Daly Waters and beyond.....

We were sad to leave Elsey National Park-so far this is where we would like to spend winter-the temperatures were around 30dgs, not over populated with midges-only on dusk did you need to cover up, a fresh water river to swim in, fishing, hot thermal springs only a 10 minute drive away, a library, bottle store at Mataranka, endless hot showers, flushing toilets, free firewood-what more would you need. Definitly worthwhile visiting again.

And the supermarket/shopping centre is only a 250km round trip away. We did this trip once-that was enough-Katherine-unfortunately is not a clean town to visit-it does have a major drinking/social problem, it reminded us of Alice Springs.

When we move, depending on our destination we will ‘hop hop’-(1 night stops),  for several days then stop for up to 2 weeks, or we will do 2-3 nite stops-it all depends on the area-whether the free camp facilities are clean etc.

We used to use the paid camp grounds for water and laundry stops. But we don’t any longer-we do our washing by hand-it is cleaner-the commercial washing machines use the same water for the whole cycle-so the washing water becomes the rinse water and often the machines are not filled to the top. Water – we top as we go along and wash when there is water-soaking our clothes and spraying with Sard-we manage to keep clean. Murray is an excellent agitator/wringer!

Paid campgrounds are now used as a base for visiting a town-particularly if there is not a safe free campsite nearby where we can leave the van, or we might stay 1 night to re-charge ourselves and our batteries. Otherwise we free camp, stay with friends or use National Parks. Our average cost for accommodation to date is $5.60 per nite for the 2 of us.

We have both lost weight- I am down to 67kgs and Murray 80.6kg. We put it down to our diet-less saturated fat/beer (these items make Murray feel sluggish and play up with his diabetes readings), and eating a diet of pulses, tofu, grains, fish and little meat. Also we have 3 meals a day-nothing in between-I wonder if I can keep this up….

Daly Waters is famous for the pub which has an unusual collection of memoriblla from caps, paper currency, business cars, jandals, bottles, t-shirts, bras…. And now yarn bombing…

We didn’t stay here-the toilets stink, the camping ground is higglely piggley-power cords running all over each other, and vans, flies over the food….

We drove onto the Bullwaddy Conservation Reserve on the Carpenteria Highway-how ironic that this is now occupied by Treevex Seismic Exploration crew and now home to dongas – a mini outback ‘town’.

Onto Cape Crawford-Heartbreak Hotel where Pricilla Queen of the desert was filmed. We stayed at the camp ground - $26.00 per night to recharge our batteries-in preparation for our Savannah Way dirt road crossing…