Birdsville to Batchelor

10/7  We woke up to a freezing cold morning and rugged up till the sun came out and became a beautiful day again.  We were considering heading back across to Inniminka today but realised it would make the trip a rush so we decided to continue North.  We grabbed a great coffee and cake from the Birdsville Bakery, highly recommended if you are ever in the area!!  

Rugged up at Birdsville

 As we stopped off at the hotel, just to get some cash out this time, we saw another roof top tent just like ours, a Gordigear tent.  As we looked closer there were 3 of them, all parked up next to us, right outside the Birdsville Hotel.   It was quite amazing.  Steve took the best photo he could whilst we chatted and found out the group were all from Adelaide heading to Cape York.

Gordigear Convention at the Birdsville Hotel!

We had a lovely drive from Birdsville up to Mount Isa.  The Marshes were full of birds and water lapped at the roadside.  We found a suitable camp spot just 40 klms short of Mt Isa.

11/7  Mount Isa is the first bit of ‘civilisation’ we have had since leaving St George  so it was great to get a bit of shopping done in Woolworths, visit Bunnings and do the washing.  We didn’t linger though and just drove on to Cammoweal Caves.

Unique Private Road sign

Bush Kitchen!

Wedgetail Eagle with Damaged Tail Feathers

Struggling to get airborne

12&13/7  Cammoweal Caves was lovely.  It was by a river, nice and quiet.  We made friends with our temporary neighbours, a family of 5.  They were really lovely people and we joined them for drinks the first night and then for a lovely stroll to the caves the following day.  It made the stay better for having met them.  It was extremely windy the second night and we didn’t get any sleep.  We were glad to get up and move on!!  The wind has been a real problem over the last week or so, but at least it is warmer now.

Zebra Finches

Camooweal Waterhole

Budgerigars 

Camooweal Caves

Cockatiels

Brolgas

Flock of Budgees

14/7  Again we drove as far as we could and camped up just past 3 ways.  A road side camp sight, absolutely packed, but we found a little place to tuck ourselves away, light a fire and we were snug.

15&16/7  We had a surprisingly good nights sleep and drove to Mataranka.  We had been looking forward to this stop having had good reports from numerous people.  They were right.  The hot springs were fantastic and suddenly we had the hot weather too.  It sort of happened over night and we struggled a bit to get used to it.   We chilled, read our books and enjoyed he warmth.

Mataranka Hot Springs

17,18,19/7  We had planned to stay at Katherine Gorge and canoe down the river but there are crocs around so no canoeing or swimming allowed.   We didn’t want to pay $34 to stay the night unless we could do the canoeing so we got provisions and continued North.  Our lovely friend Stephan had recommended a place called Umbrawarra Gorge.  It was 20 klms down a dirt road and turned out to be a great choice.  It was busy and by nightfall more and more people had turned up.  We stayed for 3 days in the same place!!

We read our books, walked up the Gorge, rock hopped and swam in the hot sun!!!

Yellow Throated Miner Bird ?

Water Monitor

One of the many swimming holes at Umbrawarra Gorge

Nest

20/7  Arrived at Batchelor and will be here for about 12 days for the skydiving boogie.