Keep River National Park

After leaving Timber Creek, we travelled 182 km this morning before turning north just 3 km short of the West Australian border onto another dirt road as we entered Keep River National Park. The park has two camping areas. Gurrandaing, the first campsite, is 18 km from the entrance, and Jarrnarm is 28 km along what I would call a very badly corrugated dirt road that wasn't at all very pleasurable to drive along. Both sites have pit toilets, and drinking water is available at the Ranger Station just inside the park. We based ourselves at the Gurrandaing campsite and were lucky to get one of the better parking bays, as the people who were on this particular site were about to leave. The park is quite small in size, but some of the spectacular rock formations make up for its small size. What we didn't know before arriving was that the park's staff had recently undertaken a burn-off within the National Park, and if there had been signage at the park's entrance indicating this, we wouldn't have bothered going in. Our plan was to spend three days doing all the different walks, but with all the ground cover burnt, including most of the palms, we decided to stay just one night and then head into Kununurra. We completed the 2 km circuit walk near our campsite before heading off in the morning, feeling quite disappointed. 

Across The Northern Territory

We were planning to spend an extra day camping by the river outside Camooweal, but have decided to move on, hopefully to a warmer location.

 

It was ten degrees inside the van at 7 am. We emptied our toilet cassette in town and topped up one of our non-potable tanks before stopping at the Northern Territory sign just 13 km away. The sign was welcoming us to the Northern Territory, so Ros took a photo, while I successfully found a geocache hidden nearby.

 The easterly winds that have been blowing for the past several days were still quite strong and aided our fuel consumption as we continued across the Barkly Tableland. We stopped for morning tea at the Barkly Roadhouse, and I was again successful in finding another cache.

 

We pressed on for another 117 km to camp at 41 Mile Bore, a free camp. We were appalled by the amount of rubbish scattered around the site, including a significant amount of toilet paper blowing in the breeze. There were plenty of bins around the site, all with lids to keep the birds from rummaging through the rubbish. After donning our plastic gloves, we had filled six plastic bags an hour later, and the place looked much better than when we arrived.

Another cool morning at just ten degrees inside the van. The diesel heater ran for half an hour before we felt comfortable enough to leave the warmth of our beds and get dressed. There is currently a slight breeze blowing from the east, but I'm sure it will pick up as it has done for the past four days. 
 
We left camp for the remaining 70 km drive across the Barkly before turning north onto the Stuart Highway.
We passed three Bushtrackers along the way, but none of them were on channel, so we couldn't say g'day except for the usual wave. We refuelled at the Three Ways for $ 189.90 per litre before stopping at the Attack Creek rest area for morning tea. We bypassed Renner Springs and arrived in Elliott just after midday.
 
We turned off the highway just past the town to take the 12 km dirt road that would lead us to Longreach Waterhole. The road was sandy and corrugated and felt much rougher than it really was because our tyres on the 4WD and van were still at highway pressures. Today was just like all our other days so far on this trip, where we try to make camp around or just after midday. We then enjoy a cold beer before setting up camp. 
 
The waterhole stretches for many kilometres, and the twenty or so vans here are spaced out at a reasonable distance from each other. The birdlife is quite amazing, with pelicans, brolgas, herons, cormorants, egrets and jabirus, to name but a few.

After three wonderful nights, it was hard to tear ourselves away from this very peaceful campsite.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time here, and when we return, it will be for a much longer stay.

 

Continuing north along the Stuart Highway, we reached Dunmarra, where we refuelled. Dunmarra is a roadhouse offering fuel and various levels of accommodation, including a caravan park.

 

From here, it was just a short distance until we turned west off the Stuart and onto the Buchanan Highway. This road was named after Nat Buchanan.

This road connects the Stuart and Victoria Highways and remains unsealed for its entire 393 km length. Surprisingly, it's called a highway, but it's really just another dirt road. 

 

We stopped briefly while we reduced tyre pressures on the 4wd and van before continuing. Taking this route instead of the bitumen north to Katherine, then west towards Kununurra in Western Australia saves about 175 km, but to us, it's more about the drive- seeing new scenery and choosing the road less travelled. 

 

From just north of Newcastle Waters on the Stuart Highway, the Murranji Stock Route heads northwest, finally running parallel with the Buchanan about 100 km from the Stuart Highway. It continues like this until it reaches Top Springs. Its total length is just over 240 km. 

 

This stock route gained a terrible reputation because of the lack of water along the way and the lancewood scrub through which the track passed. Once a path was finally found and bores were sunk, it became a shortcut for drovers travelling to and from the Kimberley. This stock route, along with the Barkly Stock Route, was established by Nat Buchanan.

 

Tonight, our plan was to camp at either Illawarra Creek or the Armstrong River, but neither of the sites allowed us to get far enough off the road with our van. Our only alternative was to continue towards Top Springs, which sits at the crossroads of the Buntine and Buchanan Highways. We parked in the large dirt area adjacent to the roadhouse, which was covered in bulldust. We shared the site with two B-triples carting hay to outlying cattle stations.

The Buchanan, from the Stuart Highway to Top Springs totaling 182 km turned out to be quite a rough piece of dirt road. There were plentiful amounts corrugations and patches of bulldust. 

We were finally glad and a little frazzled by the time we had finished the days driving. Our midday beer wasn't consumed until 3:30 when we stopped for the day. 

Thankfully, the temperatures had now increased, with this morning's temperature at 7 am reaching seventeen degrees. Before leaving Top Springs, I inquired at the Roadhouse about the conditions for the remaining 212 km of dirt road until we reached the Victoria Highway. They indicated that it was much better than what we had experienced the previous day, except that it became rough for the last 55 km through Jasper Gorge and to the Victoria Highway.

 

The trees that had encroached right up to the roadside on the way to Top Springs yesterday disappeared about 20 km after leaving Top Springs. Had we known this, we would have continued on to find a more pleasant spot to camp.

 

The information provided at Top Springs proved to be correct, with the corrugations being much kinder to us than they were yesterday. There were, however, large sections of bulldust as we neared Victoria River Downs. At 12,000 sq km, the station is quite large, although it was once much larger than this. We stopped briefly at Dashwood Crossing on the Victoria River for a photograph before continuing, and could only imagine how deep the water would be there during a wet season.

Several kilometres later, we encountered men and women on horseback herding a mob of cattle in the hundreds. We waited for twenty minutes while they guided them across the road before we could continue.

Several kilometres later, we slowed down as we drove past the stockyards and airfield at the VRD. The houses were concealed from the road by a large bank of trees, but we could see the lovely green lawns that seemed out of place in this dusty environment. 

In total, we counted nine helicopters and saw two planes on the runway, though there may have been more inside the hangars. From here to our campsite at Charles Crossing in Jasper Gorge, the road became much rougher with corrugations and rocky outcrops across its surface.

The Gorge is located on the eastern side of Gregory National Park. Our campsite is located at Charles Crossing, situated beside a waterhole that features the usual crocodile warning signs commonly found in this part of Australia. 
 
The scenery here is quite stunning, especially in the late afternoon or early morning, when the cliffs turn a deep red from the sun. The towering ghost gums and the imposing Livistona palms contrast vividly against the vibrant colours of the surrounding cliffs. Today was very hot, with the van temperature reaching thirty-six degrees at 6 pm. We stayed outside until 7 pm while we had our dinner, then moved inside to escape the mosquitoes.
 
The campsite was quiet, and we enjoyed a peaceful evening with no passing traffic. We made our coffee and sat outside in the cool until the sun rose above the gorge. With the sunrise, the flies appeared, so we moved inside for breakfast.
 
We continued through the remaining part of the gorge, and after 55 km, we arrived at the Victoria Highway. It took a further twenty-five minutes to reinflate our tyres to highway pressures.
 
We stopped at Timber Creek to inquire about doing the Victoria River sunset cruise on our return later in September, but were told that they would be finishing their tour in early September due to health reasons. While enjoying scones and cream, we decided to book into the caravan park and join tonight's tour. 

We read excellent reports on TripAdvisor about the tour, which is why we were interested in doing it. Neville, who runs the tour, grew up in the area and provides a fantastic commentary, accompanied by some impressive facts. The government purchased a former cattle station called Bradshaw for five million dollars to use for army exercises. To allow access, they built the bridge in the photo below, spanning the Victoria River, which connects to the bought station, providing year-round access. The bridge cost a further ten million dollars to construct. A large army exercise had just concluded, involving Australian, American, Japanese, and Indonesian troops, and sentries were manning the gates while we were on our tour.
 
The tour covered a 70 km round trip along the river, with the former Bradshaw Station, now an army exercise area, remaining on our right as we moved downstream. We spotted several saltwater crocodiles sunbathing on the riverbanks, but we were slightly disappointed by the lack of birdlife we saw. Nibbles were served on a pontoon permanently anchored for that purpose, and we watched Neville feed white-bellied sea eagles with catfish he caught from the pontoon. I've included a photo, even though it was challenging to capture and doesn't meet our usual standard.

Territory bound

There was no real rush to leave camp this morning, with only 240 km to drive today. Sunrise was quite special, and the expected overnight temperature of three degrees thankfully didn't happen. Instead, we had fourteen degrees at 7 am.

 Before hooking up the van, we headed into town to the local butcher, where we picked up a boned leg of lamb and a piece of pork. As we left town, we passed a tree filled with well over a hundred corellas. From past experience, we know that these birds choose a tree and repeatedly strip the leaves until the tree eventually dies. This particular tree had very few leaves, while the others nearby were full.

We were now heading towards Winton, a further 175 km away. This section of the Landsborough Highway is long, straight, flat, and quite featureless, with little to see. We have stayed here before, so today we are just passing through, but not before we purchased fuel and stopped at the bakery for a coffee. 
During our last visit, we spent considerable time exploring the very informative Waltzing Matilda Centre with its magnificent displays, so it was very sad to hear that the centre had burnt to the ground, taking with it all the wonderful displays that will never be replaced. These included Qantas artefacts and an exhibit honouring the district's 620 ANZACS. 
Tonight's campsite is just a further 65 km up the road. Ayrshire Hills is listed in the camp book, but we drove 1 km past this site and camped behind a hill that would help limit any road noise from passing B doubles. We shared our campsite with a father emu and its three chicks.

Over the next 90 km offered little to see until we reached the small town of Kynuna. The town was established in the 1860s and once had three hotels, but now only The Blue Heeler Pub remains, originally built in the 1880s to serve Cobb & Co stagecoaches. We stopped briefly to check our tyres before continuing towards McKinlay. The town became famous with the filming of the first Crocodile Dundee movie. A quick photo and morning tea, then we pressed on.

As we approached Cloncurry, the Mitchell Grass Plains gave way to a rocky landscape of low hills covered with spinifex and eucalyptus trees, which made for a wonderful change. It's just over forty years since I last drove this section of highway, and I had forgotten how scenic the countryside was. Our original plan was to spend three nights camping near a popular free camping spot at Clem Walton Park, which is at Corella Dam. Clem Walton was one of two men who discovered uranium at Mary Kathleen in 1954, and the mine was named after his wife, Mary Kathleen. It's just 50 km west of the 'Curry', and the dam was originally constructed in the 1950s to supply water to the Mary Kathleen Mine Township. Even though the majority of Queensland is in severe drought, and the water levels at Corella Dam were low, we were actually surprised by how much water there was. We changed our plans for two reasons, and we are glad we did. We wanted a view of the water; however, these were all taken, and there was a very strong easterly blow that would have made staying very uncomfortable.

We drove the several kilometres of dirt road back to the highway before turning west towards Mt Isa a further 65 km away. The trip into the "Isa" passed through the same lovely country we had seen the day before. 

We emptied our toilet cassette and filled our tanks, then headed off to refuel at $139.9 cpl. While I waited in line to refuel, Ros ran across the road to buy some groceries at Coles. She also purchased a rack of lamb that we planned to cook in the camp oven tonight. The lamb was a test before we moved on to cooking the other meats we had bought in Longreach. We now had just 190 km to travel to our next campsite just outside Camooweal. Our campsite for the next two nights was on the Georgina River.

We have been cooking camp oven meals for over thirty years, but have always used coals. This time, we are using heat beads as our source of heat. We purchased a heat bead basket that sits in our pig at a recent show, and tonight was its first test.

Before leaving home, I downloaded a chart from the internet indicating how many heat beads were needed for our size camp oven. For the test, we placed sixteen beads on the lid and twelve underneath. The lamb was cooked with onions, potato, pumpkin, and garlic seasoned with macadamia oil we bought at Bauple. It was absolutely delicious. Dessert consisted of plain yoghurt and strawberries drizzled with Byron Bay honey.