Judbarra / Gregory National Park

2 August 2016

After saying goodbye to our friend in Katherine, we headed for fuel and food. We met Terry and Jo with this 8 tonne beast, IBUS. Built on a NPS300 with software changes to run it as a NPS400 it was an amazing build. Great colour, deep purple black. Interesting, they were not running the usual Toyo M608z 285/70/19.5 145/143M tyres that most 4WDs about the 6 tonne GVM seem to run. Their choice was Aeolus 285/70/19.5 with a 144/142M rating.

About 350 litres of diesel later we were ready to make it into Flora Nature Reserve. Sadly, due to flood damage we found the reserve closed and so we pressed on to Gregory National Park. By early afternoon we had found a great campsite overlooking the valleys around us. There are cliffs every direction here. This is still one of my favourite spots in the world. Just stunning. During the day we were buzzed by a helicopter who was weaving his way up the gorge, he looked to be having much fun. The pilot waved as he went up the gorge. As the sun set, we had a very low flying RAAF cargo plane fly down the gorge. We are still astonish how low he was and were so totally taken by surprise we didn’t get a photo.

3 August 2016

The cliffs this morning came to life in the sunrise. Having the light from a totally different angle was amazing. After a leisurely morning, we headed to Victoria Roadhouse before heading off to Old Victoria Crossing.

Our evening camp was once again buzzed by a RAAF plan. Wow these guys really throw these plans around as they navigate the gorges. Steve manage a photo of the plane with his ipad. Will post it when we get it off. Another plane buzzed down the gorge at 9:45pm last night, starting to think we are at the airport.

4 August 2016

First stop for today was the Joe Creek Picnic Area. The walk here takes you up the edge of the escapement and then along the edge before returning you back to the car park. The edge of the escapement is home to many very tall palm trees; they seem so foreign here. If you look closely you will discover some rock art, which sadly is not great in quality.

Once again the area seemed like a airport with more helicopters, light plains and the RAAF.

5 August 2016

First job today was to re-rotate the wheels again, as the result of the last rotation did not result in a comfortable steering 4WDAUS. This took an hour and proved time well spent. Then it was off to Timber Creek to catch-up on email. We decided to spend the afternoon at Policeman’s Point Lookout which overlooks the Victoria River. It was amazing to see the tide running in here, so many kilometres from the coast. We also go to see crocodiles for the first time on the trip.