Dryden's Travels: Katherine to Roma

Hi All,

Well we arrived at Katherine for a few days, while we were there we visited the Edith Falls & went swimming in the pond. Edith Falls is very different to the ones at Litchfield, not as high but more beautiful. The swimming hole was cool & crystal clear, you could watch the fish swimming around your feet. It was quite a hot day when we went so the cool water was great.

A closer look at the falls

The swimming hole, looking away from the falls.

On another day we went back to Katherine Gorge for a walk on one of the walking tracks, the canoes where back in the gorge so the crocodiles must have been cleared out. It was another very hot day, as was the hole week.

After leaving Katherine we continued south to Mataranka for a relax in the thermal pool. The weather was hot & humid, the first night it rained which relived the air temp a bit. We had a drive to site of Elsey Homestead, the site of the story We of the Never Never was written about, not much there anymore just a plaque. On the drive in these 44's caught my attention, left over from the war.

The gate to the We of the Never Never graves, quite impressive, it was built by soldiers station in the Mataranka area in the war.

The graves of the Gunns,

Replica of the homestead built for the movie.

From Mataranka we continued south stopping overnight at Daly Waters Pub again then onto Tennant Creek for a couple of nights. From there we turned east, we stopped at Barkly Homestead for lunch & a walk around.

Later that day we stopped for the night at a free camp, this is the view looking east, the clouds were a storm that dropped lots of rain east of us, we could see the lighting after dark. We meet up with Sig & Bianka's friends Eroll & Lynne they had been working at Daly Waters.

We moved on to Mt Isa where we stayed for a bit over a week, we quite liked Mt Isa but the park was low on power, but really nice people in the park that have been working in the Isa. Mt Isa from the lookout above town.

This is Lake Moondarra which is the water supply & recreation area for Mt Isa.

From Mt Isa we turned south again & went Winton via Boulia, this is a very quite place. On the way down the Diamantina Developmental Road the grass was green, we saw some beautiful cattle by the road side, a pair of fantastic Eagles, a funny little lizard & a pale green snake. Lots of water by the road side but none on the road, we missed any road trains on the narrow road.

Views of the main street of Boulia.

From Boulia it was east on the Kennedy Developmental Road, which was narrow with no edges & water laying on the roadside. We saw lots of bird life & cattle again. These QLD. roads are just narrow tracks with a bit of black stuff on them. The road was like this from miles.

We stopped at Middleton for lunch & a look around the place, old pub, camels, small plane &

a chopper taking off for a bit of verity .

Winton has not changed since last year, the street scape is great. This is a water hole with birds by the side.

This is Amos wall, bits of stuff put in the brick wall.

After leaving Winton we drove through Longreach & stopped the night at Ilfracombe, then onto Barcaldine, for coffee stop, missing the rain so far. then to Blackall for a lunch stop on the banks of the Barcoo River, not likely to much water.

Last year this was just a little stream, you could camp on the banks, just mud now & heaps of water rushing along.

We stopped over night along the way where it rained so hard the Sat Dish could not penatrate the colds for the signal. We made it to Mitchell for more socking in the thermal hot pools.

This is the crossing near the park of the Maranoa River, Mitchell had big floods in March when the river broke it banks. Paintings on the bridge crossing the Maranoa at the bottom of the park.