Broome to Kathrine - NT

I have a voyeuristic love for my CB radio. I leave it on CH 40 which is the most common channel, and I can eaves drop on others having their conversations! That sounds dreadful I know, but it is innocuous and if you strike the truckies, you can learn a few new profanities!! On my way between Broome and Katherine I was sitting at yet another set of roadworks that had a traffic light making you stop in the middle of nowhere. Then I heard a guy over the radio saying, ‘how’s it goin’? Copy!’ – I realised it was the guy operating the traffic light that I was sitting at! ‘I heard the reply ‘All good here, how ‘bout you? Copy’, my guy replied ‘just a bird with a caravan. Copy’ and then the other guy told him to let her through. I set off thankful for the fact that he didn’t say ‘old bird with a caravan’ and a salutary lesson in the perils of listening in on other peoples’ conversations!

I have been so remote my blogs have backed up and I am having to play catch up. The passage from Broome to Katherine in the NT is one of the most remote I have ever travelled.

Very soon after leaving Broome you enter cattle station territory. They are vast and so remote that I have to admire the resilient souls that work upon them and live there. Those that named them must have loved their women for they are all named after women with the name downs completing the appellation. 2 that come to mind are Alice Downs and Mabel Downs. Alice Downs had a sign telling you it was 75 ks until you reached the station house from the road and Mabel Downs had 2 entrances and I am sure I travelled a couple of hours between the 2. They were huge!

Being so large they are not fenced, and you have to be mindful of roaming cattle wandering onto the road as well as kangaroos – and bloody emus! Every so often I saw a herd of cattle all seeking refuge from the unrelenting sun under a starved looking eucalypt. The eucalypts in this part of the world have a rather starved, constricted look about them and they are scattered throughout the property and along the side of the road. They have a nuggety look about them braced to defy the weather and to rise again if cleared for agriculture purposes. These cattle are primarily Brahman Cattle. I am as positive as one who is purely speculating can be that these cattle have had a brush on the evolutionary climb with the camel. The decided hump at the back of the neck and their abilities for withstanding harsh environments gives some credence to my speculation. They are remarkably well behaved, and I only encountered 3 of them on the side of the road chewing their cud. They were imperiously looking at me down their noses and I fancied I heard one of them say to the others ‘’allo ‘allo look at that old bird with the caravan’!! Thank goodness I didn’t encounter any of our wildlife!

The first town – and fuel stop - was 2 days away travelling at my sedate pace and I started off-the-grid camping again. WA is marvelously set up for free camping. They have these stops that have loos (albeit very rough ones), rubbish disposal, dump points for the caravan loos (free camping is not for the faint hearted!!) and oodles of space for people setting up camp. They are used a lot and I have never been alone in one of these camps. For the prurient amongst us, the dump point is a fascinating gathering spot of a morning, it always makes me smile for I have visions of us all lining up to empty our chamber pots as in days of old. Being an old nurse, I have no problem and love to catch up with people as I wait in line, but there are those that are terribly shy. One fellow the other day was in front of me – he did what he had to do – and then walked back to me and said, ‘I don’t know why I feel I need to explain this, but I just want to tell you that the dump point was smelling before I got there!’ I didn’t bother to tell him that over the course of many years I have developed a well-practiced technique of not smelling bad things and put that technique into practice around every dump point I come across!’

I had some trepidation approaching the next town, Fitzroy Crossing, I had heard some dreadful tales about the place. Apparently tick tock has a large part to play in the reputation that Fitzroy Crossing has developed believe it or not. For instance, if driver is harassed by having stones thrown at the car while travelling through, the video of this being done is loaded up to tick tock. All the bad behaviour of a day is loaded up and the best video wins!! I must admit driving into Fitzroy Crossing and seeing the petrol station in a cage did not improve my outlook. I did stop and got fuel without any problems at all. The only indication of other people was those lining the nature strip, just sitting and I could sense the aimlessness emanating from the tableau, but I did leave wondering if the stories have gained some hysteria in the telling. I was told after dark was the real problem.

The next place another couple of days drive away was Halls Creek. Again, I had heard the same dreadful stories, but I confess to being much more comfortable there. The main road is the main street of the town which helps and there was a vibrance to the place that was missing in Fitzroy Crossing. I lined up for fuel and was able to fill up my water tanks too. I got groceries but I kept on going as again I was warned that it was best to stay out of the town. The road was remote but exquisitely beautiful, for it was here that I entered the region of the Bungle Bungles.

The name Bungle Bungles evokes beauty for me. An ancient landscape quivering with the legends of the dreaming. You travel from the lands of the cattle stations to a land of rocks that defies obvious nutrition for the bovine. You move from a land of calm to one that betrays the violence that was the formation of the world we inhabit. Great stony outcrops rise up over the horizon. These outcrops are at one time coppery in colour as they hit the sunlight mixed with dark flinty looking rock reminiscent of the Pilbara and then you will see a stripe of what for all the world looks like a stipe of sandstone. There are mounds that look for all the world like a dumping ground left over from the formation of the world but are actually another mountain that just looks like it is made out of separate rocks. Every so often you see a discrete sign to a mine, a reminder that this land too has a worldly value, but the spiritual value of the place is palpable. The Bungle Bungles are a presence emanating their ancient value spiritual to all that care to stop and feel the vibrations.

The next town – again another couple of remote days driving was Kununurra. A fellow in Derby had described this town as another war zone, but I am happy to report that it seemed a lovely little town. A little oasis after what has been a very remote drive with the modern conveniences. I stopped for a wander as I was determined to enjoy this taste of civilisation before I set off on another remote drive to Katherine and the Northern Territory.

One of the outstanding aspects of this drive is to see the difference between the land that is managed by the First Nations people and that under common management. I suppose because it is winter the difference is so stark. In the First Nation management area, controlled burning has taken place. Already you are able to see the green shoots stubbornly forcing their way through. The regular part has mown sides of the road with trees standing ‘knee deep’ in incendiary looking dry grass. I suspect there is much to learn around land management from the First Nations.

Before I knew it, I had crossed the most subtle boarder I think I have ever crossed, and I was in the Northern Territory. The NT camping areas are not as good as the WA ones was my first impression. But I had to remonstrate with myself though for I did think if you are wanting to camp for nowt you really shouldn’t complain!! Bingley and I arrived in Katherine las night and I am camped on a cattle station. When I booked in, they said if I wanted to help feed the cattle to be at the gate at 0830. I grimaced and told her that I grew upon a farm, and I have fed my fair share of cattle! Thankfully she laughed.