23/6/07
Well, here we are still in Darwin.
We can’t seem to get enough of the place. It probably has something to do with the fact
that the rest of Australia has been plunged into the extreme coldness of
winter, and the balmy days and nights up here just seem too good to be
true. But we Darwin-ites haven’t escaped
all of the cold fronts. Last Tuesday Darwin recorded the lowest maximum
temperature for a June day, EVER! Yes,
it set a new record low of 22.7 degrees Celsius. The poor old locals nearly froze to death.
We have been staying at a bit of a rundown caravan
park at Lee Point. It is huge. We like it because they don’t charge anything
for the kids. We have found not charging extra for the kids is a rarity at
other caravan parks.
We have gotten over our addiction with the massive
Casuarina Shopping centre and have managed to discover some real gems in the
Darwin area. There are lots of free
things for the kids to do. Due to the
prevalence of stingers and crocodiles on the beaches, the council has created
lots of free water parks and other outdoor recreation areas. There are outdoor markets, free outdoor
concerts and a beautiful jetty where you can dine out on fish and chips, feed
the fish and watch the sunset. It is a
really nice vibrant youthful laidback city.
We have discovered the wonders of the local
library. Steve joined up for a
refundable deposit of $50. Since then
the kids have enjoyed story times, play stations, free internet access and have
borrowed books, DVDs, cds and computer games almost on a daily basis.
We did leave Darwin briefly to meet Steve’s parents
and go to an Aboriginal festival at Barunga.
Normally we would need a permit to visit, but for only $5 per adult we
were able to camp on common ground in the community for the whole of the June,
Queen’s birthday long weekend. No rules
here, we could light a fire where ever we liked. This turned out to be a good thing as there
was a cold snap that weekend and the overnight temperature plummeted to nearly
zero. That was a bit of a shock after being used to Darwin where the
temperature never dropped below twenty something degrees over night. In fact our first week in Darwin was
shocking. With very high humidity and no
relief in the night time temperatures we were seriously considering heading
directly south, and fast. But the dry
season hit by the second week and we were finally able to enjoy cooler
temperatures (overnight, at least).
The festival in Barunga was a great experience. It felt really interesting to be in a cultural
minority in our own country. But there
was a really positive vibe and it was a great way for the children to
experience the kind of life that indigenous people have in these
communities. Our only disappointment was
that we did not get much of an experience of traditional culture at the
festival. Much of it was geared to
educate the aboriginal people about being healthy, their rights and social
services that were available to them. We
did, however, enjoy lots of indigenous rock music at the nighttime concerts
After the festival we headed north again and camped in
at Katherine gorge. We found the gorge
itself a bit expensive and comercialised.
Choosing not to pay exorbitant rates to travel the gorge via air or
water we tried our luck walking across the top.
Sarah and Evan accompanied Ninny and Pa to Butterfly gorge. It sounded like the pick of the gorges, as it
was picturesque and yes there were plenty of butterflies there too. Steve, Emma and Harry tackled a less
demanding walk and headed out to Pat’s lookout.
It took plenty of cajoling but we managed to get Harry all the way there
(eventually) and we enjoyed the splendid views.
Sadly, we found out about the death of Emma’s Father,
the children’s little Pa, upon our return to mobile phone reception in
Katherine. We headed back to Darwin and
set up camp again at Lee point. Then
Emma left Steve and the children to spend a week in Darwin while she flew back
to a very cold Canberra. Ninny and
(big)Pa moved on to Kakadu. We were hoping
to catch up with them again later in our trip.
6/7/07
We are now in Katherine and still enjoying the perfect
camping weather.
When Emma returned to Darwin after her week freezing
in Canberra we stayed on a few extra days and made sure we saw all of the
Darwin Museum. It took three goes, but I
think we managed it. Lucky it was free. The museum was wonderful, we particularly
liked the exhibits about Cyclone Tracy, Australia under Attack and the stuffed
specimens of birds and animals. Steve has
become quite a bird watcher (of the feathered variety).
We left Darwin and drove onto Kakadu and ended up
spending 10 days there. We didn’t intend
staying so long but the time flew by without us even noticing. Kakadu is great, and cheap. There is no park entry fee anymore and many
of the campsites are free.
We spent 3 nights in Northern Kakadu at a free
campsite called Malabandjubandju. From
here we visited Jabiru, and the excellent visitor information centre and the
spectacular Ubirr Rock.
Ubirr Rock was amazing! The rock art was extensive and impressive,
and the view towards the Arnhem Land escarpment from the top of Ubirr Rock was
breathtaking.
We headed almost 200km south (Kakadu is a big place)
to Gumlon Campground. This was a
$5.40/night campground where we could get a nice hot shower. Here we met up again with Steve’s parents
(Ninny and big Pa). We stayed for 3 nights and while here had the fortune to go
into an area that we should have had a permit for. People we were camped with had a key to
Koolpin gorge. So we borrowed it and
went for an explore over rocks and up rock pools to the top of the gorge. Once again, magnificent views were to be had.
While at Gumlon we caught up with some traditional
Aboriginal culture. We visited the
culture centre near Cooinda, watched a slide show about history of the area (including
the 1950’s uranium mine at Coronation Hill) and participated in some basket
weaving using pandanus palms. We ate
bush damper prepared by our Aboriginal host which Evan and Harry particularly
liked, embarrassingly so. They ate so
much that the Aboriginal family had to pull out an extra one from their store
to feed them with.
We climbed up above the falls at Gumlon to some
beautiful rock pools at the top. The
water was so clear it looked like a picture from a resort brochure. These falls used to be called UDP falls which
stands for Uranium Development Project.
It gives some indication of the area’s past history and the fact that
using Aboriginal names for places is a much more attractive option.
We continued travelling with Ninny and Pa and moved
camp to another free camp ground at Sandy Billabong. This one was more in the middle of Kakadu,
down a 4WD only track. The first night
was frighteningly quiet with no other campers around and Emma laying in bed
imagining one or all of 4 different wild animals coming to devour the family in
their sleep. Crocodiles, buffalo, wild pigs or dingoes were all possible
visitors to this campsite. The following
nights saw many campers move into to join us including a number of tour
groups. So we never felt so alone again.
From this campsite we explored central Kakadu. We visited Nourlange Rock and were treated to
very interesting and entertaining ranger talks about the landscape and the rock
art that we were seeing. We visited
Anbangbang Billabong for lunch and then climbed the rocks above it to the
lookout. We went further than the track
and climbed right to the top of the Rocky escarpment for some wonderful
views. On the way back down we
discovered some rock art. It showed a
story depicting lots of stick figures and a large rainbow serpent. We wish we had our ranger with us to
interpret the rock paintings for us and to tell us about the significance of
the site.
We visited Jim Jim Falls on one of the days. This is probably one of the best known areas
in Kakadu. We could not access Twin
falls as the road was closed. Jim Jim
was a tall fall that we accessed by a long rocky scramble. There was a plunge pool at the bottom in
which we all enjoyed a well earned swim.
Reluctantly we packed up; knowing that there was still
heaps to do, but that it will have to be
saved for another visit. Now we are in
Katherine (again) re- stocking and catching up on washing before the next leg
of our journey. We have decided to head
west and dip our toe into Western Australia.
It was never our intention to touch West Oz, but given the cold southern
air and the fact that we are so close we just can’t resist popping across to
Kunnunara and Wyndam. Where to from
there who knows.................
Until next time, from who knows where, take care and
enjoy the winter, we sure are!
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