The Brief 'Top End' Discovery

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We arrived in Kununurra off the back of a fabulous week discovering the Kimberley and all its delights. We had a whole heap of fun in between Karijini and Kununurra via Broome but we were now in that all too familiar situation of needing to work, mainly for survival, but also to make sure we can keep the dream going. We were also chasing our second year visa (so attached we were to Australia yet so little of it we had seen), which for those not in the know, meant doing 88 days of 'seasonal' work. So far we had done 0. We had a whole heap of misery ahead of us.

It wasn't hard to find work in Kununurra, thanks to the huge irrigation system they had put in the area that supplied a huge area with a constant source of fresh water. This meant that nearly every vegetable you could think of (a slight exaggeration) grew in the area, so they always needed workers to harvest those crops.
I found work on a pumpkin farm whilst Laura did weeding elsewhere, on pumpkins and watermelons. It was horrible work that in a perverse way I enjoyed but Laura did not. Her day was longer than mine and by all accounts more monotonous as it involved walking up and down row after row of pumpkins, picking out the weeds with a hoe.
I had to snip pumpkins, then chuck them in the back of a tractor (frantically I may had) that was as good a way to destroy your back as any. We then packed them into various size boxes. That was it. But at the end of the day you really felt like you had earned your money (and your beer) and it is that that I liked.

The problem was that Kununurra offered very little in terms of things to do. Between when we arrived and when I started my job (Laura started straight away) I had 3 days which I struggled to fill. There are things in the surrounding area, a lovely 'Zebra' Rock shop, a rum distillery, canoing on the Ord River and many hills to climb but it was 38c most days and we didn't have a car. Thus I did a lot of sitting around and sweating.

I did venture out to Mirima National Park on my first day off, a small park situated about 10 minutes walk from the town centre. It is described as a mini Bungle Bungles, though as I hadn't been there I couldn't agree nor disagree, though I could appreciate its beauty none the less.
A series of towering dome like rocks loomed over me as I delved into the park, using the naturally formed steps to climb up to the highest point. The view of the surrounding area and the small segments of the town was wonderful and it also gave an almost bird like view of the domes beneath me, which were definitely impressive works of natural architecture.
Laura never got to see the park due to a strike of 'black lightening', an unfortunate term used by the locals to describe the regular lighting of the bush by the Aboriginals.
We did however both managed to get up to the view point on Kellys Knob, a place that is always visible for the town and that offers great views of the town and the surrounding plains.

The town itself is a bit of a none-event. Nothing of any real note can be found - it has the standard supermarkets, aboriginals on every street corner and bottle shops. The highlight of town is the swimming pool, which only charges $3 to get in.

We only spent 3 weeks in Kununurra and they weren't 3 particularly well spent weeks - there is a lot to do if you have transport and money - 2 luxuries we did not have. Its worth a visit if you have these otherwise I wouldn't worry about it!

Our next stop was Katherine. We had to leave Kununurra because work had dried up as a lack of rain had meant a poor start to the mango season, however we were promised mango picking in Katherine. It is a job I had wanted to avoid at all costs as I had heard too many horror stories about what the acid from the stalk of the mango does to skin. Its not good. One worked in Queensland got 1st degree burns from it.
Such is the pull of Australia though that I was up for doing anything if it meant I could return for another year at the least.
Alas, we were out of luck. The mango season had been poor everywhere and all vacancies were taken. Before leaving Katherine though we did sample some of its delights. One of those delights was the Katherine Hot Springs.
It wasn't as delightful as I thought it might have been as it was natural to a certain degree but had steps into it and the banks were held up by walls. There was also small stones on the bottom that definitely didn't come from there, which was a bit disappointing but it was still a relaxing experience.
On the way there we had a bit of an adventure thanks to the completely unhelpful town map. We had decided to walk along the path by the river which led directly to the springs, but there were many paths, none of which were sign posted so within minutes we were lost.
We did however chance upon some Aboriginals who we approached with caution as they had seemed aggressive in town but who turned out to be lovely. Drunk as a skunk but lovely! One lady told us her husband had recently passed away and insisted on giving us both a kiss. I'm not sure what the connection was there but it was a nice touch.

Katherine is a bigger town than Kununurra and promised more to do, with Nitmuluk (Katherine Gorge) nearby and a host of tours available.
It is another town with a huge aboriginal problem though, something that is evident at all times of the day as they amble along almost lifelessly down the street. The noises of the traffic is often interspersed with the screams of the aboriginals as another argument breaks out.
It was our first Australian experience outside of Western Australia and with a new state came new laws. For instance, alcohol restrictions were huge. No full strength beer was available before lunchtime, no casks of wine were sold at all and everyone buying alcohol had to have their id scanned. All definitely good measures but more will need to be done, but I can't imagine a teetotal Australia to be quite honest and you can't not serve black people, for obvious reasons.

So it was on to the next port of call in search of work, a place there were sure to be mango pickers needed and if not I could work in construction and Laura at the fisheries - Darwin. There was a lot we wanted to see here too, namely Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks and also friends.
In the evening we met Tanman, a friend from Exmouth, who took us to the Darwinian Institution that is the Vic. He provided vouchers for us that would get us a free feed, and we didn't even have to buy anything. This was budget traveling at its best - they even played games on the dance floor to win free beer. A class act all round!

We booked on to a Kakadu tour that was leaving 2 days later so spent the day in between looking for work, for which once again we would have no luck. There was plenty available for me in construction but that was no good for Laura. We'd see what the situation was like when we get back.

Kakadu National Park was something I'd been looking forward to for a while now, a combination of a few people saying it was better than Karijini (which was the most naturally stunning place I had ever seen) and from the words of Lonely Planet.
We booked on with Adventure Tours Australia who turned up nearly an hour late thanks to the scatty fruitcake that was our driver, Carl.
Soon enough we were at the Mary River Wetlands where we boarded a boat that was driven by Lee, an Englishman with a passion for nature.
On the wetlands we saw an amazing variety of birds including jabirus, ibis, Kormorans, geese, ducks, egrets and eagles.
These were of course just various stages of dinner for the star attraction of the wetlands, the Saltwater Crocodile,. or 'Saltie' to the locals. Without guidance its hard to tell the difference between the 2 types of crocodiles (the other being the freshwater, or 'freshie'). There is the obvious difference in size but for the most part of their day the crocodiles only have their eyes above water. The 'salties' though have more of a square cranium and have 4 bumps situated by their head.
Our guide was pretty good at getting close to them and on a couple of occasions startled them so they moved violently in the water, causing even more startled gasps around the boat!
One example of the supreme killing power of the saltie is its ability to effortlessly glide through the water - there is no warning, no broken water, before you're in the jaws of a monster. It is said that you don't worry about the salties you can see...............
We found one swimming down the middle of the river and then watched as it turned its attention to a kormoran minding its own business on the waters surface. The croc slipped under water quietly and then just as we thought we were about to witness a kill, the kormoran quickly skidded out the way of the oncoming monster and away to safety. At the same time the eyes of the croc emerged where the kormoran had once been sitting. It was a good insight into just how easy it could be to not notice death coming right for you.

From the wetlands onto Ubirr, a place made famous by Crocodile Dundee in Crocodile Dundee 2. It is an area rich in aboriginal history and had many rock paintings which Carl explained the meaning of, including one painted at an impossible height, about 15 metres up but horizontal, so facing the ground. It was on a rock that stuck out and which had no obvious way for the person who painted it to get up there. The aboriginals say it was painted by 'Mimi' spirits, and that it wasn't done by an aboriginal. Looking at it at face value it could only be a spirit that did it.

From the numerous paintings we went up to a huge flat surface that looked over Kakadu and the tropical wetlands below. It felt like the sky went on forever up there and was a glorious view. It was the place Dundee looked out over with the American girl, and from here we could clearly see the rock he stood a top of to use his 'bush telephone' (bull roarer).

We'd had a fantastic day, we'd seen a lot and learned a lot and we still had 2 days to go. In the evening we made our way to camp near Twin Falls but on route we drove through some thick forest fires that still had many trees alight. It would appear once again that bush fires are of little concern to paying customers! They probably knew we would be, but we were all fine.

We retired to our swags and looked forward to the next day. In the night I was awoken by my bladder but then was kept awake by the glorious wailing sounds of the dingos. As their cries echoed around the valley it sounded more like an air raid siren than a dog, but it was a sound I had not heard to I was delighted! In the morning we were woken up to the chirping of various birds that refused to come into view but it was a good wake up none the less.

It was a prompt start as there were 2 falls to explore, the first one being Twin Falls. After a short walk followed by a short boat ride followed by a slightly longer walk we arrived at the barely flowing falls and stood back in amazement at our vast surroundings.. The walls of the gorge towered a good 150 metres above us and dropped down to a huge pool that was fed by the falls.
Unfortunately we couldn't go swimming due to the possible presence of salties so we went to back to the start before making the steep climb up to the top of the falls where we could have a swim.
En route we found a nest of green ants. The ants, we had been told, possess a citrus arse, so this we had to try. And it was all true! It felt like licking a battery but it definitely did possess a certain citrusy quality.

At the top we explored the dry plateau leading to the falls - you get a good idea of the pounding effects of gushing water when you're standing in a dry river bed - then made our way up to a pool that had enough water to swim in.
We were completely alone (well us and the 12 other people in our group!) so it was blissfully quiet and very relaxing.

On to the the next falls, which was Jim-Jim Falls, supposedly the highlight of any visitors trip to Kakadu - but that turned out to be Jim-Jim Fell, as it was completely dry. It did have a deep and cold pool that we had a swim in, swimming right under where the water would fall a good 90 metres to the pool I was in. Once again there were huge gorge walls all around us but this time we were more enclosed than the openness of Twin Falls.

In the evening we did the traditional Aussie thing and clubbed a couple of cane toads that we found (which I didn't enjoy but you have to as they do way more harm than good), and had a few beers before retiring to the swag.
They say you have to kill cane toads because they have a poison gland situated behind their neck, which many native animals are obviously unaware of as they have a nibble and then die. And there's heaps of them, more on the east coast but they are spreading west - so in the Northern Territory and WA they have toad hunts. They also advise you to kill them if you see them - easier said than done. I smacked it on its head with a rather large stick as it made no attempt to carry on living, instantly its back legs popped out and it presented itself as a dead toad. And then it reformed itself, slowly bringing its back legs back in. So I hit it again, and it did the same, so I smacked it 3 times and it still did the same. So in no uncertain terms I opened a can of whoop-ass on its tiny hopping hind, and it was gone. I couldn't muster the energy to do in its mate.

The last day was arguably the best, in terms of sheer fun levels! We'd had a wicked time so far but there aren't many things in the world that are more fun than jumping into deep water off of natural surroundings. This is what we got at Barrumundi Falls, and in abundance.
First we went to the falls where there we deep pools enclosed by rocky plateaus that presented the perfect opportunity for us to stay in touch with our childhood. Laura even jumped in which is a feat you can't undestimate, though she only did the small one (4 metres) whilst I went up top to the big one. Its all fun though!
The jumps were fun but the best up top was reserved for a natural slide, that fell into a deep pool with no other way out but to go through an underwater opening. This was nature at its absolute best.

Amazingly, it got even better when we went to the bottom of the falls which was a huge open pool with the (running!) falls flowing into it. On the right hand side was the mega jump, about 10 metres, that was tough to get to but once up there you realised that the only way was forward and there was nothing but deep water ahead. It was bloody fantastic! I loved every minute of it and it was easiuly the highlight of the tour.

Before we left Kakadu we had lunch next to the Cathedral Termite mounds, which are incredible structures by anyones standards. Something that would take up a fraction of you fingernail had amassed a structure that stood a good 18-feet tall. Around six metres! It was massive - I thought its probably the termites equivalent of building the Empire State Building, but by only doing it with their mouth and hands.

And that was the Kakadu dream done. We'd made a fair few friends on the trip so we met up at the vic in the evening, had our free grub and then smashed it in.

The next day we were back to reality. We HAD to find work or leave! And our search was no more fruitful than last time so we took in the harbour of Darwin and visited the museum which offered a fascinating insight into what it was like to be hit by a cyclone, which happened to Dawin in 1974, wreaking absolute devastation.
In the evening we went to the Mindil Sunset Markets, arguably Darwins biggest draw card, which offered a good variety of world foods, crafts, clothing and music, including Em Dee who mixed didgeridoo with drums creating a sort of tribal drum and base.

We needed to see Litchfield National Park before we left so we booked on a tour to do that, paying slightly more than we wanted to but it had to be done.
The big thing about the tour was witnessing jumping crocodiles in the Adelaide River. This was truly a spectacle to behold - I don't agree with feeding wild animals or enticing them to do something that didn't look natural - but they do jump in the wild, and too some great heights I may add!
We stopped every couple of minutes to get a croc out the water (they obviously recognised the boat as an easy food source), the biggest being 5 metres which came right up to the boat and if the glass wasn't there I could have touched him. It was an awesome experience.
One problem that someone pointed out to us at a later date was that these are wild animals - there is nothing stopping them into another area where jumping crocs may not be known - thus essentially you have created a super croc that can dump 3 metres out of water and could be anywhere. Nice thought.

From there we took the completely bitumen road to Litchfield which quickly became a major source of disappointment. We had traveled many kilometres over very isolated terrain and been far away from anything resembling civilisation before, in Karijini, the Kimberley and Kakadu, so to have a sealed road leading all the way into the park made us realise we wouldn't be having the serenity we had become accustomed to in previous national parks.
Hence why we thought the falls were lovely but we didn't fall in love with them. Wangi falls, our first top, was spectacular to the extreme but was so crowded we couldn't appreciate it.
Wangi had 2 falls that the aboriginals beleived were male and female and they mated to create the water hole below them - the missionaries didn't like this though so called it Wangi which is aboriginal for 'fishing hole'.
The two falls opened up into a huge pool, completely surrounded by woodland and with fruit bats hanging in the trees. The water cascaded down with great force when you sat underneath it - it was probably the biggest flowing fall we had seen in Australia yet. But all the while it wasn't solely my experience, so I wasn't as enthralled by it as I had been at other places.

We then went on to Florence falls which was beautiful but the man-made steps down to it and the disappointing walk through the forest after it took the gloss of it, though we did see a shy black wallaby hiding in the rocks which made it semi-worthwhile.
After that it was onto Bluey Rockhole, a regular weekend haunt for Darwinians and another source of discontent for the both of us. once again, it was beautiful and consisted of various pools of water joined by small waterfalls, which you could climb down into the next pool. It had been talked up a lot in the brochure and it just wasn't what I was expecting, though it was still worth the visit.

Back to the Youth Shack and we made our last hunt for jobs before making the decision to leave the next day. We were fortunate - we caught the Ghan office just closing. After a momentous hunt around the territory for anything resembling work we conceded that we would have to look further south, in the Adelaide hills maybe - so why not take in Uluru on the way(eh?) - and so we booked on one of the 'worlds greatest train journeys', The Ghan, from Darwin to Alice.

In Alice we would finally get our break. After all we'd seen we were going to work in the bush with the Aborigines.

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Photos

Its an Aussie thing
Theres a river in the way? Just drive through it!

Just a saltie.....errrr
A cold blooded killer

The impossible painting
Painted on the rock jutting out - how?!