Lawn Hill and Northern Territory by road: Day 15 Cape Crawford

We were on the road and heading west to Hi Way Inn close to Daly Waters on the Stuart Highway by 7 am enjoying a beautiful sunrise. Unfortunately a large number of big road trains were heading East and the road was single track only. Road trains don’t tend to leave the road much which in a way is just as well as they spin up stones which have a detrimental impact on windscreens.

We passed a free camping site by little River 10 km to the west of Cape Crawford

The Hi Way Inn has a camp site and repair workshop which seemed well patronised. The girls serving in the café were from South London and getting used to Australia. They told us toast came with muesli for $7.50 and you need not eat the muesli but you would get it any way. They were not sure what the next menu item for ‘Fruit Toast’ was and they looked cross-eyed when we mentioned raison toast. After morning tea Richard had a go at a solo flight and only just landed.

Richard's first landing.

Refuelled for $1.83/ltr for diesel.

There are several points of interest marked on the map just south or Larrimah. One is the monument to Alexander Forrest and his party who reached the overland telegraph line after an epic journey from De Grey in WA. The others are WWII hospital sites. Dell drove 300 meters along a track to find a site. Richard reversed the caravan 300 meters to get back out. Looking at the wheel marks, the ‘Cocky’ would be forgiven for thinking he had a drunken driver along his tracks.

We inspected three sites at Mataranka. Two were hot, dusty and very basic. The Mataranka Homestead had shady sites and clean facilities. There was quite a bit of dust but I suppose this is the Northern Territory.

Day 16

Visited the replica Elsey Homestead from ‘We of the Never Never’. It is hard to imagine Jeannie Gunn arriving from Melbourne to make her home at the age of 21 or 22 years.

2014-07-03 01 Elsey Homestead 002

The origin of 'Sleep Tight'

Comfy chair made from a sack and a branch.

The saying Sleep Tight refers to the days when mattresses were held up by rope or leather. If the rope slackened the sleep was not refreshing.

Mataranka is a buzzing town with two stores, a museum and a hotel. Also plenty of locals sitting in the shade for the afternoon. It is extremely well cared for and very tidy.