Is the Savannah Way to Hell's Gate worse than the Gibb? Mataranka, Daly Waters, Hell's Gate Ep 35

g'day we're David and Paula love many people we've been working hard for many years and we're too young to retire but we've decided to take a gap Year from work we've bought a new van and we're doing a lap right around Australia okay here it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right [Music] what's the other Springs and things that we've been to yes isn't it I mean yes there's a couple of access points and things but oh Paul's going to flood around here a bit and I'm just going to go up around the corner [Music] comes through I didn't see where the Springfield was from the crystal crease sort of things [Music] thank you [Music] there's a loop track around the Springs area so you can take a bit of a walk probably ride your me out the bike around and just have a look at the the springs and the stream from the Springs from different locations so it's worth going for a look but I think the big tip is come early um it's uh yeah from the middle of the day it's sort of quite crowded and you know kids are playing and people try to enjoy themselves but you know if you just want to just serenely float your way down and sort of enjoy the piece yeah come early in the morning and we just found it a little bit a little bit crowded and it's not even peak season what's about a 10 minute walk from a caravan to the actual Springs something like that something like that close to that yeah so there's a shortcut track from the campground or you can just go out near the front entrance and walk down the road which is probably actually the quickest way it's probably a shortcut I've always said let's go the long circuitous Pinterest she said take me the scenic and picturesque way like we always go [Music] so I thought all right that's fine we'll do that then I don't mind she Tuckers me out there I mean she just likes to keep walking Springs yeah yeah what time is it early [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] it's a lot more productive [Music] it was pleasant and it was warm but it's very structured isn't it yeah it's very it's just like the public swimming baths just being fed brighter by the Natural Springs here so I think for us we prefer bit of spring I think the bit experience is a bit bigger as well aren't they it's longer yeah [Music] anyway those words come down have a look this is just absolutely insane [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] right there [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] wearing a body [Music] hey g'day g'day yeah Paul's not talking to me this morning we're having a domestic um so we almost changed plans I mean the plan was to go from daily Waters across the alternate route of the Savannah way up oralula across the hills gate there's been some reports at the road it's pretty bad between borolula and Hills gate that normally use them but anyway we'll we'll see we are denied about whether we'd go further south and go across the tablelands highway to Barkley and do it so we decided we'd stick the plan and head across it's a it's sort of a bit of a bit more of a wild frontier across this way I mean at the end of the day that section between Bora Lola and Hell's Gate is sort of a large area of unsealed Road didn't we we did and we decided just did we flip the coin pretty much decided to stick to plan it might cost us an extra day or two but anyway let's let's see what this area of the Savannah Way looks like we're on a temporary Road at the moment I think this is the old road oh okay they're upgrading it and they're building the new road over there I wish we were on the new road anyway this is a good start isn't it yeah [Music] yeah so we won't make for a Lula today we don't think it's sort of like a five hour drive and we don't particularly want to drive that that far we'll see how we go so we'll get to Cape Crawford we'll fill up with some fuel we're carrying some extra fuel in one of the Jerry's just to give us an extra 100 kilometers of range and we'll see we'll see how we go anyway it should be should be interesting and then we head across towards the golf country but we've got these sections of the highway there are these great news sections um of road but this is the carpentaria highway um and uh yeah this section from daily Waters to borolula is mostly this thin strip of sealed Road singles uh sealed strip down the center with the dirt bird I know we've got a few people from overseas who who watch so this is this is a Highway in the Northern Territory but even this Road's not too bad it's uh it's comfortable you know it's uh there are some sections which are starting to fall apart but for the most part this is comfortable and you hardly see any other cars anyone the Savannah wire essentially goes right across the top of Australia from Cairns in the East to Broome in the west and we're on this section or one of the sections of it essentially from Central Australia across the Borah up to hillsgate but this is all Savannah Country so this dry Savannah and during the wet season a lot of this gets flooded a lot of floodways hey g'day so we've left Borough Lula and we're heading towards Hills gate Roadhouse and they call it Hell's Gate for a reason because in the 1800s that's as far coming from Queensland that the police would guarantee your safety it was pretty Lawless in this section in between but it's also supposed to be a very bad section of road so we're taking it easy and we don't know whether that bad means as bad as a gift better than the Gib worse than the give we don't know so we're just taking it easy so we're there so we've aired down and we'll just take our time but the general advice that we've had is that the first 30 to 50 kilometers is horrendous so we'll see what that means we're going to do it in about two days I think and just just take our time but a few sort of heavy corrugations as you can hear I'm just a little bit wary we hit a kangaroo yesterday unfortunately it's the second kangaroo of the trip um and uh I sort of clipped us they hit us on the front well he didn't clip us he ate us with a hill of a thump on the front left hand um and down the side but we've got some panel damage down the left hand side minor panel damage uh that one came from above us and I know that sounds ridiculous but we're actually going through a cutting at a place called Little River about an hour west of boralula and it was the middle of the day so even though we try not to even though we try not to travel in gold now you know the worst time for ruse and things like that this was the middle of the day and he came off a cutting above us and just bounced straight out sort of down and in the end of the road so fortunately he was heading down but he was a big it was a big bugger and got up and bounced off sort of into the bush he was I went back to have a look but he'd gone so fortunately for us it could have gone either way coming from above us it could easily have hit the windscreen and hit up high so anyway this is sort of why you need the extra protection on your car as best you can being told to watch out for the bulldust holes which probably which probably saving them quite deep and they can have rocks and things down we'll just take our time see how we go here's the first water crossing nice and clear on the bottom of that one here we go another border crossing yeah I can see we can see it okay [Music] thank you good morning so we're at the calverts river crossing on the road between borolula and Hills Gate Road house so I borrowed in the Northern Territory hillsgate Roadhouse just the other side of the Queensland at the border so we're about 120 kilometers from hillsgate Roadhouse roughly between the two but it's a rough road been a very rough road I'd say there are sections of the Gib which were worse um and particularly with the sharp stones and all those sorts of things but this one's up there that's for sure we've had to take it easy took us four and a half hours um to get the 200 kilometers closer to five um and it uh yeah it's hard on the gear I've had I've had a look around and a check I've got to put a few screws back in some of the hardware in the Cabinetry in the Caravan but overall the car and the van are doing the road pretty well but you have got to take it easy I mean it doesn't matter how well you're set up I mean it's still hard on your gear um so uh so we'll take we'll have a steady run today towards Hills gate Roadhouse and see how we go uh hopefully the road's no worse um you get you get mixed reports but we'll just take it easy it looked beautiful area this free camp we were by ourselves in the free Camp there's only a couple of cars passed here in the afternoon after we'd set up so so you know we're a long way out and that's reasonably isolated but for us very nice it was it was quite shaded yesterday you probably noticed I've got my jumper on it's actually freezing overnight now not in your Southern terms freezing I mean it was 11 degrees overnight and it's 12 degrees now but but that's been cold compared to what we've been experiencing had to go rummaging through and find the jumpers Paul's still in bed gave a coffee in bed which I don't want to do anyway if I can yeah a lot of bird life uh in around but you can't see the River from here but I'll show you some overlay footage yeah there's crocodiles in the river here so you can't go uh you could go swimming and here I went down for a look couldn't see any but we'll have another look this morning but we sustained a little bit of damage um day before yesterday we hit a roux where unfortunately the roux hit us but uh fortunately for us very minor panel damage just yeah we were just lucky we probably wasn't so lucky but today we'll head towards Hills Gate Road House hopefully the roads are no worse but this is a nice little free camp and we had a roast we had a roast beef dinner last night on the river I don't know if you can hear that if we've got the birds chirping away um so yeah so it was a good peaceful little spot to stop over well it's a late start wasn't it what time is it it's 11 o'clock huh g'day today not me nothing to see here Paul had a bit of a sleep in this morning and got a good coffee and better she normally that's what happens when I get my coffee in bed yeah well then then we might actually have to reconsider all this it was free we got cold last night it got cold yeah what did it get to like 11 or 12 degrees yeah and so it was so it was cool this morning um so yeah keep in mind we're up in the tropics so we're back on the road from the Calvert River Rest Stop so I think we've got another 120 kilometers of rough stuff today so we'll take it easy it's quite Rocky here this is a bit more Rocky than we've been used to so it's a bit more like the give River Road isn't it yeah [Music] so we saw the rough road rough surface sign and yep it was rough sometimes you just end up on the other side of the road because the track's a little bit better not real good interview but yes this section is certainly uh since that sign has been a bit a bit rougher and let's hope it doesn't get any worse than this and so the next stop for us should be in about 30 40 kilometers when we get to the border and then we'll be back in our home state of Queensland at least temporarily anyway the sales section which is a welcome relief from the last hour or so isn't it that was short then yeah such as really pretty so that's pretty good [Music] welcome to Queensland here we go banana mango sugar cane it's back into Queensland we're back home Ben's home safe doing six months to the day yes so we left Queensland and of course we're still about 4 000 kilometers from from home if not more but uh anyway so we'll and we're not we're not going home we just did our home state yep we go bounce bounce bounce bounce bent so so much for the Queensland side being better so we're about to get to Hills gate I think we'll both be glad to get out and stretch our legs here we go there's the hills Gate Road House [Music] yep pretty rough being ready to pull up probably the Gibbs probably worse but wouldn't be by much it's been a tough road [Music] next episode we continue the trip across the Savannah way we have a terrific free camp at leicart Falls we head up to the Sunset Bar at carumba and then we camp up at a distillery in mariba before we head to Cape York foreign [Music] thanks for joining us please don't forget to like And subscribe and remember 100 of our YouTube advertising Revenue goes to charity

Channel: NextLevelOZ Big Lap Gap Year

Views: 3,565

Keywords: Van life, caravan australia, lap of australia, new defender, Land Rover defender, Mataranka, Bitter Springs, Savannah Way, Hells Gate, Northern Territory, Daly waters, Daly Waters Pub, Borroloola, Hell's Gate Roadhouse

Id: sk-jLkK9Lq0

Length: 22min 47sec (1367 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 23 2023