Be Brave on Tour

After 4 days in Kununurra, we left yesterday morning to for 2 nights at the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park and a day trip into the Purnululu NP. Not a long day, about 300 K’s but we stopped for fuel at Doon Doon and then lunch at Turkey Creek (you gotta love the names). Camp set up and then up to happy hour at the Barabarvan. Unfortunately it wasn’t really happy hour when you had to pay $12 for a can of Bundy!

The Bungle Bungles are another unique landscape that we seem to have all over Oz! Unfortunately its a 2 hour drive into the park over rough (very rough in places) road, with a number of creek crossings. Then you have the Beehive Domes and Cathedral Gorge at the south end of the Park and Echidna Chasm, Ormandy Lookout, The Bloodwoods, Stonehenge and Kungkalanayi Lookout in the north of the park.

Sue, Andrew and I spent 8 hours travelling thru the park today, whilst Susan had a home day. It was just on 200 K’s of travelling on rough dirt roads so we were all a bit shaken by days end, despite Andrew’s sterling driving effort. Whilst we didn’t cover everything in the park, we missed the Bloodwoods and Kungkalanyi Lookout, we still marvelled at what we saw.

We leave tomorrow, heading southwest thru Halls Creek on our way to Derby but before we get to Derby in we have a single free camp night about 60 K’s short of Fitzroy Crossing. The reports about Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing and Derby are not favourable, there has been a lot of issues with the local indigenous folk, so hopefully we’ll be okay.

Today we headed off to the Gibb River Road to view the Pentecost River and visit El Questo Station. The Gibb River Road starts (Northern End) about 10 K’s from the intersection of the Victoria Hwy and the Great Northern Hwy, about 60 K’s from Kununurra. The GRR is an iconic road for all the campers, it stretches from near Derby in the south to near Kununurra in the north. Really its only for those with Off road trailers and vans, you basically are looking for problems with anything else.

So its time for me to have another CRAPP and Kununurra is the course on review. Andrew and I played in the “Scroungers” social golf today and I have to say it was a most enjoyable 9 holes. We really enjoyed the hospitality of the locals but as I have said many times before I can only CRAPP based on what is offered up on the day.

Design – Once again the landscape here was very flat and there is not much opportunity to create a world class course in such dry terrain. Rating was 9 out of 20.

Condition – This course has no water reticulation and we are near the end of a very dry season so it was no surprise to find a very dry and dusty course. In fact I was surprised to find as much green grass as there was. Also it was a sand scrapes in lieu of grass greens. This is very surprising when you consider the course is right next to the Ord River and an absolute abundance of water. The locals have told us that the water is free from the Ord but the club does not have the money to install a water system. Unfortunately we have to rate the condition, 5 out of 20.

Cost – It was very affordable @ $20 for 18 holes, although you are not playing a “championship” course but our rating was 17 out of 20.

Visual Appeal – Once again difficult to judge because of the timing of our visit, I’m sure later in the wet season the course would look better but today our rating was 9 out of 20.

Facilities – There was no practice green or hitting nets but they had a convivial club rooms and outside area. Our rating maybe a bit generous but we gave them 7 out of 10.

Ambience – A lot of the remote regional clubs are fantastic in the way they look after their visitors and Lake Kununurra was no exception to the rule. From the time we parked the car to when we left the locals made us most welcome and you could sense there is great connection between the members in supporting and looking after their golf course. We rated this at 7 out of 10.

Final Summary – the final score was 55 out of 100 which is about par. I really admire the locals who thru persistence (and not much government financial help) and hard work have their own golf course. It’s very similar to Mallacoota in Victoria and many other remote courses in this country. Both Andrew and I enjoyed our time at Lake Kununurra, even if the rating did not reflect our overall level of enjoyment.

From our free camp it was a relatively easy 200 K’s into Kununurra, although we did have to stop on the NT/WA border to be checked for veggies, fruit, honey & wood which is not allowed into WA from other states. I still don’t understand why but anyway we have nothing to declare and passed “muster”! We did make a mistake this morning as once we crossed the border the time went back 90 minutes so we had a bit of time to have a coffee before we could check into the park. We are now 2 hours behind the eastern states.

After setting up the vans, it was off to refuel and do some shopping. It was surprising that the two supermarkets had little in the way of veggies and meat. Maybe the border inspectors confiscated the veggies from the transport trucks coming into WA? Then it was off for a bit of touristy things. Hoochery Distillery, Ivanhoe Crossing, quick look at the golf club (yes, I will have another CRAPP tomorrow) and then our happy hour on the banks of the Lily Creek Lagoon at our van park.

We’ll today was our last full day in the Northern Territory. We left Katherine this morning heading for a free camp about 300 K’s down the Victoria Highway. It was a very warm day with mid 30’s for most of the drive. The landscape in places is amazing, jagged rocky red cliffs on both sides of the highway, particularly as you come into Victoria River.

Our first stop was at Victoria River and the Roadhouse for lunch. So far on this trip we have been served by many “non-locals” and here in the middle of nowhere was a guy from Norfolk Island. The caravan park and immediate surrounds are nearly as big as Norfolk! From here it was short 100 K drive to our free camp possie at a gravel pit in Baines, which is a location really not a town. The gravel pits are a good free camp spot, normally large spaces with plenty of room. We had a couple of other vans on site too but it was a quiet night although the flys were a bit annoying.

A quiet day today, a bit of shopping after a morning coffee but it was down to the springs to cool off in the afternoon. We leave Katherine tomorrow heading west, a free camp near Timber Creek and then on Wednesday we’ll be back in WA at Kununurra.

Today we travelled down from Darwin to Katherine for a 2 night stop. We stopped in at Adelaide River for lunch at the pub, which is always great. Katherine is hotter than Darwin so it was not surprising to find 36 degrees waiting for us when we have, so we had a quick “cooling” off in the springs.

We’ll the last couple of days in Darwin we have been doing a bit of sight seeing, shopping and resting. Yesterday, we did a bit of driving around the suburbs of Darwin, from Nightcliff to the CBD and the waterfront and then out to Casurina. Today we spent most of the day watching Polocross at the reserve we are staying at. It was a lot of fun watching the riders and their horses play a sport that was invented in Australia, many decades ago and which is now played around the world. Naturally, Australia is world champs but what we saw today from the teams in the top end was most enjoyable. Tomorrow we leave Darwin and head to Katherine for a couple of days before heading west to WA.

We have really enjoyed Darwin again. It’s been hot and humid and the silly season doesn’t start for another 2 months, even the locals are complaining about their “dry season”. Certainly when we look at the temperatures at home, its hard to believe we are all in the one country. Thankfully the aircon in the van has been fixed as we have some very hot days ahead of us over the next 6 weeks.

Today we had our van aircon fixed (thank heavens) and then we did a bit of touring around Darwin. Out to Nightcliff for brunch and then to East Point for a view of Fannie bay and the WW2 Defence establishments. Also took the opportunity to do the Thursday night Mindel Beach markets. I do enjoy Darwin and would like to experience some of the wet season but we’re battling the current climate, with humidity rising it must be very difficult during the Nov to Feb period. On plus side we did get our 2nd booster today, so we, Sue and Andrew are up to date.

Now that I have a wider readership, I need to explain Ray’s CRAPP! In 2020 when Susan and I travelled around Australia, I played at 40 different golf courses and I rated them all (similar to what the magazine Golf Digest does) and called it Ray’s CRAPP (Course Review And Personal Preference). There are 6 different catergories that each course is rated against and I have continued this on thru our 2022 adventure so now here is my latest CRAPP!

Andrew and I played at Palmerston Golf Course today, which is the pre-eminent course in the Top End, as the Norther Territory’s PGA is played here each year. Once again we can only rate the course on how we find it, not on what is was like a few weeks ago or what its likely to be in a few weeks time. So here are the following ratings.

Design – Once again playing in the NT, you know its going to be flat and this course was very flat. It was set out in a country club layout but it did not enthuse either Andrew or I. We did play in very humid and hot conditions and the first tee was a considerable length from the golf club itself. Rating 11 out of 20

Condition – See the course was in the middle of the dry season, we expected it to. Be in prime condition, compared to the courses in the souther states but unfortunately this was not the case. Greens were slow with some nasty bare patches in place and the general course condition looked well below par for a course touted as the NT PGA Open course. Rating 10 out of 20

Cost – The pricing was very attractive for a “reputable course”, especially for senior golfers. Rating 15 out of 20

Visual Appeal – Once again it was disappointing driving into the carpark with a view that showed little of the course, although in their defence there was some construction work happening but it was still a very bland aspect of a course in front of you. Certainly didn’t give you a warm and fuzzy feel. Rating 12 out of 20

Facilities – The club had a good bar and bistro area but it was more for the average punter than the members from m,y perspective. The practice nets and green were pretty average but we were informed new nets and greens were only weeks away. Still we had to rate what was on offer. Rating 8 out of 10

Ambience – This was were it was hard, neither Andrew or I felt it was a must do course. It never felt like we had to come back, basically we felt it was average and were disappointed at what was offered up to us. Rating 6 out of 10

Conclusion- We’ll I can honestly say that Palmerston was a disappointment. It rated 64 which is pretty low for a highly regarded course. I don’t believe we will ever be back to re-rate the course but I do hope it does get much better.

My next CRAPP is in 2 weeks time at Kununurra , I’m sure you can’t wait!