Oct 2007

Barkly Homestead is situatied on the Barkly Highway which is the only bitumen road from the Northern Territory into Queensland. It is a third of the way along from the Stuart Highway to the Queensland border and is a worthwhile overnight stop. It was only a short journey from Tennant Creek (212 K’s) which gave us the luxury of leaving late from Tennant Creek and a relaxing afternoon when we got there.

The weather whilst it was warm, was also very windy and is the most wind we have encountered since the storm we rode out in Dongara some 12 weeks ago. By morning, we had to take down the annexe as the wind was causing havoc with it. It’s just as well we spent overnight here.

This is our last stop in the Northern Territory as we cross the border into Queensland tomorrow.

Today was one of our longer journeys being 353 Kilometres from Dunmarra Roadhouse to Tennant Creek. This was a fairly lengthy journey (by our standards) as it was longer than usual, and we lost some time overtaking the solar cars and their entourage. Because of a couple of stops we made along the way, we had to pass the same solar car and it’s support convoy 3 times. The car was travelling just above 80 Km/h, but travelling at 90 Km/h and pulling a caravan wasn’t easy going!

After arriving at Tennant Creek and settling into our overnight accommodation, we went into town to re-stock our supplies and spend a relaxing night before heading out again tomorrow. For those of you that know the area, we decided to go past the Barkly Highway junction onto Tennant Creek as we have heard from numerous sources that the fuel is up to 30 cents per litre cheaper than the roadhouse (called Three Ways). At 56 litres of fuel, that represents a saving of over $15.00 so is well worth the extra 48 Kilometres of travel.

After 311 Kilometres from Katherine, we arrived at Dunmarra Roadhouse for an overnight stop. Despite the weather being hot, we were blessed with a refreshingly cool evening where we didn’t need the air conditioner on to sleep to for the first time in over 3 weeks! Dunmarra is basically a truck stop on the Stuart Highway which runs between Adelaide and Darwin.

One feature of our stay here in Dunmarra is the biennial Solar challenge where solar powered cars compete on an endurance race from Darwin to Adelaide. We managed to see a couple of teams stop here for a compulsory stop on the journey and have a peek at the cars. One of the teams spent the night here and set off in the morning before us.

Tomorrow will be interesting as we will be sharing the road with the Solar Car Challenge.

It was great to hit the road again and retrace our steps back to Katherine. After a fairly uneventful journey we arrived back at the same caravan park we were at 3 weeks ago. It was 38 degrees when we jumped out of the car, but the lack of humidity was refreshing!

We are here for a couple of days before heading south so we can visit Edith Falls in the Nitmulik National Park. The lake at the falls was a refreshing swim and a real relief from the heat here. This part of the world is quite hot day in and day out, and the numerous hot springs and cool spring fed pools are a welcome relief.

We also had the pleasure of being bitten by sandflies which leave large welts and are very itchy and can stay on your body for up to 4 weeks. Luckily, we managed to find useful relief here at Katherine and have been able to sleep better at night.

We have finally made it to Darwin. We expect to be here for 2 to 3 weeks so will update with our Darwin activities when we leave.

On our first night the heavens opened up and our annexe was flooded out. Luckily everything was not unpacked so no damage done. We had 24 mm in less than an hour. Let's hope we manage to stay dry!

What may also affect our stay time here is how long it takes us to have some repairs done to the van. On the way from Kalbarri to Denham, the front window cover was nearly pulled out of it's hinge as a result of the wind blast from an approaching road train. I managed to do some temporary sheet metal work and get in (sort of) back in position. However, when travelling on the Great Northern Hwy prior to Port Hedland, another wind blast from an oncoming road train completely ripped it out of the frame rendering it totally wrecked - it is still there somewhere on the side of the road (see pic below).

On the way from 80 Mile Beach to Broome we had another window mishap. This time the window on the left side next to the door broke away from it's hinge at the top which was the result of us not winding the window in tight enough (see pic below)

Once these have been fixed (waiting on parts to arrive from down south) we will be on our way hopefully before the wet season sets in up here.

One other package we have been waiting on is Danii (Denise's daughter), who arrived here on 11th October. We have been gradually getting used to the hot weather having not been in a place under 20 degrees since we left Coral Bay. Danii hit Darwin at it’s muggy best and is taking her a while to get used to it as she came here straight from wintery Perth weather. The constant heat and humidity was slowly wearing Denise and myself down as well, and with the wet season approaching, was ready to move on and head south.

We ended up staying here for 3 weeks and in that time explored most things in and outside of Darwin. Highlights for us were Litchfield National Park (100 K’s south of Darwin), Mindl Beach sunset markets, Crocodylus Park and the Territory Wildlife park which recently featured on Channel Nine’s Getaway program.
On a picnic we had at a local park Denise was bitten by the infamous Darwin Sandflies. The result was a nasty collection of welts mainly on her legs which are extremely itchy. Apparently it can take up to 4 weeks to heal, so let’s
hope it’s less time for Denise.

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