Katherine to Kununurra

Although we spent a week at Katherine on the way North, we decided to stop there for a couple of days again, before we swung West. We wanted to do the walk along the Katherine River, which was slightly longer than we had anticipated and slightly less interesting, but nevertheless was still worth spending a couple of hours on. We also wanted to play a last game of golf on grass greens.

The drive from Katherine to Kununurra is reasonably interesting, passing through the Gregory National Park which has towering sandstone cliffs. It also, unfortunately, has a lot of roadwork, so the 514 km took us a bit longer than planned. It didn't matter though, because we had forgotten about the 1.5 hours time difference between WA and NT, so we got to Kununurra in plenty of time to go to the information centre and supermarket, and have a look around the town.

The WA border is only about 40km East of Kununurra, so it is probably closer in reality to central time, our first night here last night we were most taken aback when it got dark by 5:30, and this morning was light much earlier than we have gotten used to.

Entering the state of WA felt like trying to get into a foreign country. In fact, there was more palaver at the state border than in almost any of the country borders now in Europe - you can drive from one country to another without anything other than a faded roadsign to tell that you should now be speaking a different language. To enter WA, however, we had to queue up behind all the other vans (is there anyone left back in Melbourne - it seems like half of Victoria is on the road up here) to go through first of all a police checkpoint (can I have a look at your licence please sir, is this your own vehicle, I'll just record the licence plate number) and then through customs, who were looking to confiscate any fresh fruit or veg, seeds, soil and so on. We had been told about this, so had been running down our fruit and veg supply, and gave away the last few salad items when we stopped for lunch on the way. However, the customs inspector opened half a dozen cupboards in the van and discovered half a jar of supermarket honey, which was duly confiscated. You can buy exactly the same brand of honey in the supermarket here, and it probably comes from China anyway, so apart from stimulating the Kununurra economy by all us travellers having to stock up again we don't really see what they are achieving. We still had the rubbish bag with things like the end of the tomato from our lunch sandwiches, I tried to give the bag to him to dispose of but he said just to chuck it out when we got to Kununurra. Let's hope it wasn't a diseased tomato!

Litchfield National Park

We were glad we decided to spend a couple of days at Litchfield NP rather than doing it as day trip from Darwin, as there was quite a lot to see. Multiple water falls, all of which had water, which is surprising as we are deep into the dry season here in the top end. They must be spectacular in the wet season! A lot of them had safe (that is, crocodile free) swimming holes, either above the falls or in the 'plunge pool' at the base of the falls, but not being swimming people we didn't go in. We were one of the only tourists who didn't though, it was a very popular option. We did do quite a few walks, around not only various water falls but also an old tin mine. There is probably tin still in the ground there, but the conditions are so tough during the wet season that it was abandoned after 10 years. It didn't help that the 3 owners of the mine all died of silicosis....

Another of the attractions here is the 'magnetic' termite mounds. These are flat instead of the usual 'cathedral' mounds, and are all lined up in the same direction. Scientists are still speculating why, but the most popular theory at the moment is to give them maximum drying time during the wet season, as they occur on flood plains and are oriented to get maximum afternoon sun.

Termites weren't the only wild life we came across, one of our walks was through a fruit bat roosting area (photo above), the noise was deafening as they squabbled and bickered, heaven knows how any of them get any sleep. The smell wasn't a lot better either!

As well as lots of walking we also did some off road driving, we were a bit worried when we came across the water shown in the photo below, but the Patrol motored through it without a problem.

On the Road Again

After 8 weeks in Darwin we have finally pulled up stumps and started to head South (in preparation for heading West). We've really enjoyed our time here, and feel almost like locals at the golf club. Wendy had the best score in the NT Senior Ladies Championships, but because she was a temporary member they wouldn't give her the championship trophy, however half a dozen golf balls was a reasonable consolation. John had a slow start to his Darwin golf, but came home firing, managing to collect 12 balls in the last couple of weeks. Of course, playing 4 times a week for a couple of months does tend to hone your skills somewhat! We'll be back to tourist golf now, an occasional game at whatever course we happen to be near, with good courses and grass greens few and far between.

Unfortunately, our TV won't be making the journey with us. Last Monday it suddenly decided not to show a picture any more, in the middle of the first session of the last day's play of the second cricket test. Poor John was beside himself, although maybe it wasn't such a bad thing not being able to see the Aussies make complete dills of themselves and go one down in the series. We hunted through our papers and found the tv warranty, which extends for 3 years, so after 2 days of increasingly frantic phone calls to the manufacturer we finally got the name of a repair firm we could take it to in Darwin. This turned out to be a one man show, run by a laconic Yank. 'Hmm' he said 'Hopefully it will be the thingamjig (or somethingorother) which will be easy to replace'. Of course it wasn't the thingamajig, or even the doodaddy, but 'nope, can't fix that, you'll need a new screen'. More frantic phone calls to Melbourne, with the result that we left the dud set in Darwin at the repair joint, and there will supposedly be a new one waiting for us when we get to Broome in 3 weeks time. Meanwhile we will have to amuse ourselves at nighttime, and John will have to huddle over the old crystal set (well, the radio anyway) when the Aussies try to redeem themselves in Edgbaston.

We are sailing......

Another body of water, another cruise. Avid followers of this blog (and I am sure there are many of you out there) will have noticed that we tend to do a cruise whenever one is on offer. Here in Darwin there are several companies that offer harbour cruises, we chose to do a lunch cruise on an old pearl lugger. It was a very pleasant 3 hours on the water, with a lovely cooling breeze. Only one passenger (not us) took the opportunity to go for a swim in a net pulled along beside the boat, the rest of us were probably put off by the thought of the discharge from the cargo and military ships that throng the harbour. Lunch was lovely, barbecued chicken satay sticks, beef skewers and barramundi, with fresh salads and warm rolls. Altogether a very civilised way to spend the afternoon.

Still more crocodiles

So, another week has passed here in Darwin and we have really settled in. The weather has become ideal, the humidity has dropped and we now get 31 degree days with 17 degree nights. Perfect for golf and tourism. We can't remember the last time we put on long trousers or a jumper!

We went to the Crocodylus Park during the week, they have thousands of crocodiles in all stages of development. John even got to wrestle with a monster croc (see photo). Their tourist 'gimmick' is to have the crocs jump for their tucker. Apparently this is a natural behaviour in the wild, the wily croc sneaks up on a bird or reptile sunning itself on a branch above the water, then leaps out of the water and snatches the hapless creature up for dinner. Crocodylus Park gets them to do the same thing by dangling chicken heads from a piece of rope. It is pretty spectacular to watch such big heavy creatures launch themselves into space, and even more exciting when you get to hold the pole yourself!

Territory Day

1 July is the anniversary of the day the Northern Territory was granted self-government (21 years this year) and the territorians celebrate in style. NT is one of the last places in Australia where people are allowed to buy fireworks, albeit only on the one day, and the locals made the most of it. There were queues down the street outside fireworks retail outlets, and reports on radio of people spending hundreds of dollars.

The bangs started in the late afternoon, and got into full swing once the sun went down. Our caravan park had thankfully banned the use of fireworks inside the park, but the locals were at it full tilt. It was non-stop explosions (some sounding like full-strength TNT rather than just a firecracker) and star bursts for hours. This morning there are still sporadic bangs and pops, I suspect we'll be hearing them for weeks.

The local radio this morning is congratulating Territorians on their responsible fireworks use - there were only 90 fires, 4 minor injuries and a badly burned 15 month old baby. The litter and detritus left on various public open spaces defies description.

Ironically, for all the euphoria surrounding the celebration of Territory Day, it isn't even a public holiday here!