We could easily have stayed at the beautiful Edith Falls for much longer but had to move on. We packed up, ready to set off for our next destination but ended up having an unexpected detour back to Katherine.
As we were pulling out of the Edith Falls campground Ross noticed that their van brakes weren't working so we spent some time in the carpark troubleshooting before Ross called an auto electrician who said he could take a look at it in Katherine.
We drove the hour back there and while Ross and Barb had the van and car looked at we took the opportunity to stock up at the supermarket and go to the hardware store to fill our gas bottle. We have to take the bikes off the front of the van to get into the toolbox where the gas bottles are stored and while we were doing that we noticed that two of the nuts holding the support arms in place had come off. We are lucky that the bikes hadn't come loose and been damaged and were particularly lucky to have noticed before we took the dirt road to our next campsite.
If you're going to realise that you urgently need to buy nuts and bolts, being stopped outside a hardware store is the place to be! We were able to fix the bike rack then and there while we waited for the gas bottle to be refilled.
We also purchased a tall plastic bucket with a good lid as we have spoken to several people who use them as emergency clothes washers. Before a long drive you half fill it with water, add washing detergent and dirty clothes then lock the lid down tightly. Then you just pop it in the back of the car or van and the agitation of the bumps along journey washes your clothes for you. When you arrive you just need to rinse the clothes and hang them out. It's a great idea!
Luckily it didn't take long for Ross and Barb to be ready to go and we set off for our next stop - Umbrawarra Gorge.
As we drove towards the turnoff we saw a giant plume of dark smoke coming from the bush near the gorge. There are fires all over the place up here, most set deliberately to clear out the undergrowth and they are such a regular occurrence that nobody seems to worry about them. They don't seem to burn far or fiercely although we have seen many a large tree stump that looked to have been smouldering for days.
We decided to play it safe and check with local authorities but found it surprisingly hard to contact anyone. After trying half a dozen different fire, police and national parks numbers we finally got hold of someone who told us that the fire was no danger to where we were going.
The road into the gorge was 20km of dirt, and again the van struggled on the corrugations so we had to stuff the stove with towels and sponges. We realised that we needn't have worried about the fire coming through here because the trees and landscape were blackened and some of the logs were still smoking so it (or another) had obviously recently passed.
The campsite at Umbrawarra Gorge is pretty small and is very uneven. There are probably a dozen spots and 4 or so were already occupied. We did a few laps looking for somewhere the 2 vans would fit that was flat enough and stopped at a site about 10 feet from a family in a big tent. As Jenny backed in I noticed that the woman was giving us a look and I said hello and just to confirm said "that's not too close is it?" knowing full well that it wasn't. Most caravan parks would have you closer than we were and I was very surprised when she replied with a hostile "Actually, it is." I said "really?" in disbelief and she said "really!". What a cow.
We could have ignored her but in the spirit of avoiding unpleasantness I said to Jenny that we may as well move to another spot. Funnily enough the only other site we fitted in was on their other side, with the back wall of the van the same distance away from them as the first time. Ben jumped out of the car and made friends with their kids and we relished the look on the woman's face when she awkwardly realised that her kids were making friends with the kid of the people she had just been really rude to. Love it :)
We walked into Umbrawarra Gorge the following morning and it was more of a tricky long walk next to a river than a gorge walk. We encountered was one beachy swimming spot along the way but we decided to wait until our return journey to have a swim. After an hour or so we decided to stop in a shady spot on some rocks while Ross went ahead to see if there was much more to see. It was getting really hot and the path had long since lost any definition, leaving us to clamber over rocks and pick our way as best we could along the river. While we waited for Ross the boys built a shelter out of sticks and leaves before sitting under it for a picnic. They'll be well prepared if they ever want to go on Survivor one day.
Ross finally reported back that the rest of the walk was very difficult and not overly rewarding, so we headed back to the van and set off back to the highway. Despite padding everything we could in the van, on the road out (which was not really that bumpy) the top part of the tap unscrewed itself and popped off, a hinge came loose leaving the cupboard door hanging and some of the screws holding the stove in started coming undone. So much for having a 'semi offroad' van. We were supposed to be heading for some hot springs but decided that we needed to avoid any more dirt roads until we had done some repairs.
As we drove towards the turnoff we saw a giant plume of dark smoke coming from the bush near the gorge. There are fires all over the place up here, most set deliberately to clear out the undergrowth and they are such a regular occurrence that nobody seems to worry about them. They don't seem to burn far or fiercely although we have seen many a large tree stump that looked to have been smouldering for days.
We decided to play it safe and check with local authorities but found it surprisingly hard to contact anyone. After trying half a dozen different fire, police and national parks numbers we finally got hold of someone who told us that the fire was no danger to where we were going.
The road into the gorge was 20km of dirt, and again the van struggled on the corrugations so we had to stuff the stove with towels and sponges. We realised that we needn't have worried about the fire coming through here because the trees and landscape were blackened and some of the logs were still smoking so it (or another) had obviously recently passed.
The campsite at Umbrawarra Gorge is pretty small and is very uneven. There are probably a dozen spots and 4 or so were already occupied. We did a few laps looking for somewhere the 2 vans would fit that was flat enough and stopped at a site about 10 feet from a family in a big tent. As Jenny backed in I noticed that the woman was giving us a look and I said hello and just to confirm said "that's not too close is it?" knowing full well that it wasn't. Most caravan parks would have you closer than we were and I was very surprised when she replied with a hostile "Actually, it is." I said "really?" in disbelief and she said "really!". What a cow.
We could have ignored her but in the spirit of avoiding unpleasantness I said to Jenny that we may as well move to another spot. Funnily enough the only other site we fitted in was on their other side, with the back wall of the van the same distance away from them as the first time. Ben jumped out of the car and made friends with their kids and we relished the look on the woman's face when she awkwardly realised that her kids were making friends with the kid of the people she had just been really rude to. Love it :)
We walked into Umbrawarra Gorge the following morning and it was more of a tricky long walk next to a river than a gorge walk. We encountered was one beachy swimming spot along the way but we decided to wait until our return journey to have a swim. After an hour or so we decided to stop in a shady spot on some rocks while Ross went ahead to see if there was much more to see. It was getting really hot and the path had long since lost any definition, leaving us to clamber over rocks and pick our way as best we could along the river. While we waited for Ross the boys built a shelter out of sticks and leaves before sitting under it for a picnic. They'll be well prepared if they ever want to go on Survivor one day.
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| Walking into the gorge. |
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| Swimming spot. |
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| Master builders having morning tea. |
Ross finally reported back that the rest of the walk was very difficult and not overly rewarding, so we headed back to the van and set off back to the highway. Despite padding everything we could in the van, on the road out (which was not really that bumpy) the top part of the tap unscrewed itself and popped off, a hinge came loose leaving the cupboard door hanging and some of the screws holding the stove in started coming undone. So much for having a 'semi offroad' van. We were supposed to be heading for some hot springs but decided that we needed to avoid any more dirt roads until we had done some repairs.
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