After a refreshing shower at the Burketown Rugby Ground, we set off southward on the first stage of our long journey to Katherine in the Northern Territory, a distance of about 1440 kilometres. The road from Burketown to Gregory was sealed but what lay ahead was pure *bulldust! More on that later.

Travelling south along the sealed Wills Development Road to Gregory, we arrived with the intention of camping the night at the Gregory River Free Camp. With a combination of school holidays, a camp draft competition and the peak tourist season, the campground was rather crowded prompting us to change plans and stop for lunch only, in the nearby “low impact” campground.

The “Low Impact” camping area presented a stark contrast to the lush riverside campground a stone’s throw away.  After finding a level spot we prepared lunch to sound of some very loud party music blasting from a nearby tent.

Aware of the recent extreme rain events in this region over the last year, we were not surprised to encounter a fair amount of road damage on the unsealed road as we left Gregory with the intention of camping at the Mt Isa Road Junction.

With much of the road surface turning to “bulldust” and an almost windless day, an enormous cloud of dust followed us for the duration of the journey from Gregory to the Mt Isa Junction. To our dismay, we soon discovered the cloud of dust was also in the caravan, particularly the bathroom end where even inside the bathroom drawers a thick coat of dust had formed. Happy Days!

Not wanting to have to clean the caravan again the next day, we decide to finish off the unsealed section and continue on to Camooweal.

Almost dark and with roughly one hundred kilometres between us and the next campsite at the Camooweal Billabong, we opted to continue on, driving almost directly into the sunset and proceeding at a speed of 50-60 kilometres per hour.

Arriving well after sunset, Mallie removed the top layer of dust, and we settled in for a much needed sleep at the Camooweal Billabong, a free camp about one kilometre from the town.

Managing to become mobile again by about nine o’clock we faced another long day in the saddle, crossing the Barkly Tablelands to meet the Stuart Highway which traverses the continent from Adelaide to Darwin.

The number of caravans on the Barkly Highway, must be seen to be believed!

About fifty kilometres north of the intersection of the Barkly and Stuart Highways is the Attack Creek Free Campground, commemorating where explorer John McDouall Stuart turned back from his 1860 expedition to cross Australia after a hostile encounter with Warumungu Aboriginal people.

Following a peaceful night at Attack Creek, we were back on the road once again in a Northerly direction. The development of a strong headwind just before lunch was catalyst enough for the weary travelers to call it a day and seek the sheltered habour of the Dunmarra Roadhouse Caravan Park.

Next morning, somewhat refreshed and with a much cleaner caravan with sailed on to Manaranka, which was the setting for the Australian Classic Novel, “We of the Never Never“, by Jeannie Gunn first published in 1908.

After a couple of very long soaks in the Bitter Spring Thermal Pool, we were ready for the final stage of the journey, the last one hundred kilometers to Katherine.

*Bulldust or bull dust is a fine, soft and powdery red aeolian dust that is common across Australia, especially in the Outback and desert.