The Central Arnhem Land road

It’s all about the journey - not the destination! That was some of the advice we were given in Katherine before we began this trip. Other advice was that the road was flood damaged and rough so take it slowly & one flippant remark was that we were grey nomads about to write our vans off!! All of the advice was certainly  correct, except for the last one! That was due to the excellent patient and careful driving skills displayed by Dennis and Darryl. 

The journey was really amazing with so much to see. We had a narrow strip of bitumen to begin with but that quickly gave way to dirt!

Our first morning tea was at this lookout over the valley -other stops were just on the side of the road.

We were excited to see donkeys, buffalo, dingo and cattle along the road.

It was lovely to see all creeks and streams flowing - there have been big rainfalls (Nhulumbuy has had 636mm for April) so things are still lush green and wet! Our first night was at this wonderful oasis, the Mainoru store where we set up on a beautiful grassed area and even enjoyed a few drinks at the bar there.

Some cars didn’t make it - dotted along the way are wrecks - usually stripped of parts. We did meet the most popular man along the road and Darryl gave him some advice! He has an enormous amount of work ahead of him! 

The road on the second day was relieved by a strip of bitumen and a freshly graded road but that soon was replaced by an even rougher road so it was with relief we set up at a free camp by a running creek.

By the third day we were actually a bit over the roughness as conditions require such concentration and the shadows make it so difficult to see the holes and ruts so it was quite tiring.  The road on day 3 was wetter and impossible to avoid holes and ruts so we had to crawl through them - reducing our average speed to 23kmh. We took 10 hours to travel 212km. Much of the road was flood damaged and lots of creek and water crossings.

The scenery was so pretty and changed from Savannah woodland to more tropical and if we had less time focussed on the road, we would have appreciated it more! When we finally arrived here, we set up quickly in this caravan park with a view over the sea, then we were advised to dine at the club before meals went off so we dined out feeling tired and grubby but enjoyed a lovely meal and drinks. We were most fortunate to meet at the Mainoru store and again here at the camp a lovely couple from New Zealand, and tonight we’ll dine on their generously donated fish. Thank you James and Kathryn 👏. 

It’s hot and humid here and no pool in the camp so later we’ll be checking out a swimming spot - seeing the beach is croc friendly! What a shame this beach isn’t a swimming one. We’ve got lots to check out here so next blog will be about here. Cheers from the happy travellers ❌❌❌

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Arnhem Land & More

We have had a very different start to our trip as we are only beginning our adventures now from Katherine, even though we’ve been on the road for over a week. Dennis and Tops left home over 2 weeks ago to travel to Kununurra to attend the wedding that had been postponed since 2020. What a wonderful experience it was for them as their whole family attended and it was a very happy celebration. Our start to the trip wasn’t as joyous as we attended the funeral of a beautiful wife mother and friend in the Barossa Valley. From there we had what appeared to be the daunting task of travelling nearly 3000km in 4 days to meet up with Dennis & Tops here in Katherine. The trip was however, quite easy and we made it here in plenty of time. I even took the wheel at one stage and competently passed 2 road trains - although I do believe Darryl was a little anxious! Along the way we stopped at Coober Pedy, the Alice Springs Showgrounds, a farm stay out of Tennant Creek then Bitter Springs. We did no sightseeing along the way as we have visited all these places on previous trips- except at Bitter Springs where we enjoyed the thermal springs and Darryl put a line in (with no success)

We are now staying at a farm stay a few kms out of Katherine and it’s been very restful after big travelling days. The whole Greenwood clan arrived here too on Monday, on their way back to Darwin so it was another happy evening together.

In Katherine we’ve once again enjoyed the hot springs, have topped up our supplies and caught up with washing. We’ve also put all winter gear under the bed as it’s very warm and humid here and no need of coats! We like to attend ANZAC ceremonies wherever we are, so I diligently looked up the times of the March and service here in Katherine and we rocked up nice and early, only to find out we’d missed the lot! Evidently they changed the time! Plus we also found that they don’t have a service anymore so we didn’t get to any Anzac ceremony this year. We went and had a coffee in town instead. Dennis has been keenly trying out his fishing expertise and spent some time at the weir - unfortunately, no success! 

We are booked into the Gove Boat Club at Nhulunbuy for a week and as we sit under the beautiful trees, we’re debating whether to allow 2 or 3 days to travel the 730km to there. Evidently the road is pretty rough with flood damage so we won’t be hurtling along at 100kph - so we’re beginning to think it’s wiser to allow more time. We’ve since made enquires and the suggestion is allowing 3 days is better than rushing in 2 - so looks like our real adventure begins tomorrow! So the next blog will hopefully be from Arnhem Land. So I’ll sign off here and we send our love to our readers. Marg, Darryl, Dennis, Tops ❌❌❌