Townsville to Darwin 4/12/07 to 8/12/07

Not a lot to write really about the drive, apart from it being long and straight and red. The 130km speed limits did help get the straights over with a bit quicker. It was a bit of an experience pasing road trains, with 4 trailers, 53m long, with the back end of them wobbling around. There was no lack of long straights though to pass them.

On the first day driving we noticed a lot of ants in the car, later when we stopped in Charters Towers to grab a pizza, I discovered an ants nest on my bag and about 5000 ants. We are still finding ants in the car. First night after leaving leaving Townsville we stayed in a rest area snuggled between the highway and the train tracks, about 3am we woke up thinking a train was about to come through the tent. We could watch the train head light getting closer before it thundered past 20m away.

Spent a night in Mt Isa with a mine overlooking town, that was the day the drives door handle broke, forcing me to unwind the window and reach out the window to let myself out.

Also spent a night in Tennant Creek. Not a lot going for the town, the camping ground did have a pool though, and with it being 43 degrees, it got used.

We stopped in Larimaia for lunch after reading about a place in the Lonely Planet guide book. It was well worth it, the place is called Frans, after the ecentric lady that runs the place. The place is found by the jumble of black boards on the side of the road. There is no menu or prices, you eat what Fran has cooked for the day. The place looks pretty dodgy, but the food was very good. Check out the photo of the place.

The next night was in Nitmiluk National Park, the place had been hit by a storm the previous night and had trees down all over the place. I glad we weren't a day earlier. While at the park we went on a cruise up the Katherine Gorge. Before heading on to Darwin. We covered around 600-700kms a day. Check out our Northern Territory photos.