Sat, 19th March, 2022 Warrego Fossicking Area, near Tennant Creek to Whistleduck Creek campground, Davenport Range National Park, NT

 Hard to believe it has been 11 months since we farewelled Mum. She will be happy we are on our way again exploring this great country of ours.

We packed up camped and headed back across the two creeks to the main site of the gold mine. Interesting to see the two types of windmills here.

The main camp/house near a mine shaft.

Back to Lake Mary Ann for a cuppa and to upload my blog etc.

Into town for a diesel top-up at the United - oops I realised I put Liberty before - will fix that up. It has gone up but only by 10c - now $2.15/L but when I paid the lovely lady gave me 3cents off as well. How nice.

Found the dump point then topped up with water. Around to the Info Centre. The chap was there that also detected so we let him know how we went. I had run Kurundi Station to check about the fossicking area but no one answered so left a message. The Info Centre chap said to just call into the station and they will let us know what’s what.

We headed south towards Devil’s Marbles. Flat open grassland, shrubs and a few nice gum trees along the way. A low range is running parallel to the road to the east.

30km north of Devil’s Marbles we were waved down by a chap pulled off the road. A local chap with his lady. He asked if we had any oil for his engine so Steve pulled off and got out the spare 1 litre of diesel oil that we carry. After putting it in he asked if we had spare water as he thinks the radiator needs some. It was quickly apparent as the new water bubbled up that they had driven on as the temperature rose. About 10 litres of water later it was full and when he turned the engine over the water spewed out everywhere and Steve knew they had blown the head gasket - should have checked the water first before giving him the oil!! The chap was very polite and thankful for our help. 

We got out the snatch strap and towed them along 22km to Bonney Creek rest stop near the turn off to Kurundi Station. They have family around here and someone will come along to help them. We left them with water and there is plenty here in the water tank too. We have done our good deed for the day.

Nice spot with historical information too about the well. You can see the bullet holes in the windmill’s tail made by the soldiers camped here in WW2.

We turned back north then turned onto the dirt track to head to Kurundi Station. This is also part of the Binns Track which we read on the info boards at the start of the road. The entire track is 2,230km in length and is named after Bill Binns who was a NT Parks & Wildlife Ranger for 32 years. His vision was to ensure visitors to the NT were able to explore more of the wonderful local landscapes off-road.

Interesting to see the spelling and then how to pronounce the ‘local’ work for Davenport Ranges. 

Just a few corrugations!! This will be a good shake down for the camper and to see how the back door goes with the dust which is rolling around out the back. The sides are ok as we are higher.

 Rolling up and down low hills - pretty green against the red hills.

Stopped to check the camper out - all good inside. Steve let some air out of the tyres too.

A lady pulled up - she was from Kurundi Station. When we enquired about fossicking she said no as her son deals with that and he is away. The roads aren’t ready yet so obviously we are too early for the ‘tourist’ season. Oh well at least we have our little bits of NT gold. We asked about the national park and she said the ranger has just been and said the road into Whistleduck Ck was good but rough going into the old Police Station Waterhole. We thanked her and she headed off. We continued on - may as well have a look at Whistleduck Ck while we are near.

The gum trees are so white considering all the red dust about.

Slowed down to enter the station area - Kurundi Station also has a store which is open 7 days a week for all kinds of things. They are beside a creek which had some water in sections with hills around them. We continued on through the cutting in the hills with the creek on one side. The hills are covered in boulders. 

Reached the turn-off down to the national park - another 25km. The campground is on the north west edge of the national park. Lots of piles of horse dung on the road.

We came to a gate which I opened then closed then just up the road was another gate - the national parks people have a road that goes around the gate!!

Continued on to the registration hut and paid our $4 each to camp for the night.

Checked out the first campsite - the ranger had obviously just whipper-snipped the grass around the raised platform and fireplace. In the bush no where near the creek. At the end of the track we found a lagoon but there was no access down to the water and the grass was high. I managed to get a photo while trying to keep out of a huge spider’s web about my head. Their web is as tough as thin fishing line.

We continued on and found an open campsite on the edge of the creek but it was dry. We can see up to the water but there are no campsites along there. It is quite a drop down too so not meant for us to be wandering down there.

We went back to a turn off and drove down to the day-use area which has toilets and big covered picnic area with information.

Only enough room for 4 cars though so too bad if everyone in the campsites wanted to come down for a swim. We followed the cleared grass path to the water but again it is a drop down and grey soil so it would be very muddy to get in and get out. Not very inviting. On the sign it says about walking further along to rock pools but there is no track, just long grass - maybe the ranger puts that in later for the ‘tourist’ season.

We went back to the open campsite and parked up.

It is windy again which is nice so we parked in the shade of a big gum and settled in for the evening. Had our drinks overlooking the dry creek to the rocky escarpment on the other side.

A couple of beautiful green parrots flew by then some crows and galahs. We can hear budgerigars somewhere and Steve found a feather in the grass. At least there are only a couple of flies so we can sit outside in comfort.

Perfect evening to eat outside - no bugs and nice gusty wind. We spotted 10 satellites as the moon was later rising.

8pm 34 degrees in the camper then the wind stopped so it got quite muggy.

Got out the Sequence for a change tonight. Still haven’t set up the TV yet - will save that for when we are parked up for a few days.