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Tag Archives: Pine Creek
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!
Posted in Australia, Northern Territory
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 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.
Posted in Australia, Northern Territory
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.
Posted in Australia, Northern Territory
Tagged Australia, Batchelor, Northern Territory, Pine Creek
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