Zebra Rock Mine

After spending 3 to 4 weeks in and around Darwin we finally headed out and set off to the west.

After stopping the first night at Venice Connolly Campground about 58km west of Katherine, to our surprise, we happened to meet up with Shirley and Cameron who were travelling to Darwin.

We had planned to catch up with Norm and Maureen at Big Horse Creek campground just west of Timber Creek the next day and arranged for Norm to get a spot for us.   About 15km before Timber Creek a call came over the radio "is that you Geoff,...... you had better pull over" which we did as Norm and  Maureen pulled over on the other side of the road.  They had called into Big Horse Creek, which was full of campers and couldn't get a spot, so an alternative was found.

Camped under the big boab

Not sure what Hels is doing with the fly swat ..... keep moving Maureen!!

Norm, Maureen and us at the Durack monument.

We finished up camping about 10km before Timber Creek where we stayed for 3 nights as Norm threatened to take the wheels off if we didn't stay more than one night! They also tempted us with a roast one night, how could we refuse. Had a wonderful time with Norm and Maureen and a last night we will remember for quite a time with an end result of moving camp some 500 metres @ 7.30pm!!!

View of Victoria River from Policeman Point

On Tuesday morning we said our farewells after coffee at Timber Creek.

From Timber Creek we headed to Zebra Rock Mine on the Duncan Road after checking out Policemen Point Lookout and stopping for lunch at Saddle Creek where we found the Geo cache based on Norms descriptions . On arriving at Zebra Rock Mine we booked into the Wet Lands Sunset cruise on Lake Argyle.  We had missed out doing this cruise last year and was keen to do it this time, we certainly weren't disappointed. Additionally complimentary scones with jam and cream were served - great that Hels is not a great fan of scones!

Gates into Zebra Rock Mine

Bussed across the wetland

Then onto the boat

Plenty of bird life

Max at the helm ..... nice hat Hels!!

Max, the tour guide picked us up at 4 o'clock in the 4WD bus which took us through some grazing land before boarding the boat to travel through the wet land creeks to the lake.  On boarding the boat we slowly travelled down the creek through the wetlands which have only been in existence since Lake Argyle was built in 1970.  What an abundance of bird life - claims to have more species than at Yellow Waters in Kakadu.

Was this lunch? .... No too many to choose from!!

Beer and nibbles, or was that nibbles and wine!!

Maybe Beer and wine!

We travelled across a section on the eastern side of the Lake Argyle and up another creek with even more birds and the odd croc (freshies) before stopping on a small island to have drinks and nibbles. As the sun started to set we headed back towards the bus experiencing a fantastic sunset over the lake taking many sunset photos (Hels note:  by this time Geoff had partaken of a quantity of wine and it seemed he captured every second of the sunset!!!)  As night set in we boarded the bus for the return trip to camp and by this time the group was becoming most vocal - Max changed the music from country music on the way out to rock arriving at camp all singing "I'm a believer". We got off the bus and all sat around the campfire telling travel stories and how great the trip was.

More sunset piccies

Decided to stay another day to relax and enjoy the surroundings and have a chat - great place to camp if you are self sufficient as no power or water supplied. Next morning we headed to Kununurra, making sure we had eaten all of our fresh produce and Hels had used all the honey as we did not want to leave any at the WA border quarantine station.

Coffee at reception, note the scones have been demolished.

 

Zebra Rock Mine camp site