June 10-15: Back to Katherine

After leaving Broome, it's the same way back from whence we came - back to Katherine in the Northern Territory. We didn't have to worry about a boring road trip for long. We stopped for lunch after we'd travelled a couple of hundred kms and I noticed a funny noise coming from the car after it was switched off. The sound of boiling water. Not quite embarrassing as steam billowing out from under the bonnet, but enough to tell me that the engine was too hot and not too happy. We let things cool down, topped the water back up and then drove on, but the over-heating soon returned - bugger! Next town was Fitzroy Crossing (home of the crooked cops). We asked at the 2 mechanics in town whether they could help. "Sorry mate, can't fit you in until at least next week some time." We decided that we'd keep driving - slowly, with a few stops along the way whenever the car looked like getting too hot.

We spent the night at a freecamp that we checked out on the way over - Ngumban Cliff.

Sunset at Ngumban Cliff

More slow driving and lots of stops and we made it to Halls Creek. We put on our sad faces and checked out another couple of mechanics. Same story. "We're flat out mate; couldn't possible fit you in til next week. Try Kununurra." This was Friday, so we had the weekend to limp along to Kununurra. But this time we phoned ahead to a mechanic and made sure that he could help us out first thing on Monday morning.

We thought we would camp the night just outside of Halls Creek - only 3km down a dirt road. We made about 30 metres before we turned around because of the mountainous corrugations in the road. Good decision, we found a great little site along side a river - Little Panton River. Everything was going well here until a huge bull that was grazing near by, turned towards our van and started bellowing in painful, primal tones. The dogs were quickly shuffled into the van followed closely by us humans. Not sure what his problem was, but fortunately the grass across the road was greener and within a half-hour we released ourselves from our self-imposed captivity.

Our camp site on the Little Panton River

Plenty of free water here so we caught up on a bit of washing

The bull before his rampage.
Sorry that I didn't take any photos as he was coming for the van.

Some majestic birds of prey checking us out as well

Another day of slow driving and lots of stops. After a couple of hundred kms, we spent the night at one of our favourite spots. The road sign just says "Scenic Lookout". The views are spectacular and its so quiet.

The spectacular view all to ourselves

The dogs posing for a photo.
OK, we had to bribe them with food.

Finally got them to look up together

The view at dusk



View from the caravan next morning

 We made it to Kununurra on Sunday night, found a gravel pit about 10km out of town. Early the next morning, we went to the mechanic and explained our car overheating problem. "It'll be your head gasket." No, it can't be. That sounds expensive. I tried to talk him out of his diagnosis - the engine gets hot before we lose any water. He has a look under the bonnet and almost immediately determines that its the fan. No resistance, oil has leaked out of it. I learn more about fans than I need to ever know, but our hero mechanic fixes the car in a couple of hours and best of all, only charges us $130. Huge sigh of relief...

The car makes a different sound now - the sound of a fan going around and actually moving air towards the radiator now. That's good! But we did get really good fuel economy while we were driving at only 60-70km/hr. (Apologies to all the frustrated drivers who got stuck behind us.)

Celebrity Park at Kununurra.
Toilets, water and power available - who needs a caravan park?

With a renewed confidence in our car, we drove on and included a 70km detour to see Lake Argyle. Very glad we did - some of the best scenery of the trip. A nice caravan park on the lake where we were tempted to stay, but my brother Neil is holidaying in Darwin and we plan to meet him and Kerry on June 16, only a couple of days away.

First glimpse of Lake Argyle

What a beautiful view from the pool?

The Spillway from the dam - that's a lot of water flowing out

A natural terrace on the mountains by the roadside

Our dog Spike

We drove on to another of our favourite camp spots at a lookout near Timber Creek. We arrived after sunset, so no photos this time.

The next day we made it back to Katherine. We had our swim at the natural hot springs - just love it. Bought a few supplies in Katherine and then found a gravel pit about 30km north of Katherine on the way to Darwin.

Roughing it overnight in a gravel pit on the side of the highway

Our dog Princess