I forgot to mention in my last blog when I spoke about Mataranka, that it is famous because of Jeannie Gunn's autobiographical novel We Of The Never Never published in 1908, it is an account of her experiences in 1902 on Elsey Station near Mataranka. So we have gone beyond the never never now and are in Borroloola close to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

While in Borroloola we did the usual of getting supplies and fuel as well as doing our washing. We also did some site seeing though, we visited the old Police station museum, which was great, but it had so much written information in a fairly poorly lit building, which made it hard.

On our second day in Borroloola we went to Bing Bong loading facility, which is a port on the gulf where they load iron ore onto big ships. You can't go into the facility, but if you look around, there is a 4WD track that takes you past the facility and onto the 'beach'. Here we saw some pelicans and other water birds and some mangroves, though Michael was happy because he was able to put his feet in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

On our way back to Borroloola we called into King Ash Bay, a town/campground on the McArthur River. It was a nice enough place and from what we gather, lots of people stay for many weeks. But for us, not into fishing or boating, there wasn't much for us.

Back in Borroloola we were a little concerned to learn that the Police had caught up with a bloke that had come in from a Queensland Covid hotspot and not isolated as he was meant to, the whole town was a bit on edge, concerned that if he tested positive that the town could be locked down, it is also an Aboriginal Community. That night we also had to do our 2021 Censes, which was hard when they ask questions about your current address and where you were 6 months and 12 months ago. Thank goodness for photos.

From Borroloola we headed to Cape Crawford before heading south to Barkly Homestead Roadhouse.

On our way to Cape Crawford we stopped at yet another 'Lost City' and another billabong with a bird hide. The Lost City was different again, this one had pillars that were thinner and looked in danger of falling over. The bird hide would have been great if there were more birds.

From Cape Crawford we headed down the Tablelands Highway. Not much of a highway, for the most part it is a single lane of bitumen that reminded us a lot of the roads in Russia, only without any where near the same amount of traffic, thankfully. As we weren't in a hurry we only traveled at 80kph and we pulled off down a station track mid afternoon and found a nice place to camp with lots of birds in the trees to entertain us.

Back on the highway in the morning we came out onto the Barkly Tablelands, an area known for its cattle stations that are amongst the largest in the world. Parts of this area reminded us very much of Mongolia, vast open plains as far as the eye can see and without fences. Quite a sight.

At Barkley Homestead we booked in for two nights, we were meeting friends from Melbourne that we hadn't seen for 6 years and they were a day behind us.

The first night we were there we couldn't believe how busy it was, we estimated there were around 80-90 caravans in the powered area and around 23 in the unpowered, it was crazy. The second night wasn't as busy and we enjoyed a meal in the restaurant with our friends, it was a great catchup.

In the morning though, we headed to Tennent Creek while they headed more south to another nice looking area on a river.

In Tennent Creek we were lucky enough to be able to stay with a friend of a friend. He has been in Tennent Creek since 1967 and has a nice house we were able to stay in. While here we visited the Old Telegraph Station which is well preserved, the Battery Hill visitor centre and mining museum, which left a lot to be desired, we also visited Mary Ann Dam which was very nice and the Pebbles Aboriginal site, which didn't do much for us.

Obviously we have had good phone service too as I have been able to catch up on this blog and photos. I really don't know how I found time when we were overseas on the bike. Here we have real problems finding good phone coverage with good speed. So sorry if I have bombarded you while we are here.

From here we are heading into the wild again, Davenport National Park and beyond on our way to Alice Springs before heading back into WA, we hope. Today we learnt that Darwin and Kathrine have gone into a three day lockdown because of a Covid case, we just hope it doesn't escalate and stop us from returning to WA.