Ella's flight was meant to leave Kununurra at 11.50, but on the morning of her departure we received notification that the flight was set back to 14.15, she finally lifted off at 15.00.

As we had booked out of the caravan park we had been in and there was no accomodation in Kununurra anyway, we had no option other than our plan A of heading into the Northern Territory and hoping we would be able to find a campsite in Keep River National Park, just over the border.

Being already set back 3 hours and the Territory being 1.5 hours ahead of Western Australia, we didn't have high hopes of finding anything. Even with Keep River NP only being some 45 minutes from Kununurra meant we wouldn't be there until around 17.30 NT time.

As it turned out we were right. The first campground you come to in Keep River is for people who want to use generators, the second, further in campground is for non generators, our preferred choice. However, as expected the second campground was full, so we backtracked to the first, but it too was full. This left us with no option, we headed back out onto the Victoria Highway and continued heading East. We had covered some 60Km on rough corrugated dirt roads for nothing.

Back on the highway we kept an eye out for a place we could get off the road for the night, but both sides of the highway were fenced and each rest area we passed was packed full of caravans. It was now getting late and the light was fading when we spotted a faint track off the side of the road. We first went past it, so we turned around and headed down it, it didn't go far before it too came to a fence, but there was room for us and we set up for the night about 200m off the road. It turned out to be a nice little spot with very little traffic passing through the night.

In the morning we continued towards Timber Creek, stopping on the way at Gregory's Tree. This is a Boab tree that is at the site where Augustus Charles Gregory set up a camp in 1856 on the bank of the Victoria River from which he explored the area for its suitability for grazing.

From Gregory's Tree we continued upstream towards Timber Creek which got its name because Gregory's team used timber from the area to repair one of the supply boats that was damaged on its way up the Victoria River.

Next stop was the Old Victoria River Crossing where there was the remains of a concrete ford across the river. Then onto a lookout high above Timber Creek where we had a commanding view over the town and the Victoria River.

After lunch in Timber Creek we headed south into Judbarra/Gregory National Park. There is a campground at the old Bullita Homestead in the middle of the NP. It was a long rough, corrugated road again that lead us to the campground. This time we were a little more lucky, there are only 10 sites, but there were two empty ones, so we grab one and set up.

Perhaps we should have looked a little harder, but then it was mid afternoon and we were out of choices, but after we chose our spot we noticed a camp near us was full of tents and gear, including a generator running and an unattended fire. I was optimistic that because there were batteries on the ground near the generator that when the owners came back that they would turn the generator off.

After setting up we went for a look at this old and well preserved homestead and stock yards. It truly is amazing what our pioneers endured and how hard they struggled.

Later in the afternoon back at camp we heard a chainsaw not too far away, we went to investigate. What we found was a group of 5 4WDs on the other side of the river, the men had felled a dead tree and were cutting it up to put in the back of one of the vehicles. They then came back across the river in the opposite direction to the 'one way' signs posted on the track and made their way back to the camp with the generator. Well it was pretty obvious by now that it wasn't going to be a quiet night and the generator went off after midnight and was restarted at 7.30. Needless to say we packed up and left.

Our route out was to take us along a very rocky rough 4WD track to the Buchanan Hwy, another rough corrugated dirt road. We followed this to Jasper Gorge, a lovely palm fringed waterhole where we looked for crocs and had lunch. Still no crocs Ella.

After lunch we backtracked up to the Victoria Highway were we turned east once again towards Katherine. By now it was starting to get late and time to find somewhere to camp again and once again all the roadside rest areas were full or nearly full. In the end we found a disused gravel pit around 50K out of Kathrine and we had it to ourselves! Amazing. Again we had a lovely peaceful night.

I think this blog has gone on long enough, so I'll tell you about Katherine in the next blog.