Alice Springs to Katherine

Katherine

 

After setting off from Alice Springs we headed up to the Devil's Marbles. On reaching here the thicker tops came off and the short sleeves and shorts were quickly put on. WARM WEATHER!!!!

We spent just one night here and did a bit of a walk around the area admiring the rock formations.

Camp at the Devil's Marbles

Sunset at the Devil's Marbles

The next day we drove to Elliott and taking a slow and careful drive out of the town, this time we managed to find the track into the Longreach Waterhole (aka Woods Lake). The instructions are: About a kilometre from the town is a cattle grid. About 50 metres past this, on the left-hand side is a track. Don't take the track before the grid or you'll just end up in the cattle yard.

We followed a very corrugated, sandy track until we came to the large waterhole (covers several kilometres in length) with a large number of caravans, motorhomes and tents already set up along the bank. We headed towards the southern end and found a fabulous spot - large shade trees that still allowed sun to reach the solar panels on the roof of the van and a large open area in front that allowed about 20 steps down to the water's edge.

Camp by the Waterhole

We quickly set up camp - tables and chairs out, awning up, brazier in place, solar panels out to keep the freezer going in the car and then relaxed. For four days!

Whilst  here we watched a fabulous display twice daily. Numbers varied, as did the arrival times, but often hundreds of pelicans (accompanied by almost as many cormorants) floated past us in a large flotilla. They were feeding as a group - very coordinated as they all dipped their heads into the water at the same time, raised them, paddled on a bit and then repeated the process for a couple of hundred metres along the waterway. When finished they flew back in formation to the northern end of the waterhole ready to start again later in the day or the next morning depending on the time of day. Fascinating to watch.

Pelican feeding flotilla

 While here, David thought he'd left his spare camera battery and battery charger back in Shepparton and so drove into Elliott (much easier and quicker without the van attached) - to have reception. He phoned our neighbour (with whom we'd left a key) and had her search around to find them, and then post them to us care of the Katherine P.O. Also had her include David's smaller camera that can be fitted in his pocket for when we do some of the longer walks in the heat in the Kimberleys. Three days later, David found the spare battery tucked away neatly in a SAFE, out of the way spot, in the car.

Sunset at Longreach Waterhole

Our next stop was at Elsey National Park, just south of Mataranka. We had stopped here on our last trip and really enjoyed it - solar hot showers are much better than the bird baths we'd had over the previous few days. We spent two nights here and had a drive up to Bitter Springs (about 25kms away) to float around for a couple of hours in the thermal stream that flows through there. We also called in to the thermal pool at Mataranka and decided we still prefer Bitter Springs.

We reached Katherine on Sunday and ,thankfully, we managed to pre-book  a  site at a caravan park - very difficult at this time of year with so many grey nomads on the go - and with Katherine being the turning point for either continuing north to Darwin (as we did in 2012) or west to head into Western Australia. It has been very hot here (yesterday was 40C) and last night we even had the air-conditioner on so we could sleep!

We have been relaxing, reading and having a swim in the pool to cool off. Also, high on the priority list is determining what we needed to buy to take with us when we leave the caravan at Wyndham and head off road for several days in the car with the tent. Katherine is the last big place where you can be sure of purchasing camp gear. After much measuring of the spaces in the back of the car, and running from one shop to another, we bought a small cool box (already have some freezer blocks we keep in the Engel freezer in the back of the car), a tub to put the loose packets of food, drinks, etc in and grabbed a number of cardboard boxes from the local hardware store to fit cooking gear in, etc. Also bought a couple more window shades that will be used in the back of the Prado to reflect/keep the sun off the Engel. Needed the small cooler for our non-frozen goods (milk, marg, lunch stuff).

We ended up staying an extra night in Katherine as rain was predicted (and happened) on Tuesday night/Wednesday. Just have a couple more things to organize (fixing a shade for Sonja's window) and then we'll be off on Thursday. We will take a day or two to go to Wyndham where we will reorganize everything before setting off. We have to watch what we carry in the next couple of days - no fruit, vegetable, plant products (including firewood if it has bark on it) or honey are allowed to be taken into Western Australia. So it will be a lengthy stop at the border crossing. A bit of a pain, but understandable that they want to protect their agricultural industry.

We may or may not have reception at Wyndham and certainly won't along the Gibb River Road, so it will probably be about 3 weeks or so before I can add anything else. Hopefully we will have lots of adventures to tell about and some great photographs to go with them. For those of you who don't know the area, apart from the first few kilometres in from Kununurra and the first 100 or so kilometres in from the Derby end, it is very rough, corrugated and rocky with many river crossings (some crocodile infested). There are spectacular gorges and some great walks and we are looking forward to experiencing it all. We are not sure exactly how long we will take, but that is half of the adventure. We won't be driving all the way to Derby, but plan to come out via Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek at Fitzroy Crossing and then make a couple of days stop at The Bungle Bungle Ranges (Purnululu National Park) before heading back to Wyndham to pick up the van and head back to the Western Australian coast and south.