Arnhem Land

This was a pre- retirement trip. It was also our first trip with the Earthcruiser Group. From time to time one of the Earthcruiser Owners will organize a trip and other Earthcruisers will come along. It is a great chance to get to know other owners and pick up lots of information about the trucks.

So this trip was to the Garig Gunnar Barlu National Park. Also known as the Cobourg Peninsula. We met up with the other owners at Kakadu National Park. It was about 3000km up to Jabiru which took 4 days.

We had some great stops on the way up to Jabiru. One great advantage of the Earthcruiser is that it can get you away from the crowds. The free campsites in Australia can get very busy. The Earthcruiser lets you get to places that motor homes and caravans can only dream of – so often we had the sites to ourselves.

One of the joys of traveling in outback Australia is finding unique and off beat places. We met up with our friends Mike and Kate Manly at the Pink Panther Road House north of Daily Waters. They were traveling around Oz in their van. We had a great evening with them. The Pink Panther serves up a good BBQ feed.

We filled up with water at Jabiru and headed off to meet the rest of the Earthcruiser gang at Ubirr. This has to be one of the most special places in the world. The rock art is stunning as is the lookout from Ubirr rock. We have been here before but the sunset never ceases to amaze.

We spent the following day traveling up through Arnhem Land on dirt roads. In general thes were in good condition and dry. They were no problem at all for the Earthcruisers. On the way up we stopped at Gunbalanya (also known as Oenpelli) to take a look at the art Centre.

We had been having some problems with with one of the doors on the Earthcruiser so the team set to work on fixing it. How many Earthcruiser owners does it take to fix a dunny door -a lot! Thanks to Martin for some great work with a file.

Then into Garig Gunnar Barlu National Park. We spent about a week in the park. Exploring, fishing and generally kicking back and relaxing. In the evenings we caught up with the other owners around the camp fire. The drives along the beaches were particularly good. The camp site was great with hot showers.

On one of the days we took a boat out to Victoria Settlement. This was an old British Penal colony. It really must have been one of the worst places on earth. Soldiers and inmates must have felt that they were at the end of the world. Many of th buildings survive.

Then the long drive home. One the way we visited the hot springs at Matakana, the lost cities in Limmen National Park Andy got to nurse joeys at one of the camp sites we stayed at.

A great trip.