Darwin - Part 1 at Humpty Doo

There's a dozen CMCA caravan parks around Australia. CMCA is Campervan  Motorhome Club of Australia. If you're self contained (toilet, shower and grey water collection) you can stay at their parks for $3 per van and $2 per person per night. 12 nights for $84. Bargain. 

Humpty Doo is about 30 minutes south of Darwin so is a good location for us right now. As well as a handy base to do a few things in Darwin for a few days, we're leaving the van here while we fly to Sydney for a wedding... $7 per day storage is unbeatable.

We went into the city a few times...

Some beautiful trees in town that must have survived Tracey

Parliament House 

Darwin waterfront 

Had a drink at the Waterskiing Club

Had a picnic at the Darwin waterfront 

Went to Mindil Beach markets 

and enjoyed sunset over the water.

A bit of shopping and restocking before a 1am flight to Sydney for a wedding.

After a beautiful family wedding we returned for a few days, did a shop, and a bit of running around before heading east towards Kakadu. 

Dundee Beach

We spent the past three days just south west of Darwin at Dundee Beach. Apparently was named after Crocodile Dundee, but if that's true then what was it called before the 80s? 

Anyway, a spot where Darwin people have a weekend shack for fishing... and drinking if the way people pull up at the boatramp with a beer already on the go is any indication!

A relaxing few days. Reading, washing, snoozing, the odd walk, sunset viewing, sitting around a fire (its cold!), watching Origin, and a lot of time watching army trucks, bushmasters, guns, graders... machinery of all kinds being used in a huge international manoeuvre.

Learning about how to hide

State of Origin

A fuel update

Some of you might be interested in how much fuel we're using. So far we've spent $3,600 on 1827L to travel 11,600 km. 

That works out to be 15.63 L/100 km

We're pretty happy with that. Some of the land cruisers pulling 4t vans are in the low 20s, and Fuso and Isuzu trucks are doing more. 

Diesel is cheaper than unleaded (and always available,  unlike unleades), and prices haven't been as bad as we expected.

Katherine for example was , $1.91,Tennant Creek, $1.99, Weipa $2.30 so not dissimilar to Sydney. 

Dearest was at Bamaga at the tip, $2.78

Fuel is our biggest expense, 27.5% of our total spent, averaging $34.50 per day. 

(Food is 2nd)

All in all, pretty happy with these figures.

Batchelor

A very short day's travel from Robin Falls an hour north to a cheap ($7/night) camp on the edge of Batchelor. Not much goes on in Batchelor, but it's close to Litchfield National Park and its waterfalls, rockpools, termite mounds and other things to see and do, so a good spot to base ourselves for five nights before heading towards Darwin,  about 100km away. 

Our tomatoes are thriving!

Wangi Falls

Went for a walk up and over/across the top of the Falls.

Beautiful spot for a swim

Grass! Lunch on the grass!!

Magnetic termite mounds really DO run north/south!

Batchelor. You know you're in a small town when a replica castle is on the "must see" town tour. 

Florence Falls

Buley Waterhole 

Buley Waterhole

We drove up to the southern suburbs of Darwin one day to get flu and COVID shots. We were keen to do this before flying to Sydney in 10 days' time, and while there did a big Woolies shop.

Other than that, lots of reading, swimming, relaxing and daily drinks at 4pm with the other 15 or 20 travellers staying here at this small park.

On to Dundee Beach next. 

Robin Falls

100 km up the road from Pine Creek is a free camp at Robin Falls.

Quiet, peaceful, just sitting by the stream, the occasional dip, reading and chatting with neighbours.  

Nearby is the Adelaide River, which has a War Cemetery and recognition of the Darwin bombing. War graves are always so well done. This is beautiful. Peaceful.

Pine Creek

We left Katherine via the Saturday markets and took a detour to swim and walk at Edith Falls. A lovely spot to swim, camp and have morning tea at the cafe if you want to.

These buoys are inspected by Parks and Wildlife. Apparently,  salt water crocs are inquisitive and will chomp on something bright to see if it's food. No bite marks is what you're hoping for at each inspection in swimming spots!

90 km north of Katherine is the small town of Pine Creek, a relic from gold mining days. Its on the train line that runs from Darwin to Adelaide, and is near the bottom of the Darwin/Kakadu/Katherine triangle, so a popular town. 

Population 300. 

What does a town do with a racecourse that is no longer used? Make it available to off grid campers like us for $15 and hope they spend some money in the town as well. We spent three nights here at the racecourse. 

On the way in, we stopped in town to fill up with water as we weren't sure if water would be available and potable. Bats! Wow!

We set up the van and had lunch.

And relaxed. 

The racecourse and golf course have seen better days.

The tee at the 5th

The back straight

A few people here - that's us right in the middle.

Happy hour drinks sees a good number of people get together, then dinner, watch the Wallbies win then bed.

Happy hour

Beautiful sunrise every day. 

The next day we went into town. Had a look around - significant gold mining and railway relics - and had a cold latte/coke before relaxing back at Pussycat Flats Racecourse.

On to Robin Falls tomorrow.