Forty-two days in WA, 8,383 km (about half of these on dirt roads) and we feel we still have so much more to see. WA covers about 40% of Australia’s land mass, the majority of it unpopulated and empty. But after Lake Argyle it was finally time to cross the border into the Northern Territory. They are very definite about things at The Top End, and so we found ourselves entering The Territory in The Build-Up to The Wet.
A long day’s drive, much of it through a depressingly burnt-out landscape with trees only a few feet tall, and stubby often blackened grassland. We’ve even driven along roads with fires licking alongside us. Burning-off and bush fires are a huge problem at the Top End, and many of the people living here that we met had definite and differing views on it. Sometimes the fires are started on cattle-grazing land to burn off the old tough spinifex grass, so that the cattle have tender new shoots to eat. The Aboriginal population have been burning off the land for thousands of years and continue to do so, however there’s a big difference between the area covered in the old days on foot, to now in a 4WD car. And, according to one tour guide, many of the fires we saw were just plain vandalism.
We got to the Kakadu, and Gumlong campsite, just an hour before sunset. We made camp in record time – no hanging around for a cuppa – and under Nick’s instruction hurtled up a steep rock-strewn hill to the Gumlong Falls, just in time for sunset (with the hour and a half’s time change between States at a more reasonable time of 6.30-ish). Nick climbed a little further and sat with others taking pics of the sunset over the vast Kakadu National Park spread before him. Et moi? After our 5.30 am get-up, 690 km drive and final hill-climb, I was more than content to have the pools to myself, swimming with tiny frogs the size of a baby’s fingernail.
Gumlong was another lovely campsite, except for the flies which had even Nick swathed in a fly-net round his head. So next day it was onto the north of the Kakadu, and the large resort and campsite at Cooinda. Very well equipped, with the bonus of bar and bistro, and also a lot of European tourists, mainly German. As Nick remarked, this had one good effect as the bar and bistro stayed open until 10 pm to cater to Europeans, as opposed to last orders of 7 pm in WA (!). We were lucky to be able to get on the evening cruise on Yellow Water, and saw our first salt-water crocs, or Salties. The Salties are much bigger and more aggressive than the freshwater crocs, and a couple of times demonstrated their power and speed when they leaped feet out of the water in pursuit of fish, or when having a spat with each other. With at least one every few hundred yards, it was a strange and unsettling thought that if you were somehow unlucky enough to evade the wire netting on the side of the boat and fall in, you would be croco-din-dins in an instant.
Later that evening we were playing our usual game of Scrabble (we’re both getting rather competitive now) when a large spider suddenly appeared galloping towards me across the triple word squares. After we’d picked up all the scattered letters and the board from the groundsheet Nick declared the game a draw: Spider Stopped Play.
Next day we tried to head off early and took the very 4WD track to Twin Falls and Jim Jim – fun driving through soft sand, bumps, and water crossings, though the terrifying croc warning signs had me hoping and praying we wouldn’t break down halfway across. There wasn’t a lot of water at either Falls, but stunning gorges and at Twin Falls we were taken by tinny boat for 5 minutes up river, then a short walk (including metal boardwalk with showers you could pump the crystal clear water up to cool you down en route) brought us to the falls themselves. Strictly no swimming here, even though it was fairly obvious that there were no crocs.
Jim Jim Falls tempted us as it was far enough above the boulders for no crocs to manage, and so we knew a cooling swim was at the end of the trek. However, it was by now the hottest part of the day and I found the scramble over huge boulders almost more than I could manage, let alone the crocs. The pool itself was cool and vast, although the walk back to the car almost did me in. Never was an ice-cream so welcome, or the cold beers later in the evening.
Next morning, after a broiling night in the tent and a rude awakening for Nick at 5 who was screeched awake when I thought I was lying on large beetles (turned out to be two $2 coins that must have been in my shorts pockets) we both felt we’d hit a temporary wall with the camping. Just too hot, it doesn’t cool down below about 30C until about 2 am. And so we’ve decided to bail out for the next few nights and find some air-con again. We’ve had a varied range of accommodation, as phoning on the day we arrive we take what we can find. On Sunday night in Jabiru we were in rather a different arrangement – a cabin in a caravan site which consisted of 6 separate rooms opening on to a very large and well-equipped kitchen/dining area. We had to share bathrooms, and there was the usual BBQ in a grassy area at the back. In Australia BBQs, plus free bottle gas (or firewood at the more remote campsites) are provided wherever you go, be it in a city park, beach or the middle of nowhere – great idea, and saves washing pans etc. However, being Sunday we hadn’t managed to catch a supermarket to find something to barbie. So while the Aussies staying in the cabins BBQ’d away out back with steak and beers, we felt frightfully British sitting down to our Sunday night type supper of boiled eggs and toast, gingerbread and a glass of Pinot Grigio.
A long day’s drive, much of it through a depressingly burnt-out landscape with trees only a few feet tall, and stubby often blackened grassland. We’ve even driven along roads with fires licking alongside us. Burning-off and bush fires are a huge problem at the Top End, and many of the people living here that we met had definite and differing views on it. Sometimes the fires are started on cattle-grazing land to burn off the old tough spinifex grass, so that the cattle have tender new shoots to eat. The Aboriginal population have been burning off the land for thousands of years and continue to do so, however there’s a big difference between the area covered in the old days on foot, to now in a 4WD car. And, according to one tour guide, many of the fires we saw were just plain vandalism.
We got to the Kakadu, and Gumlong campsite, just an hour before sunset. We made camp in record time – no hanging around for a cuppa – and under Nick’s instruction hurtled up a steep rock-strewn hill to the Gumlong Falls, just in time for sunset (with the hour and a half’s time change between States at a more reasonable time of 6.30-ish). Nick climbed a little further and sat with others taking pics of the sunset over the vast Kakadu National Park spread before him. Et moi? After our 5.30 am get-up, 690 km drive and final hill-climb, I was more than content to have the pools to myself, swimming with tiny frogs the size of a baby’s fingernail.
Gumlong was another lovely campsite, except for the flies which had even Nick swathed in a fly-net round his head. So next day it was onto the north of the Kakadu, and the large resort and campsite at Cooinda. Very well equipped, with the bonus of bar and bistro, and also a lot of European tourists, mainly German. As Nick remarked, this had one good effect as the bar and bistro stayed open until 10 pm to cater to Europeans, as opposed to last orders of 7 pm in WA (!). We were lucky to be able to get on the evening cruise on Yellow Water, and saw our first salt-water crocs, or Salties. The Salties are much bigger and more aggressive than the freshwater crocs, and a couple of times demonstrated their power and speed when they leaped feet out of the water in pursuit of fish, or when having a spat with each other. With at least one every few hundred yards, it was a strange and unsettling thought that if you were somehow unlucky enough to evade the wire netting on the side of the boat and fall in, you would be croco-din-dins in an instant.
Later that evening we were playing our usual game of Scrabble (we’re both getting rather competitive now) when a large spider suddenly appeared galloping towards me across the triple word squares. After we’d picked up all the scattered letters and the board from the groundsheet Nick declared the game a draw: Spider Stopped Play.
Next day we tried to head off early and took the very 4WD track to Twin Falls and Jim Jim – fun driving through soft sand, bumps, and water crossings, though the terrifying croc warning signs had me hoping and praying we wouldn’t break down halfway across. There wasn’t a lot of water at either Falls, but stunning gorges and at Twin Falls we were taken by tinny boat for 5 minutes up river, then a short walk (including metal boardwalk with showers you could pump the crystal clear water up to cool you down en route) brought us to the falls themselves. Strictly no swimming here, even though it was fairly obvious that there were no crocs.
Jim Jim Falls tempted us as it was far enough above the boulders for no crocs to manage, and so we knew a cooling swim was at the end of the trek. However, it was by now the hottest part of the day and I found the scramble over huge boulders almost more than I could manage, let alone the crocs. The pool itself was cool and vast, although the walk back to the car almost did me in. Never was an ice-cream so welcome, or the cold beers later in the evening.
Next morning, after a broiling night in the tent and a rude awakening for Nick at 5 who was screeched awake when I thought I was lying on large beetles (turned out to be two $2 coins that must have been in my shorts pockets) we both felt we’d hit a temporary wall with the camping. Just too hot, it doesn’t cool down below about 30C until about 2 am. And so we’ve decided to bail out for the next few nights and find some air-con again. We’ve had a varied range of accommodation, as phoning on the day we arrive we take what we can find. On Sunday night in Jabiru we were in rather a different arrangement – a cabin in a caravan site which consisted of 6 separate rooms opening on to a very large and well-equipped kitchen/dining area. We had to share bathrooms, and there was the usual BBQ in a grassy area at the back. In Australia BBQs, plus free bottle gas (or firewood at the more remote campsites) are provided wherever you go, be it in a city park, beach or the middle of nowhere – great idea, and saves washing pans etc. However, being Sunday we hadn’t managed to catch a supermarket to find something to barbie. So while the Aussies staying in the cabins BBQ’d away out back with steak and beers, we felt frightfully British sitting down to our Sunday night type supper of boiled eggs and toast, gingerbread and a glass of Pinot Grigio.
Pics: Sunset swim, Gunlom Falls, Kakadu
Scary sign!
The real thing, Yellow Water
Cooling off, Twin Falls
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