Our last morning in the NT, we were almost back into
Queensland, and while we are still a long way from home it cemented the feeling
that this dream is soon coming to an end...
We rolled out pretty quickly and were amazingly enough the
first ones to leave...there were only two other campers...Our first mission was
the crossing that we had been looking over since yesterday afternoon and I took
the opportunity to try and capture some good pics making De do the driving
across and up the other side.
We rolled on and while the road wasn’t bad it was far from good.
There was a lot of rock which meant you had to drive reasonably slowly. I
generally drive over corrugated roads at 60+ kms/hr with the theory being that
you are just skimming across the top of the corrugations rather than going up
and down every one of them. But with rocks you have no choice but to potter
along at 10 – 30kms/h depending how bad they are with tyre pressure playing a
pretty important role in determining how many times you have to change them!
The next 100kms we pretty much the same with the occasional
‘jump up’ (which can be translated as a mini range; think of driving up the
range up to Toowoomba as a really big jump up) giving us views out over the
surrounding country. We passed an abandoned mine and were keen to have a look
but the gates were closed...not long after we found a largish olive python
sunning its self in the middle of the road. We got out, to get a pic, and to
try and move it off the road in case someone less environmentally aware than me
was coming along. She was enjoying her sunbathing and anything we did was
inconsequential, however I think she took a particular liking to Sam who I
think she could have swallowed in one bite!
After 189 days in the wilderness crossing 7 state and
territory borders along the way we finally crossed back into Queensland, with
everybody assuming the ‘pushed the Izzygator from the Northen Territory to
Queensland’ position without having to be asked. It was great to be back!
Not far up the road we met some more wild life and I started
to believe that Steve Irwin, when he used to do his road trip shows, actually
would find these animals in the wild not release them from a cage for the
camera as I had previously suspected!
Our next stop was Hells Gate Road House where we had a great
chat with Bill and live the owners. It is one of the very few independent road
houses left on remote tracks like this so we were happy to fill up our tanks at
what I thought was a pretty competitive price.
 |
| Figured I would be back here in the future so thought it would be worth checking out the digs |
Not far past we turned of the
highway onto Bowthorn Station where Kingfisher Camp is located. We had no idea
about this place other than it was on a dirt track that is a short cut to Lawn
Hill National Park and that you can fish there..so why not.
If we though parts of the highway were rough then this was a
whole new thing with the sandy track, bull dust and narrow grids giving De a
hard time. At one point she had to get off the road as a cattle truck came
whizzing by. It took about an hour to complete the 30kms to the camp and we
were relieved when we got there. I chatted with the lass at the ‘reception’ who
seemed more like a station worker than somebody working at a camp.
As we drove
into the camp there was a large set of cattle yards that were pretty full of
what looked like weaners and I questioned her about what was happening with
them. Some were getting brought in this afternoon and if I spoke to the manager
I am sure we could come and watch...yeee ha. One of my big hopes for the trip
had been to give the boys a real life experience on a cattle property and so
far, despite trying many times, I had come up empty handed.
We set up camp, took rufus off and had a quick run around
the ‘puddle’ (that’s what I called it) the camp is based on. The Nicholson River
is a pretty big river by any standards that has a huge catchment area and runs
very strongly in the wet season, but dries up pretty quickly. However over many
millennia it has worn away a natural dam in this area that is an oasis for both
man and wildlife. We did a quick run to the eastern end, a kilometre or so and
decided it would be great for a fish in the morning tying Rufus up at the ramp ready
to go.
We were ready to head over to have a look at the weaners
when we spotted Mick, the manager, feeding the donkey. I wondered over and
struck up a conversation about a wide variety of things finally slipping in the
all important question about the boys and I helping with some cattle work.
“Sure no problem at all” was the response I was looking for and received. They
have contactors in at the moment doing all of the cattle work and if I head
over first thing in the morning and see Dustin he’ll let us know what we can
do...Yeah!! I and the boys were both excited about what lay ahead but I had a
lingering doubt that Dustin might not prove to be as welcoming as Mick..oh well
only time will tell.
We headed back to camp, got the fire going and I cooked up a
red curry in the camp oven over the hot coals. We had to be up early so it was
lights out with three alarms set for 7am so we weren’t late for our first day
at work!
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