Adelaide River

We have had a lovely stay at the showgrounds and everyone has been friendly and kind. We went to the restaurant for a meal last night - Barra and chips and salad - very good meal and excellent quality and quantity we were also able to buy a bottle of wine.

The Restaurant and Bar Area at the AR Showgrounds

The Swimming Pool

Powered sites next to the track

The track area

The  rest of the photos are of places we have visited whilst staying at the Showgrounds

The entrance to the Adelaide River War Memorial Cemetery - Paying homage to all the people who were killed in the bombing of Darwin Feb 1942

Inside the War memorial Cemetery - the youngest in this cemetery was 16 years old - a cabin boy on one of the ships in the harbour

Remember the bull from Crocodile Dundee - this is supposed to be the actual Bull stuffed and mounted on the bar of the local pub in Adelaide River.

Robin Falls at Adelaide River

Another shot of the falls - you can reach these falls after walking and climbing over rocks along the side of the creek for about 20minutes but well worth the walk.

Litchfield National Park

We decided to visit Litchfield National Park and look at all the gorgeous Gorges it was approximately a round trip of 150klms from where we are staying at Adelaide River

Buley Rock Hole especially ideal for keeping cool and swimming in

Florence Falls

Magnetic termite Mounds

Tolmer Falls

Wongi Falls - this is a swimming area although during the wet season it is closed as saltwater crocodiles sometimes move in and before they open it in the dry season they check for crocs and move them if they are there

Doing a quick hop to Darwin

We headed to Winton next and booked in to the caravan park that we stayed at last year (just for 2 nights)so that we could do all our washing, drying and ironing and whilst we were there we watched a show staged by two ladies  - it was a type of bush poetry with humour and songs  - very good.

We then went to Cloncurry for one night and this time we stayed at Wal's camp which was small and compact. The amenities were old but clean and it cost $28 a night. We were also able to catch up on our shopping at Woollies in Cloncurry etc.

Our next stop was Camooweal - one night only - spacious site behind the pub = but charged $30 per night. The amenities were old but clean. I had a good night's sleep but Stephen didn't (I sleep with ear plugs in) he was awake until just after 3am when the local aborigine's decided to finish there drinking party in the tennis courts next to the park.Nearly everyone was up.

While we were in Camooweal a gentleman told us about cheap fuel in Tennant Creek at the United Servo so we decided to make a 20k detour to pick some up (fuel was averaging 1.91 to 2.05 a litre)

What a lovely servo - cost of fuel was 1.65 a litre and they gave me a discount for being a pensioner and their white bread is great (bought a loaf). They also directed us to the best caravan park in Tennant Creek where there was no noise or trouble with the local inhabitants. We had a great nights sleep there and would go back again. This was $32 a night

We then decided to get to Darwin asap so we went as fast as we can and stayed in a free camp at the side of the road overnight on Monday No88 in camp 7 book called Warloch Rest Area. This has toilets and water but is only small and you have to get there early or not enough room especially if you are a large caravan. Also the toilets are drop ones and were very smelly when we were there.

Next day Tuesday 21st May we arrived at the Adelaide River showgrounds (a person at the Warloch rest area told us about this) Well this showgrounds puts all others to shame that we have seen so far. Very spacious sites, old but clean amenities, lovely people in charge , and the best ever in ground pool only to be used for campers and this is only $27 dollars a night so we are staying here for 6 nights and have just booked a site nearer to Darwin for a week after this. We will be exploring Litchfield National Park and Adelaide River whilst we are here

One of the servos in Camooweal

The caravan park at the back of the pub

The pub

Desolate buildings

NT Border just outside Camooweal

One of the fuel and caravan stops on the way

Apex Riverside Park - Longreach

This is a large open rest area just outside Longreach next to the Dawson River on the road to Winton. They have clean toilets ( the dump point is at the showgrounds in Longreach and water can be obtained from a tap in town next to the information office ) and an area to sit and have a BBQ.

We stayed two nights and then decided to move on as the Longreach Show is this weekend and the place would be getting packed in the next few days.

I placed these photos of the rest area on here so that you could see just how large this spot is. There can be up to 250 caravans here in a busy period and there was about 50 when we were there.

Lloyd Jones Weir - Barcaldine

Our next stop was just about 5 ks outside of Barcaldine at the Lloyd Jones Weir, this is a free camp but they do ask for donations.There is a 1k dirt road to access the camp

This is quite a large area for camping and has clean flushable toilets, a dump point and fresh water making this an ideal spot to relax next to the river.We got there on Thursday and left on Monday. Stephen spent most of the time fishing and I spent most of the time crocheting and doing crosswords although I did manage to scrapbook 2 pages in an album I am trying to finish.

 Most of the river has no water but the part at the weir where the camp is still has water and there are fish in there but we only caught small ones which we threw back.We thoroughly enjoyed being there and it was so relaxing.

Kangaroos going for water in the late afternoon

Stephen putting his nets in to catch freshwater prawns to use as bait

The view of the camp from the other side of the river

Photos

We took a few photos whilst at emerald - not many as have been here before and taken lots of the town already.

The bottle shop in the middle of nowhere between Sapphire and Rubyvale
Lets face it they have their priorities right?!

Me fishing at Lake Maraboon  just outside Emerald

Fairbairn Dam at Lake Maraboon

Our boat that we bought in Bargara

Next few stops

We ended up staying at Bargara for 3 weeks and one day as we had to have another Windscreen fitted and then 3 days after it was fitted the inside mirror fell off and we had to go back for them to fit it properly. But we left Bargara on Friday 26th April heading for a free camp at Moura but we never reached there that day, instead we stayed at Cania Gorge Tourist Retreat at Monto for 3 days and left there on Monday 29th April for Moura free camp by the Dawson River. It is a very large area run by the fishing club and volunteers from Moura. Clean toilets and showers (for $1 only), no water but plenty of taps in town.
When we were at Bargara Stephen bought a boat a flat bottomed punt) with a 4hp motor and life jackets and oars and an anchor and extra fuel. We decided to try it on the Dawson River at the side of the camp. I'm not a boaty person quite unsteady but really enjoyed the experience. The motor started first time (which surprised us) and then we puttered up and down the river for approximately half an hour, then had a break and then went on again, after that Stephen went by himself to do some trawling but he didn't catch anything.
We left there on Wednesday 1st May and we were heading for another free camp just outside Emerald but it was so small and packed with other caravans that we carried on towards Emerald and decided to stay in the Emerald Cabin and Caravan Village where we had stayed last year. We were going to stay at Lake Marabon but when we rang them to ask the price it was $38 per night and we are just not going to pay that much even for power and water.
Anyway we are here for a week as our Car has to have it's 57000klm service and the only time it can be fitted in is next Tuesday
Today (Friday) we went for a drive to Sapphire and Rubyvale - what a let down - nothing there really unless you want to go down a mine or buy sapphires etc, they had the odd trading post but what we found unreal was in between the two communitites on the main road in the middle of nowhere was a bottleshop (can't do without one). There wasn't even a park to sit and have lunch so we came back to the caravan park and had morning tea here.
When we leave here we will be heading towards Longreach then Mt Isa and on to Darwin (hopefully)
Will update report sometime next week if possible.