Thursday, 10 July 2014 213.3kms
It was absolutely freezing during the night. I couldn’t get my feet warm all night. In the morning after Nath got up, I realised that our doona was half way down the bed, so all we had was our sheet and thin woollen blanket to keep the top half of us warm. Any wonder we were so cold. I really didn’t want to get up this morning as it was still cold. Nath wandered off to see if he could find something to fix our muffler situation and came back with a piece of corrugated iron. He cut out the size that he needed with the hacksaw and then bashed it with the hammer to shape it. A circle clamp and a couple of self-tappers and Bob’s your uncle, fixed! He is such a handy man to have around, hehe.
After packing up we were on the road at 10.30am. Kellie and Mark led the way as they aren’t towing and can move faster than us. We had a quick stop at the Kalumburu Rd turnoff at 11.15am to check out how the muffler was going and make sure everything else was okay on the van and car before continuing on.
From here we travelled up Kalumburu Road to Drysdale Station for diesel and to make lunch in the car park. We saw Mark, Kellie and the boys finishing off their burgers for lunch, which they had been told were really good. The burgers lived up to their reputation and the four of them were very satisfied. We also saw Kate and Stewart too. They are staying here the night, while we are pushing on as it was still early enough to make tracks.
After leaving Drysdale Station, a few kilometres up the road we crossed Drysdale River. It had more water in it this time than last and it looked very picturesque. The road from here was good for a while as it had been recently graded. In fact we past the grader still working on it. But after that, it got considerably worse, which is how we remember it from last time. Big corrugations and lumpy rock bits. The countryside was pretty as we drove through fan palm forests.
We turned onto the Mitchell Falls road and made our way over the rocky, corrugated ground to the King Edward River. The crossing was easy as it had a built up rock bed to cross, making it shallower than the actual river. From here we continued on a corrugated road for a couple of kilometres before turning right and entering the campground in the National Park. They have changed it since we were here last time. The area that we camped in near the river is now the day use area and the camping area that was closed is now the only camping area, and not to mention that it is further to walk to the water. When we stopped at the information board, Mark advised us that it looked as though we had done a shocky on the van as it was hanging down. Nath had a quick look, but left it as is until we made camp.
Kellie and Mark found a spot tucked away from everyone else that was big enough for our two camps. We thought the river might be closer here and that there would be a track to it. That was a no on both counts. Mark made his own track to see how far it was to the river and it was still a fair distance.
After we were set up camp, the host came by to collect our money. We all got a bit confused with all the numbers getting thrown around, not intentionally, so we ended up paying less for the kids. So 2 nights cost us $44.80 instead of $48.80. We didn’t work that we got a good deal until after she had left.
Nath was going to try to fix the van tonight, but I advised him that there was no need to rush these things as the problem would still be there tomorrow and he may as well chill out for the night after the drive today. He did have a look under to discover that the nearside shocky had popped its rubber out, but didn’t look to be broken.
Until next time…. Happy and Safe Travels.