Tag Archives: Northern Territory

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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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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A short bus journey away is Parap Market, one of Darwin’s longest running markets.    This small Saturday market is situated in the Parap Village shopping precinct, in a pleasant suburb 5 km north of the city centre.  It’s a mixture of arts and crafts, clothes and food.  Among the stalls are several selling south east Asian take-away and the sounds and smells transport us back to the street food in Thailand, Laos and the rest.  This afternoon we spent some time starting what will probably be a long process of researching where to go after Australia.  East or West?  India or South America?  Initial research into flights costs suggests that the cheaper option is India.  Sri Lanka was a possibility until we checked the Foreign Office website which advises against all travel to the north and east of the island – and  since the west and south will be in the monsoon season when we want to travel we have discounted it as a destination.  Research to be continued….

Yesterday afternoon we returned to the hostel to find the street closed and police milling about.  Outlines of a car accident had been marked on the road, but the vehicles involved had been towed away.  Today, we read in the newspaper that there had been a road rage incident just outside the hostel;  a man in a 4wd had deliberately driven at another on a motor scooter causing him to swerve head on into an oncoming car.  The 4wd proceeded to run over him as he lay in the road and had then driven off.   This would be a shocking event anywhere, but it seems particularly so in this pleasant and seemingly laid back city.  Fortunately the victim survived and the perpetrator has been caught.

Darwin is famed for it’s spectacular sunsets and today we went down to the waterfront to see for ourselves.  We left it a few minutes too late and the sun went down so fast that we missed it disappearing below the horizon, but the aftermath was beautiful nonetheless as the sky turned a deep orange and the clouds took on a golden hue.

My arm is much better;  the Deep Heat seems to be doing the trick and I’m gradually getting a wider range of movement and less pain.

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It’s hot and we are beginning to realise just how acclimatised we were to the heat by the time we left south-east Asia;  Penang was much hotter than Darwin but not half so draining.  Hopefully we will re-acclimatise over the next few days otherwise we are going to be in a permanent state of exhaustion!  This morning we walk to Cullen Bay, which is a couple of kilometres from our hostel and not as interesting as the tourist literature would have you believe.  The main attraction is the marina – full of expensive yachts – and the ferry terminal.  There are a few shops, cafes, restaurants and modern holiday apartment blocks.  But not really worth the walk in the heat.  We toy with the idea of taking the ferry across the harbour to Mandorah Beach but decide against it as there is little there but beach and one hotel complex.  Instead we walk a further kilometre or so to the Botanical Gardens,.by which time we are starting to flag.  The gardens are lovely and we picnic by the fountains which shoot about 20 feet into the air and then walk around the rainforest and shady gardens.  Not far away is Mindil Beach which is famous for it’s sunset markets held here on Thursdays and Sundays from late April until October.  There is a sandy beach and a small park between the foreshore and the road, but little else including people. Everywhere is so quiet!  We bus back into Darwin city centre exhausted and I crash out around 8! 

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34 degrees today and sunny – lovely!  We spend the morning at the Aquascene in the heart of Darwin at Doctors Gully. Here, at high tide, hundreds of fish come to shore to be fed by hand.  Only open at high tide, this attraction is situated in the grounds of a private residence and visitors can get up close to a host of different wild fish.  Bread is provided and visitors are actively encouraged to get into the water and feed the fish which throng the waters around their feet.  Meat-eating fish are fed by a member of staff, who provides a extremely interesting and informative commentary.  We spent a couple of hours at the centre and saw Diamond mackeral, milk fish, bream, sweet lip, barramundi, toad fish, archer fish, shovel nose rays, garfish, eel tailed catfish, bronze catfish, mangrove jack, crocadilian long toms, and coral cod and probably several others that I can’t recall by name. A fascinating experience and definitely worth the $11 entrance fee.

The hostel has a bar, two small pool and jacuzzi on the a  terrace on the 1^st floor and after lunch we take a dip to cool down and refresh.  After the walk to Doctors Gully in the heat it was just what we needed.  Afterwards we take a rather longer stroll passed Parliament House and down the escarpment to Stokes Hill Wharf where we sit a cafe over-looking the enormous natural harbour.  Stokes Hill Wharf was bombed by the Japanese not long after Pearl Harbour and there is a memorial on the quayside to the many people who were killed on that fateful day.  The wharf area is undergoing a major regeneration and there is large-scale development of a residential complex in progress which will include shops, restaurants and bars as well as a wave pool and landscaped gardens overlooking the wharf area and the harbour beyond.  We walk back through the lovely tree-filled Bicentennial Gardens that run between the waterfront and the Esplanade

Darwin is an attractive modern city;  the aftermath of the war and more recently cyclone Tracey in 1974 which destroyed some 60% of the buildings in the city have meant that there are few old buildings remaining.  It has a laid back vibe, beautiful beaches, inviting sea and lush vegetation.  Unfortunately in one of nature’s ironies it isn’t possible to swim in the sea between October and May due to box jellyfish (their sting can be leathal) and during the rest of the year protective suits are recommended.    We like Darwin!

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We weren’t able to book a camper van before we arrived in Darwin and now we are discovering that the start of the dry season and the beginning of the peak season on 1^st April means that campers are in short supply.  As a result we aren’t able to get an off-road camper and have to settle for a bog standard van through Wicked.  Wicked specialise in backpacker vans which are characterised by lairy graffiti-like paintwork and fatuous slogans emblazoned across the bodywork.  But they are the cheapest and, after ringing round a few other hire companies, the only company that has a van available.  Even then the earliest we can pick it up is Monday;  so we will be staying in Darwin for at least a week.  We’ve now decided to take the van right through to Perth and allowed ourselves until 30^th May to do the trip.  But first we will go east to Kakadu National Park as far as Jabiru and then doubling back to visit Litchfield National Park.

Darwin has a very compact central business district (as the Australians call the town centre) and is very quiet (only 110,000 population) and few cars it seems.  It’s also very cosmopolitan and…. extremely hot!  The bars stay open after 9.30pm (unlike in Tas!), in fact some were still open and had people in them when we arrived in the early hours of this morning!  There is a lovely park on the Esplanade looking out over the sea and we have a stroll through them passing a couple of groups of Aborigines sitting around chatting. 

The hostel prices have gone up today reflecting the start of the peak season by more than 50%!  So we have moved into a cheaper room until Monday.  Superficially this place is much like the hostels in China, but far more security conscious.  The swipe card keys also operate the lifts and restrict guests movements to certain areas of the building to prevent men accessing the women-only floor.  There isn’t a common room as such but there is outside terrace bar with two pools and spa.  The communal kitchen is a far-cry from those on the caravan parks in New Zealand and Tas, which by and large are clean and tidy;  here the sinks are full of dirty pans and crockery left from the night before.  Is it something to do with the backpacker profile perhaps????!   The strangest aspect of the kitchen is that all the hob rings are permanently making the kitchen unbearably hot.  Why??

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