End of the road - into the Top End

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End of trip

It was our last full day of the trip and it was scorching hot.
We found a place off the road to set up the table to have lunch,
but shade was scarce and I was in even more need of my refreshing
midday coldie than usual. This was a bad habit that I had acquired
on the trip - one can of beer with my lunch - and the only other
person who occasionally joined me was Dee, the Cork woman - fair play to her!
I can't recall much of what we did that day, maybe we went down into
some gorges to look for freshies in the hot afternoon? In any case,
by early evening we were literally driving through the golden, knee high
spinafex on a dirt track bordering the Gregory national park. All
of sudden there were dozens of big, dun brown walleroos bouncing
gracefully across our path and only stopping a safe distance away
and staring curiously back at us. It was a weird and even creepy
sensation to see these marsupials dark heads and pointed ears
staring out at us from the long grass. The long grass gave way to
an even rougher track and it took a driver as skillful as Joel to
carefully manouvre the 4wd and trailer up the summit to our final
and most spectacular campsite. We arrived to a flat plateau about
50 metres across, with an ample scattering of trees for shade and
sheer drops of at least 20 metres on 3 sides. We would have to take
care with our sleeping arrangements and trips to the toilet during
the night. There was even a proper bush toilet cubicle just a 100
metres back down the slope which had been constructed for the use
of visiting service personnel for the telecoms mast nearby. Joel put
the heebie-jeebies up all the girls when he reminded them to always
check for dangerous spiders before sitting on the seat - after that
they always seemed to organise to go in tows or even threes. The site
offered sweeping views of the park below for tens of kilometres
where no other sign of human activity was visible. Excepting the
absence of a stream or other water source to splash about in it was
perfect. Joel assured us that only 2 or maybe 3 other guides even
knew of the camps existence and we would have it all to ourselves.
I was thinking that if anyone else made it up the rugged and potholed
track that I would be first to offer them one of my beers or a shot of
the Jameson whiskey that I had leftover.
We took our first and last group photos in the fading light of the golden
sunset, using an upturned swag as an improvised tripod. Afterwards we
chatted and drank by the warmth of the campfire ever more conscious of
the delicious whaft of the lasange coming from the blackened pots.
It was, of course, another one of Joel's great triumphs.
We had earlier purchased bananas and chocolate for dessert and we split
the fruit down it's length, placed twirls and marshmallows in the centre and wrapped
the lot in tinfoil before throwing it into the glowing, orange embers.
It wasn't the success that it should of been, however, because we were
unaware that cadburys australian chocolate products have a unique property
- they don't melt! Even though the banana was steaming and soft in each
package, in a lot of cases the chocolate had only melted around the
outside. Seemingly because of the climate in Oz, their confectionaries
have special ingredients to stop it going soft - scary.
The next morning, after another hearty breakfast, Joel led us down to
some caves that he had discovered on a previous trip. They contained some
ochre paintings and everyone felt priveleged to be among a small number
of non native people who could observe these aboriginal works up close. Then
Omrih went missing. Unfortunately, Omrih had been testing Joel's patience
frequently on the trip, not in a malicious way, but more in a careless way.
We had all gotten used and largely tolerated Omrih's unique behaviour, none
more so than our guide, especially as Omrih had boundless energy when any
manly tasks needed to be performed - like cutting wood. Going missing in
the bush, where dangerous snakes are commonplace and in that area where a
crumbling cliff gave way to fatal 20 metre drops, was a serious situation.
We all fanned out, shouting his name and after 10 minutes starting to fear
the worse. Then Omrih skulked out from behind a group of trees with a stupid
grin on his face and Joel had a real go at him, more out of relief than anger.
We had all had such a great time on the trip and come to think of Joel as
a friend and part of the group. His style as a guide is subtle and unobtrusive -
to gently suggest rather than command, to lead rather than push. So we had
all forgotten at that point that we were all his responsibilty and if anything
happened us it was his ass and possibly the job, that he so clearly loved, on the
line. Some of us had expected him to snap earlier, but his cool headed
professionalism and good nature had stretched his tolerance. Anyway, not to
make a mountain out of a molehill, Joel sternly said his piece, end of story.
The point being, that very seldom on these fantastic trips, people do get injured
or cause injury to others and its usually because they ignore warnings or the advice
of the guide, who after all has seen it all, week in week out.
Back on the road again, we crossed into the Northern Territory just before stopping
for lunch. We all set our watches forward (except Joel, who forgot!) and because
there were some locals about, Joel advised me to very discreet while sipping my
noon coldie. In NT there is a big population of Aborigines and in an effort to curb
the tendency of some of them towards alcohol abuse, the consumption of any type
of alcohol in public is banned. Later, in Darwin, some chaps from Adelaide told
me that the cops there tend to ignore whities sipping tinnies on the street, but come
down real hard on the blackfellas. When entering a different timezone and
Australian state I had expected a border control to check our vehicle and us
for fruit, vegetables and other things considered to be dangerous to the
different and fragile ecosystems that exist in parts of Oz. Joel explained that
there are no restrictions whatever when going from WA to NT, but in the opposite
direction you can't bring any banned foodstuffs. This is because WA is practically
cut off from the rest of the continent by the Kimberley and its many rivers in
the north, the great central desert in the middle and further south by the Nabor
desert. So crop diseases and parasites that thrive in central and eastern Australia
are not even present in the west. One of the most feared pest of all, however, the
sugarcane toad, is expected to make its poisonous presence felt in WA very soon - how sad.
We journeyed on and Joel had another surprise for us (how he loved saving those),
we were to have a final splash about in the lukewarm waters of the hot springs
near Katherine. It felt great, letting all the dust wash off in the first warm
water in over a week, as we frollicked and threw the footie ball about in a
bubbling, turquoise pool. Piling back into the jeep for what we thought was the
last stretch we busily swapped photos and e-mail adresses until Joel pulled into
a bar that had been used during the filming of Crocodile Dundee and brought us
around the back to feed turtles and barramundi. We had eaten barra a few times
in WA and I was amazed to see just how huge these fighting fish were as the gently
glided up from the depths and then with sudden, violent lunge snapped the sardines
from our fingers. We completed the last stretch in almost ecstatic high spirits
despite the end of the trip looming ever nearer. Maybe the reason was that as Joel
dropped us all at our respective hostels in Darwin we knew that we would all meet again in
just a few hours at the infamous Vic hotel where Joel's company had reserved a
table for us!
And so it was over and Agnes and myself were most satisfied and delighted in fact
that we had taken the tour, despite initial reservations concerning the price. I had
expected us to be in the outback totally for 9 days, driving always on dirt tracks,
not seeing any sign of civilization. It wasn't quite like that and for a good reason
because we would have run out of food and more importantly beer soon enough. Suddenly
in Darwin's bright lights and traffic noises and "throngs" of people, we realised that
we had been in the bush, more or less as the spanish say and I will always remember
the friends we made, the comradeship we developed, the many cordial nights by the
campfires and drifting off to sleep every night beneath the countless, twinkling stars.

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Photos

Joel seeks out a new didge ...
Didgeridoos are made from tree branches that have been hollowed out in the centre by termites, but which are still alive. The trick is to find them in this transitional stage even if it means making a monkey of yourself. I've read that with a 1.3 m length of plastic pipe you can get the exact same sounds, but it doesn't look as sexy.

Suzanne in action with the camera again ...
... she was a fanatic for the snaps that Monaghan girl. Even though all of us mentioned to her how unhealthy it was, she just couldn't or wouldn't leave the thing down for a minute.