Friday, 12 June 2015

Day 21 – Friday 12/6….it is all a blur!
A correction to my last post. Klaus’ blog is:
savannahloop.blogspot.com   Of course, he told me it had the word ‘the’ in the front, but it didn’t!
Borroloola gave us a beautiful farewell in the form of a magnificent sunrise…although only was up to see it! Check out the photos below….
We hit the road about 9am again. It seems that no matter what time we get up, and no matter if it a full pack up, or a simple one, we don’t seem to get away any earlier than 9am. Bizarre!
Anyway, our target was Daly Waters, with our first stop being Cape Crawford for morning tea. It was only 107kms away, but seeing I had been up since 5:30, I deserved a rest after an hour and a quarter driving! You can see what Wendy and I shared in the photo. They had some friendly birds there and this was the first time we had seen a Superb Parrot. It was beautiful. You will also see the Blue Faced Honeyeater. There were lots of others too, but these were all I captured on ‘film’.
You will also see the Galah family re-union, where they all gathered in a few trees for a family shin-dig. They were in the middle of nowhere.
Continuing on, we finally made it to the end of the road, and north 7kms to Daly Waters and of course, we wanted to stay at the pub. Unfortunately, so did a thousand other Grey Nomads (not that we are GNs), and they all seemed to arrive at the same time. It was chaos, so we decided to book in for dinner there, but camp back down the highway a bit. Even though it seemed the right thing, it did work out a bit weirdly. We checked in ok, and went to the allotted area and pick 2 sites under a big tree. I wanted to take the boat off the trailer and put it on the car, so while K & I were doing that, the neighbour chucked a hissy-fit and yelled, screamed and threatened us if we scratched her car. Of course, we didn’t scratch her car, and when we had finished, we headed back to the pub for dinner. All was very good there as can be seen by the photos, but when we got back we discovered the neighbour had packed up and moved 20 metres away from us. It was weird. Anyway, we went to bed, and when we got up next morning they basically left….which was good by us!
And once again, we left about 9am, and headed north with Katherine our target. The only stop was Matarankah, a mere stones-throw of 200-odd kms – I cannot remember! We had Devonshire tea, and headed off again. Not long after, we hit Katherine, and headed for the Big4 park near the river. We setup camp, had lunch, went into town, booked a helicopter ride (for tomorrow) and boat ride for Sunday), then did some grocery shopping! Good thing I got my 2014 tax cheque back last week.

I must say that Katherine has grown up a bit, but seeing as it is 34 years since we were last here….it should have!


This stunning sunrise greeted me this morning as we prepared to leave Boroloola....

I walked to the back of the caravan park where it drops down to the bush. There was a nice little mound to stand on, so I got up onto it, and got ready to compose my shots...then I felt the gazzilion ants on my feet!!  Yes, it was an ant's nest! I soon got off....good thing they didn't bite....maybe they were still asleep too! 



This Superb Parrot was a bit shy.

Morning tea for Wendy and I.

It is waffles and ice ream with maple fairy floss....it tasted better than it looked.

This Blue Faced Honeyeater was looking for morning tea outside.

The Galah family re-union was in full flight - or full standing!

These are Apostle birds.....they can look quite evil.

There were heaps of them...and they were like sea-guls when we threw crumbs..

At our campsite at the Hi-Way Inn on the Stuart Hwy. They were certainly having a good time. Check out the beautiful blue on his back


We think they are the red-winged parrot


These guys were there too. They are very similar to the Rainbow Lorrikeets we get at home, but had subtle colour changes...

..such as their black undies...

The morning sun made them all the more spectacular...

...and playful

This guy is a bit anorexic..

Parked opposite the Daly Waters pub.

insidethe pub...

We had the Barra 'n' Beef special.....it was really good...

what a great idea..

K&B sitting in the shade of the Thong Tree..

Barra 'n' Beef

We stopped at Matarankah near this huge Fig tree. I wanted to get a nice photo, but this guy and his wife parked right in front of it, then got out and walked across the road for their morning tea..

3 comments:

  1. Ron, the fishing has been very ordinary. This was the driest 'Wet' in 40 years so the rivers have not been flushed out, and the water is too cold. The water is starting to warm up, so some Barras are getting caught. Klaus had one on the line the other day that jumped out of the water, and then tail walked along the surface before spitting out the lure.

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  2. Ron, the fishing has been very ordinary. This was the driest 'Wet' in 40 years so the rivers have not been flushed out, and the water is too cold. The water is starting to warm up, so some Barras are getting caught. Klaus had one on the line the other day that jumped out of the water, and then tail walked along the surface before spitting out the lure.

    ReplyDelete