Like a Rolling Stone

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The happy backpacking family spirit that had been prevalent in the trip from Adelaide evaporated in Alice, as people went their separate ways and we boarded a big "bus" for the journey north to Darwin and Kakadu. There were only a few of the original party left and we guess we were as guilty as everybody else in sticking in our own group. The roads are sealed to Darwin, so the economies of scale make it a no brainer for the companies to put on a big vehicle.

The limited sights are also pretty much just off the main highway and the first port of call were the Devils Marbles (or Karlu Karlu in local terms). The “eggs of the Rainbow Serpent” are huge granite boulders in the sandstone desert, that have cracked over the years with the huge change in temperature.

We pulled into a strangely quiet Tennant Creek. The fifth largest town in NT - it’s a relative statement with a population of 3,500 - had a closed look. The “closed” look was due to the fact that the bottle stores were closed with it being pay day in the outback and this apparently is one way of encouraging the investment in products other than alcohol. We spent the afternoon in a gold mine at Battery Hill - where you can if you think with some imagination relive some of Tennant Creek’s gold mining past.

We camped on the Banka Banka Cattle Station, at 11600 square kilometres it was described as larger than Northern Island, but who knows whether that is accurate. The Station was about 50 miles north of Tennant Creek and populated by an army of grey nomads on their extended tours of Australia. As the town had been dry at our stop, entertainment was reduced to watching a grey nomad slide show on the history of the station.

Daly Waters isn’t exactly a pub you can make your local - it’s not exactly convenient for anywhere being nearly 400 miles south of Darwin and over 250 north of Tennant Creek, but has made itself a destination in it’s own right. The traffic on the highway is not exactly M1 proportions, but a significant proportion of it makes the turn off for a feed or a drink. The settlement formed at the natural springs, became a telegraph station, briefly an “international” airport as a refuelling station for early Qantas flights and subsequently a WW2 airfield. The airfield and the Qantas hangar are still there, but no commercial flights visit these days. The pub is an ecletic mix of outback meets bank notes, football scarves and underwear from around the world - we can never quite work out why a passing German would just happen to have a Schalke 04 scarf or whatever with him or her in a land where 40 degrees is not uncommon!! Bill Bryson has a more flowing description of the pub and community in his Down Under book.

As the ale was flowing at Daly Waters, the water was flowing at Mataranka and it was time for a dip in the springs, before making camp at Katherine. Katherine Gorge is a deep gorge carved through sandstone by the Katherine River. Katherine Gorge is actually made up of thirteen gorges, interconnected with rapids and falls, which involve climbing out of your canoe and scrambling at points especially during the dry.

We weren't really sure what we'd make of Darwin. You read the books of yesterday about people going "troppo" in the heat, but it was only the end of winter and it would probably be another couple of months before the heat and the "wet" took hold. As with Alice, the drive into the suburbs hardly gives the impression of entering a frontier town.

The weather on arrival was pleasant and not too humid, as we pulled into our new Cavenagh Street headquarters. This was obviously the centre of Adventure Tours party operation - an old motel set around a swimming pool a couple of blocks back from the main Mitchell Street. The only difference in the format on arrival from Alice was the chosen “party” venue to which we were directed was off premises - The Vic on the main Mall. However, the agenda was the same with copious alcohol, free food and with the added bonus that Miranda could finally indulge in some table dancing - all useful experience for a forthcoming trip to Cairns. There wasn’t really any time to have a look at Darwin, as we were off at 6 o’clock the next morning to Kakadu - passing a number of people on the way in who were just returning from their extended night out.

We were back to a 4WD for the Kakadu roads, although it wasn’t really necessary for the first stretch. The main excitement of the first morning was the guide setting fire to half of the Northern Territory in his desire to get the BBQ going, which was amusing to an extent when the flames rapidly approached the 4WD - but ceased to be so when our rucksacks on the ground looked like they were about to go up in smoke first. Crisis averted, we headed to the Mary River for some croc spotting. We’d seen salties before in 1991 on the Daintree River in TFNQ, but these beasts were on a more impressive and much larger scale. We can’t remember how many we counted, but every couple of hundred yards or so a 15 foot + specimen was basking on the mud banks. It was a bit disconcerting to suddenly wake up to the fact that most were bigger than the boat we were in. A close up view also makes you think about the signs you regularly see by the river bank - “Estuarine Crocodiles inhabit this river system etc etc”. Th rest of the day was spent driving further into Kakadu - we saw aboriginal paintings at Uburr, climbed on to the escarpment overlooking Arnhem Land, watched the sunset over the Yellow Waters and camped at Cooinda.

As John is a somewhat poor to non-existent swimmer, the next day was filled with trepidation. We headed to Jim Jim Falls, before moving on to Twin Falls. However, to get to Twin falls involved an 800 metres swim up river. If the swimming aspect didn’t fill John with glee, the usual sign by the river warning of crocs was somewhat more elaborate and warned of crocs by passing all attempts i.e. traps to keep them out of this river system. The signs were backed up by some very real saltwater croc traps on the banks of the river. The position was complicated by another Japanese girl, who was at the same Eric the Eel swimming standard as John. After improvisation with two boogie boards and a lot of hard graft by our illustrious guide, all the group arrived at the Falls and not a croc in sight. We’ve noted that things have obviously moved on a bit since 2002 or confidence in the traps is at an all-time low, as the current environment agency website contains large red writing as follows:

DO NOT ENTER THE WATER IN TWIN FALLS GORGE. ESTUARINE CROCODILES MAY BE PRESENT

It was back to drop off on the edge of Darwin after the Falls and on to an overnight camp at Port Stuart before heading into Litchfield National Park in the morning. Litchfield is minute compared to Kakadu and as such, it seemed quite busy with people. We spent the day at various falls and waterholes, Florence, Wangi and Buckley Rockhole.

After dismissing our previous hotel location as a bad idea, we headed to a more mainstream location at the top of Mitchell Street on our return to Darwin. The now obligatory end of tour night followed, although on a more subdued basis than our previous experiences. We failed miserably in a quiz at The Vic and retreated back to base.

In contrast to the indifference of the staff at our previous location, it was all a bit hard sell at the new location. The name of the game is clearly to sell you a trip to Kakadu, which is clearly not going to happen after you’ve just been there. A close encounter with a cockroach or two cemented thoughts of a relocation across the road to the Banyan View Lodge. We sorted out our web page of that era and saved a few dollars for the drinks kitty, having discovered we could use a computer for free at the NT Library (as long as you didn’t access email sites).

There was a marked difference with the 2002 Darwin experience and the 2006 experience, when the whole atmosphere was best described as a bit more basic. The most noticeable difference was on Smith Street Mall, where Harold Jacobson's line of lost sheep in an adventure playground was quite apt in his excellent book In the Land of Oz. The scene was repeated on the Esplanade area. The architecture of Darwin has apparently been reshaped since Cyclone Tracey remodelled the centre in 1974. The previous remodelling was done by the Japanese, who launched bombing raids on the then outpost in 1942. The area around the NT Parliament and Library has historical plaques, explaining the raids. We braved the heat and walked down to the harbour, where sea born crocs are apparently not uncommon and on to Stokes Pier, where a fisherman landed a 4 foot shovel nosed shark. We weren’t exactly that familiar with a shovel nose shark, but closer inspection revealed enough teeth to do serious damage.

We moved to Banyan Lodge the following day- a former YWCA, which despite it’s institutional feel was clean, the air con worked and comes with the added bonus of a fridge in the room. Mindil Beach Market had yet to be introduced to the Amazing Drumming Monkeys (or at least we didn’t see them), but EmDee and their didge playing was in evidence - come to think of it there wasn’t much by way of didge playing in 2002 Darwin, but it seems the didge playing competition is now the mainstream of most Darwin pubs. The NT Museum near Mindil Beach was uninspiring, but the tour of the NT Parliament was a redeeming free experience - they even have the foresight to have free “thongs” to lend as listening to explanations of NT democracy in bare feet is apparently not in the rules.

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Photos

Kakadu National Park
Jim Jim Falls

Kakadu National Park
Rock Art Uburr

Kakadu National Park
Mary River - saltwater croc

Kakadu National Park
Tour group