Berry Springs to Katherine Days 60 to 67

Hot Springs are like coffee. People who don’t like them are a bit weird. Berry Springs is no hidden treasure. Many Darwinites drive the 30mins for a picnic and a swim. Heck, Why not crack a beer and a smoke as you float down the stream with a pool noodle? God gave you 2 hands after all. Drink, smoke, float. Territory triathalon. It’s a nice spot none the less.

Our accommodation here invites an animal to breakfast on Sundays.

Some of the Gromads are enacting a giant pub crawl towing their caravans behind them. In a scene reminiscent of “schoolies”, our neighbour, the taxi driver from Young, ended up in Darwin hospital after collapsing after dinner. It seems that he and his mate had been enjoying a little too much booze and the company of some older ladies with their wives holding the fort back in NSW. A day later, after climbing back on the perch, he was merrily complaining about the current government and how the rich were suffering. “There is only one security in this country, and that is to have nothing. Anything you do have, they will take from you.” Nothing like a near death experience to confirm all your other experiences.

Across the port to the west of Darwin is Coxs Penninsula. There is a ferry that links its few residents to the city and a “Pub with no chips”. Unaustralian. The beaches are rugged and deserted with coconut palms and shallow sand flats. We ate lunch as local boys fished for sharks and mackerel from the wharf.

Many of our fellow travellers have sung the praises of Litchfield National Park 80km south of Darwin. We have joined the chorus after a lovely 3 nights camping at Florence Falls. Camping spots were at a premium with multiple campers setting up on each site. I had mercy on 3 french boys in a van as they exited the campground with no one willing to share their precious real estate. There are so many French travellers, even the campsites are being sub divided.

Each of the 3 main falls is easily accessible by sealed roads. A viewing platform looks down on Tolmer Falls a with no access permitted to the picturesque pool  below. Florence Falls has both a viewing platform and stairs to the plunge pool. Swimming here was a delight. Wangi Falls is the biggest and most popular with a huge swimming pool and picnic area. The kids are enjoying an endless summer of swimming and show no signs of being sick of the water. 

There are further swimming options including Buleys Waterhole where a series of pools kept us entertained. We made trips to see the Lost City and the Magnetic termite mounds also in the park. 

Kael is enjoying diving and is trying to teach Naomi the basics. Both the girls are serving their apprenticeships under Kael as he wanders over to chat to fellow campers. Unlike earlier in the trip, Naomi will volunteer information and answer questions from our mostly retired neighbours. Eva will chime in with her random pearls of wisdom. Most days she resembles Jungle Woman; dusty with no shirt and the physique of a Russian wrestler.

Cash for cans fever has taken hold. Katherine is our last chance to strike it rich. 3 trips to the scrap metal depot have yielded $15, $12 and $11. Alas, the time has come to head west to where they prefer to dig more stuff up rather than recycle.

Corroboree Billabong to Darwin Days 52 to 59

Exiting Kakadu heading north west there are a few more chances to see the river systems which enter the Gulf of Carpentaria. We camped at The Bark Hut, where the flies outnumbered the tourists 100 to 1. Fellow travellers gave us a tip off which saw us bypass the 1 hour billabong cruise and the croc jumping cruise and instead hire a tinny. It proved to be a masterstroke with 4 hours of croc spotting gold. The billabong is a huge network of canals which link to the Mary River in the wet. Putting along, we counted 20 saltwater crocs in the first hour. 

Some of these bad boys were well over the 4 metre mark and they weren’t about to move for anyone. Drifting in with the engine off we could get as close as we liked. Wow. 

Naomi grinned so much as she steered the boat she got lipstick on her ears.

Kael found his joy in the Kites and Sea Eagles as well as Jabiru and Brolga. Lissa only had eyes for the Lotus birds. The Beave was an able first mate.

Darwin is notoriously hard to find camping sites and when you do, they charge like a water buffalo. Our modest, overpriced patch of grass was at Coolalinga on the road into town. There are plenty of long termers in Darwin caravan parks. There seems to be plenty of work and not enough housing for the workers. It’s hard to complain about a place with weather like this. Every night, at about 5pm I repeat the refrain to Lissa: “How bout this weather Hun? Does it get any better than this?” It is repetitive and rhetorical and has been continuing since we passed Tennant Creek and shows no sign of changing. 30 degree heat which disappears quickly after sunset for a 16 degree night time low. Most days there is a breeze and of course, no rain. The defense rests, Your Honour.

The corregated iron fencing of Alice has been replaced by cyclone mesh. There are no gutters on the houses which are required to be concrete block construction, or have a cylone proof “bunker” (usually the laundry). Nothing like clean undies when you are watching 200km/hr winds uproot trees. I’d also recommend a popcorn machine be kept next to the dryer. Darwin is probably smaller than you’d expect.  The suburbs have to negotiate the river and straddle the disproportionately large airport, which sits like Pharlap’s heart in centre of the city. The military presence is marked by the fighter jets flying overhead as the air force train their pilots. The blue water harbour is a beautiful setting and provides a great view for those who holiday in hotels. 

It is hard to imagine what everyone is doing up here. There is tourism, and the military but the mining is hidden offshore and inland. I guess 120000 people are busy doing something.

After knocking off some school work we cooled off at one of the 2 free water parks at Palmerston. It was a nice chance to catch our friends Andy and Jane who brought their 2 little girls down for a dip. 

Dinner at the deckchair cinema with a screening of “The Pirates” completed our day. Naomi found the villainous Queen Victoria a little too intense for her liking.

We planned a week in Darwin to give us time to catch our breath. Breaking our church drought we tagged along with Andy and Jane to Hope City Church. Lunch at the other free waterpark saw Naomi conquer all 3 waterslides including one particularly dark and fast one, loving every second.

Have I told you about this weather?

Mindil Markets are another Darwin icon with the food stalls adjacent to the harbour beach. After 7 weeks watching other people eating out the kids were unable to go past a bucket of hot chips and some chicken skewers. We preferred Laksa, samosa and papaya salad as the sunset over the ocean. 

A day trip to Fogg Dam and Window on the Wetlands gave the kids a chance to learn about the ecosystems we have been seen throughout Kakadu.

Art Gallery has some Local Aboriginal artworks and other displays but the kids interest was held predictably by the animal displays. Mega-fauna skeletons, poisonous sea creatures and a giant croc taken from a nearby river in the 70’s. Even the crocs had sideburns back then. The Cyclone Tracey display tells the story of the day Darwin was flattened.

The kids resumed their fascination with all things gruesome as we took the Defense of Darwin Experience. Walking around the grounds examining the military hardware and the battlements from when WWII touched the top end. 

Questions followed questions as they tried to fathom the realities of a war. The display becomes interactive with touch screens and video of the event.

Our neighbours here have escaped a Melbourne winter. Kael spent plenty of time around their caravan and the girls were taken with their little white dog. Peter became my first paying patient with some improvised chiropractic on his crook back. It’s easy to spot a scar from 2 separate lower back surgeries performed 30 years ago on a man who seems to have given up wearing a shirt.

Getting quotes for a car service inspired me to do the deed myself. The oil was black as crude and the air filter filthy; it’s been a dusty 8000km since we departed Sydney.

On our last morning in Darwin I sent the kids out to collect bottles and cans. 3 bags full and a trip to the recycling depot and they had $15 to divide between them. A kid could get rich in this town.

Eva has been slowly emerging from her shell. She spotted a little girl as we set up at Tumbling Waters and wandered over. “What’s your number?” she asked, the little girls answer was interpreted by her mum “My name’s Eva”. Another Eva, same age, dressed in pink. A perfect match. They played together every spare moment until the little girl’s departure the next day. Tonight we had dinner and a show as Eva ran around the tent singing “I need some hot stuff baby this evening” channelling Donna Summer circa 1979. Solid Gold.

Kakadu Days 45 to 51

Lissa managed to talk her way in to a free night here which positioned us nicely for a drive to Jim Jim and Twin Falls. Both falls are a spectacular sight as water plummets from high on the escarpment. The drive in cuts a corrugated path through the bush at the bottom of the ridge for 50km then becomes a single lane sand track for a further 15km. There are small creek crossings and a deeper river crossing before Twin Falls. It feels like you are defying at least one natural law as the car ploughs a path through water that is home to several crocodiles. Our car is built for these moments, so it handled the 70cm depth with ease. The kids were impressed.

Reaching Twin Falls requires a short boat trip through a steep sided gorge followed by a short walk over the boulders and a pontoon to the sand base of the falls. I could have been Richard Branson as we boarded the empty boat and ate lunch on the deserted white river sand. Both of us seem to have access to such seclusion, only one of us serves rice cakes to our guests. 

Barramundi and a freshwater croc were spotted on our return boat ride.

Jim Jim Falls requires a little less driving and a little more walking but the destination is equally awe inspiring. The water is crystal clear, the sand white and the falls beautifully spill 150m down the sheer rock face. Swimming is also kosher here. These two falls were clearly the most spectacular we have visited and well worth the effort.

Eva won at Uno again tonight. She may just be the cutest thing in the world right now. At least the southern hemisphere.

  

Before leaving Cooinda, Kael befriended a boy whose parents run a day trip experiencing Indigenous culture and cuisine. The father, Sean, kindly took us for a drive around a small billabong. We couldn’t quite squeeze in the full “Animal Tracks” tour but Sean tipped us off on a fishing spot further into the park.

There seems to be some predictable traffic jams on the sight-seeing circuit. Rock art is like a magnet for the European tourist robots. We ventured into the scrum at Nourlangie, a series of stone shelters come art galleries. The walls are adorned with layers of paintings by the local indigenous peoples over many generations. These people groups are known collectively as “Bininj” (pronounced Bin in) but our kids refer to them as “Boringinals”, mistakenly dropping the first letter. Most of the characters are animals, but there is some storytelling with human and spirit forms.

Norlangie Billabong proved to be a great walk for us bird watching junkies. We added a Lotus bird and Green pygmy goose to Kaels growing twitch list. He has quite a keen eye and his enthusiasm has remained constant since we first started noticing new birds. His personal favourites seem to be the Rainbow Bee Eater and Whistling Kite which are in abundance in the top end. A pair of Barking Owls emerged above our tent upon dusk for 4 nights in a row. Kael even woke Lissa at 4am to inform her that he could hear them calling. From Jabiru we also visited the vast Mamukala wetland, one of many in the park. 

Packing up on our last morning, Kael managed to wrestle a kettle burning his upper arm. There was quite a nice blister but he recovered well with some ice and a dressing. We made our way to Merl Campsite on the East Alligator River, and while the others joined a basket weaving workshop, I went to the river to chase Barra. 

There was only a slight slip up in the naming of the Rivers of Kakadu. There is no sign of Alligators but Crocs are everywhere. And you know what that means…that’s right Barramundi. Now, I have arrived somewhat ill equipped to capture these critters. My 2 short rods are council cleanup specials, one with a tiny reel, the other with an old surf reel. My lure arsenal needs an overhaul and Darwin is still 200km away. Never-the-less, I ventured to the water’s edge to find people fishing on the rock wall with a few brave souls shin deep on the river crossing. The blokes with the balls are catching all the fish. I looked at my wrist band "WWLD" (What would Leeroy do?). Time to “man up”, wet the ankles and catch a barra.

Tourists stand on the viewing platform, their gaze alternating between croc and barra hunters. It took a few casts to get into the groove but soon enough there was a hit, pulled hooks, then a bust off and plenty of chomped soft plastic lures. A few decent fish were pulled in around me along with a few visits from the resident apex predator. 

Persistence was rewarded when finally I had a hit, hook-up and after a short fight, my first barra. I was not ashamed to ask for a photo with my conquest even though he measured just 35cm. I returned to the family to share my news and found them working with strips of Pandanas leaves weaving bracelets. Today, everyone’s a winner.

After setting up camp, Kael and I returned to the river to witness the tide peak with water now flowing upstream at a great rate. The crocs were even more numerous so we flicked our lures into the torrent and watched them cruise along. No fish for anyone.

The main attraction of the area is the rock art at Ubirr. A sunset walk and picnic dinner looking out over the floodplain was a real treat. The temperature up here this time of year is amazing. The heat of the day disappears quickly making space for pleasant evenings and cool mornings. I could stay here for weeks fishing the mornings and watching the sunset over dinner.

After breakfast I had one last chance to catch dinner. I’d had a fisherman’s sleep: restless and dream filled. I arrived at the crossing to find a crusty old bloke from the day before. He’d pulled some in already and I waded in next to him to test out some lures. I got to study his technique as he hooked a few more. Compared to the enthusiasm of my usual fishing buddies this bloke was a tad subdued. Maybe his pacemaker needs an adjustment. 



He didn’t even move later in the morning when the croc came in close then dived out of sight under water. Guess he thinks that he’s had a good innings. Under the silent tutelage of “Old Smokey” I went on to land 3 of my own 40cm, 51cm and 60cm. The biggest became dinner.

Just as I was leaving a bloke pushed a stroller down to the water’s edge on the opposite side of the crossing. He began to cast, leaving his 1 year old strapped in the pram a few meters behind. Territory childcare.