2005 Western Australian trip
June 2005 saw us head off on our long
planned trip to Northern Western
Australia. We had purchased a new caravan - a Galaxy twin bed
16.5 foot single axle unit and had our trusty 2004 Nissan Patrol
3l diesel 4X4 as the tow vehicle.
As we had done the trip up the centre
of Australia several times before
we decided to get to Darwin as quickly as possible and I drove
the car and van up to Darwin and Denise flew up a few days
latter. Thus there are no photos of the trip up as I just drove and
slept, doing the trip in 5 days.
I had started from Mount Gambier
where I was attending a ham radio
convention. My first stop was at Port Pirie this was a really
nice spot and
I enjoyed the walk around the coastline from the caravan park to the
shops - it was a fair step into town but well worth the walk.
Over night stops were made at Marla, Wycliffe Well and Mataranka.
There are two lots of hot springs at Mataranka, one at Mataranka
Homestead, south of town, these are lined with stone etc (done for the
officers during during WWII). The other springs are to the east of town
and are in a much more natural state, I really enjoyed swimming there.
I stayed at a camp ground nearby (Materanka Cabins) which had
singing around the campfire.
Darwin
This is a great place and we stayed
for about a week - don't miss the
Mindi market where there are all sorts of food stalls and you can buy
your food and take it onto the beach to watch the sunset. Market
operates on Thursday evenings. We were lucky enough to have a
yacht sail past the sun as it was setting .
Litchfield National Park
This park is located about 150KM south
of Darwin - we stayed at Bachelor which is about 30KM from the park,
there are camping spots in the park and it will save some traveling
time by staying in the National Park camping areas. The one at
Wangi falls looked good and there is swimming etc available. We
did several FWD trips around the park including the "Lost City" and the
original Blyth homestead and swam at the Sandy Creek Falls.
Roughly 10KM out of Batchelor on the road into the park is
"Rum Jungle Lake" this is a great fishing/swimming and boating spot,
there is shade and tables etc for a very pleasant picnic.
Douglas Daly
From
Litchfield we headed south and a a bit west to visit the Douglas Daly
Par. This is a great spot that we have visited before and we
spent a week just enjoying ourselves. There are lots of things to
do and visit and on Wednesday evenings there is a special meal of roast
buffalo and veg - fantastic feed!
A trip to the Douglas hot springs is worth while as is butterfly valley.
Katherine and Cutta Cutta Caves
We
had driven past the Cutta Cutta Caves south of Katherine on a couple of
occasions but decided to have a look this time - glad we did they are
very interesting and very well managed. We stayed in the Low
Level Caravan Park which is very comfortable. A visit to
Springvale Homestead is rewarded with a tasty Devonshire afternoon tea.
Kunnunurra
Finally
we are in Western Australia - just be warned there is a border check
point - you do not need a passport but this is a quarantine chek point
and no vegitables etc are permitted to cross into WA (Honey is
included) so make sure you have eaten all your goodies first. We have
found that if make all the fruit into a fruit salad beforehand then
that seems to be OK. Also make up a garden salad, potato salad or
salad sandwiches to use up as much of the fruit and vegies as
possible. Kunnunurra is a beautiful spot which has the advantage
of receiving water from Lake Argile - an enormous dam on the Ord River.
This dam traps the wet season rain and holds it for irrigation
and power generation. The climate is tropical with beatuiful days
arounf 30C and low humidity in the Winter and warmer and more
humid in the summer. There are numerous things to do around this area.
On a visit to Wyndam we stoppped off to look at a The Groto, a
prison Boab Tree, Indigenous Art, Parry billabong and the 5
rivers at Wyndam.
