Oct

Travel In Australia Holiday – Our First Big Trip Itinerary And Adventure Part Five

In June 2000 we set off on our ‘First Big Trip’ travel in Australia holiday, we had been planning for about 12 months, full of excitement and anticipation the day had finally come that we left home on our first Aussie Adventure.

Our itinerary started from country Victoria travelling to Central Australia, Darwin, Kakadu and travelling south via Outback QLD and NSW all in 6 weeks and approx 10,000 kms.

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Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four

This is Part 5 of our ‘First Big Trip’ travelling to Jabiru in Kakadu National Park, Daly Waters. Mount Isa, McKinlay and Winton.

Day 25 & 26 – From Berry Springs NT we travelled to Jabiru in Kakadu National Park and stayed at the Kakadu Lodge & Caravan Park. The park had an excellent lagoon style swimming pool which got plenty of use

The next day we visited the ‘Windows of the Wetlands Centre’ pretty much a tourist centre that displayed all about the wetlands. Then we went to the ‘YellowWaters Boardwalk’ which was quite stunning, a variety of plant life and wildlife could be seen in all directions.

Next we went to Jim Jim Falls which is a 4WD track only at the time but it was having some road work done, so it may be better by now.

The drive in was at least half an hour of corrugations, we were driving fairly slowly and feeling every corrugation until a tour bus went past doing about 80 kms per hour, then we did the same and skipped across the top of the corrugations, much better.

After parking the cars we had to walk across rocks for at least 20 minutes to get to the Falls, which were magnificent, the water was falling from very high into a pool and the green lush plants made it beautiful.

Day 27 – We left Jabiru and drove to Daly Waters Historic Pub, which is the typical outback pub, decorated inside with anything and everything. Everyone who visits attaches things like clothing, business cards and weird stuff to the walls.

We camped beside the pub in the camp ground which is quite alright with basic amenities, pub rooms are also available. When we got there it was quiet by night fall the camp ground was full. The pub has a pool, a covered outdoor BBQ area for meals as long as you like Beef or Barramundi with entertainment every night. We had a great time and have been back since then.

Day 28 – Travelled from Daley Waters to Barkly Homestead

Day 29 – Next morning we went to Mount Isa, very much a mining town, stayed in a Caravan Park and went to the Mining Museum in the morning and then drove to Winton via Mckinlay.

Day 30 – Left Mount Isa and headed to Mckinlay, which is home to the ‘Walkabout Creek Hotel’ famous for the ‘Crocodile Dundee’ Movies. This one is a replica for tourists not the original shown in the movie. Still great to see, we had a beer there of course!

It displayed many photos and memorabilia from the movie. Around the corner from the hotel they were making new buildings for the next movie, which were only had a wooden frame at that stage.

We then drove to Winton. When we got closer we saw on the map that a gravel road looked shorter. Guess what! It wasn’t! So we arrived about 6 oclock. Most places were booked out, luckily the North Gregory Hotel had 2 rooms, so each family squeezed into each room using some of our own bedding. Turned out to be a great adventure, kids loved it. We had our tea there and the hosts were terrific. The water did smell like ‘rotten egg gas’ which was not good.

The North Gregory Hotel is where Banjo Paterson first sung ‘Waltzing Matilda’ unfortunately the hotel has burnt down 4 times since then so it was not the original hotel. A museum has been built called the ‘Waltzing Matilda Centre’ dedicated to Banjo Paterson.

This fascinating wall is called ‘Arnos Wall’ created with anything and everything from the 20th century. This wall is behind the North Gregory Hotel it includes crazy stuff like motorbikes, tvs, microwaves, car and machinery parts, plumbing and much more.