Bulman

We packed up the caravan, and headed south, trying not to think about the condition of the road that lay ahead of us.

Funny though, once we started driving, the road did not seem as bad as we remembered it to be. The grader had been hard at work in sections, and it is also possibly we were used to the corrugations and dust by now, so there were no surprises.

First night on the road, we planned to stop at Rocky Bottom Creek, which we enjoyed on our way up, camping next to the quickly flowing, clear shallow little creek. We passed burning off with flames and smoldering sections on the side of the road, and the smoke got thicker as we got to the turn off. We were very disappointed to see that burning off was in full swing in the camping area, and our site, had flames licking the trees and creek bank. Bummer! Not staying there tonight.

Where to now? We had not planned on driving the extra 150kms to Mainora, so we found a quiet gravel pit to spend the night. I know that gravel pits don’t sound very exciting but are one of the only options on this road as the allowed camping spots are limited. The pits are usually well off the road and if you find a pit with no recent activity, they are a quiet place to camp for the night and you can get right off the road and out of the dust. Technically our transit permit only allows certain spots to camp, but plenty of people use gravel pits for an overnight stop as is evident by the campfire ashes on the ground.

Friday morning, and we still had about 350kms to travel to get to the Stuart Highway. We are taking our time, averaging 60-70kms per hour, which is pretty good considering the corrugations and bulldust. We passed a herd of donkeys, and the odd wallaby that jumped across the road in front of us playing chicken.

We stopped to refuel at Mainora, and then drove about 70 odd kms further and found a camp for the night at Jurassic Lookout, which still left us with about 120kms to the Stuart Highway.

Locals believe that you can imagine dinosaurs roaming below and in the distance. We sat for a few hours, taking in the beautiful valley, and spotted some donkeys and cattle in the far distance. A passing traveller stopped and asked us if we saw the herd of about 40 buffalo just before the turn off, which we unfortunately missed.

We were sitting quietly enjoying the view when we heard an extremely loud roar which was getting closer. I don’t know why, but I ducked my head, expecting to see a huge out of control truck bear down on us, then looked up and it was two F18’s very low overhead doing maneuvers from Tindal Air Force Base. Theo was beside himself. It was like we had penthouse, front row seats watching the jets disappear through the valley and over the horizon.

Left overs for dinner, and an early night. There is a young couple in a roof-top tent towing a tinny camped nearby, so we are not alone.

The night was very warm, and Saturday morning we awoke and after a leisurely start to the day and breakfast, then we continued on our final leg on the Central Arnhem Road.

We had been told about a good aboriginal art shop at the Beswick (Wugulaar) community called Djilpin Arts, but unfortunately it was closed because it was Saturday. I still haven’t found my piece of art to take home.

Our Central Arnhem Road Transit Permit expired a couple of days ago. I forgot to renew it when we extended our stay at the Gove Boat Club and did not realize it until we were on the road and out of phone reception. Oops. Pretty confident that no-one will stop us to check.

We drove the final leg on a sealed bitumen road, then into Katherine where we found the dump point and topped up our water tank. We have paid for water on previous trips, but this is the first time on this trip. Behind the Visitor Centre, you can fill up your water tanks, cost $2 for 100 litres (although the sign did say 80 litres).

We had two full water tanks, and our third tank was not empty, so it only took about 60 litres to fill it. We let the camper behind us use the rest of our allowance.

We are headed for a WikiCamp just out of Katherine on the Katherine River for a couple of nights called ‘The Rapids, and we are not sure if we can get water there.Read more