Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!
Any illusions we may have been led into by the rain of the Red Centre soon vanished as we drove northwards – this was going to be a hot couple of weeks at the Top End! The temperature climbed along with the humidity, and we were boil-in-the-bag backpackers by the time we reached Darwin – home of 40-plus temperatures and so much water in the air you could go swimming in it. Still, the Top End is full of stuff to do, so who am I to miss out?
We checked into the Globetrotters Lodge for a few badly needed nights under air-con – their cheap meals, drinks deals and great pool all get thumbs up too! – and planned our movements. Doris needed a service cos her clock had hit 350,000 km (this girl’s done a fair bit of travelling) so after some umming and ahhing over forking out yet more on the car we booked her in for a few days hence, then toddled off to Kakadu National Park for some oohing and aahing over the gorgeous surroundings.
Croc Dundee?
Kakadu, like Uluru, is one of those must-sees of Australia – and it’s great. Jennie chose to go on a tour with Gondwana, which she assures us was fantastic, while Rob and I chose to drive round in Doris. This did mean we couldn’t go to Twin Falls or Jim Jim Falls (4WD only) and lacked a guide, but contrary to reports we’ve heard from others this doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate the place. If nothing else it gives you the freedom to see things in your own time, and with excellent visitors’ facilities – NT seem to be good at those – we were able to find out everything we were after in any case.
So what did we see? What didn’t we see! Apart from the two big falls that is?
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Termite mound – yikes! |
On the way in we stopped at the Window on the Wetlands centre, part of Mary River National Park, yet another centre informing you of the local ecosystem, significance and history, and a small lay-by close to the biggest termite mounds I’ve ever seen. Apparently they would be 8 city blocks on the base and 1.6km high if built on a human scale… I’ll never underestimate a termite again!
Kakadu itself costs $16.25 per person to enter (valid for 2 weeks) and visitors are focused along the main roads – I can only assume that this is to protect the rest of the park’s flora and fauna from unwelcome tourists, not to mention more sacred Aboriginal sites than those we’re permitted to view. There are plenty of campsites all over, and most tours stay somewhere deep in the bush, but we stayed in the main resort of Jabiru and took full advantage of the massive swimming pool morning, noon and night.
Wandering around the park is easy. Just about everything has informative little signs describing whatever it is you’re looking at, so all you have to do is keep your eyes peeled so you don’t miss the art-site, lizard or tree the board is trying to highlight (not quite so easy). If you go the visitors’ centre they also have leaflets about every walk and other topics like wildlife, plants, Aboriginal languages (the area is shared by several tribes) – no excuses for not making the most of the rangers’ hard work.
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Rock art |
In the north of the park we did the Mamukala walk – wetlands, though we missed all the birds it’s famous for – and Manngarre, round a monsoon rainforest. There are also some great Aboriginal rock art sites in that area: Ubirr and Nourlangie, both on sandstone outliers of the Arnhemland escarpment in the distance. The local people have been in the area for at least 50,000 years (20-30,000 years before any European art) and have the longest-lived cultural traditions in the world – which makes me feel pretty small and insignificant to be honest. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that I did anthropology (study of human cultures) at uni – which I then abandoned for the internet – so this place put me in my element.
Further south there are more attractions, including the Yellow Water wetlands. Many choose to watch sunrise or sunset here, though we were far too lazy for it. We did however take a very good look at the cultural centre nearby – not just cos it had air-con, honest! We also took Doris down the unsealed track to Gunlom Falls, a waterfall that’s often neglected by the tours – less impressive than Jim Jim or Twin Falls, but still beautiful to look at (and even better to swim in).
There’s a lot more that you can do in Kakadu, and Arnhemland if you take a tour out that far, but I would recommend going around June or July (the Dry season) rather than late October (build-up to the Wet). Unless you were brought up in the Sahara or Singapore you will boil, which can take the edge off the day a little. We enjoyed the trip loads though – it really is a must-see.
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Wangi Falls |
Click click
There’s a fair bit to do up here, so on our return to Darwin the three of us decided to take a trip out to Litchfield National Park, home to many waterfalls that fill up with tourists on hot-hot days – as all of them were proving to be. It was a fantastic day, and admittedly we did spend most of it in the water. Wangi Falls is the furthest from the park entrance, but the most popular: twin waterfalls, a huge plunge pool, and lots of places to dive in. The walk up and over the top isn’t too good though – don’t bother. Next up is Tolmer Falls, spectacular even though you’re not allowed too close, and the Florence Falls. This one is nice and enclosed, very pretty, but MIND THE FISH! Yes, they may be only a few centimetres long, but if they spot you standing still they will bite. No joke. Apart from that the place is lovely, and just down the road are the Buley Rockholes – a series of small rapids and some very deep pools. Walk down or slide down, it’s your choice – and either way it was a fun place to end the day.
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HM Bark Endeavour |
What else did we see in Darwin? One major highlight – apart from the service telling us that Doris is pretty much fine – was the arrival of the HM Bark Endeavour, Australia’s replica of Captain Cook’s round-the-world yacht. Ok, so she’s not a yacht, but is great to look around – and on a world tour, so look out if she passes your way. The museum area is really well done up, complete with replica uniforms and papers, though you can’t see the bit the crew call ‘The 20th Century’ (um.. 2001?) with all today’s sailing and cooking gadgets. Then again, there was a giant US aircraft carrier moored next door, so we kind of got the whole historical comparison idea! Both of us were tempted to sign on for a while, but the holiday prevailed and we left the Endeavour behind (though she’s bound to hit other places in Aussie).
If you drive or cycle north of the city there are a couple of other places to visit too: East Point Reserve and the Museum of the Northern Territory. We didn’t have a look in the reserve’s military museum, but we did get a fantastic view of Darwin itself from the lookout – and Lake Alexander is another nice place for a dip (yes, hot again). The Museum, however, is huge. It’s free, has air-con, and it is full of galleries with local art, natural history, lots of old boats, the tale of the cyclone that destroyed the city nearly 30 years ago. They even have the stuffed remains of ‘Sweetheart’, a croc who used to attack outboard motors – strange taste! Near the airport is another museum worth a visit: the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre, especially if – like Rob – you like anything to do with oil, grease and engines. Planes galore, from a B-52 bomber to a Navy rescue helicopter. There’s also displays on Australia’s contribution to WW2 and Vietnam, plus the old London to Sydney air races – there were plenty of nutters about back then!
Yeeeeeeee-ha!
On our way out of Darwin we checked out one last thing.. a gen-u-ine outback rodeo at the Litchfield pub (close to the Territory Wildlife Park). They’re held at the end of each month and it’s a mad dusk-to-dawn event. The evening started off with gale-force winds and plenty of rain, but the locals were unfazed… unlike us, who couldn’t help but wonder if the place would blow down. No worries though: the rain stopped and the show went on. $12 a pop bought you several hours of horse and bull-back entertainment (and a fair bit of respect for the men and women bouncing around on the back of crazed animals), plus a good laugh and some dancing once the band started off. We hadn’t realised how late it goes on for, but the band shut up round about 7am the next morning – when the cowboys lay face-down in the mud sleeping off the booze and the lardiest of all lardy fry-ups was produced (yummy yum yum).
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Trying to make fire. |
Like a duck to water – not!
A few hours’ drive south of Darwin we arrived back in Katherine, which had been a quick stop-over on our frantic dash northwards. Katherine has a fair bit to offer such as hot springs and limestone caves, but most know it for the series of gorges in Nitmiluk National Park.
First though, Rob and I decided to take in a bit of the local atmosphere and visit Manyallaluk on a cultural tour run by the Jawoyn living on an old cattle station. It was great! One of the elders took us on a short walk in the morning, with every tree having a few hundred uses; then a huge lunch of kangaroo tail, barramundi and salad; followed by activities such as basket-weaving (really difficult), spear-throwing (even more difficult), making fire (don’t try this at home, unless surrounded by very able twig twiddlers!) and painting (this is more like it..). A really enjoyable day, and a dip in the billabong helped too 🙂
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Nitmiluk/Katherine Gorge |
The next day was a time to re-awaken the muscles in Nitmiluk/Katherine Gorge though, and what a day. Hot as ever, and we were about to attempt far more exercise than we had in the last 6 months by canoeing rather than doing a boat tour. Uh-oh. A double canoe is no place for relationship building� but we survived! The gorges are beautiful, and a canoe allows you to take your time – but it may take the better part of your day to figure out a rhythm which doesn’t result in clashing blades every second stroke *cough*. Crocs infest the river, but they’re not salties so we splashed about happily when away from their nesting areas, and there’re plenty of birds and lizards to say hello to as well. One of the most interesting parts is trying to get your canoe over the rapids however (not to mention avoiding getting dragged over yourself!), and then back down them. Toward the end of the day we spent half an hour swimming after people’s belongings that got swept out of out-of-control boats going tail-up down the falls. Doh!
We’ve lost our Marbles
So that was it for the Top End, but not for the Northern Territory – we had done a mad dash on the way up after all.
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Priscilla, Queen of Oz Experience |
First break was at the infamous Daly Waters Pub, though we weren’t so sure why we’d been told to stop there until our arrival. A 1930s pub, its walls are covered with half the ID cards of the developed world (car licenses, gun permits, union cards, you name it!) and any other form of personal memento its customers leave behind. They even have the most remote traffic light in Australia, and a few years ago they became the briefest McDonalds too: open for 7 hours and serving only burgers 🙂 A crazy, crazy place – woohoo! – definitely the new home of my expired French ID card (it’s not like I ever use the thing, I just cheer for the rugby team now and then!) and we even met an old friend as we left: Priscilla, Oz Experience’s very own Queen of the Desert!
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Between the Devil’s Marbles |
We’d also promised ourselves another baby trip back into the Red Centre (which wasn’t looking quite so green any more) before turning off the Stuart Highway and heading towards the partying east coast, so once we got back to Tennant Creek (joy) we trundled a short way down to the Devils Marbles just before sunset. We honestly had not seen a decent sunset the whole time that we were in the Red Centre (something Jen had especially wanted to see at Uluru) and the Devils Marbles was a fantastic place to make up for that. Huge red boulders dotted around like some crazy kid’s marble jar fell over, glowing as orange as the sunset itself when the sun came down, with a big full moon hanging in the background. Overly wordy I’m sure, but it was beautiful to see.
Fare well..
Yes, we’re off to see that great mythical place known as the East Coast. Cape Trib, Cairns, Magnetic Island, Whitsundays, Fraser, Noosa: they will be ours to behold!! More importantly to my zonked out British mind: it won’t take whole days to drive between these places, nor will we have to stock up on fuel at every fuel stop for fear of running out in the middle of nowhere. Civilisation at last! But then again, do I really want the bustle of towns and drunken 18-year-olds again?
I have no idea, I’ll see when I get there. But the east coast, surprisingly enough, has sea and sand and sun (and other things beginning with ‘s’!), so cheerio me hearties – I’m off to see the sea and bound to enjoy it as much as the rest of Aussie!