Lake Argyle Caravan Park

Yesterday we arrived in paradise. Just look at the pictures below; we just had to stay another day!!

Victoria River Roadhouse to lake Argyle

Again we were planning to get up early however, when we woke up at 6 it had just started to rain. This gave us the ‘excuse’ to sleep in for another hour. After breakfast we continued our journey on the Victoria Highway. We made a quick fuel stop at Timber Creek and even though small, it was more of town than we expected.

Next we stopped at Policemans Lookout, which is next to the Victoria river and a favorite fishing spot for locals. The view on the Victoria River was great, but the same cannot be said about the short road leading there, it was severely bumpy.

From this point on we focused on getting to the NT/WA Border. The thing you have to know that WA has strict quarantine laws, which prohibits bringing in most fruits and veggies, raw nuts, bee products (including honey bought in a supermarket) and more.

We ate what we could, but we didn’t know what to do with a bag of raw macadamia nuts that we have been lugging around Australia since we bought them in Northern Queensland. The solution was simple… We stopped at the last rest area before the checkpoint and used our axe to crack the very though shell of all our macadamias. Next we got our stove out and with some help of some butter and some honey made honey roasted macadamia nuts. Yummy! Because both nuts and honey were heated in this process  it was fine to take them across the border!

Driving in WA meant changing time-zones again. We gained an additional 1.5 hours by entering the Western most state (-3 for Melbourne and +7 for Western Europe). It also means the sun is now setting before 6pm, but on the other hand, it will be light before 5 in the morning.

We had read that Lake Argyle was worth the visit and the views were indeed spectacular. This man-made lake is massive and contrasting colours against the red escarpments is stunning. We weren’t sure whether to camp here or drive on to Kununurra, but after Monique saw the caravan park had an infinity pool, there was no more discussion possible… 

Mataranka to Victoria River Roadhouse

Because of the nearby storm during the night it was a bit cooler this morning (still 25 degrees). We packed up and had a dip in the pool one more time before we drove off.

In Katherine the temperature had reached 40 degrees again and we were happy to find some refreshment in the shopping center.

After fueling up, and getting some brochures about Western Australia (WA) we finally took a turn away from the Stuart Highway. WA here we come!

Once again the landscape was pretty boring and dry in the beginning. But at some point the scenery changed as we came close to the Victoria River. The flat surroundings turned into escarpments and rocky outcrops.

Around 5 pm we stopped at Victoria River Roadhouse where we booked ourselves into their caravan park. We were the only ones there (ignoring the backpackers that showed up at 10pm).

Again the weather changed in the late afternoon, becoming very windy this time. They call it the ‘Build up’ here in the north. This means most of the days there is some thunder and storms at the end of the day or overnight. So I guess it’s something we’d better get used to.

Devils Marbles to Mataranka

We got up before sunrise at 5.30 to avoid the heat for the next big leg of our journey.

First we drove to Mary Ann Lake/ Dam to have a free shower and prepare brekkie. The bore water  of the showers was even smellier then we were but hey, at least it felt refreshing. The temperature has been around 35 to 40 degrees the last few days.

Initially we thought about camping at Daily Waters but it was still fairly early when we arrived there.  Monique was very keen to go to the Mataranka Natural Springs once more, so we decided to drive the extra 100 km.

At the moment hardly anyone is traveling up north anymore as its getting to hot for most people’s liking. Fair enough as it’s bloody hot indeed! The good thing is though that we’ve got all the touristic highlights to ourselves this time of year. Including the lovely natural pool.

The campsite itself is full of wildlife. We saw kangaroos, wild pigs, a snake, peacocks, frogs, heaps of birds, flying foxes, etc. Just lovely!

Desert Oaks rest Area to Devils Marbles

Today was another ‘driving’ day. We got up early and headed for our first stop Alice Springs. We did some quick shopping where we ran into ‘Brolga’, the main character of a real life TV documentary about his life, which is dedicated to saving orphaned kangaroos.

Soon after we continued our way up north. We had lunch on the first rest area after Alice, which happened to be on the Tropic of the Capricorn. 

The Stuart Highway is a long and ‘relatively’ monotonous road and having seen it all before, we skip all the ‘must-sees’ along the way.  For those interested, besides  the turn-off to the big rock in the centre, you can also find some small towns, a camel farm and even Australia’s self-declared UFO landing zone. 

After ‘seeing’ all these sights we managed to reach the next major stop along the way, the Devil’s Marbles. As we liked the campsite last time, we decided to call it a day after over 600km of driving. Luckily for us, tomorrow will bring us more of the same ;)  

Bon Bon rest area to Desert Oaks rest area

This morning we got up early and prepared some quinoa salad for the coming days. Always handy to have food prepared for lunch or dinner.

We were only about 140 km away from Coober Pedy where we had a quick stop for fuel and water. As we wanted to cover lots of distance again today we didn’t stay long.

In the end we drove around 700 km in total today. We just had an occasional stop at a roadhouse or rest area to stretch our legs, go to the toilet, get fuel or swap seats.

At some point an elderly couple gave us all their fruit and vegetables which they weren’t allowed to bring into South Australia. As we were heading north we could just take it with us, so that was nice!

We killed time by doing some crochet and listening to podcast. All in all it was very boring!

After we crossed the border we found a nice rest area (Desert Oaks Rest Area) where we decided to stay for the night. 

Lawrie Park to Bon Bon Rest Area

We drove to Port Germein as we read about free showers near the waterfront. It was a lot colder today and still very windy. The showers were pretty cold but free and clean. We walked on Port Germein’s 1.3 km pier for a bit, but it was too cold and windy to make it all the way to the end.

Next stop was Port Augusta. Not as big as we expected but good enough for all the last shopping needs before heading into the outback.

Our original plan was to head towards Perth and then up to Broome. Then we realised the wet season would start soon in the north. It will get very warm and humid and as we aren’t looking forward to be confronted with a cyclone we decided to change our initial plan.

We are going to cross the outback fairly quickly in the coming days. We have seen most of the touristic highlights along this road anyway.  So this afternoon we got the first 500 km over with. It wasn’t too hot today so that was a plus!

In the evening we camped next to the highway where we sat around the campfire with the neighbours for a bit. They had prepared jacked potato for us in the fire. Such a nice gesture.