Kununurra return.

                                        A couple of travellers from long ago arriving in Kununurra.

                                               Camp site on shore of Lake Kununurra where we stayed as the local show was on and we could not get back where we were last time.

The day before we left Kununurra the travellers visited the Sandlewood factory and found these flowers growing over a stretch of about 200 metres of the road verge.   Sturt Desset Pea for those who do not know.    I think the floral emblem of WA???

Having filled the fridge in Kununurra the travellers headed towards Katherine in the NT.

Before we left, being good travellers we contacted the quarantine people to see if we could cross the border with our vegetables. Only to be told we could not take any fruit and vegs into the Territory.

This was contrary to the guidebook we had obtained from the information places.

The guidebook is way out of date we were informed.

The night before we had a big meal of vegetables and fruit. With larger then normal salad sandwiches we headed off to find that the Quarantine people only checked the people coming into WA and not the NT.

                                                             On the road into the NT

The border is only 30km from Kununurra and we had not long crossed it when we remembered that we had just lost 1.5 hours by crossing the state line. This did not matter until later when it occurred to us that we would not make it to Katherine in time to get into the camp ground.

This in fact worked for us in that we had a good bush camp and camp fire about an hour short of Katherine.

                                   Don't tell anyone but this fire took three matches to get going.

Next day we passed through Katherine as there was nothing much to see in the town and headed South to an old pub that we had been told was a must see. Katherine was also hot, hot,hot, must have been 35 in the waterbag and the hottest the KT's have struck during the trek.

The Daly Waters pub was started back in the 1920's an still going. Was was and still is a cattle area the pub must have been a rough and tough place back then.

Not it has loads of character and a good meal with a live show every night of the week. The place is full of travellers with a caravan park and two land blocks that are full as sardine tins every night.

The live show is a great night out and if anyone is interested I will copy a live performance Cd that we obtained.

The live show consists of an old drover who has lived in the territory all his life and sings, recites and generally has the audience happy for nearly two hours.

Then the Pub. It is a typical bush pub with an amazing amount of stuff hanging from every rafter in the place. The beam over the main bar has an assortment of women's bra's hanging down, a bit further along there are Tee shirts, then undies, then money of all sorts, business cards, ID badges, Badges of rank from service people from all over. There is hardly any space to spare.

Dusty as all heck and I bet no health inspector has seen the place since the 1920's.

Add the pool table and a large covered dining area with an “Aussie” stage for the performer.

                          There is that woman again wants to become a groupie???

                                          A thong post supporting the roof

                                                   The Tee Shirt Lounge

                                      The cashiers lounge

                                          Hats off to badge suppliers

    The undies bar area

                                                                         The front bra bar.

The place over the road from the pub where the main attraction and his wife resid and sell home made jewellery and stock whips to travellers, but not us.


A left over from one of the MAD MAX pics I think.

A great night out that I would suggest to any passer by.

After Daly Waters is Tennant Creek. Friday about 3.30pm and everything is shut. It turns out to be Show Day and the town shut up and everyone went to the local show. About 200 plus aboriginals are walking around as they come in from the local settlements for the show.

With nothing open the travellers continue on to the “Devils Marbles” another hundred or so kms down the track. Getting in just before dark we set up and have a quick look at the marbles. The wind came up and we had to batten down the hatches as it looked like some bad weather coming our way. About 8.00pm the wind died down and the night was cool and restful.

Next morning the travellers are up at dawn to see the sun hit the red marbles. Unfortunately there was a band of cloud sitting just above the horizon so the dawn was a fizzer. Then all the really keen photographers were a bit peeved as there were many tourists that had to climb to the tops of the marbles and look around, destroying any good pictures the photographers were hoping for of the rocks.

A few samples follow.

After packing up we had just beat the first shower of rain which became a heavier shower for about 20kms just to wash the windscreen and some of the dust off. The car is back to almost white now after being brown for some time.

                                                    
                                  A couple of locals at our lunch stop  picking up a bite to eat here and there.

A good drive back to Alice Springs where we have to do some washing and fill the fridge ready for the trip down through the painted desert and home

Many of the place names out here are getting changed to the aboriginal names so many maps etc will be out of date. Ayres Rock, Devils Marbles, Bungle Bungles, Gekie gorge just to name a few are being changed. Much work for writers of travel papers etc.

Many of the tourist attractions are being listed with both names printed. One information officer looked down her nose at me when I referred to the Bungle Bungle as such instead of the new name they are getting changed to.

Sunday Morning saw a long queue forming in the campground for a free breakfast of pancakes.

Yummy with lemon juice and sugar or maple syrup.

About 900 pancakes are made each Sunday for guests since 1997.

Must report on a near miss last night while blogging. Mr PC Mouse was sitting on the PC which was on my lap as I worked, when he decided to take a nose dive off the PC, straight into a fresh cup of hot tea. Calamity! With the work half done and a drowned mouse. Quickly rescuing the drowned mouse, giving him a good shake and applying mouth to mouse resuscitation he partially recovered but the long term prognosis did not look good as his light beam was flaring. As it was a cold night we had the heater running so the poor mouse was placed in tissues to warm up and hopefully dry out. Next morning after a cold night Mr PC is back to working but we will have to keep an eye on him in case of repercussions.

Sunday morning now and it's off to fill the fuel tank visit the local Sunday market and stock up ready for the trek further South via the painted desset.  Excuse any typos as we are in a hurry.

TBC................................