Froggles Travels: Northern Territory Avon downs, Three ways, Tenant Creek, Daly Waters and Mataranka – 13.06.2016

We left Mt Isa and headed towards the Northern territory border, we were meant to stop off in Camooweal, however after we had passed the pub and driven over the first bridge we were well and truly on our way to the border of Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Camooweal was famous in the past with drovers who would muster cattle and bring them to various ports. They were called Jackeroos or Jillaroos and had a hard time in the outback mustering, branding and droving cattle.

See the article below for more info on Camooweal

North-west of Mount Isa, Camooweal is the last Queensland town before the Northern Territory border. It was once the centre for enormous cattle drives travelling south. Some say that the town is a suburb of Mount Isa, which would make the 188 kilometres of Barkly Highway between Mount Isa and Camooweal one of the longest main streets in the world. To the south of town are the incredible Camooweal Caves, a series of sinkhole caves that have evolved over millions of years.

Northern Territory at last

After fifteen and a half weeks we finally made it out of Queensland and into the Northern Territory.

We stopped at a free camp called Avon Downs on the 13^th of June which was basic but suited our needs for the night; the photo below shows the area that we stopped at. As mentioned the camp was very basic and one has to be fully self-contained with water and if you are staying out for a long period of time, you would have to boost the batteries using either a solar panel or if need be a generator.

The picture above is of the caravan and the solar panel in use.

The picture below is the area designated for caravans and its proximity to the road.

The rest stops like this one are provided every 120km so that if you feel tired you can pull over and recuperate.

We had a four legged friend come and visit us and after I had fed him a carrot, he and I became best mates.

The sunsets are really quite beautiful and the stars shine really bright at night, you can almost imagine that you are on another planet with the total silence.

Below is a photo taken of our first sunrise in Northern Territory, very beautiful and we were very happy as our first real attempt at free camping was a success.

We left the next day and made our way to Three Ways Roadhouse, where we stayed for two nights. And from this stop we visited the small town of Tennent Creek the next day, which was once a prosperous gold mine and still has gold in the surrounding hills. The area is very rich in gold mining history and the hills have billions of dollars of gold reserve. Unfortunately with the present price of gold it would not be feasible to mine the gold at this stage.

We visited an old mine and processing plant which still had a battery mill that is operational but not in use and saw how they processed the reef; much the same way as they did in south Africa in the past century. They crushed the rock through the stamping mill and allowed the crushed dust which is like very fine beach sand to travel over a bed of mercury. The gold being heavier than the dirt would settle in the mercury and eventually form a paste called amalgam. The amalgam was then boiled and the mercury would be funneled out of the top vessel as mercury vapour. The mercury would then solidify and return to its former self leaving the gold residue paste behind. Borax is then added to the gold paste and then heated in an oven until the gold melts into a liquid form and then allowed to cool off to form ingots. The gold bar is then brushed clean of the residue of Borax or flux that surround it, leaving pure gold behind.

Shirley getting friendly with the mine mascot

A loader from days gone by

We left the kids on a balcony and went off for our mining tour (was only 1hour)

The picture bellow shows a grizzly where the rocks are broken to size with sledge hammers to the correct size so as not to choke the crusher shown below

The crushed rock is then transported to the battery mill by a conveyor belt to be crushed.

The pictures above shows the crusher stamping mill from various angles and the bed where the Mercury would be placed and the amalgam would then be scraped off.

On the way back to Three Ways Caravan park, I decide to stop off at a bottle store to get a few beers for the evening only to find out that it was a dry town and one can only buy alcohol at a bottle store between the hours of 2 pm and 3 pm. Evidently they have a huge problem with the aboriginal and alcohol, the two do not mix. So if you want to buy alcohol in this town then you have to provide some form of ID and you are limited to what you can buy. You cannot buy wine in a 4 litre cask, which is called a “goon box” as this pushes the alcohol limit over the maximum limit. I was forced to buy a six pack for the equivalent of $30 from the caravan park for that evening. So to some South African reading this blog can you imagine paying an equivalent of approximately R1300 for a case of beers?.... Outrageous…...But when you are thirsty….What is a man meant to do?

The following day we made our way to Daly Waters which is an iconic caravan park and frequented by all caravaners making their way to Darwin. It used to be an old telegraph station which connected South Australia to the Northern Territory and is now a renowned pub with a lot of history. We booked in to the caravan park and told to park in a single file in a dusty yard and leave your car coupled to the caravan. There is only one distraction here and that is the pub, so we parked the caravan as a huge dust storm hit us, the caravan was instantly covered in red dust, and not too fussed with the camping arrangement, we headed for the pub.

Parking arrangements in the caravan park at Daly Waters

View from the front of the pub, note the helicopter on the old store

View in front of the pub

Note the bras and panties at the “reecepshun”. No needs for any shopping dear, Just pick one off the wall.

More photos below of the pub

And of course there was a complete range of undies for men.

First for the day, what a relief


Our entertainer for the evening

We left Daly Waters the following day and made our way to Mataranka, which is a caravan park that has a natural hot spring on the premises.The springs come out of the ground at beautiful 34 degrees and you can spend a whole day in the pool… It is absolutely perfect.

The picture below is of George Clooney testing out the pool. Most guys have a six pack, however lucky for me I have a full keg.

While we were at camp we we had a visit from the local peacocks which drove Whiskey absolutely crazy. However here is a picture of one of these beauties

I thought that I would add a picture of our neighbours caravan. He is from Darwin and has a steel manufacturing business and built this monster to tow his race car and of course his living accommodation for when he goes off road. Lets say that this van has every thing that you would ever need, only one slight problem …..Where do you park the dam thing in a caravan park?

This is the kind of caravan that would suite my mate Gerry. Those of you who know him will know exactly what I mean.