Top End and Gulf - Report

[stephenvsl Member Find all posts View Profile Close stephenvsl]

We're planning a trip to the Top End and through the Gulf in July/August of this year. Dep Darwin on Sun 18 July for a week around Litchfield and Kakadu before heading off through the Gulf from 27 July (dep Mataranka) arriving in Townsville on 7 August. Plan to visit: Darwin, Litchfield NP, Kakadu NP, Mataranka, Limmen River (fishing), Booroola, Hells Gate, Lawn Hil NP, Burketown, Normanton (incl Gulflander), Undarra Lava Tubes. Travelling companions invited for some or all of the above.

[Simo Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Simo]

Re: Travelling companions invited - Top End and Gulf

G'day Stephen,
I live up here in Katherine (Tindal to be exact) and would be happy to catch up while your up this way, time permitting. The day you start out is also the beginning of one of our biggest Military ops each year up here, but hopefully will have weekends off. I will be in Litchfield again myself in the beginning of July for a camping/4WD adventure. Between the two (Litchfield and Kakadon't) I highly recommend Litchfield. Been to both several times, but of course, to each their own. Not to mention tourist are now charged $25 per person (over 16) per fortnight just to drive into Kakadu, on top of quite high camping fees (you will be here in our peak time too).

Time permitting, do yourself a favour and spend a night at Daly Waters. Not much more than a pub and a few houses 300km south of Katherine, but arguably the pub with the most character I have ever been to.

Feel free to PM if you need any info. My wife works for a travel/cruise centre in Katherine and I can get hold of brochures and the like.

Cheers
Simo

[stephenvsl Member Find all posts View Profile Close stephenvsl]

Re: Travelling companions invited - Top End and Gulf

Thanks, my Son and I will be going through Daly Waters on the way up after we've been to Cape Crawford so we'll definately call in to the pub. My wife and I will be going back through Roper Bar and Borroloola so she'll miss out. We'd planned two nights at Lichfield and four at Kakadu but if we like Litchfield we're going there first so we can stay longer if we want. Thanks for the tip. I did read recently about the access charge to Kakadu - more and more places are locked up or priced out.

[stephenvsl Member Find all posts View Profile Close stephenvsl]

Top End and Gulf - Report

We have recently returned after 9782 kms from Brisbane to Darwin and return. We travelled to Darwin via: Charleville, Winton, Longreach, Barkley Homestead, Cape Crawford, and Katherine Gorge. We then toured Kakadu before heading back via the Savannah Way to Cairns and then down the coast to home.

This report will only focus on the section from Roper Bar to Burketown on the Savannah Way.

Roper Bar is shown as a “dot” on the maps we had and that was about it. We found a small caravan park (no on-site management – there is a sign advising folks to check in at the store) and about two miles away the store. The caravan park looked OK, we didn’t stay there as we were on our way to Lorella Springs.

Road near Roper Bar


The highlight of the morning was this Billabong where we stopped for morning tea. A real delight just off the road, full of water lilies.


The road was very corrugated with wash-outs bull dust and river crossings but the Prado managed fine (we have standard suspension and no lift and were running Grandtreks at 25psi. The road had only been open for a few weeks so it hadn’t been graded for some time.




We spent a few nights at Lorella Springs which was fantastic. They basically have there own private National Park which they share with guests. The campsite was great and the hot springs were better than Mataranka (IMO). There are little fish in the springs that eat any dead skin off you and big fish at the fishing camp that those you had more time to spend than us swear throw themselves onto anything that you put into the water (oh – and big reptiles that eat you if you get too close to the water!). We didn’t have time to go to the fishing camp but did explore some of the 1M acres they have.





From Lorella Springs we headed to Hell’s Gate (which is open) via Borroloola. Originally we had planned to stay at Borroloola but when we saw the place decided to go on to Hell’s Gate. The road to Hell’s Gate was also very corrugated with wash-outs bull dust and river crossings.





This crossing was particulaly difficult


The Calvert River had only been passable for a few weeks before we went though.


Video of the crossing
http://s417.photobucket.com/albums/p...29_07_2010.mp4

Hell's Gate (minus number plate - in the Calvert River I think)



Hell's Gate to Burketown




We had lunch at Burketown before heading through to Lawn Hill NP which was our next stop. Overall I was very impressed with the standard Prado. We did have a snorkel which definitely would have been necessary if we’d gone through a few weeks earlier. The only thing that fell off was the number plate (dealer fit!)

[Strider Member Find all posts View Profile Close Strider]

Re: Top End and Gulf - Report

Great report and pics, keep them comming!

Cheers
Alan

[StormyKnight Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close StormyKnight]

Re: Top End and Gulf - Report

Great to see some pictures of up north! Lovely country!

[Prado BB Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prado BB]

Re: Top End and Gulf - Report

great report and photos :P
Thanks for sharing them with us.

[mithunt Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close mithunt]

Re: Top End and Gulf - Report

Sweet looking ride! :P