The Northern Territory

 

The Barkley table lands

Needs no explanation !!

My first Barra



The campsite at K.A.B

Sunset at K.A.B



Dennis with his Queenfish

Chris relaxing with Muffie





What a place to be when you need to get away from the winter in South Australia. The NorthernTerritory dry season has daytime temperatures anywhere between 22-30 degrees, cooling down to a very comfortable 14–18 degrees in the evening.We headed there early in June
and after six days driving and nearly 3000km later arrived at King  Ash bay fishing club camp ground in the Gulf of Carpentaria on the banks of the Mc Arthur river system.
The club has many facilities you would get at a caravan park, and is very popular most of the year round.

One of the locals

King Ash bay is 1000 km from Darwin (the nearest city) and 700 km from Katherine (the nearest town), so when travelling to this area you have to make sure you have as many essential supplies as possible eg: beer and wine and spirits!!!!!!
During the ten weeks we were there I was able to get out on the river system with a friend in his tinny. The fishing was the best I have ever encountered anywhere and as well as shark, Golden Trevalla, Queen Fish, Barracuda and Salmon I also added an 85 cm and 83 cm Barramundi to the list. The Barramundi is the most sought after fish in the northern part of Australia due to its fighting and eating qualities. However due to the very large salt water crocodiles that inhabit the river you have to be very careful whenever you are on or near the river.

Bitter springs

Daly waters pub

How clear is that

Leaving King Ash bay we travelled
towards Darwin, stopping off at Cape Crawford, Daly waters (a great out back pub), Mataranka (swimming in the warm thermal pools of Bitter springs) Katherine,(cruising the Katherine gorge) and Adelaide River (once the frontline for Australian forces during
world war two).
A seven day stay in Darwin enabled us to stock up for the trip south and for me to attach two 60 watt solar panels to the roof of the caravan which would then power the satellite TV which we brought in Katherine. Oh, the joys of having TV reception in the middle of nowhere!!!!!
While there we also visited Litchfield national park just south of Darwin, to see some of the largest termite mounds in Australia.

Aboriginal rock art

Termite mound,5 meter high and over fifty years old

Instead of heading straight back to Adelaide we spent four days in the Kakadu national park area. This World heritage area has some of the oldest rock art paintings in the world.
After a four day stop over at the Daly River and then the Douglas Daly area it was time to get back on the Stuart highway for the trip south This time it was completed in 3 ½ days.
Staying at Port Julia on the York peninsular (only $30.00 per week) for three weeks we will then be house sitting for two weeks before going back to the Barossa valley in preparation for next years vintage at Seppeltsfield winery. Then it’s back to King Ash bay to stock up the freezer with fish. Except this time we will be going up with a new 4x4 and a tinny on the roof J

86 wheeled road train

Campsite at Finke river