Touring Knights

We left Barkley station and travelled to a place called McKinlay.  We spent the night in the van area behind the Walkabout Creek hotel.  This hotel was used in the crocodile Dundee  movie.  We had a few drinks on the front verandah enjoying the quiet , well between the road trains.  This was a nice little pub and the van area was pretty neat and tidy .  We headed off early the next day arriving at Longreach for a late lunch.   We went to Darcy’s Dinner and had the best hamburger and chips we have had for ages.  I really liked the town of longreach it was neat and tidy and everyone was really friendly. We had a wander around the shops.  The next morning we visited the stockmans hall of fame.   The stockmans hall of fame was opened in 1988.  It consists of five halls with displays that highlight , stockman , aboriginal women and men who worked the land. The flying doctors service.   ...

Yesterday we decided to finish our stay at Katherine with a bang, well  really a whirr We spent the morning tidying up Bridget ready to leave early the next morning then headed to meet our helicopter and pilot.  As we flew over Katherine gorge our pilot pointed out the 13 gorges explaining how they were lower than normal.  We drifted over this amazing landscape. We landed beside a gorgeous little waterhole ( which you will see later) to see 5 Art galleries belonging to the Jawoyn people.  The above image shows a kangaroo and barramundi fish. The art work is exposed to the elements but is protected as much as possible. Part of the stunning waterhole ( sadly a little drier than normal). But no less beautiful. Another image showing a female, this one half hidden by the trees around it. Normally there is an opportunity to swim in this water hole, but as the water was barely flowing the pool was quite stagna...

We arrived in Katherine on Wednesday afternoon. We pretty much just set up Bridget and relaxed for the afternoon.  We became acquainted with the local. The bird above were pretty much always around looking for a feed and one if his colleagues actually decided to enter Bridget to see what he could find. The wallaby’s above were a huge source of entertainment. There were two adult wallabies and this little guy who made a brief appearance then disappeared again, back into his mums pouch. We rose earlish on Friday to do the dawn cruise on the gorge. Again the drought has limited our adventure and we were only able to explore two gorges ( I know this is nothing compared to whatthis weather is doing to our struggling farmers).  However two gorges were enough to fill our hearts with love for this beautiful place. Our guide onthe boat trip was so informative, pointing out baby peregrine falcons on the ledge above us , explaining how the water had...

Today we truely did a short trip just 168kms from Daly Waters to Mataranka. We didn’t travel into town but immediately turned off to the Mataranka homestead camping ground.  Upon arriving I discovered  This homestead a replica of the original Elsey station homestead, built and used for the 1982 movie “ we of the never never”.  The house was moved here shortly after production was completed. The real Elsey station was located about 14 kms east of Mataranka.   The dresses in this case are some of the original costumes worn by Angela Punch McGregor in the film. The house also has other household items shown in the movie. Once we had set Bridget up , we wandered down to the thermal pool.  The thermal spring is not heated by some underground “hot spot” but by a vast underground reservoir that is heated by the temperature of the ground. The above image shows rainbow spring where the water rises to the surface  ...

Yesterday we made the short hop (502km) from  Wauchope NT ( devils marbles) to Daly Waters l NT We stopped  off at a road house for a coffee ( they wanted $4:50 for coffee from a machine) which we didn’t end up buying,  but we did meet this guy hanging out in the outdoor restaurant. The road just seemed to go on and on and on.  For some reason it just seemed to take a long time.  Maybe due to boredom , we became enthralled by these termite mounds .... there is billions of them. In some spots they looked like a graveyard. Apparently they are really hard and will damage your vehicle if you run into them, some can be upto 100 years old. These ones were pretty small really as we went north we seen bigger / taller ones.  Not only were we intrigued by these termite homes , many a tourist before us has been as well if the number of “clothed” mounds are any indication. We seen one with a lacy...

I thought I would map our journey , as you can see we have covered a few kilometres and  travelled through 3 states.  To put it into perspective Sydney to Perth is 3933 kms, when we arrived at Alice we had already reached Perth ( in distance) and we’re heading back to Sydney. The cairn above marks the highest point on the Stuart highway ( where we have spent the majority of our kms.  We have crossed the Tropic of Capricorn.  As we traverse our massive country the scenery constantly changes I have seen so much wildlife but most exciting to me many wedgetail eagles I Had never seen one wild before. In need of a break we stopped off at Barra Creek hotel.  Every wall in this hotel was covered in some type of memorabilia . Including 100s of signed Australian notes. Not just the little ones either.  Always interesting to visit a local, but these Northern Territory ones just really take the cake. We pushed on reaching  ...

After another evening without internet I am again behind in posting, but ahead with my craft project to do pile......🤣 So a few days ago we again headed out to explore the west McDonnell ranges.  We went to the furthest point ( well for our plans)  Ormiston Gorge  Created by a missive force the shear red towering walls  of the Ormiston gorge are impressive to say the least.  Situated 135kms west of Alice springs. The gorge as you can see has a Water hole, sadly though as evidenced by everywhere we have been the drought is taking it toll here.  Additionally through out all the places I will show you in this post the areas were devastated by a fire early this year.  There is just something attractive to me about the resilience of gum trees, twisted by wind, often clinging onto rocks or charred by fire , they battle on. Ochre Pits Formed by the long ago inland sea, layers upon layers of mud and sand were layed...