The Top End – Darwin to WA Border.

July 14th 2023

Car repairs, stifling heat and school holidays.

Leaving Jabiru campsite after 4 nights in Kakadu, we were looking forward to a more lush camping environment. It’s been so hot and muggy and all our unpowered campsites seem to be on the outskirts of the “resort”, in scrubby dry bush. The “resorts” are well setup with big swimming pools, a bar and diner, shady seating, all encouraging you to spend big dollars while there. But after paying $50 pn for our dry dusty piece of scrub, we are happier staying home in our little camper for dinner.

Anyway, next we booked into Mary River National Park camping area online. It is difficult to know what a site is like online, so I took a stab and booked site 3. Arriving there, site 3 was right beside the toilet on a narrow rocky uneven unshaded slope beside the dusty road. Dilemma! No-one else was around. We decided to wait, to see which sites were unused by the evening and find a better option. Two vans soon pulled up, travelling together. They’d booked 2 nice sites overlooking the water. But they chose to use one site together, so gave us their other one…very generous. We discovered they were from Broadwater, a town near home, a family group. The parents, Ray and Pauline, had been totally flooded last year. She was a talker so we heard all the family news, while Ray & his son-in-law and daughter went fishing. No doubt someday we’ll cross paths in Ballina, her other daughter works in admin at Xavier. We enjoyed a peaceful night, almost full moon.

Next stop was Berry Springs where George & Julie had been for a week already. Green grassy campsite – wow. Showers too! And the best bonus, a large pool of warm spring water just cycling distance away. A pre breakfast swim was heaven. 

Territory Day (July 1st) in the NT is the one day of the year anyone can buy fire crackers and let them off between 6pm and11pm. We enjoyed cracker night – something none of us had experienced since we were kids. It brought back memories – Catherine wheels, rockets, penny bungers, roman candles, excited kiddies…of course the banging went well past 11.00, but I don’t believe they caused any bushfires this year.

Nick:

“Why go to Darwin? Well, for me, two reasons; one because I haven’t been there and two because there are lots of shops with Land Rover parts. I should have spent more time on our car before we left Lennox. I was pushing to finish Bond (the little 80” Land Rover that I had almost finished restoring for a customer) and so neglected to check the wheel bearings in our Discovery. You might remember in a previous blog episode that we had some horrible clanking under the car somewhere that I could not locate. It continued randomly over a thousand kms, but I drove on anyway. It turned out to be the inner RHR hub bearing which had completely destroyed itself, so much so that there were multiple pieces in there. After disassembly and the purchase of a large cold chisel to get the outer race off the hub, new bearings went in on both sides and axle seals as well. I repacked the front as well as new axle seals. Lots of other annoying noises miraculously vanished with new bearings!”

Darwin campsite was in Hidden Valley Holiday Park. We scored this as the worst we’ve ever stayed in. It felt like a refugee camp, big caravans packed tightly out on an open unshaded paddock. Our site was at the back wire fence, with a new estate construction site beside us with graders, bulldozers, water trucks, vibrating rollers and other ancillary equipment constantly in use from 0630 in the morning. Not only that, one night we counted nine jets taking off from the nearby airport from about 0130 in the morning onwards. Also, a major road called Tiger Brennan Rd was just out of sight but we could hear all the traffic including road trains, motor bikes, and cars without mufflers. We had no shade and the temperature got to 32 degrees. The light pollution filled the van all night. And to cap off the last night, some d..khead parked right beside us. When we got back after dark, he’d left a note saying he’d move if we rang his mobile number. We decided to leave it. In the morning at about 4.00am he decided to pack up, clanking, zipping, talking and then starting up the engine.  We were so glad to leave there. We had hit our low point. But the car was running perfectly.

While in Darwin we spent time in air-conditioned tourist venues. The main Art and Culture Museum was excellent and the Military Museum impressed Nick. We enjoyed the foods on offer at Mindal market, but just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to sit with hundreds of people on the beach to watch the sun set….

This b&w photo is a classic. It was on the wall near the coffee shop as a record of the old Star Picture Theatre. It’s 1933, it’s the premier of talkies in Darwin, at the Star Picture Theatre. The film was “As clouds Roll by.” Note all the Aboriginal people in the front rows with their eyes shut, still superstitious that the camera will steal their spirits. The buffalo catcher on the right a few rows back has his hat perched on his rifle.

Litchfield NP was next on our itinerary, but there were no campsites available in the National Park, due to school holidays of course, so we stayed at a delightful park near the park boundary and drove in each day to enjoy the waterfalls and walks. The popular ones like Wangi were crawling with people but it wasn’t unpleasant, the lake is big enough for everyone. And it’s so refreshing. Tjaetaba was the highlight. We arrived just before a lot of families, so had the fairly small plunge pool to ourselves – heaven. (Wangi had a crocodile attack 2 days after we swam there.) Buley Rockhole was heaving with people, quite an assault to us, who enjoy peace and quiet more than loud obstreperous kids. But it was sunday.

The termite mounds featured again in Litchfield, with an amazing paddock full of grey mounds all facing north-south, built by blind Magnetic Termites, only found here on earth. The mounds look like gravestones or standing stones like in UK. These little guys are fascinating – (see the photo explanation).

Nearby there are tall mounds 18 ft high built by Cathedral termites. I knew La Sagrada Famiglia in Barcelona was copying the termites. 

Time to move on, we’d heard that the Gibb River Rd was drying out, our quest to get to the west was calling. So we ducked into Katherine for a night to top up supplies. Then onto Victoria River Roadhouse. The landscape around here is spectacular, but harsh and formidable. It is the Gregory NP. I’d like to spend more time around here sometime.

The last place to feature in this blog is Keep River National Park, located just 3km from the WA border. We knew we had to declare all fresh fruit and vegs to the quarantine check at the WA border, so we ate as much of our supplies as we could. Honey too was on their list to confiscate, so we had many honeyed toasts and sandwiches. Keep River was known as a mini Bungle Bungles. At the back of our campground, Goorrandalng, there was a beautiful walk through the landscape. We went just on sunset, it was magic. 

Before I finish, here are a few plants and trees I’ve found. And although I don’t have photos, the birds we’ve seen have been wonderful – blue winged Kookaburras, red tailed black cockatoos, finches, chats, shrikes, and many more. We have a bird book for id, so we spend much time just sitting, waiting for birds to present in nearby trees, such a meditative thing to do.

So that’s it for another state. Farewell NT, next blog will be WA.

Thanks for Coming Away with Me everyone.

Jenny & Nick xxx