Northern Territory 1 - Barkly to Katherine

After our night at the Barkly homestead, we drove to the Stuart Highway, the longest highway in Australia that links Adelaide to Darwin, via Alice Springs. As we are not going all the way down to Alice just yet (will do it next April), we decided to at least see the Devils Marbles, a vast rock formation located 100 km south of Tennant Creek on the Stuart Hwy. We opted to stay at Wycliffe Well, the self-proclaimed UFO capital of Australia, how intriguing!

I was expecting to meet all sorts of UFO fanatics and listen to their conspiracy theory stories, but the place turned out to be just a caravan park with a dodgy looking café, a bunch of UFO sighting articles pinned on the wall, several “statues” of little green men (and Elvis!) and a stair case to a lookout over…nothing! Persistent observation of the sky at night time gave a pretty sight of the stars but no odd shapes or lights flying around… quite disappointing really. I think it is too cold for aliens to come around, it was freezing, I had to sleep with 4 layers of clothes/blanket + beanie (bonnet) and gloves! 

At least we got to see emu hatchlings very well guarded by their…papa! Yes in emus’ world mamma walks around popping the eggs and it’s papa that sits on them and then takes care of the babies. I wonder when the emus had their sexual revolution? 

But the real highlight of that stop was the Devil’s Marbles (Les billes du Diables). They are a series of roundish granite boulders that have cracked from erosion and fallen apart. It’s absolutely beautiful, a vast area of marbles shaped red boulders to wander through and climb on. We went there just before sunset and got a beautiful light. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Playing marbles

      

           
And there was a dingo (wild dog) sitting on the side of the road, completely unmoved by all of us excitedly clicking away trying to get the perfect picture. Possibly waiting to see if he would get a little food as a reward for being such a good model. What a beautiful dog! I want one just like that. Although i wanted to i wasn't brave enough to go and pat him, it's a wild dog after all.

That is all we are going to experience of the red center for now, it is time to head up towards the top end and out next stop on the Stuart Hwy is Daly Waters, with it’s historical pub that has quenched the thirst of Stockmen and Soldiers in the past but now offers a pretty good stop on the long drive up north. The camp is quite basic but we enjoyed a beautiful Steak and Barra meal (Barramundi fish, found in ocean and rivers in all the north of Australia) as well as a very funny entertainment by Chilli, ex-stockmen, true blue Northern Territory guy, who gave us some yarn, poems and songs. It was hilarious and I was quite proud to note my progress in understanding Aussie accent and expressions.

The next day we made our way to Katherine (300 km south of Darwin). On the road we made 2 stops. The first for a quick snack at Fran’s café. Advertised by many signs along the road, which is actually Fran’s house with a couple of tables at front and she cooks pies and scones from her kitchen. The woman is quite a character and she loves to talk! We had one pie and a coffee each, the pie was delicious but the coffee, which she claims is the best of town, was burnt and scalding hot! The biggest surprise came when it was time to pay: 30 dollars! 10 for a pie, 5 for a coffee, the most expansive snack we’ve ever had! Hum, it was fun Fran but I don’t think we’ll come back for more… The next stop was a real delight: Bitter Spring in Mataranka. Walking from the parking lot it didn’t look like much, a bit swampy but arriving at the springs we were welcomed by clear transparent 34 degrees water, a little piece of paradise. Masks and snorkels on and off we went for a dip and a drift down the springs. I’ve made a little video with my iphone, it’s a little bit shaky, I’m still getting used to film underwater with an iphone! but it will give an idea.

Pretty gorgeous no? 

and so clear

             
At Katherine we stayed in a campground just outside of town and finally got to “build” our all camp set up again. It takes a good 1h30 to do but it is quite comfortable and we always get comments by our fellow campers about how huge it is! Just outside of town is the Nitmiluk national park where we took a 3 hour cruise through the gorges. Although we were not as impressed as with Lawn Hill NP, it was still quite pleasant and we saw a snake swimming across the river, a few fresh water crocodiles and the trap they set up to catch the saltwater ones at the end of the wet season in order to release them further away from people. We did swim in a one of the few safe spot, in a large rock pool between small waterfalls. We have been asked how you can be sure it is a safe spot, you can't but if everybody else is swimming, hell with it, it's too damn hot!

We also had a dinner at Marksie’s bush camp where the entire dinner is cooked on the fire or in camp ovens and enjoyed camel sausages, kangaroo, beef and lamb roasts all presented with delicious sauces made with local bush herbs. And there I learnt of the spinning the billy tradition. The billy is a kettle used to boil water over the fire and the spinning is done with a vertical circular movement of the arm to allow the tea leaves to mix in the pot. I was told that I couldn’t become a real Australian until I spun the billy myself. It is now done and Pete documented the event. I wonder if the immigration department could be convince that this is proof enough to give me autralian citizenship? ;-). Katherine also had hot springs so of course we went for a plunge in the warm water, nice but can’t beat the Bitter Springs.

No, these are not leaves hanging from the branches...

...they are bats!

A blue-winged Kookaburra

This camel was quite interested in Pete's hand

Marksie's bush camp dinner

Spinning the billy

It was now time to get ready for our next bush adventure: Kakadu national Park… in the next post.