Advertisement
Published: September 25th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Sep 21
Howard Springs Big4. Good caravan park and has Net4, Big4 internet access.
Spent in Darwin CBD. Took in the Smith Mall and all its souvenir shops. Very nice area for shopping, if one was so inclined.
Had a bit of a walk along the Esplanade. Really nice, well kept area for walking near the ocean. Low tide so the water was out pretty far. We had planned on dipping our toes in the ocean, but didn’t manage!!
Sun Princess ocean liner was in port. Big, big ship.
Apparently the Darwin Port is about 2.5 times bigger than Sydney, so we did a harbour tour. Was a dinner/sunset tour. Good food, good sailing vessel (Cape Adieu) and a good time. BYO, which was good price wise.
Sorry we didn’t get to any other attractions in Darwin, or Lichfield, or Kakadu Parks. Limited time and it was time to move on. We hadn’t planned on getting to Darwin anyway, but thought we better give it a go.
CARAVAN & CAMPERVAN drivers. What’s up?? Everywhere else in Australia we have waved and received a way back, Except on the Katherine-Darwin-Katherine run. Let’s get our act together and wave; whether
the ‘infamous’ one finger salute (index finger, folks) or the full wave.
Sep 22
Darwin to Katherine. Riverview Tourist Village. Good.
Lots of leaves on the ground and lots more falling. Apparently this being close to the end of the ‘dry’, the trees are shedding leaves to conserve what little water there is.
Parked in our assigned spot and was wandering around when a van driving by had a couple flags on the front. One Australia, the other Canadian. I stopped them and met a young fellow from Vancouver and his mate from Sydney. He has been here nearly a year and doing a bit of a tour before going home.
Time for a glass, or two, of wine and supper. See ya later.
Sep 23
On the road again. So when aren’t we??
Started off by detouring to the Cutta Cutta Caves. Not as spectacular as some cave, I would imagine, but certainly well worth the visit. Interesting formations. Mostly stalagmites, only a few stalactites. The whole cave was flooded a couple of years ago. The wet can certainly be a punishing season at times.
Stopped at Timber Creek Gunamu Tourist Park. Only OK, toilettes leaved
a bit to be desired. There was a fresh water croc feeding at 5pm. Smallish crocs, but when they grab the meat their jaws make a great sound. And they thrash around with the biggest of them.
Victoria River Cruises has a big sign out: See you April 2009. So no more cruises this year.
Sep 24
Off to Kunnunara . BEWARE that there is a quarantine check stop at the WA border. Lots of things are on the list that cannot enter the state. They got our honey, but we volunteered that we had it. They do request to go into your vehicle and open fridges, cupboards, etc.
Victoria River area has pretty spectacular scenery. Such a change from what we have seen. Appears to be in a large, large valley with lots of trees.
Stopped for a bit at Lake Argyle. Such a huge lake for the size of the dam they put up. Still lots and lots of water in the lake. Not a whole lot of boats though.
Saw a number of trees with yellow flowers, no leaves, and a moderately large pod of some kind. Turns out to be a kapok tree. The old
guy can remember them from ancient times. Used as a pillow stuffing, I think.
Gotta remember to charge the camera every couple of days. Have been, unpleasantly, surprised when it won’t take any more pictures. Same with the mp3 player (songs, not pictures MV)
Have to get on my soap box a bit here.
Darwin has suffered some pretty severe disasters, the least of which was the bombing by the Japanese in WWII. We don’t hear much about it, but personally, I think it’s on a level with Pearl Harbour, if not greater. It’s something that should be remembered.
Darwin has also been devastated by cyclones, only to rebound and rebuild. Quite a city.
About 7200km so far. Can't really believe it. Missed a lot, but we can't see everything in 3 short months.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0453s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb