The Savannah Way To Borroloola

On Sunday the 27th of June I left Tiranna Springs and headed for Borroloola. I knew that I would not make Borroloola that day and was planning on making the Robinson River to free camp. As I was travelling a pair of campers overtook me. The lady in the caravan was very friendly and chatted to me on the CB for a bit. I mentioned I did not know whether there would be Police at the border or not because of a recent spike in covid. She then informed me that I needed to get a border entry permit online. They had got theirs. So I had to figure out where I was going to get service to be able to do that. I asked a truckie on the CB about that and he said I would be able to get service at Doomagee. Right so proceeded along and got to the Nicholson River and pulled over to check it out. I found that I had phone reception there. The lady from the van who I chatted to on the CB had been there looking at the river as well. She spoke to me before they left and checked that I was able to find the right form to submit. It was pretty simple and had no problem as I had been away from Sydney for six weeks by that stage. The day before, the 26th June, that is, Sydney was locked down for two weeks. So I got my permit and pressed on.

Not long after Doomagee the gravel road started again and it started getting rough. After a while I reached Hells Gate Roadhouse. The diesel price was $2 a litre from memory but there was nothing for it, you have to pay it as it is the outback. I was carrying 30 litres in jerry cans but I was saving that for if I needed it at Lorella Springs. It was 320km of gravel road to Borroloola with no fuel in between.

So having fuelled up and having lunch I pressed on and crossed over into the Northern Territory.

The gravel road was doing my head in but that was what I had committed to. So I finally reached the Robinson River but it was not until 5pm or a tad later. I suspected that the lady who I chatted to on the CB may have been heading there and it turned out she was. As soon as I pulled up she yelled out a greeting to make me feel welcome. She was so good. I got out and asked if I was not to late for happy hour to which they replied I was not. But as they were more fearless regarding corrugations their happy hour had started much earlier. They got there by about 3.30pm. So it was great to be able to join them that evening for a couple of drinks and a chat. They were very nice people and now that I was on my own it was good to be able to meet other people and spend time with them. This was the setting where we were camped.

The Robinson River crossing was a classic which I have seen in photos of the Savannah Way. It is such a pretty crossing. So the next morning before leaving I walked down to get a few photos.

There is nothing like videos though to give a better perspective on things. Two families that were camped on the other side of the river then came through and I took the liberty of taking a video of the first guy coming through. They got out and I chatted to them. I offered to send him the video and he gave me his wife’s email address so I could send it. So I will do that but I just have to find that slip of paper with the address on it. They were nice guys who are heading to Lorella Springs for ten days so I hope to see them there. Whilst talking to them they mentioned how the day before they had to stop a couple of times after overtaking me and I kept catching up to them. The guy thought I would be thinking that they were dickheads and we had a laugh. They had car troubles but had to figure out the problem each time. I think if it was me I would have been stuck on the side of the road but for them it was easy. With that done I walked back to my rig and headed off. I only went over a couple of hills and saw another dingo just standing in the road. I got a couple of good photos. However, the video I got was poor as I had to zoom in a lot and it is very jumpy and I did not realise I had not turned it off till many seconds later. So I took a video of the good parts of the video that I took live.

Came to another river crossing. Got some photos.

I eventually came to Borroloola. Let me tell you I was over the corrugations, for the van sake at least. I was a rattled mess. Fortunately the van wasn’t but there were a couple of issues. The latch for the shower door had snapped off. That will be easily replaced with another latch and a rivet. The shower hatch had worked its way open and so a lot more dust got in that it should have. My van is usually good with keeping dust out but the hatch allowed more in. It wasn’t to bad but then I was trying to work out what this moisture was on the floor. I opened up a cupboard and found a bottle of cordial had fallen over and had been leaking. It was a brand new, unopened bottle mind you. The cordial was right through the shelf and all its contents and had mixed with all the dust on the floor. I made an inquiry with the Information Centre about what there was to see in Borroloola and was told I should have a look at the museum. I drove to the grounds of the museum but firstly set about cleaning all the mess up. But then checked out the museum. It was interesting and will show some photos.

I then organized lunch and phoned home. I found out that the Telstra connection/internet was playing up at home. So I started trying to get onto Telstra. I probably don’t need to tell you that was adding to my stress of having come the 320km of bad gravel road and cleaning up the horrible mess. I had decided I would not be staying in Borroloola for the night and would move on to the Little River free camp at Cape Crawford. I just had to refuel and grab a couple of items from the shop. The United Service Station had a little supermarket in its shop so I went in and grabbed the items, paid for them and headed off to Cape Crawford. I had got about 30km down the road and a light globe came on in my brain. I had forgotten to pay for the fuel. I had paid for the two grocery items and forgotten to pay for the fuel. The shop attendant was on her phone the whole time so she did not prompt me. My muddled brain at the time could only think of so many things. So what to do? The trouble was I knew there was no phone reception at Cape Crawford so I was not sure if I could use the phone at the Heartbreak Hotel Van Park and Service Station. I was not going to turn around and go back. So I was travelling down the road as a fugitive. But then as I was passing the McArthur mine and saw a little tower and found that I had phone reception. So I googled up the United at Borroloola and rang the proprietor there. I told him I thought I may have forgotten to pay for diesel and he asked if I was in a white landcruiser and white van. So he had already looked at the cameras and seen what happened. He said that he could see that I had bought the items and forgot about the fuel. We both had a laugh. He was pissed off with his employee though. I gave him my credit card details and so I was no longer a fugitive. With that done I continued on to Little River and started to destress from a very stressful day.