17TH JUNE 2013 – DARWIN, NORTHERN TERRITORY, AUSTRALIA

Departing Kununurra it’s not long before we cross the border into the Northern Territory again – no quarantine to worry about travelling from this direction but we do have to alter our clocks forward 1 1/2 hours. One of the first signs we see tells us ‘We like our lizards frilled, NOT grilled!’ No towns to go through today & a freebie for overnight. Because of the time change that evening is lighter & longer but the next morning is darker & only 8 degs which meant we were a little slower to leave our bed. At the small township of Timber Creek we top up with fuel $2.05. Timber Creek is a very small town, large aboriginal population, but very clean & tidy with IGA supermarket/general store, roadhouse, & Butcher. A sign outside the latter stated ‘Our meat is tough, fatty & tasteless’ – reverse psychology I’d say. Guess if it didn’t come up to expectations there would be no room for complaint! The town was all nicely landscaped with a nice park in which we saw lots of parrots, the first for a couple of months. Soon we cross the large flowing Mary River & walk across the very long bridge to watch for saltwater crocs – yes, we are back into croc country. Didn’t spot any though. Further along we have our eyes peeled for a property with the name ‘Coolibah’. Some of you may have watched an Aussie TV series ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ – about a family who own an outback station & their day to day lives. We always wondered where it was exactly not thinking we would ever drive by. We managed to find it on a map & sure enough passed right it’s gateway. Felt like being cheeky & driving down to see them, but I remembered the homestead was a long, long way in from the road, along their own very red, dusty one – not good for taking our van along, so had to be content to take a photo of gateway & sign. Another freebie that night, nice & shady to beat the higher temps.

Wednesday 19th we arrive in Katherine by 9am feeling on familiar ground as we of course visited on our last trip up the centre. Katherine is a busy little town with large Information Centre, Woolworths Supermarket & a small shopping mall as well as all the services required for a thriving community. There are always lots of road trains, caravans & motorhomes etc as it is a good stocking up place after many, many kms of nothing with traffic comverging from Darwin, Alice Springs & WA. Fuel is slightly cheaper @ $1.60. And talking of road trains, as we travelled on towards Darwin we managed to get stuck behind an oversized truck with a pilot in front & behind. Because we have a CB radio & they were using the same channel, we could hear the conversation between them all which was quite amusing. The language wasn’t always ‘pure’ but it was mate this & mate that & we learned a few new truckie terms. I have to say they are extremely careful & skilled in what they do & also considerate in trying to let a few of us pass. We knew exactly when they were going to let us through thanks to the radio. The truckie would instruct the pilot to pull aside, let only two vehicles through, & then to ‘close the door’ by closing the gap on the right again.

The roadside in this area is strewn with a bush with beautiful cyclamen coloured flowers & is called Turkey Bush. We did see it last trip but it seems to be flowering particularly well this year. That night in the freebie Stu got talking to a guy in the van next to us on his own, & it turned out they had both gone to the same radio school in the UK but just a year apart. Naturally there was lots of talk of the ‘old days’ round a campfire which we certainly did not need for warmth. Stu reckons Aussie is full of pyromaniac, alcoholic fishermen. There are so many vans with boats on top or pulling a trailer with one behind the motorhome. We never saw evidence of many catches though – would have been nice to have a feed of nice fresh fish. Unfortunately fish is just as expensive or worse than at home. Anyway we had a nice time talking to an assortment of people including a couple of very nice young frenchmen.

 

Aboriginal artist painting a digeridoo

 

Sunset at Mindil Beach

 

On the 20th we arrived in Darwin about 10.30am & headed for the same caravan park we stayed in last time. They don’t take bookings so we were concerned we wouldn’t get in. Luck was with us & we were given a nice shady site not hemmed in by other vans. The weather is overcast but a lovely temperature with a nice breeze. It felt strange to be back as we hadn’t really planned to do so this time. However having passed through WA quicker than anticipated, a week in Darwin is not really too bad. Nice to stay put for awhile. There has been growth in the two years since our last visit with new housing estates close by & road improvements. At least we know our way around a bit. It’s a good chance to do a bit of cycling which hasn’t been easy in most places though it has to be done in the mornings before it heats up too much. There is a pool in the park so afternoons are better spent there or reading in the shade. It’s such a pity that with some lovely beaches here it’s too dangerous to swim because of the saltwater crocs who come in from the rivers – & of course the stingers too. We are so lucky in those respects in dear little NZ. At least it’s only the cold that keeps us out of the water. So in general it becomes a very relaxed week though we did do a trip to Berry Springs about an hours drive from Darwin - another place we had visited last time. It is a natural warm spring with lovely cascades which flow down to two huge pools & is very, very popular. The following day we took a short ferry trip across Darwin Harbour to a place called Mundorah accompanied by another couple from the caravan park. It proved to be pretty boring though we had a very nice lunch of Barramundi & salad. Unfortunately if we had known we could have taken our bikes on the ferry & got some exercise over there, & with swimmers we could have used the resort pool. The resort is apparently going to close in the near future through lack of patronage. Not surprised as there is not much to attract people though we enjoyed the ferry ride & the view of Darwin city from the water which was very hazy to more burning off. One of the things I disliked was waking each morning to the smell of smoke but it does create wonderful sunsets one of which we witnessed from the Mindel Beach night time market on the Saturday evening. It has such a great atmosphere with entertainment, from music to whip cracking. A number of aboriginal artists were painting on the spot, one very talented young woman had her daughter of 5 or 6 painting as well & the talent was amazing. People watching in the cool evening air , cool drink in hand is our favourite. There is such a cultural mix of people in Darwin & the food stalls have so many different ethnic foods it’s mind boggling. Hundreds of people line the beach at sunset with cameras clicking madly & it’s a real family attraction, one we were happy to repeat again.

Bee Eater posing

Mandorah Beach across water from Darwin