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Published: July 10th 2007
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We took two beds in a dorm in Darwin city. We spent the first day driving around an getting our bearings as well as going to the Art Gallery, having our first coffee for a long while and visiting the Mindil Beach markets where we ate Timorese, African and Filipino food for dinner before watching the sunset on the beach. The next night we decided to see the city via a pub crawl, beginning in Mitchell St and making our way back to the backpackers where we were staying. Had a great night talking to surly Scotsmen and being entertained by magicians from Blackpool. We also made the mistake of asking a gay bloke where we should go next and nearly saw Darwin’s only drag show, although the $10 entry charge and general seediness of the venue meant we gave it a miss, although I am sure it would have been entertaining. The last two days were fairly non eventful apart from the arrival to our room at 3am of a very large bloke who was having a panic attack, proceeded to snore loudly, broke the bed and stank like nothing I have smelt before. There couldn’t have been a
bigger contrast between him and the Irish hairdresser who had quietly filed her nails in the bunk above before going to bed early. Despite being a bit tired and cranky the next day we went out and saw where Mum and Dad lived before Cyclone Tracey blew their house away, not surprisingly there is not much there to indicate life pre-1974.
We left Darwin on the Monday and headed for Kakadu, our first two nights we camped on the Wildman river at two-mile waterhole which was a beautiful spot. We saw plenty of buffalo tracks but not the beast itself, although we heard the next day that they had shut the area in order to shoot a large one that had been sighted and was likely to bother campers - perhaps we had a near miss on our long bush walks around the waterhole as I would not like to meet one of them on foot. The next day we spent some time at the Mumukala wetlands bird watching where we saw a kite try to take a duck from the water. We then went to Ubirr and saw some unbelievable rock art which made the stuff in Laura
(although it is 20,000 years older) look like finger paintings. We then camped at Jabiru to watch the state of origin. Watching football in mining towns is always an experience, the good thing about this compared to Weipa was that the crowd had far better taste and were backing the Blues - and we won.
Following the victory we took a mine tour of Ranger Uranium Mine. I was interested to see the mine given I had nearly jumped a bus up here from uni in 1998 to protest the nearby Jabiluka lease. Although my views have softened a bit the tour was a treat, particularly the guide who glossed over every problem with uranium mining and the nuclear industry (e.g the great pH 5 sulfuric acid tailings pond down the back that could finish half of Kakadu if it broke and the 1000 year waste problem once the uranium is enriched, not to mention nuclear weapons) and implied that Australians were just plain ignorant for not encouraging mining uranium from one end of the country to the other. This diatribe included his personal insights on world population problems and other weighty subjects, however despite the things running through
my head I restrained myself and left him and his views intact. That afternoon we saws one more rock art at Nourlangie Rock which was as good as the Ubirr site and camped at Sandy Billabong and had a glorious afternoon in the shade by the billabong watching birds and doing nothing - ahh the hard life.
The following day we traveled out to Jim Jim falls, supposedly the most spectacular site in Kakadu and it almost matched that description apart from the thousands of people there. An hour’s 4WD in and another ½ hour climbing up the gorge was worth it to see the long waterfall streaming down into a plunge pool. We took a dip and I can understand why the call it a plunge pool - it was freezing! As soon as you ducked your head under you’d have to run back out but it kept us cool for awhile.
During the next two nights in Kakadu we both caught colds and now we are sitting in Katherine again, feeling sorry for ourselves and contemplating the Kimberleys in the next couple of weeks. Finally as well we are up to date and solemnly promise never
to get this far behind again. Hope you are all well, send us a message and let us know what is happening in the colder climes!
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Olly
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Howdy oz travellers
Hey Guys, Nice to hear your having a fat time! Some great wildlife pics -and I didn't realise how huge the uranium mine was -omg. There is still a hint of you Jack here at Partnershhips. Actually your desk which I am sitting at now hasn't changed since the day you left it! Looking forward to some pics of the Kimberleys and Broome when you get there. Can you take one of the Broome jetty for me? Take care -Olly :)