Episode 12 is here, Cape York.

Enjoy beautiful readers.  Xo

 

Cape York.  What a place.  The fish, the weather, the coastline, the company.  Where to begin, well from the start I guess hey?!

We left Cook Town and b-lined it straight up to Weipa, the gateway to The Cape, where we had planned to meet our good friend & fellow frother of fish, Matt.

Weipa is a small place – built around a mine, a few streets, one main shopping complex, a jetty & that about sums it up.  Besides the mining it’s a fishing town, & we were here to fish.  Honestly Fred has been so excited for this part of the trip for so long.  Catching up with some friends while fishing allllll day everyday catching us breakfast lunch and dinner is what his dreams are made of.  While Matt was finishing up his last few days of work on board a fishing tour boat we decided to have a crack in the tinny around the waterways & off the beaches of Weipa.

 

Matt & his work mate (the barramundi Guru) Donnie met up with us at the caravan park.  We headed out that night for a midnight fish under a nearby bridge, where apparently at the right tide the big mother barra get on the bite.  Though the tide was in our favour, unfortunately this night wasn’t our night for bagging a stonking barra.  Instead we had a few beers, a few yarns & hooked a few delicious & decent sized threadfin salmon.

 

Before we started our big journey up the cape we were waiting on one more member of our little cape crew, Russell.  He wasn’t arriving for a few more days so to fill the time we snuck in a trip just north of Weipa up to Stone Crossing.  It was a magic little area, camp on the river to ourselves, breathtaking sunsets & plenty of fish on the bite.  Could not complain!

 

 

This saratoga (below) I snagged was a memory I won’t be forgetting.  We were slowly mozying up the creek, still sussing out all the snags (clusters of fallen trees in the river; aka barramundi haven), & I just thought I’ll have a flick along the way.  Spotted a little snag under some overhanging shrubs & blow me sideways my cast went long, straight & was hit by this saratoga before it even hit the water!  It was epic! (especially seeing as half, possibly more, of my casts end up NO where near where I intended them to go!).

 

Back in Weipa, preparing all our gear & collecting the last member of The Cape Crew.  See below the boys showing off their plastic toys to each other.  I’ve learned this year there simply is no such thing as enough tackle according to a fisherman.

 

First stop on our way up the cape, Fruit Bat Falls.  And all to ourselves, how spoiled are we?!  Perfect location to cool down after a morning spent in the car.

 

Bit of a tight spot at the Crystal Creek Crossing.  This track we later found out is now closed to the general public due to a mining lease.  But there was no signage when we came through & the ranger we later met on the beach was nice enough to let us stay camped for a couple nights.  Especially after he heard we took the old log bridge in (there was a non hectic option, but of course we had to take the challenge!).  In the rangers words, “you fellas craaaazeeee, that bridge is not maintained, you lucky.  Lucky crazies” he chuckled.  I was thinking more along the line of “you idiots!”.  It was a little stressful, getting the patrol & camper across was pretty tight!  One tire nearly, nearly went off.  I’m VERY glad it didn’t, LOL.  The boys of course were like “she’ll be riiiiight”, as they alway say until it is not right.  But this time, to my very happy relief she was right! YAY.  Though I have to mention there was a lot more sweat beading off each of the boys brows throughout the process, they will never admit that though!

 

After the adrenaline rush of crossing the dodgy log bridge & making it to the beach, it was only more than necessary for us to get bogged a half a dozen times before we made it to the camp spot at the end!

The waterways & fishing around Vrilya Point (the camp spot at the end of the beach) were second to none.  Barramundi, mangrove jack, small GT’s, flatties & queenys keeping us entertained for our entire stay.

 

Not to mention the sunrises!

 

 

After leaving Vrilya Point we kept on the road north stopping in a few of the small towns along the way.

 

Punsand Bay was our next camp spot.  Located a smidgen south of the most northern point of Australia, it’s a beautiful big bay with a few scattered islands around as well as some small creeks to explore.   You can see the local indigenous peoples cruising the water in search of turtles during the day up here.  They still hunt & eat them which is quite interesting!  One of the better things about travelling around the cape so late in the year (during October / November) was that there was literally no one else around.  We didn’t share a single camp site, what a treat.

 

Mackerel for dinner this night.  Perfect size for the 4 of us!

 

And here’s old Rus dawg listening for his own bowel sounds.  He had convinced himself something was seriously wrong after losing track of his ‘regular’ motions.  Mr hypochondriac, google always works wonders, LOL.  Status update – peristalsis was present & the next morning the big boy was back on track & worries diminished back to below sub zero.

 

The Tip.

 

Arriving here felt like such a milestone.  We have come so far since the beginning of 2017, experienced so much coastline, so much of what Australia has to offer, as well as grown so much personally.  A feeling of significance, from here on we only have the east coast left to travel before we are home n hosed.  It kind of felt like the beginning of the end, though not in such a dramatic way, more so in a happy we have come so far kind of a way, if that makes sense.  One things for sure it has been one hell of a crazy adventurous year!!

 

As our luck would have it as soon as we had spent our time at the tip & were on the road south again, hiccups.  We had planned on camping at a few more locations on the eastern side of the cape on the way south.  But Perry the Patrol & his failing clutch had other plans for us.  It was a Sunday, no where was open & the clutch was well & truly on it’s way out, any kind of hill was getting a bit more than sketchy.  So the team decided it’s best to head south, see if we can get it fixed in Cairns.  Almost as soon as this decision was made it started raining.  Like, really raining.  Like the wet season is here kinda raining.  We had gone as far as we could in the day & had to pull up for camp.  It thunder stormed like I have never heard before!  So loud!!  I find thunderstorms like that fun & terrifying all at once, when the lightening is striking so close by – it’s an amazing rush, well just as long as it does’t burn me to a crisp.

We spent the night resting up to the sound of rain, thinking about how fun #notfun it was going to be packing all our soaking things up & hoping we would be able to make it back down south, along the dusty red now extremely wet & muddy road!

The rain & clutch combined – I figured it was a sign ~ we were ready to head south, back to civilization, back to work.   With a few slides through the mud & some over night stops along the way (highly recommend the ‘rum bar’ at Port Douglas) we made it back to Townsville.  Fred’s family live here so this is where we are pulling up stops for a while.  Fred has to get back to sea, & I had lined up a job at the hospital here.  First time I’ve worked all year!!  Lol.

Matt & Russell continued south back home to The Sunshine Coast.  MASSIVE shout out to you boys.  It was so SO good to have you join us for this part of the trip & really make the cape an adventure to remember!  Double lucky we got to have you on your birthday Russell!  It was just so crazy good to hang out with some of our closest friend’s, we have missed them all so much this year.  That’s definitely one thing travel is good for, making you truly appreciated the people you leave behind back home.

 

Apologies for the delay in posting about the cape, it seems working life got the better of my time!  As it does!!!  Working through all November has been great, it was so great to get back into an emergency department & get my ‘nurse on’ again.  I love my work, but I also love my holidays!  This stint definitely made me further appreciate how lucky we have been to travel so much this year.  And it has given us (more so me, seeing as Fred has still been working half the year) not only the coin but also the itch to get back into some more adventures.  Fred is now back to working month on, month off, so our travels will be back into a more of a stop start pattern.

The next chapter of our travels around Australia is going to be a bit different – a sea chapter.  Sailing the Great Barrier & Marion Reefs as well as the Whitsundays on Fred’s parents new yacht.  And we are PUMPED (UNDER statement of the year)!!!!!!!

Until then, thanks for reading.

Xo

 

 

Here we go again with the film version of our travels, this time for far North-East Queensland.  What a beautifully luscious part of our magnificent country!

Enjoy. Xo

It has been a while since I have posted about our travels, apologies!!  Got a bit caught up with collecting our new camper, seeing family & catching up with a few friends along the way.

Anyways, here goes to kicking it off where we left last time…  After leaving Karumba it was again time to sit our arses in Perry the Patrol & get rolling once more.  We were on the road towards Cairns, via The Atherton Table Lands.  Holy smokes were we pumped to be heading back to the east coast.  It’s been so long!!

The Atherton Table lands are breathtaking.  Luscious rainforests, rolling green hills & waterfalls to boot.  Plus epic local produce if it tickles your fancy.  It was truly a breath of fresh air to be surrounded in such vibrant rainforest.  Since we have spent the past 4-5 months in the outback with a LOT of dust.  It reminded me of our very green island home, Tasmania.

We spent a lot of time doing short walks to waterfalls & swimming holes.  You can’t ever get enough of waterfalls really can you..? (Ah hem, NO).

Cairns was great to stop in a get a good feed & a few beers on the waterfront.  While we were here my brother phoned me, just to chat.  He asked us where abouts we were & when we told him he was like “No shit, I’m coming to Cairns on the weekend!!!”.  How friggin random!!?  Oh and how friggin awesome!!?  I have missed my family terribly throughout this year of constant travelling.  It has been the longest time I have ever been away from them.  And so it was SO great to see my youngest bro Robbie, even if it did mean crashing his end of season footy trip antics!

Fred thought it would be a good idea to throw Barney a stick out on the mud flats at low tide at main beach in Cairns.  FAIL!  Stinky, filthy shepherd it is!

The coastline south of Cairns all the way to Cook Town is beautiful & green.  With palm trees crowding every foreshore & luscious green mountains as far as you dare look, it definitely isn’t harsh on the eyes.

Port Douglas although filled with tourists, was gorgeous.  And it seemed you never had to drive too far from the main towns / communities to get a beach (almost) to yourself.  A few nice places to eat & drink about too.  We found this one rum bar on the main strip, definitely worth a gander if you’re here.  Some of the mixes were pretty out there!

Recent discovery we have made – Barney LOVES coconuts.  LOL.  Like LOVE loves them.  He would chase them all day, all night if he could.  And that’s great with us, no need to buy any more expensive doggy toys that are broken within 2 minutes!

We stayed at Fred’s friend Jack’s place in Mossman.  On his family’s beautiful sugar cane farm, at the foot of the Daintree & Mossman Gorge.  And this is where we left Barney before we headed further north, toward Cook Town & Cape York.  The Daintree National Park is a no go zone for pooches & we thought its getting a bit too hot & sweaty for a shaggy dog to go up the Cape at this time of year.  Plus the Cape is planned to be a fishing trip, & though Barney loves coming out in the tinny, that’s usually only for a couple hours at most.  I cried when we left him.  It’s the longest stint we have done without him, but I knew he was in good hands.

Mega big shout out to the Murday family!!  For taking Barney in on their farm, & looking after him so well.  He had such a good time he wasn’t even that excited to see us when we came back & collected him almost a month later!!

We both frothed on The Daintree area.  With a continued theme of thick rainforest, beautiful beaches & good fishing we couldn’t go wrong.  It is a shame you can’t swim off the mainland coastline in north Queensland.  Well, you can’t swim if crocodiles, killer jellyfish, sharks & swimming knives bother you anyway!  There are some designated swimming areas that have been netted off, but it’s not really the same as running down to a deserted beach & swimming out off the shore.  Everywhere has it’s ups & downs.  Hose offs at camp work just as well cooling you down anyway!

Spotted a few of these guys from our tinny during our fishing sessions.  Pretty darn scary really, they are so big!  And we know crocs can jump bloody high.  And our boat is verrrrry small.  They always seem to pop up / out of nowhere too, they are ambush predators after all.  The king’s of stealth!  When we saw them from our tinny we would just calmly putt off in a different direction, LOL.

Cape Tribulation was one of the highlights of the Daintree.  It had an awesome camp right by the beach, with a place to have a flick close by, trees to climb & coconuts to eat (if you can manage getting them down from the trees!).

Watching Fred getting some coconuts down from some very high coconut trees.  Very amusing!  Such a tastey snack.

After exploring the Daintree it was time to start heading up Cape York Peninsula.  Only pretty much the whole reason Fred wanted to do this trip around Australia in the first place.  And literally alllllll he has been talking about for the past 10 months, LOL.  Hype levels are high to say the least!

For now though I will leave our story here, & will pick back up with some Cape time gossip soon.

Stay tuned! X o

 

We’ve been a bit slow on the blog front of late, caught up in all our travels I guess!!

Here’s a snap of our time in far north-west Queensland.  Enjoy! Xo

And so we made it to Queensland!!

Our first few nights were spent in the hot & dusty town of Camooweal.  A place where not too much happens besides arvo beers at the local, but nice enough while we waited for Fred’s parents to come & meet us.  They were travelling from Townsville with their Jayco off-road camper trailer, ready to make a most unfair of trades – their camper trailer for our huge hire trailer full of all our crap!!

We cannot express our gratitude enough.  Since our caravan turned cactus in Darwin we have been living the swag life.  Yes it is beautiful to always be out in nature, sleeping under the stars & truly immersing in the great outdoors (do you feel the but coming on..?! LOL).  Fred could live out the rest of his days in the swag, but I’m afraid I can’t say the same for me!!  I love camping, but I also love having the option to be clean, tidy & organized & that doesn’t happen living out of the swag.  Having the Jayco camper means having a bit more space for us all (Me, Fred & Barney), & having a bit more of a home for the rest of our journey up to Cape York & back down the East Coast of Australia.  THANK YOU so so SO much Wendy & Glenn, we owe you big time!!!

It was wonderful to see them too, the first members of family we have seen since my mothership visited us in Port Lincoln back in March.  Oh & can’t forget little Squeaky, even if he wasn’t so impressed to see his boofy cousin Barney!

We spent a couple days catching up, in between seeing the sites of Camooweal & me making everyone stream-watch my brothers AFL grand final from back in Tassie!  So devastated Lauderdale lost, but well done to them on making their very first TSL grand final, next year boys!!

Once the swap was all settled & we had said our goodbyes (for now), it was time to hit the road once more.  Oh but wait, things couldn’t be that easy, gotta throw in another hurdle just for good measure!  As Fred was getting the car ready to drive away the starter motor decided to chuck a bit of a tantrum.  It had been playing up a bit throughout the trip, but now had thrown in the towel.  Luckily we have a mechanic on speed dial & he gave Fred the low down so we could get the car started again without burning the engine to a pulp!  (The problem wasn’t that it wouldn’t start, rather that it wouldn’t stop.  It was firing non stop, frying connections & making a great deal of smoke!).  Thanking you Garrett for all your help!!

After sorting out a new starter motor in Mount Isa, we were finally back on track.  Travelling through far north, western Queensland, if that makes sense!  Near the NT border making our way for The Gulf of Carpentaria.

Adels Grove was a beautiful camp along the way.  Surrounded by empty flat plains, it was a pleasant surprise driving in & tucking our camper away in the shade of a jungle of trees here.  We could have easily stayed for a week if we had the time.

See below the epic rope swing they have for you to Tarzan your way into the nice cool river.

Just down the road from Adels Grove is the Boodjamulla National Park.  And oh how amazing it was to plunge into some luscious Queensland greenery!!!  It’s still largely barren out this way, near the Australian Savannah, where the land is flat & pretty dusty.  So it was so nice to get a fix of some tropical greens!

Next stop was Bowthorn Station near Doomadgee, to see one of Fred’s old boarding school buddies, Jack.  He’s a geologist working on finding either nickel or copper (I’ve forgotten which, I think it was copper! LOL) out this way.  Shout out to you Jack & your lovely mrs Izzy, for showing us around & for your kind hospitality!  It was awesome to go somewhere we wouldn’t otherwise of had the opportunity to see, thanking you guys!

Along the Savannah Way, Burketown was our next stop.  The barramundi capital of Australia, or so they claim.  We weren’t able to prove that theory right, though we gave it a crack!

Burketown is right down the bottom of the Gulf, apparently the only place in Australia where at certain times of the year you can see the natural phenomenon called The Morning Glory.  Not what you’re thinking I can assure you!!  It’s actually a natural wonder caused by the atmospheric weather, which creates ‘log roll’ like clouds.  These clouds sit low to the ground, stretch over the horizon & literally roll in up the Gulf in the early mornings at a speed of up to 60 k’s per hour.  Pretty darn crazy!!  Unfortunately it was over cast the few mornings we woke up here, so we didn’t get to experience it, just the crazies that had come from all corners of the country to see it full frothing to tell us ALLLLLL about it, LOL.

We had heard stories about the famous Purple Pub in Normanton, though regretfully we didn’t rate it that highly.  Perhaps if their service was a little better than full on rude, or their food tasted at least a little bit nice…    You’re better off going over the road for a conversation with a statue of Australia’s largest crocodile!

We finally landed a sized barramundi on the river at Karumba.  I say we, but lets face it – it was me (LOL!).  And what a beauty!!  Dinner for us for that next few nights at least.  Made getting destroyed by sandflies worth it!  I love catching fish for us to eat, how better a way to know where your food has come from, while keeping it local & sustainable than to catch it yourself!

*TIP: If you’re heading out on the water in this region do your skin a favour & cover it up!  As well as “Bushman” the bageezers out of any skin left uncovered.  If you have irritable southern skin like me you’ll save yourself weeks of insanely itchy nights & your sanity!

The waterfront at Karumba Point proved a great spot for a beach stroll.

And a great place to watch the sun set over the ocean while sinking an ice-cold beverage from the pub, ahhhhhhhh.

Once again thanks for reading, we hope you have enjoyed.  For us it is now time to take the road toward tropical Queensland – Cairns.  I bloody can’t wait for all the greenery & rainforests to smack us right in the face.  Whoop!

Until next time.

Xo

Another short clip I have made, this time of our journey through the great NT!  Click the link below & enjoy!!

After the long haul drive from Katherine, with a few stopovers in between we arrived in Alice Springs, happily greeting the mildly cooler weather (33-35 instead of 38-40!).

Alice itself is situated right in front of where the West MacDonnell Ranges meet the East.  Alive with history & culture we spent our time visiting the weekend markets, the cultural art centre & old aerodrome.

When you think of Uluru you think Yeah, the gigantic rock in the centre of Oz near Alice Springs.  What you do not think of is the definition of near in that sentence.  It is around 430 k’s away.  In my Tasmanian terms that’s more than half a lap of the state!!  I guess the fact there isn’t much in between is why it is referred to as close by.

So we drove, drove, drove.  Got sore numb bums & drove some more.  See below The Devil’s Marbles, found along the road to Alice Springs, as well as Mount Conner, it’s the first big thing you can see popping out of the flat horizon on your way to Uluru.

And then, finally, Uluru comes into view.  Rising 348 metres from the desert floor, 863 metres above sea level, with a circumference of 9.4 kilometres.  Composed of a type of a course grained sandstone called arkose, it is Australia’s second biggest & arguably most impressive rock.  Demanding respect, it took our breath away.

The outback is a special place, alive with dreamtime stories & space.  It’s peaceful in the desert.  And simple.  We sat in silence for hours at our camp over looking Uluru, the only noise the distant wind sweeping off the flat land.  Watching the sun set over Kata Tjuta (The Olgars), snapping photos & brewing a roast in the camp oven.

It’s been a swag life since leaving The Clam behind in Darwin.  We have to admit it has had its significant upsides, sleeping under the stars is hard to beat.  It’s a grubby life in the swag, especially out here in the red bull dust.  But if you can get over being a little dirty all the time & appreciate where you are, it is such a wonderful way to get back to truly experiencing the land & all it has to offer.  No better place than outback Australia to learn how to take photos of the night’s sky!

We walked the base of Uluru, as well as drove it – you kind of have to drive to get the whole rock in full view.  And what a view it is!

Kata Tjuta makes up the other half of the Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park.  Otherwise known as The Olgas, it is a collection of towering sphere shaped rocks.

Besides sharing our experience of the area with LOT of tourists, we loved it out here.

The West MacDonnell ranges were quite the dandiest.  Providing oodles of gorges, swimming holes, a meteor crater, & breathtaking ridges that seemingly reached the horizon.  We spent a few days exploring the area.

TIP: If you hate flies, make sure you purchase one of those ridiculously stupid looking face-fly nets before coming to the centre of Oz.  Cos I can tell you right now they are friggin everywhere!!  And when you’re hot, sweaty & still have a full days worth of exploring to do there’s nothing more annoying than a million flies landing under your sunnies, on your eye balls, up your nose & in your gob!

Though many of the water holes had dried up there were still as few good ones to cool off in.  It’s just something we hadn’t envisaged to be in the outback, spectacular high gorges & large bodies of water.

Lucky for us the free camp near Uluru was outside the National Park and so Barney boy was allowed.  He was also permitted in the car & car parks throughout the majority of the West MacDonnell ranges.  In saying this it did hinder us a little, meaning we couldn’t do any of the longer hikes & limited where we could camp.  We would probably advise leaving your pooch in a kennel or with a dog sitter in Alice Springs.

Slowly we improved our night’s sky photography.  Still a long way to go, but having so much fun learning!

All together it was a major detour coming down here to visit Alice, Uluru – Kata Tjuta & The MacDonnell Ranges, but one that was absolutely worth it.  Truly, you can’t cut a lap of Oz & not see the red centre can you!!?

From here we head north again, hook a right hand turn & make way for the land of banana benders.

Thanks for reading, hope you have enjoyed & stay tuned for the next installment of Bear, Fred & Barney’s journey around AUS!

Xo

We entered Kakadu National Park via the Adelaide River, stopping in on the way to go on a crocodile-watching cruise.  A great experience, we imagined we’d have to be cruising down the river a while before spotting a croc.  Once again we were in for a pleasant surprise.  Greeting us as soon as we climbed aboard was a 5m long salt water crocodile, known by the locals as, The Dominator.

It seemed as though the resident crocs knew exactly what time it was once the cruise started – snack time!  They were coming out of the woodwork everywhere we looked.  The tour guide would hoax them in with a piece of buffalo meat, throw it around in the air on a stick for a bit, until the croc jumped up & snatched it.  A practice entirely for tourist satisfaction.  From what we understood from the guide apparently the crocs are not dependent on these snacks, & are well & truly capable of hunting for themselves.  The Northern Territory has a very healthy number of crocodiles.  Australia wide populations are estimated somewhere between 100’000 – 200’000!  A very good come-back after they were extensively hunted in the mid 1900’s.

Brutus is probably Adelaide River’s most famous croc.  He’s got his patch of the river on lock down, with every other croc turning away in fear as soon as he notices them in his territory.  He’s roughly 80 years old, has had his front legs ripped off during fights with other crocs & bull-sharks, & has no teeth left but still manages to rule the river!

 

Although it is the dry season, & many of the flowing waterfalls & holes were not in full swing, there was still more than enough to see & do in Kakadu.

You know when you’re watching David Attenborough or which ever other doco about outback Australia, and all you can hear in the background is the lovely sound of sweet chirping birdies..?  We always assumed they were edited in, ya know, for extra effect.  Turns out they’re not!  There are SO many birds up here, always chirping & singing.  They are beautiful!!  Picture below was looking out over some wetlands with hundreds of birds, just before sunset.

The aboriginal rock art throughout Kakadu blew us away.  There’s just something extra in the air when you are out in middle of no where, staring at 2000 year old art trying to contemplate how people lived in those days, how strong their culture was (& still is).  Personally, we love learning about the aboriginal dreamtime & their stories behind creation.

 

It has been around 37-39 degrees everyday & humid.  In other words, sweaty.  Sweaty sweaty sweaty!!  Hiking along fresh water creeks & riverbeds is always made extra rewarding when there’s a cool swimming hole at the end.

 

Pictures below are from Cahill’s Crossing, on the East Alligator River.  One of Australia’s most hazardous waterways, notorious for its saltwater crocodile infested waters.  We had the rods out & were on the barramundi hunt once again, making sure we kept all senses on high alert for any hungry salties.  There was a fresh bunch of flowers on the side of the road leading into this crossing, in memory of a fisherman taken by a croc only a few months earlier.  The threat is real!!  But so is the thrill of catching barra, as long as you play it smart & safe, & do not even think about getting any body part wet, she’ll be right.  (*Disclaimer* we are in no way claiming that we are not in fact idiots, the more likely truth is we most certainly are).

There were a few crocs close by, popping up every 15 minutes or so.  Maybe they were waiting for us to catch a barra, we hear they often snatch them from the fishermen/women’s line as they’re reeling them in!  At least we hope that was the case & that they weren’t waiting to snatch one of us!  Either way, our senseless ass’s survived & will live to fish another day.

Altogether we had a great time exploring Kakadu.  There are so many things to see & do, we could have easily stayed longer.  But The Red Centre is calling & just quietly I am so excited for some cooler nights, this constant humid heat is a bit much for my little Tasmanian soul!

 

On the way south we stopped off at Bitter Springs in Mataranka.  What an enchanted place that is!  Crystal clear, warm spring fed fern pools were so delicious in the early morning, see below.

 

If you’re after a feed on the way down to Tennant Creek (on the road to Alice), don’t miss the Daly Waters Historic Pub.  Give it a miss if you can’t handle exhausted underwear, hats, stickers, shirts & LITERALLY anything else you can think of that can be worn, hanging from every inch of the walls.  But if you love a good barra burger & some true quirky Aussie character, get amongst it!

So now we continue the long, long road south to Alice Springs & her surrounds.

We hope you are enjoying following our journey across this magical country so far.  Thanks for reading & stay tuned!!

Xo

After leaving Lake Argyle we said a sad good bye to WA, it’s been our home for the past 6 months! But a very happy hello to the great NT!!

Katherine was our first stop.  There’s a few nice national parks around the area to sight see.  Quite a number of hikes too but we skipped those for the heat was a bit much.  Happy enough to find the waterholes & cool off!  There was also a sneaky hot spring right in the middle of town, which was surprisingly lovely in the cooler mornings.

We left old Barn dog in a kennel here while we travelled further north toward Darwin.  Both Litchfield & Kakadu national parks are on the way up, & as there’s only one main road in & out of Darwin we thought it best he stay here.  We’ll collect him on the way back in a week.  The longest stay he has had away from us yet, & no it was not easy being away from my fur child that long.  I missed his sloppy kisses & sooky “Pat me!” whines dearly!  Even had to be that annoying mother who calls day care (the kennel) every second day to see how my boy’s doing… lol.

Douglas Springs were hot hot hot!!  Too hot in some sections to even swim.  Very pretty though.

 

Roughly 2-3 hours from Katherine, Litchfield National Park is a must see.  With a range of waterfalls, gorges, short hikes through rainforest & rock pools, we definitely had our days filled in!  Fairly touristy, we didn’t get the pleasure of swimming at the holes on our own, but still they are so beautiful & we were way too hot.  Sharing with a few other stoked humans didn’t matter.

It’s a fully bitumen road through the park, which was great for us taking it easy with The Clam (our caravan).  Or so we thought….  After only half a day of driving around exploring the park Fred had noticed the cracks in the chassis, which we had repaired (TWICE) in Broome, had reappeared. 😦

Our thoughts exactly = SHIT.  What’s worse was that along with the two ever-reappearing cracks on the left side of the chassis, now there was also a huge-donkey NEW crack almost all the way through the chassis on the right side.

Our thoughts exactly = F*#%.  Game over.  That night was certainly one of the harder nights sleep we have had.  So many thoughts, ideas & scenarios running through our heads.  After seeing the remainder of Litchfield (minus The Clam, she stayed parked on the side of the road), we had to figure out what to do next.  Do we call the insurance company now & wait all day for a tow truck…  Do we risk it & drive into Darwin ourselves…  We chose the later of the two & took it ourselves to a few places to see what their opinions were.  It was a tense drive into town – both of us praying to the higher powers for the van to stay in one piece.  Lucky for us it did.  After arriving in Darwin, we then rang the insurance company & oh goodie, we were back on the insurance waiting game journey.

While we were waiting for the professionals to come up with a quote to fix the van & get all the assessments done we decided to fill in our time seeing what Darwin has to offer.

I twisted Fred’s arm & got us booked on fishing tour.  Fred wasn’t so keen, figuring we could just take our own boat & have a dig ourselves.  But I figured why not try one day with a local pro who knows the area & can guarantee you’ll catch barra or you get your money back!  We spent nearly a full day out on the water off Dundee Beach on the elusive barramundi hunt.  Unfortunately there was no Mick in sight, but barra were a plenty!!  We were reeling them in almost non-stop!!  Goes without saying Fred nudged me not too long after catching his first decent barra, big grin on his face, “yeah, this was definitely worth it! Good idea babe”.  Lol, win for me!

We also saw a few resident crocs roaming around, such cool animals!

The Mindil Beach markets are a must do.  Live music, good food, trinkets & a magnificent sunset will have us any day!

A day going back in time at the war museum was very humbling, & interesting.  Must respect to the old diggers!

We also managed to catch our old Tassie friend JC & his girl Shida for a good old catch up in between sipping on a coupla cold ones!  Thanking you Shida for the ridiculously tastey spread you put on!!

And the botanical gardens proved itself a nice place to waste time if that’s what you need to do around Darwin!

The natural aquatic playground Berry Springs was another breathtaking place.  With a few different pools & a little river linking them all together, it was a great place to literally drown our sorrows regarding The Clam.

 

I could go on & on about how much of a shitty situation it has been with our caravan.  It is what it is.  And yes it sucks.  We put so many hours last year into The Clam, getting her ready for this trip.  So many personal touches.  It has so much character – yes she’s old & she’s been around the block once or twice before, but still it’s hard to let go & accept her ultimate fate – that she won’t be leaving Darwin.  And we will. 😦  BUT as sad as it is, it is just a challenge that we are more than capable of overcoming.

 With the insurance company somehow coming to their current conclusion that they would cover the cost to fix one half of the damage, & not the other, we’re left in a bit of a pickle.  Like, WTF use is it getting half of the caravan fixed..?  It didn’t help that the repairers only quoted for a half-arsed fix either.  It basically needs a whole new underside & that doesn’t come cheap, so their alternate idea is to try & patch up the damage, again.  Seeing as the last 2 patch up repairs have failed within a fortnight we don’t really like this idea very much.  We DO NOT want to find ourselves in this situation yet again on this trip.

So, if we were going to get it fixed we would want it to be a legit job & we would need all the help possible from the insurance company.  (A full on legitimate repair would cost as much as we paid for the van!).  As well as time, we would need more time.  It is something we are running sweet out of with the wet season creeping slowly upon us (It actually rained yesterday!).  We don’t really want to be here for another 2-3 weeks waiting for the repair.

The stupidest thing of all was that for the whole week we were waiting for their assessment to come through everyone within the insurance company we spoke to virtually told us it would be written off.  That the damage was too extensive to warrant fixing.  Basically, un-roadworthy & not worth repair.  So we had braced ourselves for this, & were expecting to be paid out for it.  Mmm yeah, dream on.  Not the case thus far.  We are learning insurance companies don’t like to pay you, & if they can find a reason not to, by crickey they will!

So, where are we at?  Well, we aren’t really sure.  We came to the tough decision to leave The Clam behind, parked in our friend JC’s paddock.  We didn’t want to be sitting, waiting & getting down any longer.  Sooo for now, we have hired a trailer, piled everything from the caravan into it, & are sleeping in our double swag.  On the road again: camping, exploring & continuing to have a good time.  With a few tears along the way we are making it work so we still get to travel & see this great country.  Just with a little less wriggle room.

Fred’s parents have gone far & beyond regular parental duty & so kindly offered to meet us near Mount Isa with their camper trailer (they live in northern Queensland).  And so this could be a very real possibility for us, swap them our hire trailer for their lovely, shiny, made for the off-road pop up camper!  Mega shout out to you Wendy & Glenn, we are beyond grateful for the offer!!

For now though, we wait to hear the insurance companies latest pitch & in the mean time are continuing slowly along the road.  Taking each day as it comes.

Kakadu National Park, we’ll be seeing you.

Thanks for reading, hope you have enjoyed.

Xo