Darwin (NT) to Cairns (Qld) – Aug 2018 – Sept 2018 Post-9

The last post finished as were about to leave Darwin heading for Kakadu, this post covers the journey to Cairns via the “Red Centre”.

Where’s John? I have been ask to tell readers that I am actually in almost every image. I’m told I am included so you can get some idea of the size of things – good luck with that one

We left Darwin on Monday 13th August having done three shows at the Darwin Festival. From Darwin we moved into Kakadu National Park and spent the first two nights at Jabiru campsite. We had no idea what to expect in Kakadu but we had been warned about the expense. Certainly the campsites are expensive at about $56 for two people which is the most we have paid so far.

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Jabiru town was set up when the uranium mining started in 1982.  There is now some question over it’s on-going viability. It’s a small town with a bank and a supermarket plus the crocodile hotel.
We did absolutely nothing while in Jabiru, we arrived late afternoon and spent the next day “at leisure” me reading and William working once more on self-improvement.
We were on an unpowered site so didn’t have any air conditioning and in temperatures of 34º  just sitting around is fine.

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On Thursday 16th Aug we moved to the North East corner of the Park to Ubirr which borders on Arnheim land.  From here we did an evening walk with one of the rangers around several of the “galleries” of rock paintings. The ranger was really terrific very enthusiastic and knew her stuff. Although European she included several local stories  and was  well versed on some of the indigenous customs – it was truely enlightening.

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When we were travelling up through WA several fellow travellers advised against visiting Kakadu, too commercial, too expensive etc etc, well all I can say is these travellers have no soul. It really is a very spiritual place. From enormous flood plains, which are covered by open eucalyptus forests you see, rising, out of nowhere,  large ancient rock formations. These formations are about 1.6B years old, the area and has inhabited for something like 65,000 years. A land with such a history just has to be experienced to really appreciate the atmosphere.

We visited Cahill’s Crossing which at low tide is a river crossing, but as the tide rises it floods and then is a great places for crocodile watching. They arrive to hunt barramundi heading up stream. You can just stand on the river bank (not too close) and watch.

Next day we took the bikes to the  Bardedjlidji walk. The walk follows the river to a rock  outcrop with several caves and rock painting.

On the way back from Bardedjlidji we called in at the “Border Store” which sits right on the border between Kakadu and Arnheim Land. Seems quite strange that it’s run by Thais and has a great Thai menu.  This must say something for multiculturalism in Australia.

This scrabble game ended in a very narrow win by William, unfortunately his last for a while.  I think there are at least 2 words which should not be allowed (but are in the Scrabble dictionary) in which case I would have won.

From Ubirr, on the Saturday, we moved south to Ngurrungurrudjbal camp site. From here we booked on the evening and early morning riser cruises.

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Both cruises were great with an abundance of wildlife including; feral horses, cattle, buffaloes, pigs and of course many many crocodiles.  We were actually on the flood plain of the “Aligator” rivers which by this time of year were starting to dry up and levels dropping. This condenses the aquatic wildlife into an even more concentrated area. The birdlife included; Jabirus both stationery and in flight, Sea Eagles, Brolgas, a variety of Darters, Whistling Ducks, Magpie Geese,Whistling Kites, the beautiful Azure Kingfisher and Bee-eaters, really grumpy looking NightHerons and the rather penguin like Pied Cormorant

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We left Cooinda (Kakadu) on Monday and headed south towards Katherine and then on to Tennant Creek and Alice Springs – it’s a very long and very boring journey of about 1,000km – we did it in 2 days arriving in Alice Springs on Thursday 23rd Aug, on the way we had three  overnight stops at free camping areas which were quiet good.

We eventually arrived in Alice Springs and spent two night at the local camp site. William did some mountain bike riding (fell off again, but nothing to serious and both knees now match for bruises and cuts.

Had a good look around Alice Springs but as we have to go back after Uluru left some things for later. Had a look around some of the art shops – there’s some great paintings around. We both liked the place seems very laid back, again looks like there are some serious problems but seems to have a degree of integration missing in other places.  As an aside we have been listening to the “Wrong  Skin” podcast made by The Age. It’s set in the Kimberleys and having just been through the area there is an added reality to it. It’s well worth a listen.

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We left Alice Springs on Saturday 25th Aug and had one overnight stop on the way down arriving in Uluru on Sunday, fortunately got into the campsite OK and stayed for 4 nights.

We spent Monday at Uluru first visiting the Cultural Centre, I then did a short ranger guided tour to a couple of the caves which gave a some insight into how indigenous people regarded the whole area and then we both cycled around the rock which takes about 30 minutes. You can walk it but that’s several hours and it is rather hot.
It is still permitted to climb but, as a mark of respect visitors are requested not to, but people still insist on doing it. It will however be closed to climbers after 2019.
Late in the afternoon we went to one of the viewing areas and watched the sunset on the rock which is quite dramatic. 
On the Tuesday we went to the Olgas which are about 40kms from Uluru, still within the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. This is  a series rock domes just slightly higher than Uluru. They are just as spectacular as Uluru and at sunset and have the same reddish colour.

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Uluru really is quite spectacular, the sheer size is shape at first sight is quite mind blowing. We are both really pleased we decided to do the detour down to the “red Centre” rather than just carrying on East to Cairns.

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On the way back from Uluru we spent 2 nights at Kings Canyon which has a spectacular gorge with a walk around the rim. A great walk!
Not having a 4WD vehicle is a bit of a problem, you can get to most of the sites but having to stick to sealed roads adds several hundred kms to the journey. 

From Kings Canyon we returned to Alice Springs via the West Macdonnell ranges spending three nights at various campsite and visiting Ormiston Gorge and also the earliest NT Missionsary – Hermannsberg which was the home of Namatjira. From there back to Alice Springs arriving on Thursday September 6th.

I did some more looking around including the old Telegraph Station which was the whole reason for Alice Springs and we both did  Market Day which is the one day every year when all the local desert mobs bring their artwork into town. It was quite a frenzy with artwork being snapped up all over the place. The contrast of the aborigines and the “Lovies” of the art work rubbing shoulder to shoulder is quite something. 

By now we had done 28K kms so we bought Marge a new set of tyres for the journey over to the East Coast.

I discovered that my Visa card had been hacked – over the course of  one week someone had managed to run up $1,700 worth of Uber fares and  cinema tickets. Fortunately I noticed it early because with new tyres and insurance due it was going to be an expensive month. Now I’m just waiting for Visa to do the reversals!

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We left Alice on the Monday heading North  having to retrace our way back up the Stuart Highway. We stopped one night at the Devil’s Marbles and then made a dash the next day (Tuesday) for the Queensland border. No particular reason except there is very little to be seen on this part of the Barkly highway, it’s  really big cattle country, very flat with few trees. The other reason we had to get to Queensland was that the bottle shops in Tennant Creek(NT) don’t open until 16:00 and the next one, in the direction we were going,  was 500kms away, over the Qld border in Camooweal.

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The first stop (2 nights) in Queensland was at Corella Dam which was awesome.  We had a spot right at the water’s edge. The bird life was terrific especially first thing in the morning – see  video below.
From here we moved towards Normanton which is just 50kms south of  Karumba and the Gulf.   From Normanton, home of another big crocodile (Krys – a real beauty shot by a lady hunter in the 50’s)  we moved to Karumba and stayed there for 2 nights. There’s absolutely nothing to do except fish and watch the sun go down over the gulf.

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From Karumba we did decided to make for Cairns as quickly as possible and arrived in Cairns on Wednesday 19th Sept.  We went from dessert to lush tropic rainforest and real mountains in the space of an hour. One of the reason for getting to Cairns was to put together a plan and make some booking in advance of Willy’s brother (Jan Ove) and sister-in-law (Ann-Elin)  arriving  Oct 6th.

On the way to Cairns we managed to chip the windscreen (this is the same windscreen which had been replaced recently in Darwin).  Fortunately we managed to get it repaired the next day before we  drove north to the Daintree.  We spent 2 nights Thur & Fri (20th/21st) at the Daintree Village caravan park before crossing the Daintree River heading up to Cape Tribulation.

Once over the Daintree River we spent one night at a caravan park with great birdlife – our space was used by a Cassowary and his chick on their hunt for food. He came along shortly after we had arrived which was great – we kept our distance as they can be violent.. Apparently the male hatches the eggs and also raises the chick for the first 9 months of its life.

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From this site we moved further North and stayed at a site next to the beach – also a good site with excellent pizzas, not too much birdlife and a beach. No swimming through – too many crocodiles!

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We then moved south again and stayed on more night (Wed  26th Sept) before crossing back across the Daintree River and back down to Cairns where we stayed for 2 nights. We now had just over a week before our visitors arrive so we headed just north of Cairns to Ellis Beach and got a spot right on the beach. This has to be the best site yet 

The book reading has been a bit slow but I have just finished Tom Wolfe – the Right Stuff which I rather enjoyed. I bought it by mistake as I really want “You can’t go home again” so not only did I get the wrong title I got the wrong author. Scrabble is going well at the moment -think we may have turned the corner.