18th - 24th April, 2021
After a relaxing few days spent visiting relations before our trip to WA it was time to begin the long journey north. We left Loxton at a respectable hour (9am ) and headed to Port Augusta via Burra and Crystal Brook. We were aiming to make it to Woomera for the first night and we did arriving there late in the day. We spent the night at the Woomera Caravan Park which is a great place to pull up for the night.
Next day was a long day as we hoped to cross the border so it was an early start. Our first stop was Coober Pedy for fuel and lunch and a much needed walk around, then on to Marla for another fuel stop and walk around. Wow that fuel stop proved to be a bit of an experience with a huge road train (4 trailers long) pulled into one side of the station fuelling up the station with fuel. We pulled into the middle began filling up and then another huge road train again with 4 big gas tanks pulls in beside us to fuel up. Wow not every day you can say you had two road trains pulled in next to you !!!
We arrived at the SA/NT border around 3pm all prepared with our completed border crossing forms to hand to border patrol only to find that this border is no longer manned. It is still a requirement though to have the passes lodged and approved prior to crossing the border. We pulled into Kulgera about 50km over the NT border for the night. Great little place where you can buy fuel, food and even have a cold beer and a counter meal. Our journey today had been a long one as we did over 850km.
Day 3 and we only had a 275km drive to Alice Springs, on the way we had a stop at Erlunda for fuel and a look at the mob of emus they have for visitors to look at. You can purchase food from the roadhouse to feed them. Alice Springs was supposed to be a chance to have a bit of down time after all the km’s we had done over the last few days. Instead we spent half the day trying to buy bits and pieces that had broken on the caravan since we had left home – drawer latch, o-ring on the intake pressure valve. That was fun – NOT, as we didn’t manage to get the right size o-ring, but then Jeff remembered after we had been to about 6 shops that he had packed a few odd size ones and low and behold he actually had one in the van.
Our next stop was Banka Banka Station which is about 150km north of Tennant Creek. A great place to spend the night as it has beautiful green lawn to pull up on and the managers are very friendly. They also have a happy hour where you can buy a drink and sit around the campfire and talk to your fellow traveller. Funniest thing was that the first couple we met were from Loxton and actually knew our relatives from Loxton !!! Banka Banka also has a few walks and animals such as donkeys, cattle and horses to have a look at.
From Banka Banka we travelled to Mataranka Homestead where you can stay in the caravan park and wander the 100m to the hot springs. Great place to unwind for a few days as our journey had been a long one. The springs are beautiful and warm and easily accessible as there are stairs in and out of them.
Another funny story – we had a dash cam (notice I said HAD !!) and Jeff thought it would be great if we got the vision off it of us overtaking a few huge road trains. Unfortunately when I tried to do this, the dam thing either hadn’t recorded or had recorded over the vision, so i though ok i can fix this and i changed a few settings. The settings i changed however must have kept the dash cam turned on all night and that didn’t go down very well with our auxiliary battery (new lithium one) and flattened the battery, umm what can i say !! – luckily after a few calls to the dealer we bought it from its up and working again!!
After two nights at Mataranka we headed to Katherine and grabbed a bit of fruit and veg and groceries and headed to Timber Creek. We decided to stay at the Timber Creek Hotel which is a beautiful little park with lawn and a creek running at the bottom of it, complete with fresh water crocodiles and fruit bats. We also found a walk down to a little waterfall – Hickeys Beach. Great little spot to spend the night.
Having filled in our border passes and receiving them back Approved we thought great our border crossing will be easy. We didn’t realise however that WA has a strict quarantine restriction and thus we had to hand over all the fruit and veg we had in the van.(and had bought from Katherine the day before !!) But on the other hand our, Covid border crossing was easy !!!!
Finally we have made it to WA and another 35km to Lake Argyle !!!! 3900KM since we left home !!! YAY we’re here !!!
