On day 2 we managed to meet up with the oldies a day early after converging on a free camp about 30km west of Longreach. Daz and I decided to do a trailer switcheroo there because the old patrol towing the boat was chewing a horrendous amount of fuel (almost double that of the Dmax towing the camper!). So on day 3 we pulled away with Nat in the Dmax towing the boat and Daz towing the camper behind the Patrol. Our fuel consumption improved dramatically after that.
Next day we made it to the former township of Mary Kathleen (used to be a uranium mining town) about 50km east of Mount Isa. The road in is only a couple of kilometers but it's a bit crabby when you're towing a 2 1/2 tonne boat. Nat got to do a little bit of 4WDing to get the boat in, but it was worth it as its an interesting place with beautiful scenery and plenty of fire wood (and free!). Next morning was a spectacular drive through the ranges outside of Mount Isa as the sun came up. Just stunning.
After that we crossed the Barkely tablelands without falling asleep at the wheel (they stretch on forever!) and spent the 3rd night at Banka Banka Station after turning north onto the Stuart Highway where the kids enjoyed the company of the 2 donkeys and 2 Camels.
Next morning I burned the crap out of my tongue on my coffee before heading up to Katherine to stock up on fuel and fresh food. Katherine Woolworths could well be the most manic place in Australia. The bloody Grey Nomads can only drive at 80km/h on the road, but put a bunch of them in a shopping centre and you got yourself a recipe for Nat having a psychotic melt down.
As this was our last big fuel up point Daz had to fill up the boat and all the spare jerry cans with fuel while Nat and the kids were fighting the good fight at Woolies. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but after the fuel ordeal Daz was so broken that he wouldn't even come back into town to pick up his designated car buddy. So it was up up to Nat to pack the groceries into the camper, and find a spot for kid #2 (The roof rack was a serious consideration) and get the hell outta town.
That takes us up to last night and a little bush camp we found near Edith Falls which we shared with a few other grey nomads who we're kind enough to tell us how we were doing it all wrong cos we weren't towing Jayco vans (Junckos! Whatever!) They kinda gave me the shits but that didn't last long because it was state of origin night! For those of you don't don't know my dirty little secret I suppose now is as good a time as any to come out of the closet. So he goes: I was born and raised in NSW I know right?! I'm sure then you can appreciate the amount of shit stirring that goes on between my blue-blooded parents and I, who had spent the last 5 days wearing (an increasingly smelly) Maroons shirt just to stick it to them. Dad and I made a bet that I'd keep wearing that shirt till QLD won a game. I must say I was a bit concerned for a while there cos that shirt was getting a bit on nose after 5 days but after a lot of hollering QLD won the game and set the world to rights again, and I gratefully donned a clean shirt this morning!
We only had to drive about 250km through the beautiful Kakadu landscape to get to Jabiru this morning. Daz is busy tightening all the nuts and bolts of the trailers and we've swapped trailers again so Daz will be towing the boat behind the thirsty old Patrol again (to give it more clearance) as we head into Arnhem Land tomorrow. This is where the fun starts. We need to time our departure tomorrow to coincide with low tide on the East Aligator river (Cahills Crossing) which is at 0400. So it's up before crack of dawn tomorrow and make the crossing in the dark (probably good that we wont see all the hungry crocs eyeballing us!) for the last 200km of dirt road to Willigi Outstation where we will be able to launch the boat and hopefully get stuck into some serious fishing! Bring it on!!
