Posts From Northern Territory

Today is my (Robert's) 70th birthday, but there were no birthday celebrations this morning, but instead an early start in order to have an excuse to be in the fly proof air conditioned interior of our vehicle. About 75km from last nights camp over more rough sandy/rocky tracks we came to Mt Dare Homestead which is now a hotel and restaurant/cafe as well as a station homestead. We cooled our heals at Mt Dare for a few hours having coffee, lunch and talking to the couple from Zimbabwe who were managing the place for a few weeks.

It took us until just after lunch today to retrace the Chambers Pillar track, complete the Ghan Hertiage Trail, and arrive in Alice Springs - often called The Alice by Australians. The Chambers Pillar Track had a spectacular example of a bull dust hole. This is an area on a road or track where the soil has turned to dust about the consistency of talcum powder and the powder or dust fills one or more large holes in the roadway making the hole very difficult to see. The last three photos are of our vehicle driving through that bull dust hole.

As the reader may have deduced from the date on this post we spent much longer in Alice Springs than would be usual for us. The main reason for such an extended stay is that I have a shoulder/neck problem which has limited my ability to drive for the past few weeks and I needed to rest that offending body part and find a doctor with whom to discuss the issue and get some pain killers. In addition early in our Alice stay we lost one of our wallets containing a number of credit cards, cancelling those cards and arranging replacements took up over a day; and we were thankful that we were in a country and city with good communications and with English as the language. Finally we decided to indulge in the luxury of a campground cabin to assist with the resting of my recalcitrant shoulder.

Today we commenced the very popular tourist route of the Western MacDonnell Ranges, a route that will eventually take us to the rock, "Uluru". The MacDonnell Range is really a small remnant of a much larger mountain range that has been weathered away to its current modest size. Many of the tourist attractions on this route are gorges, cut by creeks, through the MacDonnells or adjacent ranges, and often such a gorge has an almost permanent water hole at its heart. The water remains in the narrow chasms because of the lack of direct sunlight and the much cooler environment. In a number of cases, such as Serpentine Gorge, the water is also fed by a natural spring with water either from the mountain's own rock which acts as a sponge or the Great Artesian Basin.

We start todays post with a couple of photos of last nights camp. Thereafter a few photos of an aboriginal ochre mine or pit. Aboriginal people collect minerals of various colors from this river bank (and other ochre pits like this one) and use them for body paint and making art. In other parts of Central Australia such colored minerals were traded between tribes and regular trade routes existed.

Today was packed full of interesting sights, but the one that stands out was Palm Valley; but that comes a little later in this post. First off was another gorge, this one called Red Bluff Gorge and as you by now can guess there was a wide dry sandy riverbed with lots of Ghost and River Gums that led to a narrow cleft in a wall of red sandstone and in that cleft there was a waterhole. This particular waterhole had its own supply of floatation toys to entertain the children of those families that neglected to bring their own "floaties".

Today started with a photo of last nights camp. Then today was just a travel day, retraced our route over the rough gravel track to Hermannsburg, a quick picture of the house of Albert Namatjira (famous Australian Aboriginal artist) then 200+km of more rough road to Kings Canyon Resort.

The Kings Canyon Rim Walk starts about 10 km east of the Resort so we had to pack up for the day in order to drive to the start of the walk. The start of the walk could be a bit intimidating, with all kinds of safety warnings. For example if the days max temperature is going to be over 36°C (approx 100°F) then it is manditory to start the walk before 9:30 am (there is a gate to enforce this). Along the walk there are periodic emergency beacon stations where walkers can signal for help (like one of those personal safety satellite devices), there are periodic helicopter landing zones and large outdoor medical chests. One can only conclude that lots of people have been injured and/or rescued on this walk; or maybe the parks management are a little overly cautious.

Todays post starts with some images from King Creek last night and this morning. The first image is of an ancient plant called a cycad, this one is female. The birds fluffing up their wings are Spinifex Pigeons, they started this behavior when one of the King Creek workmen turned on a water sprinkler. A number of these birds landed in the area being watered and essentially started taking a shower in the spray. There is an interesting story associated with the donkey pictured in image 6. When the camel in image 5 was young it was abandoned by its mother and the donkey took over nursing the then small baby camel. Now the two are inseparable. The images of the tents are examples of the range of accomodation that was available at King Creek.

As planned the three of us arrived at the Sunrise Viewing Area at 6:50 (20 minutes to spare). The place was crawling with people, at least a couple of thousand, cameras, smart phones, and selfies everywhere. To everyones disappointment there was cloud in the east at sunrise so while the sun on the cloud was spectacular the morning rays did not illuminate and color the face of Uluru.

Today was sunny and warm so we were keen to get back to Uluru and capture some of the more typical photos of the big rock in sunshine. No walking around it this time just drive around it and look for some good images, because today we wanted to do a hike at another nearby bunch of rocks called either The Olgas or Kata Tjuta.

Today we made the long (for us) trek from Curtin Springs to Alice Springs, all on good quality sealed roads and with surprisingly light traffic. Much of the route was on the Stuart Highway, the main North South road to Darwin, and it provided a good diet of "Red Center" scenery, rolling hills of red sand soil broken by regular creek crossings with their Red River Gums and/or Snow Gums with various mountain ranges in the distance. A good highway to drive for anyone that wants a taste of Central Australian scenery without the dust and currugations of the unpaved roads that make up the Red Center tourist loop.

As you can see from the heading of this post and the dates we have spent another stint in Alice Springs and while Alice is a good place to resupply we would not have spent another 3 nights here except for the tent problem. Though to be honest without this break I would have had difficulty catching up on the blog posts. While on that subject I apologize for posting so many entries at the same time. I had planned to upload from Yalara but the tent issue and the rain put paid to that plan.

Today we started the long trek to Darwin, but first we had to take a short trip into the East MacDonnell Ranges and look at a few of the closer attractions. As I have mentioned previously the MacDonnell Ranges are the remnant of an acient much larger mountian range that has been weathered down to what is the MacDonnells today. The present day MacDonnels are relatively low (a few hundred feet to maybe 1200ft), consist of a long jagged ridge of exposed strata with gorges and gaps breaking through from south to north where rivers have carved their way through. So today we were off to see a few of these "gaps" which typically are dry sandy stream beds with jagged side walls and picturesque stands of ghost gums. Along the way we happened to find the largest Ghost Gum in Australia (and hence the world).

Today was a pretty tedious day. The road was mostly straight, the scenery low scrub, towns non-existent, and flies in swarms anytime we stopped and opened the car door. The only break from the monotony of driving were the occassional Road Houses. These are basically a gas station, restaurant and pub, maybe some basic motel rooms, maybe a caravan park and a few dwellings for locals (population usually well under 100).

A little north of Wycliffe Wells is a collection of granite boulders known as The Devils Marbles. We made a point of getting an early start so we would get to the marbles while the morning light was still shining on the boulders. It's quite an impressive collection of boulders in various states of erosion, including a few that have been split down the middle like they were cut with a knife.

We got a visit from some birds of prey this morning while packing up. They looked particularly spectacular against the bright blue sky so we spent a while trying to "get some pics". The remainder of the day was not note worthy until we reached Daly Waters, our next camping spot.

I neglected to mention in yesterdays post that Daly Waters was also an important base during World War II. The old airfield and related buildings can still be seen. Indeed some sources claim that Daly Waters was the first international airport in Australia as planes from Asia set down here on their way into Australia.

Back in 1984 when the movie was made from the novel "We of the Never Never", a replica of the Elsey homestead building was constructed as a set for many of the scenes in the movie. This morning we visited that replica.

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Arrived in Darwin on Saturday 11th May, a day earlier than we had originally planned. Our early arrival was deliberate as we wanted to be in Darwin, and settled in, by Sunday in order that we could go to the Mindil Beach Market which operates Sundays and Thursdays from about 4:00pm until 9:00pm.

Today we are at Litchfield National Park, about 130 km SSW from Darwin. One of the early "photo ops" in Litchfield is a (or some) very large Cathedral Termite Mound, and they are impressive but mounds of a more modest size are everywhere in this country so they are only of passing interest. What Litchfield is really about is water and the ability to swim in it. During the wet season the entire country side floods to a depth of meters and areas like Litchfield (large raised plateaus of rock) act like a sponge and absorb vast quantities of the wet season water. Once the dry season starts the sponge starts to disgorge that water and many rivers are created. Litchfield is one such outcroppings and the outflowing water has created a number of nice waterfalls with large pools at the bottom of the base. These pools, the falls, and the rivers/streams that feed the falls make great swimming holes. Of course only after the rangers have checked them to ensure there are no crocodiles hanging about.

We had planned to spend three nights in Litchfield and tonight was surposed to be spent at Surprise Creek Falls along the Litchfield-Daly Road, but that plan got changed as the Litchfield-Daly Road has not re-opened after the wet season. So we simply jumped to the day 3 plan and headed for Wangi Falls. This is probably the main draw card within Litchfield. It has a kiosk, an office of one of the helicopter tour companies, wifi, and a most spectacular pool and water falls. We spent a nice lazy day there taking advantage of the cooling effect of the water.

So we are a day ahead of schedule thus the sunset cruise on Corroboree Bilabong we have booked for tomorrow night would, ideally, be more convenient if it could be tonight. So as we leave Litchfield and start the trek towards Kakadu that is our plan, to see if we can rescehdule. Thus we head for Corroboree Roadhouse on the Arnhem Highway (the road to Kakadu) where we are supposed to meet the shuttle to the cruise tomorrow night in the hope we can reschedule.

Today was our first experience of Kakadu National Park, the largest national Park in Australia at 20,000 square km (about 1/2 the size of Switzerland). Over half the land that comprises the park is actually owned by Aboriginals and the entire park is jointly managed by the Parks Australia . A quick look at a map of the park will reveal two main access roads, The Arnhem Highway and the Kakadu Highway that meet at the town of Jabiru. Interestingly Jabiru's primary purpose is as a "company town" for the nearby Ranger Uranium Mine. Although tourism is also a major activity within the town.

This morning we noticed that we were not the only refugees from last nights rain storm. There were a number of 4x4 vehicles in the parking lot that looked set up for camping, and there was a lot of wet gear hanging on the clothes line or laying on the concrete building porch.

So we came back to Darwin after Gunlom because I noticed that the solar panel on top of the tent was not doing anything and we anticipate that over the next 6 weeks we will have many camps without electricty to recharge the battery that runs the refrigerator. So the folks at WAExperts.com.au had organized for a sparky (auto electrician) to drop by our campground and fix the problem. Turned out to be a corroded connection which was fixed by replacing a bunch of wires and some connectors. We also took the opportunity to update what we think of as the banner photos, the photos at the top of the home page. click this link and watch the slide show.

The solar panel is fixed, we are stocked up on supplies and are on the road again. So south to Pine Creek (again) to spend another night at the Lazy Lizard campground.

Last evening we noticed that the trees at the entrance to the Lazy Lizard had a good size population of fruit bats. They were quite noisy, sqwarking away for much of the night. This morning with some better light Nina caught a few photos of these surprisingly large creatures, as well as a few scenes from the town of Pine Creek, the railway museum and a local cricket match.

In order not to waste the 3+ days in Katherine today we decided to take one of the boat cruises on the Katherine Gorge in Nitmiluk National Park. This park is another parcel of land that has been returned to the original Aboriginal owners and is now leased to Parks Australia and is jointly managed.

This morning we delivered the vehicle to RJ Autos as arranged and the problem was fixed by 2:00pm. As suspected the issue was a broken right rear axle. To my surprise the break was NOT in the axle shaft itself; but rather the flange at the outer end of the axle had separated from the shaft. We filled some of the afternoon with a visit to the swimming holes at Katherine Hot Springs located in the valley of the Katherine River. Finally we added some photos of the campground, a very pleasant setting.

The vehicle problem put a bit of a dent in our schedule as we have a booking for a lake cruise on Thursday as well as reservations for a camping site for Wednesday and Thursday at Lake Argyle and we had planned to spend 3-4 days covering the distance to Lake Argyle. Now we have only 2 days thus this morning we were up before sunrise getting ready for an early start.

Today we ducked back into the Northern Territory a few kilometers to visit, and camp at, Keep River National Park. On paper the attractions of this park are a couple of nice campgrounds and a couple of interesting walks amongst some sandstone cliffs. The first of the days hikes introduced us to the small stone and twig structure in the first picture, which was explained by the info-plaques in pictures 2 and 3.

This morning we knocked off the remaining 260kms into Alice Springs and thus brought our Tanami adventure to a true conclusion. When we fueled up in Alice we had travelled 1084 km since taking on fuel in Halls Creek. In addition to the 30.77L we got in Billiluna we added another 127.5L today in Alice for a total of 158.27L, so we could have made the entire distance without additional fuel. In addition to keeping track of fuel we also kept track of the other vehicles that we passed while we were driving. Over the 3 days prior to today we passed a total of 2 non-articulated trucks, 8 road trains, 34 pickups or SUVs pulling camping trailers or caravans, and 62 non towing pickups, or suvs or actual sedan cars. Since we drove for only 3-5 hours per day and did not count vehicles we saw while camped these numbers are well below the total number using the Tanami Road. The interesting thing is the mix, as well over half the non towing pickups/suvs were travelers like us with camping gear on board. The conclusion is that the vast majority of vehicles using the Tanami Road are doing so for recreational purposes. We find that interesting and entirely consistent with our less formal counts of vehicles we have encountered elsewhere on this trip.

We stayed in Alice Springs a few days, catching up on some business and having our vehicle serviced in preparation for the next leg of this journey.

Today we headed back to Uluru where we will start our travers of the Great Central Road, which is the south western leg of Australias (The Worlds?) Longest Shortcut. However, for us, Uluru is a long drive and we plan on ending the day at Curtin Springs and along the way take a detour to Rainbow Valley. Rainbow Valley it turns out is a small but colorful rock outcropping, the track in is typical red sand and the scenery a mix of red sand, light colored spinifex, and desert oak trees. .

It was cold overnight, we estimated (don't have a thermometer) in the mid 30°F. So consequently we did not hang around at our bush camp but got underway towards Uluru where our observations about the tourist season was further confirmed. Just take a look at the line of people climbing Uluru and what you can't see are the 1000+ vehicles parked just near.

Overnight we got a tracking update that suggested one of our packages had been delivered at Tyrepower so this morning that was a priority stop. As it turned out there were 2 packages waitiing. One that Brendon had ordered from Europe and the replacement tent latch that Ivan at Peak Offroad in Sydney had acquired and sent. A big thanks to Ivan this was definitely a case of customer support as there was no profit in this transaction for him. Also a big thanks to Rene and Simon at Tyrepower Katherine for allowing us to use them as a mail drop in addition to delivering our new tyres ahead of schedule.

Today really was just a driving day, we have some business to do in Katherine and would like to have some of Friday available for that business.So the goal for the day was to get to within 300km of Katherine by the end of the day.

Readers may recall that back at the start of August we spent a few days in Croydon Qld waiting for a parcel that was supposed to arrive there on Aug 4th but did not. That parcel contained a special nut for the front axle shaft of Daniel's bicycle and is supposed to help hold the front wheel in the front fork of the bike. The nut was lost and this new one was ordered via ebay on July 20th. So since at least July 20th the front axle (and hence front wheel) of Daniel's bike has been held in by a couple of zip-ties pretending to be an axle nut.

The big news of today is that Brendon and Daniel completed the final 165km of their bicycle ride from Cairn, Queensland to Broome, Western Australia. A ride of some 4000km which they started on July 8th. For some images of the final day see Brendon's Instagram account brenwell.

These two cyclists were at the campground in Elliott last night but we did not get a chance to chat so this morning we stopped on the roadside and offered them a cold coke each. Mark is from Edmonton, Alberta and Everlyn is from Switzland. They are cycling from Darwin to Adelaide and were finding the 36°C temperatures a bit trying not to mention the strong headwinds.