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Travelling from Port Douglas to Darwin via Townsville and inland through Mt Isa Read more
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  • TravelerPort Douglas to Darwin
    1
    Day 1

    Port to Charters Towers

    May 5, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    It’s a magnificent morning in Port Douglas. The sky is vivid blue and the sun is beaming as we prepare to head off on the start of another adventure. We have 5 days to do the 3.000km from Port Douglas to Darwin. Our first stop is Cairns Airport as we drop Jaime off to return to Melbourne.

    DRIVE: Port Douglas to Charter Towers (546km)

    Skirting around Cairns again, we pass “Walshies Pyramid” and it’s truly an honour that the locals named the mountain top in recognition of our Walshies Down Under Adventure. Walshies Pyramid hosts an annual 6km hike/run to the top and back.

    There are a number of routes you can take to get across from FNQ, Far North Queensland coastline to Darwin. The. Savannah Way is the most scenic and famous but sections are unsealed and prone to flooding. We opt to retrace our footprints back down to Townsville and cut inland on the A6, Flinders Way (The Overlanders) to a small mining town called Charters Towers.

    The Main Street of Charters Towers is full of heritage buildings from the 1880’s. As often the case, there’s a pub/hotel on every corner and the Town Hall and the Bank display Victorian architecture at its finest showing that historically the town was a thriving and prosperous place to settle.

    The town was founded in the 1870s when gold was discovered by chance at Towers Hill on Christmas Eve 1871 by 12-year-old Aboriginal boy. The name Charters Towers comes from the conical shaped hills in the vicinity of the gold discoveries.

    Prospectors settled the land on the promise of making their fortunes digging and mining for gold and a gold rush began.

    Now as an advertiser and entrepreneur, I know that when gold is mentioned, men stop at nothing to seek their fortune but few men did. Some of the folk who made good money from the gold rush made and sold the gold pans and other equipment. After all, when panning for gold, you need a pan to do it and one of the secrets to advertising is “always sell a promise” or in simple terms, “hope”.

    Such were the boom years, between 1872 and 1899, that Charters Towers hosted its own stock exchange. The Great Northern railway between Charters Towers and the coastal port of Townsville was completed in December 1882.. During this period, the population was approximately 30,000.

    The city was also affectionately known as 'The World' as it was said that anything one might desire could be had in the 'Towers', leaving no reason to travel elsewhere.    Read more

  • TravelerPort Douglas to Darwin
    Day 2

    Road Trains & the Mining Town of Mt Isa

    May 6, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    It’s a public holiday today in Queensland and with an early start, we drive down Charters Towers Main Street in search of food. Dead as a door nail, not a squeak to be heard, ghost town, zombie apocalypse until... aha, MCDONALDS.

    Apart from petrol stations and we are over their food selection, the only place in town open seems to be Maccas. Breakfast to go it is then and we hit the road, destination Mt Isa.

    DRIVE: Charters Towers to Mt Isa (769km).

    It’s a long drive today which will take us 8 hours. We share the drive as usual with me holding the steering wheel and Jen’s foot on the gas peddle...

    The speed limit is 110km/hr but there’s a 3 semi trailer length road train in front doing 80 and 2 cars behind it unwilling to overtake. So we are stuck for a while. This doesn’t stop two road trains on route to Mt Isa behind us blazing past everyone in the right hand lane. Their overtaking manoeuvre to pass vehicles was the length of a football pitch and they completed it after travelling about 5 football pitches but they can see the road is clear ahead for miles.

    Finally, we reach a passing lane and we’re able to cruise on past the cars and the slow moving road train to continue our journey. On the long trip to Mt Isa, we had to pass and overtake about 10 road trains. The drivers usually signal the coast is clear by using their right indicator and we make sure we have a good scope of the horizon and we pass as quickly as we can.

    We pass through Hughenden, Richmond, Julia Creek and Cloncurry with only Richmond barely having any sign of life.

    After 363km we reach Richmond. It’s famous for dinosaur discoveries and has a museum with many fossils from the local area on display. I get caught by a Kronosaurus with teeth the size of bananas.

    We forgot, it’s a public holiday so no cafes or bakeries open so we share a packet of caramel popcorn for lunch on the go.

    Reaching Mt Isa at 4.30pm, we find a caravan park for the night..

    CAMP: Discovery Park Mt Isa / 1 night

    Starving, it’s life or death. They say man can survive without food for a good while but not water. Our tummy’s were saying otherwise so we head up to the Rodeo Bar & Grill, Mt Isa Hotel. We take a short detour on the way and drive up to the lookout at Mt Isa to see the signpost with the directions of all major city’s around the world. Melbourne is 2008km due south from here. London is 15,274km.

    Beautiful rib eye steaks on the menu and the place was buzzing with every resident in town eating out tonight . Oh look, the National ten pin bowling championships are on in Mt Isa and they have all just arrived with their bright baggy bowling shirts and they pile into the restaurant. Good job we had our caveman instincts switch on to survival mode as were were practically first in the queue to place our order for steaks as the clock ticked one second past 6 o’clock.

    We needed meat and protein and like cavemen & women do, we devoured our meal, went back to our cave and fell fast asleep.    Read more

  • TravelerPort Douglas to Darwin
    Day 3

    Cross Border NT & Banka Banka Stn.

    May 7, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Reaching the outskirts of Mt Isa, the terrain becomes sparse and the road is needle straight disappearing on the horizon. We can see the curvature of the earth as we look out for miles ahead, nothing but road, red dirt and scrub. We see our first speed limit sign at 130km hour but settle on 115/hr. If you want fuel economy, 100km/hr is the benchmark and that’s what the Grey Nomads drive at but it’s a compromise I guess and we just wanted to do the distance in a fair time.

    Regardless, It’s another long day in the saddle and a couple of petrol stops on the way after filling up in Mt Isa, Barkly Homestead ($1.97 per litre) and Threeways Roadhouse ($1.86 per litre).

    After Leaving the coast and following The Overland Way, we finally have to stop at a T-Intersection to get onto the Stuart Hwy. Remarkable, that shows you what A to B can look like in outback Australia. Threeways Roadhouse is on the junction and Tenants Creek is a few km south of the junction. We head north for a further 70km to Banka Banka Station, a remote old cattle station which provides camping and caravan sites. There’s a bell to ring at the reception gate but the dog beats us to it and stirs the owner. The earth and dust is red with mature Boab trees providing some shade and the sun is starting to create long shadows across the station.

    CAMP: Banka Banka Station, NT / 1 night

    We pay our $20 for the night, no electricity but spring water and toilets/showers and begin to set up the campervan. The flies here are everywhere and lots of them so this is officially the quickest set up of the campervan on record. Get it up, get in...!

    After killing the dozen flies that managed to get in, Jenny goes to the car and produces her hair & face fly net, (see pics). I laugh histerically ( more at myself really) as Jen reminds me that I laughed off her purchase of one at the Boating, Camping and Fishing store saying, “I don’t need one, they look stupid”.

    She rubs it in and ventures out of the Campervan to test her superhero strength, “Anti Fly Force Field”. Well it works for your head and face but they still attack your arms and legs.

    I step out and get covered immediately but my secret weapon is speed. I run like the wind away from the flies, stop and enjoy freedom... for 3 seconds at least. The flies have followed of course and are even more content now I have a sweat on...!

    Jenny (1) Steve (0)

    We walk up to a lookout hill just on sunset and capture the changing colours over Banka Banka Station. It’s peaceful and stunning as light shadows replace dark and red dirt becomes deep plum.

    Still being stalked, I improvise with a metal hub to escape the flies but this intensifies them around me like a beacon... I even sent signals to other galaxies... doh!    Read more

  • TravelerPort Douglas to Darwin
    1
    Day 4

    Mataranka Bitter Springs

    May 8, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Jen reminds me that we have gained half an hour since entering the Northern Territory. With driving the long distances over the last few days, we are into a habit of waking up early and hitting the road to make the most of the day. So half an hour extra is greatly appreciated as we will gain that at the other end.

    DRIVE: Banka Banka Station NT to Mataranka (466km).

    Heading north up the Stuart Hwy, we leave Banka Banka Station and the flies to make tracks to Makaranka. The journey is uneventful and as we make our final petrol stop at Elliott, we calculate just enough fuel in the tank to complete the remaining kilometres. Don’t worry, we have reserve fuel in the red jerry can on the back of the campervan so that we don’t end up remote, lost and forgotten like the car we passed on the way up (see pic).

    There’s a strong head wind so fuel consumption is up and we are close to our limit. To break the journey, we adjust the speed of the car to maintain 2,000 revs and better fuel consumption and see if we can make it to Mataranka. I know, boring isn’t it but it kept us focussed and entertained for a while. I crawled in to Mataranka at 100km/hr with 30km of fuel to spare.

    Another tactic to keep us alert and occupied is provided by the termite mounds and the creativity of travellers. Now we have passed thousands of termite mounds on our travels through red country. You can see them on the side of the highway in all shapes and sizes looking like proud statues or knights on a chessboard.

    One day, someone was passing and decided to stop and dress a termite mound with a tee shirt. From that day on there was a tipping point, the idea caught on and literally everyone is getting their kit off and dressing up the mounds. As far as the eye can see we view termite mounds dressed in tee shirts, undies, knickers, bras and hats. One was even dressed up with a full miners outfit on.

    It’s fun but I am too precious with my t shirts to sacrifice one...

    CAMP: Mataranka Cabins and Camping. 1 Night.

    Arriving at Mataranka on midday, we set up camp and head to Bitter Springs about 1km away. It’s an amazing place, a freshwater spring oasis in the middle of outback Australia with lush palms, tropical plants and exotic lillies floating on the bright clear aqua water. It’s totally FREE and a paradise on earth.

    The spring has been created from cracks in the rock formations below which holds the Great Artesian Basin, a massive expanse of underground water.

    The Great Artesian Basin is one of the largest underground fresh-water reservoirs in the world. It underlies approximately 22% of Australia, occupying an area of over 1.7 million square kilometres beneath the arid and semi-arid parts of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

    Although not a spa, the water in the Bitter Springs is a pleasant 30-32 degrees which is about the temperature of the day. So sliding into this oasis is as refreshing and invigorating as it gets. There’s a gentle current which slowly draws you downstream floating for 80m. It’s time to look to the vivid blue skies and the lush palm trees and take it all in.

    Fresh water Crocodiles have been occasionally spotted in the springs and as you float downstream, you often touch the odd tree branch or underwater log which may stir the senses a bit.    Read more

  • TravelerPort Douglas to Darwin
    Day 5

    Tyre Blowout on The Way to Darwin

    May 9, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    30km north of Katherine, we drive over a crest and hear a sudden metallic noise coming from the campervan. I pull over straight away as the left hand tire has blown out on the campervan.

    We are fine and the Kluger was as solid as a rock as I steered it and the campervan to a grinding halt on the side of the Stuart Highway.

    On assessing the damage, basically the remains of a shredded tyre on the wheel rim, we contemplate our next move. Less than 2 minutes later, a police patrol car, an unmarked police car and a semi vehicle driver had pulled up to come to our aid. Two uniformed police got out of the patrol car followed by two plain clothed policemen in the other (they were the drug squad).

    We had stopped part on the side of the highway and the left hand side of the campervan was lower in the gravel. A normal jack was useless so the semi trailer driver, (his name was Tom Pearson) rendered assistance with a trolley jack whilst one of the police officers was slowing traffic. I bumped my head trying to get the spare tyre off the back of the campervan and then decided to leave it to the professionals.

    Myself and Jen relieved, stood back as Tom and the police attended to the campervan like a precision formula 1 team changing a tyre in a pit stop. You could tell they do this as routine as they have all the tools at hand and the police seemed quite excited to have a job to do. We are thankful for their assistance as we could have been more remote but other truckies would have stopped to help.

    The spare tyre has been a spare for 12 years since the campervan was new as we had never needed to use it so the senior police officer suggested we duck back to Katherine as there is a tyre place in town and get a refit.

    After shaking hands and thanking everyone, especially Tom Pearson, the truckie, the police guarded the highway as we did a u turn and headed the 30km back to Katherine. Beaurepairs Tyres was across the bridge leading into Katherine. We pulled up and the guys immediately jacked the campervan up on both sides and replaced all tyres including the spare whilst we had a pie for lunch. Bonza!

    Our itinerary brings us through Katherine 2 more times so you will get to hear about our visit to Katherine Gorge then. If you check out our footprints map and zoom in a bit, you can see where we had blown the tyre and stopped 30km out of Katherine and U turned to head back..

    Back on track, it’s been an eventful start to the day and we continued the remaining 270km up the Stuart Highway to our destination, Darwin.

    So after 3,000km, we have made it to Darwin and the Discovery Caravan Park. You Beauty, right next to the airport and fighter jets are taking off in pursuit of each other. There’s War Games being conducted in Darwin jointly with the Australian and American armed forces.

    There’s time to rest for a couple of days and explore Darwin before we fly back to Melbourne on Sunday for 5 days. It will be nice to be home but it’s a flying visit as we will be back up next week to start our 35 day Kimberley 4WD Adventure from Darwin to Broome. Our friends, The Lloyde’s, Andrew and Anne left Melbourne last week in their 4WD and are travelling up through the centre of Australia for our rendezvous at The Bungle Bungles on Monday 20th May.

    DRIVE: Mataranka to Darwin via Katherine (twice), (444km).

    CAMP: Discovery Holiday Parks, Darwin / 3 nights.    Read more

  • TravelerPort Douglas to Darwin
    Day 6

    The Bombing of Darwin

    May 10, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    How is it that we never learned in school that Darwin was bombed over 60 times in WWII??!! Today we visited an exhibition on Stokes Hill Wharf that brilliantly described the events of 19th February 1942 when Darwin was devastated by two Japanese bombing raids. Through very clever virtual reality and holograms we experienced just what it was like on that day. It was so realistic that one poor little girl started crying as the bombs exploded. Over 235 people - allied personnel & civilians - died, with more than 300 injured. 10 weeks earlier the same Japanese bombers had attacked Pearl Harbour, and 4 days earlier, Singapore. Their purpose for bombing Darwin - to keep the Australian troops in Australia and out of the fight for the Pacific.

    Now, we’ve seen the film ‘Australia’ (yes, that’s the one with Hugh and Nicole) but I thought they were taking some artistic licence with the facts. Not so, it would seem.

    With virtual reality headsets on, we spent a very realistic 8 minutes experiencing the war from the first bombs to the shooting down of “Mac” in one of the ten US Kitty Hawks (that’s how many planes were in the air to defend us!) to the final explosion of Neptuna at the Darwin wharf that rained down hot metal and shrapnel over the harbour. Treading water in that harbour was Etheridge Grant (US Commander of the “Willie B”) who had been trying to get back to his ship. His story was told through a hologram ‘movie’ which was amazing.

    With Britain engaged in defending Singapore and fighting in Europe, it was the US who came to our aid. Darwin was, & still is, important to them as a strategic base for the south-east Pacific. In fact, we’ve been able to sit in our comfy camping chairs at the campervan and have our very own personal air show. The US Marines are here at the moment for some exercises, along with six of their F-15C fighter jets. They were buzzing around us for a couple of hours this morning. Very exciting when it’s peacetime!!

    Following the bombing of Darwin, most people were moved to Adelaide River or Alice Springs. As you come in along the Stuart Highway to Darwin you pass a number of WWII airstrips alongside the road which were created after the RAAF base was destroyed and activity moved inland to try to limit any further damage.

    Poor Darwin - destroyed by bombs in 1942 & flattened by Cyclone Tracey on Christmas Eve 1975.    Read more

  • TravelerPort Douglas to Darwin
    Day 7

    Darwin & the Royal Flying Doctor Service

    May 11, 2019 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 26 °C

    Have you ever looked closely at a $20 note? Can you see a picture of a human torso with numbers on it? Way back in the 1950s, Nurse Lucy Garlick developed the body chart to help doctors diagnose the illnesses of patients living in the Kimberleys. This chart consisted of torso parts labelled with numbers (front) & letters (back). Communication between doctor and patient was via radio with the patient identifying the part of their body where the pain/injury was and the doctor prescribing the relevant numbered/lettered medicine from the medical chests that had been placed on all the stations. This very same body chart is still in use today and was immortalised on the $20 note in 1994.

    Next to the body chart on the note is John Flynn, the founder of what was first known as the Australian Inland Mission, and is now known as the Royal Flying Doctor Service after the Queen (that would be the one we still have now) recognised the service by allowing Royal to be put in front of the FDS in the 50s. When the RFDS first started in Conclurry, QLD in 1936, they did not own any planes; they leased them from Qantas for 2 shillings per mile flown. They also had only one pilot and two doctors. Now they own 61 planes and employ 146 pilots. They flew 26,863,558 kilometres last year; that’s the equivalent of 34 trips to the moon and back, or more than 600 flights around the Earth!! They provide acute and preventative health care to 278,000 Australians living in remote and rural regions, covering 80% of our total land mass; that’s a patient every 2 minutes. Amazing...

    Having now driven through outback Queensland and parts of the Northern Territory, we have a greater appreciation for just how self-reliant and resourceful the people living and working in remote Australia have to be, and just how vital the RFDS is to them being able to stay on the land.

    This is our final full day in Darwin before we fly home to Melbourne tomorrow for a few days. Don’t worry, we will be back to Darwin on Friday 17th May to start our 4 wheel drive adventure of the Kimberley’s so you can pick up our footprints then.

    It will be nice to spend a few days with home comforts and spend time with Jaime.    Read more

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