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Category Archives: Australia
Australia day 30 – Katherine, NT
A do-nothing-much day. The morning spent pottering around, enjoying the surroundings, having a swim, wandering the homestead grounds and generally relaxing after covering 1300km over the last week. In the afternoon we make a quick stop at the Low Level Nature Park on the banks of the Katherine River. This is another beauty spot popular for picnicking and swimming and there are two very inviting pools just below the weir in the eddy of the fast flowing current. But we resist the temptation to take a dip. There has been another report today of a 10-year-old being attacked by a croc while fishing somewhere in the Northern Territory, saved only by the quick thinking of his father who whacked it on the snout.
We spend some time looking around Katherine which has a sizeable town centre with a small shopping mall, a Woolies and various other shops including a campin’ and fishin’ which we browse around. Andy bought a cheap fishing rod a week or so ago and now buys some lures – live bait isn’t allowed . But when and where it will be safe to fish we’re not sure! We visit the library hoping to find some travel books on India as a cheaper option than research on the internet which is $2 for 15 minutes, but the library is small and has a poor selection of books and no travel section at all.
Like the rest of the Northern Territory indigenous people make up a high percentage of the population in Katherine and they are much in evidence as they spend much of their time outdoors usually sitting under the shade of trees or standing around the streets. We haven’t been able to determine how they make a living, if indeed they do.
After last night’s experience, we have rigged up a mozzie net outside with the table and chairs under it and we have a peaceful dinner while the flies swarm around outside, many clinging to the net. The flies only appear as dinner is being served and disappear just as suddenly when the last forkful has been consumed. Very strange!
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Australia day 29 – Pine Creek to Katherine, NT
Katherine is the third largest town in the Northern Territory with a population of 9000. It is 320km south of Darwin at the junction of the Stuart Highway and the Savannah Way. To give some idea of scale the Katherine region is the size of the state of Victoria in southern Australia. It is most famous for its gorge which sits in the Nitmiluk National Park and consists of a system of 13 individual gorges. There are also some hot springs here which at 32 degrees are only a couple of degrees cooler than the ambient temperature. We intend to visit both of these attractions during our stay.
About half way between Pine Creek and Katherine is the popular picnic and swimming spot at Edith Falls. A torrent of water falls into a large pandanus-fringed pool. This is a glorious spot and there are several people swimming here, despite the signs which state that ‘freshies’ (fresh water crocs which are passive and don’t attack unless provoked) inhabit the pool and that ‘salties’ may also be here as well. Just like everyone else, we take a quick dip, straying more than a couple of feet from the edge (not that, that will protect us in the event of a croc attack); but unable to completely relax we don’t stay long. Nature’s way of saying, perhaps, look, but don’t touch!
We are staying at Springvale Homestead in Katherine. It is the oldest original homestead in the Top End and is located 8 km south west of Katherine. The station was established in 1879 and managed by Alfred Giles, the ex-Overland Telegraph linesman. Giles brought sheep and cattle up from Adelaide to stock the station. Near the homestead are four huge South American Raintrees which Giles’ wife planted one for each of their children. In the area around the homestead there is a camp ground and caravan park as well as some cabins, a beautiful, tree-fringed billabong (no mozzies apparently as there are seven ‘freshies’ in it that eat all the larvae) and a deep freshwater swimming pool. It also has too other important benefits not always found on campsites in Australia – a fridge and iron! This is a delightful spot made even better when we are allocated a pitch on the edge of the billabong. Perfect! We are just settling in with a cup of tea, when the owner strolls over to say that a ‘saltie’ has just been spotted in the billabong and would we like to move back from the bank to one of the powered sites? Apparently this is the first time a ‘saltie’ had been sighted in the billabong. We don’t need to be asked twice, and sadly we move to a spot out of range of the potential predator. The authorities have been called and at some point, perhaps even today, someone will come and remove the croc.
There is quite a bit of wild life on the homestead including wallabies, green frogs and cane toads (the latter are poisonous and are considered a pest to be reported to the authorities), numerous types of birds, geckos and every bug you can think of, even one or two mosquitos. This evening we count eleven wallabies grazing in the grass just behind the van, quite unperturbed by our presence; frogs hop around everywhere and Andy came across two cane toads flat out on their backs in the showers!
But tonight the flies are in abundance. They seem to be particularly attracted by the seafood mix that I’m cooking in our little camp kitchen. We are using the camp stools provided with the van as legs and one of the lids from the storage compartments which forms part of the bed base, as a food preparation and cooking area and the flies are beginning to gather as soon as I start to cook. The numbers seem to increase as we sit down to eat and become so overwhelming that we have to resort to waving a plate above our heads while we eat! It’s with some relief that that the flies disappear completely once we finish our meal. Flies must find fish particularly yummy.
As soon as darkness falls all manner of insects appear to make life a misery – huge flying bugs and large grasshopper-like creatures as well as moths and little jumping insects that get inside our clothes. Another early night in retreat under the mozzie net for a bit of peace!
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Tagged Australia, Katherine, Northern Territory, Pine Creek
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Australia day 28 – Jabiru to Pine Creek, NT
How timely! Just as we are about to write a letter of complaint, Wicked have sent an email following up on the problems we have experienced with the van; offering us either a refund or an extension of our hire period as compensation for the down days. They have also invited feedback. We have obliged and now wait their response! Meanwhile the v an continues to chug on, although it doesn’t like to start first time.
Our first stop on the way back to Pine Creek is at Nawurlandja (Now-oo-larn-ja) lookout in the Nourlangie region – a 600m climb up and across a sandstone slope for wonderful views of the Arnhem Land escarpment, Nourlangie and the `Anbangbang (Arn-barng-barng) billabong just below us. From this vantage point the billabong appears covered in green and a mass of white flowers; and oasis amongst the trees which stretch on in every direction. Unsurprisingly the billabong walk is closed and we have to satisfy ourselves with this view from a distance. We prepare lunch in the car park, only to discover that we have left one of our chairs back at the campsite 40kms down the road! How you might ask, after all it’s hard to overlook a chair, right? Ah, not so simple; we had taken the chair to the camp kitchen to blog and recharge batteries and left it there. Fortunately it is still there when we return to collect it!
Most of the other walks around Nourlangie are closed and we are running out of time to get to Pine Creek to cook and eat before dark we forgo the Nanguluwur (Narng-oo-loo-war) art walk and kick on to The Lazy Lizard, a refreshing dip and the cool of the late afternoon shade. There are several small bush fires along the way.
Kakadu is a place of inspiring landscapes and incredible views of this vast country. Had we done our research more thoroughly we would have done this road trip in reverse, starting in Perth and ending in Darwin, arriving in Kakadu in May when all the wetlands and rivers would have been accessible and many cleared of crocs. Ah well, hindsight is a wonderful thing! A 4wd go-anywhere-van is is also advisable as at least 50% of the attractions are not accessible to 2wds. That involves booking ahead particularly in Darwin where the number of vehicles for hire is limited by its remote location (something else we didn’t appreciate). Perth as a starting point would seem to be a better bet all round.
Posted in Australia, Northern Territory
Tagged Australia, Jabiru, Northern Territory, Pine Creek
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Australia day 27 – Cooinda to Jabiru, NT
Cooinda, in the Yellow Water region of Kakadu National Park, is famed for its wetlands. But as we are fast beginning to discover anything near water is closed at this time of year. This is the run off season; the tail end of the wet season but not quite into the dry. Although the flood waters of the wet are generally subsiding, many roads and footpaths remain impassable and this seriously limits access to much of the highlights of the park particularly the billabongs and wetlands. It means that the only walk open in this region is between the campsite and the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre an since this can easily be reached by road, we take the latter option.
The circular design of the centre represents a warradjan (pig-nosed turtle). The centre has a large and impressive display developed by the Bininj (local aborigines) which provide a detailed picture of the aboriginal culture and history in Kakadu including their relations with the Balinda (European settlers). It is a heart-rending but ultimately optimistic portrayal.
With none of the wetland walks open we leave Cooinda by late morning heading for Jabiru which is the main township in Kakadu with such delights as a supermarket, post office, library, swimming pool and a few other shops, but offers little by way of other attractions other than a visitors centre an an Aboriginal arts and crafts gallery.
We stop enroute to Jabiru to climb up to the Murrai Lookout on the top of Mount Cahill. There is fabulous 360 panorama over the woodland as far west as the Arnhem Land escarpment and the vast unspoilt reaches of this land. Three English people are following behind; two are living in Melbourne and are from Gloucestershire and Essex. They are about to embark on a road trip to Melbourne; having flown up to Darwin they are collecting a car from friends who have done the trip in the opposite direction.
After organising a pitch for the night we drive on to Ubirr to see the rock art and watch the sunset from the rocky lookout there. But first, we take a look at the East Alligator River.- a misnomer if ever there was one, as there are no alligators here. This is the habitat of the estuarine crocodile or ‘saltie’ which can grow up to 2m long and have been known to attack those careless enough to stand too close to the water’s edge as well as the even more foolhardy who venture in to swim. There have been a couple of news stories since we arrive of people being attacked and killed. But that doesn’t stop a half-a-dozen or so young aborigines from have a fun time splashing about in the water upstream. Obviously there are none about today!
The ‘saltie’ is becoming a major problem in the Darwin area; numbers are increasing and are making their way further and further inland. There are very few places in Kakadu where it’s possible to swim safely and even these depend on the park authorities clearing them, which means they are not completely safe.. There is government proposal to cull all crocs within a 50 mile radius of Darwin and this is the subject of some debate at the moment.
Ubirr is on the edge of a magnificent sandstone escarpment and is the gateway to Arnhem Land and 91,000 sq km of undeveloped natural landscapes located in the middle of Australia’s northern coast. It is one of the last great unspoiled areas in the world and its small population is predominantly Aborginal. Access to Arnhem Land is strictly controlled and requires a permit to enter as well as 4wd. So it’s off the itinerary for us. But from the outcrop at Ubirr we can enjoy the most stunning 360 views of this vast and ruggedly beautiful landscape. To the east the stone country of the Arnhem Land sandstone escarpment and plateau and to the west the vibrant, lush green of the Nadab flood plains; all the more special for being bathed in the warm glow of the evening sunlight
It is swelteringly hot, still around 33 degrees or so. A man was heard to complain that the cold showers weren’t cold enough; and it’s true they are luke warm – there is no need for hot water to have a decent shower.
The campsite at Jabiru is huge and almost empty. There appear to be no camp ‘rules’ in Australia or at least none that are observed; loud music accompanied by bongos blarts from a group of tents close by from 10 pm and a family Easter egg hunt is underway by 6am. Quite a different kettle of fish from NZ where lights are out by 10 and everyone is a quiet as mice! In contrast the bar closes at 10pm (which probably accounts for the timing of the music) and there is no indoor kitchen; the flying insects and mozzies are a nuisance and bed seems comparatively attractive. Our body clocks are starting to shift as we turn in about 9.30pm and rise just after dawn! There is a lot to be said for this as the early morning is the best time of day, with its dappled light, lack of insects and cool air.
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Tagged Australia, Cooinda, Jabiru, Northern Territory
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Australia day 26 – Pine Creek to Cooinda, NT
A fairly uneventful day. Last night we stayed at the Lazy Lizard caravan park and had it almost to ourselves. Until, that is, three guys pitch up and park right alongside us. I’m sure that there must be some herding instinct that makes humans huddle together. It happens too frequently to be just an aberration; people just seem to be drawn together no matter how much space there is to spread out. Nonetheless, it’s been a pleasant stay here, made even more enjoyable by the fact there is a pool and a bar. Although Pine Creek itself has nothing much to offer.
We are entering Kakadu National Park from the south along the Kakadu Highway; our first overnight stop is Cooinda about 165km away. Kakadu National Park is a dual listed World Heritage site covering 20,000 sq km and comprising a wide variety of landscapes and habitats including lush wetlands, savannah woodland, monsoon forest, towering escarpments and coastal mangroves, only some of which we will get to see on this trip. We are planning to travel as far as Ubirr on the eastern border with Arnhem Land and then double back to make our way to Katherine and onwards to Broome.
Aboriginal people have lived in this area and Arnhem Land for more than 50,000 years and continue to make up the majority of the population today. The Park is steeped in their cultural history and one of the major highlights is the rock art as Nourangie and Ubirr. Kakadu is owned by the traditional owners (Aborigines) and leased back to the government as a national park and managed jointly.
Most of the journey from Pine Creek has been through savannah woodland; sparsely spread eucalypt and pandanus palms and dense tall grass, with some wetland here and there. Most of Kakadu is covered in woodland and here the grass is brown and we pass the occasional small bush fire. These fires are important for the regeneration of the land and we pass areas of scorched earth where lush green shoots of new grass are beginning to come through.
We stop overnight at the main caravan park a Cooinda which has a shaded pool offering welcome relief from the overwhelming heat. Despite the long Easter weekend, the camp grounds have plenty of space and we are able to pick an out-of-the-way pitch under the trees. But it isn’t quiet for long; someone has pop music blaring and a somewhat dysfunctional family attempt to pitch their tents alongside us. After a while it is clear that this is their first foray into camping, and as night falls they are still struggling with one of the tents which they eventually abandon for lack of light. Long after we’ve gone to bed, they decide to light an open fire to ward off the deluge of mosquitoes, despite the fact that, as everyone knows, open fires are banned because of the high risk of bush fires. But it doesn’t burn for long before a camp warden is on the case and the fire is extinguished.
Mozzies! There is a plague of the little buggers tonight. We have never seen anything like it and we have to resort to setting up a mozzie net inside the van. There are so many, the air is filled with their constant whine. We have two coils burning and have double-dosed on the repellant, but all to no avail and we retreat early to bed to escape being eaten alive!
We are beginning to realise that Kakadu is not the most hospitable place at this time of year.
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Tagged Australia, Cooinda, Northern Territory, Pine Creek
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Australia day 25 – Batchelor to Pine Creek, NT
We at the garage by 7.45am to get the van repaired, only to find that the truck picking up the spares has broken down and is having to be towed back! We pass the time having breakfast in the park opposite. Eventually we get away around 10. Back to Litchfield National Park, we stop to check the access to the various places of interest only to find most are closed; this is the tail end of the wet season and about half the sights including Wangi Falls the most popular spot in the park, are inaccessible. The only place we can get acccess is Tolmer Falls which is a spectacular waterfall tumbling several 100 feet over a sandstone escarpment into a large plunge pool below.
Having seen all we can in Litchfield we are on our way to Kakadu National Park over in the north-east Top End taking the Stuart Highway south to Pine Creek The van seems to be running smoothly now; no screeching. A further call to Wicked to complain that the van hasn’t been safety checked before it was hired out and that we suspect that it is overdue the service which was due 5000 kilometres ago. Wicked are just not interested; preventative action seems to be an anathema – but they will come out if we breakdown! Great! What a muppet outfit.
Pine Creek is at the junction of the Stuart Highway and the route into Kakadu. It’s small – population 780. The town (it’s not really a town by European standards, more like a small village) consists of an open-sided bar with swimming pool, a general store, a petrol station, three caravan parks (one of which, The Lazy Lizard, is attached to the bar), a shop selling work clothes and ‘exploration’ equipment and a cluster of houses. We are still looking for a lamp, but surprisingly have no luck here. It’s pleasant, but not as pretty as Batchelor. The Lazy Lizard with access to the pool gets our vote and we have a late afternoon dip.
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Tagged Australia, Batchelor, Northern Territory, Pine Creek
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Australia day 24 – Batchelor NT
Oh what a day! The battery is flat in the camper and we have to jump start it. We have an fan in the van which runs off the cigarette lighter and was assured by the man in the shop that it could be run all night from the car battery without any adverse affect. Perhaps leaving the aircon on all night as well was a step too far? Anyway we have decided to take the van into the local mechanic to get it checked as it still continues to screech intermittently. It turns out that it needs a new fan belt and a air conditioning belt, both have to be ordered for delivery late today, which means we will need to bring the van back tomorrow for repair. And that’s not all. We checked the oil last night and again this morning only to find that it is hardly registering on the dipstick. Either the van wasn’t checked and serviced before it was released for hire, or there’s a leak. The former is probably more likely given the shambles at the depot when we picked it up. The good news is that Wicked have agreed to pay for the repairs and the oil (believe it or not, they initially wanted us to pick up the cost of the latter!), the bad news is that the mechanic has advised us not to travel to Perth in it! What’s the likelihood of getting our money back, I wonder?
To cap it all the mechanic loses our hire agreemen; according to records in the van it is overdue a service; and a conversation with Wicked to complain about the state of the van is inconclusive – at the moment they’re not interested in doing anything other than covering the immediate repair. Conclusion: don’t rent from Wicked – they appear to have no compunction about sending people on a 5000 km journey across the outback in unchecked and unserviced vans that aren’t fit for purpose.
The van is drivable for the time being at least and we spend the afternoon in Litchfield National Park swimming first at Florence Falls and then at Buley Rock Pools. Florence Falls has a fabulous plunge pool surrounded by high cliffs over which tumble two falls. It’s a popular spot to cool off and there is quite a crowd by Australian outback standards. The water is wonderfully refreshing and the shallows are full of large black fish. There is a very quiet and shady alternative walk back to the car park which follows a small creek as it gurgles and tinkles through a monsoon rainforest.. Then as we climb we emerge suddenly into savannah woodland of sparsely spaced trees and thick tall grass.
Buley Falls is much less crowded and all the better for it. Not as dramatic in terms of height; a small creek cascades over angular sandstone ledgess into a series of deep pools which are perfect for swimming and just cooling down.
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Tagged Australia, Batchelor, Northern Territory
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Australia day 23 – Darwin to Batchelor
We finally leave Darwin behind and after doing a bit more shopping to finish kitting out the van and we are off to Litchfield National Park. The road is straight and the landscape flat. There are a couple of small bush fires along the roadside; one serious enough to have the emergency services in attendance. This is the country of the massive road trains; enormous lorries hauling three or four trailers and they take no prisoners – apparently stopping for nothing and no-one as they hurtle along the highway.
Batchelor, just off the Stuart Highway (the road that runs from Darwin through Alice to Adelaide), is a small township in a parkland setting. There are a few houses, a general store-cum-post office, a pub and Aboriginal art centre. We stop here for the night – tomorrow the national park.
The campsite has a bird feeding sessions in the evening and early morning. It attracts scores of exotic and colourful birds including rainbow lorikeets, which it’s possible to view from close quarters. After dark the frogs and toads come out; some quite enormous!
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Tagged Australia, Batchelor, Darwin, Northern Territory
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Australia day 22 – Darwin
Today we pick up our ‘Wicked’ camper, which turns out to be anything but. We had seen these vans all over New Zealand and all in much better condition than the one that greeted us today. The upside, of course, as with the car we hired in NZ, is that any further chips, scratches and dents are hard to attribute to us. Nonetheless a smarter, cleaner van would have been nice. But then you get what you pay for, and this is the cheapest. After picking it up the rest of the day is spent shopping for food and items to kit it out – sheets, pillows, cooking utensils and so on. Now we are more or less ready to roll and will set off for Lichfield National Park tomorrow. Although the van is making a rather disconcerting screeching noise from time to time and if it continues is going to require attention.
It rained this afternoon – still hot, but now sticky and humid.
We are stopping overnight at a caravan park on the Stuart Highway in the outskirts of Darwin. It’s so nice to be able to use a decent and clean kitchen again!
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Australia day 21 – Darwin
Having learned our lesson – too much exertion is not good in this heat – we take the bus to Casaurina Reserve located some distance away in the north of the suburb of Rapid Creek As it turns out it is much too far to walk in any case and involves two buses; the first to Casaurina Shopping Centre which seems to be the largest in Darwin, and another to the Reserve itself. Fares are reasonably cheap at $2 particularly as they are valid for three hours unlimited travel. Rapid Creek is a suburb of wide streets, and large houses with swimming pools, lush gardens, palm trees … and few people or cars.
At Casaurina Reserve there is an 8km stretch of sandy beach backed by the ochre hues of the dramatically weaving Dripstone Cliffs with their stratified rocks and curious inlets. There is also a walking track along the cliff tops through grassy bush scattered with trees and a picnic under their shade comes as a welcome respite. Apparently, at low tide it is possible to Aboriginal sites including Dariba Nunggalinya (Old Man Rock) from the Dripstone lookout, but unfortunately not today as the tide is already coming in when we arrive.
There are only about a dozen people on the beach and a couple in the water fishing despite the warnings about box jelly fish. There is a cooling breeze off the sea which makes for a very pleasant stroll. We’ve probably been walking along the shore for about 10 or 15 minutes when Andy realises he has dropped one of his Crocs and jogs back to find it lying almost at the point where we came down onto the beach. Having jogged all the way back again we walk on a bit further before he discovers that our purse that he carries clipped to his shorts and which contains about $190, is missing. Another jog back down the beach in search of it is fruitless and we are resigning ourselves to the fact it is lost, particularly as the incoming tide has begun to cover our original path along the beach. Our only hope is that perhaps we left it in the hostel. But by an amazing stroke of luck, just as we are about to head off the beach feeling somewhat dejected, Andy spots the purse in the water!!
By the time we arrive back at Casaurina Shopping Centre it is almost 3pm. We have time between buses and decide to take a quick look round only to find the shops closing. I don’t think we missed anything very much as initial impressions are that this is no Bluewater.
Despite the bus rides and a relatively short walk, we are still exhausted by the time we get back to the hostel and the cool haven of our air-conditioned room.
Tomorrow we pick up our camper van and leave Darwin for a few days touring round Lichfield National Park to the south and Kakadu to the east before starting our drive to Perth via Broome. We are not sure what internet access will be available so posts may be sporadic (nothing new there I hear you say!)
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Tagged Australia, Darwin, Northern Territory
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