Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing, Derby

If you have seen the film “Australia” that’s what the countryside around here is like, in fact Nic and Hugh were up at Kununurra for about 4 weeks on location. One particular distinctive aspect of the countryside is the Boab tree, which come in all shapes and sizes, some so big they were hollowed out and used for storage or to live in.
Since leaving Kununurra we have been covering a bit of territory - an overnight stay at Halls Creek, an old gold mining town, then on to Fitzroy Crossing where in days gone by in the dry season there was an crossing of the Fitzroy River. We stayed one night and tried our hand at fishing in the river - no luck! Yesterday we arrived in Derby, where the Fitzroy River meets the sea. When in flood the only other river in the world that moves faster is the Amazon!
Derby is famous for having huge tidal variations, up to 11 metres. The tourist office say there is good fishing off the wharf, the story usually goes something like this “if there are indigenous women fishing there, then it’s a good time and place to try your luck” - we have had this advice many many times but somehow it doesn’t work for us. We went down to the wharf, live cattle exports happen there, but it was very quiet yesterday.
We went up to the local Woolies to stock up on fruit and veg. Coming into WA from NT there is a quarantine on fruit and veg and no fresh produce can be brought in - I made a vegetable curry with the fresh stuff we had and it lasted us for 5 nights so we were looking forward to a change. We also wanted to stock up on booze, it is pension week this week and the grog shop was buzzing, indigenous locals with laden trolleys, not a good sight. There are limits on what you can buy, e.g. no cask wine here only bottles and no port, but that doesn’t seem to make much difference, Bundy and coke or beer seem to be popular with the locals.

Kununurra

One of the most amazing things about Kununurra is the amount of available water - coming from dry South Australia we can only be amazed and envious. The damming of the Ord River produced Lake Argyle which holds 35 times the amount of water in Sydney Harbour and only a small percentage of the available water is used locally for crop irrigation. The main crops are Indian sandalwood, mangos, pink grapefruit (exported to Japan), chick peas, melon and pumpkins and a variety of other crops and vegetables. The township of Kununurra itself was built to accommodate the workers on the Ord River Scheme and is now a popular tourist venue for those wanting to explore the region and visit the Bungle Bungle Ranges. We have been told that at the moment it’s not as busy as it has been because it’s getting too hot - day time temperatures are about 36 so more time in the pool for us! Although we have been away for 3 months we aren’t in a rush to get back to cold weather!.
One of the best ways to see the Kimberleys is by air and we took a 2 hour scenic flight which took us out over Lake Argyle, the Argyle diamond mine (famous for its pink diamonds) and then over the Bungle Bungle Ranges with their distinctive bee hive shapes and stripes of brown and grey. I am slowly getting more comfortable with small planes, if only the pilots didn't look fresh out of secondary school!
We head further west soon.

Litchfield National Park

Litchfield National Park is only 115 km south of Darwin and while not as large as Kakadu it has lush rainforests and waterfalls which cascade off a sandstone plateau into pools which are safe to swim in and croc free at this time of the year. We spent 2 days there and visited the 3 main falls and swam in Buley Rockhole. It has been very hot and sticky and swimming has been at the top of our agenda. The park is also well known for its magnetic termite mounds. These clever creatures build mounds which are up to 2 metres tall and stand in a north-south orientation which gives them an inbuilt temperature control as only one surface is exposed to the sun at any time. The termites move from side to side depending on the heat of the day!
We are presently back in Katherine for 2 days and last night caught up with Tony C, a previous work colleague of L, whom he hadn’t seen for about 15 years. Tomorrow morning we leave for Kununurra so it’s a long drive west but we gain 1.5 hours.

Kakadu 2 and Darwin

It may be the dry season in Kakadu, but when it’s “the wet” there must be water everywhere because when we went out to Mamukala to visit the bird hide there were huge billabongs and thousands of birds, which is not surprising considering that this area is the breeding ground for many species some of which come up from the Antarctic to breed. We enjoyed being able to watch the birds without them being aware that we were there.
We also drove up to Ubirr, famous for aboriginal rock art, of interest a thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger drawn thousands of years ago and of course now extinct. Another drawing of interest, a man with hat and cigar, obviously one of the early white explorers.
And then off to Darwin, my idea to stay in a city motel, as most caravan parks are some way out of the city, to be able to enjoy some of what the city has to offer in the evenings. So we are at Palms Motel, complete with en suite and TV but looking for chilli Mud Crab!!
By chance this week is one of cultural events for Darwin and yesterday we happened upon an exhibition of fabulous art from the TiWi Islands. About 80% of the exhibits had red stickers so a good feeling there and a young organizer suggested we might like to go to the evening awards ceremony. It took a bit of finding, and when we did some where to put the car was the next issue. We followed the crowd to find ourselves in a setting not unlike Elder Park, people picnicking on the grass in front of a stage with music and dance, but this time not by the River Torrens but by the sea with a magnificent sunset. An interesting combination of people, all the Darwin arty fartys, aboriginal artists and musicians and a few tourists like us. Unfortunately we didn’t realize the concept of the occasion and hadn’t brought anything to sit on or eat so after some enjoyment of the entertainment we headed off looking for dinner. We had been told that the Asian restaurant at the Casino was a good place to go - WELL - the Territorians obviously love to gamble if the number of cars in the car park was anything to go by and the young woman at the information booth said “all restaurants are booked out, ITS FRIDAY” so things didn’t look too good but we struck gold when we arrived at the maitre de’s station at the Chinese restaurant just as someone had cancelled their reservation so we were able to have their table. The food was pretty good too.
Twice a year in Darwin the Parliament, Government House and law Courts are open to the public and today was one of those days so we have spent the whole day being fascinated with listening to the Speaker of the House explain the running of the NT system, a judge talking about the issues which are faced in his court and finally afternoon tea with scones, jam and cream at Government House.
Sunday found us at the Chinese Temple and museum, they have been prominent in the community here and this evening a visit to the Mindil Beach Sunset Market.

Jabiru, Kakadu National Park

It’s the dry season in Kakadu at present, but it’s also pretty hot, maximum of about 35 minimum of 18, flies during the day and mozzies at night - so the best time of day to get going is in the early morning - this morning we took an 8 am scenic flight to have a look at some of the inaccessible surrounding countryside and out into Arnhem Land. Kakadu is a World Heritage listed National Park which covers nearly 20,000 square kilometers and we flew over huge rocky escarpments, the East Alligator River, complete with crocodiles, flood plains and billabongs. Some the famous waterfalls are not flowing at present and the rivers are low. We may have to come back in the wet season.
It’s the first time I have flown in a small plane, this was a 5 seater Cessna, and to be honest this morning I would have been quite happy not to have gone, particularly as there was a newspaper item yesterday about a sight seeing plane crashing into a helicopter, but off we went and of course it was a wonderful experience!
When arrived at the park via Pine Creek and drove across a large section to the town of Jabiru, a mining town which was constructed by the company which runs the uranium mine. We are staying at Kakadu Lodge which has a large swimming pool complete with poolside bar, restaurant and grassy surrounds. We are camped right next to the pool area and have been making the most of it, as you can imagine it’s a very popular spot and we are both showing early signs of a tan.
We leave here Friday for Darwin where we have booked ourselves into a city motel so that we can sample some of the night time cultural activities!

Rain Tree at Springvale Homestead - 150 years old

Katherine

The 3 Ways Road House is where the Barkly Highway meets the main north-south road, the Stuart Highway, the road to Darwin. We arrived there, and turned right! The countryside is like being in Baz Luhmann’s film “Australia”.
Daly Waters is on the route and at one stage was a refuelling point for Qantas flights on their way to Singapore. Now there’s not much there, an aircraft hangar with memorabilia and a pub. We stopped for a beer and pie lunch.
The towns are few and far between in this neck of the woods but the countryside is mostly wooded, sometimes big trees others more scrubby but always plenty to see, very little bare countryside.
We are in Katherine, a large river of the same name running through the town, there are hot springs, the Gorge and relics of the past. In the 1800s 12,000 sheep were brought overland from Adelaide in the prospect of setting up a sheep station which they named Springvale Homestead. An amazing proposition but it commenced in good years and for some time looked as though it could be a success. However eventually bad years ensued and the project failed. The family involved planted trees for each of their 4 children, the trees still survive! We are enjoying warm weather and the park has a very good pool which we are making the most of.

Mount Isa, Barkly Homestead

We left Cloncurry (where Australia’s highest temperature of 53.1 was recorded) and drove west through beautiful countryside of tree covered green hills to Mount Isa. The Isa is a mining town, the mine being owned by Xstrata a Swiss company. The company produces copper, silver, lead and zinc and the copper mine goes down to a depth of 1.8 km. We would have been happy to spend more time in the Isa but it is rodeo week and all accommodation booked out. So we headed another 450 km west and have now left Queensland. Our Northern Territory overnight stop is at Barkly Homestead Roadhouse, a petrol station/camping ground/shop/restaurant, the next town is 200 km away. The route we followed is the old cattle droving way, the cattle are now moved by road train if we see one coming we move right over and stop. There are plenty of wide open spaces and the termite mounds are taller than I am! Since we have been inland the nights are cooler but day time temperatures still about 27!

Black Sapote

A digression. Most people who know me well will know that when it comes to food I am only too happy to try anything different. As BF reminds me she remembers me eating raw sea urchins in Greece - something I have not repeated! I knew that at this time of the year most tropical fruits would not be in season so when I saw black sapote I knew that I had to try them. Fortunately the young man who had them on his stall was happy not only to give me 3 samples but also to tell me how to ripen them and when they would be ready to eat. They are picked when still hard and like to ripen in a dark place. When ripe they are very soft, a bit like a persimmon, and have a dark black flesh which is almost like the soft part of a chocolate brownie. They are often used to flavour ice cream or in smoothies. As we are unable to have either I have been eating them with other fruit or with plain yoghurt. A burst of tropical flavour.

Lava tubes and bones

Undara, Hughenden, Cloncurry

The Undara National Park is a beautiful place to camp. We booked for the easy lava tube tour (i.e. stairs and boardwalks, NOT up and down ladders in the dark). It proved to be a very informative 2 hours with guide Ross Rogers who grew up in the district. A wonderful tale of how and why (in theory) it all happened. Several million years ago there were volcanic explosions, lava coated hundreds of kms of the earth’s surface and then started to cool and form a crust. Under the crust some still molten lava flowed on forming rivulets which flowed out of the hardened crust leaving hollow lava tubes. Over the years some of the ceilings of the tubes have collapsed and we can now go inside the tubes and explore. It is a well organized resort with plenty of marked walks, information sessions and camp fire star gazing and sing songs in the evening and good facilities.
After 2 days at Undara we took the back road which is dirt all the way to Hughenden and the car and trailer, after several creek crossings, has a coat of mud and red dust so we blend it a bit more with the locals. In Hughenden we had a look at the restored dinosaur the bones of which were found locally and we then headed on to Cloncurry.
It is rodeo and air show weekend in this neck of the woods so this morning we went out to the air show, lots of small planes and men in big hats. This is Burke & Wills territory, they rode through here on their ill fated expedition, wonder if they had problems with green frogs!