Flooded roads, flooded mind - p1

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After a day in Darwin, I take my little Corolla hire car to Kakadu. Halfway I find there's some water over the road. The Corolla handles it okay but I wonder whether I might get stranded in Kakadu, as more rain is forecast. I ponder the situation over a beer at the nearest roadhouse, while the Country Music Channel is spitting out some truly inspiring tunes. After a call to the Kakadu visitor centre, I decide to keep going.
Once at Kakadu, it starts bucketing down and after discovering that my tent isn't waterproof I spend the night in the car. The next morning, the rain has stopped and I decide to do the Barrk Sandstone Walk, which winds around Nourlangie Rock. Here I get a much stronger sense of the spiritual nature of the land, which I had already felt somewhat at Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Maybe it's got something to with the fact that I'm all alone, as opposed to being surrounded by other tourists. Luckily it's overcast and I've got enough water to cope with the heat. The trail is barely that. Rather, there are markers which point the way through the wilderness. And once you start you had better keep going, as the markers can only be seen walking in one direction. There are times when I have to backtrack to the previous marker, just to make sure I'm still going in the right direction. During the last 4kms of the 12km walk the sun comes out and by the time I get back to the car, I'm a putrid mess of sweat, sunscreen and insect repellent, a stench I get to enjoy for the entire duration of the drive back to Darwin. On the way back the monsoonal rain starts up again, and I'm glad to make it back to Darwin without the car being washed off the road.

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Photos

b.s.w. 4
i'm sure the trail is here somewhere

b.s.w. 6
remind you of anything, fellow O.T. hikers?

Comments

[Aidan]

mmmm walking through streams
Gotta love those wet boots, at least there is no sleet up there