Advertisement
Douglas Daly-Van Site
Very shady and relaxing I know it has been a few weeks since we last updated this, so will give you a brief run down on what’s been happening. We spent two nights in Nimiluk (Katherine Gorge), and as the river was still closed to swimming and private boats the place was all but empty. The first day we went on a very challenging hike to a beautiful waterfall known as Southern Rockhole. Approx 8km round trip over mostly loose rock terrain, which took us through dry (just) creek beds, masses of Pandanus Palms, over rocky outcrops and to a lookout above the Rockhole swimming area. Upon making our way down to the base of the waterfall (this only flows during the wet) we found some of the clearest water you could imagine. As the temperature had climbed to around 36deg not much encouragement was required to jump on in. Only one other couple was there whilst we relaxed under the cascading water, very peaceful. Tried again for some Barra in the Katherine River before the heat got too much, but again no success… The next morning saw us jump on a boat for a two-hour cruise through the first two gorges. The water
Douglas Daly-Barra
Finally a keeper!!! is flowing very fast and the second gorge was only opened a few days previous. Half way up the first gorge we got to see our first “Freshie”. He looked to be about two metres long and solid, the guide told us he was fully-grown they will only bite if harassed; I was not going in to find out though!
After the tour finished we packed our gear and started the trip towards Darwin. We had decided to head to Douglas Daly Tourist Park, which is located on the banks of the Douglas River. This area is reported to have some of the best Barra fishing in the NT. 500 metres from the entrance I heard a pop come from somewhere but every thing sounded and felt okay so continued on to the park where we booked in for three nights. Upon returning to the car I noticed the van was on a lean - Flat Tyre. We limped to our site where I fitted the spare and made the decision to drive to Darwin on the Monday morning to get two new tyres for the van. After setting up and relaxing over a cold beer, a bloke rode past
on a four-wheeler with a rod. Ever intrigued I had to go and check out the action. I had been there for maybe five minutes talking to him (Snow, from Tassie of all places) and he landed a small Barra… Well I just couldn’t believe this and had to get Janie, seconds before we returned he had landed a fish around 60cm. Now Janie couldn’t believe it either, so after all the commotion Snow handed me his rod and gave me some pointers and within 3 minutes I had caught one, all be it about 45cm… So after a quick trip to get the tyres (and cast net) we turned the 3 nights into 7 and spent the better part of each day catching live bait, fishing and drinking beer (No Beer, No Barra. So the saying goes, and who am I to argue). End result for the week, 6 Barra, 1 keeper, several lost including 1 about 80cm that took my bait from the surface as I was about to lift it from the water. It literally exploded from the water a mere 2 metres from Janie and myself, bloody amazing… I know Janie is not much of the
Nitmiluk-Southern Rockhole
This water is 3 metres deep fishing type and usually is quite happy to stay at home and read a book, but this was something else as she helped catch the live bait to trying her hand at the Barra, and even restocking the cooler bag when the evaporation levels had taken its toll.
As they say, all good things must come to an end, so we pulled stumps and moved onto Batchelor. This town is located near Litchfield National Park, so we headed in to see Florence Falls and go for a dip. Little did we realise that because it is so close to Darwin the locals come down for the weekend, and being a Saturday arvo the place was packed. After a quick swim in the crystal clear water we decided it was time to leave as several large groups of beer drinking yobbos came to spoil the serenity. Thought we might have a look at Buley Rockhole but we could not get a park. The signs there indicate that if the car park is full then so is the Rockhole!!! Back into Batchelor and had an early night to try to get to some of the sights around Litchfield before the masses. We
stopped in at Wangi Falls for a look as it was closed to swimming due to the high flow of water; very impressive and will be a great place to swim when the levels drop. We tried to get to a few more places but they were all closed becasue of the amount of water still about the place, still a very beautiful place. Back into Batchelor for the Sunday roast at the pub, yum. The next day as we were packing to leave I noticed some paint damage around the engine bay that had been caused by an over full battery, not impressed. So after arriving in Darwin we headed straight for the Toyota dealer to try and sort out this and a bull-bar warranty issue. Well here we are 3 weeks later and MANY trips to the Toyota later and we still have not had the job fixed properly. Much colourful language has been used and I am sure they will be glad to see the back of us once it is all over and done with, hopefully in the next week or two. In the mean time we made a decision to pull up for a while
as the car issue was getting out of hand, so I am back in the work force (short term). Janie is getting back in shape at the Gym every day and I have started riding again. So this may be the last interesting update for a while, although Janie is talking about a fishing weekend in a few weeks that sounds like fun. But in the meantime hope you all have safe travels and take care.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0438s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
John and Jean
non-member comment
The idle rich !!!
So looks like you have been having a good time and we are glad to see you got some Barra at last - even if they were only live bait size! In the good old days we only kept the ones that were big enough to scale with a shovel. Sounds like Toyota are playing up. I would tell them you are writing to the head office with a complaint re poor service delivery. Shit always flows down hill! I once got a spare tyre off them as a warranty claim after someone in their workshop stole the jack on its 500k first service. As the tyre was destroyed and i had a fair walk to find someone with a jack - I was well pissed off when I arrived at the workshop. When I said "This is a warranty claim" they all fell about laughing. So I got the Manager to show me in the handbook where it explicitly excluded tyres from the overall warranty. He couldn't, so I got a new tyre and laughed all the way out. Never won over the jack issue though. Don't work for too long - it buggers up the fun times travelling. Love to you both John and Jean