Crocs galore... More Northern Territory (May 2013)

On our way to Kakadu National Park we stopped off at Adelaide River and did the Adelaide River Queen cruise. I was quite glad we were inside behind glass as this is what we saw:

Would you jump that high for a pork chop? They can swim up to 60kph and run at 40kph so your best bet is to climb a tree should you ever get that close on land!

We visited Kakadu and I took lots of photos of the rock art which I'll publish later (as I'm running out of bandwidth!).

We're now heading back south towards the hot springs of Mataranka, through Tennants Creek and across towards Queensland.

Northern Territory - May 2013

Our first stop in NT was Katherine. We visited the hot springs which were more like a tepid bath and the following day we went to Nitmiluk National Park and Katherine Gorge. Apparently there are 13 gorges in the 180,000 hectare park, but all I know is that we took about 4 hours to cover a 10km walk/rock scramble. The views from the top were well worth the effort.

 Next stop – Litchfield National Park. Here we visited Florence Falls and walked down for a swim in the rock pool below,

Then onto Tolmer Falls where we could only go as far as the lookout as the caves are home to Orange Leaf Nosed bats and Ghost Bats,

And finally, Wangi Falls. Here we had a swim in the rock pool and tried to hold onto the rocks below the main waterfall. What a head massage - the force was incredible!

I also managed to take some shots of the local wildlife during a post lunch walk:

The female Golden Orb spider (bigger than my hand with a body of 5cm!). You can just spot the male in the top left hand corner (body of 5mm) as he’s not been eaten yet!

A butterfly stopped for a rest

And two dragon flies taking a breather

Next stop – Darwin. It wasn’t officially settled until 1869 and grew as gold mining increased. Darwin became a key military base for the Allies during World War II and suffered lots of damage and casualties from the Japanese air attacks in 1942. We visited the Military Museum which was very insightful. The city has an average year-round temperature of 32C, although at times it has felt hotter especially with the high humidity to boot. It has been great being back in civilisation for a few days. We’ve been out for meals, the cinema and visited the sunset markets at Mindil Beach and listened to live music. There’re some nice beaches and bays here too. Being on a caravan park means having power and the ability to run the air conditioning – this is definitely needed when the temperature is still 30C at bed time.

Next stop – jumping crocodiles and Kakadu National Park

The Kimberley - North West WA (May 2013)

Broome – the gateway town to the West Kimberley – apparently produces the world’s finest pearls. The history dates back to the early 1870’s when many cultures came together to work the pearl luggers. The pristine white sand and amazing turquoise waters of Cable Beach were as warm as a bath, and a great place to view our last sunset over the Indian Ocean

We followed the Great Northern Highway inland to Fitzroy Crossing and Geikie Gorge. Here the floodwaters of the Fitzroy River have carved a 30 metre deep gorge through the limestone junction of the Oscar and Geikie Ranges

On through Halls Creek which sits on the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert, and the gateway to the Purnululu National Park. It was 4WD access only, which was fun, and where we saw the orange and black striped domes of the Bungle Bungle Range.

We continued up the highway to Kununurra and the last stop in WA before we cross the border into Northern Territory. We stayed on Lake Kununurra which was stunning

And met the resident freshwater croc – George – who was smiling. It might have had something to do with Mark dangling his toes in the water :-) 

I do like mondays

It's almost a year since I finished work, and days don't mean much on the road anyway, but there is still a degree of subversive pleasure about sleeping late on a Monday morning then starting the day with a full fry up :-)

3d movies

Watching The Mummy outside on the big screen in the tropics is really good for 3D effects as all the local wildlife is attracted to the lights and decides to join in. The plague of locusts was particularly realistic:-)

Its gripped....sorted....let's off road!

Finally got to play on some real dirt. 50 km track in to see the bungle bungles - great name, weird rocks - is strictly high clearance 4x4s only, no caravans. Left Tigger in a roadside stop where we spent the night, took all of the crap out of the back of the truck and replaced it with shovel, planks, tools, spare jack and Julia and Trevor in the back seat. Another English couple we met on the road a couple of nights previously heading the same way as us in a Toyota motorhome they call Platybus that was definitely not suitable for going into the national park, so offered them a trip in with us rather than having to pay the local tour operator mafia. Plus it gave us an extra couple of hands to get out and push if we did get stuck :-)

dropped the tyre pressures and off we went. Rocks, some steep twisting bits that you had to crawl over before you could see which way the track went, a couple of sandy bits and half a dozen water crossings that were upto a couple of feet deep. Gave the truck a bit of a wash for all of 10 seconds, then just gave the next load of dust something wet to cling to.

Navara coped with it all admirably, despite my hamfistedness - didn't miss a beat, just chugged along quite happily with no dramas. Great fun. Then only took about 90 minutes to pump the tyres up again when we got back to the tarmac.

Bungles themselves were definitely worth the trip - I'm sure Maria will post pictures in due course.

Now in kununarra for a last night in western Australia, and will head into the northern territories tomorrow. We have had some good times in wa, especially with knees and Clive visiting and seeing Jenny and harry again, and seen some great sights, but up here in the northwest it has been the most expensive and traveller-unfriendly area we have been to. No really nice stops where you would want to spend more than one night, every shire council trying to get as much money from you as possible for providing as little resources as they can, and more no camping signs than you could shake a stick at. I know we changed our plans under unfortunate circumstances, but i am glad we didn't start our tour up here as it would have put me off for the rest of the country.

More rocks, spectacular coastline and more rocks...

It's 3 weeks since we left Perth. Our first stop was at the small seaside town of Jurien Bay. Lake Thetis is one of only a few places on earth where living marine stromatolites – the oldest living organisms on the planet - exist (3,500 years old).

Just a few kilometres south of Jurien Bay is the area known as The Pinnacles, an alien landscape of aeollian-limestone pillars. They were only discovered in the 1930’s when sand dunes shifted revealing the structures, and they cover an area of approx. 400 hectares. There are still debates about what caused these fascinating structures and whether or not they are the remains of a petrified forest.

We also saw a family of emus walking through J

On up to Geraldton, and the site of the memorial to HMAS Sydney II which was sunk in 1941 with all men lost.

Kalbarri was our next stop and has such a varied landscape from beaches

to coastal cliffs

and the spectacular and rugged scenery and gorges found in the national park.

(unfortunately there was no one there to take a photo of the two of us together)

The Murchison River flows through here and there are many gorges.

On up to Denham in Shark Bay where we saw a family of emus out for a stroll after Sunday lunch

and then to Monkey Mia to feed the dolphins

and keep out of the way of the resident emus (we spotted 4 walking around the resort)

A visit to Hamelin Pool and more stromatolites, much older and larger than the ones we saw earlier in the week at Lake Thetis as they only grow 0.3mm a year.

We carried on up to Carnarvon where we stocked up on provisions and swapped wine for water L as its very precious the further north we go. Through Coral Bay and on up to Exmouth for a few days of snorkeling the Ningaloo Reef (which was lovely) before we hit the red interior of the Pilbara. 

We did the Rio Tinto iron ore mine tour at Tom Price.

If you look closely at the above photo you can just see two very large trucks on the road up the hill. Everything is all the same colour, and so were we. When I washed my hair, the suds were orange. I guess if you're blonde in this country, you don't stay blonde for very long!

After Tom Price, we spent a couple of days in Karijini National Park. The gorges were fantastic, 

as were the waterfalls and rock pools for swimming in after a hot day on the road - we walked down to this one:

and it was well worth the trek down.

We are now in Broome for a few days before we head inland and towards the Bungle Bungles and the Northern Territory. 

Right turn Clyde...

Started heading back east again from exmouth a few days ago, so feels like we've turned a corner and are now really on the last leg for oz. Had a couple of days inland seeing parts of the Pilbara and did a mine tour at Tom Price to look at the big toys. Back on the coast now at Broome then its really off into the red dirt inland again and won't see the sea again until Darwin and then the pacific in Queensland ....