then drift north to spend the Dry season in the Kimberley. We hope to catch up on things like the swimming with whale sharks and taking the flight out to the horizontal waterfalls.

We set off on Saturday 7th Feb - we can't wait!

Flora River - A Flying Visit

Karen had a couple of days work to do down in Katherine so I went along with her just for something to do and while she was busily working away in the office I took myself off to visit the Flora River Nature Reserve - a place I had been promising myself I would visit for ages.

It was probably the worst time of year to visit - November this year has been one of the hottest build ups ever and daytime temps were up around the 41/42 mark with some high humidity (for Katherine anyway) to make it even harder. We have had a few showers, but the wet has not yet kicked in.

The turn off to Flora River is nearly 90 klms down the Victoria Highway out of Katherine (heading to Kununurra), but at the posted 130kph speed limit this is not a long trip and the road is good.

The turnoff is well marked and the road in is only lightly corrugated.

The drive in is about another 40 klms, but the road remains good for the most part with only a couple of rocky parts to upset the steering (I really don't like unladen utes - I was driving a Navara D40) and a couple of bulldust patches that are remarkable only for the way the dust explodes into the air behind you.  Normal speed down this road is around the 100kph mark.

You need to take a right turn at one point, but again, this is well signposted and the track continues in good condition.

Along this track is the only thing to slow you down - a water crossing.

The base is firm and at this time of year the water level is low - no more that 200mm at the most.

Keep driving along and you'll end up at the camping area - today, this was deserted except for a few wallabies that thumped off into the bush as I approached.The camping area was dry and dusty, but there are lots of shade trees and the amenities block (showers, flushing toilets and a rainwater tank) were in good condition and obviously well serviced.

There are two walks marked from the camp site, each of them leading to Tufa dams on the river.  A Tufa dam is where the mineral rich spring flows over an obstacles and deposits some of its mineral load onto that object. This eventually builds the whole thing into a dam across the river that will gradually build up over time, but they always make for a pretty view.

 The first walk is signposted at 30 minutes return and takes you past some BBQ spots (fireplaces and BBQ plates set up ready for you) and into the denser riverside woodland.

The eventual sight is really beautiful - I only had my phone with me so the pictures are not that good, but I think you'll get the idea.

You just have to be careful of the water's edge as this is home to saltwater crocs!

The second walk is marked as 50 minutes return and takes you further downstream to the second Tufa dam. The flora around here is spectacular and some of the fauna less than friendly. I accidentally elbowed a wasp nest and a few of them gave me the good news about it! 

No sign of crocs, but at 42 degrees they were probably cooling off in the water. 

I returned to the 4WD and refilled my water bottle. There was a sign pointing the way to the boat ramp so off I set to walk to the boat ramp. 

The thing that the sign didn't say was how far it was and as it took me a bit over an hour to get there (and closer to 90 minutes to get back) I reckon it was at least 5 or 6 klms each way.

Let me remind you - out there it was 42 degrees and humid. I am one of the few people who actively like the climate here in the Top End, but even for me this was a bit of a trial. More than a bit stupid too as the one litre of water I was carrying just isn't enough and I could have come out of it a lot worse than I did.

Anyway, I eventually reached the boat ramp and this is what I found:

This is the view across the river. Pretty eh, and the water, while blue/green to look through because of the mineral content, was crystal clear and looked SO inviting.

However, it is the boat ramp that struck me as most unusual. The picture above shows the slides that you drop your boat down and into the water - just like a lifeboat back in the UK.

How do you get it back up? Well they provide this small winch for that. Just hook your boat up and crank away to drag it up the slides. 

After that little excursion I was pretty stuffed and sweating profusely so I hopped (well, crawled) back into the 4WD and drove back to Katherine with the A/C cranked up. 

Is Flora River worth seeing? Well yes, it is. I scratched the surface and while I didn't see any other walks to do I would certainly come back to stay for a night and to see it all again.

Just at a cooler time of year I think! 

Lorella Springs - Wow!

I thought I’d add a few notes about Lorella Springs for anyone searching the InterWeb for info – it might save them the effort of reading the story of our holiday and just cut to the chase with the important bits.

1) Lorella Springs is a fantastic place that we loved and we will be going back there at some point.

2) It is NOT for the likes of people who want smooth roads and all the trappings of civilisation. Grumpy grey nomads go elsewhere please – one woman was heard to complain bitterly to the staff about the state of the road coming in and the fact that they hadn’t warned her that she’d need her walking boots to just get across to the toilets.

3) This is a 4WDing destination. You need to drive a 4WD to get anywhere on the station and if that is not your thing then don’t go. You could get in there in a normal car, but the road in is not good and it isn’t recommended.

4) $20 per person per night for an unpowered site. It may seem expensive, but when you consider that this includes access to all that this place offers it is actually pretty cheap.  They offer flushing toilets, hot showers (donkey boilers but wood is provided) and shady camp sites.

Now – read on! 

Well Karen and I took advantage of the Territory’s public holidays - Friday 25^th July was Show Day and Monday 4^th August was Picnic Day (a holiday for the running of the Darwin Cup) - which meant that taking the 5 working days in between as holiday allowed us to organise an 11 day break and get away to Lorella Springs.

We also had our brand new 4WD, a Mitsubishi Pajero, to test out and to see if it doe sthe job as well as our Nissan Patrol. With only 250 klms on the odometer when we left it was certainly a new vehicle!

And here it is:

As you can see, we have fitted a bull bar in case of any errant ‘roos, a dual battery system to run the car fridge, and also we have transferred the roof rack from the Patrol across to the Pajero. 

There remains a lot more work to be done on this vehicle including a storage drawer system for the rear, together with a drop down fridge slide, a winch, a long range fuel tank, a water tank (to be fitted in the conveniently large space left once we remove the third row seats), spotlights, a snorkel and a heavier duty suspension with a 50mm lift.

We set off from home on the Saturday which gave us the Friday to pack and make sure we had all the food and everything sorted out.

We were trundling down the Stuart Highway happily, having stopped for coffee at Katherine, when all of a sudden I realised that while I had packed my rods and my tackle box I had forgotten to pack my reels. Damn! No fishing for me this week. 

First stop was at the Daly waters pub. As we were tenting it for this week we booked a room in the pub - $70 a night for a clean and tidy room. Great value. This is the front of the pub with its trademark bougainvillea and Karen sitting down waiting for brekky to be served. 

This pub is one of our favourites and even when swamped by southern tourists it still manages to do everything well and with good humour. Dinner was my usual threadfin salmon which was up to its usual very high standard, but the best meal was breakfast which was the best Eggs Benedict I have ever had. The eggs were perfect, the ham was superb and the unexpected sides of wilted spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes were excellent. 

Highly recommended!

We set off from Daly Waters and turned onto the Carpentaria Highway to Cape Crawford where we topped up the tank and then went north along the old Savannah Way to Lorella Springs.

The road was generally pretty good and the Pajero handled the corrugations like a champion. We are both impressed with the way it soaks them up and the comfort improvement over the Patrol. 

However, the road off the Savannah Way and into the property is much more demanding. The owners have a sign up just off the Savannah Way that says "Yippee! We have had the road graded!", but I can tell you that they are either joking or that sign is more than a couple of years old! 

It has corrugations to shake the car and you risk losing the fillings out of your teeth, there are bull dust holes that simply explode dust around you as you drop into them - it is worth slowing right down too as some of these holes are a drop into them and then a sharp edge to climb over to get out again. 

We arrived at Lorella and checked in and then found ourselves a spot next to the creek.

It is probably worth putting in a little information about Lorella Springs that people might find useful:

• Size - Lorella Springs is a million acre cattle property although they don't run many cattle now.
• Cost - they charge $20 per person per night and there are only unpowered sites available. Expensive? Not when you consider what else is on offer for the money.
• Facilities - There are flush toilets and donkey** heated showers (wood provided) all over the place.
• Bar/Restaurant - Yes, they have one. The grog is expensive ($9 a can for VB or Tooheys New and $9 a glass for wine), but at least it is there. The bar provides a focal point for people to gather and chat as well. They serve food, but the selection is limited and the skills of the cook are . . . . limited. Steak and chips and salad are $29. 
• Tracks - They have miles and miles of tracks that run all over the property. They provide you with some excellent mud maps of the tracks and the various sights and destinations around the property. You could spend a month here and not see it all! 
• Billabongs, Creeks and Rivers - There are lots of small creeks and a couple of decent rivers around the place and catching a wild fish should not be a major ask. As long as you remember to bring all the relevant tackle. 

 ** For the Poms reading this, a donkey boiler is a simple way of heating water. The cold water pipe is run through something that will allow you to build a fire underneath it. Simple, but effective, way of heating water.

Monday

Well after just about the best night's sleep we have had for what seems like years we woke up and had a leisurely breakfast before checking out the mud maps and deciding upon the destinations of the day.

As it turned out, we decided to hit some of the closer destinations and not over do things. Well, we did have happy hour to look forward to down at the bar! 

So, we trundled off, with Karen opening and closing the gates, and wandered off around what they called the Crocodile Springs Loop. First port of call on this track was the Crocodile Springs themselves where the park provides a small boat for anyone wanting to paddle themselves up and down the billabong.

Given the name of the place, Karen was a little nervous and besides, the boat looked a bit on the small side for two so I jumped in (well, grunted and carefully heaved myself in) and set off for a paddle up and down the place while Karen took lots of embarrassing photos.

These are a few!

The billabong does have a fair old growth of weed and mosses, but the water is crystal clear and it was fun messing about in the boat, but not so much for Karen who was waiting on shore, half certain that I was going to be attacked by some large lizard and end up as its lunch.

Not to be I'm glad to say. 

The next stop along the track was a spot known as Tristan Pool. There is a bit of a car park under some trees and a rough old track down towards the water. It is easy enough to follow though - they have orange streamers tied in the trees to show you the way.

You follow the rocky creek bed until you hit the pool and this is what you see:

Again, there is a fair bit of weed growth but clear, cool water. We weren't looking for a swim just yet though as we wanted to walk on, around Tristan Pool, and on towards the romantically named Wildfire Gorge.

Yep - they have signs like this at most places - a nice touch.

Wildfire Gorge is a clear, open stretch of water that looked very inviting, but we wanted to get on and see a few more places so we headed off to wards Emerald Pool and Fossil Fern.

Emerald pool was a bit TOO green (no surprise with a name like that) and the track to Fossil Fern started to get a bit too overgrown for a brand new car's paintwork.

I don't mind getting bush pinstripes myself (after all, i am going to get them some time) but it was too much for Karen to bear so we turned back and headed off back on the Loop track until we reached Inkspot Pool where decided that we'd get into our togs and take a dip. 

And yes, that's Joe taking a dip. Karen had spent her time in there but wanted to get out before the sun bit too hard while Joe wore his Akubra to keep the UV off his thinning locks and fooled himself that he'd be OK.

The views up and down the pool are below. It isn't an Olympic sized pool, but it is crystal clear and a beaut temperature.

Beautiful isn't it? taking a swim there was also just magical.

<sigh>

So we ended the day by heading home, collecting some firewood on the way, and having a beer at our tent before heading over to the bar for the happy hour and chatting to some nice, friendly people there.

Back to the tent for a delicious meal and another beer around the camp fire before crawling into bed, happy but tired, for another fantastic night's sleep.

Tuesday

Having sat on our butts in the car for most of the previous days we thought we'd take in one of the walks - this one was called the Bower Bird Walk.

it winds alongside one of the creeks and is shaded by lots of trees so it is a pleasant and easy bit of exercise to take in and one that we enjoyed. No pics though - someone forgot to carry the camera!

Eagle's Nest Billabong was the next destination - yet more gates for Karen to open and close - but again this was a beautiful spot to while away a few hours and maybe catch a fish or two. if you have fishing gear that is.

We took advantage of the boat that the owners have tied up there to row up and down the billabong in a leisurely fashion and to check out the eagle's nest itself.

Here are a few images to give you the idea of what it was like:

After being soothed by the time honoured practice of messing about on the river we headed off to see Snapping Handbag Billabong - a place whose name suggests more activity.

As it turns out, there wasn't a croc in sight which was a shame. this bit of water is permanent and as the dry season progresses it becomes home to all the freshwater crocs in the surrounding river systems and apparently you get to see hundreds of them lined up everywhere, just waiting for the wet season to kick in.

It must be quite a sight!

The owners have a boat secured here as well and you are encouraged to head off out on the water to explore, but it was a bit too hot out there for rowing, so Karen and I contented ourselves with sitting in some shade with a beer from the fridge and just drinking it all in. 

We headed off after that and wandered back to the camp site, collecting firewood and chucking it on top of the roof rack, where another couple of pleasant experiences awaited us.

First of all, we ducked down to the hot springs and wallowed around in the warm water (water was about 32 degrees) until we wrinkled up, just chatting to the other campers in there and relaxing.

The second joy was heading off to the bar afterwards and meeting up with Ingrid and Lothar - a very pleasant couple from the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. We compared notes on all sorts of things and found that we had a great deal of interests in common and that's always a great start to any friendship. 

I hope we get to catch up again.

Wednesday

Well, after the water borne joys of the previous days we just had to head off to a place called The Waterslide. After the drive there we were faced with a half hour walk up some broken country to get to this place and it was fun.

The slide is basically a section of water smoothed rock where a small section is continually fed by a small spring and provides a very slippery, smooth surface that you can slide down into the pool at the bottom - just like a water slide in an amusement park. We were accompanied by a few other people and it all added to the atmosphere.

I'm not allowed to show you a picture of Karen sliding down the slippery slope, but this is one of her in the small top pool just above the waterslide itself.

And this is Karen in the bottom pool after she screamed her way down the slippery slope.

We climbed up the slopes behind the waterslide, just to get an idea of the panorama from up there:

And here are the obligatory pictures of the two of us as well.

From the Waterslide we headed off to see Musters Cave and then The Arches.

As you can see, it was pretty hard country, but when we got to The Arches they were really special.

Here's Karen enjoying the shade under one of the arches.

After that we headed back to camp, collecting firewood along the way, and met up with Ingrid and Lothar for a very pleasant couple of ales before having the staff there cook dinner for us (steak, chips and salad), chatting to the staff and the owners and then heading off to sit around the campfire (yes, again!) 

Thursday

Today was going to be our last full day at Lorella (sob, sob) so we decided to take it pretty easy all round and just do some splashing around in somewhere pretty  - Nudie Hot Springs was the name of the place we chose.

Before we got there we explored a side track at the camp site where we found this sign.  Hmmm, intriguing eh?

We, of course, drove past the sign and went in to have a look expecting to find a place chock full of fat German blokes of a "certain age" and small, skinny and wrinkly women of a similar or older age.

What we actually found was an empty camp site with a whole heap of ready cut firewood and open air toilets and showers - yes, the nudism extended to no walls around the showers and no doors on the toilets. 

No people there though, so I nicked half the ready cut firewood and took it back to our camp before we trundled off to Nudie Hot Springs.

Which looked like this:

The water emerges from the ground at over 50 degrees, but by the time it gets to this pool it has cooled to 38 to 40 degrees so it is just like wallowing in a hot bath. Quite a weird experience really, all that hot water and surrounded by tropical forest, but very pleasant. 

As you can see, I stayed in the water a while to soak it all up. 

And while I was in the water  we were visited by a number of birds called Rainbow Bee Eaters. We used to watch these flying around in the back yard of our last apartment, but seeing them out here was even more spectacular and when they started dropping into the water and then flying back to land on a branch and fluff their feathers out - basically having a wash in the warm water, it was a really wonderful sight.

You can see where they get their name can't you?  They flare their wings like this all the time - it must be something to do with the way they hunt insects on the wing. Perhaps the brightly coloured wing and body appearing in front of an insect drives it one way and the bird can catch it more easily? 

So, after lounging around in the pool and being enthralled by the bee eaters we headed back to camp where we cooked dinner and shared our camp fire (great logs from the nudist camp!) with a couple of old soldiers before off to bed and another great night's sleep.

Friday

Heading home, we left Lorella with heavy hearts, but I am sure we'll be back - we have only scratched the surface of the places to see there and it is just so relaxing a place we'll always remember it.

We headed off, north up the Savannah Way and the first stop off was called the Southern Lost City. The turn off took us down a 4km long track that dropped us off at a camp ground with views of this lost city. Like so many others in the area, this lost city is comprised of sandstone spires that have been weathered into unusual shapes. 

Check them out:

The Lost City looked pretty spectacular and there is a walk that takes you all the way around it, but we were on a mission – we wanted to get to Mataranka before it got too late in the day so we left this walk for a future visit and continued on.

The next stop was in Butterfly Springs – the place is a camp ground located near a virtually permanent water source – a spring that is fed by rain collected in a range of hills and filtered through the sandstone. Being a permanent water source it has developed its own local ecology and birds and butterflies dominate. At least during the day. Time pressures meant we left this one for the future as well, but it should be a fun time exploring it. 

The Savannah Way from this point turned into a bit of a dirt super highway and we were able to cruise along at 90 to 100kph easily enough. There are half a dozen river crossings, but they all have early warning signs, to negotiate but at this time of year the water levels are low with the deepest ones having concrete causeways that kept the water depth to maybe 20cm. There were a number of well marked “Dips” as well and most of these would hold flowing water in the wet season but were dry for our journey. 

Unfortunately, the road deteriorated after the first hundred klms and became much rougher. Not anything like a challenge, but corrugations (especially those you find just before and after corners where the peak to trough measurement was up to about 12 to 15cm) are uncomfortable and annoying. The ‘jero handled it all very well although the dash started to dance around a bit. It did slow us down a fair bit though and it was getting on for 3:00pm by the time we rolled into the Roper Bar store for a rest and a coffee.

I added air to the tyres as the road from Roper Bar to Mataranka is bitumen (of the single central strip variety) and I expected to go a bit faster. I considered buying fuel, but the ‘jero seems to be quite economical and the $2.20 a litre price turned me off a bit so we left it alone and headed off to Mataranka, hoping for a cabin or motel room for the night.

The road was OK heading that way and I was able to cruise at 110kph comfortably enough although knocking off the speed and going two wheels onto the dirt was a regular enough feature of the drive as we met people coming the other way. The odd road train forcing us all the way off the road and to a stop as they thundered by.  Still, we hit Mataranka just before 5:00pm and got on the phone looking for somewhere to stay. Bear in mind that this was a long weekend in the Territory (Monday being the Picnic Day holiday) and it was no surprise that everywhere seemed to be booked solid. We did eventually find a cabin on a van park down near Bitter Springs that had a last vacancy - $120 for the night in a cabin – so we grabbed it and flaked out for a while. Dinner on the small deck area was good and afterwards we flopped onto the bed and fell asleep watching the first TV we had seen for over a week. 

We tried to extend our stay for another night, but they were booked solid so after a flop into the hot spring waters of Bitter Springs (so much nicer and so much less crowded than the Mataranka Homestead hot springs) we got back into the car and drove north.

We stopped at Katherine to fill up and found that the ‘jero was using about 10.4 litres per 100 klms since we last filled up and as that included days of 4WDing followed by 370km of dirt road driving (soft tyres) with a full roof rack followed by some reasonably high speed cruising with a full roof rack and all done on a brand new and very tight engine I have to say that I am very happy with that indeed. For the Poms reading this, that figure equates to about 27mpg.

I also stopped at the car wash in Katherine and used the jet wash to remove what seemed like a cubic metre of dust from the ‘jero. It still wasn’t clean, but at least I won’t be wading through a metre of dust and sand down in the car park each time we want to use it! 

Then home and tired, but very happy.