Darwin and the Top End

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Darwin

Day 107/108/109
June 9/10/11/12/13/14/15

After visiting the tourism office (which again conformed to other tourism offices where the staff don’t seem to be as knowledgeable as you would think). Collected a number of pamphlets for bits and pieces and specifically about fishing charters. We wandered to the Esplanade where per chance the Greek community had their annual “Glenti Festival” so we partook (?) in the food offerings for lunch and listened to some Greek music. Wandered along the Esplanade for a bit and then wandered home. Bit of a lazy day.
Ultimately ended up moving from the caravan park close to Darwin - it was also close to the aerodrome so quiet and peaceful it was not! Moved out to Howard Springs approx 20km out from Darwin but were soon hankering for the open road again. We stayed indarwin long enough for the “logistical requirements “ of traveling ie: power/water/washing/shopping. Well you can run but you cant hide from daily responsibilities…! We also made our own didgeridoo from the bare basics of a cut sapling so we are now the proud owners of a noisy musical instrument that makes a multitudinous array of flatulence sounds!!! Actually we are better than that and both Brayden and I have progressed to producing the semblance of a few reasonable sounds although we are still a long way from being able to say we have mastered circular breathing.

Whilst at howard Springs we arranged to meet a friend of mine who previously worked at Cosmos. He is now working at Nhulunbuy and given that this was well off the standard tourist itinerary we decided we would try and fit into his roster to catch up with him. This was arranged and so our last days in Darwin covered many of the type example tourist activities.

Accordingly we went to the Mindil markets - a Darwininian must do - and sampled some of the many foods on offer and were treated to a few street performers of varying capabilities. A good night eating, viewing and browsing the stalls. Our last stop was the Territory wildlife park which was good, but not the wildlife extravaganza I had been led to believe….perhaps that’s just the cynic in me reigning supreme….yet again! Kids enjoyed the day though and got to see a variety of wildlife and even had a black headed python draped over themselves which was all very thrilling.

And so our Darwin sojourn came to an end and we backtracked to Katherine and thence onto Nhulunbuy along the Central Arnhem road.

Darwin - Pine Creek - Katherine - Barunga - Maranboy - Bulman - Bush Camp(along the Central Arnhem Rd) - Nhulunbuy

Day 114/115
June 16/17

Happy to be back on the road and out of a major population center (yes it appears we are turning feral) - although al little annoyed with ourselves for not planning a bit better as we would have to backtrack yet again to come back and see Kakadu. Still such is life.

Arriving in Katherine we went directly to the northern Land Council office to pick up our permit which, we had thought in good faith, had previously been arranged in Darwin. As is a common trend with bureaucracies - there was no record whatsoever of our application for a permit. Consequently we had to put on our best conciliatory voice and manner to try and coerce the “very nice man” in the Katherine office to rearrange our permit on the spot. Luckily he was so inclined….perhaps having been subject to the machinations of aboriginal bureaucracy in his day to day working life he regularly has to circumvent the SWP (standard work procedure) in an effort to effect some degree of efficiency.

After doing a quick bit of trailer maintenance on the park at Katherine whilst Amanda was shopping (a little wheel bearing greasing/repacking goes a long way on occasion) we were off and, with permit in hand we pointed the nose of the trusty Tojo along the Central Arnhem road ~ 700km or so of gravel road. We passed the ubiquitous offering of green cylindrical aluminium objects (empty VB cans) to the dreamtime spirits at the signs indicating the “No grog” zones at the start of the road and soon settled into the comforting feel of gravel road and the ever present corrugations…..bit like an old friend really!!! The road was, in fact, in pretty good condition and we had made pretty good progress and reached the standard overnight spot (at Manoru) by about 3:30pm. With the family pretty well engaged in the penultimate instalment of the talking book “The Quest for Deltora” the consensus was to continue on. Whether this falls within accepted practices for driver fatigue or not I don’t know but we couldn’t call it a day without knowing whether Leif, Barda and Jasmine were able to get the last stone of the belt of Deltora! At length they did and we therefore allowed to stop so we found a good campsite in from an old gravel pit to camp up for the night. With a small campfire and dinner in our bellies, a small practice on our didgeridoo was in order - at least out here we could practice without having to annoy anybody else.

We woke to an overcast sky - an oddity we were not anticipating - and this progressed within a short time to persistent drizzle. We thought this would be a very transient thing but we were proved very much wrong…..The drizzle continued and periodically became rain to the point that the track became very wet, muddy and slippery. The car and trailer were very much christened with red mud (see photos). We arrived at Nhulunbuy around 3:30 pm and set up at Lisa and Aiden’s home with the drizzle still coming down. As it happened this continued for the next 12 or so days on and off and, according to the many locals that had been there for 20 plus years, was extremely unseasonal weather - almost unheard of in fact. Still it was something unusual to get to one of the northern most points in this wide brown land of ours and be pestered by light rain in the middle of “The Dry”.

Didn’t see a great deal of wildlife along the route although we did come across a couple of small water buffaloes and a dead wild pig of a reasonable size. Also saw the odd wallaroo/wallaby/small kangaroo but most of these were probably holed up out of the rain.

Nhulunbuy and surrounds

Day 116 - 125
June 18 - June 27

Although we didn’t do a great deal whilst in Nhulunbuy it was almost like a holiday within a holiday - where the kids did a bit of schooling, playing with Lisa and Aiden’s kids, watched a bit of TV and generally just lazed around. It was probably what was needed after ~ 5 months of being away. We bought some aboriginal art at the Yirrkala centre where local artists sell some of their paintings. We were lucky to have a local offer some informed advice (thanks Rick) and we bought something we all liked which has its roots in a traditional story telling. Hopefully we will still like it when we get back and open the box!!!

After having spent a few days in a home environment and beginning to feel hemmed in by the “rain” we were keen to get out and do a bit so we decided on trying to get out to the local beaches - a 40 km drive away. We managed to pick probably the worst day of our stint there but come hell or high water, rain, hail or shine we were going to the beach. We also took young Padraig (our friends three year old boy), he seemed pretty excited about that as he had almost adopted both Brayden and Rhiannon as a big brother and sister. Along the way we saw a pack of three dingoes and, as we slowed down to look at them, the leader decided he didn’t like the look of us and chased after us. Don’t know as if I’d wanting to be riding the old bike on a leisurely cycle only to be chased by a dingo …..

The beaches were wild and wooly with the weather as it was but it was still quite warm so the kids ended up getting wet jumping in and out of the waves. We also wore young Padraig out by running him up and down the beach - although he was full of beans and I think perhaps that maybe he was running us up and down the beach instead. One of the beaches (Macassans) was the location where Trepangers from South East Asia used to come on a yearly basis to collect sea slugs / sea cucumbers. There was an interesting site with interpretive signs showing how the trade between Yolngu aboriginal people and these trepangers had been going on for centuries. Evidence for some of this can be seen in the common words (or words derived from obvious influence) of the two languages. Rock outlines indicated the main process of the processing of the sea slugs and also showed sections of the Macassan prauhu (boats). Ultimately this trade was stopped by the whitefella bureaucracy which stipulated that the trepangers had to come and get a licence every year. As the monsoon winds made this almost impossible to get back to Darwin this trade was effectively blocked.

We were hoping on being able to visit an aboriginal community but the arrangements didn’t pan out and so it was time to take leave of the hospitality of Aiden and Lisa and hit the road again.

Nhulunbuy - Katherine - Edith Falls (Central Arnhem Rd)

Day 126 - 127
June 28 - 29

Same way we came in, camped at same spot on way out. Minor drama from lunchtime on the second day. After so many corrugations over the last few months one of the back doors decided that it wanted to stay shut so we couldn’t access the fridge or even open up the storage system (where all my tools were). A job for when we were in Katherine. Upon arriving in Katherine I bought a can of lubricant and applied copious amounts to the door but all to no avail. Without being able to open the door and access the fridge doing any shopping to continue on was pointless so I had to get it open. Dropped in via Toyota to see if they had any tips on what I could do but as it was Friday and 4:55pm interest levels were down and the response was bring it back tomorrow. Decided to persevere myself (sans tools) and have a crack at it as I didn’t particularly want to stay in Katherine if we could help it. Took the kids to the hot springs to play around there whilst I worked on the door. Eventually had to pop the door skin, which proved difficult with less than 5cm of clearance and would have made Houdini proud. After removing the door skin with only a tyre leaver for tools and bending my forearm into angles it shouldn’t physically go I was able to grab the mechanism at the base of the door and lever it open and’ voila’ the door popped open. Excellent. Funnily enough the problem was a 20 cent plastic clip which has worn on one side and let the mechanism disengage from the lever so it was just swinging in the breeze. Can you buy the clip though…..not on your nelly ol’ son…. the whole mechanism needs to be bought from my friends at Toyota. Not being so inclined to apply additional funds to the Toyota profit margin the illustrious cable ties fitted the bill. With access now re-established to the fridge and storage area a quick shop at Woolworths and thence onto a bush camp at Edith Falls.

From there we are to go into Kakadu National Park which we are all looking forward to.

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