April 25 -28 Leliyn (Edith) Falls & Victoria River

April 30, 2022 - Reading time: 3 minutes

Leaving Bitter Springs for a quick jaunt ( 90 kms) up the track to Katherine for a quick restock of salad and veggies, fuel top up ( Shell Cossack 20 c cheaper than in town).
We made our way up to an old campsite at Edith River which I remembered from my dim distant past! Beautiful spot just next to the bridge on the old Stuart Highway with running water. However, it was very very hot and we pushed onto Leliyn Falls campground. Lovely spot – tall trees, green grass, showers and toilets. Had a great walk up to the top pool – only 1 km, great swim in the morning and the water was refreshing especially in the 34 degree heat of the day. Imagine tomorrow will be a repeat Had our first game of quoits for the trip. – thankfully I got up 2 -1. Maurs will be sure to desire revenge tomorrow. The only negative is that the Hard Korr solar Blanket continues to underperform so I have now made a warranty claim. It is contributing .01amh - not flash for a item that costs $650! Will be interesting to see what response we get. Had a lovely time here, but the day of departure was a disaster! Woke up at 7 to find the batteries had decreased from 50% to zero and the fridge had turned itself of. Luckily for us there was some reserve power and we got packed up and headed to Katherine hoping the car would get the batteries up! No such luck, so off to see the battery experts at ‘outback batteries’ who found the Andersen plug on the trailer was defective but had no other ideas. The auto electrician down the road found the Andersen plug on the car was also defective! Drove 30 kms out to the Gorge and back to see if we could build up some charge in the batteries and hit 10% - heading in the right direction! Took the risk of shopping at Woolworths, filled the fridge which was back to cooling and headed on to Victoria River Homestead where we had a powered site. Sounds all good for the batteries – the fridge decided to turn itself off! Problem solving using the manual – lights off so checked lead all good! Fuse in lead? Bugger- good so plug back in! Presto turned itself on! We have no idea what the issue was. The only good news of the day! Hard Korr the manufacturer of the solar blanket have sent a replacement to Timber Creek so it will hopefully arrive in the next two weeks. Took a bit of arm twisting but we got there! Not surprisingly, went out for dinner!