17/07/2005
The annual beer regatta (where they build boats of beer cans) is on at Mindil Beach so we head over there for a look around. Then it’s time for breakfast in the city. Then some shopping before we leave Darwin.
Litchfield National Park is our next 
stop. Buley Rockhole looks amazing but is packed with people. Two of the campsites full but the third site at Florence Falls has some vacant sites. We start chatting to the people next to our camp and the woman says “have we met before?” – and it turns out we have. It was Susie – an old flatmate of Johnny (Johnny who we used to share a house with) who we had met at Johnny’s place in Camperdown about four years ago. How cool is that!!! Susie is from Germany and was only in Sydney for half a year back then, then she 
returned to Germany and now she is back in the country traveling with her boyfriend Flo. We spend the evening with them around the fire, talking and having a great time.
18/07/2005
We say bye to Susie and Flo. Who knows where we will meet them next time? Europe? At Johnny’s place in China? Or maybe randomly somewhere else?!?
We stroll to Florence Falls – a wonderful fall 
hidden in the rainforest but unfortunately full of screaming youngsters. We check out another waterfall – Tolmer Falls – and then head on to Surprise Creek Falls. And it is quite a surprise! After corrugations and many bumps and a few watercrossings it’s a pleasure to find the quiet falls – we are lucky to have them to ourselves for quite a while. You can jump and dive from the cliffs into the pools. We would have loved to stay here but unfortunately there are too many friendly flies and mozzies.
We’ve heard that Douglas Hot Springs is nice so we head over there. The hot springs are quite packed with people as well but later on in the afternoon we manage to find a reasonably quiet spot. Some parts of the springs are so hot (about 60 degrees) so you almost burn yourself. Other parts are quite cool – and then there’s a few spots with medium temperature – around 35-38 degrees. We find a perfect spot – exactly where the water from the hot springs meets the natural cold water – so after you’ve been in the hot water for
a while you can just move a little bit into the cold water. We spend a few hours in the water. It’s lovely and very relaxing!
19/07/2005
Through Katherine again. Quite a busy little town. All tourists are filling up fuel and food and so are we! Today we are trying to get as close as possible to the WA border. The roads are good and the scenery is nice – quite impressive ranges. At sunset we are pretty tired and stop at a rest area by the road, 85 km from the border. The area is quite pretty situated by the bottom of some spectacular rock formations. But puuhhhh the area is quite smelly. The waterless toilets have a terrible smell and each time the wind goes past our camp we are ready to throw up.
20/07/2005
The scenery is beautiful but the shitty smell is revolting. We move on. At the border we have to stop at the quarantine station and our car is inspected. Luckily we are not carrying any fruit or vegetables. The inspection guy didn’t say anything about our dirty and muddy car - we were a bit worried about not having washed it as you are not supposed to bring in too much dirt or mud into WA.
In Kununurra we visit the information centre to gather some info about the area. We also stock up with fuel and food. Then we head south towards the Bungle Bungles (Purnululu National Park).
As it’s late afternoon when we get close to Bungle Bungle we decide to spend the night in a free rest area as it costs $18 to stay inside the national park. We make a fire and grill sausages and have a few beers. The nights are pretty cold here (desert climate type) – compared what we have gotten used to - so the fire warms nicely as well.
21/07/2005
Up with the birds. Brekkie. Coffee on the fire. 53 very looooong km of very winding and corrugated roads into Purnululu. As this place is very busy we go and reserve a camping spot before we go and check out Cathedral Gorge and the beehive like rocks that’s so special to the Bungle Bungle 
– the rock formations that you see on all the postcards. It’s a special place and the rocks are impressive. The black and red stripes of the rocks are a strong contrast to the clear blue sky. This place is supposed to be 360 million years old. It’s impossible to understand just how old that is – but it’s pretty darn old! Cathedral Gorge is like an amphitheatre with a small little pool in the middle. It’s packed with tourists trying their vocals.
In the afternoon we laze around by the campsite – reading and relaxing. At sunset we climb up with nearby limestone ridge and watch the red range change in colour to purple. Beautiful!
Soon after sunset it’s time to zzzzzz.
22/07/2005
Time for another couple of walks. The first walk is bloody hot and rocky but the destination at Minipalms Gorge is pretty shady. The gorge is dry but the tall cliffs and the palm trees form an impressive landscape. The second walk is a lot cooler and goes through Echidna Chasm – a very long and narrow chasm. When the sun reaches the chasm (around midday) the light is remarkable in between the cliffs. From some angles it almost looks like lava glowing in the dark.
Time to hit the looong, windy road back to bitumen. We fly over jumps and dance and sometimes slide through the corners. Puh it’s a long drive and it’s beautiful to see bitumen again. Our overnight stop is at Molly Spring Creek (recommended by Susie). After a long day it’s very refreshing to take a plunge in the waterfall pool!!!
Fire. Food. Beer. Sleep.
23/07/2005
After speaking to our neighbours at the camp we decide to head straight to Wyndham to fill up on food and fuel before hitting the Gibb River Road (we had been thinking about heading back to Kununurra to fill up – but they told us the fuel was cheaper in Wyndham).
It’s boiling hot in Wyndham. What a contrast to the cold nights in Purnululu.
The five rivers lookout is magnificent. You obviously see five rivers connecting. We speak to a lovely old couple in their 70s and 80s who are pretty cool and sleep in their car. They recommend to go to the Crocodile Farm in Wyndham as it’s supposed to be cheap and good compared to other farms so we decide to give it a go.
The croc farm has 3000 crocs – and only two of the crocs are freshies. A bit of a scary place…but it’s pretty safe as the salties are all fenced in. They don’t seem to make a secret of having to animals to reproduce and sell expensive skin and meat to tourists and restaurants. There are some real monsters here – 5,5 
metres. Wouldn’t like to meet them when you are swimming! The small baby crocs look cute but apparently they are not. They are born with killer instincts and the guide tells us that they have seen small baby crocs attack eachother and do the death roll as soon as they come out of the egg. Maybe not so cute after all!
Fuel is about 5 cents cheaper in Wyndham so we fill up the full tank and the jerry cans. We also do some grocery shopping in the local store.
Then it’s time for the notorious Gibb River Road – which is supposed to be one of the worst roads in Australia. Of course we have to do it!
To get to El Questro is not bad at all. Just a little bit of corrugation. They try to keep the road pretty good so the tourists can get to El Questro. We decide to spend at least a night at the famous cattle station. It’s pretty expensive but since we are in this part of the world we might as well have a look. You pay $15pp for camping and $15pp for a wilderness pass so you can see all the attractions on the station. The camping ground is pretty nicely located by the river and there’s a good swimming hole. The best thing is the single toilet and shower units who look like a small tented cabin. You can’t believe how nice it is to have some space on your own - to go to the toilet and then have a shower. And while you are having a shower you can look out at the sky and the trees. Nice! Unfortunately we forgot to take a photo of the toilets.
Since it’s Saturday night there’s a big barbecue buffet on – and since we’ve got our spending shoes on we decide to join in. And what a feast. Steak. Barramundi. Sausages. Chicken. Potato salad. Sallads. Pasta. Bread. Tiramisu. Carrot Cake. Fruit Salad. Mmmmm. Haven’t been this full since don’t know when. Definitely worth $26 each. We roll into bed – exhausted from eating so much.
24/07/2005
After quite a hot night we go straight for a swim in the river. Then our bad luck or clumsy behaviour begins. We are feeling a little tired and not to keen to do too much but since we are at El Questro and paying for it we obviously want to see as much as possible. So we ignore our tiredness. (It’s hard to believe but you can actually get exhausted from traveling). Off we go for a walk to El Questro Gorge. Halfway on the walk you have to wade up to your stomach in water. Unfortunately Daniel is so keen to get in the water so he forgets that his digital camera is in the pocket. AAAhhhhahhahhaa. We decide to skip the rest of the walk and head back to camp and try and dry the camera as quickly as possible. After Daniel has been fiddling with the camera and drying it out with the air compressor it actually starts to work again but the vision is really blurry (like you’ve had the camera in water).
The rest of the day is spent in a rather bad mood. By the way – the gorge walk was really nice and scenic until the camera incident.
25/07/2005
It seems like there are some bad spirits resting at El Questro. As soon as Daniel steps – or rather crawls – out of bed he dislocates his shoulder. Scary thing. Helena is watching Daniel helplessly as he is popping the shoulder back into the right position. Looks awfully painful.
Hmmm. The milk (at brekkie) seems a bit warm. It turns out the fridge has turned off because the extra battery has run flat. Aren’t we lucky.
Anyway we soldier on but decide to leave El Questro today as it seems we are having rather bad “luck” or whatever it is. But before we head off we decide to have a look at one of the lookouts of the station – a lookout with a 360 degree view. Helena drives her roughest part of 4WD-ing so far on the trip up to the top of the lookout. In some places it feels like the car is going to tip over. As we get to the top we briefly enjoy the view. Then all hell breaks loose as Daniel discovers that his camera doesn’t have any vision at all. Another sour day! Let’s just say that the drive down from the lookout wasn’t exactly pleasant. Anyway, you probably won't see any more photos until Daniel buys a new camera.
Soon we hit the “real” Gibb River Road. The one that we’ve heard of. The road that shakes cars to pieces. Some stretches of the road are horrible whereas other parts are no problem at all.
We spend the night at a free campsite by the river at Barnett River Gorge. A nice little place.
26/07/2005
We check out Barnett River Gorge. A beautiful gorge. What else can you say?!? I guess at this stage we are getting a bit “gorged out”. We have seen so many gorges and waterfalls throughout the trip and you just don’t appreciate each of them as much. That’s the problems with the kind of trip we are doing – we want to cover so much of Australia and we have to see so much at once so sometimes it’s hard to take it all in. You would surely appreciate each gorge much more if you just visited one area or one place at a time. I guess we are very spoiled seeing so many gorges and falls at once. Anyway, Barnett River Gorge is better than good (if that makes any sense).
As we are in the Kimberley we obviously “have to” see some more gorges – so we head off to Manning Gorge. You have to pay to see the gorge ($12.50pp and that includes camping as well). The walk to the gorge takes about one and a half hour and is pretty tough – going up and down and through some really rocky areas – and is extremely hot in the middle of the day. The gorge is nice but nothing too special but as all the tour groups and other tourist leave the gorge and we get to spend some time on our own by the rock pool and climb up the almost dry waterfall you get to appreciate it a bit more. The pool has a sandy bottom in some areas and pretty clear water. We are spending a nice couple of hours there. Swimming. Reading. Relaxing. This trip is almost feeling like a holiday again and not a boot camp.
At nighttime we light a fire and cook on it. Pyro Daniel makes up some big flames and one of our neighbours at the camp is a bit worried that the fire will spread up into the treetops.
27/07/2005
You guessed it. Off to the next gorge. Bell Gorge. An easier walk takes us to Bell Gorge where there’s actually water in the waterfall. This gorge is a little prettier than Manning Gorge. We go for a swim, have lunch, and head off again. And yes, we are off to the next gorge – Windjana Gorge. As we arrive to Windjana in the late afternoon the black mountains look like they belong in the Lord of the Rings. If you look into some of the caves and outcrops of the mountains you can see all kinds of creatures – Gandalf look-alikes and some things resembling trolls. If there was a place where trolls actually lived this would probably be it.
28/07/2005
Some more bad luck or just stiffness or clumsiness. Helena does something to her neck and can’t move the upper body properly. What is happening to us? Maybe it’s the cramped space in the car? Maybe it’s all the corrugated roads.
Anyway we try and beat the odds and go for a sweaty 7km walk down the gorge and back. 7km almost all on sand = not easy.
Windjana Gorge is a pretty spectacular place. Not only does it have a limestone reef that’s about 380 million years old. It also has hundreds of freshwater crocodiles in the gorge (where there’s still some water). And the crocs are not shy. They lie sunbaking on the river bank and you can get quite close to them – about 2 metres were the closest we dared to go. We counted 50 crocs on one riverbank. Crikey!
Enough of gorges and dirt roads. Off to civilization again.
A quick stop in Derby to check out the jetty, the boab prison tree and to have some lunch…then off to Broome.
As we arrive in Broome in the late afternoon it’s impossible to find a camping spot in a caravan park so we end up sleeping in the car park next to Cable Beach. It’s illegal but what are we supposed to do.
29/07/2005
At 6.30 in the morning we start queuing at Cable Beach Caravan Park to try and get a site. At 9.15 we are lucky to get one. It feels like you were queing for concert tickets or something but it’s only a camping spot.
Once we are “in” we set up camp. Both of us are tired and cranky. We’ve been out traveling for more than two months now and has basically lived in the car and it seems to have taken its toll.
We try and be as cheery as possible and head into town for a look around. Broome seems to be quite a cute little town. There’s a strong Chinese influence. Lots of pearl shops. Tourist shops. No tall buildings. Palm trees. We try and get a new camera for Daniel but the town is not big enough to store what he wants unfortunately.
We see Cathy Freeman and a film team walk around. Apparently she’s here doing some kind of TV series or film. She looked pretty cool and casual.
We walk into a fancy pearl boutique and get to feel and hold a pearl necklace for $140, 000. Wow! Might be my (Helena) next b’day present….Maybe not then.30/07/2005Ok, today we decide not to be cranky, we’re just going to take it easy. It was a while since we hade a day on the beach so that is where we’ll start our day. Of course the beach, sea and sun are wonderful and we swim for the first time in the Indian Ocean. Cable Beach is stunning. Turquoise water – but it’s a bit chilly. At sunset we take a camel ride on the beach and get a sore ass. Wonderful! Then we head off into town to see a movie at the oldest picture garden in the world “Sunpictures”. Sitting under the stars in deckchairs is great but the movie itself (Mr and Mrs Smith) could have been better…
31/07/2005
It’s time to try and get this bloody blog together. We spend about six hours in an internet café – writing, arguying, trying to paste pics into the documents etc. Frustrating stuff. Anyway we get some of it done – then we drive about 200 km in the dark and sleep at a rest area by the highway. It’s pretty akward to drive long stretches of straight roads at nighttime – because you see oncoming traffic for miles and you can’t really predict how for or how close they are. Hard to get the eyes used to it.
30/06/2005
Bye bye Cairns. Onto the roads where you meet plenty of road trains.
We get to Undara Lava National Park in the evening. Eat. Sleep.
01/07/2005
A
tour of the lava tubes. Quite interesting but bloody expensive ($36 per person). Not sure if it’s really worth it.
We’ve heard that Cobbold Gorge is supposed to be really nice. We stop at the information centre in Georgetown at about 1pm to see whether they have any tours of the gorge left for the 3pm cruise (our neighbours in Cairns recommended us to do the afternoon tour so we could see plenty of crocs) and they do have spots left so we head to Cobbold Gorge.
We figure we might as well do all the tours in one day. The Cobbold Gorge tour is $32 per person and definitely worth it. We are only six people doing the cruise and we get plenty of space to move around the boat and take photos. The gorge is spectacular – only two metres wide in some spots and the cliffs are about 60 metres high. We see plenty of freshwater crocs sunbake on the cliffs and on the river banks.
After dinner we go for a beer and relax in wooden rocking chairs on the bar verandah.
02/07/2005 On the red sandy road from Cobbold Gorge we run into a scary snake. We decide to stop and take a photo. As Helena leans out the window to take a shot the snake turns around and throws itself towards the car in an attack. Scary stuff. H panicks and instead of closing the window opens the door. Smart stuff! Anyway, the door is eventually shut and we survive. We end up getting a photo from a "safe" distance. (Later on a ranger said that the snake we saw was a non-venomous python and that they usually aren't agressive.)
In Karumba we are lucky to find a spot at a caravan place where they have a free fish barbecue every Saturday. And who says no to free food?!? We go and buy some wine and salad and have a glimpse of the sun going down. Then we join the pensioners for a feast of fish. There’s plenty of entertainment going on. Oldies singing and dancing, telling jokes, drinking. It’s a great night!
03/07/2005
Driving. Burgers at Burkes and Wills Roadhouse. Daniel has the biggest burger we’ve ever seen! At Gregory Downs we find a brilliant free camp spot by the river. We meet Kate and Neil and their two daughters and Brett and Carmen and their little daughter. We join them around the camp fire. We talk and have a lovely night and we are lucky to get a taste of Carmen’s beautiful apple damper with custard. Yum!
It’s so nice camping – when people are so friendly and talk to each other and invite each other over etc. It’s such a relaxed atmosphere. Having said that, we’ve also experienced a few psychos who have exploded over small stuff (if you for example happened to put your chair inside their camping territory). But the heat can probably drive anyone mad!
04/07/2005
Heading off to Lawn Hill national park and trying to get a camping spot in the park. Unfortunately they are fully booked and there is no chance for us, even thou the camp site actually only is half full at any one time. Apparently people book on the internet and don’t show up.
We strap on the walking boots and set off for some bush tracks. Crystal clear water and massive views is just some of the things we see.
We check into a caravan park (Adel’s Grove) just outside the national park for two days, our intention is to go back to Lawn Hill for some canoeing in the gorge tomorrow.
Kate and Neil and Brett and Carmen are also at the camp so we get together for another night around the fire and this time it’s Kate who has made damper with peach, it can’t get better than that.
05/07/2005
Getting up early to beat the midday heat and driving 10 km to Lawn Hill. Expecting to get a canoe straight away but we have to wait 30 min because of all pensioners, it doesn’t matter what you do they are always ahead of you. The canoe ride is magical, perfectly still water and steep rock phases. It’s very relaxing and the temperature is perfect in the morning.
We are back in camp at midday and veg out for the rest of the day.
Having a look at the time table, shit we are about 10 days behind the schedule. A decision is made; tomorrow will be a day of driving, driving and driving.
Kate and Neil have left and it is just us and Brett and Carmen at the campfire tonight.
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6/07/2005
Leaving just at sunrise, the plan is to drive to a private home stead called Seven Emu and spend one or two nights there. Calling in at Hells Gate Road House for lunch, Mrs Mac’s meet pies, yum…….. According to people we talked to at the road house the people at Seven Emu has attitude and will charge you an arm and a leg for a visit. We decide to drive on to King Ash Bay, outside Borroloola, for a free overnight stay.
In the end we did about 600 km on dirt roads, but we are lucky, the car is still in one piece.
07/07/2005
Have read about some hot springs at a home stead called Lorella Springs that has just opened up. The distance is just right for the day after a marathon drive, so hot springs it is.
Arriving at paradise, at least that is what the sign says. There are three other cars at the campsite, the care takers are very relaxed and the water is about 37 degrees Celsius. This is really a bit of paradise and you can stay in the water for hours, at least with a beer in your hand.
Meeting some other people on the run, Erika (Sweden), Henne (Germany) and Alex (England). They have all left Cairns together and are heading for Darwin and hopefully some part time job.
We don’t know if we should stay one or two nights here, we’ll see tomorrow.
08/07/2005
It is sad but we decide to leave “paradise”.
As we have just passed the sign to Roper Bar we see some Aboriginal people having problems with their car. We stop and try to help to jump start their car but their battery is totally dead. We are only about 20 km from Roper Bar where they can get a battery but we can’t drive them as we have a bed in the back seat. Luckily Jimmy (that’s what the van is called that belongs to Henne and company) arrives. They drive one of the men into Roper Bar and we stay behind and help the others fix a puncture as well and give them some water. They managed to get a puncture, a flat battery and run out of petrol at the same time. But they don’t seem too worried. We have a chat to a couple of the women and they laugh at themselves. There are 12 of them in the one car and one of them says and laughs: “This happens to us Indigenous people all the time. We are a little bit crazy.”
After a while they are back with the battery and we are off again.
Our plan is to stay in Mataranka where they also have some hot water springs. Arriving in Mataranka rather late, due to the late departure, the camping spot looks so so and the hot springs are only luke warm. We figure we can do another 60km and go for the free option and stay at a rest area by the highway. At the rest area we bump in to Kate and Neil but it is late and we are tired, so we only say hello and fall quickly asleep.
09/07/2005
Leaving the free camp area and heading for Katherine. Checking out the caravan parks and finding them to be half dodgy with stroppy management, “we don’t know if we have any vacancy, come back at 10am”, this was at 9.30am and with heaps of free spots around.
Driving 29km to Katherine Gorge and checking in to an ok caravan park for two nights of relaxation and book reading…… Ok, ok we have to do some laundry and clean up as well…..
And who shows up, if not the Swede, the German and the English (SGE). Having dinner together and sitting up chatting for a while. We decide to do a walk up the gorge the next day.
10/07/2005
The hike is taking us up on the escarpment that surrounds the gorge and it is worth it, the views are breath taking and you get a nice feeling of satisfaction. The collective decision is to try and get down to the water so the path becomes very steep. At the bottom we think we have found some sort of 
semi private little beach where we can sit and relax for a while, that is until one of the many tour boats decide to come ashore for a look around.
We head back to camp in the midday heat for a well deserved shower after the approximately 10 k long journey.
The SGE continues there trip towards Darwin thru Kakadu National Park, the same way as we are taking. I’m sure we will bump into them again.
11/07/2005
Filling up with petrol and food in Katherine before entering Kakadu National Park. We bump into Kate and Neil in the post office. It’s a small world.
We stop at Maguk and camp for free.
12/07/2005
A morning walk to Barramundie Waterfall close to the campsite at Maguk. It’s a beautiful little waterfall with clear water and luckily we get to see the waterfall while there’s only one other person there. But it doesn’t take long before the tour buses flood the scene. On the way back to the car we see a young woman sitting by a tree – she has twisted her ankle – and the nice tour operators have decided to leave her in the middle of the bush for a couple of hours. How awful! We feel privileged not having to be part of a big tour group.
We go for a walk at Yellow Waters. How beautiful!!! Really green wetlands with plenty of birds. We also visit the Cultural Centre. It’s free and really good. It’s amazing that any kind of touristy things are free these days!!!
Jim Jim falls is next. After a sweaty walk over rocky terrain we finally reach the falls. What a surreal landscape. The waterfall is pretty much dry but next to the rock pool which is surrounded by 150-metre high cliffs there’s a beautiful white sandy beach. 
There are plenty of people there enjoying a swim. And guess who we bump into if not the SGE. Small world. We didn’t bring any swimmers because we expected there to be crocs (and there might be some freshies but they seem to be hiding) so Daniel jumps into the plunge pool in his normal shorts and drags me with him in all of my clothes. It doesn’t matter. The water is so refreshing and nice and the clothes dry pretty quickly. We would love to stay longer but we have to get out before it gets dark. We decide to catch up with SGE later at Sandy Billabong and camp there for the night.
At Sandy Billabong we also catch up with three Canadians and a German that Henne and Alex have been talking to. We camp by the billabong and are reminded that it was in this billabong somewhere that a German tourist was taken by a croc a couple of years ago. How horrible!
13/07/2005
There’s plenty of walking to be done around Kakadu. We start with checking out Nourlangie Rock. They have some amazing and well-kept Aboriginal rock art. Then we go for a walk around Anbangbang Billabong – a beautiful billabong with plenty of water lilies and birds. Then we check out Bowali Visitor Centre and treat ourselves to an ice cream.
Our plan is to get a permit and head over to Oenpelli in Arnhemland but after speaking to the guys at the information centre you can’t really stop anywhere but an art shop if you enter Arnhemland by yourself and you can’t take photos etc and you are not allowed to leave the main road. So the only way to see Arnhemland is to go on a tour but they charge you between $100 and $200 to do that so we decide to skip that.
We stop at Merl camping, not far from Cahills Crossing – at the river dividing Kakadu from Arnhemland. At sunset we – like hundreds of other tourists – climb Ubirr to watch the sun go down. The views are astonishing. Cliffs. Green open spaces. Amazing!
Back at camp the mozzies are trying to eat us all alive. Can’t do much apart from locking ourselves in the car and sleep.
14/07/2005
Bloody mozzies. After breakfast we pack up as quickly as possible and leave this mozzie infected nest. Off to civilization. In Darwin we go to the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets and have a feast. Great Asian Food. Beer. Sticky Date Pudding. Darwin seems to be a really nice city – quite cosmopolitan!
We are trying to get into a motel because it would be nice to get some more space for a couple of days but we don’t have any luck. The cheapest room we found was $215. No thank you. We go for the cheaper option. Parking in the street. The night is bloody hot and we are literally swimming in bed.
15/07/2005
Puh puh…what a night. Luckily we are just around the corner from Nightcliff swimming pool so we go there for a plunge and a shower. Nice!
It’s time to fix Brutus up. He needs new oil. Daniel has been thinking about doing the oil change himself but it seems such a hassle so we hand it in to a mechanic and after $275 Brutus is feeling great.
A nice lady in the tourist information centre try to help us find accommodation but everything seems to be booked out today as well so we head to Shady Glen Tourist Park where they only have two spots left. We decide to stay for two nights. We are having a quiet afternoon and night. Doing the laundry. Cooking dinner. Drinking wine.
16/07/2005
After much agony we are trying to get our travel blog together. In the afternoon we head into town and have a few beers with SGE and a couple of their friends. Then we (D&H) go for dinner at Cullen Bay – a nice but quite posh area of Darwin where all luxury sail boats are anchored. We look forward to a nice meal – mmmm…pizza. But so much for having expectations. The food is crap and so is the service. We head back to camp and sleep…
12/06/2005
A couple next to us in the caravan park in Cairns has got a rooftop tent on their car and it looks interesting so we go over and have a chat to them. They are also heading up to Cape York so we discuss permits and ways of getting there etc and Linda introduces us to Con, Bill and Robyn, Maryanne and Pete. They are very friendly and say that we can join them to the Tip if we want to. They are leaving from Mount Carbine on Wednesday so we tell them we’ll be there on Tuesday night in case we want to tag along.
Cape Tribulation is next on the agenda. The drive there is stunning. Ferry from Daintree over to Cape Tribulation. The roads are winding up and down through lush and green rainforest. We stop at a relaxed camping ground next to the beach where they have a great camp kitchen. We cook our best meal on the trip so far – a great piece of steak and a pasta mix. Luxury in the bush.
The people running the camping place say that it’s safe to swim in the sea as the crocodiles only get close to the beach in summer. We are a bit skeptical as we figure there might be some schizophrenic croc that decides to go to the beach in winter so we skip the swim. 13/06/05
A couple of walks through the rainforest. Ferry back to Daintree and a look around Daintree. A nice river and a few tourist shops but nothing much else. Mossman Gorge is a welcome and refreshing stop – where you can swim without having to look out for crocs. The water is chilly, streamy and clear and very refreshing. We bump into Linda and Con at the gorge and they say they are heading up the Cape tomorrow (Tue instead of Wed) already so if we want to join them we can meet up with them at Mount Carbine tonight. 
Discussion time. We (especially Helena) want to go to Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival but at the same time we don’t want to travel up Cape York on our own. If we were to go to the festival we wouldn’t be able to travel with Con and Linda and company. We decide that it’s a kind of destiny that we met them at the gorge and that we should travel with them so we head off to Mount Carbine. 14/06/2005
Everyone is getting ready for the big trip to the tip. We are heading to Cooktown up the highway whereas the others are going through Cape Tribulation and the Bloomfield track. We’ll catch up with them in Cooktown tomorrow.
A stop at the famous Lion’s Den Hotel, south of Cooktown, is apparently a must. The place is full of paraphernalia – a real outback-looking, kind of pub. We have a couple of light beers before going into Cooktown.
Cooktown basically has one major street a
nd it has a few pubs, a couple of shops and some historical buildings. The town is beautifully located by the river and from the hill where the lighthouse is there’s a beautiful view of the town, the sea and all the inlets. Apparently the town had 94 pubs and almost as many brothels and a population of about 30 000 in its heydays in the 1870s. Today the population is about 1500 - but there are plenty of tourists around.
15/06/2005
It’s bloody hot up here. Stupid Swedes decide to walk around Cooktown. Sweat, sweat, sweat. James Cook Historical Museum is pretty good (and only $6). The Botanic Gardens is pretty crap.
The caravan park has a beautiful swimming pool and we have plenty of swims in it. The others arrive later in the afternoon. 16/06/2005
The adventure starts. Corrugation. Corrugation. Corrugation. First stop is Old Faithful camping ground in Lakefield National Park. We camp by the river and almost as soon as we settle down Pete discovers a big croc on the other side of the river bank. Cameras and binoculars out! Wow, it really is a big croc. About 2,5-3 metres. It’s a freshwater croc and apparently they are not dangerous – they don’t eat humans. But who knows?!? After a while the excitement settles down and we go about cooking and drinking. We spend the night by the fire, chatting and having a lovely time. We get to taste some damper of Linda and Con and it’s beautiful! This is real bush camping! We give the Aussies some Swedish schnapps – we have to get rid of it before we enter Aboriginal land – in some areas you can’t bring in any alcohol but where we are going you can carry a slab of beer and two bottles of wine per car. 
17/06/2005
On the road again. Still very corrugated. The exhaust pipe falls off. The extra driving lights almost fall off as well. Lunch stop at Musgrave Roadhouse. Great burgers. Strange scenery. Cows walking around on the air strip. As you would imagine the Australian outback. Overnight at Archer River Roadhouse.
18/06/2005
Weipa next. Wow, they have a Wollies - we can do some shopping. It’s pretty hot up here so a plash in the pool is nice! Laundry on the agenda. Our site looks like a gypsy camp full of clothes and stuff everywhere. Nice and cosy though!
19/06/2005
A mining tour of the above ground bauxite mines in Weipa. Big trucks. Red bauxite. People come here to work for the mine. They earn good money but there’s not much to do apart from working and fishing. The town is pretty much owned by the mining company (Coomalco) and we get to hear how wonderfully good the company is to its workers and the community. “If the workers are fatigued they can go home and sleep.” There are probably some good stories to do here (thinks suspicious journalist Helena). 
20/06/2005
On the road again. Corrugation. Through several water crossings. Dulhunty River is our next overnight stop. We camp by a small waterfall which is beautiful to swim in.
21/06/2005
Macho Daniel and Con has decided that Gunshot – the most notorious crossing in Cape York – is worth the go. There are more stories about cars not making the crossing than there are of successful crossings but as we get to Gunshot the crossing doesn’t seem to be as bad as the stories make it up to be.
Con goes first and the car is almost standing on its nose but he is soon through and then Daniel does the same thing. Wow! Mission Gunshot completed! Helena is just shaking a little bit and so is the video footage.
After all that excitement we cool off in wonderful Fruitbat Falls. Amazing waterfalls! Definitely worth all the corrugation and bad roads but we are not alone – there are about 20 other cars here. You wonder how many people would be here if the roads were bitumen.
Seisia next. The camping ground is full so we have to stay in the overflow section.
22/06/2005
Daniel’s 29th Birthday. Hipp Hipp Hurray! He gets a few presents (bought at Woolies in Weipa – amazing what you can get at Wollies) and a cake (with candles!!!) and everyone sings.
It’s time to hit the actual tip! After walking for a kilometre or so we are standing on the northernmost tip of the Australian mainland. It’s a great feeling and a wonderful view. The sea is turquoise and dotted with islands surrounding the 
tip. But we are certainly not alone - people queue to take a photo in front of the sign “You are standing at the northernmost point of Australia”. But it’s still a terrific feeling after that long and corrugated drive that made the exhaust pipe fall off and almost the roof rack and the extra driving lights.
We spend the afternoon and night at Punsand Bay. We (Helena, Daniel, Linda, Bill and Robyn) are swimming in the pool but Con doesn’t mind tempting the crocs in the sea. We drink champagne and celebrate Daniel’s B’day as well as being on the top. Con makes pancakes “Dutch style” with lemon and sugar. Yum! We are a little bit civilized and watch a DVD of “Coupling”. Laughs. There’s a full moon. What more could you ask for on your B’day
!
23/06/2005
Checking out some World War II wrecks.
Back in Seisia we are lucky to get a site inside the caravan park this time. It’s laundry and cleaning time. The car is full of red dust everywhere!
At nighttime we (Robyn, Linda, Daniel and Helena) prepare a roast (on the fire) while Con and Bill help Maryanne and Pete get out of a creek that they have been stuck in for a while. Then it’s time for dinner and wine and the last supper together as we are going separate ways tomorrow.
24/06/2005
Daytour to Thursday Island. A nice cruise over there but the day-tour, which only really lasts an hour and a half, is a bit disappointing. We could have easily done a walk around the island ourselves and seen as much. The island is tiny and quite pretty but there’s not much to do here. We experience a little bit of the 
Torres Strait Islander culture at the Cultural centre. We bump into the others (Con & Linda, Bill, Robyn, Pete & Maryanne) who are doing another tour and have lunch with them and say goodbye to them again.
Back on the mainland we head to Loyalty Beach and eat and sleep.
25/06/2005
Time to make our way down the Cape. We are taking the northern bit of the Telegraph track down. There are some really deep and challenging crossings (more difficult than the southern bit of the Tele track). At one of the deeper crossings Daniel is so excited so he forgets to close the air vents so the water is flooding into the car.
After a long drive it’s nice to see the signs to Bramwell Station. It’s a nice little cattle station with a great bar and after a few beers and a chat to the locals and some tourists it’s time to hit the bed. Corrugations make you tired.
26/06/2005
Oooops the car is almost on fire. Lucky we’ve got a UHF radio. Daniel is so sick of the corrugations 
so he is basically flying over them. We hear an oncoming car saying “did you see that car – it was almost airborne and it smelt like it was burning”. Helena: “Stop the car, Daniel!” We stop and the car certainly smells of petrol. The remainder of the exhaust pipe (the muffler) has fallen off and the spot where the exhaust comes out is very close to the hose to the extra fuel tank. The hose to the tank has started to crackle and we are so lucky to have stopped in time. We are only a few kilometers from Archer River Road House. We drive carefully to the roadhouse and a handyman helps us (for $50 – unfortunately we didn’t have a saw) saw off the remainder of the exhaust pipe so it’s not so close to the extra fuel tank. It will be okay until we get to Cairns.
We have burgers at Musgrave Roadhouse again. We spend the night in Laura.
27/06/2005
We check out some impressive Aboriginal rock paintings and carvings just outside of Laura.
Port Douglas. Wow, nice to be in civilization again but we feel a little bit out of place. Our car is dirty and dusty, we are dirty and dusty and Port Douglas is clean and posh. But what the heck…we wander the streets and treat ourselves with steak. It would be lovely to stay here for a few days but we feel we want to get the car fixed so we head to Cairns.
In Cairns we discover the best caravan park that we’ve stayed in so far (BIG4 Crystal Cascades). It’s a little bit outside of town but the caravan park is clean and nice and surrounded by rainforest and green hills and there is even a car wash and our car desperately needs a wash!
It’s late in the afternoon but we decided to go and see if we can find someone to fix our exhaust pipe. It’s about 4.30 pm but we are lucky to find a place and a nice guy who welds on a new pipe on the spot for $77. Not bad! He also recommends a mechanic that probably will be able to fix up other parts on the car…
We drive past the mechanic and we are lucky as he will have time to look over the car tomorrow.
28/06/2005
We hand in the car to the mechanic for the day and stroll around Cairns. $800 later we get the car back. He had to fix the air-con, the front drive shafts rubber boots and break pads.
29/06/2005
Wash the car. Do the laundry. Unfortunately you have to be a little bit domestic at times.
17/07/2005
stop. Buley Rockhole looks amazing but is packed with people. Two of the campsites full but the third site at Florence Falls has some vacant sites. We start chatting to the people next to our camp and the woman says “have we met before?” – and it turns out we have. It was Susie – an old flatmate of Johnny (Johnny who we used to share a house with) who we had met at Johnny’s place in Camperdown about four years ago. How cool is that!!! Susie is from Germany and was only in Sydney for half a year back then, then she 
returned to Germany and now she is back in the country traveling with her boyfriend Flo. We spend the evening with them around the fire, talking and having a great time.
hidden in the rainforest but unfortunately full of screaming youngsters. We check out another waterfall – Tolmer Falls – and then head on to Surprise Creek Falls. And it is quite a surprise! After corrugations and many bumps and a few watercrossings it’s a pleasure to find the quiet falls – we are lucky to have them to ourselves for quite a while. You can jump and dive from the cliffs into the pools. We would have loved to stay here but unfortunately there are too many friendly flies and mozzies.
We’ve heard that Douglas Hot Springs is nice so we head over there. The hot springs are quite packed with people as well but later on in the afternoon we manage to find a reasonably quiet spot. Some parts of the springs are so hot (about 60 degrees) so you almost burn yourself. Other parts are quite cool – and then there’s a few spots with medium temperature – around 35-38 degrees. We find a perfect spot – exactly where the water from the hot springs meets the natural cold water – so after you’ve been in the hot water for
a while you can just move a little bit into the cold water. We spend a few hours in the water. It’s lovely and very relaxing!
20/07/2005
As it’s late afternoon when we get close to Bungle Bungle we decide to spend the night in a free rest area as it costs $18 to stay inside the national park. We make a fire and grill sausages and have a few beers. The nights are pretty cold here (desert climate type) – compared what we have gotten used to - so the fire warms nicely as well.
21/07/2005 
– the rock formations that you see on all the postcards. It’s a special place and the rocks are impressive. The black and red stripes of the rocks are a strong contrast to the clear blue sky. This place is supposed to be 360 million years old. It’s impossible to understand just how old that is – but it’s pretty darn old! Cathedral Gorge is like an amphitheatre with a small little pool in the middle. It’s packed with tourists trying their vocals.
22/07/2005
Time to hit the looong, windy road back to bitumen. We fly over jumps and dance and sometimes slide through the corners. Puh it’s a long drive and it’s beautiful to see bitumen again. Our overnight stop is at Molly Spring Creek (recommended by Susie). After a long day it’s very refreshing to take a plunge in the waterfall pool!!!
The five rivers lookout is magnificent. You obviously see five rivers connecting. We speak to a lovely old couple in their 70s and 80s who are pretty cool and sleep in their car. They recommend to go to the Crocodile Farm in Wyndham as it’s supposed to be cheap and good compared to other farms so we decide to give it a go.
The croc farm has 3000 crocs – and only two of the crocs are freshies. A bit of a scary place…but it’s pretty safe as the salties are all fenced in. They don’t seem to make a secret of having to animals to reproduce and sell expensive skin and meat to tourists and restaurants. There are some real monsters here – 5,5 
metres. Wouldn’t like to meet them when you are swimming! The small baby crocs look cute but apparently they are not. They are born with killer instincts and the guide tells us that they have seen small baby crocs attack eachother and do the death roll as soon as they come out of the egg. Maybe not so cute after all!
24/07/2005
