2nd - 13th July 2016
Northern Territory...land of the giant Termite Mound.
Time to head west! This part of our journey will take us back south to Katherine, stopping at Mt Bundy Station, Pussy Cat Flats, Lady Edith Falls (our favourite spot). Take a right at Katherine to head along the Victoria Highway to Timber Creek, Zebra Rock Mine Camp and then over the border to W.A. and Kununurra. The beginning of our Gibb River Road adventure!
Mt. Bundy Station
This is a working cattle station that was established in 1911 by old mate buffalo hunter Fred Hardy and was one of the first pastoral leases in the Top End. The property is bordered by the Adelaide River. The bombing of Darwin in 1942 by the Japanese saw the property utilised by the American Navy and Airforce and the Australian Airforce. The extent of bombing in the Northern Territory is staggering. Something I'm sure none of us knew. I have posted this list of dates and bombing sites. Takes your breath away!
The Station now has a terrific campground, and we spent three nights here. It had all our requirements - swimming pool, rustic bar, bush fire place, as well as Indonesian Swamp Buffalo, cattle, horses and ponies. Oh, and Peahens and Peacocks!
Happy Hour at the bar...pretty happy!
Most of the day spent here after a good walk around some of the property.
Day two and our buddies Deb and Harry arrived. More time by the pool!
Plenty of Peahens roaming around.
And Peacocks.
Don't go in the buffalo paddock unless you can run across in 9 seconds, because apparently this big boy can do it in 10!!!!!!
Feeding time in front of our camp. Love that the young girls are in charge of the tractor!
Indonesian Swamp Buffalo.
Friendly residents.
And wallabies.
All dressed up for a night out at the bar.
Happy, happy hour!
Big bush camp fire for atmosphere.
The rustic bar hut.
The cast and crew of T.V. show What's Up Down Under pulled into the camp on the second day and parked up next to us. Bit of celebrity excitement. Tania Kernigan was our neighbour, but when we asked her to sing she said she wasn't paid to sing on this trip ha ha ha! Anyhoo Macca was up for a big chat. Great bloke. We didn't get any celebrity photos, but we did get some freebies. The DVD very handy as it covered Kununurra and Home Valley Station, where we are headed.
Pussy Cat Flats
(Pine Creek)
One night here to let us have an early getaway and arrival at Lady Edith Falls the following day. It is so popular we needed to be there by 8.30am to ensure we get a site.
Not a bad spot for an overnighter . Pretty lazy day watching the black cockatoos and galahs.
Up and packing at 5.30am....aaahhhh! It was actually nice to be packing up watching the sunrise and be on the road early.
There's something we don't see everyday....sunrise!
Lady Edith Falls
(Nitmiluk National Park)
There are two places we have absolutely loved so far and this is one of them. The other was Longreach Waterhole. It was a unanimous vote with Deb & Harry and the Devaneys to make this the location for our final dinner together. We will be heading West, and the Devaneys are heading south to Uluru and then home. It has been so much fun bumping into them all over the N.T.
We had a magnificent, huge, grassy private camp area perfect for our final "dinner party".
The table of our "pop up" restaurant we named Gum leaves and Sunshine ha ha ha.
Philby was in charge of nibbles and made this very artistic offering.
So many laughs. A night to remember.
Pre dinner drinks. We are really going to miss these guys.
Not a great photo, but dinner was excellent (oxtail in red wine with mash and sprouts - thanks Deb), (chocolate mouse with berry compote and whipped cream - thanks Bevvy).
Not to mention the superb wines, and to top it off doing Tim Tam slams with coffee liqueur!!!!!
Dezzi decided to upgrade the rear springs. Turns out we needed a special clamp to do the job, so we will have to put that on hold until after Katherine. Philby just making sure that is the case!
We farewelled the Devaneys and had a very lazy day. Some were feeling rather dusty to say the least.
Next day Dez, Harry and myself headed off to do the Sweetwater walk that we didn't do last time. 8.4 klm hike to the pools.
Can you see the excitement on his face. I was very happy to have the hiking boots on again.
This was a beautiful walk.
First sighting of the Edith River.
Harry having a splash in the Long Hole waterhole.
The Sweetwater pools. Magic.
So good letting the waterfall spill over you.
Return journey.
At the junction to either go back to camp or go to the Top Pools Loop the boys piked and went back to camp. I continued on to the Top Pools for another swim and finish the full loop.
Lovely second swim.
Not sure what these trees are, but I really like them.
Back to the main lower pool and waterfall. There are lots of these little fish which nip you if you keep still!
About 10.5 klm hike and three fantastic waterhole swims!
Add on two more walks back to the main pool at 1klm return and I estimated about 15 klm for the day. Plus make two salads, a loaf of bread and dinner.
Massive, wonderful day!
Time for haircuts.
This fantastic, huge site all to ourselves. Gotta love National Parks. No generators, no dogs barking. Nice and quiet!
Roadside Stop
Took a right hand turn at Katherine onto the Victoria Highway. Time to head west. Overnight free camp roadside stop. Noisy, dry and dusty.
Big Horse Creek National Park Camp
Another overnight stop just west of Timber Creek. Got in around lunchtime. A scorcher of a day. About 36 degrees. When the sun finally started to set we walked down to the Victoria River boat ramp, and along a foot bridge. There are boab trees everywhere. Magnificent.
This Eastern Bowerbird kept us entertained.
Attacks cause injury or death.....no kidding.
Not my ideal location for a houseboat holiday with large saltwater crocs around!
Sunset over the Victoria River.
The magnificent boab tree complete with whistling kite nest.
Whistling kite in the top of the boab.
Zebra Rock Mine Campground
The landscape is so majestic and rugged. Love being on the road.
Not bad for a moving, car window shot.
Zebra rock is extremely rare and particular to this tiny area of Australia in the East Kimberley. Very few mines operate now because large areas were inundated when the Ord River was dammed creating the huge Lake Argyle.
This mine is the only privately owned and operated zebra rock mine in the world. So a pretty special experience to see this unique rock and hear all about it. And buy our own piece of this unique geological wonder.
Zebra rock is a sedimentary siltstone and is 600-700 million years old but a variation of that is the primordial rock which is 1200 million years old.
The mine lease sits on the eastern shore of Lake Argyle. As well as a great campground, they offer wetland sunset safari tours.
Four great, lazy days here. The first three were beautiful and sunny. The day we booked for the sunset wetland cruise was windy, cold and overcast. Not great for cruising, so we cancelled. Will do another one at Lake Argyle.
Brilliant sunrises from bed every morning.
Deb and I decided to have a bit of fun with one of their safari vehicles parked in the tent area. Time to play dress ups and pretend we are on an African Safari!!!
The tables at the kiosk are magnificent chunks of the primordial rock from the mine. The colours and layers are stunning. This one has a piece of zebra rock sitting on it.
Every slab was different in colour.
Pieces of zebra rock that have been shaped and polished. No two pieces are the same. Some have circle patterns, and some lines.
Zebra Rock.
Polished primordial rock.
Packed and ready to hit the road to Kununurra about 50klm down the road.
Woo hoo.....another State. And turn the clock back an hour and a half!
The quarantine is very strict. You pretty much can't take any fresh fruit, veggies, honey, seeds, timber and plants into W.A. We spent our time at Zebra Rock eating as much fruit and veg as possible. Cooking and freezing veggies. Avocados made into Guocomale. Made pikelets to use up the honey. So the freezer was full and the fridge was empty, except for two apples that we scoffed quick time as we approached the checkpoint!!!
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