We finally managed to meet up with Merv and Jen! We've been
trying since May, and finally met them in Katherine.
They are on their way back home to Perth, after spending 10
weeks in Darwin.
Many "cheers" were done for this
reunion.
We went out for dinner, to the fanciest restaurant in
Katherine, which just happens to be at the caravan park
where we were staying. Means we didn't have to drive far!
Apparently it's the best restaurant in Katherine, so there
are always locals dining there as well. The food is very
good and the company was great!
The next night we had an absolute feast of home cooking,
with Merv finally able to BBQ the lobsters he had been
saving for us since they were caught south of Perth.
Lobsters with garlic butter, YUM!
Bridgestone World Solar Challenge
Just as we left Katherine we passed one of the Check Points
for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, which goes from
Darwin to Adelaide.
We passed a few of these solar cars on our way south.
The cars are crazy to look at, and very expensive.
We stopped for the night at Newcastle Waters South rest
area, which is a big free camp on the Stuart Highway, and
there are many good spacious camping spots well off the
road.
Before dinner we went for a walk and came accross one of
these solar cars from "Solar Team Twente" from the
Netherlands.
This is the car with the panels
flipped up so they face the sun. They are desperate to get every
last solar ray onto the panels.
They even stopped us from walking in-front of the car so
we didn't make any shadows on their solar panels.There's not much to these cars,
except lots solar panels, batteries and lots of battery
management gear.
Oh and they manage to squeeze a small driver in there as
well.
The cars have to be fully roadworthy and registered with
lights etc.
Mind you, the cars might be solar efficient, but their
camping certainly wasn't, with a semi carrying a huge
generator to supply power for cooking and other camping
needs.
The team consisted of over 20 support staff, and lots of
vehicles that went ahead of the solar car, getting readings
of solar output, wind road conditions etc. This is all
fed back to the university in Netherlands, analysed and then
fed back to the team in Australia so they knew how much
power they could consume in the car i.e. maximising the
speed etc. What an effort.
We were talking to the team members as well as the
volunteer 'Controllers' who made sure the cars were
operating within the rules and that there wasn't an
extension electrical cord running from the huge generator to
the car!
This car cost in excess of 2 million Euro (AUD$3.6
million!).
Team Twentye ended coming second overall, well done Team
Twente.
This is Top Dutch Solar Racing
(also from the Netherlands), who passed us at Renner
Springs.
We even got a wave from the driver.
They didn't do as well as they were hoping and ended up
coming 18th overall.
There were lots of these white vans running up and down the
road, doing the critical measurements. Some of these are
taken via the post on top of the van you can see here. We
initially thought these were Google cars, as these posts
come in many different shapes and sizes.
Barkly Homestead Roadhouse
We had heard and read the reviews about the bats at the
roadhouse camping, and how the trees in the campground are
just full of them. They make an absolute mess all over your
car and caravan.
So we picked a site well away from where these critters were.
See them all hanging there, upside
down?
Jayne did ascertain that the bats do flip themselves the
right way up to go to the toilet.
And we can assure you that it happened mostly above our car!
Despite our efforts of getting away from these creepy
critters - in the morning we were presented with a car that
had quite a bit of bat poo on it. These bats certainly have
good aim!
As we settled in for an early afternoon, we were confronted
with with an huge racket unlike anything we've heard before,
and certainly not in a caravan park.
Much to our absolute amazement there was a pair of aeroplanes
taxiing past our caravan, not 3 meters away!
They nearly blew our awning off, let alone shower our car and
van in dirt, rocks and leaves. And because we were trying to
get photos with the van door slightly open, the inside was
also covered in dust.
So our car was layered not only with bat poo but now dirt,
small rocks and leaves from the planes. That means it had to
be washed as bat poo is caustic and eats away the paint.
After the first plane left early in the morning there wasn't
any sign of the second pilot and his wife, so we made the
decision to give the car a quick tub and do a runner before it
also showered our car in dirt.
We managed, but it was close. The couple were from Sydney
having a holiday with their plane. Lucky ducks.
We've never had a view from our
windows like this!
Camooweal Billabong
Just before reaching Camooweal we crossed the Northern
Territory/Queensland border and had to adjust our clocks
forward 30 minutes then back 100 years!
Then we had to make sure that the caravan tyre pressures
weren't too high. Confirming they were at 32psi cold we were
OK to travel the Queensland sealed roads. How Queensland can
make sealed roads that are corrugated is beyond us. They
needs to have a sign at the border that says "Rough roads
until the next border!".
Camooweal is always one of our favourite places. Some years
ago it was under threat of being closed due to an Aboriginal
Land Claim, which was very disappointing.
Fortunately this seems to have been dropped and camping
along these billabongs is still going on.
A very beautiful and peaceful
place.
We were all set to enjoy a nice evening fire along side the
billabong. However with the day time temperature getting to
38°, and temperatures inside the van at around 41° we gave
up on the idea of a fire.
The bird-life here is incredible - pelicans, brolgas, black
neck cranes, red tailed black cockatoos, as well as so many
other water birds to sit and watch.
The wildlife was very friendly
there and this Butcher Bird was never far away from us.
Even wanted to get into the van
Winton - Dinosaur Capital of Australia
We really enjoy Winton. It has a really nice relaxed
atmosphere.
A staple for us is dinner at the Tattersalls Hotel, who
also own the caravan park, just across the road. The food is
first class and their Guinness on tap just slides down. We
had to partake there both nights we were in town.
We've done all the fantastic dinosaur things in Winton on
previous trips, so all there was left to do was buy Dash
some cute dinosaur T-shirts, but couldn't find any for
Casper, as they only had small sizes.
We found another outdoor theatre! We thought the one in
Broome was the last surviving, but there's also one in
Winton.
At 5° overnight is was definitely
too cold to sit outside and watch movies!
We haven't left the Tropics as yet although the cold winter
weather has caught up with us. So after 38° in Camooweal,
the next day we suffered freezing nights and very cool days.
We've still in the Tropics, and the Tropic of Capricorn
isn't until after Barcaldine, another 280kms!
When we arrived in Winton, Jayne noticed her bike had a
flat tyre up on the roof racks. So down came the bike for
some repairs.
In total she found 18 prickles in her rear tyre and a
further 10 in her front tyre.
This was from riding in Kununurra. She zigged when
she should have zagged, and rode across grass instead of
staying on the path, even though she was warned (by Alan of
course).
So many prickles.It took 2 of us to remove all of
these prickles!
