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.