I’ve been pretty inactive over the last few years. Other priorities including a job that has becoming increasingly interesting and to some degree demanding, and a growing family has meant that what was always a passion project has very much taken a back seat. This is unlikely to change, however, we have recently embarked on a once in a lifetime caravan trip through the centre of Australia and wanting to keep some folks back home in the loop, this is a perfect medium for me to do so.
To give you a very broad idea of where we are going, we left Newcastle and headed north and we kept going until we hit water. We will then trek west to Darwin, Katherine, Litchfield and Kakadu before then heading south through the West Macdonnell Ranges, Uluru and surrounds, most of the Oodnadatta Track and the Flinders Ranges. We won’t quite hit water this time and will cut back east, hightailing it home via Broken Hill and Cobar.
On a map, it looks a little something like this:
All that will take us about 11 weeks to complete. We are currently into our second week, the goal of which is literally to just get to the Northern Territory. The plan took route when planning a “through the guts” road trip with some friends, starting in Darwin, ending near Adelaide. That is still the plan, and we are meeting them in Katherine soon, but first we needed to get to Katherine.
Katherine is a long way from Newcastle.
A loong way.
The most direct route is 3,500 kilometres, or 38 hours of driving. Doing 8 hours a day would take us 5 days, and that sounded horrific with 3 kids in the back. I mean, they travel so well in the car but I didn’t want to put anyone through that, not least of all me, who would be doing the bulk of the driving.
So we added some stops. 1 night here. 2 nights there. But some stops were a bit out of the way. That’s ok. We decided to make a road trip of it, just to get there. So we are doing more driving and we are still moving pretty quickly, but we are at least keeping it interesting.
So now you have the setup, what follows is more of a journal of our days. It’ll be more fast and loose that I’m used to, and almost certainly less polished, as time and WiFi is pretty limited. But here goes nothing.
Day 0 – Home to Murrurundi
I am calling this Day 0 because we hadn’t originally intended to leave on this day (which was a Tuesday), expecting to do 8 hours tomorrow, and then 8 hours again to get to about Barcaldine. But I left work early to get a headstart and we were on the road by 4:30. We arrived at the White Hart Hotel in Murrurundi, pulled in to the back paddock and went straight into the pub for dinner. This is a common thing with country pubs, where land allows, they will often up the space for self contained campers on the assumption that you’ll patronise the pub. We intend to do this a bit this trip. It’s a great system!
Murrurundi is on the Great Dividing Range so, being July, the night was freezing. We had maximum blankets and I slept in a jumper. It was a warning for some of the nights inland later in the trip so it sparked a trip to Kmart the next day to add a few things.
Day 1 – Murrurundi to Nindigully
A big driving day, but it won’t be the biggest. Our first stop was only 20 minutes down the road as Kynie saw a Glee Coffee sign as we were driving through a nearby town. What started as two coffees ended up as $150 spent on goods at the attached small grocer. We next topped at Mitchell for some lunch and Curlewis for some water in the van and arrived at Nindigully Pub at dusk, just in time for another pub dinner. This is our second time to Nindigully but last time we ate in the van and just sat in the beer garden with a drink. Happy to support what is, judging by the dozens of caravans parked out back, still a thriving pub, despite its remoteness.
Day 2 Nindigully to Barcaldine
It was an uneventful day of driving to get as far north as Barcaldine and I had a free camp in mind to stay at a free camp I had found on Wikicamps but in the dark we couldn’t find it. Thankfully we still had phone service and ended up at a caravan park not far away. Upon pulling into the park, which doubled as a fuel station, I was informed by a fellow camper that we were missing a tire. Our left rear caravan tire was completely blown. More than blown. Absolutely shredded. we were lucky to be not scraping on metal, and if not for the other dual axle tire, we would have been. It seemed like devastating news, as I didn’t know how long we’d driven on it like this for. But the NRMA sorted me out and it looked like I had done no damage to the undercarriage so thankfully, after getting the spare changed in the morning, we were back on the road.
Day 3 – Barcaldine to Porcupine Gorge
Day 3 of driving and we hadn’t seen anything yet. You saw the map. The NT is a long way from home. The road towards our destination was the worst yet (but far from the worst we’ll experience). Many parts of the highway were only single lane which makes passing road trains head on very challenging. I was finding it was safest to slow down to third gear (from sixth) and go well onto the shoulder to pass. Some cars that weren’t towing were very kind and pulled right over for us to pass. There’s a definite hierarchy out here.
We stopped at the visitor centre in Hughenden to get some intel on the road condition going north and some information on the national park and arrived at our campsite before sunset. Mercifully, it was a pull-through site, a rarity, but highly sought after for those of us that are yet to master manouvering a 7.5 metre trailer with poor visibility. Buzz, Woody and Forky all joined us for our first campfire of the trip.
Day 4 – Porcupine Gorge
Our first non driving day. We had the day in Porcupine Gorge National Park at the Pyramid Campground. The campground is a few hundred metres from the gorge with a few walks one can take to see it. One to the rim with a great view down the valley towards the pyramid, and one that takes you down into the valley floor to the pyramid. We also drove 10 minutes to another lookout that had another view of a different section. The arvo was chill. We played games at the caravan (Cheating Moth and Macho Koro) while Lily and Kynie played Uno with 4 of Lily’s toys as the other players – Lily acted for them. Those of us who were not Kynie found it hilarious.
Day 5 – Porcupine Gorge to Undara Volcanic National Park
We had a cruisey morning in the national park, packed up and headed to the next stop. Our kids don’t wake up early so cruisey mornings tend to be how we roll unless we really need to be somewhere. Only 3.5 hours driving today but stopped half way at the appropriately named Oasis Roadhouse for some fuel and food. Appropriate because it is a long way from anywhere and by the time you reach it, well, let’s just say that as you leave Hughenden, there is a sign that says “no fuel for 250kms”.
We ordered simple stuff but the food took aaaages, so we ended up being there for nearly an hour. Normally we prefer to make our own lunch but when we can order something quickly at a stop we were making anywhere we are happy to do so the keep things moving, but it backfired this time. It was a nice break, though, and thankfully we didn’t have anywhere to be.
After setting up the caravan at our beautiful pull through site we had a swim, played a board game, had a nice family dinner before bed.
Day 6 -Undara Lava Tubes.
We had pre-booked a tour of the lava tubes, which took us to two underground tubes and an archway. I don’t quite remember the science but they were formed from volcanic eruptions, the most recent of which they think was around 10,000 years ago. There are 72 volcanoes in the area and not all of them are technically extint and based on the layers of basalt it looks like there have been 163 eruptions throughout the history of the area.
The area had 1730ml of rain this wet season, which is far above normal. The basalt in the ground is like a sponge and 70 meters deep. When the basalt fills up it can flood, and it did. The 3 archway tubes flooded for the first time on record this season and our guide took us to an underground tube that asn’t officially on the tour because he thought it was so cool that we could see it with water in it.
In the afternoon we drove 20 minutes back from the resort to Kalcani Crater. We walked to the rim and although we didn’t walk the circumference as the kids were having none of it, I was able to get some sweet drone shots of the crater.
Day 7 – Undara to Cobbold Gorge
We were now starting to get some rhythm with the first long stint of driving done, we were now in a system of a driving day then an activity day. But the driving days were now much shorter because the things are closer together.
We packed up the site and set off the next destination 3 hours away: Cobbold Gorge. We continued west along Savannah Way, stopping at Mount Surprise Roadhouse to top up supplies and Georgetown to top up fuel. The road from Forsyth to the gorge was terrible. it was corrugated in many places, there had been creeks that had washed away the dirt road and loose stones making the winding gravel road slow going. I have been on quality dirt roads before and this wasn’t one of the them.
Cobbold Gorge is privately owned and has a great village setup. It was the hottest we have experienced so far so we beat the heat with a swim and a cocktail from the swim up bar. We had dinner at the on site restaurant while Brooklyn caught up on his journal and me and the girls played a card game. Lily was very excited to learn the game the big kids had been playing: Cockroach Poker. After dinner the big kids had yet another game of Machi Koro, which is also becoming a big hit.
Day 8 – Cobbold Gorge.
Cobbold Gorge is stunning. It sits on private land that has been in the same family since the 1960s. The larger Robinhood Station was subdivided into 3 plots bequeathed to 3 brothers. The other 2 were great cattle grazing land. This one is 80% sandstone, which is not great for cattle, but later on they discovered the gorge in amongst it and based on the fees we paid, I think they got the good end of deal!
After a short ride in some buses we jumped on a 16 person, purpose-built boat with a quiet electric motor and crept up the gorge, which rose 20 metres on either side of us in vivid reds, oranges and browns. We saw a small snake, some tiny turtles and before we entered the gorge we saw a handful of freshwater crocodiles. When we could go no further our guide switched to the motor at the other end of the boat (to save from 3 point turning in the narrow gorge and headed back the way we came.
After the boat tour we went on a short walk up and around to the top of the sandstone escarpment for a walk over the glass-bottomed bridge. I had to bribe Brooklyn with a coke later on for him to return to the glass bridge after scurrying across quickly. Heights are not his thing. We got a nice family photo but he looks very tentative in it.
Day 9 – Cobbold Gorge to Karumba
We packed up as much as we could the night before to get a clean getaway in the morning. We were away at 9 on the dot for about a 5.5 hour drive to Karumba. There is not much in Karumba except for epic sunsets, crocs and fishing. We are not into fishing, and not into being attacked by crocs, so we stayed on land and had dinner at the first thing on every “Karumba to-do list”, the Sunset Tavern.
The sunset really did live up to it’s reputation. Gorgeous reds and oranges and pinks flooded the sky as the sun sank behind the horizon. We even managed to get perhaps the best random stranger family photos we’re ever likely to get. After struggling somewhat to fit 5 people of different heights plus a quickly setting sun into a small photo with an outstretched arm, a kind man offered to take one for us and did a great job.
It was packed and the food was slow but we met a family who have been on the road for 2 years, picking up work when they run out of money. We had a game of cards when we got back to the van. The kids are absolutely loving their games at the moment. Current favourites are Machi Koro and Cheating Moth. Cheating Moth gets some great laughs because it is all about being sneaky and catching other people trying to hide cards without being caught.
Day 10 – Karumba
We had a very relaxed day in Karumba, a very relaxed seaside town. There is very little to do here and that suited us just fine. Everything to do in the town of 500 was on one of the various small billboards on the way in. I went for a short run to start the day off then after a slow breakfast and the kids had a play on the playground at the caravan park, we headed into Karumba town . We topped up on groceries before heading over to the single tourist attraction here: the Barramundi Discovery Centre. As far as small town attractions go, this was pretty good. They had information on the local fishing industry here, which is known for its Barramundi. The kids had a lesson in money management because they all had been given a small amount of money to spend and Brooklyn had some birthday money. They all bought an ice cream at the store earlier and had a taste for it and went looking for something in the gift shop. Of course they found something that was well out of their budget.
Brooklyn hemmed and hawed about getting a $35 stuffed toy (of his $50) and the girls thought about going in together to get a smaller and cheaper kangaroo. In the end, the girls didn’t have enough and Brooklyn decided to wait to spend his money on something else. So I think that was a lesson well learnt.
Dinner was at almost the same spot as last night but instead of going to the pub we took a picnic dinner to the park next to it. The sunset was very similar and the kids enjoyed playing down on the rocks and getting muddy (mainly Aubrey).
Day 11 – Karumba to Leichhardt Falls
We said goodbye to Karumba and drive the 45 minutes back to Normanton to get a photo of their giant crocodile statue, ‘Kris’. At over 8m long, it is a replica of the largest croc ever shot in the world, not far from here. We had a good look in the info centre to get some info on the road conditions for the next few days of travel then set off.
2 hours later we arrived at Leichhardt Falls; a free camp on the Leichhardt River. It’s an absolutely stunning location, we camped on a rocky embankment looking down into the small gorge where the river runs. We explored the area on fit before selling in with happy hour and a campfire.
Day 12 – Leichhardt Falls to Gregory
It was a “short” 2 hour drive to Gregory from Leichhardt Falls with a brief stop in at Burke town due to the promise of a bakery from a certain book we’d been using to plan with. But the only multipurpose bar/cafe/pizza restaurant/takeaway shop had no baked goods so we kept moving, unsure why anyone would need to stop here otherwise.
I was under advice to get to the free camping spot at Gregory early because it gets busy. I had no idea just how busy it would get. Gregory is a tiny town, really more of a neighbourhood with a pub, but the Gregory river runs through it and just below the bridge that crosses the river is an unbelievable camping spot they allows people to camp at. I am convinced there would have been more people at the campsite than residents of the town.
So when we arrived at 12:30 pm all the premium riverside spots were taken and there didn’t seem to be much left. We landed on one spot and after the dozen or more additional vans that rolled in through the afternoon, I started feeling pretty good about our spot and ecstatic that we didn’t dawdle.
We took a chair and some (both) floating rings and the kids had a ball swimming and floating down the river. We had one go all 5 of us between the two kid sized rings and hilarity ensues. Kynie and I are relying solely on our own buoyancy and bouncing along the shallow, rocky, riverbed, lily (in a life jacket) is hanging on to one of us for dear life, Brooklyn and Aubrey are having the time of their lives, and those along the banks were treated to the show of their lives as we floated along a lot faster than all of us expected.
Otherwise, it was another pleasant day in another paradise.
Day 13 – Gregory to Adels Grove
The next destination, Lawn Hill National Park was only (supposedly) an hour and a quarter away so we had a slow morning enjoying Gregory river free camp. The kids had an absolute ball floating down the creek over and over and we had no reason to rush them on to the next activity.
The drive probably ended up being an hour and 45 because it was unsealed and in pretty bad condition. Lots of corrugations, many dips, some worse than others and a lot of random bumps. We had lunch on arrival and headed down to “the grove” which is a beautiful swimming hole and camping area by lawn Hill creek. It’s the same creek/river that the national park gorge is on 10 minutes up the road.
Day 14 – Adels Grove and Lawn Hill NP
First activity was a canoe trip along lawn Hill creek, through lawn Hill Gorge to some falls. Lawn Hill Gorge is quite long and at present you can only experience the middle gorge by canoe. But it was absolutely magic. It was a stunning paddle and the swim at the end was beautiful, we were surrounded by 3 or 4 little waterfalls where the river fell from the higher section over rocks. It was a 3km canoe all up and by the end we were hot and pooped.
We headed back to Adels Grove where we were staying to have lunch and enjoy some shade but after lunch I headed back to the national park solo (it’s about a 1 minute drive) to complete the only hike that has been restored since the massive floods 2 years ago that practically destroyed the whole area. The walk took me to the top of the Constance Range for incredible views back over the savannah and over to the gorge. As the park is so remote and only just reopening this month, I took the opportunity to get some drone footage through the gorge itself.
After a swim to cool off and dinner at the adels grove food truck (burgers and chips) we lit the biggest campfire we have had so far. We now have 3 days to reach Katherine to catch up to the Burgoynes.
Day 15 – Barkly Highway
Today was a driving day. We have about 1200kms to cover in 3 days and want to cover as much ground today as possible to free up the next two to the largest extent possible. It’s a bit of a gap in our schedule so there is no real plan except to get across the country and fill up on supplies, which we getting quite low on.
We did have one tourist stop though, which was 30 minutes after leaving Adels Grove. There is a world heritage listed fossil site on the way. It was a quick stop but we did see some good quality fossils (three) that were still embedded in the rock. Pretty cool! Incredibly I didn’t take a single photo of the fossils themselves but it was a good view from the short walk.
The road from Adels Grove to Camoweal was unsealed most of the way. It was better than the road coming from Gregory but still very patchy in parts and there were 3 genuine creek crossings. Once we hit the Barkly Highway though it was all systems go. We stopped for lunch at Camoweal Roadhouse, filled up the tank at Barkly Roadhouse, then tried to stop at a rest area but it was closed so ended up going all the way to “Threeways Roadhouse” outside of Tennant Creek. It was a monster day and gladly there won’t be many more of these and it gave us a good headstart on tomorrow.
The end of “the drive there”
We’ve now crossed the border into the Northern Territory and in a couple of days will start the trip we had planned from the start. The last 2 and half weeks have just been our journey to kick things off., the scenic route if you will. But we’ve almost made it and looking forward to the next 8 weeks of adventure.
