Westward Ho

Kakadu was quite an experience, probably better than we were expecting.  I think we came away with a better understanding of the indigenous population, many of whom still live fairly traditionally.  It was interesting that they still prefer their traditional foods, and when a rogue crocodile is caught and killed, the meat is distributed within the community.  Talking of crocodiles, we were quite surprised to hear on Saturday that a man had been taken and killed by one in the area we had been in only a few days before.  He had been fishing with his family, and apparently washed a bucket over the side and the crocodile took him.  We were told quite firmly on the cruise we did not to put arms etc outside the boat as they crocs can jump 3/4 of their length out of the water.  We saw lots of people fishing from small boats and always wondered just how safe they were.  Will make a few rather nervous I think.

Turning onto the Stuart Highway we were met with an invasion.  Caravan after caravan after caravan in both directions.  Yes, the southern invasion had caught us up.  Spaces will be at a premium from now on.

We booked the car in for a service, but again it was another long weekend (that's four in about eight weeks) so we didn't want to spend that amount of time in Katherine having been there on our way north.  So we decided it would be much nicer to have a couple of nights at Edith Falls, about 60 k's from Katherine.  We had stopped for a swim but hadn't camped there.  I knew that it is a very popular camping area at this time of year, and being the Friday of a long weekend, it would be even more so.  We had planned to have a good look around Pine Creek, an historical gold area, but opted in the end to make this just a quick breeze through, which had us arriving at Edith Falls around midday.

And how lucky we were.  We got what we believe to be about the best caravan site there.  Many of them are parallel to the road and not very inviting.  We had to back in but it was a huge site and quite private compared to the others.  Best of all, the top of the van was in the sun for the solar panels, but the sides of the van were shaded.  After setting up and lunch, it was off for a couple more swims in the huge bottom pool.

The weather was still quite hot, so we decided to do the walk to the top falls early in the morning.  These had been closed the time we came through, and the walk was so worthwhile.  The pools were delightful and the views down the valley quite breathtaking.  It was lunch time before we got back, so then of course time to have another swim in the bottom pool.  It's a hard life.

Sunday we drove into Katherine and the place was buzzing, traffic everywhere.  The supermarket was packed out, and the shelves empty.  I had to make do with a few alternatives.  I couldn't believe that there was 1.5 metres of empty shelf area, which I discovered used to hold various varieties of tinned tomatoes that I was trying to find.

The rest of Sunday and all of Monday was taken up with a massive clean - loads of washing, and major clean inside and out of the car and the van.  I guess they look good until the next dirt road.  We had planned to leave Katherine on Tuesday after the car was serviced, but in the end he didn't finish until lunch time, and we discovered our auxillary battery that runs the car fridge had died and a replacement would not be available until the next morning, so it was easier to stay another night.  The caravan park here is very pleasant.  It's about twelve k's out of the town on a working property.  Lots of huge trees so lots of shade and green grass.  Just perfect for camping on.  But what a shock we got this morning - we had to put our doona on.  We can't remember the last time we have used it.  So the nights are now getting quite cool, considering it was not many nights ago we were still using the fan overnight.

So Wednesday after getting our new car battery installed, we headed off into the land of no phone and internet.  Because we had now got away earlier in the day, we changed my original plans and decided to continue on to Timber Creek and the Big Horse Creek Campground.  The first 100 k's were mundane, but then we got near the Victoria River and the scenery started to take on a life of its own.  Beautiful brick red cliffs, bright blue skies and green dotted around it.  It was just before midday when we stopped at the Victoria River Roadhouse to take in the scenery.  I checked my faithful Wikicamps (fortunately if content has been downloaded, you don't need an internet connection), and discovered our proposed camp is very busy at this time of year, and people were suggesting to arrive by 1.00.  Checking the GPS, if we didn't stop we would be there at 1.05! So we decided against the walk at Victoria River, and stopping to explore Timber Creek on the way, and headed straight to the camp.  We got the second last site, and the last decent one for a caravan.  After lunch we drove the 10 k's back into Timber Creek and looked around this remote town.  There was a very interesting museum at the original police station, and we spent some time there after being given a guided tour.  We also drove up to the lookouts which had great views of the town and the expansive Victoria River.  The town had phone reception, but we lost the signal as soon as we left the town.

Victoria River from the lookout near Timber Creek

Beautiful big boabs

Our campsite at Big Horse Creek Campground

The next morning, we packed our lunch and headed into the Judbarra/Gregory National Park.  We drove into Limestone Gorge area, and firstly did a very nice lookout walk which included the interesting white waterfall.  We then did the two k each way walk into the gorge.  About 700 metres of this was through the river bed, which was very rocky and hard going.  In retrospect, the walk was a bit disappointing as there used to be a campground there, but everything has not been maintained, and you could not even get near the billabong any more.

Impressive white waterfall

We drove on further to the Bullita Homestead.  The homestead is from the 1960's, and it did give you a really good idea of how hard life must have been back then.  No air conditioning, not even insect screens.  We had been told at the museum that the area had a very high suicide rate, and we could understand why.  There was a reproduced letter from the woman who lived in the homestead during the 60's.  One night during the wet, her husband was away droving, and she went to bed early because of the insects coming in when the lights were on.  She was awakened by a huge snake knocking over things in her kitchen, and then discovered that the river was rising.  She ended up spending the whole night hanging on to a dead tree with just her head above the water.  At one stage she tried to reach a live tree that was nearby as it was higher, but wasn't able to get there.  A few hours later this tree was washed away in the force of the water.  Everything in the house was ruined by the mud.  A hard life indeed.

Huge boab at the homestead

Overall though, we thought the National Park was a little underwhelming, I guess because we had been spoiled with such great scenery.

On Friday morning after a detour to the historic Gregory Tree, our next stop was the campground at the Zebra Mine, just within the NT/WA border.  Zebra rock is found only in this area, and was quite interesting.  We were given a guided tour of the gallery and heard the history of the mine.  They only open in the peak season, and have only been going for two years.  There were quite a few campers there, so word is getting out.

Boab tree inscribed with the arrival and departure dates during the expedition of the explorer Gregory.

The next morning it was a short drive of about 45 minutes to the Keep River National Park, still within NT.  This is supposed to be a mini Bungle Bungles, so the real thing is going to be something else.  Our campsite was lovely, and we immediately decided to stay two nights.  This is the best type of camping, plenty of space and a lovely open fire.  We did the 2 k walk from the campground before lunch, and it was so spectacular, we did it again late afternoon to see the colours change with the setting sun.

Lovely bush campsite

From the walk near our campsite

Extraordinary colours

The next morning, we were up early driving the 18 k's to the other campsite to try the walk there.  This was an 8 kilometre loop, and was very enjoyable.  Some of the route is rated as moderate to difficult and we did it quite easily.   In fact we are finding with all the walks we have done, these walks are getting easier.  A couple of months ago we were puffed going up half a dozen steps, now all this rock climbing seems easy.  It took us two hours to complete the circuit.

Starting on the 8 k walk

Beautiful scenery

View from the top

More great scenery

and breathtaking colours

So feeling emboldened with our success, Jim suggested we try the 3 k one half way between the two campsites.  Just what I had been thinking, so off we headed.  The info sign rates this one as easy, let's go for it.  Who the hell rates these walks!  This easy walk was like a goat track, narrow, rocky and up and down.  Plus when we reached the end, it was not very interesting at all.  Oh well, that was 11 k's we walked for the day, and we were still in one piece.

Melbourne to Kakadu

What a lovely week we had in Melbourne seeing family and getting reacquainted with our grandson Jack.

But what a terrible time to get a plane, no wonder the tickets were cheap.  2.00 am is not a good time to fly.  We put the van into a storage facility on the Wednesday afternoon, and then headed into the city.  We walked around a little until it was time to meet Yvette for dinner at one of the restaurants on the wharf.  We all enjoyed our meals, and after farewelling Yvette, we spent some time walking around the nightlife at the waterfront.  Unfortunately the car park closed at ten, so we headed out to the airport.  I am sure the chairs there are deliberately made to be as uncomfortable as possible and impossible to sleep in.  At least the plane was only a little late leaving.

Jim had the aisle and I had the middle seat.  There was a woman in the window seat and I could tell very early on from her demeanour that she wasn't a frequent or comfortable flyer.  She did tell me she hadn't flown for eleven years.  But she had come prepared!!  She had a huge bag full of food and drinks.  A hamburger at 2.00 am certainly didn't appeal to us, but this she had.  But she obviously still wanted the full flight experience as she paid for an ipad.  Then she asked me to grab the attendant as she went past because she also wanted a cup of tea.  As soon as she finished the tea, she drank her bottle of coke.  Just as they turned the lights down her ipad went into sleep mode and as it was now dark, she coudn't find the button to turn it back on, so another call for the attendant.  Then she dropped her rubbish on the floor and couldn't find it in the dark.  And half an hour later, the inevitable happened after the coke and tea, and we had to let her out.  Eventually she went to sleep, still with her ipad going, and no matter how Jim and I closed our eyes, the light from it shone through.  Fortunately we had strong tail winds, and the plane was half an hour early.  The poor woman did keep apologizing for disturbing us, plus she was also very nervous.

Hayden picked us up and we were so excited to see Jack and how he had grown.  We spent three nights there, babysitting on two of the nights.  It was lovely to see him reaching some milestones while we were there, such as his first tooth, sitting up on his own and early attempts to crawl.

Pop showing Jack how it is done

Three handsome fellas

Four generations

Isn't he just gorgeous?  

We spent the next three nights at Preston, seeing the latest improvements to Lauren and Lee's house and I did quite a bit of cooking to restock Mum's freezer.

We had been very lucky with the weather as Melbourne was very mild for that time of year.  But all too soon we were back on the plane to Darwin.  The plane landed on time, but had to wait fifteen minutes on the tarmac for another plane to leave the gate.  Then when we got to the car park, the pay machine didn't work and we had to ring for someone to come over as we coudn't get out.  Then our luck continued.  We got back to the van and no lights/no power.  We had left the van outside hoping the solar would be enough.  We had left the van for two weeks at Christmas in Melbourne with no issues.  However, Darwin's heat must have proved too much.  We think the van must have got very hot inside, making the fridge work harder and use more power.  Jim hooked up to the car and ran it for a while which got the batteries back up enough for lights and got the fridge going again.  Fortunately we had used most of what was in the fridge, so the caretaker's dog got some mince that we weren't sure if it had thawed and refrozen.  So the plane had landed at 1.30 and it was now 3.30 am.  We were lucky that the storage people live on site and were happy for us to crash in the van until morning.  So after a rather short sleep, Thursday morning we were hooked up and on the move again.

We stopped at Humpty Doo to restock for Kakadu.  The day before we had flown to Mebourne we had decided as we were so close, we would do Fogg Dam and Window on the Wetlands.  We were very glad that we had done these, as we were really too tired to appreciate them and it had been much easier without the van as well.  My original plan had been to do the Corroboree Billabong Cruise that others had told us was good, but by the time we got there, the morning ones were finished and we were reluctant to do the lunch one as it was quite expensive and we had lunch with us, plus it was going to be an hour before it departed.  We also decided we were too tired to do it justice.  Instead of our planned stop at Bark Hut Inn, we decided to continue to Jabiru.

Fogg Dam - originally set up for rice farming, but this failed, partly because the magpie geese kept eating the rice.

It probably used to be a lovely walk, but a drive for us.

We stopped at Kakadu lodge, and got a lovely grassy shady site.  A swim in their lovely resort pool helped to aleviate the tired/heat headache we both had.  An early night was certainly on the cards.

Friday morning we headed to the Bowali Information Centre.  This was far more comprehensive than we realised and before we knew it, we had spent the whole morning there.  There were many displays and information boards, plus a video running.   Last year a documentary series was made on the park, and we watched one of them.  This was so interesting and informative and we hoped to catch another before we left Jabiru.  From here we then drove in to have a look around the town itself.  This did not take a great deal of time - a half dried up lake with a very nice park, a small shopping centre and a few random shops.  But there was a bakery which was well worth the stop.

Our afternoon was a quiet one, still in recovery mode from our overnight flight, and we did a few chores and spent time in the pool.

Kakadu has a number of ranger actiivities, and we decided to avail ourselves of these whenever possible.  Friday night there was a slide show at the caravan park so we attended this.  Saturday morning we set the alarm to head to Ubirr and the ranger walk on that morning.   This is the first year that they have got some of the local indiginous to talk and explain the wonderful rock art that is here.  They are still very shy, but I'm sure it is going to be a great concept.

Ubirr rock art

We also walked up to the lookout and enjoyed the magnificent views from up there.

360 degree views from the lookout, and all different.

By now two hours had passed, and we left Ubirr to look around the rest of the area.  The Border Store hadn't opened for the season yet and it is supposed to be quite a landmark.  Next we headed to the famous Cahill's Crossing.  We were told this is so crocodile infested you can't help but see them.  Not for us that day, but we were amazed at the brave people fishing off the side and the rocks on the causeway.  We then drove to the southern boatramp, looking at the beautiful rock formations and regretting that the walk through these has not been opened yet.  Unfortunately, although we had delayed going to Kakadu, so much was still closed.  The video we had watched the day before certainly explained to us why these take so long.  Many of the places are completely submerged during the wet season, so every year all the infrastructure needs to be put back into place.  Seeing film of a helicopter flying in a walkway certainly showed that point.

We had lunch at the picnic area near the boat ramp then decided to go back for another look at Cahill's Crossing.  What a shock we got.  It was only about an hour since we had been there, but obviously nearing high tide.  The crossing that was half out of the water was now completely submerged and the water was rushing over the top of it.  Cars and trucks were stopped either side waiting for it to go down and those fishing were no longer in sight.  We were so amazed we had to stop and watch.  The roaring flow began to lesson and then just stop completely.  By this stage the water was still very deep, so large trucks started to cross.  Soon after we saw the water start flowing back the other way.  It was interesting watching the depth marker dropping down, and the cars start to cross again.  By now it was well into the afternoon and time to head back.

They were fishing from the rocks here

High tide and the water was roaring over

Status quo, no movement either direction and time for the big trucks to cross

Even the boats took the opportunity

Sunday morning, the alarm was again set, this time for the guided walk at Nourlangie.  This area also has an abundance of impressive rock art.  We met the ranger at the lookout which is the furthest point, then made our way back along the art work.  After our walk/talk we headed off to explore the areas nearby which inlcuded a number of billabongs with fantastic birdlife on them.

Lookout at Nourlangie

More view

Rock Art

Anbangbang Billabong.  We were amused by the tables so close to the water and thought this was a better use for them.  At a campground a few days later, others voiced the same opinion.

Before we knew it, our four days at Jabiru were up, so Monday we hitched up again and travelled not much more than 50 k's down the road to the Yellow Water area.  We camped at the lovely Madugal camping ground, being quite surprised at how few people were here.  From here it was on a five minute drive to Cooinda, which we promptly headed to after lunch.  Cooinda is really just a service area for the beautiful Yellow Waters Billabong.  We made enquiries about the boat trip, seeing as we hadn't made the one further north.  It was quite expensive at $90 each, but they have an offer where you can get a second tour for $25 extra.  We were able to get into the sunset cruise that was to leave in just over an hour, and also booked the 9.00 am one the next morning so we could see things at a different time of day.

We headed back to the campsite to get Jim's good camera, and then we were the second couple lined up to get good seats right at the front.  Up to now Jim had been quite disappointed at not seeing a crocodile, but he soon spotted a bit one cruising along while we were waiting for the boat.  And that was the first of many for that evening and the next morning.

The cruise was two hours, and the amount of bird life is phenomenal.  The sun setting on the water was something to behold.  We decided the trip was excellent, and the one the next morning, although not as spectacular or as abundant in bird and animal life was still very good.

Not even on the boat, and our first croc sited

An alluring crocodile.  We think a fisherman got a very big surprise.

Cruise boat on the billabong

Whistling ducks

water lillies

Wetlands wonderland

Jesus bird and chicks - walking on water

sea eagle

sunset

more sunset

and it just kept getting better

and more the next morning.

After our morning cruise we headed to Cooinda for a coffee at the bistro there, and then to make use of the lovely resort pool they have.  The next morning was another ranger guided walk from the campground.  We had Annie who had been our guide at the Nourlangie walk.  Annie has a habit of not wearing a watch, so our hour walk became two and a quarter hours.  This wasn't helped by the painful person on the walk who kept asking inane questions, that he should have already known if he had taken the boat trip as he said he did.  One of those people who love the sound of his own voice.  He was an absolute pain and I could see Jim get annoyed with him.  A number of times I held my breath waiting for Jim to say something cutting to him, but fortunately he held it in.

Annie's extended talk left us leaving a lot later than we had planned.  There were some lookout walks along the way, but as it was now the middle of the day, strenous climbing isn't a good idea in this heat.  We were still unsure where we were going to stop.  I really wanted to go to Gumlon Falls as I had heard how beautiful they are, and there was a slideshow that night and a guided walk to the top pools the next morning.  The road had only opened a couple of weeks before and the road report said no caravans only high clearance camper trailers.  We know they do err on the side of caution, so we had asked the ranger the night before for his off the record advice for taking the van in there.  He said with our high clearance if we took it easy, we should be fine.  We talked about and decided we had spent a lot of extra money on the van just so we could do this sort of thing.  We stopped at the turnoff and checked the signs.  No where did it say that caravans weren't allowed, so off we headed on 37 k's of dirt road.  The corrugations were something to behold, and with the van on, we couldn't really fly over them as you might in a car, so we just took it very slow, with a couple of stops on the way to check the inside.  The van was holding up well, but each time we stopped we found either side of the stone guard on the car had come off.  Jim had them attached with D shackles, and these had rattled loose.  Good timing each time we stopped, but he couldn't find the spares he thought he had, so padlocks ended up doing the trick.

About ten K's out, the corrugated road gave way to what looks like a river bed.  This was where the high clearance was needed, and we had no trouble at all getting through, just picking our way through the rocks and ruts.  And once we arrived how it was worth it.   Probably the highlight of our time in Kakadu.  We immediately paid for two nights, we were going to make the most of that drive in!  How did the van fair?  At the first stop I discovered my spice rack that sits on a shelf had emptied the containers out.  Moving this to the bathroom mat for the rest of the trip solved that.  A light fitting cover had come down, probably not put back properly after the last clean as it held after that.  I'd carefully packed the contents of the fridge, and all this was fine.  The only thing we did find, and that was a number of hours later, was that the bathroom door had jumped off the bottom and pulled the screw through at the top placement.  Jim was able to fix this fairly easily, so overall, considering how bad the road was, we were pleased with how the van held up.

As soon as we had set up, it was off for a swim, and then later, another swim in the large bottom pool.  That evening there was a ranger talk on the area and the next morning, bright and early a guided walk to the top pools.  The sign did say a very steep climb, and it wasn't joking.  A lot of the way was a hands and feet job climbing up the rocks, but so worth it once you were at the top.  It's only 500 metres to the top, but it sure seemed a lot further than that, I guess because it is straight up. The ranger had warned us the night before to take some fruit or nibbles as we would be wanting to spend some time there.  Such a gorgeous spot, and well worth all that effort to get there.

View after our climb.   Campground is down there somewhere

Beautiful top pools

The infinity pool

Jim under the waterfall

View looking back down as we headed out

The bottom pool, just a short stroll from the campground.

More swims in the bottom pool for the afternoon, and then the next morning back out on that road.  It didn't seem as bad going out, as we knew what to expect.  We had heard that Jim Jim falls was opening, and had to make a decision.  In the end we opted not to backtrack, and found out later that it didn't open until the next day in the end.