Leaving Darwin we had a huge drive ahead of us, aiming to get to Roper Bar for the night, so we decided to use the hours to do some school work, our blogs and listen to an audiobook, The Maze Runner. We turned left at Mataranka and hit the dirt! It was RED and ROUGH!!! We spoke on the CB to a car and van coming the other way and they had nothing good to say, lol, they said it was the “worst road in Australia” and we should “definitely turn around!!” 

Needless to say, we didn’t turn around, we ploughed on, getting to Roper Bar and having enough daylight to explore the river and crossing.

Next morning, after, unfortunately, a hot and uncomfortable night, we hit the road again, aiming for at least Tomato Island fishing camp to check the road conditions to head further into Limmen National Park. Already it had been pretty rough. After speaking to the caretakers there we were encouraged to continue on but drive to the conditions, which Ben did amazingly well. It was not easy driving; the road continuously changed, from corrugations to rock to huge and dangerous bulldust holes. Ben needed to concentrate fully for hundreds of kilometres, hour after hour. Seeing as how it was a 36 degree day and we were driving hundreds of kilometres through nothing but bush it was probably better to be in the car with the air con.

Even driving carefully, we took some damage inside; lots of screws rattling out, one of the cupboard doors falling off completely, a broken cup and the floor marked from chairs constantly vibrating against it. Thankfully, Ben was able to do the necessary repairs. We pulled up mid-afternoon, after passing ONE vehicle all day, at a campground called Butterfly Falls. We had the place to ourselves – one of the benefits we’ve found of travelling late into the season. Close by the camp was a stunning waterhole surrounded by high rock walls and a tree-lined sandy beach. Unfortunately, the downside of travelling late in the season is that the falls have stopped running and the waterholes are drying up, especially since their ‘wet’, wasn’t. This was the case here, the ONLY place able we would’ve been able to swim in the National Park was stagnant, but, it was still pretty. And it was certainly the coolest spot we’d been to all day so we spent the afternoon in the cool shade on the sand, our own private billabong.

That night we had our first campfire and played Spoons before bed. Once in bed, we listened to a couple of chapters of our story, and spent a cooler night than the previous one, thank goodness.

Next morning we had a 30 km drive to the nearby “Lost City”. It’s a huge area of amazing and ancient rock formation. The rock began to be laid down in layers about 1500 MILLION years ago! After being forced up it then eroded after millions of years to leave behind towering fingers of rock. Again, we were the only ones there, and it was both eerie and humbling wandering among the ancient stone. We didn’t stay long as it had already hit 35 at 10am, but I guess, it doesn’t tend to get too much hotter as the day goes on. Our next stop, Lorella Springs!