Stray Tag-a-long Tales: September 2017

Hi there folks, here I am again with my last post from this trip. As you might well appreciate we have have made it home after 8 weeks on the road. Our trip was cut short in comparison to what I had hoped but circumstances were against us and here we are back in Bairnsdale.
When last I wrote we were in Darwin when it was extremely hot: What a change in the weather gods!
After leaving Darwin town we headed south but first made a detour to the Territory Park. This park is based on similar lines to the Desert Park in Alice Springs with the park divided into different areas you would see in the territory: woodlands, monsoon forest, wetlands etc. They have a section for night creatures where you wander through a dark enclosure to watch snakes, rats, owls and other night creatures go about there business unaware they are being spied upon.
Rangers give talks about all sorts of topics: Pelicans, Crocodile safety, with the best section (as far as I'm concerned) the Birds of Flight talk and demonstration. Black Buzzards (that have to be related to Wedge Tailed Eagles), Barn Owls with the silent flight and the best of all (according to me) the mighty Jabiru.

Jabiru at Territory Park

We saw this bird fly in pick up a fish and fly out; how marvelous to see this majestic creature so up close and doing what comes naturally. The interesting bit about this also was we were packed in with some school kids during this show and up until the show started you could hear the noisy chattering of regular kids, but when the show began you could hear a pin drop, so enthralled were they by natures beauty.
After walking around for several hours and it becoming very warm, we headed out and south to Litchfield NP. We have been here a few times before and love the place. The scenery, history are wonderful but plunge pools are the best in the entire NT. We stayed at Wangi Falls which still looked amazing even getting to the end of the dry season, waterfalls were still cascading over the two areas and people were everywhere swimming, sitting under waterfalls etc. At 37C it was a very refreshing dip in the pool with both Paul and I staying in for quite sometime.

Wangi Falls - Litchfield NP

In the mornings our camp was visited by little wallabies, then later as the sun came out - skinks. All very fascinating to watch the creatures go about their daily business without too much disturbance from us.
From here we made it down to Katherine again, catching up once more with Shane and Kaye who had only 8 weeks left in there stint up there before looking to come south to some cooler climate again. We went for a drive to Katherine Gorge and found out where all the bats from Bairnsdale made their new home - here! 50,000 of the screeching things hanging out of every tree. I only hope they stay there and don't come back to us in East Gippsland.
We then spent another few days in Alice for the final clean-up and shop before our final assault on going home, spending a few lovely nights alone on the road, now able to have a campfire and getting some well needed sleep as the weather was cooling down.
Now a couple of funny things happened on our last few days or actually nights, out. Firstly we stopped about 30kms out from Port Augusta on a free camp winding out the back from the road. Unbeknown to us for a short time at least, we also had a train line a bit further out the back from our camp. This was no big deal when the first train, about 5pm went chugging along with its freight toward Darwin but after we had lit our campfire for the night and had some tea the wind sprung up and made life a little uncomfortable, so with campfire dampened we both headed into our camper.
Paul, as is relatively normal, was in bed before 7pm and I sat and read my book, played on the Ipad until a half sensible time of trying to get some sleep (about 9pm). It took some time to eventually find sleep and by the time I got their another 3 trains had passed our site. When Paul stirred around 2am to go the the toilet he loudly informs me with great gusto "Hey Chook, there goes another train"!
Well to say I was not impressed by being woken up with his hollering about another B*&^$$# train is an understatement. I then informed him there had been already 3 trains passed, and no I wasn't impressed with being told about another one.
By the morning before we left we had seen 7 trains on the line behind our camper! Who knew it was going to be like Flinder's Street out here?
Our final morning was also memorable but for a different reason. We had met up with old friends of ours Gael and Norm, who were traveling back to their home in SA from a family reunion of Gael's. We had been in contact with them and were aware of their preferred route home so when we came through Loxton (SA) and actually passed them it was a squeal of the brakes as both of us turned around to catch the other. After the usual greetings it was decided we go towards Pinaroo and seek a place for the night on the side of the road that would fulfill our needs to have a campfire and house two camper/caravans. Norm found our site; an old school site set off the main road with plenty of firewood and fairly flat - perfect!
Now we do carry a portable diesel heater for attachment to the camper in extreme cases of cold but as the night went on, we were lulled into a false sense of security as the campfire burned bright and warm. The giveaway should have been the coats and beanies we had on, but no Paul did not connect the dots or the heater. By the time we went to bed (after a few ales) it was freezing.
We no sooner get into bed (at least I had my hot water-bottle) than Paul says "do you want me to hook up the heater"?
I feeling sorry for him having to get out again in this cold said no it would be okay we'll just have to snuggle down a bit more. The night wore on and seemed to get colder, but still with the doona over my head and snuggling down even more eventually the sun dawned.

A tad cold!

Norm was already up with last night's fire cranked up again and flaming beautifully. Although I was reasonably comfortable now with the heat in my bed it didn't take long to get out and get a bit closer to the fire. It was by far our earliest morning at 6:45am SA time but because we had to cross the border into Vic this morning Paul felt 7:15am had a better ring to it.
More beanies and coats as we stood around the fire cooking our toast when Gael comes out with a thermometer and informs us we had a cold night as it was -2.5C in her van now and -7C out in the open. No wonder my mirror on the camper had lovely little crystals on it!
After our pack-up, breakfast and fire dampening it was time to say farewell and head in our respective directions.
Well the trip was uneventful but long, traveling from Loxton all the way in one day! But we are here and it is nice to be home although I'm still struggling with settling into a pattern after tripping nearly everyday: I guess it will all come back in time.
Bye for now hope you enjoyed the trip.