DARWIN TO CLONCURRY

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DARWIN TO CLONCURRY

Thurs 29th July, We left Darwin around 10-00am and headed for Katherine. We did some grocery shopping and checked into the Shady lane Caravan park. Very nice, lots of shade and a nice pool which we spent a couple of hours in. Still plenty of jet fighters around, this time from Tindal Air Force Base.

Frid 30th July, Headed off to Mataranka for a couple of days for some more R & R. The Homestead Caravan Park was nearly full. Old, but nice, and a bit dusty. The thermal pool was great, we spent a couple of hours there, chatting with people.

Sat 31st July, We had a swim in the morning then went for a drive up to Bitter Springs to check it out. The thermal pool is not as people friendly as Mataranka, being a lot deeper and has a residue floating around the edges. Then we drove into the Elsey National Park and had a look around down at the river. We had another long bathe in the thermal pool in the afternoon, then more R & R. Tough life.

Sun 1st Aug, Drove the 170 kms down to Daly Waters where we had been told about the singer/comedian that is there. We had a great barra & beef dinner then were entertained by “Frank the Chookman” who sings and tells jokes, with a wedge tailed eagle heavily disguised as a chook, sitting on his head. A really fun night. The Caravan park was full, as I understand it is every night. Good fun.

Mon 2nd Aug, We left early intending to stay at the Banka Banka Homestead, but, as they don’t have any powered sites we decided to keep going and ended up travelling 447 kms ( a lot for us) to 41 Mile Bore, a free camp, 70 kms east of the Three Ways turnoff. We had a strong head wind all day today and the fuel consumption suffered badly. The wind kept on all night with the van rocking and rattling all night. Not much sleep.

Tues 3rd Aug, We travelled over the border to Camooweel into Queensland with a slight head / side wind to cope with. Camooweal is an old cattle town, with only the main street / highway of any consequence.
The caravan park behind the pub is the better one of the two. We had a quiet, peaceful night.

Wed 4th Aug, There is not much betweeno Camooweal and Mt Isa but once through there the country became quite undulating with lots of small rocky hills all the way to Cloncurry. Mt Isa is a big mining town with an enormous mine right in the middle of the town. It must be hard to live with the dust and noise.
The Gilbert Caravan Park in Cloncurry is a lovely, friendly park so we decided to stay for two nights.
At 5-00pm we were entertained by Bob Magor, a bush poet, his poems and ditties were very humorous and entertaining. Good fun.

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