Home UPDATE 24 SEPTEMBER
Well, its been a while. I feel like a wrung out dish rag at the moment. Covered more than 2,000 Km in the last 3 days, quite a lot of that on single lane roads with oncoming Roadtrains to make life interesting. More on that later.
In Darwin, Mitchell Street is the bar, outside eatery, touristy street and that is where I headed for dinner. Quite a pleasant area. The next day I had a few problems connecting to the internet but once I was properly connected I managed to get a fair bit done.
In the afternoon I visited Crocodyllus Park, an interesting experience. Saw some crocs being fed and was given a guided tour of the complex and an explanation of crocodile behaviour.
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Back to Mitchell Street again for the evening meal and blow me down if I didn't see a red clubbie drive down. I've mentioned it in the Ozclubbies chatline so might find out who it was. www.ozclubbies.com
I did some more internet stuff on Sunday and caught up with emails as well. In the afternoon I went to the Aviation Heritage Museum. Had a guided tour around (the outside) of a B52 bomber. Only one of two on display anywhere in the world. This was an interesting hour or so for a military and aviation enthusiast. A Mark 8 Spitfire demonstrated again that it is one of the best looking aeroplanes ever made.
I also saw a home built ultralight that shows good promise as a new project after I get back home.
The next day I headed off to Kakadu. I have covered this part of the trip as a separate update. Stay tuned. Will it happen this week?
After a day and a half in Kakadu It was back to driving again. I spent the night at a place called Larrimah, about 200 Km south of Katherine. The next day I headed south to Daly Waters and turned East on the Carpentaria highway towards Borroloola. I soon discovered that this was a one lane road which made life interesting. I have never had passing and/or overtaking etiquette on a one lane road explained before, but it didn't take long to learn. Road Trains have right of way! They are about as maneuverable as the Queen Mary and would create so much dust and stones damage as well as the rear most trailer swaying all over the place that it is just common sense to let them have the road. besides who's going to argue. Not me when my head is level with the hub of their wheels. Us mere mortals identify imminent doom bearing down on us, grit our teeth, say a few choice swear words, slow down, pull right off the road and stop. Wait for the Road train to go past. You're too worried about your own survival to worry about whether he has seen you or acknowledged you. Once he has gone you then resume your idyllic road trip. Once or twice is OK but when you have a run of these every 10 Kms or so for a while the thrill of it all soon palls.
Sometimes the width on the side is only a couple of metres and there is a drop off the edge of the bitumen of up to 20 cm. This makes getting back on the road difficult as you need to watch out for tyre damage.
I visited Borroloola. This had been on my list ever since Rolf Harris and his wobble board made a song about it many years ago.
I also visited Bing Bong that has a Pythonesque/Spike Milligan attraction about it. Alas the reality was disappointing.
I returned to Cape Crawford/ Heart Break Hotel Road House for the night. The next day was 377 Km of more one lane road. On this stretch there were a couple of areas where there was not a single tree to be seen for 360 degrees. Quite uncanny!
After reaching Barkly Homestead Road house the road to camooweal was actually 2 lanes but then from there to Mount Isa there were patches of single lane again. I stayed overnight at Mount Isa then headed off to Normanton. The road to cloncurry was OK but then another 400 Km or so of single lane to Normanton.
This shows the Burke and Wills road House about half way to Normanton and is typical of these places. Its an all in one petrol outlet/tavern/shop/caravan park/ motel (if you stretch the imagination). This is all you are likely to find for 2 or 300 Km right across the top end.
I left the trailer and gear at Normanton and drove on to Karumba. It was good to have a decent blast in the car after all the slower work with the trailer and the one lane roads. One of the sites in Normanton was the old burns Philp ware house that conjured up memories of what trading was like in the past
After Normanton about another 350 Km of one lane road out of 600 or so on the way to the Atherton tablelands. I got a fright when a couple of feral pigs went to cross in front of me. Fortunately they stopped on the edge of the road. Would have been a nice old mess if I'd hit one of them.
The changeover from dry, red, dusty, cattle station country to lush, green, almost rain forest country occurred in no more than 10 minutes. It was quite uncanny. It looks like one part of the journey is over. The long drive part. We'll see what the next part will bring.