Northern Territory NT – May 2023 – Month 4 – Temp 31/15 – Distance traveled 6000km

As the sun sets on Mount Isa we’re excited about our next 1,286km stretch through the outback to Katherine NT

Crossing the border from Queensland into NT the Northern Territory we realise we’re now one quarter through our trip…. We have been to over forty places already, met an array of interesting characters, travelled 6,000km…‘all in an blink of an eye..‘!

After driving away from Mount Isa, 200 km on we dropped in to meet Stumpy at the Drovers Camp museum in Camooveal.

Stumpy is an ex-ringer, who used to herd thousands of cattle on cattle drives over vast distances through the outback on horseback. For example from Northern Territory into Queensland.

We learned how the first explorers Gregory, Canning, Burkes & Wills and Leichhardt opened up the country for farming in the late 19th century. 

Stumpy had lots of interesting tales to tell. One of them about Edna Jessop the first female drover in 1950. A drover is the boss of the cattle drive! He reminisced that Edna was a proud and clever woman who excelled at her craft (horsemanship). She had strong values, wonderful humility and would have made a great prime minister. 

On the road towards Barkley Homestead we caught up again with Claire Wyatt our touring cyclist friend. We decided to join her wild camp spot near Ranken in the middle of nowhere. 

A nice red Italian tablecloth covered the outback table, for our awesome special dinner with Claire. We enjoyed a red sunset on one side of the camp and the full moon rising on the other.. just magical.

The next day we said our good bye’s to Claire, for now and travelled on 300 kilometres to Banka Banka Homestead.

We drove past grass and bushland with flocks of birds criss crossing in front of the van. The roads are lined with red gravel soil contrasting white gum trees. We dodged plenty of huge potholes, due to the recent floods.

Banka Banka is a great campsite on a large working cattle station (established 1895), complete with a couple of noisy donkeys. We took a walking trail to the nearby billabong and then watched the sunset at the lookout on the hill overlooking the campsite.

Next a quick lunch stop at the quirky Daly Waters pub and ‘junkyard’ museum. The pub is a fun place to visit with good vibes. The museum has an amazing display of historical vehicles and boys toys. One of which, the real life police car used in the movie ‘Wolf Creek‘.

We didn’t think this day could get any better, but we were proven wrong when we arrived at Bitter Springs. An extensive forested campground with tropical hot springs running close by. Floating down the crystal clear 32 degree waters, the perfect end to another epic day.

Still, I was even keener to see our next destination Katherine! When I first came to Australia in 1989 I travelled around Australia as a backpacker in a Greyhound bus. I hold fond memories of kayaking through Katherine Gorge with another backpacker from the Blackforest. Leaving midmorning we did not come across another soul! We kayaked past Freshwater crocs basking in the sun at the edges of the sandstones, carrying our kayak over rocky barriers from gorge to gorge. At night we slept on a small rocky beach, spraying rid insect repellent to deter snakes from entering our sleeping bags. Ha ha. The highlight of my trip then and again now over 30 years later. 

This time more hiking through the amazing spiritual sandstone landscape above the gorges. We spotted lots of colourful birds, flying foxes and fell asleep to howling dingos at night.

Unfortunately kayaking was not available due to high water levels. We enjoyed a boat trip instead to two of the thirteen gorges. Russell the local tour guide was a lot of fun and explained that Freshwater crocs won’t eat you! They make sure there aren’t any salt water crocs in the water after the wet season, which definitely hunt humans. Some give aways of the presence of ‘Salties‘ are Freshwater crocs huddled together (safety in numbers) or the red plastic balls tight up near the rivers edge by rangers display teeth marks.

Russell said it’s absolutely safe to swim. However after every wet season opening of the gorge he tests that theory by letting a 1000 tourists go into the water first.

We couldn’t leave Nitmiluk National Park quite yet and visited Edith falls on the n/w side. We hiked to the upper pool and had a refreshing dip below the waterfall.

Our next adventure will be Kakadu. Possibly the most famous national park in Oz. A 20,000 sq km paradise of rock art, wildlife and waterfalls… bring it on!

Daly Waters Museum ‘a boys dream’