WA - Kununurra - Mt Isa August/September 2024
- Ken Fredric
- Aug 17, 2024
- 33 min read
Updated: Sep 5, 2024
Day 202 - Kununurra - Spring Creek Free Camp, WA 17 August, 2024
We finally left Kununurra this morning, after feeling that we'd thoroughly explored the town and surrounding areas.
We were headed for Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) NP on the next stage of our trip, that would take us to the south initially, then we would start heading east towards home after that.
Although we had a 300 km drive in front of us, it was all on good sealed roads, so no challenges in that respect for the day.
We'd been concerned about our solar panels not providing enough power during the day, and guessed that they were probably covered in dust. On the way out of town we spotted a cattle loading ramp just off the road, with nobody around, so we pulled in beside the ramp and cleaned the panels thoroughly.
We had initially planned to stop about halfway to the Purnululu turnoff, but decided because the driving was so easy to continue on to a free camp just past the turnoff.
Apart from stopping for a leg stretch and morning tea, we drove straight through to the free camp, which was getting full even though it was only midday by then.
We squeezed into a spot beside the creek, got setup, had lunch and took it easy for the rest of the day.
Later in the afternoon, once the tyres had cooled down sufficiently, we lowered the tyre pressures, ready for what we knew were going to be bad road conditions going into the national park the next day.
Day 203 - Spring Creek Free Camp - Purnululu NP, WA 18 August, 2024
Today was the start of our Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) NP adventure, consisting of three nights in Walardi Campground, and exploring most of what the park had to offer during the days there.
The drive from the free camp to our first stop in the park, the Ranger Station and Visitor Centre, was only 53 km off the highway but, as with most national parks, everything we’d read and been told by fellow travellers indicated that the road condition was really bad.
Being such a short drive, we didn’t feel the need to get away early and took our time packing up and getting ready to move.
The unsealed road into the park was as advertised, very rocky with many washouts, around a dozen creek crossings, and the ever-present corrugations that kept our speed below 20 km/h, at least for the first 25 km.
About halfway in we passed a parked-up grader, which had obviously been working its way from the visitor centre towards the highway, as the road surface improved dramatically for most of the way after that to the visitor centre.
At the visitor centre we checked in to the campground and grabbed a brochure of all the walks in the park, so we could plan what we’d do over the next couple of days. The ranger let us know that the road to the campground, 11 km away, was very rough and would take us about half an hour to cover. She also indicated driving times to get to some of the walks we’d be doing, so we could plan our days a little better knowing that.
The road to the campground didn’t disappoint predictions and took us over half an hour to reach. Campsites weren’t assigned, so we drove around and found a good, shady site next to the dry creek bed, and a good distance from anyone other campers.
After setting up and having lunch, we relaxed for a while, waiting for the temperature to cool down somewhat before we could explore around the campground area. As there was no internet, we were restricted to old school activities.
Later in the afternoon we did the 2 km loop walk around the campground, which mostly consisted of walking along a dry creek bed, reading the information boards along the way. It was still very hot though, so it was a very slow walk.
Day 204 - Purnululu NP, WA 19 August, 2024
Expecting the day to be another hot one, we were up and about early and on the road at 6:30 A.M., headed for the northern section of the national park.
The start of the drive took us back on the road we’d driven the day before, to the ranger station, then carrying on past there, the road condition improved a little.
About 10 km north of the ranger station, we pulled into the Stonehenge carpark to do a short walk. That area was known as Stonehenge originally when it was named that by an early pastoralist. The short 520 metre loop walk was focused on the local Aboriginals use of trees, grasses and shrubs, which was explained on many information boards around the walk.
Back on the road, we drove to the northernmost point of the road, Echidna, stopping only briefly at The Bloodwoods carpark to check out the walks in that area.
As it was time for some more serious walking, we donned shoes and hats and set out first on the 1 km return Osmand Lookout trail which, at the top, gave us great views of the Osmand Ranges.
Back down at ground level, we forked off onto the Echidna Chasm trail, a more challenging class 4, 2 km walk, that was mostly along a very rocky creek bed and was quite hard going, having to watch every footfall. Any effort we expended was well worth it though, to see the sun shining on the 180-metre-high chasm walls, with Livistona Palms in the foreground, several metres high, growing in the creek bed.
Hundreds of birds provided a cacophony of birdsong, entertaining us along the way, including Great Bowerbirds some of which were building bowers beside the trail. At the end of the chasm there was a giant round chamber, reminiscent of an open-air cathedral. The chasm had continued on in the past, but huge rockfalls blocked the trail now.
Back at the campground we were starving, even though it was only 9:30 A.M., so we sat in Mata with the air con running and ate the sandwiches we’d brought for lunch.
On the way back towards the visitor centre we stopped off at the Kungkalanay Lookout, a 500-metre return walk up a steep hill, that gave us impressive views of the Bungle Bungle Range to the east, and other smaller ranges to the west. A little way before the lookout Meg spotted a Bustard in the long grass, taking shade under a tree in the hot sun.
Another 2 km along the road we called into the ranger station/visitor centre, for a cold drink and to use their Wi-Fi to catch up on our socials, before returning to our campground for the day.
It was still very hot, so we spent the afternoon outside to try and catch whatever breeze was available.
Day 205 - Purnululu NP, WA 20 August, 2024
For our third and final day of exploring Purnululu NP, we drove about 20 km up to the northern area of the park, once again on badly corrugated unsealed road. We stopped a couple of times along the way to take some photos of the amazing rock formations, one of which was Elephant Rock. We’ve seen other rocks named the same and not been able to see how they possibly looked like an elephant, unless you were on some really good drugs. However, these Elephant rocks really looked like two Elephants, one in front of the other, with realistic heads and trunks, and the both Elephants had a hole through the rock where their eyes would be.
After about an hour of driving, we arrived at the Picaninny carpark, and set out on the class 3, 700 metre The Domes Walk. This short loop walk took us up close to the beehive domes, where we could see the different layers of sediment and the protective banding of iron oxide and cyanobacteria (note from author: this sentence was plagiarised from the WA Parks and Wildlife brochure on walks in Purnululu NP). The walk led us into a chasm with a shallow rock pool at its base, then back out and around more beehive domes to the point where we turned off onto the Cathedral Gorge Walk.
The longer class 4 Cathedral Gorge Walk took us over a sometimes sandy, sometimes rocky creek bed, right beneath more towering beehive domes and honeycomb rocks. The light hitting the rock formations was spectacular, contrasting starkly with rocks in full shadow. It was very hot walking along the exposed creek bed, so we were thankful when we walked further in to full shade and a gentle breeze. At the end of gorge walk there is a huge natural amphitheatre, with a small pool at the back. Up until this point we had been largely on our own for the morning, but unfortunately there was a tour group in the amphitheatre, which reduced the experience somewhat. Still, we took our time to enjoy and appreciate this natural wonder before walking back out to the point where we could go back to the carpark, or do one more walk.
I was keen to do the shortest of the other walks in the area, the class 3, 1.8 km Picaninny Creek Lookout Walk. Meg wasn’t that keen, but agreed to come and mind me. The walk started out following the dry and very rocky Picaninny Creek bed, before turning off to take us into more towering beehive domes. We followed the sandy, rocky path, close to the domes through a bit of a valley, so it was very hot, to a point where we went around and right next to a dome, and up a short hill to the lookout. The lookout provided expansive views of the Picaninny Creek towards the Ord River, beehive domes, the Dixon Ranges and everything in between. While pleased we made the effort to do the walk, it had taxed us physically with temperatures in the mid-thirties and no wind in the valleys, and we were pleased to get back to the carpark, remove shoes and have a cold drink.
Out of energy by then, we drove back to camp for our final night in the NP, had lunch and, once again, sat outside for the afternoon trying to keep cool.
One of the highlights of our time at Purnululu NP was the amount of birdlife we saw and heard. Apart from the usual suspects like Peewees, Corellas, Willie Wagtails, Crows etc, here's a list of birds we identified:
Whistling Kite
Blue-Winged Kookaburra
Rainbow Bee-eater
Barking Owl (you'd swear it was a dog!)
Babbler
Friarbird
Peaceful Dove
Double-Barred Finch
Bustard
Black Cockatoo
Quail.
Day 206 - Purnululu NP - Fitzroy Crossing, WA 21 August, 2024
We really enjoyed our time at Purnululu NP and our peaceful, secluded campsite, but now it was time to face the music, or at least the 65 km of very bad roads in front of us to get out to the highway.
We were familiar with the first 11 km back out to the ranger station (this being the fourth time we'd driven that section), and knew roughly how long that would take. The unknown factor was the 53 km from there to the highway, and how much progress the grader may have made in the three days we were in the park.
The going was good for about 25 km, averaging 30-40 km/h, until we met the grader, which was only a few hundred metres further on from where we'd seen it on the way in to the park. Disappointed at that, we slogged on at walking pace-20 km/h until we got out to the highway, completing the 12 creek crossings all up, taking three hours to make it that far.
We pulled into the Spring Creek free camp to unload our rubbish, empty the toilet cassette and reinflate the tyres for highway driving before getting back out on the highway, headed for Halls Creek.
Not having a clear plan on where we would end up for the day, we needed to stop at Halls Creek, 108 km away, to fill up with diesel, fresh water, get a few things from the shop, and to hopefully top up our dwindling booze supplies.
All that went well except for the booze supplies part, as the town had restrictions in place that only allowed the sale of low-strength beer to take away. At the pub we bought six cans of beer that we wouldn't normally drink as a backup.
Another pressing need was a shower, as it was Wednesday today and we hadn't had showers since the previous Friday in Kununurra, relying on sponge baths over the last few days. However, Halls Creek didn't have an open campground, so we decided to drive 280 km out of our way, to Fitzroy Crossing, where there was a campground that included a bar, restaurant, and showers. Another reason for not hanging around Halls Creek was that we'd been reading reports about the local indigenous youths being out of control, damaging and stealing from cars and RVs passing through the town.
Sharing the driving, we arrived at Fitzroy Crossing around 4:00 P.M. and checked in for two nights onto a powered site, as the temperature at that time was 37 degrees and we would be needing at least fans running all night, and perhaps air con as well.
After chilling for a while and having showers, we walked up to the restaurant and had a surprisingly good dinner, washed down with a bottle of wine that we weren't allowed to take away from the restaurant.
Day 207 - Fitzroy Crossing, WA 22 August, 2024
Today was all about catching up on all things online, as we hadn't had internet for most of the time we were in Purnululu NP, doing some laundry and cleaning, and relaxing before carrying on our adventures.
Apart from a short walk after breakfast, to check out the Fitzroy River and the new bridge that replaced the old bridge that was destroyed by floodwaters, we didn't venture away from our campsite for the rest of the day.
Day 208 - Fitzroy Crossing - Tanami Road Free Camp, WA 23 August, 2024
We’d booked a guided tour of Mimbi Caves for the next day, and booked to stay the night in the caravan park there, which was only 100 km away.
Because they weren’t expecting us until after lunch, we had to kill some time, so after visiting the dump point and cleaning the solar panels before we left the caravan park, we drove across the new bridge into Fitzroy Crossing to see what it had to offer.
After filling up with diesel, our first stop was the local hardware store to pick up a couple of things, but we ended up only getting toilet cassette tablets, because they didn’t have any BBQ covers that we wanted to use to replace the existing cover for the e-bikes, which was badly ripped.
The only real touristy thing to do in town was to visit the historic Fitzroy Inn, just outside town on the banks of the river. It is the oldest continuously licenced pub in the Kimberley, first opening in 1896. There was an art gallery of sorts on some of the outside walls with accompanying information boards explaining each work that we took the time to read.
Back in town the visitor centre seemed to be the only other thing we could do to kill more time, but it was having renovations done and was closed for the day.
There was nothing else for it but to hit the road back towards Halls Creek, where Mimbi Caves was located. We pottered along at 80 km/h trying to take as much time as possible, and after a while we stopped for morning tea at a roadside rest area.
Meg had a phone call while we were stopped from the Kununurra Visitor Centre saying that our guided tour of Mimbi Caves the following day was cancelled due to illness. Because the cave tour was the only reason we were stopping there, we also cancelled the campground and made the decision to carry on with our original plan and head for Wolfe Creek, which was about 300 km away.
While it was still early enough to drive that distance, the one limiting factor was that after driving almost all the way back to Halls Creek, we would be turning off on to the Tanami Road, an unsealed road that we were certain was in poor condition.
It was lunchtime when we hit the Tanami Road, so we pulled over and had a quick lunch before getting back on the newly sealed road, unsure how long the seal lasted.
The lovely sealed road disappeared after less than 15 km, then we hit the roadworks that continued on for another 10 or so km, but we were able to travel at the 60 km/h speed limit for most of that distance.
Once past the roadworks, we were back to our old favourite badly corrugated road that reduced our speed to mostly 20 km/h, so we stopped to reduce the tyre pressure to make the ride more comfortable.
From that point there was still about 90 km to go to get to Wolfe Creek, and we managed about 40 km before deciding we’d had enough and called it a day, stopping in a large gravelled area beside the road for the night.
We sat outside for ages trying to beat the oppressive heat and, once the sun went down, we enjoyed star gazing in the clear, zero light pollution skies.
Day 209 - Tanami Road Free Camp - Caroline Pool Free Camp, WA 24 August, 2024
Knowing we still had over 50 km of bad roads to navigate to Wolfe Creek Crater, we were up and about early and on the road by 7:00 A.M.
The first 30 km of driving took us to the turnoff from the Tanami Road to the Wolfe Creek Road, and that was much as expected, taking about an hour and a half to cover. The next 25 km into the crater were worse if anything, and took over an hour before we reached the crater carpark.
After reading the information boards, we decided to just do the 400 metre walk up to the rim of the crater, and not do the 3.4 km rim loop walk. We took the drone with us and put it up despite the quite strong wind blowing. The view from the top was quite spectacular, but in a ‘what are we doing here’ sort of a way, as looking in every direction, the landscape was entirely flat as far as the eye could see.
At that point we hadn’t decided whether to stay in the nearby Wolfe Creek Campground, or turn around and face the hard slog of driving back to Halls Creek. It was only 10:00 A.M., so we had morning tea and made the decision to hit the road, and see how far we could get by the end of the day.
Sharing the driving made the return trip seem a little easier than the journey in and, apart from stopping for lunch, we carried on into Halls Creek, arriving around 3:00 P.M.
We had a few chores to do there and stopped first at the servo to fill up with fresh water, dump the toilet cassette and reinflate tyres, before filling up with diesel, buying what measly beer rations we were allowed, and stocking up on a few things at the IGA.
Suitably prepared for a few days of travelling with no prospect of shops or fuel, we drove out onto the Buntine Highway towards the NT border, stopping at the China Wall tourist attraction on the way out, then stopped at the Caroline Pool free camp for the night, which was only a few kilometres out of town.
Day 210 - Caroline Pool Free Camp - Buntine Highway Free Camp, NY 25 August, 2024
The only clear plan we had for the day was to begin the drive east, towards the NT border, and see how far we could get on possibly bad roads. The road was called the Buntine Highway, but was actually an unsealed road in unknown condition.
Leaving the free camp by 7:30 A.M., we drove a short distance and stopped at the old Hall Creek township, consisting of a few skeletons of buildings and a few memorials. It didn’t keep us amused for long, so we continued on with our eastward journey.
Although unsealed, the road condition was very good, so we didn’t bother lowering tyre pressures at that point. It wasn’t long though, before we had some rougher stretches of road, and stopped to lower the pressures.
After driving for a bit longer we came to a sign pointing to Sawpit Gorge, 4 km off the road, and thought ‘why not’. The narrow dirt track into the gorge was a bit rough, with a couple of creek crossings thrown in for good measure, but it didn’t take us long to get to the carpark. From there it was a short walk down to the actual gorge, across a small running creek, that opened out into a large gravelled area, where we were surprised to see large 20+ foot caravans parked up there. There was a nice swimming hole at the bottom of the gorge, and the water temperature was great for swimming. We chatted with one of the caravaners for a while, then carried on with our drive.
Along the way we navigated quite a few creek crossings, but none too radical. As we approached one of these creek crossings, we were lucky to startle a couple of Brolgas, which didn’t fly away and allowed us to get some pics of them.
After a brief stop at the Duncan Lookout, for views across the plains back towards Halls Creek, we carried on some more before stopping for morning tea in a sort of valley that was surrounded by distant ranges on all sides.
Carrying on driving for the rest of the morning, the road condition was still mainly good, allowing us to make good time, and sharing the driving made it all that much easier. At one point we passed a turnoff to a mine site, and right after that the condition of the road deteriorated a lot, with quite a few bad patches, but still many sections where we would travel at up to 80 km/h.
An unusual phenomenon we had been seeing recently, dust devils/twisters/mini tornadoes, were prolific again today, some crossing our path directly in front of us.
We stopped for lunch about 20 km short of the border, before continuing on through the border, and another 15 km past there to the Buntine Free Camp, which was just off the road, but very quiet because there was no passing traffic.
Our biggest issue was that the temperature when we pulled up was 38 degrees, so keeping cool was our priority. Being unpowered, that meant sitting outside in the shade and trying to capture whatever breeze was being served up for the afternoon.
Crossing the border earlier, we passed into another time zone, and moved our clocks forward 1.5 hours, so instead of arriving there about 1:30 P.M., it was actually 3:00 P.M. NT time.
Day 211 - Buntine Highway Free Camp - Kalkarindji, NT 26 August, 2024
With the time zone change the previous day to NT time, the sun came up later and so did we.
It was almost 9:00 A.M. when we left our campsite, and continued our journey east towards Kalkarindji, not knowing how far we would get on the dodgy unsealed road.
The going was about as we had expected, with a few reasonable patches but mostly badly corrugated and slow going.
Not too far into the drive we spotted a pair of Bustards on the road in front of us, but they took off before we could get a photo.
Apart from a brief stop for morning tea, we didn't stop again until lunchtime, pulling off into what turned out to be cattle yards. As the solar panels were once again not performing very well, we took the opportunity to use the cattle loading ramp to clean the panels before having lunch.
With the 100 km we'd managed to cover over the course of the morning, we still had another 100 km to travel to make it to Kalkarindji. The going was no better for some time, until we swapped drivers and after a short time the road became magically sealed! It only lasted for about 10 km, but was a welcome relief. After that the condition improved somewhat and, making better time for the last 50 km or so, we made it to our destination by 3:00 P.M.
We checked into the campground, situated behind the servo and got set up on a powered site with water. A little while later another person camping there told us that he'd been told that the water wasn't drinkable. I had topped up the water tank, but it didn't take very much, so we thought it would be ok mixed in with the existing fresh water.
For the first time in days we had internet, so spent the afternoon and evening catching up on our socials.
Day 212 - Kalkarindji - Top Springs, NT 27 August, 2024
Wanting to check out a couple of things in Kalkarindji, including getting some supplies from the shop that didn't open until 9:00 A.M., and going to the cultural centre which didn't open until 9:30 A.M., we were in no hurry with the morning routine.
Once packed up we left the campground, and curious about some vehicles we'd been watching from the campground that were up a hill behind the town, we drove up a very narrow rough track to check it out.
Some people who had been camping up there told us that the area was used every Easter by the local Christian population to celebrate the event, which explained the cross at the top of the hill. There was a reasonable view of the township up there, but it's not much of a town really. The people we spoke to were camping up there because over the weekend just past there was a Freedom Day Festival, celebrating the Wave Hill Walk-Off , which meant all accommodation in town was booked out, and also because the revellers were playing loud music until 3:00 A.M.
Still too early for the shop and cultural centre, we drove a short distance out of town to see what we could see, and turned off onto another narrow, rough dirt track after seeing a sign for the cemetery, and the grave of Vincent Lingairi, who was a leader of the Wave Hill Walk-Off back in 1966.
Walking into the cemetery Meg spotted two dark-coloured snakes getting it on, so we gave them a wide berth and took some photos of Vincent Lingairi's grave, before beating a hasty retreat back to town.
The shop was open by then so we bought what we needed, then parked up in the shade waiting for the cultural centre to open.
We were hoping to get some more information about Wave Hill from the cultural centre, but unfortunately they were renovating and only had a few large photos of Aboriginal people working on Wave Hill Station before the walk-off. They did, however, have an impressive range of Aboriginal art works and publications related to the area, one of which we bought, which was the words of Paul Kelly's song "From Little Things Big Things Grow" illustrated with artwork from local children. The lady running the centre told us that another publication they'd produced about termites had won a national award, with the prize being $80,000 that they could use to fund further renovations and expansions.
With nothing else left to see in Kalkarindji, we drove out of town headed for Top Springs, 170 km to the north-east, unsure of what the road would be like.
We needn't have worried, as the road was sealed all the way, though only single lane and quite rough in parts. Some sections were two-lane where we could travel faster, and even on the less good parts we still made good time, arriving in Top Springs just after midday.
While checking into the campground that was situated behind the pub, and to our delight, we found out we could buy as much takeaway wine as we wanted, so we took them up on that offer.
We got setup, had lunch, then enjoyed being parked up early for the day, with good internet, 34 degrees, a nice shady campsite and a good breeze to keep us cool.
Day 213 - Top Springs - Bitter Springs, NT 28 August, 2024
Our plan for the day was to drive to Bitter Springs near Mataranka, about 300 km away.
As we are prone to do, we decided to take the back roads, specifically the Buchanan Highway, which would take us out to the Stuart Highway after 180 km of unsealed road.
We had asked the pub staff at Top Springs about the road condition, and were told that the first 30 km was corrugated and the rest was ok. Prepared for corrugations first thing in the morning, we set out and found the road to be in good condition, allowing us to travel at up to 80 km/h on many parts. We felt that going any faster than that would be unsafe on the recently-graded loose surface.
We had a brief stop for a photo when Meg spotted a Bustard in the middle of the road, and apart from that only stopped for morning tea on the way out to the highway.
We misunderstood the information on the road conditions we were given the day before, and came to a crashing halt about 30 km from the end of the unsealed road, which hadn’t been graded for some time and was very rough. It didn’t take us too long though to complete the remainder of the unsealed road and reach the highway.
After switching drivers we hit the highway, stopping after a little while at the Birdum servo for 20 litres of diesel to make sure we didn’t run out before reaching Mataranka.
A little further along the highway we stopped for lunch, then carried on into Mataranka, where the first stop was a servo to fill up with diesel, 126 litres @ $2.00 per litre – ouch! The supermarket was beside the servo, so we topped with supplies before driving out to the Bitter Springs campground and booked into a powered site for two nights.
With the temperature sitting on 35 degrees, we were hot and sweaty after setting up, so we walked the 500 metres to the hot springs and floated down the creek on a noodle, which was very relaxing.
Back at camp we had showers before catching up with socials and enjoying the shady, tree-lined campsite.
Later in the day the resident caravan repair man was driving past our site, so we stopped him and got him to replace a broken fresh water drain valve that had been broken for some time.
Day 214 - Bitter Springs, NT 29 August, 2024
With another night still to go at Bitter Springs we enjoyed not having to pack up and had a lazy start to the day.
After doing some light cleaning, we wandered up to the shop to see if they had any mosquito coils, as there were mozzies around the previous night. Thankfully they did, and they were also selling jars of mango preserves, so I grabbed a small jar of mango chilli chutney.
The day was heating up early, so we put our swimmers on and walked down to the hot springs with our noodles, and floated down the crystal clear, 34°C water, letting the gentle current carry us along to the end point. That experience was so relaxing we walked back to the start point and jumped back in again to do a second pass along the creek.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing, enjoying the lovely mid-thirties temperature, gentle breeze, birdlife and wildlife and the thought of not having anything else to do for the day.
Day 215 - Bitter Springs - Munbililla (Tomato Island), NT 30 August, 2024
With over 220 km to drive today to Limmen NP, some of which would be on indeterminate roads, we wanted to be on the road reasonably early.
After stopping at Mataranka to visit the dump point and to get a couple of things from the shop, we headed out of town towards the Roper Highway.
A sign at the start of the Roper Highway let us know that in front of us, we had about 135 km of sealed road, then all unsealed after that, so about 80 km of potential torture.
The sealed road was mostly single lane, and in good condition, so we made good time for that part of the journey, stopping only for a quick morning tea and comfort break.
Eventually running out of seal, we hit the unsealed road and immediately our speed dropped to between walking pace and 20km/h. We slogged on for about 50 km, on some of the worst road surfaces we'd encountered, which is saying something, before taking a well-deserved lunch break.
We swapped drivers after lunch and continued on for another bone-jarring 30 km, reaching the Munbililla Campground around 2:00 P.M.
For a national park, the campground was very well appointed with toilets and hot showers to complement the huge, tree-lined camping area, on the banks of the crocodile-infested Roper River.
Another surprise, considering we were in the middle of nowhere, was really good internet.
After settling in for the night we went through our usual afternoon routine, relaxing in the shade of the trees surrounding our campsite.
We had parked beside a small Anzac memorial park, and checked that out after pulling into our campsite.
Day 216 - Munbililla - Limmen Bight Campground, NT 31 August, 2024
Today’s mission was to drive 130 km on unsealed roads from Munbililla to the Limmen Bight Campground, which we thought would be far enough to drive in a day on bad roads.
The road leading into Munbililla the day before had been bad, so we had no reason to expect that today’s roads would be any different.
Getting away from camp just after 8:00 A.M., we discovered that the road conditions had magically improved overnight, allowing us to travel at around 60 km/h for long sections, slowing down occasionally for the odd rough patch.
Not too far into the journey, we pulled off to check out the ruins of St Vidgeon (there was no information board to tell us what the ruins were all about), and to have a look at the Lomarieum Lagoon, which was a large body of water almost completely covered in Lily pads.
Back on the road we smashed out the first 40 km of the day’s drive in a short time – THEN we turned off to stay on the Nathan River Road at the Roper Port intersection, and the road condition reverted to those oh so familiar corrugations, with 90 km still to travel.
Keeping a keen eye out for any wildlife that wasn’t domestic cattle, Meg spotted a pair of Buffalo on the side of the road, and that was the most exciting thing we saw on the whole trip.
We swapped drivers while stopped for a quick morning tea and toilet break, then carried on the hard slog on a very rough and corrugated surface, that was also sometimes very deep and soft sand.
After another driver change, we fought on until lunchtime, leaving 30 km still to go for the afternoon’s entertainment.
The road didn’t improve at all, and it took another hour and a half to cover those last 30 km. It had taken over five hours to cover the 130 km.
When we arrived at the campground, it was deserted, which we hoped would remain the case for the rest of the day and evening.
Our luck had run out with regards to the internet, so we spent the afternoon amusing ourselves without access to our usual range of activities.
Somebody had kindly left some firewood beside the firepit close to our campsite, so we fired that up later in the afternoon.
It was another beautiful evening, and we were parked beside a picnic table, so we took the opportunity to eat outside, enjoying the clear night sky until well after dark.
Day 217 - Limmen Bight Campground - Butterfly Falls, NT 01 September, 2024
After waking to quite a heavy fog this morning, we set out today on what may have been one of our more crazy adventures, to visit the Western Lost City rock formations.
We had read up on what to expect, a 28 km drive over very rough roads, including a river crossing and some creek crossings, which gave us some misgivings about the plan. Information provided by national parks authority, and the local Nathan River ranger station, was to ensure we had enough fuel, food and water for the journey, and to carry at least two spare tyres. We also had to have some means of communication if the worst happened, such as a radio, satellite phone or personal locator beacon, the latter of which we have.
Before beginning our quest into the lost city, we had to visit the ranger station to get a code for the combination lock on the gate into the lost city road. Suitably armed with the code, we drove to the gate, and where we also had to enter our details into a log book, including the time we passed through the gate.
A little hesitant, we started the drive to the lost city, taking it easy because the road was narrow with a sometimes dirt, sometimes sand, sometimes rocky surface, badly washed out in places and with potholes that jumped out and surprised us if we got too complacent.
The first creek crossing we came too was dry, but very steep, with large rocks that meant we had to go very slowly to cross it.
A little way further along the track we came to the Limmen River crossing, the one we had been dreading as we’d read that it was very steep, soft sand going into and out of the crossing. Approaching the crossing we could see that it was very deformed, so we engaged low range 4WD before continuing. It was a bit scary going down the steep slope, picking our way around the washed-out bits as best we could to avoid tipping Mata over too far, then going through the bottom of the crossing, which only had a small amount of water flowing over it, before climbing out the other side. Mata performed brilliantly as usual, and took it all in her stride.
Apart from another couple of dry creek crossings, the rest of the journey wasn’t as bad as we’d expected, although still very slow going because of the roughness, potholes and washouts.
We were lucky enough, part way in, to spot a Red-Backed Fairy Wren flying across in front of us, whose red back was a brilliantly vivid shade of red.
After two and a quarter hours we made it into the lost city, and first impressions were that it had been well worth the anxiety and effort to get in there.
The sandstone rock formations had been formed 1.5 billion years ago, and had been eroded by wind and water since then, creating the amazing and varied shapes that made up the lost city.
From the point where we first saw the lost city, there was a 2 km track that took us further into the city, with a turnaround area at the end. We drove into that point and stopped to take photos and to put the drone up for some more photos and videos.
Driving back from the turnaround area, we stopped about halfway along to have lunch, and to take more photos and put the drone up again.
Having seen all that we wanted to see, we started on the long drive back out to the Nathan River Road. The return journey, as is so often the case, didn’t take as long as going in, and we were back out in under two hours.
An added bonus for us was that for the whole day we didn’t see any other people, so we had the place to ourselves.
Although we’d booked two nights at the Limmen Bight campground, we didn’t want to drive 15 km back along that road, and then have to drive it again the next day, so we drove past the ranger station, and a few more kilometres along the road, to the Butterfly Falls campground.
There were only two other vehicles parked in the camping area, and they didn’t look like they’d be staying the night, so we chose a shady campsite and got set up for the night.
Although we’d only been driving for most of the day, we were hot and tired, with the 38-degree temperature, so as soon as we were organised we donned swimmers and walked the short distance to Butterfly Falls, where there was a beautiful pool at the bottom of the falls, with clear water that was a perfect temperature to cool off.
Suitably cooled off, it was back to camp to chill for the rest of the day with, once again, no internet to distract us from our surroundings.
Once again, somebody had kindly left some firewood next the firepit on our campsite so we scavenged a bit more wood from around the place and, even though it was still quite hot, we cranked up the fire for the ambience and to deter the bitey critters.
Day 218 - Butterfly Falls - McArthur, NT 02 September, 2024
We had two missions for the day, visit the other lost city in the Limmen NP, the Southern Lost City, and to drive as far as we could towards McArthur on bad roads.
After a bit of a sleep in, we got away from camp and drove about 30 km to the Southern Lost City, parked up, got our shoes on and set out on the 2.5 km, class 3 loop walk around the rock formations.
The rock formations were similar to the Western Lost City we’d seen the day before, but were more spaced out and easy to walk around. The walk wasn’t terribly difficult but the temperature was rising quickly in amongst the towering rocks, that radiated heat back at us. Some of the rocks looked like people, or Easter Island statues in some cases.
It took us an hour to complete the walk, and we were thankful to get back into the air con and start driving again. The temperature display in Mata was reading 39 degrees as we set out.
From the lost city it was over 100 km to Cape Crawford, and we were expecting that we wouldn’t make it that far on the atrocious roads. We were aiming for McArthur because the Heartbreak Hotel roadhouse there had a bar, restaurant, swimming pool, and sold takeaway alcohol, which was a big consideration for us as we were running low on booze.
During our lunch stop we decided that we may as well carry on driving as long as possible, as we didn’t even a nice, cold beer to enjoy when we stopped. Also, we knew that the Heartbreak Hotel had internet and, because we’d been without for a few days, were hanging out for some interwebbing.
Despite the disgusting road condition, and the dozens of creek crossings which were mostly dry, we made into McArthur by 3:30 P.M., got checked into the Heartbreak Hotel campground for two nights to have a catch-up day, bought some beer, got setup and went for a well-deserved swim in the pool.
After showers and catching up with internet things, we had dinner in the restaurant, which was very welcome as we didn’t have the energy to cook dinner.
Day 219 - McArthur, NT 03 September, 2024
After the last few days of intense touristing, we planned to use today as a down day, and to catch up on some bits and pieces like laundry, cleaning and our socials.
We attempted a sleep-in, but noisy birds and other campers leaving early prevented that from happening.
The morning was spent doing the aforementioned chores, especially this blog after days of no internet, and having to process so many photos from the places we'd visited recently.
While sitting outside we were amused by the antics of large flocks of Apostle birds, that were quite happy moving around under our chairs and table, and we loved seeing the local version of Lorikeet, the Red-Collared Lorikeet also in large flocks.
As we were running low on supplies, and with no good shops anywhere in the next few days, we decided to have lunch at the restaurant, then just have a light meal in the evening.
Day 220 - McArthur - Barkly Highway Free Camp, NT 04 September, 2024
Fairly well done with what we wanted to see in NT, we started the drive towards QLD this morning, after filling up with diesel at the Heartbreak Hotel.
We’d enquired about the road conditions the day before and were told that it was mostly one-lane blacktop, so we weren’t expecting any dramas in that respect.
Although the road was indeed in good condition, we weren’t in any particular hurry, so we pottered along at 80 km/h in an attempt to improve our fuel consumption.
Shortly after leaving the Heartbreak Hotel, we were passed by a couple of four-wheel drive vehicles, but we didn’t see any other vehicle going in the same direction as us for about 400 km, until we got to the Barkly Highway.
The closer we got to the Barkly Highway, the worse the road surface became, with large potholes, steep and jagged drop offs onto the sides of the road, and washouts in some places. This made the going a bit stop-start for long distances, but we mostly kept up the 80 km/h pace until we turned off the Tablelands Highway on to the Barkly Highway, towards Mount Isa.
Forty kilometres along the Barkly there was a large rest area where we pulled into and set up for the night.
The temperature was 35 degrees, so we had to sit outside to escape the heat inside Mata, but being outside meant we had to deal with rabid flies.
With no internet, we couldn’t do our usual catching up with socials and had to amuse ourselves in other ways for the rest of the day.
Day 221 - Barkly Highway Free Camp - Camooweal, NT 05 September, 2024
It was another boring driving day today, going from our free camp to Camooweal, 220 km away, with nothing to see or do along the way.
The most interesting part of the journey was crossing the border back into QLD, our first time back in our home state since January. We stopped to take photos of the Welcome to Queensland sign, then carried on into Camooweal where it was nearly lunchtime, with the change in time zone taking the time forward half an hour.
We had a wander around the small town’s main street, looking at the Drover’s Memorial, and some street art that told the story of people who used to break in horses in the Camooweal area, then ship them down to Victoria where they were sold to the Indian Army.
Having to wait for the pub to open at midday to get some takeaway, we went to the servo and grabbed a bite to eat for lunch
After stopping off at the pub we headed back out of town to a free camp on the banks of a large billabong, that was teeming with birdlife.
We spent the afternoon trying to identify as many birds as possible. There were several varieties of ducks, Pelicans, Cormorants, Whistling Kites, Herons, Brolgas, Jabirus and many others around the water that was decorated with Lily Pads.
Being so close to town, we also had the added bonus of good internet coverage that allowed us to catch up with our socials.
Day 222 - Camooweal - Mt Isa, NT 06 September, 2024
Packing up to leave our beautiful billabong free camp this morning, we were lucky to be visited by a family of three Brolgas who were feeding close to our campsite.
In Camooweal we visited the dump point, then drove a kilometre out of town and pulled into the Drovers Camp Museum, which we'd read about and sounded quite interesting.
Going in as soon as it opened at 9:00 A.M. we had half an hour to look around the museum exhibits before doing the guided tour, led by "Stumpy" (he was quite short), who was an ex-ringer in the area and knew all there was to know about droving cattle.
For about an hour Stumpy told us all about the area around Camooweal in relation to droving cattle, and how that related to cattle movement all around Australia. He then took us through the museum pointing out particular exhibits, many about people who he had worked with. The highlight of Stumpy's tour was to tell us about life as a stockman, the daily routine, the people involved, showing us much of the equipment used and particularly how they managed to keep the cattle calm and moving on the long drives.
As we were pulling out of the museum, a couple of police cars passed in the direction we were going, with lights flashing, then a pilot vehicle followed them, then two road trains passed, each carrying an 8.5 metre wide tray off a mine dump truck, then a tail-end charlie followed the last road train.
It didn't take us long to catch up with them, as they were travelling around 80-90 km/h on the 110 km/h speed limit road. We had no choice but to sit behind them as they were taking up most of the width of the road. After about half an hour of following the parade they thankfully pulled over to let us past, along with the other vehicles that were following us.
The rest of the drive to Mt Isa was uneventful, and we arrived there about lunchtime.
Parking in the main street we began to work through our list of chores that we hadn't been able to do anywhere else recently. The first stop was the pharmacy to top up our regular medications, then a not very nice pie from a bakery for lunch, before looking unsuccessfully for a hairdresser for Meg.
Next up was a huge shop at Woolies, the first real supermarket we'd seen for weeks. After stocking up on booze, we went to the visitor information centre to enquire about the possibility of visiting Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) as it sounded quite interesting. The lady we spoke to was noncommittal, so we decided we probably wouldn't travel the extra distance back north of Mt Isa.
Also at the visitor centre there is an excellent fossil discovery centre, that we paid for and spent some time looking around. The fossils had all been found at the Riversleigh fossil site about 200 km north of Mt Isa, which we could have seen if we went to Boodjamulla. The centre had hundreds of exhibits of fossils of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, all with loads of information to accompany them.
Our last stop for the day was to get someone to check our car battery, which had started to struggle when starting the engine. At Autobarn they checked the battery straight away, which showed that it needed to be replaced. Thankfully they were able to do that on the spot, and we were on the road again in less than half an hour.
At the Mt Isa Caravan Park, we checked into a powered site for the night, because the house batteries hadn't been charging as much as we thought they should after the drive in full sun.
We were all hot and bothered after all our running around doing chores, so had a swim in the campground pool, but the water was quite cold so it was just a short dip.
All tuckered out by then we relaxed for what was left of the day.
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