Keep Rolling, Rolling, Rolling!

As much fun as Litchfield had been, we were itching to start exploring the Kimberleys. First, we’d have to navigate Katherine again to stock the fridge and post a few blogs. We decided to take our time getting there, as Darwin was still fresh in the memory and Katherine would need every bit of energy we could muster. We headed for Hayes creek, just outside Litchfield, on the Stuart Highway. It didn’t take long to get there, and we unpacked and set up in no time. They also had “rustic” toilets, which had seats and weren’t filled to the brim with countless other peoples shit. I very much enjoyed unloading my three days backlog. Besides flushing toilets, we’d also read about a butterfly gorge, just a short distance from the campsite, where hundreds of butterflies line the walls of the gorge. We asked the backpacker from northern England working in the camp pub for directions and she told us it was a lovely walk. However we decided to drive, because fuck walking, and I’m glad we did, as what someone from northern England considers a lovely walk is nothing special in my eyes.

The gorge was, indeed, packed with butterflies. It was very picturesque and we were enjoying ourselves wandering about. I hadn’t taken my camera, as I was a bit over the whole taking pictures of shit, but Becky was filming away. She’d accidental been filming in slow-mo, but it came out looking quite cool

I doubt many of you could be arsed to watch the whole video. “Jeez” you probably said, “why’d I wanna watch a video of a half-nalked Tom scaring butterflies in slow-mo, what a dickhead”. Well, the reason for the video becomes apparent when normal speed resumes, as I stumble across a snake. I’d like to say I responded in a true bushman style, but I pooped myself a little and backed off (Becky also caught a frog, perhaps the snakes indented lunch, fleeing). I regretted not taking my camera, and by the time I’d got back with it, it’d gone. My first search on google identified it as Mengden's brown snake, a highly venomous species… but after a deeper look I think it was just a golden tree snake. Still, it was pretty cool, after I’d put some distance between us.

Not much else happened at Hayes Creek, bar watching an old man while he listened to an eclectic mix of music and stared at his caravan. The next day we headed for Edith Falls. We’d been told that this was a beautiful spot just outside Katherine and part of Nitmiluk NP. So popular that it often fills up before mid-day. We thought this would be the perfect point to muster up the energy to begin our assault on Katherine. However, when we got there we were confused as to why the place had been talked about so highly. It was nice, sure, but not tell a friend nice.

After we set up, I started trying to fix another issue with the car. This time, the rear wiper had drooped. I took apart the whole panel on the rear door, but I was unable to find a fix, so it was added to the “google when we have Internet” list. We also had a nice little visit from a local lizard.

Not the best cleaner, but he gives it his all

Late afternoon we headed for the main plunge pool, as it had been one day since we’d fucking swum in one. The main pool entry point was busy, but we found a quiet spot for a quick dip, and decided we’d wake early the next morning for a walk to the upper pool… at 2.6km it was close to Becky’s limit but sounded nice.

Here, we used a stand in for the swimming headshot  

Next morning, after a quick breakfast we headed off on our walk. I was pleased as I would get to try my new daps. To be honest, the walk didn’t require them, but I wanted to test them out. They were fine, thanks for asking.

I put on my daps for this?

The walk was ok, and the waterfall and upper plunge pool looked good in the morning light.

Bush power shower

We swam in the pools for a while, and had them to ourselves for 20 minutes before more people arrived and so we decided that would do.

Another day, another plunge pool

By the time we’d walked back, packed up and showered it was past 10:30am as we headed for the dreaded stress of Katherine. By 11am we’d pitched up at the information centre in downtown Katherine to use their power points and the free Internet to post blogs and google shit we’d been wondering about for the past two to three days (including the species of snake and how to fix a drooping wiper, which wasn’t the first google guess as I typed in “how to fix a drooping…”). Katherine is not a pleasant town, as signalled by bottle shops not opening until 2pm, and Rexona aerosol being stored behind the counter at Woolies. The stress wasn’t helped by Becky’s insistence at getting 25% off by using some app at McDonalds. After spending 30 minutes moving up from Billy no stars, all the way to the manager we finally got our $7 off, which means we can now extend our road trip by 35km. A cool four hours later, well stocked on food, fuel and XXXX, we finally pulled out of Katherine towards our intended stop for the night, Timber Creek.

Timber Creek is a small town 200km from the WA border, and not much more than an overnight stop. It wasn’t a bad place, and there was a huge ~3-metre freshie in the creek at the back of the site, which I didn’t photograph.  We were both pretty beat after navigating Katherine and went to bed early. The next morning we packed up, and watched a bogan child feed some assembled kites left-overs. We discussed whether we should mention to the parents how bad this is, but decided the parents looked like they didn’t give a fuck. Still, we got some nice photos.

I got family at UQ that are killing it, as much subway as they can eat

This family’s set up has become a common sight, parents touring Australia with a few kids, and home schooling them as they go. Watching this family and others I can tell you that the quality home schooling being given to these kids will open up opportunities for other skilled migrants in a few years.

We left Timber Creek, and decided that we’d head for a track called Duncan Road, just before the WA border. There was a campsite at the start that would be a good place to unwind and eat some of the fruit and veges we’d bought in Katherine and forgotten that we weren’t allowed to take into WA past the sniffer dogs at the Kununurra border. As we drove through Gregory NP, named after an explorer named Gregory but I don’t remember his first name, we stopped at a few places including a “famous” Boab tree that had been marked by Gregory during his exploration of the area. They use to mark these trees with the date they arrived (in this case 13^th Oct 1855) and the date they left (2^nd July 1856). So that was fun.

History, in tree form

The best part was spotting a small lagoon at the roadside, filled with birdlife. There were a shit load of red-tailed cockatoos, guess how they got their name.

"why don't we call it Black-body, with red-bits in its tail cockatoo"

We got to Zebra mining campground a little after mid-day, and it was lovely, so nice that we didn’t take any pictures of it. I spent the rest of that afternoon fixing the drooping rear wiper, only to discover the nozzle itself is also blocked. It’s amazing how long I’ve spent trying to fix issues with the back wiper and washer, especially since that our solar panels and fridge block my rear view. I think I have realised what I really enjoy is problem solving. As a famous urban poet from 90’s said, “if there’s a problem, yo I’ll solve it. Now check out the hook as my DJ revolves it”

After that, we finally got to do something we haven’t done for a while; just relax, doing nothing but complain about how unbearably hot it has become.