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Lawn Hill to Camooweal to Kathrine

We are not going to return the way we came we are taking the road past the Riversleigh Fossil site, then on to Camooweal or Mt. Isa. We asked about the state of the road and were told it was as bad if not in some parts worse than the one into Lawn Hill. We thought about it and decided we might as well take it because at least we’d be going in the right direction instead of going back on ourselves, even it if did take a little longer. Soon after turning on to this road we came across what would have been a wonderful campsite, by the creek, beautiful trees, secluded (probably not that secluded if we saw it from the road) very nice. The road obviously was not graded very often and was covered with rock, boulders and sand and was very uneven. Max speed 60km most of the time.
We saw several more campsites (mostly taken) as we crossed the Gregory River , which was very lovely and a bit later when we crossed the O’Shaunessy River it was exactly the same, lots of water, lots of palms very beautiful, this one was guarded by its very own gnome as well. We visited the Riversleigh Fossil site which is literally in the middle of nowhere. There is this smallish hill, vast open plains the wind and dust whistling around you. How anyone found fossils out there beats me, but they did and there is a short walk around the hill with information plaques as you go. In Mt. Isa they have a large centre which explains the area and how they came to find the fossils etc. This area is the only area the public is allowed to visit at the present time but I gather (from what little I know of it) there are a lot more sites around the place.
The drive was very bumpy but in places very attractive, however, when we came to the turning where we would access the bitumen in a few kilometres and then hit the Barkly Highway about 30 km. out of Camooweal or could continue on the same road straight into Camooweal we decided to opt for the smoother ride. It was great when we hit the sealed road and, even with road works around, managed about 90 km. an hour. The Barkly Highway when you reach it on the Queensland side is an interesting road, most of it is single lane bitumen. It is travelled heavily by road trains as well as normal traffic and consequently you are forever pulling on to the shoulder off the road to let these monster road trains pass, whether they are coming towards you or overtaking you.
We arrived at Camooweal in the early afternoon. This is a town that has not modernised and is a bit of a time capsule. Many of the old buildings still exist and are still in use. The main street is the usually wide thoroughfare to allow for the turning of bullock trains and camel trains in the old days, these days it’s road trains that are turning. The one and only shop is in the post office and the building dates back to the mid 1800’s. The old bond store is still there, complete with it’s poison cupboards and many other antique wares. I’m afraid that I didn’t like the town very much, felt a little threatened by the indigenous population, even though they did nothing to make me feel that way and the large gathering of them opposite the service station - caravan park was extremely orderly and very quiet. We bought some meat from the local butcher which he cryovaced for us and it was delicious. The caravan park was quite basic, a little noisy as it was attached to the service station and naturally a lot of large vehicles were stopping and filling up, also they are building a new bridge just on the outskirts of town so you could hear the heavy equipment and a lot of the workers were staying in the park. The ablutions were clean and we were right next to them so really had no problems. The park also had a country and western show on that night which was very average and got spoilt more by a group arriving very late and setting up their tents and cooking their meal quite loudly right by the ‘stage’ area. It was also rather chilly so we didn’t stay too long.

7.30 am saw us up and on the road, with me driving, unbelievably early for us, but it’s true. Lot’s of eagles and crows around and kangaroos bouncing around but it’s till too early for breakfast boys, not much road kill around at all. The Barkly Tableland is very flat and featureless, but at least when he hit the Northern Territory we have a two lane highway so driving is no problem. We stop at the Barkly Homestead roadhouse for a late breakfast. Stopped at 3-Ways roadhouse for lunch, where we discussed with some locals going on the Buchanan Highway. This road would take us through the bush coming out just north of Timber Creek. With the reports we got it was very tempting, but we didn’t have a lot of supplies on board and time was becoming an issue, so if anything should go wrong we might have been in a little bit of strife so we decided to err on the side of caution and went on to Dunmara on the Stuart Highway for an overnighter.
The sunset tonight was unreal. Over the road from the caravan park were several windmills and as the sun set and silhouetted these it was beautiful, Clive and one or two others were out there with their cameras taking full advantage of it. Tomorrow it’s off to Katherine. A very chilly night, but a safe haven on this road with adequate facilities.
One of the things you notice when you get into the Northern Territory (other than their signs saying they like their lizards frilled and not grilled) is that you always come across army vehicles going or coming from somewhere.
From here on in we’re a little concerned about the availability of park space – not only are school holidays coming up again, but it is the height of the tourist season for this part of the world, we’ll keep our fingers crossed and see how we go. On our way into Katherine we stopped off at a couple of the WWII sites along the road, it’s amazing where they put a lot of these sites, so far away from civilisation, I suppose it was a lot safer than close to towns and could be hidden better. Had coffee at Mataranka, previously we stayed at the Mataranka Homestead and luxuriated in their hot springs but this time we stuck to the main road and had a look at the township, some lovely little shops and cafes, well worth the stop. As we got into mobile range I started calling around for a spot in Katherine – not an easy task, managed to get a site at the Big 4 Low Level park which is on the outskirts of Katherine on the road to Kununurra. This is a beautiful park, well landscaped, reasonably sized sites, a bar, café, swimming pool etc. and very nice ablutions BUT the park was absolutely full – there were signs up each day ‘No vacancies – unpowered sites only, which really stretched the facilities. We had a lot of washing to do (Croydon was the last time I washed), and you literally had to wait in the laundry until a machine became vacant, if you went away and came back later you were still in a queue, unfortunately this was the same for the showers. There were 160 powered sites at the park and plenty of room for unpowered camping but there were only nine showers and toilets in each of the gents and ladies sections, to cater for that many people. Also there was a central area for the rubbish bins and only nine large wheelie bins for that number of patrons. I know they emptied them each day but they were totally full and lots of bags just dumped in the bin enclosure, I wouldn’t have thought it would be that much trouble to get some more bins around the park. It must be very difficult for van park owners at this time of the year because people get a little grumpy if they can’t get into the showers and toilets when they want, but do you build more facilities for a few months of the year or just hope everyone will be patient? We didn’t do much while we were in Katherine other than the housekeeping and shopping, couldn’t buy much in the way of fruit and vegetables as we would be passing through the quarantine station at the border and they would have all been confiscated so just got what we needed and stocked up on other stuff as it will be cheaper than in Kununurra. We also got the park office to forward book us into the Ivanhoe Caravan Park in Kununurra so we wouldn’t be faced by the same dilemma as when we arrived in Katherine of finding somewhere to stay.

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