Well we arrived in Darwin today to incredible heat.  We stayed at Howard Springs about 25kms out of Darwin as we had been warned that we could expect plenty of bites from midges and mozzies if we went to any of the parks nearer town. It was a nice park and we had plenty of wildlife to keep us company.  The peacocks and peahens were almost tame and would eat out of my hand.  I asked one of the males to let me have a look at his tail in exchange for all the food I was supplying and this was the result.  He was such a showoff that he kept this up for about 30 minutes and we had quite an audience by the end of the show.

There is a night market every Thursday and Sunday at Mindl beach where everyone flocks to see the sunset so we managed to get a stall at both and they proved to be fairly successful.  The only problem was the heat, day time temperatures were around 36 degrees and nighttime didn’t fall below 22degrees. 

So, Bev, even a bit hot for me!

We went out to look at one of the many WW11 airstrips dotted around the place and were surprised to find these planes there.

I was determined to visit Humpty Doo, just that name!  Well there is a little shopping centre and of course the inevitable pub.  Not much else to be seen apart from red bulldust.

We went for a visit to Fishermans Wharf , there were not too many people around as it was probably the hottest time of the day.  It is a really nice area to eat and drink though.  Decided today that the weather is just too hot and we have to leave and try and head for cooler weather.  This means we have to head back to Katherine before heading west. 

The distances between towns is just amazing so every day is a fairly long drive.

This time around in Katherine we stayed in the Low level Caravan Park which was really nice. We went for a walk to the weir and along the river.  In the park we came across these 2CV’s and discovered that they had just spent ten days crossing the W.A. desert.  There were 50 of them carrying all their own fuel, water and supplies they met four wheel drives who just shook their heads but as they explained if anyone got bogged it only took four of them to lift the car.

We still didn’t have a spare tyre for the van despite the fact that we had driven over a 1000 kilometres without one and found out only when we were leaving Darwin that the one we had bought wouldn’t fit.  A tiny difference in the spacing but we were glad we knew and didn’t find out at the side of the road somewhere. Luckily, we picked one up in Katherine this time around and are happy to report that we now have a spare should the worst happen and we get another flat.

Next morning we set off on uncharted territory and headed west from Katherine this time.The Victoria Highway, also part of The Savannah Way, is the road we are on and are told it’s a good road all the way to W.A.

We set off from Katherine early and stopped at Victoria River Roadhouse for some breakfast. We thought you might like this sign, a little bit different from “Under New Management” J

The drive is through some pretty spectacular gorges and escarpments and I have included a few pictures although as I’ve said before they just can’t do the colours and feel of the place any justice whatsoever.   1.  2.  3.  4.

Almost all of the riverbeds are dry at this time of the year but the Victoria River had plenty of flowing water and was a nice change to the dusty riverbeds we have seen so many of.

We drove straight through to the W.A. border today, here are the pictures to prove it, ( Ben) (Mary) a marathon drive and arrived at the border quarantine station, hot and sweaty.  We knew we couldn’t take any fruit and vegetables, honey, nuts etc across the border so we had stopped further back and eaten what fruit we had and thrown away whatever veggies were in the fridge.The border guard gets into the van to check when I remember that under the sink I have potatoes and onions, so I quickly apologized and grabbed them out the cupboard.  As soon as he asked to open the fridge I remembered putting strawberries into the cooler and thinking we would surely cop a fine, I confessed to having these also.  Nice man, just took them all and dumped them and then spent the next 30 minutes telling us all about Kununurra, the nearest town to the border, which parks were good and all about his parents caravanning adventures.

We drove into Kununurra, through some spectacular scenery and masses of these boab trees in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  We arrived at the caravan park and asked for a powered site and the receptionist gave us site 13.  Oh, Oh .  Not too happy about that one but we set off to find that site 13 was the pick of the sites in the park, large, grassy, lots of shade and right opposite the lake.

As soon as we had set up the van we settled ourselves at the water’s edge to watching the fish jumping out of the water.  Our neighbours, two guys from Kings Cross in Sydney told us that a croc had been coming into the edge of the lake recently and it wasn’t a good idea to swim.

We got our cameras to take some pictures of the sun setting and sat enjoying the growing dark when all of a sudden two glowing red eyes appeared near the water’s edge.  There was a ledge which ran around the edge of the lake and here was the croc resting himself on the ledge right in front of us.  He was about 2 metres in length and was a freshwater croc which apparently are nowhere near as dangerous as the “salties”.  Next morning, the sunrise was just as pretty as the sunset and we enjoyed watching it as we drank our coffee before getting ready to head off to Fitzroy Crossing.

We stopped at another roadhouse for something to eat around 10.00am as we had been on the road for around three hours by then and the day was getting hotter by the minute.  We had only gone about another 15 minutes up the road when we passed a caravan stopped at the side of the road, so we pulled over to see if we could help.

“Digger” had just bought this secondhand caravan and only when he got a flat did he realize that there was no wheel brace which fitted the nuts on the caravan wheels.  So there he was in the middle of nowhere with no chance of changing his tyre.  Ben had an adjustable brace so they had the wheel off in no time at all.  Trying to get the spare on the van was another thing!It didn’t fit.  Luckily, there were two spares and the second was the right size for the van.  Ben had to get his jack to help lift the van and soon the wheel was on.  It was flat, but Digger had a compressor, so no problem I hear you say, but his battery was completely flat so once again our battery pack came to the rescue and he was on his way, as were we, 45 minutes later.

Further along the highway we had a scary moment ourselves, a roadtrain coming towards us with three petrol tankers on the back hit one of the many cows which stray across the road, his load started to sway onto our side of the road and I had visions of a fiery ball being the end of us and our caravan.  Motley1 managed to get far enough off the road and the driver put his foot down to straighten his load and all ended well.  It was heart in the mouth stuff for a couple of minutes though!

A couple of hours later we could see in the distance some warning triangles and flashing lights and slowed down accordingly.  When we came on the scene of the accident it was pretty horrendous.  A Coromal caravan was in pieces in the gully at the side of the road.  We stopped to offer any help we could and discovered that Russell and Lynette, the owners of the van, had escaped any injuries and that although their van had flipped the car had stayed upright throughout their ordeal.  A four wheel drive had moved into their lane as they were overtaking him and sent them completely off road after spinning and flipping the van.  There wasn’t much left of the van.  They told us that the van was their home and that they lived in it permanently.They were obviously in shock, so we helped them salvage what personal possessions they could and whilst they waited for a trailer to arrive to load their belongings, we set of for Fitzroy Crossing and arrange some accommodation for them.  They arrived at the park about four hours later, exhausted, suffering from the heat and the shock of the events of the day.  The staff there were very good and allowed them to have their dog in the park with them.

The next day we went into the township of Fitzroy Crossing and had a look at the Fitzroy River. The town was basically an aboriginal settlement and the Fitzroy Crossing Lodge where we were staying was obviously where all the tourists stayed.  We spent most of the day escaping the heat in the Hotel bar, reading as it was just too hot to do any more than that.  Five p.m. was happy hour so we headed back to the bar where we met up with Russell and Lynette and had a couple of beers.

We headed off early the next morning with the intention of making it to Broome.  We stopped around 11.30 at this roadhouse for a cold drink as again the day had rapidly got hotter and hotter.  Just after lunch we pulled into a rest area for another drink and came across this tree.  We had only been there a few minutes with not any other traffic in site when a tour bus pulled into the area for the passengers to see this tree which their guide informed them was home to a few snakes.  Now I wish he’d told me that before I got so close.

The termite mounds around here are huge and so numerous.  All sorts of shapes and sizes and look for all the world like people standing along the roadside.

We were about 120 kms out of Broome when we came upon a detour and that bitumen that we were so used to disappeared to be replaced by gravel road.  Bumpy, dusty and not at all pleasant when one of these things is coming towards you throwing up gravel and dust.

We arrived in Broome this afternoon, set up the van, went for a little shopping and are delighted to report that the nights are cooler and very comfortable.   The weather forecast is for lows of 16 to 18 for the rest of this week and that should give the fridge a chance to recover from the highs of 37 and the lows of 24 that we have been getting.

Gary, the most we have paid for petrol is $2.20 a litre for unleaded, we have been paying between $1.80 and $2.00 for the last few weeks.  Painful when you are empty but Motley1 tops it up all the time so he never actually has to pay it out in one go.  It’s a psychological thing ! 

Well, you all know he’s psycho !!!!!

Till next time.