Day 10 - Daly Waters to Katherine

Our second last day on the road. Katherine is only 320 kilometres southeast of Darwin. Another long(ish) hot (39º C) day but the end is drawing near.

With an urban population of around 6,000 this town helps us get used to civilisation again.

The town's major tourist attraction is Nitmiluk National Park (previously named Katherine Gorge National Park) has been established around a series of gorges on the Katherine River and Edith Falls, its northern edge borders Kakadu National Park.

 Katherine also is home to RAAF Base Tindal and 75 Squadron's F/A-18 Hornets

Everyone can feel we're in the home stretch. Some are glad, others wish it was unsealed all the way and others wish we could keep going to Perth. Todays highlight were the pools. Our refuel was at Mataranka Thermal Pool. A great way to cool down in the middle of the day. At the end at Springvale Homestead it was straight into the pool after the tent was up.

 Other things of note:

• traffic, is becoming more previlant and more impatient. 
• There are crocodile is the pond less than 20m from where I'm sleeping, 
• 100 year old raintrees are amazing.

Tonight is going to be an early one. We've got a "sprint" into Darwin. Sounds like we'll have a bit of waiting around to get the media sorted defore we ride into town.

Looking forward to seeing Rah and the upcoming mini-adventure around Darwin. But can't get ahead of myself. Still got 326ks to complete tomorrow and that will be it! 

Click on Archive (previous posts) to see reports from the previous days.

More to come.

T

Day 9 – Borroloola to Daly Waters

Daly Waters is just a tiny 390 kms down the Carpentaria Highway today. It's been another warm day (around 36º max. and still 30º when we arrived in town) this afternoon. The place will cool down to around 20º at 6am. It's pretty dry - no rain for over a month.

The highlight of today has to be the Daly Waters Historic Pub experience.

I love the directions provided to assist  map reading dyslexic visitors: 

Driving Directions:

• Travelling south from Darwin approx. 600kms.

Turn right off the Stuart Highway 3kms to the pub

• Travelling north from Alice Springs approx 900kms

Turn left off the Stuart High

The pub has an international reputation for it's hospitality, great food and cold, cold beer. Memorabilia adorns the walls from Irish football jerseys to bras. Wherever you look there is something interesting to read or ponder its origin.

Daly Waters and the pub also have some pretty interesting links to Australia's aviation history including:

• Daly Waters was the site (prior to the WW2) of Australia's first International Airport. Planes and passengers refuelled en route to London. Back then the Kangaroo Route cost 275 pounds and took 8 days. Passengers were fed and provided with overnight accommodation.
• During World War 2 the town played a significant part in the protection of the Northern Australian coastline. The Australian and American air forces units based in Daly Waters were :-
• No. 2 Squadron RAAF (Hudsons)
• No. 12 Squadron RAAF (Wirraways)
• No. 13 Squadron RAAF (Hudson)
• No. 34 Squadron RAAF (Dragon) & (Ansons)
• No. 1 Repair and Salvage Unit RAAF
• 64th Bombardment Squadron USAF (B-17 Flying Fortress) plus
• Mitchell Bombers and Kitty Hawks.

The Daly Waters aerodrome was last used in a major way in 1989 as part of the military manoeuvre - Kangaroo '89 but these days it is in semi-retirement with private aircraft and Air-Med (remote area medical service) constituting the bulk of the traffic.

Click on Archive (previous posts) to see reports from the previous days.

More to come.

T

Day 8 - Hells Gate to Borroloola

Pretty sure today is the closest we get to the Gulf.

Crossing the border into the NT

Borroloola is on the McArthur River and is is quite a large town with a predominantly Aboriginal population. It has a couple of  fuel outlets, supermarket, post office, caravan park, air strip and school.

Borroloola's main street

The temperature in Borroloola at 8:30 this morning was 30° and it got upto 37°.

There's a fishing "club" at King Ash Bay and in the peak dry season the camps are usually fully booked, with names and rego numbers marking certain scrub sites for a nominated period of time.Apparently the fishing up here is pretty good!

Average sized Barra

Click on Archive (previous posts) to see reports from the previous days.

More to come.

T

Day 7 - Gregory Downs to Hell's Gate

Hell's Gate Roadhouse - so remote that Google Maps has never hear if it! Nevertheless I'm sure their are plenty of grey nomads who've been there. Hells Gate Roadhouse is one of the westernmost localities in Queensland.

Gregory Downs to Hell's Gate

Travellers reported a few years ago that Hell's Gate roadhouse had closed down. Apparently the local Aboriginal community had banned alcohol, making the roadhouse business unviable.

• 180km west of Burketown
• 590km north of Mt Isa
• 1350km west of Townsville
• 1020km west of Cairns. 

The Waanyi, Gungalita and Gawara people are the traditional people of the area. Caves near Hell's Gate act as natural art galleries for the pictorial history of these early residents. Native wells and other remnants of their life in the district can still be found today.

There's an amazing atmospheric phenomema in this part of the world that would be fantastic if it happened in the morning. Late September to early November a peculiar cloud formation occurs. The Morning Glory is a series of long cigar shaped cloud formations that roll out of the Gulf in lines of three or four, usually in the early hours before daylight.Occurring in only two places in the world, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Gulf of Mexico, these multiple formations follow behind each other, accompanied by a violent wind called a 'shock wave'. The cloud itself does not travel much further than 60km inland but the wind has been registered as far south as Alice Springs. The appearance of these formations heralds the unstable and changeable weather of the build-up to the 'Wet'.

Morning Glory cloud formation

Click on Archive (previous posts) to see reports from the previous days.

More to come soon.


T.

Day 6 - Proa Station to Gregory Downs

Rather that experince the metropolitan highlights of Cloncurry and Mt Isa, my postiebike mates and me will be pointing our Honda's skinny front tyres in a north west direction towards Gregory Downs passing through Taldora and Four Ways (where we cross the Burke Development Road).

Proa Station to Gregory Downs

Gregory Downs is an extremely small community, however, a townsite has been surveyed for the future. It is at the intersection of all roads leading to the Lawn Hill National Park, 95 kilometres to the west and services most of the surrounding grazing community. The Gregory Downs Hotel is an original coachhouse from the last century and holds court as the centre of town society.

Gregory Downs Hotel

At one time it was a Mounted Police post. In World War II, officers at this station won fame when they searched with Doomadgee Aboriginal trackers for the crew of the ditched plane Little Eva. The crew flew out of Iron Range Airport for a bombing run to then - New Guinea and they became disoriented in a tropical storm.

Click on Archive (previous posts) to see reports from the previous days.

More to come soon.

T.

Day 5 - Winton to Proa Station

Another big day today as we head for Proa Station.

Depending on the route we take Proa Station is towards Julia Creek via Kynuna Road or towards Richmond and the along the Flinders Highway. As the crow flies the homestead is only 15 km south of the Flinders Highway and only around a 70 km ride to Julia Creek.

Which way today???

Whichever way, we'll be following the Diamantina River (Lake Eyre Basin) for part of the way before crossing into the Cloncurry River Catchment (that flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria near Karumba).

Lake Eyre Basin

Proa Station is a sheep and cattle property and redclaw crayfish farm. Mount Isa's newspaper The North West Star reported last year that "The Red Claw (from Proa Station) is the best in the world and is much more flavoursome because it’s actually farmed in bore water".

Proa Station

Click on Archive (previous posts) to see reports from the previous days.

More to follow.

T.

Day 4 - Barcaldine to Winton

Today we're sticking to the Landsborough Highway through Longreach then north west towards Winton. Only 287 km today :-)

The highlights for today will be a visit to the Qantas Founders Museum and if there's time the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach.

According to the web site the Qantas Founders Museum is the only place in the world where you can tour two fully equipped passenger jet aircraft. They are the ex-Qantas 747-200 VH-EBQ "City of Bunbury"

"City of Bunbury" in Longreach

"City of Bunbury" leaving Sydney 4 months before retirement

and the recently arrived, fully restored Boeing 707, VH-XBA, the very first passenger jet registered in Australia and Qantas first jet aircraft. VH-XBA was built in 1959 and is the oldest flying Boeing 707 in the world. This Boeing 707 was the first ever commercial jet exported from the United States.

VH-XBA's first test flight after 5 months of restoration by the Qantas Memorial Foundation

Then back on the bike for the run to the home of Waltzing Matilda and the birth place of Qantas. Winton's other claim to fame is that is on Australia's Longest Shortcut, Perth to Cairns!

Cory's Range near Winton

 Tomorrow it's off to Proa Station.

Click on Archive (previous posts) to see reports from the previous days.

More to follow.

T.