Albert R.I.P.

As you can see I found Albert's grave yesterday and it is very fitting with the pottery inset of one of his paintings. The grave is at the cultural centre (although I wasn't sure there was any culture out here LOL). Lassister is also in the same cemetery and has taken the location of the gold with him.

They have a wonderful gallery of Namatjira works and also works from his children, which are very similar. We will be going to Hermansburg (where he lived and painted) later this week.
Football is no longer a talking point in the van as Collingwood, true to form, wobbled and finally feel over last night. So next weekend's Grand Final will have a little less passion and less arguments.

East McDonnel Ranges

Yesterday we set off and started to explore the wonderful McDonnell ranges which surround Alice. It really is like walking around in a Namajira painting. The colours are amazing, the snow gums and those red red hills. Today is a bit of a rest day to get over the climbing from yesterday so we will head to the "Dead centre of Oz" and visit with Namajira and Lassister, should be fun.

It's raining on our holiday LOL

Welcome to Alice Springs, damp centre of Oz. As you can see the clouds have rolled in and it was a welcome blessing as the first days heat was stifling. Yesterday his lordship got a new "Sunlounge" so that he can get into his horizontal reading position in a split second which means asleep in 3 minutes LOL.

Last night we treated ourselves to dinner at Red Ochre and we were both absolutely disappointed in what was served up. Having enjoyed the wonderful food at the Cairns restaurant we expected the same here but this was not to be. The school hols have hit with a vengeance, we thought that we were far enough away from civilization to escape it, but again they have caught up to us LOL . We have started to plan 2010 and it looks like a trip to NZ in Feb, followed by a clockwise trip around the southern coast then up the inland road in WA to visit Alan who has just bought a 350,000 acre sheep farm at Sandstone. Hans and Roli are taking off for a month or so in 2011 and have offered us there apartment in Zurich so we are factoring that into the long term plan. This tripping never seems to stop LOL.

Aileron Man

Yep, it's another of those BIG things and this one is very BIG. True to form out here in the "Never Never" everything is larger than life and I can assure you this is one very well endowed man. His appendage is bigger than me and that's on the droop. The local pub has a pet Wedgetail Eagle and the prices for dot paintings in the local gallery were "On application". LOL Everything is big in Aileron.

Eureka

At long last some fossicking has paid off. After two years of hearing about "the couple the other day found .....", "You should have seen the one a girl got yesterday....." etc we have joined the dizzy heights of success. We spent 3 nights at Gem Tree (140klms) north east of Alice, which is but a spec on the map. Day one was spent at the Garnet field where we had mixed luck, one 6mm, several 5.5mm, a couple of 5's and lots of smaller stuff but it was fun, no where near as exhausting as sapphire hunting. Day two we took off for the Zircon field for another day in the sun and 36 degree weather. At first we didn't get much then all of a sudden we found a little pocket where the stones got bigger and clearer. Ron ended up with a beauty. It will cut to 2.5 - 3 carat and measure 9mm x 6mm and it will be a pinkish/champagne in colour. When we returned to the gem cutter there was much excitement as this is the best stone that had been found this season. They even had a fight over whether they would/could cut a stone that big. As we left the park this morning, we were both laughing about the stories the diggers will be hearing today "Yesterday the boys........" LOL LOL

We arrived at Alice and this is the first time we have been out of the tropics in almost 7 months. We decided to spoil ourselves as we have been in the dirt for weeks, so off to the Big 4 with a pool we went. Without knowing we had booked into the same park we stayed at in 1986, not that any of the staff were even alive then. As I type it's 36 outside and blowing a gale with storms and rain forcast for tonight. The tent opposite has given up the ghost and is flat. The first thing we did was check Miss G in for a service and then headed up town to get some groceries. As usual in the NT great excitement builds from about 1pm each day as the countdown to the bottle shop opening begins. You have to time it so you don,t get caught in the stampede each day when the maximum security roller shutters creak open a 2pm.

Absolutely "NO COMMENT"

Hanging on for dear life

The Devils Marbles

We finally left Mataranka and the glass covered environment and headed on back down the highway to Tennant Creek to stock up on some supplies for the next couple of days. We did a quick overnighter at Banka Banka Station which was an absolute delight. This "small" station covers 3,500,000 acres and has three stations each forty miles apart. Banka is on the middle station. Lawn camping area with fresh spring water and as much as you want. In the old mud brick house they have a bar so sitting out on the veranda at 5pm meeting the other overnighters was lots of fun.

From there we headed into Tennant Creek and by now you will know what we think of this town. Never to be outdone Tennant came up with another first. Ron went to the supermarket to get some veg and things and approached a black girl at the checkout for service. He was handing her each item when she enquired "What is this?" and to Ron's astonishment she pointed at a lettuce. What have these poor kids been eating all their life ?????


Fully supplied we set off again for the Devils Marbles, which you can see from the bottom and middle pics. The photos don't do it justice. A wonderful place for a quick overnight stay with a couple of great walks. On one of the walks we ran into a car full of aborigines just as we were about to start walking around a particular pile of very large rocks. They called out to us that we needed to pay respect to the evil spirit by breaking off a branch of a nearby tree and walking around one of the rocks, finally offering the branch to the spirits by leaving it under the rock. Luckily we had read up on some of the folklore from these parts and were aware that the locals still believe in the evil spirits that haunt the rocks, so we made our peace with the spirits and everyone was happy.

This morning we continued on from the Marbles down to Wycliffe Wells the UFO capital of Oz and you can see from pic 3 we got right into the swing of things. Finally we arrived here at Ti Tree, pop. 153, one pub, one store, one servo and the caravan park and its all in one building LOL.

The pubs open at Mataranka and so it's off to the favourite tree for the rest of the day.

Today we leave Katherine and head back down the highway to Mataranka to go play in the Bitter Springs this afternoon. It will only be an overnight stay and then it will be off to Banka Banka, then the Devils Marbles and then further into the centre. We dont expect to have much electronic communication for the next couple of weeks but we will be driving through towns so if it's urgent please text and we may get it.

Stripped and Buried

Here is the latest offing from "Whiteman Dreaming". I came across this half buried branch at Carmella Beach Qld, just after high tide. The colour of the exposed wood was astounding so I had to paint it LOL.

We have arrived at Katherine and it's as hot as hell. Overnight it got down to 29 and daytime temps are 37 +. We need to get to a windscreen repairer today as a gift from a passing van has left us with a crack behind the rear vision mirror.

Bruce let me know he was doing 1.51 laps at Winton yesterday, sorry Bruce we can beat that, we are now doing 362 day 12 min half laps of Oz LOL.

Which way to go ???

This was taken at Mt Isa so we have moved on since then. We have left TennAnt Creek (Di is now correcting me on my spelling) yesterday and wandered up he highway to Daley Waters Hotel for the night. Again the food here was fantastic and the wine selection amazing for out here. We got to compliment he who buys the wine and we found we had a lot in common, both reds and Whites LOL.

Heading on to Katherine today. Weather is getting very murky, very humid and hot. Not attractive, the wet is on the way.

Good morning from Tennent Creek.

I didn't bother with a pic as nothing has changed here since last year, it is still the Centrelink Capital of the world.

We freeparked on Thursday halfway between Mt Isa and here and met up with a nice couple so spent the night playing backgammon and drinking good wine. It's tough out there in the scrub LOL.

The wet has started to build up here and last night the overnight temp was 30 and very high humidity which meant sleep was not easy to come by. We will head up to Mataranka tomorrow and then onto Katherine to catch up with Pete and Mat on Sunday.

So it's not from the mine here, but ................. it's dam pretty anyway. This is one of the Argule Blues that went on sale last March at a private tender sale in India, my invitation must have got lost in the mail LOL. I am led to believe it is among the most expensive diamonds in the world and it's only a little one.

Yesterday we did the Riversleigh Fossil lab tour and that was great. We got to see all sorts of critters that roamed around here 30 millions years ago. Not quite a hands on experience but the next best thing. We were in the lab looking into the acid vats as the limestone was being eaten away to reveal a turtles, snakes and crocs as well.

We head out of here tomorrow (thank God) it rates up there with Port Hedland as a place to only do an overnighter in LOL. Heading towards Three Ways or Tennant Creek but probably will freepark somewhere along the way so will be out of contact for at least 24 hours.

Going Down

It's almost like theme night at the pub LOL. Yesterday we did the underground mine tour and as you can see had to don all the appropriate gear. Great tour. Today off to the Riverleigh Fossil museum and lab. Finally getting mail after almost 8 weeks and a wine delivery.

Big tks to Steve and Malcolm.

Room with a view

After our somewhat crashing arrival, the next morning Ron dug RT and Miss G out while I quickly learnt the ins and outs of what all the different 4wd things do and between us we dragged the ol' girl out and planted her on the bend of the river. What a great spot and we stayed there for the next five days. We overnighted up at Lawn Hill on the Wednesday and that was still as good as ever, although last year we were there in May and the difference 3 dry months make is quiet evident. Not as lush and the water level is a bit lower, but still heaven. You can see from the top pic that a lot of time was spent jumping in the river and riding the current for about a kilometer downstream and praying that there were only freshies in the stream LOL.

We arrived at Isa yesterday and promptly got thrown out of the first park we had a look at. I check out all the park reports online before we arrive at a new place and there was nothing really good about any of the Isa parks, so as we have done many times before we pull up in sight of the office (so they can see we have a van) and take a quick wander into the park to get an idea of what it's like. Well the management bailed us up wanting to know what we were doing, we informed them we were leaving (the place was a dump) and he promptly told us to "Get out, we don't want you here anyway" to which some Get ------ were thrown around and we sailed off to the Big 4 which is not much better. Will be very happy to put this place behind us.

We're back...........

in the country we love. Welcome to the road to Lawn Hill. This is a particularly good bit. As you can see it's nice and wide with plenty of room to miss the road trains, visibility is a bit of a problem thought LOL.

The week that was. We left Normanton on Sunday with the plan to stop over on our way to Gregory Downs. Our Camps 3 book mentions three possible overnighter freeparks but they were either woeful or had totally disappeared ?? so we pushed onto the Downs. A couple of weeks ago someone in a park mentioned the river at the Gregory Downs and suggested we try to get in there. It is a free park with no facilities but a good overnighter. Well after a long drive and 35+ temps we arrived in paradise. the river is without doubt the most magnificent place we have ever camped and FREE. We drove in and there was about a dozen vans along the banks of the crystal clear river and down the end was a spot just perfect for us. Right on the water at a bend in the river with wonderful views so off we went. We arrived with somewhat of a crunch as it was the loose rocks from the wet season all piled up on the bank. BOGGED

As time was getting on we decided to worry about it in the morning. We said hello to the neighbours to make sure we weren't in their way and they informed us that they were heading off the next day and we were welcome to their site (which was probably the best on the river). So there we camped. More pics and the story continues tomorrow ................................

Gone walkabout

We will be off the air for the rest of the week, today off to a freepark near Burke and Wills Roadhouse, then onto Gregory Down to camp by the river and leave Miss Guided there for a night and head up to Lawn Hill to play in the gorge. Should be back on Saturday.

AAAAAGH the joys of normanton LOL

We met up with Krys of the Savannah yesterday and of course Ron just couldn't resist the temptation to do a dental check. We are reliably informed that this is a true model of the crock that Pam someone or other shot back in 1953. His name was Krys of the savannah and was 28 feet long - that's a big dam croc, apparently the largest croc ever recorded.

Yesterday we went off to Karumba for the day and lasted an hour, why or why is it even there ?????? it makes Normanton look positively civilized LOL. Although it is a haven for "GT's" (Geriatrics with Tinnies) keeps them out of the rest of the country.

Description of a GT:

• Someone who wakes up at 4am
• Someone that wakes everyone else up at 4.05am
• Someone that starts the diesel up half an hour before travelling just to make sure the heavy sleepers are well awake.
• Someone that refuses to oil the winch on the boat trailer so that each turn of the handle makes an agonising screech.
• Someone that always checks their outboard motor before leaving the park (usually between 4.30 -5am)
• Someone whose conversation is always starting with "What do you use as bait ?"
• Someone who washes only on days when the catch will feed the entire family
• Someone who arrives back from an exciting days fishing around 11am, just as you are nodding off to catch up on the sleep you lost overnight.

Time for a quick update on the map

We have finally started doing some bigger mileage as there is not alot between towns up here. We arrived in Normanton yesterday and if we followed our normal pattern (if we can find our way around town without TomTom it's time to go) we would have driven straight out the other end LOL. Last night we hit the town for dinner at the Albany Hotel as it had a choice of three wines. We felt overdressed as we had sandals on and everone else was in thongs except the staff who were in crocs !!!!!!!!! hmmmmmmmmmm fashion conscious place this is LOL. The highlight of the night was the arrival of the cowboys - yep real ones and from the way they walked they had come straight from the horses. (We did pass some working cattle on the trip here, such a good look) As the night went on, the local "Madam" made an appearance with a couple of her girls to show the boys a good time. (Lucky girls). We finished the night at the "Purple Pub" where they have both boomerangs and shotguns in the bar - hmmmmmmmmmmmm I guess that means no crowd controllers required at the door.

and the Qld Govn't have bought a new train

It's so GOOD being back in the Savannah. As you can see from the above pic we have found the Gulflander at Croydon FNQ, unfortunately my back has been playing up so we passed up the opportunity for the trip to Normanton. But, we are off to Normanton tomorrow so if things improve we might do a short trip around there.

The weather is fantastic 34 every day and yesterday we saw a cloud (Yippy). The plan for the next couple of weeks is to go from Normanton to Gregory Downs and leave Miss Guided there and head into lawn Hill for a couple of days cruising up and down the gorge chasing turtles and crocs. From there onto Mt Isa for a mail and wine pick up and then onto see Peter and Mat in Katherine via Arhnem land.

Hans your fan club (scary thought) is wondering why you are being so quiet ????? I have now been contacted by several people wondering where you are ??

It's dinner time............

Another grotty ol' Muddie LOL. We got three of these very large Muddies from the wharf at Cooktown and had the J and J show over for dinner. Have to admit Ron excelled himself with the Chilli Mud Crab and a very good night was had by all.

We're in love

We found this jewel called the Barron Valley Hotel in the middle of Atherton. It is recognised as one of the most intact Deco buildings in Qld. It is amazing, virtually no renovation has been done to the place, the bars, lounges, dining rooms, function rooms and bathrooms are all original. Wonderful place and we got on like a house on fire with one of the owners and she ended up asking us if we would be interested in pub sitting for them when they take off for a holiday and of course we said YES YES YES, can't wait.

Last look.

Well, time has come for us to leave the coast and head west. Tomorrow we head off to Atherton for a couple of days to stock up for the drive through the outback to Mt. Isa.