Karumba to Jabiru

Weds June 28th 2023

The brolgas in the camp and dinner at Sunset Tavern were the final treats at Karumba before we headed off. We knew we had at least a thousand kms to cover in the next few days.

At Normanton first, got some fuel and supplies, then headed south. This road is called the Matilda Way. It is endless plains, hundreds of kilometres of red dirt, beige grasses, trees that looked like young blue gums, and wattles – wattles everywhere, in flower, yellow as far as we could see. I’ve never seen this much wattle in flower, anywhere, in one area as vast as these plains. It is hard to capture the vastness of the display. It has to be seen to be believed. I wondered if it was so prolific due to all the flooding that had been in the area earlier this year. The grasses were thick and high, cattle looked lost in it’s abundance. Heaps of fully laden cattle road trains plied the roads – the live export trade is alive and kicking up here by the look of it.

We were travelling easily, happily when suddenly things turned pear shaped. Oh no. Pulled over as soon as we could. Hard to find layovers sometimes on these outback roads.

Nick:

“As we were approaching Quamby there was a loud metallic sound from under the car that sounded like a piece of wire or something striking something metal, then shortly afterwards a regular CLANK CLANK as the wheels turned, we could feel a vibration under the seats. We pulled over pretty smartly and I climbed underneath the car and found nothing out of the ordinary. Scratching the head, I jacked up a rear end and rotated the wheel – nothing. Then I did the same with the front – nothing. We decided to drive slowly to Quamby only a few kilometres away, CLANK CLANK for about 200 metres and then it all stopped. We rolled into Quamby pub and paid our $10 to stay out the back for the night. I thought it may have been a handbrake shoe that had dislodged, so when we had set up in the campground at Quamby I disassembled the handbrake but all was good in there as well. For those of you who are mechanically minded I deduced the following theory; a stone or similar object had lodged itself in between the disc brake rotor mud shield and the wheel rim and the clanking was the noise of it being forced past the caliper. A good theory but as I think about trying to replicate the problem with a stick or a stone it seems more and more unlikely, perhaps we will never know.”

Since then we’ve travelled almost a thousand kms with no problems. Weird.

Quamby was a lovely stop anyway. The pub had just opened in April this year after two couples brought the derelict shell of the old pub and completely restored it. There’s a great story on the web made by the ABC about their efforts. They need to improve the food, but that will come in time. It is a great example of what can be done in the outback with a bit of ingenuity and dollars.

From Quamby, Cloncurry came next, then Mt Isa. I must say the countryside scenery was quite beautiful around Cloncurry & Mt Isa .. rolling rocky outcrops in reds, ochres and whites, ghost gums and iron barks, and wattles, wattles wattles in full flower. How lucky are we to catch the full symphony. Then shrubs of pink flowers started appearing, yellow grevilleas too and small silvery grey creepers clung between the red earth and the bitumen. Mind you, there was mining activity just out of sight, the endless trucks carrying equipment backed that up.

Anyway, we did a necessary stop at Mt Isa to get new prickle resistant tubes for our bicycle tyres, after the ghastly prickles in the grass at Karumba campsite flattened 2 tyres. A quick supermarket top up then another long flat stretch to Camooweal just short of the NT border that night. We are certainly covering a lot of territory, almost 600 km today, doing a big bitumen run south, west then north because the red dirt track alternative would be too rough or closed due to the recent flooding in the area. It’s a pity we are missing places that could be very interesting, we’ll just have to do another trip someday up to the Gulf.

The Camooweal stopover was basic – behind the pub, with every site taken with big vans, a couple of motorhomes and us. There was a 1974 Series 3 Landy too! So many of those massive vans left before dawn…what’s the fun in that. It was getting cold in the mornings now but day times were high 20’s.

It was about 500km from Camooweal to Banka Banka Station. We didn’t expect to make it in one day – but the car was doing well, there was nothing to see or do around the area. Right now there is a Country and Western singer at Banka  Banka with a loud speaker on, entertaining the ENTIRE campsite. We are eating Asian style food, biryani & samosas, made at a mobile van. We cycled to a waterhole – tyres stayed up, but I almost came off in the sand and on the rocks. I’m not a good off-road cyclist. We had stayed at Banka Banka 9 years ago. It hasn’t changed much, just expanded the number of sites it offers. Even the same old showers were there.

Nick

“We have been living in a box for as good as two months now, 3 metres by 2 metres and have been doing remarkably well considering that the entrance to the van is in the dining room, the bedroom is in the kitchen, the kitchen is in the lounge room, the second bedroom is also in the lounge room, the bathroom is outside in campground facilities and the person who sleeps at the canvas end of the bed has to climb over the other one if the need calls in the dark hours of the night. We cannot do the dishes in a single effort because the draining board is too small, we cannot do a big shop because the fridge and the cupboards are microscopic. Thank goodness the BBQ is always outside so that we can have a break from our tiny box. Let’s hope we can continue to live in harmony.”

From Banka Banka we did another day of about 500km. We arrived at Mataranka mid afternoon and chose to stay at Bitter Springs caravan park. We virtually had a whole dry grassy paddock to ourselves with peacocks and peahens wandering about looking for snacks. The hot springs up the road were hot, 34C, not as refreshing as we’d like when the air temp is in the 30’s. But the crystal clear sulphur laced spring cleaned all the dirt out of my grubby feet and was a marvellous tonic for my hair. We joined Julie George Vic & Janelle for drinks in the evening at Mataranka resort where they stayed. 

Nick rode his bike into town next morning and discovered the museum was open. I love looking at the history of places we visit and this one didn’t disappoint. This area is famous for the story of “We of the Never Never” by Jeannie Gunn which was made into the film in 1982. Her story I found fascinating at the museum, so I have now read the book she wrote in 1908. Being in this dry dusty unforgiving country with all our modern stuff, I am so in awe of how anyone survived such conditions. She writes about her journey from Darwin via Katherine to Bitter Springs in 1902, during the wet season!! I can’t imagine how she managed the heat, flies, mould, deprivations…it took 3 weeks to go 65 miles. Suffice to say I enjoyed the read, despite her quaint turn of phrases. 

There was a replica of Elsey Homestead at Mataranka resort, it was built as a set for the Never Never film.

That evening we dined at Mataranka resort with Julie & co. The roast lamb was delicious, the drinks weren’t too expensive and the band was acceptable. The whip cracking though was great, a most entertaining show by one man who is a world champion. He holds the world record for the amount of cracks in one minute, 679! A lot of humour added to the fun.

Time to move along once more. We knew Nick’s daughter Melanie, her husband Luke, and 2 grandchildren were coming up our way, so we decided to camp at Manbulloo Station just out of Katherine for 5 nights to wait for them. We spent a day at Edith Falls, very refreshing swim after a 2 km walk in the afternoon heat. We went to Katherine museum, lots of WW2 history including a plane in a large display space & we scanned the art galleries and came away with a painting signed by the resident artist, Johnny.

As I write this, on Friday 23rd June, I’ve just heard that Luke and Sabi have arrived at Darwin on Jetstar, minus their luggage. Their plan is to travel the Gibb River Road for the next 2 weeks, their luggage contained Luke’s guitar & their camp mat, as well as clothes. 

The luggage arrived the next morning thankfully. They arrived at 12.30 at Katherine Gorge to do a canoe trip with us. It was a fabulous 4 hours. It wasn’t without challenges, getting up rocky dams from the lower to upper gorge was tricky, not for the young people, but for me, especially having to get into the canoe without looking stupid – I did manage getting in but it wasn’t pretty. We found a nice pool for a swim. Then slowly canoed back to the boat. The pictures tell the story. That evening Nick cooked a roast pork with crackling and I did a salad – it was a lovely way to wind down a very busy day with family around us. They left for their trip to Broome in the morning and we headed off to Kakadu.

Cooinda Lodge Resort, Kakadu, was our stop for 2 nights – our unpowered piece of dry grass was very expensive but had to be done. Early next morning we joined about 100+ people on a cruise of the Yellow Water lagoon. Sunrise was spectacular, but the birdlife and the antics of the crocs was equally brilliant. I’d recommend this trip to anyone.

The humidity and heat is quite sapping of energy, but the pool at Cooinda was a welcome relief as was Happy Hour for a cold beer. Nights are airless, hot and difficult to sleep as well as quite smokey at times due to the many controlled burns happening across the Park. 

Now we are in Jabiru under a blanket of cloud which is trapping the heat in but making it a little easier to manage than the full sun. The mosquitoes are a bit pesky but slow enough to whack. We’re going to try out our new screen dome tonight so we can eat outside. (It was great, a bit like being exhibits in a cage to passers by, but we love the bug free peace.) Anyway, we’ve done lots of walking, and climbing, to see wonderful rock art at Ubirr and Nourlangie sites. The lookouts at both sites showed the breathtaking beauty of this place. The towering coloured rock formations are awesome, the salmon gums, the yellow kapok trees, the pink shrub that’s everywhere through the bush, wattles, cabbage palms and birds especially black cockatoos make being here a privilege we don’t take for granted. 

This blog has become very long – can’t help that! And there are so many more pictures I could add in, but I know you’ll get a good idea from the ones I’ve included.

It’s school holidays now – noisy kids everywhere – especially in the pool. The Gibb River road is closed due to rain, so we’ll hang about this side until it opens, seeing places like Litchfield NP, Keep NP, Kununurra. And of course Darwin.

Cheers everyone.

From Jabiru…..Jenny & Nick xx