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GPS location Date/Time:07/31/2012 18:58:34 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 91

Day 91 – 31/7/2012 – Return to Drysdale River Station

We were packed and pulled out of the camp site at about 8:30am. We knew it was going to be a big day. A family that we were playing leap frog with on the way in were also packing up but we pulled out before them. At the same time that we were leaving was the group that had the broken suspension on the camper trailer. They wanted me to go in front but seeing the speed that they drove in, I knew that they would be over taking me pretty much straight away so I let them go first.

After about an hour or so the family that was leap frogging us on the way in had caught up to us and passed us. The camper trailer that they were towing also had a broken shockie. Interestingly enough, both of the camper trailers with the busted shockies had been on the drivers side. We put this down to the drivers side having to work harder due to the corrugations more in the middle of the road. Everyone was tending to drive as far to the left as possible to find as much smooth road for at least one side of the vehicle.

Smoko stop

Oz Trip - Day 90

Day 90 – 30/7/2012 – Mitchell Falls

We had booked in for a 9:15am Falls transfer. This was a 6min helicopter ride to the top of Mitchell Falls. We then had to do the 3.4km walk back to the camp site. We figured that it was best to do the helicopter flight first so that way we could spend as much time swimming and walking back to camp as we liked.

It was the first time in a helicopter for both of us. There were 4 passengers plus the pilot in the helicopter. The other two people that we shared the flight with were from Hervey Bay! You come to one of the most remote places in Australia and then end up catching a flight with someone from just down the road from your home town. Weird. Between the 4 of us we had to decide where we wanted to sit. It worked out well as Jodie didn't want a side seat as there were no rear doors on the helicopter and myself and the other guy wanted to take photos so we were happy to have the “no doors” seats. The flight was fantastic, nice and smooth despite the wind and great views. It was quite an experience and would love to do it again.

Our Ride

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GPS location Date/Time:07/29/2012 17:53:40 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 89

Day 89 – 29/7/2012 – Mitchell Falls National Park

We left Drysdale Station at about 8am and didn't get to the camp grounds at Mitchell Falls until about 2:30pm. The first 100km or so was pretty good, although it was hard to believe that they had only just finished grading some of it as there were still very rough patches. Once we turned off the “main” road, the last 80 odd kilometers took us about 4 hours. We could only do between 15-30kph and 20kph was probably the average. It was mainly due to the corrugations. A lot of people passed us.  We were also stopping about every hour to give the shockies a bit of a rest and a chance to cool down.  When I felt the temperature of the shockies I could hold my hand on them for quite a while so it was good to know that they weren't getting too hot.

Drysdale River crossing

Oz Trip - Day 88

Day 88 – 28/7/2012 – Drysdale Station

We were packed and hitched up early. The only problem was that I wasn't getting any charge from the Pajero back to the camper batteries and the volts on the battery monitor in the Pajero still didn't look right. There was still too big a voltage difference between the two batteries. On closer inspection I found that they hadn't connected the batteries up properly after putting the fixed tray back in! A negative lead for the auxiliary battery wasn't connected and it was wedged in with the positive leads on the starting battery. Once I connected the negative lead to where it was meant to be connected, everything was working and back to normal. I am still pretty annoyed that when you are paying someone to do a job that it isn't done properly!

We were pretty lucky as the grader had just been through the section from Home Valley to the Drysdale Station turn off so it wasn't as rough as getting to El Questro. Even the section of road up to Drysdale Station was pretty good. We arrived at Drysdale Station at about 1pm. This gave us have a bit of time for a relax.

Approaching the Durack River crossing

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GPS location Date/Time:07/28/2012 15:43:56 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 87

Day 87 – 27/7/2012 – Home Valley Station Day 2

On a day where we didn't have anything planned, it was hard to have a sleep in because we were camped close to the kids playground. At first light they were swarming all over it like ants!

We picked up the Pajero at about 10am and took it for a drive to Home Valley's bush camping area by the Pentocost River to test out the battery tray. The camp ground wasn't any thing fantastic. They had a shower and toilet block but the grounds themselves were a bit of a dust bowl. They did have good views onto the river and ranges though.

Oz Trip - Day 86

Day 86 – 26/7/2012 – Home Valley Station

Before we left El Questro we topped up the water tank to make sure that we had full water on board.

In order to get to Home Valley Station we had to cross the Pentcost River. Just as we arrived at the crossing a Britz hire 4WD had finished pulling a 2WD Isuzu truck out that had a slide on camper on it. He got stuck because he was only a 2WD. After advice from the Britz camper driver we tried the crossing. It wasn't too deep. It didn't even come up over the side steps on the Pajero. The crossings to get into the Bungle Bungles and El Questro were deeper.

Crossing the Pentecost River

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GPS location Date/Time:07/26/2012 13:26:22 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 85

Day 85 – 25/7/2012 – Zebedee Springs, Emma Gorge and Saddle Back Ridge Lookout

It was nice to finally have a bit of a sleep in and not being woken by people snoring in the other camp sites around you or the early morning camp packups. Zabaee Springs was only open from 7am to 12pm. After 12pm it was only available to people who have paid to go on an El Questro tour. Basically at El Questro, if you want to experience camping or springs away from the crowds, it costs you more. We arrived at about 8:30am and it was already packed out. There were already a couple of tour buses in the carpark and nearly all parking spaces full. The sign in the carpark didn't leave us much hope, “If the carpark is full, then so are the springs, come back later”! We found one of the last parks and headed up the track to the springs.

Zebedee Springs

Oz Trip - Day 84

Day 84 – 24/7/2012 – El Questro Wilderness Park

We left Kununurra at about 7:30am and arrived at El Questro Wilderness Park at about 10am. Even though there were a lot of people checking in, we were lucky enough to get a private camp site 5.5km away from the Station Store and main camp ground. It was great. We couldn't see any other camp sites from ours.

Crossing the Pentcost River entering ElQuestro

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Latitude:-15.97275
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GPS location Date/Time:07/24/2012 19:12:16 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 83

Day 83 – 23/7/2012 – Rest Day

Today was pretty much just a rest and re-cooperate day as we had been on the go non stop for about the last 5 or 6 days. It also allowed me to try a few different things to try and get the satnav working again, all with no success. It also allowed me to catch up on some more blog posts!

We also wanted to top up our gas bottle before we left. We found that everyone in town was out of gas! The van park where we were staying, the hardware store, and the BP servo were all out of LPG and were waiting for the LPG truck to arrive. We made a call to ElQuestro Station where we were headed tomorrow and found out that they had some and did refills so we didn't worry too much about it.

Oz Trip - Day 82

Day 82 – 22/7/2012 – Flight over Bungle Bungles

Before we even arrived at the Bungle Bungles we knew that we wanted to do a flight over the Bungle Bungles. Back in Katherine we did some research to see whether we would do the flight at the Bungle Bungles or from Kununurra. We ended up finding the prefect tour. It was a flight over Lake Argyle, the Bungle Bungles and a tour of the Argyle Diamond mine. This worked out perfectly as I wanted to see the mine site but there is no other way into the mine site, (for the public), other than by air. I was able to ride shotgun for the whole trip.

Our little buzz box

Oz Trip - Day 81

Day 81 – 21/7/2012 – Kununurra Jobs Day

Basically another jobs and restocking day to get ready to head along the Gibb River Road.

As I was giving the Pajero and camper a check over for any problems prior to the next remote section, I found that the axillary TJM battery tray in the Pajero had snapped at one point where it was bolted into the engine bay and the whole battery tray had movement in it. This was a bit of a worry as I didn't want to set off on the road that is notorious for breaking vehicles with something that was already broken. Luckily I found a guy that was able to weld it up for me that, (Saturday), afternoon.

The process of disconnecting and reconnecting the batteries then somehow knocked out the Pajeros built in Satnav system. Loosing the satnav is not a huge problem but it also took out the reversing camera which was extremely useful in aiding in hitching up the camper. Looks like I will have to learn how to hitch up old school.

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Steve and Jodie's
Latitude:-15.77083
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GPS location Date/Time:07/20/2012 18:59:04 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 80

Day 80 – 20/7/2012 – Back to Kununurra

It was another 7:30am departure as it was going to be another big day to get back to Kununurra. The sunrise was beautiful over the clear desert sky. It was also nice and cool again for a change.

Sunrise over the crater

Oz Trip - Day 79

Day 79 – 19/7/2012 – Wolfe Creek Crater

We knew we had a long day ahead of us so we were up at 6am and pulled out of camp at 7:30am. We knew that it was going to take us at least 2 hours to get back to the main road and then we still had 100km of black top before about another 150km of dirt to reach Wolfe Creek Crater.

I was only a little worried about one creek crossing on the way out. It had a steep exit but luckily it was all rock and not mud. So in the end it wasn't a problem at all. I couldn't get any really good photos as there was a tour bus sitting on my tail and I didn't want to hold them up.

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Steve and Jodie's
Latitude:-19.17691
Longitude:127.78668
GPS location Date/Time:07/19/2012 17:36:52 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 78

Day 78 – 18/7/2012 - Mini Palms walk

Another early start as we wanted to the Mini Palms walk before it got too hot. The start of the walk takes you up a dry rocky creek bed. It was pretty hot in the sun but once you made it to the gorge the temperature dropped a fair bit. The breeze coming out of the gorge felt like it was coming out of an air conditioner.

Oz Trip - Day 77

Day 77 – 17/7/2012 – The Domes and Cathedral Gorge

In the Bungle Bungles National Park you don't camp right beside where the walks start from. So we decided to do the walks that were furthest from our campsite first. It was a 26km drive to where the walks started from.

The first walk that we did was The Domes walk. Here you walk amongst the beehive domes.

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GPS location Date/Time:07/16/2012 19:52:08 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 76

Day 76 – 16/7/2012 – The Bungle Bungles

We were on the road by 7:30am because we knew it was going to be a long day. Distance wise it wasn't going to be massive but we know it was going to be slow going to get into the Bungle Bungles National Park.

It took us just over 2 ½ hours to do the 250km to the turn off to the Bungle Bungle National Park and then another 2 ½ hours to do the 60km into the camp ground because it was so rough. There was about 5 or 6 creek crossings with the deepest coming up to about middle of the bullbar.

Oz Trip - Day 75

Day 75 – 15/7/2012 – Wyndham & Lake Argyle

We were going to do a bit of driving for a change. On our way out to Wyndham we stopped in at “The Grotto”. It is a small gorge. There were a lot of steps to get to the bottom and it wasn't running with water so we decided not to walk to the bottom.

The Steps down to the Grotto

Oz Trip - Day 74

Day 74 – 14/7/2012 – Kununurra

Noting exciting today, just another day to catch up on all of the essential jobs, washing, shopping etc etc. That night we had the show entertainment and fireworks again.

A big Boab tree when entering Kununurra

Oz Trip - Day 73

Day 73 – 13/7/2012 – Kununurra

Basically just a big driving day. If we had the time, there looked like there were some nice spots to stop between Katherine and Kununurra, ie Victoria River and Timber Creek.

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GPS location Date/Time:07/13/2012 16:31:58 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 72

Day 72 – 12/7/2012 – Edith Falls Day Trip

We did a day trip to Edith Falls. They are the falls on the western side of the Nitmulik National Park. It was probably about a 200km round trip to drive there but it was certainly quicker and easier than walking the Jatbula Trail which is 58km and takes about 5 days!

We did the 2.6km loop walk to the top of Edith Falls. The rock pool at the top and it was fantastic. The water wasn't icy cold so it was easy to get into and it was nice and deep.

A creek on the way up to Edith Falls

Oz Trip - Day 71

Day 71 – 11/7/2012 – Katherine Gorge Breakfast Cruise

Another 5:30am start to catch the 6:45am 2 Gorge Breakfast Cruise. It was called a two gorge cruise because you go upstream as far as you can then you have to get out of the boat and walk around the rapids to the next jetty to get into the next boat to see the second gorge. Breakfast was served on the boat while you were travelling up the first gorge. We did notice that there was no where near as much wildlife as on the Yellow Water cruise.

The boat

Oz Trip - Day 70

Day 70 – 10/7/2012 – Nitmulik (Katherine Gorge)

Basically a travel day. There was still a smoke haze hanging around the area. It was still also very hot – 34 deg again!

Smoke haze everywhere

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GPS location Date/Time:07/10/2012 14:37:46 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 69

Day 69 – 9/7/2012 – Douglas Hot Springs

After our neighbours had moved camp, we were on the road to Douglas Hot Springs. We made it there just before lunch time. It was a stinking hot 34deg!

After lunch we went and had a swim in the hot springs. Actually you swim in the creek and and you are able to regulate how hot you want the water. The hot springs join with the cold creek water so it is just a matter of finding a spot that is not too hot or too icy for you.

The hot water is coming from up there

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GPS location Date/Time:07/09/2012 13:54:28 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 68

Day 68 – 8/7/2012 – Sandy Creek Falls, Lost City and Inconsiderate Campers!

This morning we set off for Sandy Creek Falls. Another water fall and swimming hole that was only accessible by a 4WD track. I was hoping that alone would reduce the number of people there. In order to get in you had to do a bit of a water crossing early on in the track.

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GPS location Date/Time:07/07/2012 14:56:10 EST

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Oz Trip - Day 67

Day 67 – 7/7/2012 – Litchfield National Park

It was about 10am before we finally got on the road. The reason was that the solar panels were filthy so I gave them a bit of a clean after we had lowered the roof. It was a lot easier that way.

First stop was the magnetic termite mounds in Litchfield National Park. The termite mounds are built north south to minimise exposure to the sun. There are also some Cathedral termite mounds there as well.

A Cathedral termite mound

Oz Trip - Day 66

Day 66 – 6/7/2012 – The Deck Chair Cinema

A majority of the day was spent doing last a last minute shop, and starting to pack up camp for an early departure the following morning.

That night we went to the Deck Chair Cinema to see “Margin Call”. The cinema is an open air cinema where you can purchase dinner, have a few drinks and then relax back in a deckchair to watch the movie in the open air.

Outside movie theatre

Oz Trip - Day 65

Day 65 – 5/7/2012 – Mandorah Hotel and Mindil Markets

Today we caught the ferry from Cullen Bay over to Mandorah to have lunch at the Mandorah Hotel. It was only a 15 minute ride over calm water. As we were making our way across the bay, a navy boat was leaving.

Oz Trip - Day 64

Day 64 – 4/7/2012 – Military Museum

The main sight today was the Military Museum at the East Point Reserve. The interactive audio visual displays inside the museum were pretty good. It was pretty interesting to find out that Japanese planes had been spotted as far south as Katherine doing reconnaissance.

The most interesting thing that I saw and had always wondered, was how did the Japanese have detailed knowledge of the Australian top end. As it turned out, the Australian Government had employed Japanese topographers to map the area prior to any hostilities breaking out in WWII because of the knowledge gained their fishing fleets.

Oz Trip - Day 63

Day 63 – 3/7/2012 – Dinner out

Again most of the day was spend running around doing jobs, planning where we were going to stay and making bookings due to peak season etc.

On our trip through East Point Reserve we found a nice restaurant that looked out over the water towards the CBD called PeeWees, so we booked in for a 6:30pm dinner. It was a perfect time, just on dusk. Sorry about the photo quality as it is from my phone.

Oz Trip - Day 62

Day 62 – 2/7/2012 – Cullen Bay

It was only a short day sight seeing day today as most of it was spent starting to do the jobs that needed doing, washing cooking etc.

We did visit the Cullen Bay marina and had lunch there.

Oz Trip - Day 61

Day 61 – 1/7/2012 – Sightseeing and Territory Day

We met up with Wayne and Jenny Cunningham, some friends from Bundaberg, for smoko. They were in Darwin visiting their son. It was good to catch up with them. Next stop was the CBD to do a bit of walking around. It was good that it was a Sunday as it was free parking everywhere and a lot less busier than a weekday.

We did a walk around the mall, the parklands and recreation precinct and the old Military Oil tunnels. In their area similar to Brisbane's South Bank and Sydney's Darling Harbour, their area called Darwin's Waterfront Precinct has a swimming beach and a wave pool. It all looks relatively new and is very nice.

The Mall