Northern Territory
Trip Start
Dec 02, 2007
1
23
55
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Alice Springs,
Australia
Monday, April 21, 2008
We picked up our van in Darwin from Backpacker Campervans, which is another name for posher-Britz-vans-at-half-the-price-but-at-least-10-years-old-and-250,000km-on-the-clock. Trips off the tongue!
On the first day, we made our way over to Kakadu National Park for what we thought was going to be two days of adventure. Unfortunately, as we are on the cusp of the wet and dry seasons in the Top End, pretty much everywhere was closed
Our van
. According to the Park Ranger had we been a week earlier we could have seen most of the sights by boat; a week later and we could have driven to them. A bit disappointing but if we hadn't hired the van, we would have taken a tour here - the cheapest is $360 each for two days which would have been a small fortune to pay to see none of the key attractions! We did however get to see some beautiful scenery, and have a small hike round some Aboriginal rock art, with views over the park and escarpment.From Kakadu, we headed down the Stuart Highway to Katherine, home of the Nitmiluk gorge national park. Again, the wet season played its part in our activities here - we had planned on half a day's canoeing through the first couple of the 13 gorges. Fortunately, the water levels were too high, and there was a danger that saltwater crocodiles might have infiltrated the area, so we had to take a cruise downriver instead. This was a great way to take in the fiery red rocks and a chance to hear some of the traditional Aboriginal stories of the area. We also
got to see our first croc, a 1.5m freshwater crocodile.
We then made our way to Mataranka, a famous homestead in the Northern Territory thanks to the 1908 book 'We of the Never Never', by Jeannie Hunt, the wife of pioneer Aeanus
Looking down the gorge
. The book centres around life in the harshenvironment of the bush and the simplicity of the homestead itself. Thankfully, facilities are now a little more sophisticated; a classic Australian pub with accommodation and caravan park, with the added bonus of hot springs at the back of the property, which are at a constant 34 degrees C.
The remainder of the journey to Alice was punctuated by some classic outback roudhouses. The Daly Waters pub, purportedly the oldest in the Territory, was in the middle of nowhere and delightfully eccentric. If you had cleared out the t-shirts and flags pinned to the walls by passers by, it wouldn't have looked out of place in Crocodile Dundee, with attached Outback servo (petrol station) out the front. Daly Waters is also famous for being the location of Amy Johnson's landing following her solo flight from Britain. However this seems to be of little significance to the locals, the only nod to her triumph being a paper plane hung above the bar.
Other oddballs along the way include Wycliffe Well roadhouse, the UFO capital of the Northern Territory, complete with model aliens, a bizarre choice of super heroes, and signs such as 'humans also welcome' We didn't
stay... We also passed through the Barrow Creek hotel, made famous in the Peter Falconio case, and Three Ways, which has the distinction of being on a junction where you can head to north to Darwin, south to Alice Springs or east to Mount Isa.
We're now in Alice Springs, relaxing for a couple of days and giving our van and bank balance a rest due to the price and quantity of petrol needed to get here. Tomorrow we're heading to King's Canyon, Uluru and Kata Tjuta,
which we're really looking forward to, before flying over to Sydney to see family and friends.
