Borroloola – Seven Emu – Manangoora – Borroloola

Our two days in Borroloola were spent with Jayne washing all our dusty clothes and other things like getting the car and van ready for some serious dirt roads from here. It’ll be over 1,100kms of dirt once we leave Borroloola even though we’re going back through here on our way north. The roads south and north are all dirt, only the east-west road is sealed.

We like Borroloola, the town is very friendly and certainly has all the amenities that such a remote small town should have. It was 1^st July when we were there and this is cracker night (Fireworks) in NT (Northern Territory). The local shop had a big sign up that they were selling fireworks on 1^st July, it’s the only day you can buy them in the NT and the NT is the only place you can buy them in Australia.

We headed down to get our share just after lunch, but they had sold out.  We thought buying some real fireworks would stop Shane having to make his own down at Nowra, but alas we were too late, sorry Shane!

Seven Emu Station

We headed back here after we spent one night there last year. The views from the camp sites are just amazing. We also drove the extra 30kms out towards the Gulf of Carpentaria which took us to their “River Camping”, but this wasn’t very good. The road continues to the Gulf and we headed off in this direction, but the track turned very poor, and I mean poor. So as not to scratch the car we turned around.

We tried our hand at fishing from the river bank, near the boat ramp.  Actually calling it a boat ramp conjures up impressions that aren’t fitting. It’s a track through river stones to the water’s edge. The Robertson River has the largest fish we’ve come across, you can clearly see them in the river from our camp site which is 70’ (23m) above the river. But in these areas if there's large fish there are also large lizards in the waters and Jayne gets a bit spooked by this, as do I.

Frank (owner of Seven Emu) had two European backpacker girls working for him again this year. As his wife and kids were there this time I'm not how all this works. As per last year these two girls were putrid, I mean absolutely filthy. They couldn’t have been dirtier if they tried. They looked as if they had spent all morning being dragged through the dirt backwards. At least when we left we saw them having a swim/wash in the river.

Jayne and I enjoyed two games of Scrabble, overlooking the river. We were having a Chilli and Mango Matso beer in the really nice German Beer Glasses that Herbert Alt gave us years ago. These glasses have travelled all around Australia and are really strong and nice to drink out of. I went to get a chip and knocked my empty glass onto the ground.  It bounced once and didn’t break, but on the second landing, it did. A neat break and one large piece. I was really annoyed at myself. Well a bit of super strength Araldite, add some electrical tape to hold it together while the glue dried and its back in working order. I don’t know how long for! But it’s working again. Whew!

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We spent two very pleasant nights there enjoying the view. Did I tell you it has the best views around? But at $50/night with nothing provided except a place to park the van it’s a touch expensive after you’ve looked at the view for two days.

Manangoora Station (Fishing and 4WD Camping)

We have heard about Manangoora from various places before and the best reference we've had for it was last year when we were filling up with fuel in Borroloola.  One of the Aborigines who worked/owned the place started talking to us, very friendly. He asked us where we had been and we said Seven Emu Station, he says come and tries Manangoora, so we did this year.

Manangoora is only about 60kms from Seven Emu, so it was easy drive. The camping here is amazing, right alongside the river. We pulled up into the first site as the girl informed us this has the least midges (sand-flies) and I hate midges, although they love me!

We planned to spend 3 nights at Manangoora as we can launch our boat and leave it tied up at the river’s edge right in front of our van, very easy. How long we actually stay here will depend upon the midges. The cost is a much better at $25/night, again with nothing provided except the ground to park our van on.

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The day we got here we launched our boat and went for a quick run down the river to make sure everything was working as it was the 1^st time we have used the boat since we left home. On the way back we got talking to this other couple in a boat and they filled us in on what fish there were to catch, where to catch them, how to navigate the river and how to have our lines setup. They even gave us some fresh bait and then offered us a nice bream they had just caught as they had also caught some salmon. So we enjoyed a nice dinner of fresh caught bream and chips with salad. Does it get any better than that! Jayne did a fantastic job of filleting the bream and cooking it. She got a bit frustrated with the fish and was scaling it really fast and furious, I was picking fish scales off the walls of the van hours later. But she did manage it very well.

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The Gulf of Carpentaria is only 5 kms down the river from us.

The midges come out in force the 1^st morning, but we lathered up with Avon Skin Oil and this seemed to keep them at bay. At least we’ll have soft skin!

We took our boat out to the mouth of the river and we motored into The Gulf of Carpentaria, which was extremely vast in front of us in our tiny boat. The weather was calm, but it was still a bit rough out there for our boat, so we didn’t go far out. After all, it’s an “Explorer” boat, meant for rivers, not open waters.

On the way back we tried our luck at fishing. I caught 3 Queen Fish, one which was a respectable size however we elected to kiss and release them all. Queen fish aren’t the best on the table. We went out earlier the next day, hopefully to get some eating fish of our own!

We did 2 days fishing and only caught those 3 Queen Fish and a couple of Catfish. Not much, but we did see a lot of the river which is very spectacular. We saw our first croc today, lazing on the river bank and when we turned around to get a better look at him he quickly scurried into the water. Needless to say, we again turned around and headed away from him at full speed.

The midges did get us in the end, you just can't avoid them. Mind you not the worst we've had, but bad enough.

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Its back north to Borroloola  tomorrow, for two nights. There are no midges in Borroloola! I have a bit of work to do, so I need internet access for this. That’s the last bit of internet we’ll have for about 1 ½ to 2 weeks until we get to Katherine.