Gregory National Park

Gregory NP

We drove from Litchfield NP to Big Horse Creek camp ground in a day, stopping at Katherine to top up supplies and to publish the last set of blog posts (thanks to mobile phone reception!). All of the roads into Gregory NP were closed having not yet recovered from the wet season. While Gregory NP wasn't really on the trip plan I have to say that the drive through this area was really beautiful with the Victoria River winding its was through high mountain ranges rimmed with red cliff faces and escarpments. We passed through Timber Creek and about 10km to the west we pulled into Big Horse Creek camp ground a day earlier than planned. Daz and I were both getting pretty tired at this point as we had done a reasonably long drive that day, so you can imagine our dismay when we discovered that the camp ground was already packed to the rafters with Europeans and grey nomads! Literally there were nomads with massive caravans parked on the side of the road sitting in camp chairs with their legs extended onto the road as the sipped their Chardonnay. All a girl would have to do is sneeze as she drove past and she could have clipped off a few grey nomad shin bones to use as crab bait....hypothetically of course! Anyway out came the trusty old Camp 6 book which informed us that there was a free camp ground about 5 km back towards Timber Creek - we headed for that. This spot was up on top of a hill at a pretty good lookout....right near the "No Camping" sign. What the?! By this time the sun was setting and there were a few people in bongo vans taking photos of the sunset and looking suspiciously like they were going to camp. We were pretty fed up by this point so we decided to risk it and camp there anyway figuring that the fun police weren't likely to turn up and evict us at this time of night. So no sooner did we have the camper up and who should turn up? The fun police! Yes...they have a night patrol! Luckely the guy was really nice and said we could stay the night as long as we promised not to get drunk and fall off the escarpment. We promised. The couple in one of the bongo vans decided that if we could stay then so could they. Turns out they were a couple of musos from Mullumbimby living on the road and getting paid to do gigs - what a life! That night the wind came up and it blew its chops off. The tropical roof of the camper roared and billowed all night long and near drove us mad. But the crowning glory was when the fun police (day patrol) turned up. Obviously not aware of our agreement with the night patrol bloke the night before. This power-tripper was clearly in need of ...uh....some happiness....in his life. His monologue went something like this: "can't you read a sign....it says no camping here....you got half an hour to clear out or I'll call the cops!" < drive away> We took 2 hours to have bacon and eggs for breakfast before packing up and leaving. No cops arrived. By the time we pulled into Big Horse Creek campground all the nomads had left and we got a great campsite. The Nuskes rocked up five minutes after us so we set up camp and started drinking. We stayed at Big Horse for 3 nights and spent a fair amount of time casting lures for Barra around the boat ramp. We also set crab pots and cheribin pots but got notthing for our efforts. "A MECCA for Barra fishing" the book said....wot rot! Nonetheless we had a great time catching up with Pete & Tracey. With the windy change also came a cold change so it was off with the noisy tropical roof and on with the flanellette shirts after dark. Apparently this cold widy snap explains why the Barra are off the bite...but personally I think it's really because they are a figment of the tourism industry's imagination! Anyway....next stop WA & The Kimberley!

Our 'illegal' campsite on top of a lookout

Some pretty flowers

The sun setting from our 'lookout' camp site

Big Horse Creek camp site