From Darwin to Kununurra

We spent one week in Darwin, and I’m not sure why but I expected something different: a stylish city with interesting architecture in lush tropical surroundings. Not quite so. The blue ocean water and the beaches are nice, and the Wharf precinct with its artificial wave lagoon and little beach is a pleasant place to chill, but the city is mostly cement buildings. I hadn’t realized that cyclone Tracy in 1974 destroyed most of the place and as you all know the 70’s-80’s were not the glorious years of architecture. However it was nice to stroll by historical landmarks of colonial times and WWII bombings. Darwin received more bombs than Pearl Harbor and was virtually completely destroyed (poor Darwin twice in half a century!). The big white parliament building looked quite good, for a government building anyway. 

Parliament building

Artificial wave pool

The Endeavour caught up with us! 

Our favorite spot was Mindil beach during the sunset market. Dozens of food stalls with cuisine from around the globe (and oysters!) and sunset on the beach. We had a feast and enjoyed the sunset in probably one of the most crowded sunset-watching spots I have ever seen! I also got to work a little in Darwin, giving a few massages at the caravan park, and that way paying for the few extra nights accommodation we had to stay waiting for pieces for the car to arrive.

Sunset at Mindil Beach

Crowded spot!

Morwong

Pete went on a full day fishing charter really hoping to catch a barramundi this time (the only one he caught so far was the mini one on Carmila beach). Poor Pete is missing his boat so much and the opportunities to fish from the shore are rare and rarely successful. But unfortunately, despite spending 8 hours searching the estuaries, not one barra, only 2 morwong and 4 queenfish, all relatively small and no good for a feed. But he got a free shirt (well at $300 the day I’m not sure I’d called it free…)! Let’s hope he’ll be luckier in the Kimberley (north western Australia).

Proud of the fish or the shirt? 

The main highlight of our stay in Darwin however was the reunion with Graeme and Kim (and Jess, their rottie) that we had met during our extended stay in 1770. We know just the spot for our long awaited reunion, Mindil beach of course! A good excuse to eat oysters again (with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger, Yummy!). 

With Kim and Graeme at Mindil Sunset Market

We were quick to make plans to do Litchfield together, even though they had to stay outside the national park because of Jess, they found a camp just outside. We camped at Wangi Falls in the park. It’s a bush camp with amenities, pretty average sites and no shade, so after setting up in the midday heat we were pouring sweat and very glad to cool down in the large plunge pool at the bottom of the Wangi falls. It’s really beautiful, clear water below the high red rock cliff and a mini (but very deep) rock pool slightly elevated on the rocky escarpment that provides a cozy warm spa. Only downside is the whole place is absolutely packed with people, busloads of day-trippers from Darwin continually coming and going. 

Wangi Falls

The gang at Wangi

With Kim and Graeme we spent 2 days exploring the various walking tacks, waterfalls and swimming holes in the park and enjoyed every moment of it. The walks took us through savannah woodland, cycads and patches of rainforest that feel like little oasis of luxuriant green. Each swimming spot was a delight. Another site we explored is called the Lost City, tall black sandstone boulders that time has left looking like the ruins of an ancient city with trees climbing up the rocks.

Florence Falls plunge pool

Florence Falls 

The Lost city 

                    

Aaaaahhhh!

         

Natural spa

Cycads 

Buley Rockholes

Rainforest near Wangi Falls

Tolmer Falls

Archway above Tolmer Falls

Back at our camp we enjoyed the company of a very cute little wallaby that came each morning to feed close to our tent, and the funny mating dance of a yet unidentified (by us anyway) grey bird. The evenings were spent at K&G camp, a much nicer one than ours, with grass and fireplaces. I successfully made another damper (getting good at it now ;-) to accompany Kim’s delicious Laksa one night. And Pete got everyone hooked on his favorite card game - no, not poker, asshole. Let’s rephrase that, the card game is called asshole or as renamed in order to soften the hurt of constantly loosing for Wassy (Graeme): “the chocolate starfish”.

Our laksa / damper dinner

The biggest grasshopper i've ever seen! The size of my hand

Unfortunately we had once more to say our goodbye to our friends who are taking a different road, for now anyway, we are still hoping to meet somewhere on the Gibb River road (WA). We left the park through the 4WD only Reynold track, bearing south and strongly recommend the drive. This is Litchfield off the beaten track: no tourist buses, rugged road, soft sand patches and river crossings, heaps of fun. Pete showed his driving skills once more by getting us out of a really tricky crossing with a sharp turn and a narrow exit point. We made a first stop at the Blyth Homestead, a 1928’s shack made of cypress wood and tin. In it a few furniture remain and a photo album describes the life of the family of 14 who lived there and at the main station homestead, working a tin mine and a cattle station for three decades. A great travel in time and what a hard life, between remoteness, non-stop work, drought and serious injuries!

Blyth Homestead

Then we passed along kilometres of magnetic termite mounds. It’s a type of termite that build high flattish sort of mounds facing north to minimize sun exposure and thus better regulate the inner temperature. With so many of these grey flat mounds together it looks like a graveyard! In some areas we also saw the mounds of the regular termites, they are more round and ochre in colour and huge,  as tall as 5-6 m! Surprise creek, another waterfall, was a good spot for a picnic and a refreshing swim and we were soon out of the Park.

Magnetic termite mounds

regular termite mound

Surprise Creek

We spent one night at the Douglas springs camp, where the hot (very hot) spring water merges with the cold river water creating patches of water of various temperature, from a very hot bath to a cold plunge. Nice place to relax after a day spent bouncing up and down on the track.

After a day in Katherine, we ended our Northern Territory adventure being back on the Savannah way, with the 450 km drive to Kununurra, a little town 40 km west of the NT/WA border. What we expected to be a boring long day of driving turned out quite pleasant with the amazing changes in the landscape. From the flat savannah scrubland leaving Katherine suddenly appeared long red rock and dirt plateau in the horizon. The land become very hilly and suddenly we were driving through the high red rock escarpment of the Gregory national park. Stunning!

Then the landscape progressively flattened again but now Boab trees (from the baobab genus) appeared on each side among the bush. What a strange tree! It looks as if it has been uprooted and replanted upside down. Some are very large, sometimes with 2 trunks! The bark is steely silver and it is hard as a rock to the touch. I love these Boabs. There are now part of my top 3 with Frangipanis and Jacarandas. We are now in western Australia and you will hear all about it very soon.

Kakadu

On our way to Kakadu we were both excited to go bush camping again. We had heard from a lot of people that Kakadu disappointed them so our expectations weren’t too high. It certainly turned out to be an expansive park to visit but we’ve spent 6 nights in it and had a ball. 

We went through the south entrance and spent our first night at Gunlom falls campground; nice spacious sites with shade and fireplace and shower and toilet (very civilized bush camping ;-). The waterfall doesn’t have much water but it is still an impressive drop and the crystal clear green plunge pool at the bottom was a delight to swim in after setting up the camper in the midday heat. Pete swam all the way to the fall but not before he found another couple to go along: in the middle of the pool it gets quite deep and who knows what could be lurking down there… they say no crocs but it is hard to reason with the mind sometimes. 

Once refreshed we hiked up the steep path to the top of the fall. We got to the top red, sweaty, huffing and puffing, but it was all worth it: a beautiful view, a vertiginous sight over the plunge pool and several rock pools just for ourselves to enjoy a refreshing bath. Damn why didn’t we bring wine and cheese! Of course it was too perfect to last, a troupe of 15 teenagers walked in and it was goodbye peacefulness and nature sounds. Time to head back to the camp. 

Gunlom Falls

Rock pools at the top of Gunlom Falls

 The next 3 nights we spent at Mardugal camp, a good spot to explore the surroundings. On the second night at the camp, a dingo was roaming around and passed just a few metres from me while Pete was away, I ‘m ashamed to admit I was so scared I flashed our 1million candle power spotlight straight at him to make sure he wouldn’t come closer! Hum, I’m a wuss, I know.

Our fist expedition from that camp was the world famous Yellow Water cruise at sunrise. Pretty pricy but no regrets it was awesome. Stunning colours, birds everywhere, wild brumbies peacefully grazing and numerous crocs loitering among the water lilies, sunbathing on the bank or even charging at each other! Our eyes filled with wonders we were directed to the lodge to enjoy a hearty aussie breakie. That’s what I call a good morning!

Brumby grazing

flock of Magpie Geese

Jabiru

Sea Eagle - 2m wing-span

Big fella! 

See the croc? 

Wicked eye! 

Our day was to be quite busy as we had also planned an afternoon tour called Animal Tracks where Patsy, an aboriginal lady who had live her whole life in the bush between Arnhem land and the Kakadu region, shows what sort of bush tucker aboriginal people eat in this area. It is a very hands on tour so we got to collect mussels poking in dry river bed, find water chestnuts by hammering at chunks of dry soil, taste water lilly stalk and seeds (the seeds can be crushed and made into flour to make damper), and eat crushed green ants (quite acidic, used as medicine for headache and colds, my naturopathic expertise would say because of their vitamin C content ;-). The tour ended with dinner by the fire at sunset, overlooking a very large area of wetland filled with thousands of birds. Sounds and colours were astounding. Our dinner contained the product of our gathering of course- the mussels were alright but would be much better cooked in white wine and the chestnut were tasty- but also some damper made by throwing the loaf directly in the hot coals - I was surprise at how little ashes when eating it- and some meat: magpie goose that we had to pluck first (I gave it a go, I’m not too bad at it, maybe a future career looming…), buffalo meat and barramundi, all cooked over coals lying on a bed of grevillia leaves and covered with paper bark and soil. Overall the meat was quite chewy (the barra was nice) and lacking sauce and seasoning to my delicate French palate, but it was fun to experience a little bit of life in the bush and Patsy’s a real character with all her stories. 

Collecting water lillies

lilly's stalk and seedpod 

Sunset gathering

Meat cooking

Patsy with the plucked magpie geese

                      

The next day we visited 2 more waterfalls: Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls. To reach them it was quite a long and corrugated dirt road but the last bit to the Twin fall offered some fun 4WDriving. Both falls are spectacularly high, it was quite a sight after walking quite a while clambering over rocks and boulders. Swimming is only allowed at Jim Jim Falls but the water was freezing, probably 16-17°C (most other places are between 21-24°C) and the pools are all in the shade. Pete decided to swim across the pool to the base of the falls anyway and I sacrificed myself to take a good picture. No it’s not true, I chickened out, and I’m glad I did because in Pete’s own words he thought his “heart would stop halfway through”! So cold it doesn’t get better with time. I did go for a swim though, a bit further down the falls, from a white sandy beach in full sunshine, a quick splash before basking in the sun.

Jim Jim Falls - Pete made it!

It's freezing!

Romance at Twin Falls

Our last camp in Kakadu was at Merl campsite, nearby Cahill crossing, the causeway at the border with Arnhem Land. Pete did a bit of fishing there hoping to catch a barra, despite persisting for a few hours, not even a bite but we saw quite a few crocs all around. Even though we were quite safe up on the elevated bank, we kept a watchful eye on the movements of these big scary fellows, never know! Some people didn’t seem as careful though, fishing from the causeway, their feet in the water and crocs all around and not far away. True, they were much more successful at catching barras but we found that spot a little too exposed to our taste. The rangers eventually told them off. 

That big fella was right across from Pete fishing

Nearby our camp is a site called Ubir, with aboriginal artwork painted on large boulders. It is the best artwork we have seen so far, depicting scenes of life and of the dreaming, but I was always curious as to how it could be still so well preserved after thousands of years exposed to the elements. I now have my answer, they have been painted over recently, but following the original drawings. From this place, climbing at the top of the rocky mountains, we watched the sunset over the flood plains of Kakadu and Arnheim land and spotted a few crocs in the far away billabongs. Once again we forgot the wine and cheese, how silly!

Pete at Ubir lookout

Arnhem Land

 

Thus ends our Kakadu adventure. We are now heading for Darwin.