Trip Report - Jabiru NT to Cairns QLD and back.

[Scott Murray]

Hi all, just recently I took 3 weeks off work and thought that I would pack my car up with my girlfriend and my dog and go for a drive. The aim was to try and do as much of the 'Savannah Way' as possible. I was aware that we have had a lot of rain during this wet season and that a fair few of the roads would be closed. but this added to the challenge.

Day 1.

What road trip doesn't start with out a hearty breakfast?

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My dog Tank loaded and ready to go, he is a Bull Arab x Mastiff and loves the car.

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My new old girl ready.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 1 Cont'd

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Using Wikicamps Australia we found a nice campsite near an old WWII hospital, no one else in sight PERFECT.
The ground was very hard, one tip is carry a battery powered drill and pre drill your holes for your tent pegs ;)

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I love my Luci lights, google them and check them out if you have not heard of them.

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[Scott Murray]

Night 1 - Dinner time.

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And a bit of star gazing.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 2 - Morning Coffee

I love my Coleman percolator - takes a bit longer to brew but boy does the coffee taste great.

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Morning clouds.

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Having a quick look at the old WWII hospital site.

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All thats left.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 2 - WWII Hospital to the Round About Calvert Rd via Carpentaria and Tablelands Hwy.

Todays plan was to drive from the WWII Hospital and get onto the Savannah way via Borroloola, after calling into Daly Waters Pub/servo.

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A quick top up.

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My girlfriend Evelyn checking out the pub.

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We continued onto Boroloola, unfortunately I kept getting mixed reports and after filling up at Heart Break Hotel I decided to head down the Tablelands Highway. Apparently according to my girlfriend it was more like a road than a highway and quite often only a single lane road :)

After dodging alot of cows and stopping to see what happened to a boat trailer. Apparently due to the numerous humps and bumps the 'new' leaf spring on the boat trailer snapped resulting in it grabbing into the asphalt and rolling, luckily the tow vehicle didn't roll.

Day 2 sunset at 'The Roundabout' on Calvert Rd.

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Lamb Cutlets and a beer and chips.

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Tank relaxing and on alert.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 3. The Round About to Burketown via a lunch stop at Hells Gate Roadhouse.

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Crossing a few creek crossings we stopped to take some photos of the bird life.

First was a Black necked stork or Jabiru.

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And a Rainbow Bee-eater just after a bath.

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A cool rock formation a few km's from Hells Gate Roadhouse.

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Arriving at Burketown Caravan park, we proceed to set up camp and have a shower.

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Awesome sunset hidden by the buildings and trees.

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Another hearty meal cooked by Evelyn.

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One of the usual visitors.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 4.

From Burketown we were going to keep going via the Savannah way to Normanton, but after receiving some road information and told it was closed we decided to go the long way. On top of this the fuel bowser was playing up and being a Sunday there was no way of getting fuel. Luckily for us we carry enough fuel for such emergencies and proceded to head south and then east and up again north.

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Along the way about 250km from Burketown we fill up with the essential fuel and beer.

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Thunderstorms building up in the West, heading away from us.

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Luci x 2 charging on the dash, the battery never went flat.

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Day 4 camp is at Leichhardt Falls.

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The view to the falls, if we didn't have to peg the tent down we could have been closer, maybe next time we will have a RTT.

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Always being watched.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 5.

Always nice to wake up to this.

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Some condensation formed over night.

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It was about this time we started calling Tank 'Mr Tank'

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This dragonfly just finished its breakfast.

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While driving down the Savannah way we come across these butterflies, I presume they are getting water and possibly salts from the puddles.

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Burke and Wills Roadhouse, if coming through here you have to stop and check it out.

"The Burke and Wills expedition was an Australian exploration expedition in 1860–61 led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William JohnWills of 19 men with the objective of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south, to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres (approximately 2,000 miles)"

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[Scott Murray]

Day 5 cont'd

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Nasty crack forming on my windscreen, it will continue to spread for a few days and then stop until I get back to Jabiru.

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Getting alittle bit dirty, need to try harder.

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My feet are probably dirtier.

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Day 5 camp site, Normanton Caravan park, the plan was to fix windscreen in the morning. But the mechanic advised us not to as he thought we had a good chance of getting another chip... He was correct.

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Time for a swim.

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Sitting around having a few beers and Rainbow Lorikeets are flying every where, if any one has seen these little bullets they are extremely hard to capture in flight let alone nice and sharp.

Rainbow Lorikeet in flight by Scott Murray, on Flickr

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Our view.

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Another visitor.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 6.

From Normanton we decided to drive to Karumba the 'Outback by the sea'

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I love stopping and seeing a bit of history, Croydon QLD.

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Next stop The Cumberland Chimney

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Camp day 6. Nice secluded spot on a hill, 4wd needed.

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Storms all around, but missing us.

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Double Rainbow.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 6 cont'd

Butcher Bird.

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Storm in the distance, worried about this one as am pretty sure it is coming right for us.

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Yep we are going to cop it.

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Stormy sunset.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 6 cont'd - Rain incoming.

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Bucketing down.

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And then its over.

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This frog hitchhiked in our plastic tub.

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Mr Tank does not like rain, but he loves the tent :)

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[Scott Murray]

What an awesome morning. Day 7

Sunrise by Scott Murray, on Flickr

A quick repair to my thong aka flipflop

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Morning fog.

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Taking a dog around and trying to visit National Parks is basically impossible, we drive into Millstream Falls and its not until right at the end that we see the no dogs/cats sign. The place is totally empty so I gamble and go in. We leave Tank in the car with all windows down a few inches. He loves the car.

Quickly running down the windy path we come to the Falls.

Millstream Falls QLD by Scott Murray, on Flickr

Not having a tripod I take multiple photos with the plan to merge them together.

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From Millstream we see a river on the map, it is Evelyn River conservation park. So Evelyn and I decide to try and find it. We never did but it was a great dirt road to drive down.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 7 cont'd

Driving from Millstream and Evelyn CP we head to Cairns via a few side roads.

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Coming across fields of sugar cane, we had to take a photo or two.

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Our view coming into Cairns.

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Looking at various Caravan Parks we decide to go to Palm Cove, the name sounded nice and it was right on the beach.

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Mr Tank loved walking on the beach.

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We could of headed out to one of the many restaurants in town, but why bother when we had so much food still ;)

My chicken chilli curry that I made, was nice and spicy.

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A visitor - Indian miner bird.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 8, no driving today. A nice relax to check out the sights and have a fish.

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Stormy skies.

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Palm cove jetty at night.

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Needless to say we only caught one fish and got bitten off by a huge one.

 

[Scott Murray]

Day 9 - Beach camping and storms

Today we headed south with the plan of doing some beach camping, being aware of a cyclone off the coast I had to have a back up plan which I did.

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Freedom

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Who needs a ball when you have coconuts.

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Mr Tank and his coconut. by Scott Murray, on Flickr

See that storm coming, it hit us and hit us HARD...

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So quickly packing up we relocate to the shelter of the trees, with the mozzies which was the reason for beach camping in the first place.

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Bugger the mozzies and storms, lets have a roast.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 10

What a glorious morning, no more storms through out the night and now clear skies.

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SIR Tank waiting in the car while we sweat and pack up.

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From Crystal creek we take a side road through to Paluma, not knowing the road it was a great choice getting away from the highways and traffic.

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Enjoying the scenery too much I didn't take many images.

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Camp Day 10 - Old disused Ralways land

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Drying things out.

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Evelyn was so happy that her Ice cream was still intact and not just cream :)

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I love clear skies.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 11

Not a real lot to see along this section so we drive 500+km's westwards.

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Stopping at our first campsite we find dusty hot dry conditions (43 Celsius) and decided to move on to better grounds.

Coming to an amazing man made dam. Wanting a secluded camp site we do not stop at the main one where 2 camper vans are parked up. Sure they have a great view but nope not for us.
Exploring a bit we find a gate, it states its farm land and that the gate must be kept closed, it does not say DO NOT ENTER so we enter and find an awesome paradise just for us.

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Some creative editing by previous campers.

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This did not stop Tank who under estimated the depth and then proceeded to swim around, luckily there were actually no crocodiles.

Surrounded by an awesome escarpment we kicked back and watched the wildlife scurry, flutter and crawl around in the setting sun.

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After a few beers and watching the Rainbow Bee Eaters diving into the water for a drink I fancy myself at capturing this.

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Rainbow Bee Eater having a bath by Scott Murray, on Flickr

All whilst Evelyn kicked back in the shades of the Eucalyptus trees.

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Tank decided we needed some fire wood, we didn't use it.

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Way better than a dust bowl.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 11 cont'd

Dinner time, hmmm what to have???

Lamb chops wrapped in bacon of course :)

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Just thrown on the Cobb.

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After a few beers its time to add the Garlic, parsley cheese and butter mushrooms.

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Cooking under the stars.

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DONE

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Better add some fries.

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After dinner it was time to explore the night wildlife.

The Green Tree frogs were out and they are always up for a photo or two.

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[Scott Murray]

Day 12.

Today is a fairly big day, firstly I plan on stopping in Mount Isa. My mother lived here for a bit and I wanted to give her a call from this location, unfortunately when I tried calling she was taking a nap so I left a message.

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We then stopped in at the visitor centre and if you are ever there this is a must do, even for 5 - 10 mins.

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From Mount Isa we continue west. Along the Overlanders way.

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And on into the Northern Territory.

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The temperature was still hovering around in the low 40's C so I weighed about about bush camping or staying at a roadhouse with a swimming pool. The swimming pool won.

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