Where are they now ?: Border Closure WA

Since the first national lockdown the Northern Territory has been deemed a very low risk and has not had Covid cases other than those flying in from overseas, but all this changed the day after we left Cairns. Where we thought it was going to be a smooth drive to the Western Australia border, WA put a border closure on NT, after a fly in fly out mine worker brought the virus to the mine site from Brisbane.

Fellow travellers were panicked flocking to the Qld and SA borders as all borders began closing, fuel in places was limited to 50 litres, we queued for an hour at Barkly Roadhouse for our 50 litres and we were determined to wait it out in NT, so we have managed to see a few sites not on our list.

Banka Banka Station (cattle) for 3 nights

These 3 were like pets, loved the daily attention they got by hanging out on the fence line

Visit to Newcastle Waters heritage town founded along the route taken by John McDougall Stuart who was first explorer to trek from South coast to North coast through the centre of Australia, (remarkably with no loss of life), the highway follows his route taken in 1861.

Daly Waters, another cattle station hosts the famous Daly Waters Pub, where we stopped for lunch. We felt like it was a theme park in Dreamworld, but chaotic with caravans

There is such a thing as collecting barbed wire

We did the Stuart Heritage Nature Walk, and came across Stuarts marked tree.

Slept the night on the Gorrie WW2 airstrip on private property with 20 other vans, the tarmac was still in excellent condition

Bitter Springs in Mataranka was a lovely oasis and we had an unpowered site on the river for 4 nights away from the crowds. The airstrip was only 50km from Bitter Springs Campground so we were 4th in line at 8am the next morning to get a camp site, first in first served.

Great little oasis

Loving Winter in the Northern Territory, hot days and cool to warm nights

Just 500m from our camp spot was the Hot Spring in the Elsey National Park. We idly floated down the spring/creek on our noodles for 20 minutes, relaxing in the 34°degree temp water.

The most beautiful mixture of blues

We sighted a big “freshy” on the opposite bank to where we were camped on the river....no crocs in the springs

Over at Mataranka Springs homestead there was a replica of the Elsey Homestead made famous in the book and movie “We of the Never Never”, 1908.

Edith Falls was another great experience just north of Katherine, we have been to Katherine before, but not these falls. We stayed in a nearby free camp on a lagoon for 2 nights as the National Park camp was full. We hiked the 2.6 km loop walk up and over a ridge, which took in the Upper Falls Pool. Views were fabulous, water was freezing, but cooling after the climb, and a second swim at the lower pool at the end.

We spent the weekend in Katherine to restock, we got the last spot in the caravan park after booking 5 days in advance, and great news the border to WA will open on Monday....so we plan to let the hoards sitting at the border go first, and cross it on Wednesday.

A little extreme geocaching whilst walking along the river in Katherine...a flood level gauge