Yay, we finally made it to the Northern Territory.
We left Clem Walton last Tuesday (11th) with two other vehicles, one a motorhome and the other a small caravan, both with terrific couples we had met during our stay. After re-stocking up in Cloncurry we headed north in search of warmer weather and new adventures. We stayed overnight at Terry Smith Rest Area with our fellow travellers and met a guy travelling in his Holden Premier HX Station wagon which was in mint condition. Geoff commented that if he lifted the bonnet he'd be over in a flash, sure enough, within half an hour the bonnet was up and at least 4 other guys were swarmed around the engine – a 1990 VN Commodore 5.0l and a turbo 700 transmission. I know, it doesn't mean much to me either but it obviously did to them.
We said goodbye to the caravan travellers the following day as they headed to Lawn Hill (we have already been there on a previous trip) and continued to Bang Bang Rest Area with the motorhomers.
On Thursday we had lunch in Normanton with Krys the Croc (a monster croc figure in the middle of town) and said goodbye to the motorhomers as they headed to Karumba.
We had heard on the ABC radio that the Morning Glory Cloud had come in a month early and was seen yesterday from Sweers Island, north of Burketown, and had debated whether to stay at Karumba and see it. We decided against it because Karumba was still supposed to be very busy and we continued to Leichhardt Falls as planned.
Leichhardt Falls was flowing and as the weather was still very hot when we arrived at 4pm, we took full advantage of the water and proceeded to fill buckets up from the top of the falls and toss them over each other. The area surrounding the falls is croc country so swimming was out and the top of the falls was shallow enough to keep them on the other side of the road several hundred metres away.
The following morning I got up just in time to see the Morning Glory Cloud come up over the horizon and sweep across us! By the time I got the camera out it was gone, but I did manage to open up the tent window to let a bleary eyed Geoff enjoy it too. I had no hope of getting Erin out of bed. We heard in Burketown later on that they had missed the cloud as it hadn't come across far enough.
We packed up the camper and got ready to go when we hit a patch of soft sand. Dry bogged! Lucky for us there was another landcruiser and camper trailer just leaving and they helped us out, also lucky for us that we had our own recovery gear as they don't carry any. Geoff had just finished chatting to them about tyres and such too.
We have spent the last two nights staying at Kingfisher Camp feeling human again with hot showers (haven't had real showers with plumbing since Townsville). Top spot with plenty of shade and kangaroos that come bounding across the campground.
I will never again have to sit on one of those $2 massage chairs in a shopping centre after the amount of corrugations we have driven over since Normanton. A few areas were quite teeth jarring and the some of the dips were downright V's. And don't talk to me about bulldust! It's all good fun though, and we've seen some amazing things.
Tonight we are at our very first solo camp, up hill from Robinson River Crossing. We did see a couple of caravans go past at around 6.30 but they stopped further down the hill towards the river crossing, sack that, there's crocs down there. Geoff was hoping to stay at Wollogorang Station near the border but it has ceased trading, apparently due to lack of staff.
We did have a nervous moment though, a pack of about 6-7 dogs approached our camp and we weren't sure of their intentions, we told Erin to get in the car, just in case, but they shooed off pretty easily, I wasn't far from getting in the car as well.
