Seven Emu Station to King Ash Bay

After a great night’s sleep, we had breakfast then drove back through the Foelsche River and a further 25kms on the good, unsealed road to Seven Emu Station, arriving just before midday. We find that if we arrive at a paid campsite around lunchtime, then we get to enjoy the afternoon, instead of arriving late in the day and then leaving in the morning or having to pay for 2 nights to be able to see any sights.

Seven Emu Station is 4th generation owned and operated by local aboriginal people. It is a working cattle station of 4300 square kms and they do offer indigenous tours, but at $100 per adult, this was out of our budget. I only saw one emu, still looking for the other 6!
There are 5 huge private campsites, 4 of them on the cliff top and one on the rocky ‘beach’. Our campsite is No. 3 and has a great lookout high over the Robinson River. Cost is $20 per person per night, which is a little on the high side, but is an experience that we may never do again. After setting up camp and having lunch we drove down to the river to try a spot of fishing for an hour or so, ever alert for crocodiles.

We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon, and when we returned to camp, where Theo was on unofficial ‘croc watch’ sitting on the edge of the cliff with his binoculars for rest of the afternoon. He said he did see a small croc but by the time he got his camera, it disappeared. We did hear splashes in the water and saw several fish jump.

After dinner of spag bol, we sat outside enjoying the peace and tranquility of the vivid coloured sunset and the softening colours of dusk. Then when the sun has gone down, we never cease to be amazed at the magnificent clear, dark sky lit with millions of bright stars and the moon.
The temperature was perfect and there was no flies or insects to bother us. Another beautiful outback night.

We both had a great night’s sleep and woke when the sun came up. We gained half an hour in time when we crossed over the NT border but have not changed our watches or the van clock. After breakfast we packed up and it was not until we left Seven Emu Station that we realized the time difference when we checked our phones.

Internet/WiFi /Telstra reception is our biggest hurdle. I really don’t mind not having it, but for purposes of contacting family, keeping up to date with news, emails, posting on Facebook or a blog entry, checking emails, weather and road conditions ahead, it would be convenient. We did consider getting Elon Musk’s ‘Starlink’ before we left home but by the time we seriously thought about it, we ran out of time for it to be delivered before we left. Other options we looked at were CelFi (which amplifies a weak signal), Zoleo (uses the satellite network to text message) or a satellite phone (at a price but can also be leased). We do carry an Eperb with us for use in an emergency (life or death) situation.
The road conditions on the Savannah Way deteriorated after the NT border and got particularly bad at the western end before arriving in Borroloola, with lots of corrugations and bulldust.

Borroloola is a small town, approx. 950 residents of which 76% are indigenous. There is high unemployment of 35% in the town, and we saw lot of rubbish and old cars dumped on the outskirts of town, unfortunately a typical outback aboriginal town. There is a servo/general store/takeaway, a school which a problem with intermittent student attendance and high turnover of staff, and small medical centre manned a couple of days a week, centrelink and not much else. However, there was a dump point of sorts and water to top up our tank. High cyclone fences surround most buildings. Not a very appealing little outback town. We would not choose to stay there.

While in town, we checked our messages and my niece had asked if we could send a video message to my sister who was celebrating the successful end of her cancer treatment as her tumour had gone. Yippee. Good on you Liz. We found a nice backdrop of bougainvillea and recorded a quick message for Lizzy so she would get it on Saturday. Hope she likes our humour!

We are heading to King Ash Bay for a night or two, which is approximately 50kms from Borroloola. The road was partly sealed, and the rest was a good, graded road. At the end of the road is the ‘King Ash Bay Fishing Club’ which has some powered sites and heaps of unpowered sites which are spread out along the McArthur River. As we don’t need a powered site we found a nice unpowered site on the high riverbank, with a family on one side and a couple from Lake Eildon on the other side. Cost was $30 for the night. There is a servo, a well-stocked small supermarket, a bar (the Groper Club) which hosts events, small golf course, a small airstrip, boat ramp, dump point, showers, toilets and drinking water. Quite well set up, and I believe that people come here and stay here for weeks and even months.

A couple stopped to talk to us who also had a Goldstream pop-top caravan but they were camping in the powered section. This is only the second Goldstream we have met on our trip so far, the first one was on the road travelling in the opposite direction. After talking to us and looking at our van and our set up, Paul had ‘battery and solar envy’ and said to Jenny that they need to upgrade their system so they would not have to get powered sites on their trip. Small world, Jenny grew up in the same suburb as Theo, and Paul started his working life as a mechanic as did Theo. Jenny is on LSL also as a nurse at Peninsula Health and Paul has retired and they have rented out their home and they are on a 12-month trip around Australia. It was nice to chat to them. We also ran into Bob and Jo, our Leichhardt Falls neighbours, in the supermarket who are also staying in the powered section.

We think that our 3.2 tinny is too small for this big river and the crocs that inhabit it, so have decided not to put the boat in. Theo is thinking that he will upgrade the size of the boat, and the motor when we get back.

Another beautiful outback NT sunset over a river. We were told that there may be midgies or mozzies, but apart from one mozzie bite while watching the sunset, it has been lovely sitting outside, a nice gentle breeze that cools down at dusk. We came inside and had dinner of chicken and salad. From my seat in the van, I watched the end of the sunset and the sky change colour and appear to be on fire. Great view.
Trying to decide whether to stay another night……Read more