We’re in Darwin and Darwin has turned the heat on. Well for
us we think so, hasn’t been a day under 30 degrees in the 5 weeks we’ve been
here and by night it hasn’t been under 20 degrees. We certainly haven’t had a
winter and I’m not complainingJ
Before arriving to Darwin though we did some exploring in the top end which
I’ll tell you all about without boring you too much hopefully.
After the Devils Marbles we drove a good days’ worth through
more country and made it to an apparent must stop ‘Daly Waters Pub’. We were
not disappointed! This funky, eclectic, fascinating pub in the middle/ north of
the Northern Territory was a cracker of a night. We got hand ridden to our camp
spot and then made the most of happy hour with $3 pots (middies for the New
South Welshman) before having a really nice feed in the beer garden. We were
then very fortunate to have two live performances from local artists: one
singing some originals and covers of some great country music and then a real
good comedian/singer Dave ‘Chilli’ Chillcott. Chilli had us curled over in
tears of laughter and on the other spectrum tears of emotion from his
breathtaking bush poetry, an all-round memorable night not to forget on this
trip.
Daly Waters Pub
Some of the eclectic souvenirs travellers leave behind
From our pub stop we drove further north and made it to
Mataranka Homestead. Here we enjoyed thermal pools, a canoe down the river
spotting freshwater crocs, happy hour drinks once again and more live music
this time from a band called ‘The Giants’. We also applied (very casually over
the bar) for our first jobs here….. unsuccessful though! Not to be down hearted
we moved on to another spectacular place, Katherine Gorge, also stopping at Edith Falls for a quick dip too.
Swimming in Mataranka Thermal Pool
A little freshwater croc sunbaking on our canoe ride
Stevie's Waterhole, a tad murky for a swim
Edith Falls
Not a cheap place to stay but we made the most of the
afternoon lazing around the resort style pool, using the free power to charge
everything and using the free laundry! The next morning I wasn’t feeling the
best but Ash walked 8km to Pat’s lookout which had stunning views high up
looking into Katherine Gorge. By the time Ash got back I was feeling somewhat
better and we had a drink and a Skype session with the Chaffey’s to celebrate
our nephew Max’s 1st birthday. We also did an afternoon canoe ride
to the 2nd gorge and went for a quick swim in the refreshing water. Definitely
a must see place if you’re thinking about it or up this way haha.
The view from Pat's lookout
On the banks of Katherine Gorge
We were only about 2-3 hours from Darwin now but a right
hand turn at a town called Pine Creek onto the Kakadu Highway saw us doing a
minor detour to one of our favourite spots yet, Kakadu. Our friends Jude and
Astrid had been through just a week or two earlier and gave us some great tips
and hidden spots, our first night being one of the greatest. We drove Gina and
Carmen up, down and around a very rocky but short track to find ourselves alone
at ‘The Rockhole’. We had this amazing little camp spot to ourselves all
afternoon, night and the next morning. We even had a sneaky skinny dip in the pool below the little waterfall and then
hunted and gathered wood for our fire and dinner under the stars. The next day
we set up camp further down the road and explored Maguk, down a corrugated road
we weren’t expecting but so worth it. One of our favourite waterholes yet and
we had it mostly to ourselves. We made a visit to the cultural centre later in
the afternoon and joined some grey nomads and 3 French backpackers around a
fire that night talking and looking over photos of their journeys. The next day
was off to Gunlom, an even rougher track than Maguk but again stunning
waterholes and views of the escarpment and land into the distance. We were once
again out of power so we stayed at the Gagudju Lodge, Cooinda our most
expensive powered site yet, $48. We made sure we used all their kitchen
facilities, the pool and were delighted when a lady undercharged us for some souvenirs
and icecreams! The next two days we explored Nourlangie, Bowali Visitor Centre,
Nanguluwurr and Ubbirr where we saw some truly amazing aboriginal rock art over
20,000 years old. We listened to ranger talks, did some walking, watched crazy
fishermen fish for about 4 hours at Cahill’s crossing (a brown river swarming
with saltwater crocs everywhere) and a beautiful sunset. This ended our time in
Kakadu spectacularly but we cannot wait to return to see it again one day.
Clever little ants build these nests out of leaves high up in the trees
Our private swimming spot, The Rockhole
Floating around in Maguk
The view from the top of Gunlom
Spectacular rock art, 'Lightning Man'
More rock art
Crazy fisherman at Cahill's Crossing
The crocs with their paws up catching a feed
Listening to ranger talks as the sunsets at Ubirr
Sunset at Kakadu
It was finally time to head into Darwin. Three lane traffic,
road trains, bad drivers, choice of petrol and groceries, suburbs, tall
buildings and bottle shops were all a bit strange and overwhelming after living
mostly simple camping lives in the outback for a month, but it was also nice to
have some of these creature comforts around. Most importantly though we had
friends to see especially Jude and Astrid before they headed overseas! We’ve
been in Darwin 5 weeks nearly which is too long to talk about everything we’ve
done so I’ll try keep out the boring bits and tell you what might hopefully be
a bit interesting to you readers. Our first night we caught up with Michael and
Lisa who we’d met at Kings Canyon for a few jugs of beer and to watch the footy
in the city. We finally saw Jude and Astrid too, at Parap Markets (which are
awesome Saturday morning markets with heaps of fresh local produce and cool
market stuff) whilst also bumping into Jessica Mauboy. By late afternoon we all
found ourselves at the Ski Club and not long after drinking mega jugs of beer,
going out to shenanigans and getting back home to the caravan park at 3am. This
was where Ash got lost. I’m not sure how but she left the toilet block without
me and I had to go searching back to our camp, back to the toilet block and
then with a torch around the park until I found her wandering I think with
tears of joy that id finally found her and a laugh haha. It took the greater
part of the next week getting over that night but we had some great food and
catch-up with Jude and Astrid at Mindil Markets the next night and then went
and watched ‘The Great Gatsby’ at the deckchair cinema. We filled our week with
things like getting Gina serviced, eating 4L tubs of icecream on the beach,
Frisbee, sunsets, uke and guitar jams with friendly grey nomad neighbours and
frequenting events at the Darwin Festival Hub like live music, artwork and
food! We also made a visit to some friends of ours Bree, Tom and their new
addition 4 month old Ainsley (I use to work with both of them and Ash and I
both went to school with Tom). Tom was away at training though and Bree kindly
offered us a room which we were very grateful for. We have since been staying
with Bree and Ainsley helping out with feeding, playing, chores, walking the
dogs and outings where we can and also watching many Offspring episodes (nearly
watched the first 3 seasons)!
Meeting Ainsley for the first time
Outdoor cinema to watch 'The Great Gatsby'
Stalking Jessica Mauboy at Parap Markets
Darwin Festival lights at the hub
We luckily heard an ad on the radio that there were some
international squash games being played over the weekend so we decided to go
watch some games and Ash even got to catch up with some old friends she use to
play with back in the day. A lot of top seeded Aussies were there and it was
great to watch.
Aussies mixed doubles beat the Scots
BBQ’s and catch-ups on the Nightcliff foreshore with Jude
and Astrid became a regular thing. Sitting in the park, chatting, drawing,
playing guitar and eating, it just felt like summer holidays. The smells, the
sounds and the people were all amazing! We did a trip out to Berry Springs with
the girls and Astrid’s brother Carl too which was lovely. A warm natural spring
to swim in and picnic areas to eat and play Frisbee in. A few days later it was
a sad farewell (or more like see you soon) to Jude and Astrid who were on the
next leg of their journey to Indonesia to sight see and cycle their way up and
across to Scotland. An inspiring couple we can’t wait to catch up with again!
Picnic at Nightcliff
Berry Springs mini waterfall
Cold Rock Extremists, our 3rd or 4th tub of the trip with these girls haha
Bree showed us around a bit of Darwin taking us to Leanyer
Recreational Park which had awesome waterslides, the Darwin Museum and we even
went on a Jumping Croc Cruise on the Adelaide River (probably Australia’s most
inhabited crocodile rivers). We’ve also taken ourselves around town visiting
Stokes Hill Wharf (where Japan attacked Darwin dropping their first bombs in
WWII), Forts Hill Wharf, Cullen Bay, WWII Oil Storage Tunnels, the Wave Pool in
the City and Lee Point Reserve.
This rainbow tree is all knitted on, clever ay!
A naval ship docked at Stokes Hill Wharf
A big salty about to jump for the meat
This croc had no arms but one very strong tail
We had a lovely breaky for Bree’s birthday with some of her
girlfriends and then caught up with some friends of Ash’s from Evan’s Head who
now live in Darwin (Danny and Laura). Plenty of beers, darts, a BBQ and
catch-ups. I hit the pillow about 4am but I was woken by Ash snoring on the
bathroom floor at about 5:30am haha wifey still knows how to drink.
We’ve since spent the last two or so weeks successfully job
hunting (we’ll be cleaning in Darwin, just call us Sadie and Alice), catching
up with an old Uni mate who passed through for a night which was lovely,
celebrated Ash’s birthday (playing squash, swimming, going to the casino and
eating her favourite Chinese for dinner!), watching a 20/20 cricket game,
another night with Danny and Laura drinking till half past and trying to go to
Litchfield unsuccessfully (turns our Carmen’s wheel bearings were shot on one
side and she needed to be towed 120km, thankfully covered by NRMA).
The Perth Scorchers beat NT Strikers 2-1
Catching up with Sam at Mindil Markets
Some awesome live music at Mindil Markets
Trying to fix Carmen to no avail!
Carmen getting a tow back to Darwin, we nearly wore the wheel bearings down to the axel
We are currently building up cleaning clients day by day and
we do our first clean on Friday. Adjusting to the heat up here is sometimes
difficult with the ‘build up’ happening a little more everyday but air con is a
nice luxury along with smashing 2-3 zooper doopers most days haha. With not
much travelling occurring there may not be too much to write about but feel
free to call, msg, facebook, watsapp, skype, or just stalk us if you want to
catch up or find out what’s happening. Until next time fellow readers!
