Mt Isa to Katherine via Wonorah Bore, Banka Banka Station and Daly Waters Hotel

Tuesday 20th May

Left Mt Isa early. The area up here is inundated with Ulysses Motor Cycle Club members. They had their annual rally at Alice Springs and apparently there were 2500 in a parade up the main street of Alice. Some of the bikes are amazing with little camper trailers behind them. Every colour of the rainbow and some quite elderly riders.

We arrived at Wonorah Bore about 1.30pm after winding the clocks back 30 minutes at the Queensland/Northern Territory border. The speed limit on the open road in the territory is 130kph so some cars do fly by.

Looking out from the caravan at Wonorah Bore

Wonorah Bore is a very old bore where the drovers used to water the cattle but it has long gone into disrepair but it is quite a nice spot to pull up if you are self sufficient from a bathroom point of view.
We met a lovely lady travelling on her own and enjoyed happy hour together.
There was a lovely sunset and the next morning a stunning sunrise but we couldn't stay outside and enjoy it as the flies drove us back inside.

The caravan parked at Wonorah Bore

Sunset at Wonorah Bore

Sunrise

Sunset

Flattering insect nets

 Then it was on to Banka Banka Station. We had stayed there before. It was a nice relaxing afternoon.

 The people next door were from Wallerawang and he knew Rays aunt and uncle, Carmel and Bob and their family. He was the butcher in Wallerawang and is going home to work at the butcher shop in Portland. Another couple from the Sunshine Coast joined us for a very pleasant happy hour.

And yes we do have happy hour every day. Sometimes on our own and sometimes with nice people and sometimes with d**kheads.. Those of you who travel will know what I mean.

We got away early the next day and were at Daly Waters Hotel just after 11am.

Those of you that have been reading the Blog for a few years will know we have been here before. In 1862 John McDougall Stuart successfully crossed the continent from south to north. After discovering fresh water Stuart named the area Daly Waters in honour of the Governor of South Australia, Sir Dominic Daly. Then cattle drovers used the water for the cattle. The telegraph line followed. Daly waters was a major Air Force base during WW2. The airfield was the first International airfield in Australia serving Australian and American personnel.
Bill Pearce opened a Drovers Store in  1930 which today is the Daly Waters Pub.

We went to the pub for dinner sharing a Beef and Barramundi dinner. Two more people joined us, Greg and Wendy from Victoria. Really nice people who are on their way to Darwin. Entertainment wasn't so good this time. The guys couldn't sing very well. One of them had so much electronics I thought he had a 3 piece girl band backing him and I was looking for them. Ray said to have a look at the box on the table and sure enough it was a backing tape. BUT I did get up and dance to the Time Warp with Wendy and Ray took some photos to prove it.


Next day, Friday 23rd May we were moving on to Katherine. It was a bit cloudy when we woke up and a fairly thick fog rolled in and stayed with us for about 50km up the road. We got to Katherine before lunch and went into town for lunch and to do a bit of shopping. For those of you who know Katherine it hasn't changed that much. The alcohol rules have changed and the locals no longer drink on the median strip in the middle of town. they just hang around outside the shops instead.
We ordered some chairs from the camping store and will pick them up on the way back through in July.

After coming back to camp we went and had a lovely swim in the pool. Very refreshing. It is a very warm afternoon.
The next morning we went down to Katherine River to take some photos. It is a lovely spot with the water tumbling over the weir.

 

We are going for another swim this afternoon and tomorrow we head to Timber Creek and we are booked on a sunset cruise on the Victoria River. So on the next Blog I might have some photos of crocs.