Blogs from Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 10

Upon leaving Stanthorpe, destination Kimberley region, it made sense to head up the guts of QLD, cross the border after Mt Isa, and skip into & over NT into WA.......hmmmm Trevor had other ideas! Trevor, the cyclone that is. With every road in a northerly direction between us and the Kimberley closed, washed away or bogged, our hand was forced into driving south then across then up - like some crazy magic carpet ride we embarked on this journey on March 25th. After finishing up the last bits & pieces on the cottage, and trying to fit our entire lives into the little white box that is Boris Minor, we got away about 4pm and stopped off at one of our favourite 'local' camping spots (the Showgrounds at Tenterfield, about 30 mins south) where we enjoyed ... read more

I have to admit I'm a little excited to be going on the Ghan this morning. Our Hotel was a transfer location for the Ghan as the train station is 10kms out of town. There was a Great Southern Railway employee waiting in the hotel lobby. She asked for ID and checked our luggage in. We were allocated room 7 in carriage K. The train was 24 carriages long with 2 locomotives, 125 guests with 27 crew to look after us. Weighing 1210.2 tonnes. We had our photo taken at the front of the train then headed towards the rear of the train to board. In our room were a number of goodies along with a journey companion on the small table. We only just fitted into our small cabin bags. Our room had a tiny ... read more

We're on the move again heading to Batchelor for the night so we could visit Litchfield National Park. To continue our buff tour of the Northern Territory we spotted another Railway Museum. The Adelaide River Railway Heritage precinct displays much of the original equipment from the rail line built in the 1880 to service the Pine Creek Goldfields. Extensive work has been done to restore and document their rail history and it was very impressive. Unfortunately we had to keep moving so couldn't check out all of the buildings. I'd read about a Butterfly House in Batchelor and thought we should check it out. The owner (a VERY strange and eccentric guy) had built the butterfly house and pet gardens from scratch. He's collection of butterflies were very impressive and we really enjoyed feeding the bunnies, ... read more

We were up early heading for Katherine but first we’re going to check out Pine Creek. Just after leaving the Mary River Roadhouse there was a vehicle approaching us with flashing lights and going slow. I slowed down and moved over thinking it was a truck with a wide load. Imagine our surprise when it was a bunch of bike riders. Mum and I waved as they passed. It was a charity ride from Katherine to Darwin a 3 day event. At least they were riding in the cool of the early morning. We’ve seen a lot of people traveling around on bikes and camping. Pine Creek’s a mining town and home to the Pine Creek Railway precinct, the original terminus of an uncompleted transcontinental Railway system. Yes I’m being a buff again. The Pine Creek ... read more

We arrived into Alice Springs under the cover of darkness and through the 'Gap' I later learnt the gap was the southern entry into Alice springs via a gap between the Western and Eastern MacDonnell Ranges. The Todd River along with the railway and main road run through this gap. There's not a lot of room and I'm looking forward to travelling along it via the Ghan in a few weeks. Our first day in Alice started with brunch in a lovely cafe downtown ... shockingly this was the first chance we've had to do Eggs Beni. After brunch we decided to check out the Alice Springs Reptile Centre. We were just in time for the talk and got to hold a couple of lizards and a Python. They have a huge range of reptiles including ... read more