Darwin to Mount Isa

  Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Australia
Friday, November 14, 2008

Started our road trip early this morning heading toward Ubirr near Kakadu National Park to see some of the aboriginal rock art. We started up the van and it was a bit slow to get going but we just thought it's an old van and it'll be grand. We couldn't bring it anywhere to get checked out anyway because none of the mechanics work at the weekends. We had a pretty uneventful drive and arrived in Ubirr around 4 hours after setting off. The one thing we did notice when we were driving around was the amount of dead kangaroos on the road. There are also a lot of dead eagles who come onto the road to eat the kangaroos and then get knocked over themselves. It's horrible. Karl wanted to have a competition to see how many points we could get for hitting different animals. Kangaroos 10 points, Eagles 5 points etc. Needless to say he got a slap for that suggestion! 

Aboriginal Rock Art

Karl in Ubirr

The rock art in Ubirr was beautiful and some of it is in such a strange place that looks like it can't be reached by a normal person that they say it was painted by spirits. It was great there and we would have stayed longer if it wasn't for the flies. They would drive you crazy. They go into your eyes and ears and up your nose. Everyone who had been to Kakadu was telling us how bad the flies were but we didn't realise how bad it was until we got there ourselves. After we finished looking around we drove to Jabiru and spent our first night sleeping in the camper. The camper is actually a lot more comfortable than I thought but it is hot! We had a good nights sleep and then up early again to drive to Litchfield National Park.
We were making good time to Litchfield and thought the van was going good until we stopped for petrol and it wouldn't start again. We had to push it out of the way and try to get someone to give us a jump start. Once we got it going again we drove straight to a town called Batchelor. It was late so we went to a campsite and decided to bring it to a mechanic in the morning. We only had the van 3 days so we weren't happy that we had to go to a mechanic already. The next morning we got another jump start and went to the garage. The mechanic said we would need a new alternator because the battery wasn't charging and that it would cost around $300. Not good! We told him to go ahead because there was nothing else we could do. He had to order the part and it wouldn't arrive until the next day so we went back to the campsite and sat in the pool for a while and then went to the library to use the free internet. There was a bird feeding that evening which was nice too. It was actually good to just relax and have a day doing nothing. The driving is tough going because it is so hot and you have to drive so far to get anywhere.

Florence Falls

Lydia Swimming at Wangi Falls

The next morning we were up early again to bring the van to the garage. The mechanic said the part would be there the night before and he wanted to work on it as early as possible. Of course the part never arrived the night before and we had to wait around while someone drove to Darwin to collect it. 3 hours later he arrived back and the part was fitted. It seemed to be better so we headed off to see the waterfalls and giant termite mounds at Litchfield. It was lovely to jump into the pools at the bottom of the waterfalls and cool off. The sign at the entrance was a bit unnerving though.

Crocodile Safety

We spent a few hours looking around and then decided to try and get to Katherine that evening. We were told not to drive at night because we would end up running over at least one kangaroo so we wanted to get there before sunset. We stocked up on some supplies in Katherine because there isn't much between Katherine and Mt Isa and what is there is really expensive. Checked into another campsite and went to sleep.
The aim for the next day was to get to Three Ways which is where the turn off for the highway east is located. We were making good time when we stopped for petrol again and the van wouldn't start again! We were in a tiny town called Elliot when this happened. There was a mechanic around the corner so Karl ran around to him and he had a look. He told us that the alternator hadn't been fitted correctly and that he had to tighten a few things. It started up and sounded ok so we decided to try and get to Three Ways. 10 mins down the road the engine started over heating and the battery light came on. We turned straight around to head back to the garage. We were praying that the engine wouldn't cut out or blow up before we got there. We just about made it. The mechanic had another look and said that he must have tightened something too tight and the fan belt broke. He replaced that and then started messing around with the alternator again. He was hilarious. The whole time he was working on the van he was shouting "stupid bloody machine, they couldn't design an engine to save their lives". Well thats the censored version. By the time he finished looking at the car it was too late to try and get to Three Ways so we checked into the campsite in Elliot. We met an English couple who we thought were backpackers but they were actually working in the shop. The said they spent too much money in Bali so they were punishing themselves by working for 3 months in Elliot. They said by staying there they could earn enough money in 3 months so that they wouldn't have to work again for the rest of their year in Australia. There is absolutely nothing to spend money on there and you are only allowed to buy 1 six pack of beer per day. This is to stop the Aboriginal people from drinking too much. We have seen a few Aboriginal people around the different towns we stopped in and they were always hammered drunk and asking for cigarettes or more drink or money. It's really sad to see.

Karl in Van

Lydia Driving

The next morning the van seemed to be going fine but we decided to drive around the town a bit to make sure it wasn't going to over heat again. Karl went to the local medical centre because the English couple said it was free and he had been getting deafer by the day and needed to get his ears syringed. When he was finished we headed for Mount Isa, the biggest town between Darwin and the east coast. We made it around 400 km down the road and stopped for petrol and the battery was flat again! There was no mechanic there so we got a jump start and made our way to the next town called Camooweal which did have a mechanic. Camooweal was 260km down the road. After 160km the van stopped dead. We were in the middle of nowhere with very little traffic going past. We flagged down the next car that went past and luckily it was a 4x4 being driven by a really nice Australian man called Bill Gilbert. He gave us a jump start but the van just wouldn't go. He told us he would tow us to the police station around 30km down the road and see if they could do anything. The police were about as useful as a choclate tea pot so Bill said he would tow us the rest of the way to Camooweal. He towed us over 100km. It was quite scary being towed though because he was driving 100 km/hr and at one point he had to jam on to avoid a couple of kangaroos. We bought him dinner to say thanks and then he went on to Mount Isa and we pushed the van into a campsite.
The next morning yet another mechanic looked at the van, the third mechanic in less than a week. He messed around with a few things and got it going. It seemed to be fine yet again so we set off for Mount Isa...........again.