Log One Hundred and Thirty Seven – There are Campgrounds and Then There are Places to Camp

25 June 2026

In my last Log I mentioned boundaries. There is one I omitted and that is termite mounds that wear tee shirts. It seems up here it is important for termite mounds to be dressed in a tee shirt, maybe a cap and in some cases a hardhat. Amazing.

We have crossed the technology Rubicon and now enjoy full mobile phone and internet access regardless of how remote we might be. We have a Starlink mini! The tipping point was when I saw NT police vehicles with Starlink on their dash. So here I am writing this epistle in a remote part of Fitzroy Crossing, WA and with fast internet speeds.

Over the last month we have enjoyed a wide range of camping facilities ranging from no facilities to everything you might need, including an onsite restaurant. Here is my summary of our camping experiences:

• Free camps – these can be close to highways or down dusty roads, crowded or empty, noisy with generators or quiet. Always safe if there are a few campers. There is never a flat camp site.
• Basic caravan parks – toilets and hot showers will be available but anything more will depend on the level of refinement of the camp and how desperate you are to find somewhere to stop. The more desperate the more likely your standards will drop. The camp kitchens at these places are always the place to meet interesting fellow travellers.
• Big name franchise camps – quality and facilities can be pretty much guaranteed. The challenge will be how big or small the sites might be and how crowded the place is.
• Resort style parks – these come with all the facilities, power, water, dump point etc and probably a swimming pool and bistro. They can be expensive. Great places to get your washing done and to enjoy local fare.

We have enjoyed all variants and at both ends of the spectrum.

Today we visited Geikie Gorge where we came across a flower that looks just like a bird. In Australia we can be very creative with names of prominent buildings or landscapes. And so we have the Snowy Mountains which are mountains often covered in snow. There is the Harbour Bridge which is a bridge over the harbour. We have Long Plain which is a long plain and of course the Great Barrier Reef which is a very long, some might say great, barrier reef. This flower that looks like a bird grows on the Green Bird Flower Tree.

I have given up on yelling at the car when it thinks I am not paying attention or whether I need to take a break. Resistance is futile.

For my European readers we have now covered a distance similar to travelling from the Mediterranean coast of Syria to the northern most tip of Scotland but with a tiny percentage of the same population.

Fuel here is $2.40 a litre; happy days.