A Solo Travellers Mind

Our first day began with alot of admin, collecting the bus, shopping for food, filling up water tanks, all the boring stuff! We than began a HUGE travel day. With 12 days and alot of Kms to cover we all agreed to storm ahead as quickly as possible for the next 2 days to ideally get to the good parts quicker. There were a few areas to avoid for the first 2 days, Fitzroy crossing and Halls Creek are those areas, with super high crime rates and some pretty bad people! These also happen to be where you stop for fuel, which is quite amazing! We stopped at Fotzroy for fuel and then continued on, driving well after sunset to get to camp! We set up camp, had a BBQ dinner, and rested our heads ready for an early start and some more driving the next day! Me, Jordan, and Dreagus were in one tent, and the rest in another. I’ve realised I’m just really good at putting up a tent so the boys automatically look at my tent on the first night and decide it’s the best to stay in, lol!

It was a 6:30 start the next day, having some breaky with the cows, who’s home was the camp site we were staying on! We set off at 7:30 for the 5-hour drive towards Windhym, where the big drives would stop, and the fun would begin! Our stop of the day was the grotto, a short but cute walk down a gorge to a very pretty sight! We then headed to camp for a chilled evening, a few drinks, and chit-chat. Before bed, Dreagus put on a performance, singing some Irish tunes in the tent for me and Jordan before all our energy was let out giggling, and we finally slept!

The next morning started at 6 am, as we drove from camp to Emma Gorge. It was a relatively short but very cool hike to a water hole and waterfall. We even spotted a snake in the caves of the waterfall as we swam (kinda cool). We then headed into Kununurra, where we’d make a short stop at a local reserve, the mini bungle bungles, and collect any supplies needed! We then drove ahead to Lake Argyle to be able to get a double camp for 2 nights! We arrived and had dinner and a few drinks, lots of giggles with Dreagus being class clown. Me and Dreagus had a particularly entertaining night. If you know, then you know! Life’s good when you’re young, wild, and free.

The next day, we spent our full day at Lake Argyle, with the morning spent kayaking around the lake, stopping for a swim mid kayak. The scenery of this lake is pretty magnificant! The afternoon was spent at the infinity pool, with Jordan being my camera man once again and taking some great insta photos for me. Our camping experience seemed to have upgraded significantly compared to the side of the road some nights before, we were now living it up in the pool in the sun! Dragus also made friends with our camp neighbour, an older man called Mic, who we subsequently made friends with. We all headed to the camp pub for some drinks for happy hour before a dinner of pasta salad! The evening entertainment included a drunk Dreagus, and his dance moves once again, along with Mic and some of his rather questionable jokes. We called it a night after being told off by another neighbour because of our noise!

The next day was a huge travel day, driving from lake argyle toward Katherine. We crossed the land border from WA to NT, a semi cool thing to experience. We stopped along the way to veiw a big tree, the gregory tree. It was semi cool but also kinda ugly! We also stopped for a mini hike, the Escarpment walk, a very short but uphill hike leading to a cool view of the river. We stopped for camp at the side of the road, a basic but good enough camp. Dinner was pesto pasta. Before we all naturally had an early night, the beers might be catching up!

Day 6 was a cool day, driving to Katherine to visit the bitter springs, a natural hot spring, and a lazy river. We spent the afternoon flipping off a tree before making our way to Katherine Gorge Camp. Camp was set up before the day ended with a sunset walk to a cool veiw! Another bbq was had for dinner, before a few drinks as the day ended. Today was a very nice chilled day, finishing with cuddle club. I can’t complain! Dreagus did nearly vomit on me in the tent when pretending to burp, but we’ll ignore that part!

We started the next morning with a pretty cool 12k hike through nitikum National Park, finishing in butterfly gorge! It was a very warm hike but worth the veiws from the bottom of the gorge and not too challenging over all! Before heading to Edith Falls for a mini hike and swim. A short but steep hike up to the upper falls, where we went rock climbing up the waterfall and me Jordan and Dreagus proceeded to jump off the waterfall before having a wee relax! On the way back to the van I gave Jordan a piggy back up the stairs, with Draegus giving me the ego boost of the year by saying “that’s actually incredibly impressive, there’s nothing to ya, your as strong as an oxe”. It’s fair to say the head was as big as a balloon after that. Camp was at the side of the road just outside the Falls this night, before a dinner of tacos and the night came to a close after some intense games of uno!

The next day was a semi big drive to Kakadu National Park. We arrived and set up camp before going to explore. First on the itinerary was a bush walk. Unfortunately, it was closed due to wild buffalo attacking people! So we headed to Cahill crossing to watch the Crocs in action. It was pretty cool just seeing them in the wild, especially when cars crossed the crossing and annoyed the crocs a wee bit! The evening was spent walking to Nadad lookout for the sunset, a nice walk through caves filled with aboriginal art!

The following day, we headed to Nourlangie for a walk through the caves, we saw more aboriginal rock art before finishing the walk at a veiw point looking over Kakadu National Park. On the way out of Kakadu, we stopped at a very nice pub, for a wee, a pub lunch, and some drinks before continuing on the journey! The day then turned into a driving day, with us ending up at a random campsite just outside of Litchfield. This occurred due to the 2 free camps i saw online not being camps. We have pretty low standards of camping after 6 weeks on the road, but even these were unlivable. Our camp site ended up being the best we stayed in, we had the whole place to ourselves, the owner was a funny man who let us just get up to no good! After a day of techno in the car, my playlist continued to play throughout the camp until the early hours, with a few people getting a tad too drunk. With Dreagus doing a true Dreagus and ending up so drunk, I had to clean his teeth for him and put him to bed, and Kaitlyn vomming on a selection of trees..

Of course, the next morning, there were a few sore heads, but we powered through after a breaky of sausage sandwiches. We headed into Litchfield, where we would spend the next 2 days enjoying the nature around. We checked out Florence Falls and Burley Rockhole, having a dip, and of course, a few flips off the rocks! The evening was a calm one, with me, Louisa, Jordan, Dreagus and Louis staying up and playing some very calm games of Dutch (a different version of dildo) before an early night to catch up on some Zzzs.

Our final day was a treat. The morning began with half the group going to collect ice and breaky for the final morning, with me, Louis, gabby and Jordan building a shelter out of tarp, rope and rocks, mainly for fun and for some shade. It took us an hour, but by the end, it was an absolute master piece! A few games of uno commenced until everyone else returned to camp to admire our master piece before the day of activities. Tjaetaba Falls was first up, followed by tomber Falls and Wangi Falls. Techno was again the theme of the car to prep us for another night of fun, this time a dress up garden party! Tjaetaba Falls was a small hike leading to a very pretty plunge pool. Many a flip occured here, before Wangi Falls led us to a very cool waterfall and huge lake to swim! We even spotted a few water monitors while there! The last night was hilarious, with the boys in the girls’ clothes and the girls in the boys’ clothes. We all played games, danced, drank too much booze, and let loose. I was one of the last ones standing, and of course, Dreagus and his Irish liver also survived. We had some late night chit chats and adventures before heading to bed, our last night sleeping on the floor!

The final morning was a nice one. We all had a cooked breaky, some decided to continue the booze, and others opted out. We headed for our final hike of the trip, which we subsequently didn’t complete as we were told by others there was no water in the Falls! So we drove back to Darwin, where the road trip ends, but the fun continues!