Blogs from Australia, Oceania - page 16

Just over a three hour trip from Barkly Homestead to Camooweal which is only about 12klms over the NT/QLD border. We stayed on the billabong at Camooweal for a night just relaxing and taking in the beautiful countryside, its only about 4kms out of town. Were going to stay a few nights at the billabong but found out the Drover's Camp Festival was on so then hitched up and went into town and stayed at the pub. People come from all around for the festival and the Thursday night at the pub Tom Maxwell was playing, the guy we saw in Daly Waters and he played out at the festival as well. $70 gives you an entry into all events at the festival, Fri, Sat, Sun...... pretty good value! Met a couple of beautiful old drovers ... read more

Finished the ride in Brisbane by storing our bikes at Keith's warehouse & then meeting up at our hotel for dinner & drinks. David arrived after a circuitous route by cab, plane & cab from Parkes via Sydney plus I had arranged for Friz (Gary Ellison) my race mechanic in Australia when I was racing there in a previous lifetime, to join us ...great to catch up. Until the next adventure which starts in Albany New York State on 1st September ... read more

Sorry to leave Lake Argyle as it was such a relaxing and lovely park. Were going to have 2 days between Lake Argyle and Katherine but realised timing to stock up on grog wasn't going to work, so many rules, times, regulations and days they don't sell grog arggghhh, so had one night on the road at a lovely bush camp at Dingo Creek Lagoon just between Timber Creek and Gregory there ended up being just four vans which was nice! The scenery between Timber Creek and Gregory and surrounds was just lovely! Then into Katherine to stock up with groceries as they have a good Woolworths and BWS and Cellarbrations, fuelled up and got out of there! They have POLICE (what a waste of resources) manning the bottle shops getting your details etc as there ... read more

Penultimate Day: Out of Bollon we were on good sealed roads mostly, but trucks hauling heavy loads, crops & general cartage have given the roads a hard workout in this region. Good signage warning where you are approaching damaged bumpy surfaces, but unlike NZ no unrepaired potholes to contend with. Cold start to the morning and leaving earlier than normal at 8am (kangaroo feeding time) we were pretty cautious. We saw a few feeding on the roadside and I had a few I had disturbed crossing the road in front of me fortunately at a safe distance. A few Emus were about, but at a distance from the road unlike the goats which feed in the long grass beside the road. Nearly all of them when disturbed, luckily ran away from the road. We had 120kms ... read more

Reluctantly, we left Kakadu National Park and headed south to visit Edith (Leliyn) Falls. Leliyn is part of Nitmiluk National Park, which has as its key attraction Katherine Gorge. We had booked a campsite in Leliyn for our caravan, to enable us to enjoy an afternoon swim in one of the largest croc-managed plunge pools in the NT. The waterfall that cascades into the plunge pool is a long swim across the dark, foreboding pool, with reedy banks just like we had seen in Kakadu, potentially hiding fearsome saltwater crocodiles. With some hesitance, I ended up swimming across to the waterfall twice, taking the opportunity of a massage under the falls. After an overnight stay at Leliyn, we drove to Mataranka for a two night stay. We had unfinished business at Mataranka, as the renowned Bitter ... read more