Darwin

Darwin (19^th – 30^th July)

Our time in Darwin has been quite interesting – things have changed in 26 years! Below are a few of the activities we engaged in whilst here:

After settling into the caravan park, our first trip out was by bus from the caravan park to the Mindil night market. Sonja had a great time – lots of jewellery and clothing! There were a number of food stalls and quite a few tour stalls (ready for all the grey nomads wandering into the area). We had tea watching a glorious sunset (the first of a number sitting on the a beach somewhere around Darwin).

We had a drive and a walk around the part of the port area before discovering Government House was open for the day. We spent some time having a look through the building (originally built as residence for the Administrator of the Northern Territory in 1871, it has gone through several transformations due to cyclones, white ants and the Japanese bombing in 1942. There has been extensive work done on the gardens, which are continually evolving with a wide variety of both shade and sun-loving plants).

Sonja at Government House

We caught a ferry across to Mandorah on the Cox Peninsula (opposite Darwin) where we had lunch at the hotel before heading back to visit the Darwin Military Museum/Defence of Darwin Experience (relating to the Japanese Bombings of Darwin in 1942). This was quite an interesting couple of hours and well worth the trip.

Sunset at Cullum Beach

We took out membership with the Darwin Casino (free $20 to use on the pokies and a book of discounts for over 50s – cheap lunch!). We met Garry (Sonja’s brother) and his friend Jill with another couple of Boolarra friends here for lunch and pokies – we actually came out ahead with lucky Sonja top-scoring with a $20 windfall (David managed to come out $6 ahead)!

We had a couple of extra power leads made – one to extend the length of the solar panel lead used to keep the second battery going for the car (so we can leave the car in the shade and place the panels about 15 metres away – hopefully in the sun) and a second long lead to let us power the Engel fridge from the 12volt plug on the caravan system (thereby extending the usage of the car battery).

We visited Burnett House at Mylilly Point. This is a National Trust Heritage listed house, built in 1937 – louvers on all sides allow any breeze to cool the house down. It managed to survive both the Japanese attack during WWII and Cyclone Tracey. After this, David went to the flicks (Dark Knight) and Sonja had a restful day reading.

We had a trip out to Lee Point and had a wander, ankle deep, in the water (eyes out for crocs all the time) and also made a stop at the Dripstone Cliffs (lots of colours in the sandstone cliffs). One afternoon was also spent on the waterfront where we lazed by a lagoon next to the commercial 'wave lagoon' (a large pool in which waves are produced for people to 'surf').

Sonja at Lee Point

Another lunch with Garry, Jill and the others and the some shopping at Casuarina Shopping Centre (the largest centre in the Northern Territory - basically, the same as any other large shopping mall in any part of Australia, but obviously very important for Darwin and the Northern Territory)! Bought some Barramundi at the Darwin Wharf for a couple of home-cooked meals.

Delight of delights, we went to the Royal Darwin Show (discount entry thanks again to the Seniors Card!) and spent a number of hours taking in the sights and sounds of a small county show. We enjoyed watching polo cross (Victoria vs Northern Territory – Victoria won) and saw the official opening by the Administrator of the Territory. Cricketer, Glen McGrath was there as ambassador for the Year of the Farmer (judging the cattle). Then, The Grand Parade….a six-piece Scottish pipe band, a number of cars (some, vintage, others, not!) and a very small number of livestock (most of which came from a couple of the area schools) – the cars went round twice! We looked at the livestock pavilions and watched the pig racing and diving (yes, pigs racing around a small track with the enthusiastic audience urging them on, and two pigs that took a flying leap off a platform into a small pool – exciting stuff in Darwin). We have also decided that without the support of the local schools, there wouldn’t be much in the art/craft field. This brought back a lot of memories for Sonja who organised children’s entries from St Georges Road school into the Shepparton Show. All in all, a pleasant, relaxing day. The weather helped by being overcast for most of the day with a light breeze (although it was still up around 29C).

We also went to another couple of markets looking at local craftwork and food stalls (although many of the stall holders seem to be at each market!). Parap and Rapid Creek markets also having fresh fruit and veg. Washed the car and borrowed a ladder to make sure the solar panels on the roof of the caravan were going to be clean enough to absorb all that sunlight the southern part of Australia is missing out on! 

Katherine to Darwin

Katherine - Darwin  9^th -  19^th July

Finally into Darwin - I've added place names of where we stayed

Douglas Hot Springs

Arrived at Douglas Hot Springs (part of the National Parks system) after a brief stop at Pine Creek where we again met up with Len and Margaret (who’s stalking who)!

We had originally paid for two nights here but decided we liked it enough for five nights. When we arrived, mid–afternoon, there were LOTS of other vans, motorhomes and tents filling the camp area. It’s bush camping (with flush toilets and water on tap), but without designated campsites, so it’s choose where you want to be and just park there – trying to avoid being too close to others if possible. We picked a spot and set our selves up before heading down to the water.

Douglas Hot Springs is a great place. Hot water seeps out of the ground and mixes with the river flowing by to form pools of lovely warm water. The temperature depends on how close to the source the water is – There is a large pool that is the main source (a pleasant spot to be where the cold and hot mix), other places where it just seeps out of the soil to form small rivulets that flow into the main body of cold water and others where it just bubbles out of the sand in the shallow cold water stream (making other very pleasant places to just lie down and relax).

Nice spot to relax

Just after sunrise - lots of mist rising off the hot water flowing in.

A hard way to start the morning!

The temperature has increased considerably since we arrived (around 35º) which was quite pleasant when there was somewhere to relax and cool off, but the Engel (running off the second battery in the car) was having difficulties as we are using it as a freezer rather than as a fridge. We had to run the car a few times to keep the battery charged up (even though we had the solar panels on and chasing the sun all day) as the fridge motor was running almost all the time. For some of the time we ran the Engel from the 12volt fitting on the van. This worked reasonably well during the day as it took the pressure off the second (dedicated) battery in the car and both the van and the car were able to make use of the available sunshine to charge up the batteries via the solar panels. It was also very warm over night – no need for a doona up here! All in all, for those coming up this way, it’s well worth the trip out for a few days.

The colour of the water weed was just brilliant green due to the nutrients in the water

More colours and a dragon fly

Daly River

We spent a couple of days at the Mango Farm on the Daly River. We had to cross the causeway across the crocodile infested Daly River – Sonja wasn’t too happy about it and decided she would prefer to WALK across rather than be driven – thought it didn’t look too safe to drive over (David thought it was MUCH safer)! 

Daley River Crossing

Crossing the Daly River - after Sonja had walked across the crocodile-infested river!

Our site under the mango trees, palms and coconut palms

Sonja under the mosquito netting - very effective - note the coconuts used to hold it down!

David tried his hand at fishing – no luck, as you really need to be in a boat to be able to catch an elusive Barramundi (minimum size of 55cms). He saw quite a few fish swimming around, a turtle and a 1½ metre freshwater crocodile that decided to park itself about 50 metres away from him.

Daley River

David's fishing companion in an idyllic spot

Davis's friend in close-up - just a freshwater crocodile, so no worries????

It was VERY hot whilst staying here – both during the day and at night. To stay outside during the day and later into the night we made use of the double-bed mosquito netting Sonja bought in Alice Springs. This enabled us to enjoy a bit of reading and our meals without having to be in the van because of the mosquitoes that are quite prolific and fairly vicious here. We cooled ourselves off a couple of times at Daly River by having a dip in the relatively (compared to what we had been used to for the previous five days) cold pool at the van park.

Rainbow Bee-eater 

Another cool, pleasant-looking billabong (with four estuarine crocs in it!)

Adelaide River

Spent a couple of nights at Bundy Station at Adelaide River before heading into Litchfield National Park. While at Adelaide River we did a drive around the township, visiting the War Cemetery (National War Cemetery) and Snake River (built in 1943 as a munitions storage site firstly by the Army and then by the RAN and finally the RAAF [From 1960 – 67] before it was abandoned). 

Sunrise at Bundy Station

Washing Day with our washing machine

Litchfield National Park

At Litchfield National Park we stayed at the Litchfield Safari Park – more expensive than staying in the National Park campground, but we had power to use the air-conditioner when needed!

Sonja at one of the larger termite mounds

Magnetic termite mounds on the way into the Park - Aligned North/South  to allow them to keep cool

We did a number of trips/walks around the park over three days – The Cascades (VERY hot, but a great place for a dip in the larger pools in the Upper Cascades – If you ever get to the area, DON’T do the longer walk to the Upper Cascades, go to the Lower Cascades and follow the much shorter track following along the creek – much easier and a lot less heat involved!) 

On the track from the Lower to the Upper Cascades

The Cascades 

Also a 4x4 track to Blyth Homestead (outstation set up in 1928) and Tjaynera Falls where we swam after a 1.3km walk in – VERY pleasant way to spend a bit of time. 

Another important sign

Just beside each of the day's river crossings!

Croc spotting - not in the photo, but there was a small estuarine crocodile  on the left of the track

Sonja swimming at Tjaynera Falls (designated croc-free swimming area)

We had wanted to continue on to Surprise Falls along the 4x4 track, but when we reached the Reynold’s River (after spotting a very small croc on a previous crossing) we didn’t have a snorkel on the car, and weren’t sure of the depth – (Sonja wouldn’t walk out to test it!), so we turned around and went swimming at Wangi Falls (also very pleasant, but very crowded).

Wangi Falls

It was on this track we discovered we’d forgotten to take off one of the mirrors we use for the caravan…when it fell off and broke after being knocked by a couple of branches along one of the narrow track sections. 

On our third day in Litchfield we visited the Lost City (lots of fascinating sandstone formations), Florence Falls (good swim around the falls in a deep pool) and had lunch at Buley Rockhole (lots of plunge pools – just right for a good, cool, relaxing dip!)

Sonja at the Lost City

Lost City formations

More formations

Sonja at Florence Falls

David at Buley Rockhole

We have just arrived in Darwin after a short stop at Berry Springs for a dip before arriving at the Caravan Park. Darwin is obviously a popular spot and it is necessary to book well ahead to get a site – as it is, we are on one site for 3 days and then have to move to another for the rest of our time here. We have set up, had lunch and are relaxing in the shade of the awning before we go for a swim ahead of a trip out to one of the famed markets.

Alice Springs to Katherine

Alice Springs – Katherine

(6th July)

More roads covered!

After we left Alice Springs we had a number of days of free camping. We have noted it is important to decide where you want to stop, or at least make sure you pull up somewhere early enough to get a spot. At each of the roadway stops we stayed at there were 20 - 30 vans/RVs. Fortunately we had decided early enough that it was going to be too far to move on the next spot and so managed to get parks without any difficulty.

Taylor Creek

Newcastle Waters

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and made a brief stop at the Devil’s Marbles (huge granite boulders out in the middle of nowhere) where we had a wander around before heading off and spending a very quiet night at The Pebbles (similar, but much smaller boulders and less of an area). We also made a brief call in at Larimah, which was a major staging point for US and Australian troops during the second World War – there are a number of abandoned airfields that had been constructed prior to and after the bombing of Darwin that we passed heading north from Tennant Creek.

Devil's Marbles

Devil's Marbles - obligatory photostop!

Devil's Marbles

Devil's Marbles

Formation at the Pebbles near where we camped

We spent a couple of relaxing days at Jalmurark campground at Elsey National Park on the Roper River, just out of Mataranka. A very pleasant place to stay with toilets and solar hot water for the showers! David did an 8.2km return walk to Mataranka ‘Falls’ – not exactly stunning, but remembering, it’s the journey, not the final destination that’s the important thing! We also went and had a dip in the thermal pool – things have changed over the 26 years since out last visit! It doesn’t seem quite as large and the small waterfall where David had his photo taken is no longer there. Still a pleasant experience though.

It pays to read ALL signs in the Northern Territory

No swimming here!

The Roper River in Elsey National Park

Some of the many termite mounds we came across since we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn - they vary in colour from bright red, to grey, light brown to black, depending on the soil in the area. There are millions of them in all shapes and sizes.

When we arrived in Katherine we sent a text message to all and sundry and were surprised to find that Len and Margaret were still here. It turns out they had car trouble on the way into Kakadu and after phoning the Auto Assist, were told not to go any further – they were collected and the car taken away (a saga in itself getting it sent to Darwin for repairs) and the van towed back to Katherine (not Darwin as they had hoped). So we managed to catch up with them again – small world when you’re travelling!

We bought a new tap switch to go between the two gas bottles that fits onto the regulator we replaced in Alice – we’d had the smell of gas whenever we camped without power and David tracked it down to the tap. Not being anywhere we could replace it for five days meant we were hoping noone was going to light up a cigarette near us! All fixed now and fingers crossed we don’t have any more problems of this sort.

We took a trip along Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk) – 4 hours of scenic delights that just don’t come up in a photo (but I’ll include some anyway). This was the three-gorge trip – three different boats with a short walk between them to get to the different gorges. There was also time for a swim, but with a cool breeze blowing down the gorge, only a couple of people (kids mostly) took the plunge. When we were here in 1986 they used to have a whole day trip which included 5 gorges. Apparently they can’t get enough people who are interested in this any more and so it has been stopped – a pity, as it was a really great day. We finished our day by wandering down to the Katherine Hot Springs (didn’t know they existed) and spending a bit of time just relaxing in the warmish water.

Views of Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk)

Our next planned stop will be Douglas Hot Springs, about 200 km north of here, before heading to Litchfield National Park and then Darwin.