On the road Katherine to Kununurra, Western Australia

Katherine is a busy regional centre, especially  during the dry season when thousands of tourists like ourselves, along with the grey nomads, stop at one of the seven or more camping grounds. At this time, a camp site is not easy to find and we ended up with one the back perimeter of a nice one but with a long walk to access the amenities. That's the price of enjoying freedom travelling!

Victoria Highway

We were soon cruising happily towards the west on the Victoria Highway, our destination for the day being Kununurra in Western Australia. Controlled burning was evident along the highway as well as spontaneous fires, perhaps started by windblown embers. At these places we came across some small marsupials, a couple of snakes and larger lizards on the road but happily we did not add to their problems. Where fires were still flaming, birds of prey circled, grabbing the small animals as they tried to escape death.

A constant warning and reason not to go ahead with our trip from almost all of our friends was that the road trains were humongous, drove as if they were the only vehicles on the road and we would certainly be at least terrified, if not killed. In reality, we saw relatively few road trains, only two in the whole 17,000 km trip that had five wagons, all drivers were courteous, let us pass indicating on a hilly part that the way was clear and were happy to chat while waiting for coffee at a roadhouse. That we were towing a unique little caravan may have added interest to their trip as quite a few of them gave us a toot, even as they sped past while we were off road at a rest site.

Victoria River Roadhouse

The Victoria River and the Gregory National Park offer walks, bird spotting, river cruises and other activities however, with limited time, we regretfully had to continue. For those with more time, the Roadhouse also had a well grassed, well equipped camp ground. Reasonably priced too, at $12.50 pp for a powered site. The setting was quite spectacular with the mountains and red earth on both sides and the only permanent river in the area cruising through.

Victoria River

Some ninety kms further down the road we stopped again at Timber Creek Roadhouse to refuel. Diesel was nearly $2 a litre!

Timber Creek Roadhouse, Northern Territory

Saddle Creek, a further one hundred and seventeen km from Timber Creek was our lunch stop. Saddle Creek is a popular free camp boasting pit toilets with BYO loo paper, water, covered tables, fire pit and rubbish bins. We arrived there around 1.30pm and it was almost full of caravans of all descriptions nestled in the shady spots, their occupants gathered for a chat and to scratch their heads at our ensemble of Toyota LWB van, self converted to a camper and Teardrop caravan towed behind.

Saddle Creek, free camping

There is another free camp in this area the Jarrnarm Campground in the Keep River National Park. We weren't keen to take the thirty km dirt road to get to it so we carried on towards the State Border. I do think that the Keep River National Park would be a great place to explore however, given that we are not nomads, grey or otherwise, with a timeless itinerary we had to prioritise our itinerary and activities.

Western Australia - Northern Territory Border

The border crossing was like an invisible line drawn in the sand. Flat red - yellow sandy soil holding scrubby trees some housing what seemed like hundreds of squawking galahs.

Galahs

Galahs are also known as rose breasted cockatoos and you can see them in most places in Australia, including our neighbourhood where they seem to chase off the smaller parrots. I've heard the expression, "Don't be a big galah! "said to someone who was being very strident and rowdy. I guess it comes from the raucous racket made by just a couple of these birds.

Galahs

Fruit, vegetables , honey and so on cannot be brought across the border so, while at Saddle Creek we had emptied our fridge and boxes of these items. After the friendly customs lady located a lost carrot we were soon wheeling the last few kilometres to Kununurra where we planned to stay for two nights.

Lake Kunnurra

Happily we had arrived early enough in the day to secure a shady campsite beside the lake at Lakeside Resort.

Beautiful Bagara

Bagara is on list of  favourite places in Queensland so when we were looking for a destination for an Easter camping holiday trip with the family it was an obvious choice. It's not very touristy, quiet, lovely compact beaches and within a five hour drive from Brisbane - and the final drawcard - turtles still hatching at Mon Repos nearby! The van was prepared, the car packed and off we went on a beautiful day in what some call Autumn.

[ We really don't have four such defined seasons but instead we get hot, humid and wet from around September to April and cooler and dry May through August. Usually. The past two years have been constantly wet almost every month.]

Bagara is a beachside town about 11km from Bundaberg in the Wide Bay - Burnett Region. Bundaberg or 'Bundy" it is affectionately called by Queenslanders and is mostly famous for its rum and sugar industry.

Sugar Cane, near Bundaberg

There has been considerable development in the area since our last visit as Bundaberg has expanded so there was a bypass road that took us easily to Bagara which had also grown a bit with some multi storey holiday apartment buildings and a small shopping complex with two supermarkets in it. The small church opposite which looks like it was once a house reminded us that the Bagara population outside holiday time is quite small.

St Peter's Anglican Church, Bagara

Beach Report - water temp 27C

The children and I went for a walk on the beach but with warm water and gentle waves washing their feet the temptation to dive in was too great to be denied! Both children were soon splashing around happily.

Nielson's Beach, Bagara

On another day we ventured to one of Bagara's other beaches, Kelly's.

Kelly's Beach, Bagara

Mon Repos, near Bagara, is the largest turtle nesting area in Australia with the nesting season starting early in November and finishing around the end of March. the nesting season was a little late this year so we were able to book ahead to see the hatchlings break out of their nest and head for the sea. It was a beautiful night on the beach, far from neon lights - not even torches were allowed - as we were guided cautiously along the wet sand by the rangers. Every turtle that comes up to lay is tagged and her nest marked so the rangers know when to expect hatchlings to emerge. There were several children in the group and they muffled their excitement as we were shown the relocated nest up the bank where the hatchlings were making their bid for freedom from the sand. The rangers collected each one as it came falling, scuttling down the bank, holding them in a wire cage so that we could watch and hear all about the life of a turtle. After that, two turtles were carefully carried around our group so that we could touch their shell and take a photo. We then stood well back as the turtles were released from their cage and headed remarkably fast to the sea guided by torches held steady by the older selected children in the group. Even though toes tickled as the hatchlings scrambled feet remained anchored to the ground and every one hit the waves safely.

Loggerhead Turtle Hatchling, Mon Repos, Bagara

The turtles we saw were the endangered Loggerhead turtles of which it is believed there are only six hundred left. Ninety three hatched successfully and ran for the sea and there were ten unsuccessful eggs remaining in the nest. It seems that only one hatchling in a thousand makes it to adulthood so the chances of even one of "our" turtles surviving doesn't look good.

Pale Headed Rosella

 This Rosella was very watchful of us but was too keen to feed to escape our lenses.

Galah

If you've ever heard someone called a "Galah" this is a real one. Actually, a Galah is a Cockatoo. We were surprised that this one hung around long enough for us to put down out picnic sandwiches and get our cameras out.

Bundaberg

One day we went to Bundaberg for to do a bit of holiday shopping and found some delightful fashion and curio shops. Main Street was quite pretty with a parklike strip in the centre where you could rest on a bench while waiting for the ardent shoppers of our group.

War Memorial, Bundaberg

Bundaberg

Barrel Cafe, Bundaberg

Bagara is an easy place to spend a week especially when the weather is so beautiful. We mostly lazed around the camp with a daily beach time when the children rode the waves on body boards with their mother getting her exercise towing them out and finding just the right wave to ride . . . or just walked on the wet sand . . .

. . . just walking on the wet sand, camera at the ready . . . 

. . . looking for unusual or new things to photograph.