Parker-Griffins Venture Up North 2025

 Fitzroy River Lodge, Fitzroy Crossing Our biggest drive on the trip so far (almost exact same distance as London to Edinborough!). We're keen to be in Broome early tomorrow afternoon to get the new spare tyre sorted, plus repair the window screen chip (a stone flew up today when a truck went by), plus do our washing... So a very long drive, but through beautiful country. We kept wishing we were staying! Think today will be the last of the boabs  Beautiful places, love to stop and hike Tonight we're camping in a caravan park/hotel/lodge just outside of Fitzroy Crossing - which you might recall from earlier blogs is a tiny remote place we found quite terrifying on the way through. My suspicion is we wouldnt find it so bad now (we've been toughened up by our Katherine experience!). In addition, we've very much in the 'posh' part of Fitzroy Crossing - there is even a security guard to keep non-campers out.  We had Sunday roast in the restaurant and listened to some...

Ivanhoe Caravan Park, Kununnara (not Katherine!) You know how I’ve been wondering what the ‘third’ bad thing would be. Well, when Mark and I set off this morning, I was feeling so positive; confident this idea that ‘all bad things come in threes’ was just a silly old wive’s tale.  Before heading to Kunnunara, and after saying goodbye to Faye and Ron, we nipped into Katherine to empty the toilet as there was no dump point in the park. Driving up the main street, the man in the car next to us was waving and mouthing something at us. I wound down my window:  “ You’ve got a bubble in your inside right tyre ” he yelled.  I had no idea what this meant but I knew for sure it was not good.  I quickly googled tyre places in Katherine - there seemed to be at least five. Maybe we can just quickly get it sorted, and get back on the road, we thought... The first tyre place - non existent. Second place - closed. Third place - closed according to sign - but there were men in there ...

 Boab Caravan Park, Katherine We got up early, skipped breakfast, filled the van up with water and then drove it to Jun's Garage, arriving just after 8am. We were determined to be first in the queue. Despite that, someone was already in front of us. So we left the keys with Jun, said goodbye to the van, and rode our bikes to get some breakfast at a cafe. Thereafter Mark and I had diverging plans for the day. I went canoing through the gorges with Ron and Faye. Mark was going to wait in the caravan park to (hopefully) collect the van when it was repaired. Well I had a marvellous day! A boat picked us up at the boat ramp in Nitmiluk Gorge, and took us up to a few km upstream to the first gorge. We then kayaked, at our own pace, to the second gorge (1.8km). At that point, there was an opportunity to get out the canoe and pull it over rocks to continue further upstream. I managed to get my canoe over the exceptionally-slippery rocks (determined that slipping and breaking an ankle would...

 Boab Caravan Park, Katherine (still) Had a great walk in Nitmiluk National Park today - albeit extremely hot! Faye and Ron drove us and together we did a 1.8km walk to a lookout with views over the first gorge (there are six in total). Stunning! And great to get out walking again!  A steep climb- and very hot At the Bruwei Lookout View of the first of six gorges Best way to see gorges is via boat or canoe We  vaguely contemplated walking to the next gorge but I think we would have expired in the heat - the signs warned us that the conditions are extreme - if it’s 35 degreees on land (and it was at least that) then it’s 45 degrees on the trails. You could see that a boat tour would be incredible but - even if we could get there - we probably won’t have time to do it because… (drum roll) our part has arrived!  This is a visual (aerial) depiction of the six gorges (we only got part way to the first one today) - so you can see they are huge, like everything up here Supp...

 Boab Caravan Park, Katherine This morning we road our bikes to the hot springs as they are close to the caravan park. I swam, as per usual, and Mark did not (for those wondering if Mark ever swims, he does not; he retired from swimming 20 years ago). The water is so clear - this is about 1m deep At the hot springs We then rode into Katherine town - not quite so scary in the morning and when on bikes. Nevertheless still quite shocking. There are people wandering aimlessly in the streets and parks. The houses look run down and some are like junk yards. I wanted to take a photo of the houses but was not brave enough in case someone saw me and came out and murdered me. Ok I exaggerate but you get the picture. A guy this afternoon told me that he wanted to get beer yesterday. The bottle shop opens at 2pm so he went up there just before opening and there was a queue about 100m long of all the locals waiting to get their alcohol allocation.  These are the luxury houses of Katherine ...

 Boab Caravan Park, Katherine As you can see from the address, we are still here in Katherine, but no longer parked in the garage. More on that in a minute.  When the guy knocked on the door to invite us to dinner last night, we'd been joking because they were literally cooking next to us (as mentioned yesterday, some of the staff live in the garage car park), and we could smell the steak sizzling. Mean time Mark was heating up left over spagetti. So of course we said yes to the invitation.  At the dinner was Jun, two or three friends floating around, Jun's wife, and four kids (Jun's grandkids that he was raising on behalf of his son). They are all from the Phillipine's, and have been in Oz for about 17 years. They love the "simple life" of the Northern Territory (which is interestingly what I believe all of us people travelling around in motorhomes and caravans are looking for), and they find the weather and lifestyle quite similar to the Phillipines.  Improm...

 Jun’s Car Garage Car Park, Katherine  The title of this post was going to be ‘going downhill - for real’ as the day did not unfold well. We left Darwin early, ran around a bit going to Bunnings / camping shop etc and then got properly going around 10am.  By 1130am, we were broken down in Adelaide River - about 100ks from Darwin and 200k from Katherine. The coolant was pouring straight out the engine onto the ground, suggesting a broken hose. With Warren’s guidance, Mark valliantly tried to find the problem…  Plan A Alas it wasn’t to be.  To cut a long story short, we had to get the van towed to Katherine. I called numerous repairers/mechanics in Darwin who all said ‘can’t fix till end sept’ or similar. Same story in Katherine. And then, by this point getting more desparate, I called Jun’s Garage in Katherine and the owner, Jun, said he’d have a look when we got it there. This was the only person out of at least ten I called who suggested that they’d look at it ...

Ps to yesterdays blog...  Mark observed that the only thing different I ate to him the day before getting really ill was the mushrooms he cooked me for breakfast. Just recording this in case of my future death…. (For non-Australians who dont know what I am talking about, there has been a very famous case of a woman poisoning her in-laws with mushrooms, see story below)

 181 leanyer drive, Urban Retreat Hipcamp, Darwin  We had plans to go riding in the local area today. Unfortunately my body had other ideas. I appear to have been struck by food poisoning, probably from the oysters on the cruise. Had a very rough night last night so the only riding was Mark riding to the chemist... The highlight of the day was Mark playing his songs from his new album that he is doing on this trip. Sounding good.  Mark playing his new songs on our ‘bougainvillea’ site at the Hipcamp  Just a note on the Hipcamp as you might be wondering what one is. In essence it’s Airbnb for camping. So private citizens who allow people to camp on their property. As mentioned previously, this is apparently an exceptionally good one - according to the awards. Here is my brief analysis:  Pro’s:  very well set up with a pool (small but sufficient), the swishest bathrooms we’ve come across (and with the most rules!), and we have power and water in our own dedic...

 181 Leanyer Drive, Hipcamp, Darwin  Huge crocodile preserved in the museum, named Sweetheart, over 5m and 780kg. Famous for attacking boats - liked the sound of the motor We are sitting out the front of the Sailing Club at Fannie Bay looking at the sea with a refreshing breeze cooling us down. Hundreds of white cockatoos are flying around and screeching as they maul the nearby palm trees.  White cockatoos everywhere   Temporary members of the sailing club   Cockatoos doing strange things to the palm trees   We have club- hopped now and are having dinner at the Trailor Boat Club. I’ve been collecting driftwood and Mark has been writing song lyrics. Laksa is on the menu, as well as crocodile (tastes a bit like squid and a bit like chicken). Something about eating crocodile seems right.  Marks caption: “Sharon impersonating a chicken at the beach”  Sharon’s caption: "Mark impersonating a deer at the beach"   Pete, the owner of the Hipcamp, said...