CRAZY TIMES from Nhulunbuy to Cairns

Its a long, long way to Nhulunby the song should say! 700km of dirt road known as the Central Arnhem Road to be precise. It all started well and the road was in reasonable condition and we overnighted at Mainoru. Things were ticking over well the next day til we had a call from the Hills on the 2-way to say they had a problem- this was an understatement. They had a major problem! Their trailer had spun around 360 degrees at least once when a suspension spring had broken and flipped the trailer over. Amazingly, Greg held onto the car and they were all ok. But it did mean they had no trailer or boat any more. This took the edge off our time in Nhulunbuy but we did get to see that it is an amzing place. We also happened to be there for Territory Day on the first of July which was a celebration of all things Northern Territory including Fireworks!
We then headed back along the same road and made it to Mataranka where we met the Joyces again and went to Bitter Springs which was so nice that we went back again early the next morning before heading for the Queensland border. We had a great bush camp that night with the best camp oven dinner ever and a few left over fireworks to celebrate Pete's birthday. The next day we made it to Mt Isa where we did an underground mine tour which was really impressive. We got  to see some of the older machinery being used and driven around- not sure I'd want to work underground.
We left the Joyces and headed for Cairns stopping at Undarra on the way to check out the amazing lava tunnels.

This Black-headed Python was one of the few distractions on the long road to Nhulunbuy

Fireworks and fish at Nhulunbuy

The sky above Nhulunbuy on Territory Night

Bitter Springs- early in the morning before the crowds arrive

Under water at Bitter Springs

The tastiest camp oven dinner ever

Sunset near the Qld/NT border

Yum!

Lava Tunnel at Undara