Day 94 Sat 07/14/2012
Litchfield, NT
“Florence Falls in Litchfield National Park was objective number one today. We hit up the falls for a swim. Frank was really hoping to get some photos of us inside the falls. He was stoked I had my GoPro waterproof camera. So we dive in a head across the water to the base of the falls. As he gets into position for the photo op I realize my camera has flooded. This was due to the fact I hadn’t installed the correct waterproof door to my camera housing. Stupid! Oh well. Sorry Frankie, no pics of us under the falls. L Camera is DONE. I will dry it out and see how things turn out. None of my stuff will survive this journey doing stupid stuff like this.
We saw the huge termite mounds today also!
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| Rigging for tent pole, McGuyver approved |
Drove through Katherine, NT. Mataranka – the Capital of the Never Never. We camped at a wide spot in the road at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere called the Warlock Rest Area. We ate mince meat pasta for dinner (ground beef). I failed to mention as I setup this “new to me” tent I found the reason it was tossed into the bushes. The front left nylon pocket that holds the tent pole in place was ripped off the tent & gone. So tonight I fixed this by tying the corner of the tent into a pony-tail looking setup with a fuel canister cap as the holding pouch for the tent pole. MacGyver that! However, my tent still almost blew away with the high winds we had. I put all of my gear into every corner to help take the load off of the stakes. I’ll take high wind and cool temp over zero wind and melting.
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| There are ZERO pictures of the actual falls but this is some other stream in the park. Frank is taking his morning dip. |
Oh man I screwed up big time by jumping into the water with the wrong housing on my would be waterproof camera. I was so excited to swim under these falls I didn’t even think about the camera. I was very proud of my tent fix though. I am learning Dutch from the guys. When Roel drives Frank writes down Dutch words translated. Then I attempt to write down how to pronounce them in English so I can remember them later. Frank gives me good words and phrases that may help me when I come visit them. However, when Frank is driving Roel is in charge of Dutch lessons. Most of the things he teaches me Frank immediately laughs and says “mate you will get slapped if you repeat anything Roel has just taught you.”
I now can talk about girls and tell someone they are being an asshole. Oh and something about having sex in the kitchen that I still don’t understand. I absolutely love the Dutch though.
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| Termite mounds are HUGE here! |
Day 95 Sun 07/15/2012
Dust Storms in Camp
“Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup for brekkie & a boiled egg. Nice cool day today. Pearl Jam set list on the radio. Dumara 3km ahead. NOTE: the purple flower we burned in Kakadu was supposed to help with mosquitoes. Not so much.
We had a run in with fire ants too. Frank & Roel climbed a rock pinnacle for photo. There is some confusion in my notes as to when all of this happened.
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| Frankie & Egg :) |
My Lady Gaga shirt that Daniel gave me is no longer white, but I still wear it. Elliot – 25km. Banka Banka West Station. Three Ways Roadhouse to Barkley Highway. If we would have had any money we would have liked to stop here for some cold beers. Ours are all hot. Also some non-camp food would have been nice. Oh well, next time.
As we are cruising along I ask Frank & Roel, “What artist has played the most in yall’s car while travelling Australia?”
“Dire Straits, maybe Michael Jackson,” says Roel.
“No!” Frank exclaims. “Roland and his Nirvana! Sometimes he listen to it FOUR times in a row!” Meaning he listens to the entire MTV Unplugged album four times in a row, Hahaha too funny. Roel nodded his head in agreement
We set up camp at 41 Mile Bore next. It was so windy but very nice. This is the site where I drew AUSTRALIA in the dirt for a picture. There was a minor dispute at dinner time between my Dutch mates. Roel wanted to heat something up on the gas stove in the cargo area of the wagon. Meaning in the car. Frank was not having it at all. They wouldn’t even smoke cigarettes in the wagon so I saw his point. I saw both sides so I just left them to figure it out & I went trekking for more wood for the fire. I came back and saw Frank who had stole the cooking pot from Roel & was holding it hostage. Hahaha I still think Roel heated something up right there as he set in the back of the wagon.
As we set & drank some by our fire Roel informs us “I love warm beers.” I believe he was trying to play a mid trick on himself. The stars tonight were the best yet. Milky Way. I wish I had the star app for my phone. Even if I did my phone is dead. Our fire was crap tonight. There was no good wood anywhere.
The wind ripped through camp all night again. Similar to last night but times two. It was a miracle my tent held up. I put more weight in every corner to keep the wind from stressing the already A) broken B) breaking C) McNair rigged stake points.”
Day 96 Mon 07/16/2012
Bonfire, Eh?
“When we woke we see the dust from the high winds on everything. In the tents, on the tents, on all the camping & cooking gear, the car. Frank had the worst of it. Roel & I had our tents over near the edge of camp. The wind came from our direction all night so it didn’t pick up dust until passing by us & into camp. Frank setup right by the car which seemed like a good idea, but he got all the dust from camp.
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| Not bad for a FREEBIE tent |
I ate a carrot for brekkie.Barkley Homestead – 10km. The ranken River was bone dry.
Queensland! Camooweal – population 310. Isa – the Outback Paradise. Mount Isa is a mining town and we stopped in to get a replacement chair for Roel. The EXCECUTIVE chair. The Buckley River was also dry. We are still not sure where the road is closed due to floods. Someone had told us this was the case at certain times during the day. I bought milk and batteries from K-Mart.
Not one passing car has returned Roel’s wave. He’s not happy about it, but he refuses to give up. Pulling into Mary Katherine Park and then to Fountain Springs Rest Stop. The author of Camp 6 recommends this spot. It was full. We thought it was shit anyways, so we drove up the road a few kilometers and found Clem Walton Park & Corella Dam.This was an awesome camping spot by the lake. Amazing
We dumped all of our gear out at our spot. Frank starts organizing camp and dinner while Roel & I take the wagon to go find some serious fire wood. There is no messin’ around tonight! We stir up some roo’s while up on the road tossing any and all wood into and onto the wagon.
Back at camp I grab my tri-pod & camera to walk down to the lake for some sunset photos. I meet Phil & Loraine from Orange, New South Wales (just West of Sydney). Super nice & funny couple.
Next I go have a chat next door with an older couple who are sitting with two cute Canadian girls. We need these two girls at our camp fire tonight for sure. They inform me they have no wood or any means for a camp fire. Perfect.
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| Sunset photos at Clem Walton Park & Corella Dam |
“Look for the bonfire at the top of the hill,” I tell them knowing that nobody in this entire valley will have a fire like the one we have prepped for.
| Add caption |
I returned with the good news that we should have some company later that night by the fire. We stoke the fire pit up, serve some soup for dinner, & break out the booze. Roel is loving his new director’s chair. I am using the eksi as my seat.
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| Our raging fire for the Canadian girls that never showed |
Frank eventually speaks the obvious about 3 hours later saying, “I don’t think the girls are coming, mate.” We all laugh. Hell NO they aren’t coming. Too funny. He’s off to bed. Roel & I stay up to count shooting stars. I saw more shooting stars tonight than I have ever seen in my entire life. Amazing. Queensland. U2 soundtrack with Roel & I by the fire. We agreed it would be better with a woman, but oh well. Hah! 4AM. TOMORROW.
Also, Frank woke up to a dead toad on a stick in a beer bottle that Roel & I setup for him earlier. Frank bought a new bigger air mattress back at Mt Isa so I used his old one tonight. Cold sleep!”
Day 97 Tue 07/17/2012
Spiders & a Bull Roarer
“Great morning. I go back down to the water for some fun pictures with Frank & Han Solo where I run into Phil again.
Phil asks, “Well did those two cuties come join you guys by the fire last night or what?”
“Nope, they didn’t want to sit by the fire that badly,” I told him.
He laughs, “Yea, well I’ll be damned if I didn’t see them walk straight out into the water to get back to their camp site just so they didn’t have to walk by you blokes.” Hahaha he got us. Michelle & McKinsey were their names. I even remembered their names! Oh well. Next time, I mean TOMORROW…
Loading the bike back onto the wagon was hell. It was rubbing on Roel’s surf board wrong so we had to fix it. What a pain. I was so thankful the boys were accommodating for me though. Bumpy ass road ahead. Cow at Hazel Creek. QT124 rest stop for toilet and smoke break, I washed my face & hands for the first time since we left Darwin. Roel refused to wash anything. He says he is going full Abo (Aboriginal).
Flinders River dead fish. The road trains are dusting the heck out of us. We camped at Burks & Will Camp 109 in the dirt parking lot. This was very nice still. There was no one here at all. We were trying to find the Little Boyne River to camp but it got dark & we fell short of it. We were so close, but no worries.
We had good fire. I set out to get load of wood. I found tons of toads & a trap door spider. I brought the guys to the spider to show them. We saw loads of roos (kangaroos) coming into camp as well. I failed at making a bull roarer. There is no good whittling wood. All of it is way too hard! I broke our axe even more trying to make one.”
Even though we had missed our mark on camping by the Little Boyne River the spot we found was pretty stellar. It turned out to be the parking lot of Burke & Will Camp. There was nobody here. We parked and set up shop right there in the dusty parking area. We set out to find wood with very little success. Our hatchet is really rough for wear and is not doing a decent job of cutting wood for us.
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| Trapdoor Spider saying Hello |
I had split from the group to venture deep into the bush in hope of finding a jackpot of good dry wood. I had found some loose brush, and while pulling it into a pile to easily handle I spooked a trap door spider. I marked the area near his doorway so I could bring Frank and Roel back to see him. Dad had shown my brother and I years ago how to run a blade of grass across his doorway to simulate prey in order to trigger the spider to attack. He was the biggest trap door spider I had ever seen. I failed to get a good photo though, and the image we captured of the black spider is very blurry.
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| Cane Toads are everywhere in Oz |
After our fire was blazing and dinner was cooked I figured it was time to show the guys how to make the bull roarer I had been boasting about for the past few days. I set back out to find the perfect piece of wood to create the Australian telephone from Crocodile Dundee. After breaking more of the edge off of our only wood cutting tool, the hatchet, I had what I thought was the beginning of a bull roarer. I ended up giving myself a blister with the combination of the dull knife and “impossible to whittle” wood. I was not happy with my failure. I promised the guys I will make one for them in the future. They joke with me and say they don’t believe I can make one with the poor effort seen here at camp.
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| We ALWAYS had the biggest fire & the BEST music |
Day 98 Wed 07/18/2012
Waving to Cows & SNAAAAKES
“As we broke camp this AM I also broke my flip-flop. It had been giving me hell for a while now. No longer would cable ties & duct tape hold it together. They are one with the bush now.
Into Normanton for fuel. An angry Aboriginal lady gets out of her car to tell us we broke in line to get fuel. Frank was having none of this and kindly told her “Sorry, we didn’t see you.” We fueled up while she cursed us. Most Aboriginals I’ve ran across will lie & do anything for a handout or freebie. So sorry about your luck lady. You can wait for these 3 Gringos.
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| Roel's sign minus that fine print |
[702k – Cairns] Next stop was a little wide spot in the road named Croydon. We decided we owed ourselves a cold beer, so the Club Hotel bar was our spot. Roel really liked the “Free Beer Here” sign out front until he read the fine print saying “Tomorrow Only”. The bar tender in here did not like me. She said I was loud & obnoxious like most Americans. Frank got a good laugh at this. She served me a beer regardless & we sat outside where we met Chippy & Bill. These two blokes are retired and now work as bus driver/tour guide/comedian for “The Grey Nomads” as Roel calls them (old people). Hahaha the Silver Hairs.
“Crows in Croydon fly backwards to keep the dust out of their eyes, Bill explains. “Also black cockatoos were born at night.” When I tell Chippy I am looking for work on the East Coast they joke & tell me to go “get a job putting wheels on miscarriages.” Jeez, these guys are nutz. According to them I should be able to find work at Port Douglas.
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| Croydon for a cold beer |
Leaving Croydon I realize today is Kristen’s birthday. I have an idea about the time difference here in Queensland & back home. It was 1.5… well plus 12 so 13.5 hours ahead in Darwin. I think Queensland is another ½ hour ahead, so maybe it is 14 hours ahead here now. So basically the Bday text I just sent is 30min early. Whoops! That is IF it sent. The service out here is very shaky. Very limited service in the Australian Outback.
OK wait… As we are driving along I am writing here in my journal & catch Roel wave from behind the wheel. I spin around & look back to only see one lone cow standing by the roadside.
“Was there a farmer back there, Roel?” I ask him.
“No,” he replies.
“So did you just wave at that cow?”
“Yea,” he returns as he cracks a cheeky grin. I am thinking how hard he is taking all the passing drivers that did not returns his waves. I like it though, the idea of waving at cows. Frank & I definitely got a good laugh over this.
So we travel a few more k’s down the road. I see a cow out in the pasture eating grass. I wave. Roel immediately asks, “What are you doing?”
“What do you mean? I wanna wave at cows too,” I tell him.
“No, it is pointless to wave at a cow that isn’t looking at you.” He was dead serious. Frank & I almost died laughing.
We pulled into a pretty awesome billabong for our next camp spot, the Cumberland Historic Site with Chimney & Billabong. Immediately Frank & I set out to explore the billabong. We had plenty of daylight left so there was no use rushing to get the campsite up & going. By the time we got back to the car we were very surprised to see that Roel had his tent, the table & the gear unloaded & setup. Usually he takes his time getting his tent up.
Jeff, Joyce & Paris, their dog, were our camping neighbors. Jeff gave me lots of info on fishing the Karumba & Bynoe River. Both are great places to take dad he said. We gathered tons of wood & made a massive fire. Roel started his attempt at 1,000 juggles with the soccer ball.
If it were not for this journal I would have no idea what day it is.
For dinner we made chocolate pancakes with beans (onion, red chili peppers from one of my tuna cans, & black pepper). Yum! Fire wood. Goed Vuur. We talked motorcycles by the fire. I tried & failed again at carving a bull roarer. The wood here is so hard. I don’t have any sharp knives with me. The knife Paden had given me before I came to AU would be nice to have right now. It had hid in the bottom pocket of my pack for the entire journey. I couldn’t do anything with the knife we had.
From my tent I wrote 2 emails. Good sleep. Wild ass birds & possum making all kinds of noise. I am pretty sure that was what my email to mom was about.”
I was mad as hell when my flip-flop finally broke. It had been holding together with two cable ties and some duct tape for some while now. I made a Frisbee out of it. I saw the whole story with the Aboriginal woman in town while fuelling the wagon. She was literally parked across the street from the pump when we pulled in and waited behind another vehicle in the process of fueling. She eased up on the pump from the other direction pulling nose to nose with the car fueling. When the car fueling left we were there and she had gone inside for something. Somewhere in here she was also arguing with the passengers in her car about something. Frank was already putting fuel into the car when she approached accusing him of breaking line. He was so nice in actually acknowledging her and apologizing to her. When she rejected his apology he looked to us in the car and we all three shrugged thinking this lady is crazy. By the time she stopped bitching and got back into her car we were done refueling anyways, so no dramas.
Pulling into Croydon for a cold beer was refreshing. We wished we could have stayed for more. The bar tender did not like me at all. I think she heard my accent was just hating on Americans. She was English, and I was glad nobody tips in this land.
Chippy & Bill had stopped here in town with a tour bus full of older tourists. One could tell they were entertainers. They had a joke for every situation and they were very willing to sling some humor our way.
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| Roel sunning with camp fully prepped |
This was a pretty detailed journal entry today so I will only elaborate some on our campsite. Frank and I walked around the entire billabong the second we parked at the Cumberland Historic Site, and I attempted being a bird photographer. From what we had heard we were to far inland now for crocs, but neither one of us were considering taking a dip in the water. Our minds were blown when we got within sight of the car and saw Roel kicked back in his chair with his feet up on the table smoking a ciggy. His tent was even setup. This was not the norm for him. He never got in a hurry to do anything. Frank and I liked to get things setup so we could get to relaxing sooner. Roel just relaxed every second.
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| SNNNNNNAAAAAAAKKE in camp |
I remember our wood gathering adventure was much fun. There was an old dam we had walked across in order to get down to the old creek basin. Tonight would be a pretty awesome fire from the looks of things. This should be our last night on the road, for tomorrow we will arrive in Cairns if all goes well. So we finished the little wine we had left as we killed the batteries in everything we had that would play music, minus the station wagon. Frank told me about all the tickets he had recently received riding his motorcycle like a crazy man. Actually he had just gotten his last ticket for riding “x” amount of meters on the rear tire in traffic I think. While telling motorcycle stories we spotted a snake right by the fire. It was tiny and from the looks of it harmless. We let him be as he crossed between us and the fire heading west. Minutes later here he came again from the same direction as before and heading west still. He was patrolling our camp. After the third lap of our camp we relocated him. Every time I see, or even think, about a snake I can hear Wes, my buddy I worked with back home, yell “SNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAKEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!” His move on the Hiwassee River is to yell SNAKE and smack the water with his paddle like he is saving his canoe partner from being attacked by a venomous snake.
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| Cumberland Historic Site with Chimney & Billabong |
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| Roel attempting 1,000 touches on the ball |
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| Aussie Road Train - this will blow you off the road passing |
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| Me with my headlamp during a long exposure photo |
Day 99 Thur 07/19/2012
Atherton Tablelands
“Spicy hot Thai noodles for brekkie. I started my tent décor this AM. Roel writes every city, town, rest area or campsite on his tent. Very good idea. So I joined in on this with my dirty Abo tent. Now I need a mural of mountains and diggers (4WD Trucks).
Maria would love AU because there are frogs everywhere. Also, I have a green tea bag in my water bottle (Maria gave me this idea during Clean Water Camp).
We just talked to the coolest Aboriginal at the petrol station. Healing Spirit decal on the rear of his yute. Junction Creek had water in it. This trip could have been better with a 4x4 Toyota & some serious camping & fishing gear. But the Ford Futura(ma) has been pretty good to us. I still imagine the wicked school bus hauling a trailer with a Toyota Troopie Cruiser, canoes, grills… so on.
Have I said how much I like the Nutino Hazelnut Spread? It has an Italian futbol/soccer jersey wearing squirrel on the label. Frank says it is generic Nutella, but I think I like this one better. However I have been jammed in the car & out in the bush for 6 days. Most normal food tastes amazing right now. Gotye ft Kimbra – Now You’re Just Somebody That I Used To Know. Don Omar ft Lezenzo – Danza Kaduro.
Through Mt. Garnet, the Gateway to the tablelands. Millstream Falls – widest waterfall in Australia. Here we saw an iguana too.
Then onto AMAZING green rolling hills up in the Atherton Tablelands. This area was so beautiful I immediately started writing down the name of every farm, store, diner… because I want to live in Atherton. Tolga is nearby as well. Valleys of trees & rainforests in the distance. We were so knackered from travel I had to shoot photos out the window on the fly. We were calling hostels trying to find availability. We pass Shaylee Strawberry Farms as we get ahold of Jeremy at the Asylum Backpackers of Cairns. We booked three beds for the night.
Curtain Fig Tree in Yungaburra. Wet Tropics Lake. We are on the Gillie Highway through all of these last few notes. Mountain View Hotel near Gordonvale. Then into Edmonton. I saw a pizzeria pub here, & I told myself I would work here just to live in these mountains.
We pulled into Cairns! GPS fixed on the Asylum. PARTY! There is a very cute German gal, Jennie, in my room. My room sleeps 5 people, but Jennie & French-Canadian Sam are the only two people I can remember being in my room at the moment.
At some point in our first few nights here at the Asylum in Cairns we meet up with another Dutch guy, Jasper, who we instantly get along with. Trying to think back this far (NOTE: as I am writing this the actual date is 12/06/2012 so I struggle to recall events based on shotty notes in another scrap book) anyways Jasper took us out to hit all of the hot spots in Cairns. Woolshed, Casbar, PJ’s, Courthouse… He was also staying at our hostel.”
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| Jasper from the Netherlands heading to work |
My journal goes from being super detailed to nothing at all. I had been scribbling stories and places into a smaller book and transferring information into my journal at night. My small notebook ended at “Cairns Asylum Backpacker.” The only way for me to tell the stories that unfolded here over the next few weeks is by looking at the photos and the date tags on them. Train wreck! This hostel is balls to the wall party almost every night.
My notes are getting a little crazy prior to traveling through the Tablelands. I have so few photos of this amazing place I said I would live in forever. Also I start writing down random songs? I do love the song Danza Kaduro though!
The Asylum Backpacker is about 15 minutes walking distance from the main strip and waterfront in Cairns. Jeremy, the bloke we had talked to over the phone for booking, and two brothers, Sean and Joe, ran the hostel. They are super nice guys. The big selling point to this hostel is the atmosphere and the Mad Monday Pub Crawl. Everyone here is wearing an INMATE Asylum t-shirt that you receive upon paying the $10 or so for the pub crawl. From what we hear if you are not game for this pub crawl you are at the wrong hostel.
Here at the Asylum we met so many good friends. We can start with Japser, the lady killer. Hahahaha, this mate is so funny. Honestly no words will do him justice, and the number of pictures I have with him is too much for this blog to even load. But I will try and let the pictures do most of the talking. One of the first nights here in Cairns we met Jasper. I think we ran into him on the street before we knew he was at our hostel and got along with him being a fellow Dutchmen to Frank and Roel. He had been in Cairns long enough to know his way around. He had great intel like where the cheap booze and ladies were depending on the day of the week. I am pretty sure our first conversation with jasper was like this:
“OK you got the free hostel meal at the Woolshed until 9. $5 Coronas at the Courthouse. 7-8PM cheap pitchers at PJ’s. Casbar $1 mixers on Tue. Ladies night Thursday at Woolshed. Mad Monday Pub Crawl with the hostel every Monday.” Boom! All spoken with a strong Dutch accent. We had found our tour guide and soon to be best mate in Cairns. Literally there was nothing written in my book for months.
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| Out front of the Asylum Backpackers with Han Solo |
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