Day 22 – (23/6/07) 9 am and we said goodbye to Spot, Herma and George and for all of us it was a little sad to be parting before we completed the planned trip. We headed down the highway to Camooweal and stopped on the side of the road at a World War 11 information bay where unexpectedly we met up with our local, now retired (McLaren Vale) butcher and his wife, headed for Lawn Hill. After a catch up we travelled onto Camooweal, stopping for lunch. In the car park were 3 very large prime movers, 2 carrying dump trucks and the other a large crane. They were headed for Darwin but unable to go any further due to the soft road conditions and as we continued the road was breaking up in places. We arrived at Barkly Homestead around 3.30pm, a nice spot with good facilities. After the guys put away a couple of beers, we cooked tea and met a lovely German couple who were in a van next to us, showing Jack the latest computer technology which allowed them to speak to their children in Europe.

Day 23 – We left Barkly Homestead around 10am and travelled along the Tablelands Highway, a single lane bitumen road. The sky was very grey and quite black to the east and west, rain was falling somewhere out there. We stopped on the side of the road with care for morning tea as the ground was very damp, spongy and alive with slaters. The scenery changed often, from large flat grassy patches to scrubby treed areas and those funny looking grey cattle that just want to stare at you or stand in the middle of the road, made several appearances throughout the day, traffic was minimal. By mid afternoon we neared Cape Crawford and the scenery changed, trees became larger, the vegetation greener, more lush and coming over a rise, a beautiful large reddish brown cliff face appeared and continued on our right all the way to Cape Crawford where we stayed the night. Cape Crawford consisted of a small Hotel known as the Heart Break Hotel, Service Station, motel and a picturesque Caravan Park with a noisy generator. Across the road helicopter Joy Flights to the nearby Lost City (25m high sandstone formations) could be had for $360 a person and later the helicopter flew into the park, landing next to a caravan, creating an eventful moment for us residents. The weather was quite humid and damp and we enjoyed a nice meal at the hotel. Bruce, Gary and Jack watched a video in Gary’s tent and soon after warm drizzly rain set in.

Day 24 – It drizzled most of the night and we woke to cool misty weather. After fuelling up we left Cape Crawford, taking the Nathan River Road (a dirt road and a section of the Savannah Way) as originally planned in Spot’s trip. Bruce had consulted with the locals the night before who said the roads were good. It wasn’t long before we came across the first of many shallow creek and river crossings. Small waterholes filled with blue waterlilies and bordered by lush green pandanas palms had us stopping for a closer look and a photo. We drove mainly through dense bushland with a limestone wall "a retaining wall" as Bruce called it, keeping us company to our right for quite some time. We stopped for morning tea on the side of the road and Bruce notice the back left tyre was down on the Nissan. On changing it he found a sharp stone inbedded in the tyre. Meanwhile two couples with campers pulled up and said they had just stayed a couple of nights at Lorella Springs Station and that it was a really nice place, so off we headed. The road into the station had been freshly graded, a little rough and quite sandy but the scenery was beautiful. Pandanas palms, orange grevilleas, purple flowering shrubby trees and other wild flowers were dotted amongst the vegetation on the sides of the road. We soon arrived at Lorella Springs Station where a large shed (the original homestead) was being renovated to provide bush hotel facilities for tourists. The small park contained a bush BBQ area, very clean toilets, cold bush shower facilities and hot water from a nearby spring fed a pretty little creek which ran along the edge of the park. We could have jumped in for a swim but I wasn’t going to compete with the other things moving around in there. Beautiful blue waterlilies lay in the wider section of the creek making this a very pretty spot to stay and stay we did. Arriving around lunch time meant we were able to spend the afternoon touring around the station using the map we were provided. We saw large black parrots with red tails, a huge eagle’s nest, more wild flowers and flowering shrubs. We took the Nissan’s across several water filled flowing creeks, saw a crystal clear rock pool with black walls and climbed a small rocky limestone cliff which led into a larger gorge. All very beautiful, so much more to see, not enough time as light started fading and drizzly rain began to fall. We arrived back and had drinks with the manager and her parents that Bruce had met previously at Arkaringa Station. We finished the day enjoying a meal around a cosy camp fire, provided by Gary.

Day 25 – With regret we left Lorella Springs, could have easily stayed another day. It was a little expensive at $30 a night but we did get to 4 wheel drive all over the property even if it was briefly. We were nearly at the end of the station road when the Nissan dropped at the back. I looked out the side mirror to see the back left tyre bouncing off behind us, it was the tyre changed yesterday. The wheel studs were bent and the mounting holes on the wheel were damaged. Gary called his daughter Angie who consulted with RAA. It was going to cost $1000 to tow us to Daly Waters 400 ks away and who knows when they were going to arrive. Luckily we landed on soft damp sand and after an inspection underneath, apart from the studs the only other damage was a bent disc backing plate, so Bruce decided to get the car going himself. Bruce and Gary spent most of the day repairing the car by taking 2 studs from our right back wheel, Gary lending us one off his Nissan, straightening a couple of the bent studs and using the 5 wheel nuts that luckily Jack and I found on the road. Musterers from the Station had come by around lunchtime and offered to help us later that day, on their way back to their camp, if we were still broken down. By about 4pm the car was up and running and soon after the Musterers returned. They helped lift the camper up on its jockey wheel so we could hitch it back onto the car (Gary gave them a beer for their help). Off we travelled along the Nathan River Road and the scenery was very beautiful, with more river crossings, reddish mountains, wide valleys and wild pigs coming out to greet us. There were several other touristy spots we had to give a miss so we will definitely come back another day. It was getting near beer o’clock, so when we came across a recently burnt off area, we decided to camp there for the night. Thanks to Gary we enjoyed another great camp fire and pondered over the small fires we could see in the distance thinking they were other campers in the wilderness.

Day 26 – We woke to warmer weather and a beautiful spot. We had camped in a valley flood plain with beautiful mountain ranges on either side and smoke was rising from the small fires we saw the night before, (possibly smouldering logs) no campers to be seen. Bruce checked the wheel then we continued along the Nathan River Road. We drove into Maria’s Lagoon an isolated spot with a pretty lagoon dotted with blue waterlilies. We continued on through the Proposed Limmen National Park where large orange flowering gum trees, grevilleas, purple flowering bushes and other lush vegetation lined the side of the road, very spectacular. We came across larger scenic water crossings on the Limmen Bight and Towns rivers and soon after Bruce spotted the Roper River. We stopped near a Caravan on the top of the river bank and admired the spectacular view of this large river. We chatted to the couple who were holidaying there, fishing for baramundi and enjoying the local wildlife, green tree snakes, fresh water crocks and buffalo. We headed off and came across a large fishing camp. After a light lunch and a chat to a camper from Murray Bridge who knew people that Jack knew we continued, dodging large mounds of poo and eventually catching up to the culprit a fairly large buffalo. We soon arrived at Roper Bar an isolated spot with a general store and a caravan park by the river. We drove down to the Roper river and aboriginal children from the Ngukurr community were having fun walking through the water running over a long cement bar ("Roper Bar" as pointed out to us by the locals). After an icecream at the store we continued along the Roper Highway and endured a small section that was badly corrugated. Thankfully we soon hit bitumen and arrived at Mataranka late in the afternoon, settling into the nearby Bitter Springs Caravan Park next to the Roper River and a short walk away from the thermal pools.

Day 27 – We left around 9am, fuelled up at Mataranka and Jack was able to catch up with his rellies at the servo who had been holidaying in Darwin and now headed for Alice Springs. We said goodbye and travelled onto Katherine arriving later in the morning and staying at the Low Level Caravan Park. We went shopping for wheel studs and later booked a boat tour up the Katherine Gorge. Bruce spent the afternoon replacing studs on the Nissan and that night we enjoyed a BBQ tea with friends from Willunga who had unexpectedly arrived in Katherine earlier that day from Kununurra. They also had to change holiday plans as roads were shut further west due to rain.

Pat & Bruce