Covid-19 had reared its ugly head in a second wave in Victoria during August with hundreds of new cases of community spread daily which meant a severe Stage 4 lockdown in metro Melbourne and Stage 3 in regional Vic. It also forced a closure of the NSW/Vic border which denied those living at home in Yarrawonga access to our own golf club north of the Murray. My intention had always been to return home sometime in September when Dot moved out of my house and into her newly built home, but that now didn't seem to be a great idea. All states had some level of border restrictions so I needed to take into account where I could head to and maybe sit out some time till life at home returned to some degree of normality. I had been experiencing virtually complete freedom in Queensland since July 12th and didn't want to lose that. The Northern Territory border was open to Queenslanders so long as they qualified to get a border permit, and I did have friends living in Alice Springs so thought that could be a good Plan B. I contacted Julia and Kate in The Alice and they assured me they would be delighted for me to come.
Fur baby James and I left Adels Grove on Sunday August 9th. The southwest trek was just over 1000km. I decided to make my first night stopover at the tiny border town of Camooweal. It was only 235 kilometres away but over 150 of that was on dirt and there were several river crossings. I reduced the tyre pressure on the Jeep and van to 30 PSI and was assured by staff at the grove that the road was fine and the crossings safe so long as I kept my speed down. The advice was to put the car into 4WD, select first gear, don't touch the accelerator or brakes and let the car drive itself through the 30 centimetre deep fast running waters. All went to plan and I thoroughly enjoyed the scenic driving experience even though the going was pretty slow.
At Camooweal I refueled and pumped the tyres back up to normal pressure before heading to the freecamp beside the billabong on the Georgina River just south of town. There were lots of other nomads pulled up beside the water and as the sun went down I lit a fire and enjoyed the beautiful evening.
CAMOOWEAL BILLABONG scores a 4 out of 5. It is a lovely open, flat area beside the water. There are no facilities at all but it is dog friendly, popular, safe and has phone signal. You can have a fire.
Before leaving Adels Grove I had checked my eligibility for a border permit and it did seem I was ok however I had to make the application within 24 hours of crossing and print out the approval document. I filled out the application online Monday morning, received my permit and figured the local post office would print it off for me. The rather terse lady at the PO would not, however, oblige. She gave me the blank forms and I had to fill in all the details of my exact whereabouts for the preceding month by hand. Old cow! A few minutes down the road I was pulled up at the roadblock that was manned by military and police, proved my identity, answered a heap of questions, signed the statutory declaration to say I was telling the truth and was allowed to enter the Northern Territory. I was actually relieved! It's quite surreal to realize the freedoms I've always had as an Australian to move about my country have been taken away. My friends and family at home currently cannot move out of Victoria, and in Melbourne Metro not even out of their suburb. Scary!
The Barkly Highway connects Mt. Isa, via Camooweal, to the Stuart Hwy which runs north/south from Darwin to Port Augusta in SA. The sealed, two lane road is pretty straight as it traverses the relatively featureless Barkly Tablelands, so is a little boring to drive. Fortunately I was listening to a good audio book, so the 260km to my overnight, Barkly Homestead, passed easily.
Barkly Homestead is something of an oasis in the desert. It is a service station, shop, pub, restaurant, motel, caravan park and airport. It has good facilities, phone coverage, a pool, a lovely flat, open camping space and feels safe. It's a nice spot to stop and for $15 pp in the unpowered area a bargain.
Alice Springs is 719 kilometres from the homestead so too big a distance for me to do in a day. I wasn't sure if I would do one stopover or two to get there. The township of Tennant Creek which is situated just south of where the Barkly and Stuart highways meet was 212km away, but is a pretty rough place. I didn't fancy staying there. Devils Marbles Freecamp, almost 100km further on was not an option as dogs are not allowed but just a short distance on from there at Wauchope is the Devils Marbles Hotel. The reviews in Wikicamps were good so I decided on that. I arrived mid afternoon, pulled up outside the pub and went in to check in. But, bugger me if they weren't full. Shit, shit, shit! I could have camped at the rest area in front of the pub but the NT can be a pretty wild place and I just didn't feel comfortable not being behind a fence or with other people around me.
Wycliffe Well was only a few more kilometres south so despite the reviews of the caravan park there being terrible I figured it would be ok in an emergency. Nope - that wasn't to be. Not another traveler was to be seen in the open paddock beside the run down pub and the highway. Ugh! Next option, Barrow Creek Hotel was 100 km down the highway. It had worse reviews than Wycliffe but as it was getting late in the day I was sure there would be other vans there. But alas - No! It was a truly scary place so after slowing down to check it out I kept going. At this rate I would be going all the way to Alice! Finally, thank god, after 512km driving for the day (huge by my standards) I came across the Ti Tree Roadhouse with a lovely grassed camping area behind that was enclosed in high, locked, security fence and about 10 other vans in. A big sigh of relief. I parked and immediately went into the bar and had a big glass of red!
With just under 200 km to run to Alice the next day's drive was a piece of cake. There's no free camping in Alice Springs and the caravan parks are fairly expensive. Given I was planning to stay a while l opted for the cheapest, though closest to town. The Gap View Hotel has an area behind it with both powered and unpowered sites. I arrived around 11am and must say it was probably not what I was expecting. The unpowered area was still half full of young people just stirring from sleep in a variety of camp set ups from swags to back seats of cars, roof-top campers and tents. All were tightly located on a small, flat area of dirt. Music was blaring. It was not really my scene. The adjacent powered area was no oasis either but there were a couple of other vans and some trees and was certainly more appealing. I paid $40 for two nights, picked my spot and unhitched. I must say, once I had really checked the place out I did feel happier and the close proximity of the beautiful Macdonnell Ranges was truly awesome.
Over the following two days I got my bearings about town, spent $30 at the carwash ridding my poor Jeep of mountains of red dust and $10 at the dog wash doing the same for James, had a haircut and found an IT person to look at my badly behaving laptop. And, of course, James and I did a walk up Anzac Hill for a panoramic view out over the town and surrounding landscape.
Thursday night we went to Julia and Kate's for dinner. It was so bloody nice to spend time in very comfortable, familiar company. It didn't take much prompting for me to agree to relocate my van to the verge in front of their house which, to my delight, was situated pretty much on the golf course.....how convenient!
From Friday 14 to Monday 31 August Julia and Kate totally immersed me in everything golf. With Club Championships and the NT Classic during that two week plus period pretty much every day was comp or practice. If we weren't on the course playing we were in the clubhouse drinking. The social life had to be experienced to be believed! And all taking place on a spectacular course with spectacular views and spectacular weather.
The best part was that Julia won C Grade Club Champion and Kate won the NT Classic giving her a world ranking!
Actually, it wasn't all golf.... Lefty and James did get a lovely long walk on the golf course each day.
1/8/29
Global Infections: 17,745,673 Australian Infections: 16,905
Fur baby James and I left Adels Grove on Sunday August 9th. The southwest trek was just over 1000km. I decided to make my first night stopover at the tiny border town of Camooweal. It was only 235 kilometres away but over 150 of that was on dirt and there were several river crossings. I reduced the tyre pressure on the Jeep and van to 30 PSI and was assured by staff at the grove that the road was fine and the crossings safe so long as I kept my speed down. The advice was to put the car into 4WD, select first gear, don't touch the accelerator or brakes and let the car drive itself through the 30 centimetre deep fast running waters. All went to plan and I thoroughly enjoyed the scenic driving experience even though the going was pretty slow.
At Camooweal I refueled and pumped the tyres back up to normal pressure before heading to the freecamp beside the billabong on the Georgina River just south of town. There were lots of other nomads pulled up beside the water and as the sun went down I lit a fire and enjoyed the beautiful evening.
CAMOOWEAL BILLABONG scores a 4 out of 5. It is a lovely open, flat area beside the water. There are no facilities at all but it is dog friendly, popular, safe and has phone signal. You can have a fire.
Before leaving Adels Grove I had checked my eligibility for a border permit and it did seem I was ok however I had to make the application within 24 hours of crossing and print out the approval document. I filled out the application online Monday morning, received my permit and figured the local post office would print it off for me. The rather terse lady at the PO would not, however, oblige. She gave me the blank forms and I had to fill in all the details of my exact whereabouts for the preceding month by hand. Old cow! A few minutes down the road I was pulled up at the roadblock that was manned by military and police, proved my identity, answered a heap of questions, signed the statutory declaration to say I was telling the truth and was allowed to enter the Northern Territory. I was actually relieved! It's quite surreal to realize the freedoms I've always had as an Australian to move about my country have been taken away. My friends and family at home currently cannot move out of Victoria, and in Melbourne Metro not even out of their suburb. Scary!
The Barkly Highway connects Mt. Isa, via Camooweal, to the Stuart Hwy which runs north/south from Darwin to Port Augusta in SA. The sealed, two lane road is pretty straight as it traverses the relatively featureless Barkly Tablelands, so is a little boring to drive. Fortunately I was listening to a good audio book, so the 260km to my overnight, Barkly Homestead, passed easily.
Barkly Homestead is something of an oasis in the desert. It is a service station, shop, pub, restaurant, motel, caravan park and airport. It has good facilities, phone coverage, a pool, a lovely flat, open camping space and feels safe. It's a nice spot to stop and for $15 pp in the unpowered area a bargain.
Alice Springs is 719 kilometres from the homestead so too big a distance for me to do in a day. I wasn't sure if I would do one stopover or two to get there. The township of Tennant Creek which is situated just south of where the Barkly and Stuart highways meet was 212km away, but is a pretty rough place. I didn't fancy staying there. Devils Marbles Freecamp, almost 100km further on was not an option as dogs are not allowed but just a short distance on from there at Wauchope is the Devils Marbles Hotel. The reviews in Wikicamps were good so I decided on that. I arrived mid afternoon, pulled up outside the pub and went in to check in. But, bugger me if they weren't full. Shit, shit, shit! I could have camped at the rest area in front of the pub but the NT can be a pretty wild place and I just didn't feel comfortable not being behind a fence or with other people around me.
Wycliffe Well was only a few more kilometres south so despite the reviews of the caravan park there being terrible I figured it would be ok in an emergency. Nope - that wasn't to be. Not another traveler was to be seen in the open paddock beside the run down pub and the highway. Ugh! Next option, Barrow Creek Hotel was 100 km down the highway. It had worse reviews than Wycliffe but as it was getting late in the day I was sure there would be other vans there. But alas - No! It was a truly scary place so after slowing down to check it out I kept going. At this rate I would be going all the way to Alice! Finally, thank god, after 512km driving for the day (huge by my standards) I came across the Ti Tree Roadhouse with a lovely grassed camping area behind that was enclosed in high, locked, security fence and about 10 other vans in. A big sigh of relief. I parked and immediately went into the bar and had a big glass of red!
With just under 200 km to run to Alice the next day's drive was a piece of cake. There's no free camping in Alice Springs and the caravan parks are fairly expensive. Given I was planning to stay a while l opted for the cheapest, though closest to town. The Gap View Hotel has an area behind it with both powered and unpowered sites. I arrived around 11am and must say it was probably not what I was expecting. The unpowered area was still half full of young people just stirring from sleep in a variety of camp set ups from swags to back seats of cars, roof-top campers and tents. All were tightly located on a small, flat area of dirt. Music was blaring. It was not really my scene. The adjacent powered area was no oasis either but there were a couple of other vans and some trees and was certainly more appealing. I paid $40 for two nights, picked my spot and unhitched. I must say, once I had really checked the place out I did feel happier and the close proximity of the beautiful Macdonnell Ranges was truly awesome.
Over the following two days I got my bearings about town, spent $30 at the carwash ridding my poor Jeep of mountains of red dust and $10 at the dog wash doing the same for James, had a haircut and found an IT person to look at my badly behaving laptop. And, of course, James and I did a walk up Anzac Hill for a panoramic view out over the town and surrounding landscape.
Thursday night we went to Julia and Kate's for dinner. It was so bloody nice to spend time in very comfortable, familiar company. It didn't take much prompting for me to agree to relocate my van to the verge in front of their house which, to my delight, was situated pretty much on the golf course.....how convenient!
From Friday 14 to Monday 31 August Julia and Kate totally immersed me in everything golf. With Club Championships and the NT Classic during that two week plus period pretty much every day was comp or practice. If we weren't on the course playing we were in the clubhouse drinking. The social life had to be experienced to be believed! And all taking place on a spectacular course with spectacular views and spectacular weather.
Actually, it wasn't all golf.... Lefty and James did get a lovely long walk on the golf course each day.
AUGUST 2020 COVID-19 STATISTICS & SITUATION
1/3/20
Global Infections: 86,604 Australian Infections: 25
Global Deaths: 2977 Australian Deaths: 0
1/4/20
Global Infections: 871,371 Australian Infections: 4763
Global Deaths: 42,107 Australian Deaths: 20
1/5/20
Global Infections: 3,322,966 Australian Infections: 6766
Global Deaths: 234,408 Australian Deaths: 93
1/6/20
Global Infections: 6,259,224 Australian Infections: 7,195
Global Deaths: 373,691 Australian Deaths: 103
1/7/20
1/7/20
Global Infections: 10,795,162 Australian Infections: 7,920
Global Deaths: 518,058 Australian Deaths: 104
1/8/29
Global Infections: 17,745,673 Australian Infections: 16,905
Global Deaths: 682,197 Australian Deaths: 197
1/9/29
1/9/29
Global Infections: 25,892,091 Australian Infections: 25,819
Global Deaths: 860,323 Australian Deaths: 657
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