UP THE TOP END

We are now in Darwin and have completed the 3015 kms. from Adelaide up through the centre of Australia. In total we have travelled 7,900 kms. in 8 weeks and seen and done some amazing things.
On my last blog I said we were in Wycliffe Well which is a small town consisting of a roadhouse and not much else. This area claims to be the UFO capital of Australia. No mean claim to fame I can tell you! The roadhouse is full of all sorts of memorabilia relating to this as well as a bar, restaurant, caravan park and there is even a free train ride around the complex. The owners are positive they have had visions of the extra terrestrial beings and there are newspaper cuttings and photos around the walls to prove it. Wycliffe Well also claims to have Australia's largest range of beers, but any connection between that and the UFO sightings has yet to be proven! While we were in Yulara we were parked next to a couple from Victoria, Marilyn and Peter Ward. We shared a drink with them there and then caught up with them again in Alice Springs at the lookout on Anzac Hill. We swapped phone numbers etc. and carried on. Well they turned up next to us again in Wycliffe Well and we have been dogged by their company since then all the way to Darwin. Just kidding. Peter just loves slagging our NZ speech and we have shared many laughs and drinks with them over the past 3 weeks or more. They are now heading west to WA and we will be heading east to Q'land. We will certainly miss their company. Another two friends I mentioned in my last blog, Cathy and Neale Hall, have been with us most of the way since Hall's Gap and they have now moved west too after cooking us a beautiful roast dinner on their Cob Cooker. Maria and Owen Luke, and their two daughters,Kirsten and Samantha, from NSW have joined us on our walks around the base of Uluru; our rim walk around King's Canyon; our trip up Katherine Gorge and our walk into Ubirr. They also left this morning for WA. We loved having the girls for company and being amazed at their boundless energy on all the walks. I know we will keep in touch with all these travelling companions and thank them for their friendships.
The reason for the overnight stay at Wycliffe Well was so that we could visit the Devils Marbles the next morning on our way north. These are groups of granite rocks balanced precariously on top of each other. They are an amazing sight and we took lots of photos trying to capture the scene. I don't think they do the area justice though. Another overnight stay at the Renner Springs Roadhouse and then it was on to Daly Waters. Daly Waters is at the junction of the Stuart and Carpenteria Highways. It has an interesting aviation history as their airfield was used as a refuelling stop for Qantas in the 1930s and then when Japan bombed Darwin in 1942 the airfield was put to use with the American forces using it as a base. The most significant feature of the town is “The Pub”. This is a very old (1893) authentic Australian pub with bras, hats and money being stapled to the walls and ceilings. The paddock next to the pub has been made into a caravan park (of sorts) with about 50 power sites but there are always about 70 caravans crammed in so vanners have to be there early to get a powered site. We arrived there about 11am with our friends and got ourselves sorted. At 4pm they have “Toss the Boss” where everyone who buys a drink has to toss a coin and if the right call is made, the drink is free. Jim was rapt to get our first drinks free but our friends were not so lucky. The restaurant at the pub puts on a great meal of barramundi or beef and salads. The place is really busy with 3 sittings for dinner and there is live entertainment. The night we were there “The Chicken Man” entertained with poems, songs and jokes and all this is done with a hat on his head built like a house and on top of the hat are two white eagle chicks. Amazing stuff! There was also a young guitar player who was very talented. We all had a great night and the next morning I got up early to get a hot shower as there are only about 8 showers for all those people. The showers and toilets are very primitive. They are both in a small tin shed with just a hole in the floor for the water from the shower to drain away. The first shower I went to had the whole shower arm pulled from the wall but the second shower had more surprises. Under the rim of the toilet was a large green frog! I thought flushing the toilet would get rid of it but no, it went down into the bowl, had a swim around, then climbed right back up again and under the rim. No way was I going to have my morning ablutions there. I asked Jim if he would consider removing the frog but no help from that direction either so I left the frog to his own devices and moved onto another shower.
Our next stopover was Mataranka Homestead where there are thermal springs. At the reception one of the workers had a very small joey (baby kangaroo) wrapped up in a blanket. The mother had been killed on the road and it would have to be bottle fed for the next few months as it was only about 6 weeks old. We had a swim in the pools and then went for a walk along the river where a salt water crocodile had been seen the previous day. That night we had 3 young guys camped next to us in a tent. About 4 in the morning Jim woke to a funny noise. At first he thought it could have been water leaking from our outside tap and went to check. To his surprise a wallaby had broken into a plastic bag the young guys had left outside with food in and here he was helping himself to a packet of potato crisps and he had already eaten their loaf of bread. Jim woke the guys to tell them but they said “It's okay mate. I saw him but it is too late now” I bet the wallaby had a very full tummy that day!
It was then onto Katherine where we stayed at Low Level Caravan Park. This has to have been one of the best parks we have stayed in and it was very busy the 4 nights we stayed there. Katherine is famous for the Nitmiluk Gorge in the National Park of the same name. We went on a cruise up the gorge and there were some great sights to be seen. In the wet season the river in the gorge can be up to 10 metres above what it was when we were there. The Katherine River flows through a canyon formed by huge sandstone cliffs, some of them with ancient Aboriginal rock drawings on them. We saw a couple of crocodiles sleeping on the banks of the river and a long snake sunning itself on a rock. Very exciting.
We then moved onto Cooinda in the Kakadu National Park. There is just a caravan park and cultural centre in Cooinda and we used it as a base for exploring the rest of the National Park. This camp had dingoes roaming freely and a snake was found in the men's toilet one night. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we are living in the wild and we are the ones who are invading the animal's territory. We climbed Nourlangie Rock and Nawarlandja Lookout and one day we drove to Jabiru where there is a huge uranium mine This looked so out of place among such pristine scenery. On our trip to Jabiru we drove out to Ubirr which is a huge escarpment on the border with Arnhem Land which is the largest Aboriginal owned area in Australia. We climbed to the top and then saw some wonderful indigenous art that has been painted on the rocks for thousands of years. They have used ochre that has been absorbed into the rock and that is how the local people have learnt their history. There are some amazing rock paintings at Ubirr. While we were in Ubirr we had lunch at a small river park at Cahills Crossing. This is where the local Aboriginals who live in Arnhem Land cross over the South Alligator River to return to their homes. This river is full of crocodiles and there are signs everywhere warning of them. I was amazed to see a man fishing from the causeway standing in the river. We walked down to a lookout and there across the river from us were the 2 biggest crocodiles I have ever seen. I met the man later and he was amazed to have been told that it was dangerous to fish there. His reply was “I was keeping an eye on the crocodiles” I don't think he was thinking about the crocs keeping an eye on him! A person was taken out by a crocodile in that same place a few years ago. I mentioned this episode to a ranger we met and she said it was time another person was taken out because they just don't take any notice of the warnings. Crazy. We went on a Yellow Water sunset cruise where we saw hundreds of different birds, eagles, jabirus, ducks, crocodiles etc. One third of the country's bird life is said to be protected in Kakadu National Park. We had received quite a few negative comments regarding Kakadu, some called it Kakadon't,but we loved it in there. You certainly don't see much of the amazing walks, gorges etc. by just driving by. You have to get out and walk and find them.
Next stop was Darwin. This was really the pinnacle of our trip up the middle. I haven't heard any bad reports of Darwin and we just love it. For starters the weather performed as it should up here, beautiful clear blue skies and temperatures in the 30s.We have done all the touristy things like visiting Parliament House; Supreme Court; Museum etc. and have learnt all about the Japanese Invasion in 1942 when more bombs were dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbour and of Cyclone Tracey which most of us remember. Yesterday we went to see the "Jumping Croodiles". It was a great trip and we got some incredible photos. I have added one to this blog. Tonight we went to the Night Markets at Mindl Beach. There were thousands of people there and lots of them had taken their deck chairs; tables; dinner and wine. Everyone watches the sunset on the beach and then visits the markets. There are dozens of markets selling Aboriginal art; jewellery; clothing; but the best thing is the food. Darwin has lots of different cultures because of its close proximity to Asia and the food stalls reflected that. We had a great time and will be sorry to leave here tomorrow. We now head back to Three Ways and begin our travels across the top of Northern Territory and Queensland.