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It’s hard to believe that the Caravan & Motorhome second DVD trip is almost over. Join them for the last few kays on their 3461km journey.

Words by John Rooth
Photography by Robb Cox

After a night of flowing hair and fishnets, hot banana and bacon kebabs and more than few chilled VB’s, I couldn’t wait to get to a phone and tell the wife how much fun the desert could be! Only joking, fortunately there’s no phone range for a day either way…

So it was a fuzzy headed Rooth that rolled out of the Sunland Blue Heeler next morning, in the wake of Photographer Cox who’d woken early to capture the sunrise over the windmill that dominated our bush camp. A few giggles from the direction of the bus indicated our exchange student friends were up and running early too. But definitely fast asleep were the Goldby’s, smack bang in the middle of our camp!

Yep, Allan and Lisa, intoxicated by the desert stars and the freedom of life so far from the city, had taken the pillows out of the Kea and made a bed under the sky! As the kettle in the Kea boiled Mark and I sat on the steps and watched them slowly come to life.

“Magnificent,” said Lisa, so I knew she wasn’t talking about Al. “Words can’t describe sleeping under the stars. Wow…” There’s definitely something very special about nights in the Northern Territory, the sheer strength of nature highlighted by the clarity of the sky. Early morning is the best time to appreciate it too, before the heat and the flies remind us why we’re only visiting!

Gil was up already of course and settled into a second cup of coffee. Once again an early start was on the cards but the night before we’d settled on a different plan of attack for the rest of the journey. With deadlines pushing from all sides we only had two nights left and were still over 1200km from Darwin. By now we knew from experience that the demands of photographing and filming on this trip meant that even running long days we were only good for 500 or so kilometres.

Having travelled this route several times before we figured we’d probably be far better off putting in a big transit day about now, through to Threeways and then punching hard due north, hopefully getting as far as Mataranka Springs. That’d leave us with only an easy 400 or so kilometres to Darwin and enough time to do some sightseeing in the magnificent Top End. It meant a big day, almost 800 kilometres worth of towing with minimal stops, but sometimes in a country as vast as Australia decisions like this have to be made.

That’s the whole key to caravanning in Australia isn’t it? Our wonderful country is so big and so interesting that a bloke – and his wife – could easily spend a lifetime or two exploring and still find something new. Not many of us get that opportunity so choices have to be made. Sometimes a transit day or two is the answer, make some big miles and do the relaxing and sight seeing further down the track.

Not that there’s a lot of sight seeing between the Queensland border and Threeways Roadhouse. In fact this is one of few places on the trip where there isn’t a lot of interest – which, if you’re a bit strange like me, can often be interesting in itself! We were only 40km from Barkly Homestead and after a quick fuel up, it was back behind the wheels. At least with the rising sun behind us it was easy to see the kangaroos that seem to come from nowhere out here.

Barkly’s got all services including a caravan park out back and it also marks the turn to the Tablelands Highway and Brunette Downs. This was where Graham and I had swung north a few years before during our ‘Golf across the Gulf’ tour and I can’t go past without remembering that epic adventure. Compared to the wide, dual lane, smoothly tarred surface of the Barkly Highway, some of those Gulf tracks were pretty horrible! The Tablelands Highway itself is a narrow single lane most of the way but none of that matters when you‘re only seeing another vehicle or two a day.

A couple of hours later we pulled in to the Threeways Roadhouse at the junction of the Barkly and Stuart Highways. Still carrying a flat tyre in the Kea I’d figure that this’d be the place to get it fixed because in the past the Threeways has had some excellent mechanical facilities. Many years ago I’d borrowed a welder here to stick a tri-axle trailer back together but like so many of the ‘old style’ outback roadhouses, the Threeways has ‘gone upmarket’ – they’re a Tourist Park now – and the old mechanical bay is shut.

Having said that the standard of facilities offered here these days is a lot more suited to the comfort loving traveller in his reliable auto than it ever was. The caravan park has a beaut swimming pool, plenty of roomy, shaded sites, a laundry and barbecues and they still allow pets here too. The dining room’s got a licensed bar and if our breakfast was anything to go by, the meals are spot on.

But it was a quick rip through the amenities block for us and then back on the road for the long haul north. We drove past the turn to the John Flynn memorial, an ugly brick thing that doesn’t do the kindly Reverend justice, and then 45km from Threeways we passed the Stuart Memorial at Attack Creek too. This marks the spot where the explorer finally gave up and turned south on his first attempt at a south-north passage.

Travelling in the Patrol with Roy I noted the significance of the spot and hoped we’d be right to keep on going ourselves. The Patrol had cooked itself on day one, climbing the steep hills before Toowoomba, and despite some Stop Leak it was still using water pretty rapidly. Now, with the luxury Winton tandem on the back and a stiff headwind all the way, the Patrol’s temperature gauge was sitting on three quarters and the day had barely started. Roy kept glancing down at the gauge too.

But nothing had changed by the time we passed Lubra’s Lookout, the flat topped hill that overlooks Renner Springs, so after fueling up and leaving the Patrol to cool down a bit, we checked the radiator again. Sure enough, it was losing water somewhere, but where? It’s a testimony to the tough and robust Nissan that you can take them out and put them through hell and they’ll still keep going. That’s the safety margin a big tow vehicle offers, when things go wrong they’ve got the bottle to finish the job.

Renner Springs pretty much centres on the roadhouse and caravan park but like most of the smaller places up the Stuart, it’s got its own speciality happening too. In this case it’s the best sandwiches on the highway, something we missed this time because breakfast was still bubbling! Renner marks another travel point of note though – it’s usually accepted as marking the latitude where the hot and dry weather of the Centre transforms to the hot and wet weather of the tropical north.

We drove north without noticing any great change in the weather other than it was getting pretty hot! An hour later we’d passed the turn off on the right to the old Barkly Stock Route – a great ride on a trail bike – and pretty soon we were driving through Elliott. It was here that some 3000 troops were stationed under the command of Captain Elliott and the large and shady rest area is a great place to contemplate the ‘newness’ of so much of the Territory’s history.

There’s a couple of good caravan parks in Elliott and the usual highway services but it’s not the place to stock the cupboards unless you really have to.

After another hour or more we’d passed the little town of Dunmarra Population 10 – and soon after the turn on the left to the Buchanan Highway. For me the real disappointment was driving straight past the turn to Daly Waters and the fabulous old Daly Waters Pub, a real favourite place and one that – if you’ve got a bit more time than we did – shouldn’t be missed.

Daly Waters was famous in the 1930s as a resting place for passengers and crew on Australia’s first international airline trips. Amy Johnson the aviator landed here once too. The pub itself is said to date from the 1890s and it’s quite possibly the oldest hotel in the Territory. I reckon that’s all the history you need to enjoy a cold beer or three, especially when the food’s great too. Last time I stopped here was for lunch a couple of years ago – and I didn’t leave until after breakfast the next day. Watch it, Daly’s a trap!

Part of that is the fabulous caravan park next door to the pub. This is one of the most informal parks in the country with no sites marked and they don’t take bookings either. There’s some power boxes scattered around but it’s the relaxed nature of the place that’s made it one of the most popular winter stays for caravanners in the Territory.

Likewise Mataranka Springs, but for a lot of different reasons. The turn off to the springs and the Elsey National Park is just on the right before town and with the sun close to settling for the day we drove the eight kilometres or so to the homestead and let Gil book us in. After the long hot haul up the centre Mataranka opens up like an oasis in the desert. There were peacocks and wallabies and you could hear the birds singing through the palm trees.

Within minutes bathers and towels had been found and we were off for a sunset dip in the pools. The water is warm and clear and relatively crocodile free! That’s not as silly as it sounds, freshwater crocs have been found right through here but they’re harmless to humans and before each ‘season’ they’re chased out. Not so a bit further downstream at the Waterhouse River where salt water crocodiles have been known to swim but if you’re this far into the Territory, you should have switched your croc alarm on by now. Be aware that crocodiles inhabit most of the northern waterways and understand some of the croc ‘knowledge’ and you’ll be right. As long as you’re careful that is…

Mind you the biggest danger we faced was some of ‘Big Al’s’ bombs off the rocks around the pools! There were quite a few swimmers down for a dip and after our longest day’s drive so far, the relaxation offered by the thermal pools was almost exquisite. After dinner we retired to the bar for a cold beer or three and within minutes some shouts and screams alerted us to another visitor – a snake had come in from the bush! It was what the locals call a ‘kid’s python’, not that frightening but enough to see a table full of English tourists almost jump back home in one leap!

Next day, feeling refreshed, we drove on through Mataranka town – home of Jeannie Gunn’s classic ‘We of the Never Never’ – to Katherine for an early lunch stop and an afternoon spent flying over Kakadu. It’s wonderful to see the country change as Darwin looms closer, going from the flat and dry bush to gently rolling hills and substantial trees.

Katherine was the first major centre we’d passed through since Mount Isa and the feeling of traffic and hustle was as oppressive as the humidity of the day. After the big drive throughs of bush roadhouses the garages of Katherine seem cramped and very un-caravan friendly but there’s usually plenty of room to park near the tourist centre back streets and there’s a couple of big truck fuel-up stations just to the north of town.

Katherine marks the centre of some of the most amazing country anywhere in the world. Hot and dry for the most part, it only takes a few drops of regular water and the vivid greens of the jungle break out in profusion. Just 30km from town is the Katherine Gorge National Park, a series of 13 gorges carved from the sandstone by thousands of wet season torrential rains. There are some stunning Aboriginal rock paintings through the gorge country and the scenery is just spectacular. It’s well worth taking a tour boat up through here but bushwalking and cycling are popular too and if you’re keen, canoeing offers a closeness to nature that can’t be beat.

I tried canoeing here once. Up until then I’d always thought of my balance problem as being more pub related…

There’s a lot more to the Katherine region than just that gorge country. Five minutes out of town are the hot springs, a great place to soak away the pains from travelling. There are limestone caves to explore, a museum that’ll open up the history of the early pioneers and the significance of World War Two to the region and some great fishing out at Knott’s Crossing, the original site of the town before the low level bridge was built.

After the best part of the day spent exploring – you stay a month here easily – we drove north again looking for somewhere to spend our last night on the road. The plan was to camp about an hour or so south of Darwin so we’d have plenty of time to visit a croc farm and still make flights the next day. But because it was our last night on the road we wanted something special too.

And special we got! With less than 50km to go we pulled left and took the road down to Berry Springs and the Lakes Resort Caravan Park. The park – and resort complex – might be a bit past its prime but with plenty of good fishing right next door and a waterslide that must have been built for us larger, middle aged-type hooligans, we had an absolute ball.

That night as we cracked our last cold tinnies and thought back to the trip we’d just made, there was a feeling of accomplishment in the camp that couldn’t be beat. In eight days we’d driven from Brisbane to Darwin, filmed most of the trip and had some wonderful adventures along the way. Sure, not one of us didn’t have a list of places they’d like to stay longer at next time but overall we all felt as if this trip had been one of those life making experiences.

I know Roy Wyss was happy! Having taken the incredible gamble of hauling a prototype caravan all that way in the company of journalists responsible for testing – and reporting – the products he makes, for him the trip had been a resounding success. Why? Because we liked the caravans, that’s why. They’d performed well and offered levels of comfort and practicality that kicked goals all around. The Kea Motorhome too had proven itself incredibly versatile and popular amongst all who travelled in her, indeed a wonderful way to travel this massive country in air conditioned comfort with views in all directions. In fact the only problems we had – apart from one flat tyre – were the fights over who got to enjoy driving it!

Despite all that it was with mixed feelings that we finished out journey with a visit to a crocodile farm the next day. Robb, Pete and Mark were flying back to Sydney and I was on a plane to Brisbane. Gil was heading south, taking the Blue Heeler and his old Troopy on a tour through the backroads we’d missed on the way up. Roy had something similar in mind although his route, thanks to the Nissan’s cooling system problems, was likely to be more direct. Only Allan and Lisa were going to stay in Darwin for a few days, to look up old friends and enjoy the hospitality the Top End has to offer.

Now, safely home in the office and with Robb’s superb photographs to remind me of that trip, I know one thing for sure. Like all the big trips a traveller can make, the best ones leave their mark forever. That time on the road from Brisbane to Darwin was an incredible experience.

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