Category Archives: The Grand Tour

Our retirement trip around Australia

Big Trip – October 2022, The Grand Tour, Uncategorized

Kununurra

December 2, 2022 Rob Maguire 1 Comment

Kununurra

Mirima National Park

Bungle Bungles

Ivanhoe Crossing

Hoochery Distillery / Sandalwood Shop

Having had a day-trip into Kununurra while staying at Lake Argyle we had a reasonable idea of the town and it’s vibe before we got there. It gets a lot ‘cautionary’ reviews on the traveller forums but like other similarly reviewed places Kununurra‘s reputation as a crime-ridden town is probably a little bit overblown. Crime and anti-social behaviour occurs there but you either have to be ‘unlucky’ or somewhat dumb to be subject to it. Sensible behaviour and security conciousness generally means a safe and enjoyable stay, which is what we had.

We stayed at the DIscovery Park – Lake Kununurr, which is on the edge of Lake Kununurra, a man made reservoir on the Ord River. It was a very clean and tidy caravan park with a distinct tropical feel and a well shaded pool that we used pretty much twice a day…

The lake is swimmable as well with locals using it for boating, fishing and paddle-boarding. We were a little dissuaded from swimming in the lake because George, a 3m 50 year old freshwater crocodile comes up to the bank for a visit every afternoon for a chat. Whilst freshies are mostly harmless (we swam with 35,000 of them at Lake Argyle) it was mating/nesting season and they can get quite defensive and have a bite if you get too close!

Our van site was on a nice level gravel bed ringed by palm trees, close to the pool and amenities. It was relatively cool despite the temperatures in the high 30’s. W.A. doesn’t do daylight saving so the sun is up by 5:00am and goes down between 5:30pm and 6:00pm. Unlike back home, this actually works well because things get to cool down a bit before bed time…

The township of Kununurra is small but lacks for nothing with Coles and IGA and a number of other businesses operating around the CBD. It is compact but welcome after the austerity of roadhouses and Lake Argyle. We enjoyed our four nights here and could have stayed longer if we weren’t so eager to get over to the west coast proper.

Kununurra is located directly beside Mirima National Park, also known as Hidden Valley. It is also referred to as the ‘mini Bungle Bungles’ as it has a similar grouping of banded dome-like rock formations and gorges, albeit on a much smaller and less dramatic scale.

We drove to it one morning around 9:00am and hiked the trails around and up onto the ridge line for a panoramic view of Kununurra and surrounds. It didn’t disappoint and was well worth the blood, sweat and tears in doing it.

It was a stinking hot day already and the walk to the top was quite steep with a bit of rock-hopping as well as steps and boardwalks. Halfway up Rob stepped up a high natural step that wasn’t quite level, did a half-turn back and lost balance in a ‘slow motion’ forward fall and back over the 1m rock ledge he had just stepped up onto. His SLR camera clattered on the rocks and his arms went forward to break the fall as his legs remained perched on the higher rock ledge.

After all of that, the camera sustained no damage whatsoever… not even a scratch mark on the casing… Rob however, came away from it with grazes to the left hand, grazes to the right elbow, grazes to the left knee and a corked thigh that satyed corked for the next three days. All in all, a good outcome from something that could have been a lot worse… There wasn’t even any visible bruising afterwards.

It was about thirty minutes of hiking from the bottom to the top and back down again. Our shirts were dry as we hiked but as soon as we sat in the shade at the bottom the sweat began to flow from every pore in our bodies…

The view at the top and the hike were well worth doing despite the tumble. The striking banded red rock formations are just so evocative of the top end of W.A. and the Kimberly region. It is similar but different to Kata-Tjuta, Kings Canyon, etc. in the N.T. The red earth is a deeper brown-red than the orange-red-brown of the N.T.

Both versions of W.A. and N.T. ‘red earth’ are somehow soothing to the soul despite their harshness. They are as iconic of Australia’s top-end as the lush rainforests of Qld or the squeaky white sand beaches of NSW. The formations of Mirima National Park stand guard over Kununurra and also provide the high point where their communications tower is located.

So… you can’t come to the Kimberly without seeing the Bungle Bungles… one way or another! One option is to drive there but we had heard and read persistent reports that the 50km off-road track into the Bungle Bungles camp site was in bad repair taking three and a half hours each way and that people were breaking axles and damaging their vehicles doing it. Although we’re sure the cruiser could handle it… we didn’t think that we could so we chose not to that.

There are helicopter flights from Kununurra, Broome, some roadhouses but they’re all hugely expensive for a minimal flight straight there and back. Rob having had a teenage obsession with helicopters wasn’t all that keen on flying in the small Robinson helicopters that are in common use in the top end. Too many ‘hard landings’ have occurred with this machines (although many of these are from heli-mustering cattle at extremely low altitudes).

We chose instead to take a fixed-winged flight with Kimberly Air Tours from Kununurra airport. It was the best choice by far. Pickup at 6:00am from the caravan park, 2 hours flight time in a six seat Cessna 210 tracking over Lake Argyle, the Ord River, Bow River, the Bungle Bungles, Argyle Diamond Mine, cattle stations and then back over Kununurra to Ivanhoe Crossing before returning to the airport and back at our van for breakfast by 9:30am.

We had a young’ish pilot, Beau, who did a superb job of flying and narrrating the journey as we went. At various points he would explain the features below us in detail and at others he would explain that he was going to stop talking for a while and let the landscape speak for itself.

Being a small plane it is loaded for the optimum weight distribution so Rob was lucky enough to be allocated the co-pilot seat. Despite knowing the basics of flying the instrument panel for such a small aircraft was still a dizzying array of analogue dials, multi-function knobs and digital outputs. Always as interesting as the scenery itself.

Flying over Lake Argyle we finally got to see the enormity of this man-made inland sea. The incongruity is that only about 1% of the water is used for agriculture. Originally used for rice and cotton, these proved to be problematic due to pests, The most lucrative crop to date is Indian Sandalwood and Australia is now the world’s largest supplier of this aromatic wood and its derivative products. Other fruit and vegetable crops are starting to take hold and Kununurra is planning to increase its population to 40,000 by 2040 by extending the irrigation channels to increase the land area under agriculture.

We saw the Lake Argyle Resort, where we had stayed and it was just a tiny splotch of development on the otherwise empty land area that surrounds the lake, excepting the cattle stations. Two smaller cattle stations adjoin each other across the Bow River (of Cold Chisel fame) and between them they lose 400 cattle a year to saltwater crocs in the river. It gives some perspective to the harshness and remoteness of the land as we fly over it.

After nearly an hour we approached the magnificent Bungle Bungles with their distinctive maze of horizontally striped mounds. They were really only ‘publicly’ discovered 40 years ago when a news crew in a helicopter were told to have a look by local stockmen. The mounds and hillocks are quite mezmerising with their swirling patterns. Seeing them from 2,500 feet in a low, slow flying plane was definitely a good option. It also gave us a chance to appreciate the difficulties and harshness of the area if you go in by foot, especially in the building heat…

Tracking back from the Bungle Bungles we overflew the Lake Argyle Diamond Mine. The open step-cut mine took us completely by surprise with its size and depth. Currently being closed down over two years, their is still activity that is slowly winding down.

Not far from the mine is the aerodrome, capable of landing 737 jets. Apparently one of the last activities at the site will be to rip up the runway to a depth of 1 or 2 metres to extract the surface diamonds before returning the strip to a more natural state… Don’t know what will happen to the big hole though.

We also saw the remains of the smaller Bow River Diamond Mine, which was three raised squares in an arrowhead formation. It was totally out of step with the surrounding landscape but weirdly reminiscent of the Nazca Lines in Peru being a huge geometric pattern in a natural setting…

After the diamond mines we flew back over the farms and sandalwood plantations of Kununurra, which again were in stark contrast to the naturally un-geometric patterns of Mirama National Park and the Ord River. We saw the Kununurra Diversion Dam that siphons off and controls the irrigation water and keeps Lake Kununurra at a constant level.

Then on to Ivanhoe Crossing, an arc shaped man-made causeway that you can drive over. The water is probably less than 30cm deep but is quit fast flowing. The track is denoted by concrete bollards above the water line.

We finally touched back down with an uneven, but soft, landing on one wheel first, then the second a few seconds later and finally the nose wheel… The wind was a little blustery as we came in but Beau did a masterful job of lining up and balancing the back down onto three wheels.

It was a magnificent flight and almost as good as the ‘doors off’ helicopter flight we did in Sedona (USA) a number of years ago…

About 13km out of Kununurra is Ivanhoe Crossing… A long causeway that extends across the Ord River near the Ivanhoe Station. It is renowned as a croc spot but we didn’t see any on the day.

The causeway is in two sections with concrete bollards on each side to mark the edges and therefore the track to follow through the water. It’s a bit daunting as you approach it as the water is quite fast-flowing as it spills over the edge of the causeway.

Prior to being built, school children from the far side had to be taken by boat across the river to a bus waiting on the other side to attend school in Kununurra.

Coming back across Jo conquered her childhood fear of driving through water and took the wheel for the return crossing. We didn’t see any crocs at, or during, the crossing but we were assured that they are there by locals just the same.

In the end, it is quite an easy drive through the water to the mid-point and then across the second stretch. It is quite a pleasant area and, despite the presence of croc, it is a popular fishing, picnicing and ‘swimming’ spot. We even saw a young couple taking a dip in the water beside the causeway entry point. Braver than us!

Hoochery Distillery

The Kimberly area ued to be a sugar cane growing region although not so much anymore. One enterprising farmer decided to build himself a still and created the Hoochery Distillery, about 6km from Kununurra.

It’s a surprisingly well established business despite the remoteness. The deceased found, Spike, built his own (not the world’s prettiest still) from suplus farm bits and pieces and taught himeslf how to distill spirits. The focus, being the tropics and sugar, was rum.

The offering has diversified to gin and corn whiskey but rum is still the mainstay. Their twist is to step it up with tropical spice or mango flavouring as well as the straight white, underproof and overproof rums.

Unlike a lot of boutique distilleries, their prices aren’t ridiculous and Rob ultimately walked away with a Hoochery 5 Rivers Spiced Rum for $89. It was doubly strange because Rob is not generally a fan of ‘spiced’ rum. The Hoochery 5 Rivers Spiced Rum was a bit different and a little more subtle than the typical Bundaberg or Captain Morgan’s spiced rums.

Rob also did a tasting paddle, which is why he chose the Hoochery 5 Rivers Spiced Rum. The corn whiskey was a little disappointing, when compared to a bourbon but on the whole, their spirits were very good, very clean and fairly priced for a small operation.

Spike’s still, which is still going, is apparently the oldest, continually operating ‘legal’ still in Western Australia. The sign on their wall sums up Hoochery to a tee:

“CREATED USING TRADITIONAL, INEFFICIENT AND LABOR-INTENSIVE METHODS”

Just the way spirits should be made!

Sandalwood Shop

Not far from Hoochery is the Sandalwood Shop. Who knew that the Kimberly is the world leader in Indian Sandalwood and that Indian Sandalwood is worth so much money…

The Sandalwood Shop is purely a retail outlet for the surrounding sandalwood plantations selling a large range of creams, lotions, deodorants, body washes, etc… There is also a range of finished/polished, sandalwood pieces, incense sticks, mozzie coils and woodchips that you can use for display or to ward of insects.

The shop has a small area where they show a short video about the local sandalwood industry and how the Kimberly farmers have virtually saved Indian Sandalwood from going extinct due to overharvesting in other countries.

The sandalwood plantations take 15 years to produce harvestable sandalwood but given the astronomical price for sandalwood oil and wood it is a very lucrative industry in the Kimberly.

We didn’t know until our visit that sandalwood actual requires a host tree and the Kimberly plantation uses native acacia trees as the host. Quintis is the company that produces the sandalwood and by all accounts appears to be the world leader in this field.

The shop itself focusses on cosmetic products and is almost but not quite verging on the ‘crystal hugging, spiritual well-being’ side of retail cosmetics… at least not overtly. Despite this,Rob came away from the shop with some Larrikan Shaving Gel and Jo with a small tube of Mount Romance Skin Damage Control.

Big Trip – October 2022, The Grand Tour

Lake Argyle

December 2, 2022 Rob Maguire Leave a comment

Lake Argyle

Sunset Cruise

September was a very full month spent mostly in Darwin, flying home for a week for James’ and Alex’s wedding, then down to Katherine and finally heading west. So the last day of September heralded the end of the month, the start of October and a new state, Western Australia. For Rob it was the first time to set foot in W.A. and had now been in every state and territory of Australia. Jo had been there decades ago for a work trip. Lake Argyle is only just over the border but W.A. none the less.

After the incessant heat of the Northern Territory buildup, it was quite strange to see dark grey clouds as we approached the Quarrantine Station at the W.A. border. You cannot take a large range of fruits and vegetables across the border and the Quarratine Officers actually do inspect inside your van and car to ensure that you have fully declared everything you should.

Believe it or not… it started raining at the same time we pulled in under the quarrantine shelter and the air temperature dropped from 34^oC to 24^oC as soon as we crossed and continued on our way. It seems that W.A. really is another country! It didn’t last too long and we eventually made our way down to the Lake Argyle Resort and Caravan Park where the temperatures resumed their climb to the mid 30’s and above.

Lake Argyle is the country’s second largest freshwater reservoir after the Ord River was dammed in the 1970’s. Despite it’s immense size you don’t really see it until you actually approach the resort, which is perched high above the lake on one of the many cliff tops surrounding that end of the lake.

Apart from the resort, there is no other development anywhere else around the immense shoreline of the lake and it’s quite weird that such a massive body of fresh water has only one tourist location and a handful of boats at the boat ramp. It is eerily desolate around the lake in contrast to the resort itself where everybody is congregated. We were surprised that there weren’t dozens of houseboats and pleasure-craft cruising the deep blue waters; only a few tinnies and a couple of houseboats.

The resort was fairly large and our site was quite comfortable and reasonably sized with a bit of shade. The amenities were ensuite-style, combined toilet/shower. No issues with water obviously! Turning the shower on full cold resulted in a wonderful tepid shower instead of the icy blast we’d get back home in Royalla…

A small helicopter operated flight-seeing trips of the lake and the Bungle Bungles from only 100m or so away and there was an infinity pool not far from that where you sit in the almost cool water overlooking the lake below. We didn’t do a heli flight… too expensive for what it offered but we did book the Sunset Cruise operated by the resort.

We also took a day-trip into Kununurra (70km away) to stock up on groceries after throwing out our veges at the border. This was also to do a quick check of Kununurra to see if we wanted to stay there given the reports of crime and anti-social behaviour. We decided that the reports seemed a bit overblown and some other campers recommended staying at a particular caravan park, which we chose to do after our stay at Lake Argyle.

So apart from the Sunset Cruise we didn’t do much for seven days other than a drive down to the lookout and over the dam to see the spillway into the Ord River, which was quite a sight in itself. Even with only two of the three pipes jetting out the raw power was mesmerising.

For our last night we ate at the resort and both had the Lake Argyle Silver Cobbler special. Silver Cobbler is the commercial name given to the Lake Argyle Shovel Head Catfish. It is commercially harvested from the lake and is a beautiful eating fish. The resort’s cook panfries a thick fillet and then places it on a bed of wilted spinach over which he pours egg that scrambles over the fish and the spinach. It was absolutely brilliant and so different to the usual battered, crumbed or grilled fish.

The Lake Argyle Resort and Caravan Park operates a Sunset Cruise on a fairly large catamaran motor cruiser spending around three and a half hours on the water. It was a great way to cap off out stay at Lake Argyle and was well worth the price of admission. Jo was pleased that she got yet another Senior’s discount!

The cruise starts with a bus trip from the resort down and over the dam to the spillway and hydro power station and then back to the catamaran which is down a steep, rocky road to the boat ramp. The driver was at pains to explain that the boat ramp road is a privately ‘maintained’ road by the hydro power company and is the only access to the lake… Turning the bus after dropping us off did look a bit precarious to say the least.

Once on the catamaran they explain that the part of the lake that we can see from the resort is about 1% of the total lake and that Lake Argyle contains anywhere between 18 and 21 times the volume of Sydney Harbour…

Side Note: Still wondering why bodies of water are measured in ‘Sydney Harbours’ or why asteroids are measured in ‘Buses’ or ‘Refrigerators’?!?!

Anyway… the cruise take you past the main dam and explains that:

The dam is 300m wide and 100m high;
It is made from clay and rock to enable it to flex if their are earth movements;
The hydro-power jets below each release 1 domestic swimming pool of water each second;
That the Ord River has largely been a white elephant project but is slowly starting to create an economic benefit through irrigation farming and hydro-electricity.

The Argyle diamond mine, which is closing down over the next two years, was the main benefactor of the hydro-electricity from Lake Argyle by not burning millions of litres of diesel every year to run generators…

The cruise continues onto the lake’s open water and heads to a place called ‘croc cove’. It is a low saddle between to hillocks on an island. Two freshwater crocs obligingly crawled out of the water and up the slope to bask in the day’s last sun and the clicks of twenty or thirty cameras.

Before Lake Argyle was created a freshwater crcodile census was taken. They found around 350 freshies. Fifty years on and there are now estimates of around 35,000 freshies in the lake largely due to the large number of islands in the lake resulting in less egg predation.

After ‘croc cove’ we move onto another island with a small population of wallabies that come down to greet the boat. The cruise brings along some food for them so the three that we saw were quite happy to come to the waters edge for another photo opportunity.

From their we head to the fish feeding area where stale bread is hand out for us to break up and drop overboard. Before long their is a large school of archer fish darting in amongst the bread crumbs. They’re obviously well fed because a lot just swim around the bread ignoring it. After a while some of the bread begins to sink and then the shovel head catfish (silver cobbler) come up from underneath and start feasting. It at this point that Rob wishes he had fishing bow with him.

After a bit more cruising around the lake we head back to a mooring buoy. The shoreline is kilometres away in all directions. The boat captain and his assistant invite us all to grab a pool noodle and jump into the lake for a refreshing dip. After jumping into the body temperature water they offer up plastic glasses of bubbles or cans of beer. The beers are thrown into the water near you for you to scoop up and carefully open so that you don’t unnecessarily dilute it by accidentally lowering it below the waterline.

This takes place about 30 minutes before the sun goes down and is the highlight of the cruise. Everybody (in the water) suddenly becomes friendlier and chattier… You realise that you are floating in the middle of an immense lake some 50 metres or more deep, the sun is going down and there are 35,000 freshwater crocodiles sharing the lake with you… It is absolutely magical!!!

Whilst we were floating and enjoying our drinks a large float plane buzzed the boat doing a low fly-by and skimming the water about 100m in front of the catamaran. Not something you see everyday… and at water level as well.

After a couple of drinks, and a wonderful float, the cruise heads back to the resort as the sun finally sets and the lake turns from a deep blue to shining silver. The sky fade to pale and the clouds become tinged with fiery orange . At one point the sky to the left was still daylight blue and to the right it was dusk grey and orange split by the wake of the catamaran trailing behind.

All up, this was a memory that we will hold onto for the rest of our lives… We expected a pleasant evening cruise but ended up with a unique, soul filling experience. We would do it again in a heartbeat…

Big Trip – September 2022, The Grand Tour

Victoria River

December 2, 2022 Rob Maguire Leave a comment

After Katherine our next big stop was Lake Argyle, 500km away and just over the W.A. border. So we broke the drive up with an overnighter at the Victoria River Roadhouse, our last night in the Northern Territory. It was just like the other N.T. roadhouses except that it fronted a working cattle station. The camping area out the back was enormous, first-in-first-served and not a particularly level patch of ground. But we were pretty much the only ones camping there when we arrived so we staked out the most level area we could find and set up for the night. By the time we went to bed there was half a dozen or so other campers pulled in for the night.

We arrived during a changeover of managers. The current couple were actually from NSW and about to head home and the new managers were learning the ropes. All were very friendly but looking forward to the wet season so that things would slow down there as it seemed they were.

We usually have dinner at the roadhouses because they generally have good, honest meals at decent prices as they mostly cater for truckies and campers and good food is always an enticement to stop and spend some money. The beers were cold with a couple on tap and they even had a reasonable range of wines by the glass. It was probably the most ‘truckie’ roadhouse we’d stayed at but it was a quiet night.

The Victoria River runs past the roadhouse and we took a walk down there just before dusk to find the ‘old bridge’ below the ‘new bridge’, which you can walk out onto to view the river. Doing this around dusk was a good call so we could get some nice colours as the sun set and caused the water to glisten.

Coming back to the roadhouse the water tank was lit up and provided a welcome glow for what seemed to be a fairly remote and quiet place half-way between Katherine and Lake Argyle.

There is an escarpment hike directly across the highway in the Judbarra National Park but we elected not to do this as our destination was Lake Argyle the next day.

So… not our most exciting stay of the trip but a nice way to break up the drive to Lake Argyle and enjoy the solitude and isolation that the N.T. offers in abundance.

Big Trip – September 2022, The Grand Tour

Katherine

December 2, 2022 Rob Maguire Leave a comment

Katherine

Pine Creek

Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge)

Marksies Camp Tucker

Katherine Hot Springs

Edith Falls

We stopped in Katherine for a coffee three weeks earlier on our way to Adelaide River. Like most NT towns it comes with the usual warnings for travellers to be vigilant and keep their things locked up. We could see evidence of this but in all honesty Katherine was quite a town and we never felt unsafe in any way…

With that said, we did stay at the Discovery Katherine Caravan Park, which is 6km out of town. The park itself was very well presented and we were allocated a massive site next door to one of the live-in reception staff and her husband who was also working locally. The park had a dozen or so mango trees scattered around, all heavy with unripened fruit (damn it)!

The town itself was more than just a strip of shops and houses. It had a fairly new feel about it as though it had been recently brought up to date compared to the other towns of the NT. The indigigenous population was noticable but not quite as conspicuous as places like Adelaide River. It was most noticable when we went to stock up at the BWS where we saw some people turned away by police who were checking people’s id before entering.

It brings to life the issues with alcohol in the NT, most notably amongst the indigenous who have lost a couple of generations to substance abuse and a lack of purpose in their lives.

Hope springs eternal though… We did visit the Top Didj Art Gallery not far from the caravan park, which is also the home of Marksie’s Camp Tucker Dinner. We didn’t do the full cultural experience in favour of just wandering through the art gallery to view the magnificent indigenous art and sculptures ranging in price from $150 for a small canvas to $93,000 for a wall sized canvas that was truly stunning,

Indigenous art is everywhere in the NT and is one way at least that local indigenous people can maintain the culture, achieve some income and create purpose in their lives. You still have to feel sorry for the lost souls that sit in the parks each day and wait for the bottle shops to open to see if they can get in without being turned away. It’s heart-breaking to see what has been done to these people since colonisation.

We were originally going to stay a few days before Katherine at Pine Creek because to caravan park had really good reviews and it broke the trip up a little bit. Unfortunately for us the caravan park was closed for a couple of days right when we wanted to stay so we had to make do with a stop and a wander around.

It was a little disappointing because Pine Creek was a very interesting little town with lots of history and things to see. The first thing we noticed was an enormous mango tree absolutely laden with unripe fruit in the central park area. As you move around the Northern Territory top end you begin to notice mango trees everywhere, not just the commercial orchards.

Beyond the mango tree was another park area with all sorts of historic equipment dating back to the gold mining days of the 1890’s, including a well preserved ore battery, steam engines, mine winch and other assorted mining equipment.

As well as the mining equipment there were two brick-domed wells (or water tanks) that were quite wide and deep, which underlined the importance of a stable water supply for these communities back in the day. The whole park area and exhibits were extremely well kept and presented and it would have been nice to have been able to spend a more leisurely time wandering around them even though it was stinking hot on the day

After that we wandered over to the rail museum next door. It was gold coin entry and we felt a bit guilty when we didn’t have any change but were invited to come in anyway.

Pine Creek was part of the narrow-gauge railway from Darwin. The old station serves as the museum and also contains World War 2 information and displays due to Pine Creek being an airfield and army hospital base. The museum houses a well-preserved steam locomotive as well as other railway artefacts. It’s amazing that such a small town can put up such a comprehensive and well preserved set of exhibits.

Despite the heat it was really quite pleasant wandering around the place before getting back into the furnace that was the cruiser and heading on to Katherine.

Katherine Gorge – Freshwater Croc Breeding Area

Obviously the main attraction of the Katherine region is Katherine (Nitmiluk) Gorge and the gorge cruise is a must do experience… and so we did it!

We turned up at the carpark to find a very impressive information center with cafe, tourist information and various information displays. The deck area looks out over the tree-filled valley prior to the gorge and looks for all the work like a scene from Jurassic Park.

Your make your way down a 500m track to the wharf where the flat-bottom boats await. We were lucky enough to have an indigenous guide take our boat and we suspect that he may well have been one of the young boys that Marksie schooled in confident speaking some time ago. He was interesting, funny and knew when to speak and when to let the gorge speak for itself.

At one point in the second gorge he told us that it was forbidden for his mob to drink or swim at that particular location so as not to upset the rainbow serpent that lived there. He explained that he could guide us in the boat safely because his people hadn’t invented boats so it was a ‘loophole’ in his culture’s rules…

Our cruise was a ‘two gorge’ cruise. We would have liked to do the ‘three gorge’ cruise but the water was too low in the third gorge due to the time of the year and also that there hadn’e been enough rainfall the previous year.

He explained that the ‘high tide’ mark was 30m above where we were floating and pointed out two caves high of the gorge walls where the water rises to in the biggest years. We also saw places in the gorge where long vertical cables are attached to the walls where they moore the boats in the wet season so that they stay put but rise and fall with the water level.

We were shown sandbanks where the freshwater crocs climb up to lay their eggs, a saltwater crocodile trap at the start of the first gorge as well a a number of red marine buoys tied to overhanging tree limbs. The red buoys are used to monitor for saltwater crocs by inspecting them for bite marks because the salties are both territiorial and curious. The trap is there for obvious reasons in case a saltie swims in during the floods in the wet season.

There is a 1km hike between the first and second gorge. At the start of the hiking section there is some ancient rock art painted on the walls about 15m up the sheer face.

The boat in the second gorge is a bit narrower with tighter seating so that it can get into the narrow, shallow mooring point. This takes you through the most picturesque part of the gorge with the high vertical walls with the deep earthy red-brown rock. Our guide told us that the rock walls are not granite but actually formed from the worlds hardest sandstone. The gorge itself is a series of flooded fault lines that criss-cross the area and fill with water.

The waters in the gorge range in colours from blue to deep sea green and some stretches even look a bit like milky glacial water, which it most definitely is not!

The cruise is everything you expect of it and the gorge remains one of those iconic Australian places that seemingly shouldn’t exist but does… And you can also see why it holds deep spiritual significance to the indigenous people of the area.

Gem Drop Scones – Marksies Camp Tucker Night

You can be really lucky sometimes. Even as a result of bad luck! Back in Bees Creek when we went to Sandy Creek we copped a large rock to the windscreen which meant we needed to get it replaced. We organised for Obrien’s to do an onsite replacement at The Laughing Daisy where we were staying.

Mitch from Obrien’s duly turned up on the day and did a fantastic job replacing the cruisers windscreen and we got to talking about things to do whilst we were in Katherine. So Mitch tells us that he’s been trying to book his family onto a table at Marksie’s Stockman’s Camp Tucker but everytime he’s tried it has been booked out.

So Jo jumps onto her phone and looks it up and 2 minutes later we’re booked in for Friday nighs the day after we get to Katherine… Not only that but we discover that this will be the fourth last night before c closes down forever and retires! We felt so sorry for Mitch that he was never going to get to do this but mighty grateful that he shared it with us and that we got to do something a bit special before it closes down for good.

Marksie is a gentleman bushie who had been making a full time living from his camp oven dinners for over twenty year and at the age of 87, a very good 87, he is retiring. He will tell you that he is one of only four people left making a living from camp oven cooking and it is very sad that this tradition is slowly dying. THe really sad part is that he had the business up for sale, which was quite profitable, but did not get one enquiry about taking it over.

Marksie’s is a genuine experience where about 40 people are seated at four tables under the stars in front of a shelter that houses the firepit where all the cooking is done. On the four days a week that Marksie holds his dinners he gets up at sparrow’s fart and lights the fires to get the coals ready for the day. He then makes bushman’s stew and fancy dampers in the camp ovens with the stew slowly simmering all day for around 9 hours before it is ready to serve around 7:30pm.

Marksie uses 13 different Australian bush tucker herbs, His dampers are also flavoured with bush herbs as well as being fancied up with cheese crusts and the like. Marksie is so skilled with his camp ovens that he can cook pavlova shells in them although they reserved for special occasions. Our after dinner treat was ‘Gem Drop Scones’ with Whipped Cream and Damson Plum Jam washed down with proper Billy Tea.

Marksie makes his Billy tea, suprisingly, with just two teaspoons of tea in an eight cup billy plus an unbroken gum leaf. The billy is spun vertically three times to settle the leaves to the bottom. If you’ve never had billy tea before then this is truly the way to have it… black and no sugar needed. It’s a perfect thirst quencher!

Before, during and after dinner, Marksie tells stories and paints a picture of life as a stockman back in the 1920’s at Wave Hill Station. He explains how the plain camp stews, dampers and billy tea differ from his contemporary flavours and methods and about his own journey of learning from local indigenous people as well as helping young indigenous men become tour guides by giving them the opportunity to learn how to speak confidently to groups of tourists.

Marksie is a remarkable man and we were privileged to attend one of his last dinners and share his fire… Had we not copped the rock that broke our windscreen we would probably not have done this experience so it just goes to show that bad luck sometimes brings good luck as well…

It seems that once you get to Mataranka and head north you’re always visiting or stopping at places with hot springs, despite the fact that none of them are actually ‘hot springs’ as in geothermally heated. They’re all just natural springs bubbling to the surface under pressure at ground temperature, which is usually tepid.

Katherine has it’s own ‘hot springs’, which are on the edge of town and no less beautiful and relaxing. The pools themselves remain quite natural with the exception of the walkways, stairs and ladders that provide access to them.

They are crystal clear and contain the usual freshwater fish that are happy to share the pools with people. The temperature was slightly cooler than Mataranka and we also caught up with Theresa and Greg (from Daly Waters) whilst lazing away an hour or two in the upper pool.

Theresa and Greg had parted with Julie and Ian to back east while the latter were continuing to head west like us after some more time in Darwin.

We ended up having dinner with them at the Katherine Club (not to be confused with the Katherine Country Club, which we nearly did) to say final farewells as we would be unlikely to see them after that. It was a very enjoyable evening and as good a good club meal as you would get anywhere else. We wish them well on their forward travels!

Sixty kilometres north of Katherine is Edith Falls (Leliyn). Yet another magnificent top end waterfall swimming hole perfect for a refreshing float on a pool noodle. Edith Falls is a large swimming hole and the water is not quite as clear as the others; more of a greenish tinge, possibly due to the lush bushy surroundings…

To be honest, this felt like the most ‘croccy’ of the swimming holes that we had been in. But the signs said it was safe so who are we to not risk life and limb for the chance to once again lower ourselves into the healing NT waters…

Travelling as we are at the tail end of the tourist season we were lucky enough to have this waterhole mostly to ourselves, which always makes it that much more special. You don’t have to work to hard for the best photographs, you can paddle yourself to the falls at your liesure and have them to yourselves and the rest of the world disappears… at least until you get out, dry off and start sweating again 5 minutes later!

Edith Falls are connected to Katherine Gorge and are a much lower cascade style waterfall than most that we visited and probably flowing with much less volume than during the wet seasson. Very picturesue all the same and almost cool in temperature.

The pool noodles have copped a hammering since Mataranka and Bitter Springs but have been proven to be a survival necessity given the number of waterholes, springs and rock pools they have been in. We feel we should carve the names of the places they have taken us into them like a pool noodle tattoo…

Big Trip – September 2022, The Grand Tour

Bees Creek (Darwin)

December 2, 2022 Rob Maguire Leave a comment

Bees Creek

Darwin

Territory Wildlife Park

Berry Springs

Markets

Litchfield National Park (Trip 2)

Darwin Museum / QANTAS Hangar

At last… only a short 80km tow from Adelaide River to Bees Creek and The laughing Daisy Homestead, our base for our time in the Darwin region.

Although only a short drive up the Stuart Highway we were entertained occasionally with the sight of eagles and kites lazily soaring above the road in search of their next meal. It was a sight that was repeated from Woomera to Darwin all along the length of the Stuart Highway. Presumably the roadkill makes the highway’s easy pickings but still a nice sight nonetheless.

The Laughing Daisy Homestead

Our campsite for our time in Darwin was The laughing Daisy Homestead. A Sydney couple, Jesse and Gemma, travelled their way to Darwin and decided to put down some roots by buying an acreage in Bees Creek and setting up a small, seasonal boutique campsite.

They had done an amazing job setting up full 15amp power boxes and water lines so that they could host around 10 powered sites and also had room for unpowered camping as well. They also offered a lovely cool, shaded pool and a massive camp kitchen shelter where they would do burgers for the campers each Friday night. Really nice people and a good bunch of campers made this a very relaxing and comfortable stay.

It was only 25 minutes from Darwin itelf with the Coolalinga shopping centre 5 minutes up the road that had supermarkets and various other retail outlets. Very handy after the sparsity of shops coming up the centre.

Freds Pass Markets

The laughing Daisy Homestead is locateed on Bees Creek Road, which is probably about 6km long. At the end of Bees Creek Road, just before Coolalinga is a spot called Freds Pass, which hosts a farmers market each weekend. Despite being relatively small, it was an excellent market with lots of fresh fruit and veges, crafts and the star stall for us, the Meat Bus.

The Meat Bus was a full size coach completely kitted out with fridges and freezers stocked with locally made smallgoods, bacon, fresh and frozen meats and sausages. Basically a full butcher shop on wheels. We left with a package of buffalo sausages and Boerworst sausages. Unfortunately they didn’t have any croc meat.

A Quick Trip Back To NSW

Another advantage of staying at The laughing Daisy Homestead was that it was out of town and we needed to store our van for a week to fly back to Sydney/Lithgow for our son James’ wedding to Alex. Another family caravan park, Five Acre Family, about 300m down the road, offered van storage. Not only was this convenient but nice and secure as well, being away from town on a back block. Holly, the owner, was terrific and we were able to return to the van at 1:00am in the morning when we got back. She had even run a power lead out to us so we could have the air conditioner on and actually get a few hours sleep.

Overall… we really enjoyed our two weeks in Bees Creek, punctuated by a week back in NSW for the wedding. The laughing Daisy Homestead and Five Acre Family made it really easy for us to see and experience much of the Darwin area whilst taking time out to fly back for the wedding in the middle.

One last shout out to our very good friend Judy who hosted us for the days we spent in Sydney before and after the wedding. Rob made a comment about running low on chillie in his diet so Judy gifted him a tin of jerk spice before leaving. The jerk spice has subsequently been used for jerk chicken and jerk barramundi on the Weber. And it is VERY good…

We will leave you with one final word about the Northern Territory from A.B. ‘Banjo’ Patterson regarding the Northern Territory. It sums up the Territory to perfection…

Some day it may be civilised and spoilt, but up to the present it has triumphantly overthronwn all who have tried to improve it. It is still the Territory.
A.B. Banjo Patterson, 1898

Darwin Habour Cruise

On our first trip into Darwin we decided to take a 45 minute Darwin Harbour Cruise run by the Sealink Ferry Company that also services the Tiwi Islands and remote communities. It turned into a bit of a saga in as much as we arrived a Cullen Bay Ferry Terminal but could not find a ticket office or anyone that could assist.

After some Googling we determined that we were in the wrong place and drove to the other side of the City to Stokes Hill Wharf. After talking to two different tour booking offices, who couldn’t help us, we re-Googled and discovered that the harbour cruise actually does go from Cullen Bay Ferry Terminal, which left us 15 minutes to go back to where we came from…

We made it with a couple of minutes to spare and Jo found the ferry and bought the tickets while Rob parked the car and made it just in time to board as they were preparing to cast off. Exquisite timing.

The cruise itself was very worthwhile taking in the Darwin city skyline, the naval docks, the beaches and a section of coastline where what was left of old Darwin, after Cyclone Tracy in 1974, had been bulldozed into the harbour. A very stark and sobering reminder of that tragedy.

Cullen Bay itself is a fairly ritzy looking development with a tidal lock that keeps a constant water level for the expensive homes and their private docks due to Darwin‘s large tide range. It also has a cafe precinct and boutique shops which were very obviously slowing down for the buildup and wet season.

After the cruise we drove, again, back to the other sode of Darwin for fish’n’chips at the fishing boat docks. On the advice of one of the cruise deckies we both a piece (read ‘slab’) of Jew fish. Apparently not the same as East Coast Jewfish but quite honestly one of the best pieces of fish we’ve had… Certainly on this trip.

Stokes Hill Wharf

Apart from visiting Stokes Hill Wharf momentarily when we couldn’t find the Harbour Cruise, we returned to for another look later in our stay. It’s quite an impressive structure sitting quite high above the water and you actually drive onto it and park on it.

The standout feature is the ferris wheel that towers above it in front of the various buildings that also reside on the wharf. For the most part it is a food court with various cuisines available and a couple of bars, It was stinking hot on the day we were there so we sat and had a cold soft drink before looking around.

The reason we decided to go there was because the Royal Flying Doctor Service has a display centre there that we wanted to visit. It was located directly behind the ferris wheel and all the more attractive due to the air-conditioning.

Like most things RFDS, it was extremely well done and also included a large section on the Japanese raids on Darwin during WW2. The really captivating part of the displays were the Virtual Reality presentations where you could sit in a chair, don a VR headset and take an immersive 360^o trip through the bombing of Darwin Harbour and also an RFDS flight from both the pilots and nurses perspective… They were extremely well done.

At the front of the building there was a Japanese Zero fighter plane suspended from the ceiling and at the back there was a fully kitted out RFDS air ambulance with starboard wing removed that you could climb into an view from the inside.

Crocosaurus Cove

One of the last places we visited in Darwin was Crocosaurus Cove. Located in the heart of the city centre it is a very well done building housing a number of large saltwater crocs as well as a croc nursery and various other exhibits including snakes, lizards and fish with a walk under aquarium section where you can view the salties from beneath.

We chose this over Crocodylus Park (an outdoor zoo type crocodile experience) based on the advice of others and also because we had already visited the Territory Wildlife Park, which had given served us up an excellent outdoor experience.

Despite being in the centre of the Darwin CBD, Crocosaurus Cove delivers a lot of entertainment in a relatively small footprint. Jo had the opportunity to hold a Blue-tongued Lizard and a Children’s Python, both of which she coped with calmly and capably.

We weren’t tempted to sit in the ‘cage of death’ at $180pp but a number of people did stump up to get up close and personal while a croc handler enticed the big crocs to leap up beside the cage to chomp a piece of dead animal. Quite entertaining but not something we felt the need to do…

We did have a go at feeding the baby crocs, about 1.5m in length. There was a decent size enclosure with 30 or 40 juveniles crawling all over and around each other. Using a bamboo pole with small bits of meat attached we dangled it in front of a likely participant and waited for it to rear up and snatch the meat from the soft wire hook. The small crocs are quite quick and take you by surprise when they go from stationary to bite mode in the blink of an eye…

Another very interesting display was their simulated Croc bite, where they place a hefty block of ice in the mouth of a hydraulic croc simulation and chomp it. The ice shatters and what is left of the block contains huge teeth marks. The power is of the bite is immense and would completely shatter bone and destroy muscle…

We also saw a Black-headed Python being fed (a dead rat), where they lay the python on a table and induce it to attack a dead white rat and eat it. Once the python starts swallowing the rat we were free to approach the table and quietly watch the snake at close range.

Whilst there we also bumped in to Ian & Julie (from Daly Waters and Mataranka) who were now in Darwin to celebrate Julie’s milestone birthday with her family who had flown in from around the country. It was nice to see them again and find out what they’d been up to since then. Coincidences like this just seem to happen when you’re travelling full-time…

We were going to go to Berry Springs not long after we arrived in Bees Creek, which was only 25km away from the Laughing Daisy. It was suggested by other campers there that we should drop in to the Territory Wildlife Park, which was only another kilometre from the Berry Springs turnoff.

We hadn’t heard of this place so after a quick Google we decided to spend the morning at the Territory Wildlife Park and cool off at Berry Springs on the way back that afternoon. Well, we ended up spending the entire day there and enjoyed every minute of it…

Unlike Crocosaurus Cove and Crocodylus Park, which are commercial parks, Territory Wildlife Park is run by the NT Government and is less well known because it is not allowed to advertise (being a government funded organisation).

We rate it as one of the best zoo experiences we’ve ever had. It was completely natural, had great demonstration shows and was populated with all sorts of birds, fish and animals both common and scarce. We can’t recommend it highly enough.

The park exists as 6km of walking tracks that are also serviced by a hop-on/hop-off cart train that loops around every half hour. The shows are perfectly timed so that you can catch the train to each show and walk around that area.

Nocturnal House

We started in the Nocturnal House where we saw all sorts of night-time creatures in special display areas that simulate low light night-time conditions. Quolls, possums, lizards, frogs and marsupial mice were all on display and easy to find one your eyes adjusted.

Flight Deck & The Aviary

Territory Wildlife Park – Three wise owls

The Flight Deck isa live free flight demonstration where we were enthralled by the ‘silent flight’ of a Barn Owl, the sky drop fishing of an Osprey and an amazing Black-breasted Buzzard that cracked open a replica Emu egg by repeatedly throwing a stone onto it, mimicing it’s natural behaviour…

Each bird would fly in as required and perform it’s distinctive behaviour before flying back to their perches. We’ve seen a few free flight bird shows around the world and this would probably rate as the best in our opinion.

The Aviary was a very large netted dome nearly the size of a football field with a boardwalk that spiralled to the top of the central trees and contained hundreds of native bird species. The boardwalk allowed you to get up close to the birds perching in the branches and view them at their level. Quite a unique experience.

Oolloo Sandbar

Oolloo Sandbar is a fresh water billabong and beach where we watched our first live show. It was incredibly impressive with a ranger explaining about freshwater whiprays, barramundi and archer fish whilst hand-feeding them.

The (very large) barramundi would circle around the offered (by hand) fish and then ‘boof’ it by sucking in a huge mouthful of air and water to capture the bait. After the barramundi feeding, the ranger would attract the whipray’s to glide up onto the beach and hoover up small fish from his palm, mimicing their natural mode of attack.

Finally, and most impressive of all, he would dangle an insect at shoulder height from the water’s surface and the archer fish would come in and spit a glob of water up to hit the insect, which would then be dropped into the water for it to eat. Once again mimicing the natural hunting behaviour of the fish. Utterly mesmerizing to see this live…

Aquarium

Territory Wildlife Park – Giant Clam Memorial

After the Oolloo Sandbar show we stopped into the Aquarium that housed a series of tanks that mimic top-end rivers and waterholes as well as mangrove and coastal reef tanks. There is a walk-through tunnel where the whiprays glide over you as well as an enclosure housing their 4m saltwater crocodile.

The displays were captivating and very natural, letting you get very close to some very dangerous creatures and some enormous barramundi.

Outside the museum was a sculpture garden containing around 30 giant clam shells. This was a memorial to those clams, which had been taken illegally by foreign fishermen.

Billabong

The park has a Billabong that houses turtles and pelicans in a lush, green setting that is both calming and relaxing, especially on a hot, dry day like we were being subjected to…

Other Habitats

Very rae Black Wallaby – Territory Wildlife Park

It was a very full day that also included a walk through the Monsoon Forest, the Woodland Wallaby Walk and the Buffalo Trail, which was denoted by some metal sculptures of water buffaloes being mustered by a small helicopter (mounted on a pole).

There were two special enclosures, one holding a very rare black wallaby, which is actually coffee coloured as opposed to black. We were lucky in that it was out when we were there and didn’t shy away as everybody approached with cameras clicking…

The other special enclosure contained two dingoes that were actually found one day by one of the rangers after they hed been abandoned by their mother. The rangers hand-reared the dingo pups, built and enclosure for them and kept thm on display.

It was probably the best non-swimming experience of our time in Darwin and certainly the most unexpected…

Berry Springs is a small locality about 25km south-west of where we were staying at Bees Creek. We had originally planned to visit these springs earlier in our stay but postponed it until we had returned from James’ and Alex’s wedding in Lithgow. After our return the buildup had become noticably hotter and more humid so a visit to Berry Springs was definitely in order.

Berry Springs is another top end spring that feeds Berry Creek with crystal clear water that is perfect for floating and relaxing in with a pool noodle. It is popular with tourists and locals alike being easily accessible and well monitored from crocs.

The waters flow through a series of rocky cascades creating a number of pools. You can slide your way down the series of pools or just plant yourself in one of the deeper ones and relax. We were lucky that we chose a relatively quiet day (the prerogative of the retired traveller) where we could enjoy the swim as well as the natural beauty of the place without any screaming hordes.

It sometimes seems that travelling in the N.T. could be described as driving through a wonderfully picturesque, arid red earth landscape punctuated by floating your cares away in crystal clear swimming holes of equally picturesque beauty…

Mindil Beach Markets

The Mindil Beach Markets are a Thursday/Sunday institution in Darwin… They start at 4:00pm and go until 9:00pm. Mainly populated with food stalls and also some jewellery, clothes and crafts stalls as well. The general idea is that you go there, have some food and then settle in on the beach to watch the sunset over the water.

We arrived a little before 4:00pm whilst the stall holders were busily setting up preparing the wares. After a quick look around before the crowds descended we took a walk along the track that follows the beach past the resort hotels. It was slightly reminiscent of a mini Honolulu with beach on one side and beautiful-people sipping expensive cocktails in their infinity pool… Each to his own.

Returning to the markets we had another look around at the wares before choosing something to eat. Rob, typically, chose a Laksa just in case we didn’t to try Mary’s Laksa at the Parap Markets. Ultimately… it wasn’t a good choice being to thick with coconut milk and fairly bland. He found himself wishing he had gone for the giant paella instead.

But what the Laksa lacked was more than made up for by the sunset viewing over the water. The setting sun provided a glorious display of the spectrum as it dipped over the horizon and continued to colour the sky with vibrant hues of red, orange and purple after the event.

It was surprising how quickly the sun disappeared once the bottom of the disk met the dividing line of the horizon. Like Uluru and Kings Canyon at sunset, you find yourself taking far too many photos and then agonising over which ones are the best and which to discard…

Appararently the tradition is for the beach goers to applaud as the sun drops over the horizon. We didn’t really understand why this is but it happened anyway and we joined in with a few perfunctory percussive notes ourselves. The dazzling sky palette continued on for quite some time after the sunset so we wandered along the beach for a while half expecting to see a croc attack the onone of the foolhardy tourists down at the waters edge.

Parap Markets

So…on our return to Bees Creek from our wedding trip we made sure that we went to the Parap Markets for the world famous Mary’s Laksa.

Parap Markets are a year round, sunday morning market located in Parap Village. We were surprised to find that it is like a small town square in the middle of a shopping centre that is jam-packed with stalls of all kinds.

Despite getting there reasonably early the two lines for Mary’s Laksa was already 10m long in both directions but we had heard that the wait can sometimes get over 30 minutes. Once again we were relatively lucky and were at the serving counter in around 5 minutes.

Mary’s Laksa is a top end icon and they only take cash so we sort of expect that Mary is making a small fortune and probably has a few expensively stuffed mattresses in her house. Good on her… They do work bloody hard.

The Laksa itsef was very, very good. Jo had a Wonton Laksa and Rob had the Special Combo. In all honesty, not ‘the best’ laksa based on Rob’s extensive Laksa consumption history but possibly top 3. Well balanced coconut and curry broth, generous prawns/chicken/pork/tofu , good mix of rice and egg noodles and lots of fresh corriander.

All in all… Mary rightfully deserves her reputation!

Sandy Creek

We had previously visited Litchfield National Park from our stay at Adelaide River. After our return from the wedding trip we decided to go back a second time to see a bit more of this wonderful area. It was a tough decision in that we chose not to see any of Kakadu due to our need to move on from the Darwin area while things were still open before wet season closed in proper.

Our destination on this visit was Sandy Creek (Tjaynera Falls) and Wangi Falls. Sandy Creek was our first destination because it required a 9km drive in over a rutted 4wd track including a water crossing. The water crossing was 40-50cm deep and probably around 100m in length at the time we went through.

The water crossing going in…

The water crossing coming out…

The 9km drive in took about 30 minutes and once there we faced a 25 minute walk in the oppressive heat to reach the falls and swimming hole… But when you get there it instantly becomes worth every second spent getting there (and going back out again).

What you get is a beautiful, big, deep water hole with the magnificent Tjaynera Falls on the far side constantly spilling over the cliff above creating a small tropical oasis. When we finally got there there was only a fanily of four and one other couple at the waterhole. By the time we were in the water the family had left and the couple were sunbaking in a quiet spot on the banks. So we had the entire waterhole to ourselves for about 15 minutes before another group arrived. A truly memorable and unexpected moment of indulgent pleasure that we rightfully deserved…

Like most of the other big waterholes and springs in the Darwin region, this one was teeming with fish, which were well acustomed to humans invading their territory. These ones were a little larger than palm sized and more than happy to dart around close by; only disappearing into the rocky cracks if youmade a sudden movement in their direction.

Wangi Falls

After emerging from the pleasure of Sandy Creek and Tjaynera Falls in was only a short drive back to Wangi Falls.

Wangi Falls is a much more accessible and touristy waterhole with two streams flowing into an expansive and deep waterhole. The carpark is quite large and caters for cars, caravans, campers and tour coaches. We were expecting large crowds but were pleasantly surprised to find that the numbers weren’t huge with plenty of room for more swimming and floating.

There’s an extensive grassed area with the usual information signs as well as some sheltered tables with signs saying that tour buses have preference for their use! Since they were’nt fully occupied we sat at one to have a late lunch before going to the falls.

The falls themselves are a twin falls with two well separated streams tumbling 40 to 50m into the enormous swimming area. Thankfully it wasn’t too crowded and once again mounted our pool noodles and began the slow paddle across to the falls in the pleasantly ‘just above cool’ water.

The thing about the more accessible swimming holes is that your enjoyment of their beauty and experience is directly proportional to the attitude of the other people there… Wangi Falls is immensely beautiful but the spell is broken slightly when you have loud people who won’t shut up about themselves or whatever inane thing is happening in their lives at that time… We still had a wonderful time despite a handful of these insanely boring types of people. The waterhole is large so you can swim away.

As lovely as Wangi Falls is we were very glad that we made the effort to visit Sandy Creek first and experience the guilty pleasure of having the waterhole all to ourselves. Wangi Falls did serve us up one last treat though before we left, which was a visit by a friendly Merten’s Water Monitor. Quite a handsome fella’ who was happy to sit in the sun and pose for photographs.

1934 QANTAS Hangar

Historic QANTAS Hangar – WW2 Bullet Hole

Historic QANTAS Hangar – Darwin’s first steam loco

On another recommendation we sought out the 1934 QANTAS Hangar, which now houses the Northern Territory Motor Vehicle Enthusiasts Club. It is located in the streets of Parap amongst everyday houses but is chock full of history and vehicles from yesteryear.

Despite it’s plain and non-descript appearance; it stands exactly as it looked in the 1930’s. Entry only costs a gold coin donation and once inside the hangar you are free to wander amongst a huge collection of vintage and historic cars, trucks and Darwin’s first steam locomotive.

The hangar houses not only vehicles but a large array of wartime memorabilia, vintage tools and equipment and also has a large restoration area where the volunteers go about the restoration process.

If you look closely on one of the steel support posts you will see a bullet hole from a WW2 Japanese Zero fighter plane that has been left there. The size and ferocity of the hole is a very sopering reminder of the hell that was rained on to darwin during the Japanese raids. More bombs were dropped on Darwin than Pearl Harbour…

The 1934 QANTAS Hangar was quite a surprising find in Darwin and highly recommended to visit by us,

Museum of the Northern Territory

Story Log – Museum of the Northern Territory

Indigenous Bamboo Map – Museum of the Northern Territory

Turtle Skeleton – Museum of the Northern Territory

Pearl Lugger – Museum of the Northern Territory

Bark Canoe – Museum of the Northern Territory

Dugout Canoe – Museum of the Northern Territory

Foreign Fishing Boat – Museum of the Northern Territory

Foreign Fishing Boats – Museum of the Northern Territory

War Canoes – Museum of the Northern Territory

Sweetheart – Accidentally killed by drowning

Native Plants – Museum of the Northern Territory

Our last outing in Darwin was to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT). This was another unexpected and wholly enjoyable experience with a range of galleries and exhibits that truly showcased the magic of the Northern Territory. The exhibits were extremely well presented without clutter (or wasted space) and provided enough detail about each to hold your interest without boring you with unecessary detail.

The indigenous art section contained a mix of traditional and contemporary exhibits. The most interesting were the sculptural exhibits including a magnificent fish trap and a bamboo map amongst other things. The intricate and detailed craftsmanship of these objects matched the stories behind them and their significance in indigenous culture and history.

It was a fiercely hot day while we were there so the next exhibit was viewed was the maritime exhibit, in the non air-conditioned annex. It was worth the sweath as well. The large covered annex housed all manner of boats from the last Darwin pearl lugger to confiscated refugee boats, sail boats of note, war canoes down to a simple but functional bark canoe.

It was a somewhat eclectic collection of boats that told a patchwork history of indigenous, foreign and conteporary boating in Darwin. The bark canoe in particular showed the immense skill that indigenous Australians possessed to make a seaworthy boat from a flat sheet of bark with primitive tools.

There was a very good exhibit on Cyclone Tracey and the devastation it caused in December 1974. One exhibit was an open walled room with 70’s decor playing a recording of the ABD radio transmission of that day. Seeing the photos and hearing the recordings paint a much more detailed and sobering account of this disaster than we could ever understand it from half a continent away.

Another section showcased an extensive taxidermy display of Northern territory animal, birds and fish along with the skeletons of some Australian megafauna from pre-history. Perhaps the most impressive piece of taxidermy was that of ‘Sweetheart‘ the saltwater crocodile. Sweetheart was a 5.1m saltie that took to terrorising locals by attacking their outboard motors. Sweetheart was captured but ultimately died from drowning after it’s leg became trapped after too much sedative had been administered. Sweetheart was apparently the ‘inspiration’ behind the Australian movie, “Rogue“.

Big Trip – August 2022, The Grand Tour

Adelaide River

December 2, 2022 Rob Maguire Leave a comment

Adelaide River

Robin Falls

Litchfield National Park (1st Trip)

Wartime Civilian Cemetary

Mango Tree – Adelaide River Wartime Civilian Cemetery

Adelaide River Wartime Civilian Cemetery

After the stunning beauty of Bitter Springs and Mataranka we began one of our last legs to Darwin. Our stay was for four nights in Adelaide River at the Adelaide River Show Society Caravan Park. Adelaide River is not a large town but has a bit Northern Territory character about it.

Although there is the Adelaide River Inn & Resort we opted to stay on the outskirts of town at the Adelaide River Show Society Caravan Park . The Show Society has set their grounds up with power, water and amenities as well as a bar and pool that are every bit as good as any other caravan park.

The park has a season and the caretakers were beginning the preparations for closing down for the year. We were given a great site beneath a shade structure that helped keep the van a little cooler. We backed onto the showground race-track/arena and they told us that our site would normally be underwater in the height of the wet season, which is another reason that they close down during this time.

A really good happy hour was available at the bar from 4:00pm and each Friday, the day we arrived, they put on a roast dinner, which we happily took part in. It was one of those friendly caravan parks where the campers are travellers as opposed to holidayers and it was nice to just settle in for four days and enjoy the place and it’s surrounds.

We did have our last night pub night at the Adelaide River Inn & Resort and their ‘303 bar’, which was full of character and had ‘Charlie’ the water buffalo from Crocodile Dundee in pride of place in the corner of the bar (along with all their merch). It was yet another good pub meal eaten in the extensive beer garden not far from a 5m stuffed crocodile that was caught near a local boat ramp after terrorising the local fishermen.

Robin Falls is an intermittent waterfall 15km south of Adelaide River on the same road as the Adelaide River Show Society Caravan Park. When we arrived at the small campsite carpark we were the only people there apart from a bicycle that was chained up with no sign of the owner… quite strange.

From the carpark it was a reasonable uphill hike along the stream with a bit of rock scrabble in places and some minor climbing to reach the falls. Sadly the falls were a small trickle and the waterhole they were feeding into had become stagnant so there was no refreshing dip to be had there. It would be beautiful after wet season as the waterhole is perched in a rocky cleft that looks out over the valley beyond. At least we could imagine sitting in the waterhole with the falls cascading over us (probably with dozens of other tourists fighting for room in it).

After returning from the falls to the carpark, Rob noticed a strange palm a short way up the slope. It was a typical palm tree style trunk but had no leaves and a crown of brown fruit sinilar in size to large date.

We were to discover later on in our trip that this was a ‘cluster fig‘ and is in fact edible. Rob wasn’t game enough to try one without knowing what is was but made note of it in case we came upon some later on (which we did).

Adelaide River is a great place to explore the south-eastern end of Litchfield National Park from. It’s only 80km or so to Florence Falls waterhole and a few kms back to Buley Rockhole. Both are perfect natural swimming holes that we were particularly happy to visit given that ‘the buildup’ was starting in preparation to the wet season.

Florence Falls

Florence Falls is a picturesque twin waterfall that is spring fed and runs all year round. There is a 1km walk from the carpark to the waterhole that also includes 160 steps down (and back up again).

The walk to the falls is a rim-walk style of track that provides an overhead view of the falls before beginning the descent to the swimming hole. It was quite hot when we were there so floating on your noodle in the cool, crystal clear waters is a fitting reward for the climb down the 160 steps to get to it… until you realise that you have to climb back out again. We were pretty much dry by the time we got back to the car and feeling the heat already…

The water hole is very deep in the middle but the edges are relatively shallow with lots of native fish swimming around that are not scared of people. Some smaller ones kept nipping at Rob’s legs in a harmless display of territorial behaviour.

The larger fish were content to swim around the people in the rocky shallows like an open air aquarium. Despite there being quite a few people enjoying the Florence Falls waterhole it wasn’t overly crowded and it is a wonderful spot to get the pool noodle out, relax and just float in the pristine waters.

Buley Rockhole

After Florence Falls we were still feeling the heat and called in to Buley Rock Hole. It’s only a few kilometres from Florence Falls and is a cascading series of rock pools and low waterfalls. It was quite busy when we got there with people in every pool but we walked up to the top pool and managed to slip in and cool down again.

You can slide your way over the low falls and follow the pools down stream. The water flows fairly quickly so you have to be careful but it beats getting out of the water and into the dry hot air.

It’s yet another beautiful part of Litchfield National Park, which truly is a national treasure.

Magnetic Termite Mounds

Our last stop for the day was at the Magnetic Termite mounds. There are two prolific types of termite mounds that we’ve seen, being Magnetic Termite mounds and Cathedral Termite mounds; both of which were common in Litchfield National Park.

The Magnetic Termite mounds are very distinctive in that they a very thin and aligned north-south to catch the warmth of the morning and afternoon sun but avoiding the intense heat of the middle of the day.

Cathedral Termites, on the other hand build a rounded column with lots of outside folds and vertical channels. This is their way of moderating the harsh temperatures of the Northern Territory dry season. We read that goannas are and other small animals are known to have survived bush fires by wedging themselves into the channels until the fire passes.

The Magnetic Termite mounds that we saw were scattered across a grassy expanse that was a dry water way. Congregated as they were, they had the appearance of a long and jumbled graveyard where each termite mound represented a gravestone.

All in all our first trip into Litchfield National Park was very satisfying with two chances to swim in the most natural of swimming pools and a viewing of some of the world’s most impressive insect engineers…

Our previous stop at Larrimah Museum was our first real introduction to the impact of the Japanese raids on Darwin in World War 2. Adelaide River is home to the Wartime Civilan Cemetery, which is a beautifully maintained and sobering reminder of how close Australia came to being invaded from the north during WW2.

It is really two cemeteries that contain a the graves of service men and women resulting from the Japanese bombing raids on Darwin and a memorial to those who have no known grave. Beside the war graves are sixty-three graves of the civilians who lost their lives resulting from the air raids when the Darwin Post Office was bombed.

Wandering amongst the graves we were struck by the ages of the servicemen who gave their lives in the defence of Darwin. The vast majority were young men aged between twenty and twenty-five, their live lost before they had begun…

Lest we forget…

The grounds of the cemetery are immaculately maintained, as they should be, with a magnificent mango tree growing in the centre at the back. It was laden with fruit and a point of natural beauty in an otherwise sad and sombre place.

We paid our respects to the fallen and left with a clearer knowledge of what the top end had sacrificed in the defence of Australia…

Big Trip – August 2022, Rob's Cave, The Grand Tour

Clancy Backs Her In

December 2, 2022 Rob Maguire Leave a comment

Happy hour was buzzing
as he drove her through the gate.
The ‘van park pool was five rows deep
and Clancy was running late.

The ‘cruiser was a heaving
from the arid outback tow.
The air-conditioner struggling
from the lack of any flow.

Now, Clancy wasn’t new to this.
He’d done his share of tows.
But something in the air this day
foretold a tale of woe.

The corellas all were screeching
as his wife got in the car.
“Reception wasn’t happy”,
she said to his alarm.

“There’s no more bloody drive-throughs”,
as they fought to keep their calm.
“They’ve put us down on fifty-three”,
She muttered in alarm.

The pool folk’s eyes were opened wide
as Clancy eased her in.
The boom gate code was fumbled
as he cleared and tried again.

The pool folk turned to watch them,
as he drove the ‘van park track.
Fifty-three was waiting,
for their imminent attack.

His wife turned on her handset,
As he swung the van around.
“You’re on the wrong bloody channel!”,
He shouted at the ground.

The big van’s springs were creaking,
As he threw her in reverse.
“Your stupid bloody hand-brakes on!”,
She threw him like a curse.

With hand-brake off he began to move,
The pool folk held their breath.
“Left hand down, LEFT HAND DOWN!”,
Her voice was cold as death.

Now fifty-three was a little tight,
and wasn’t all that flat.
It had a mighty drop-off,
and trees both sides at that.

Clancy wasn’t overwhelmed,
he’d done this all before.
His wife was all a tremble,
as her fear came to the fore.

“I’m on full lock you silly moo!”
“I can’t turn anymore.”
She held her tongue and held her breath,
He hadn’t closed the door.

“You need to stop! You’ll break the door!”
She screamed into the mike.
“Will you shut up! I’m on the edge!”
He threw back at his wife.

The van went left, the van went right.
The pool folk all inhaled.
The car began to shudder.
The pool folk sipped their ales.

The mighty van was scraping
on the left and on the right.
The trees were scratched and bleeding
as the drop-off came in sight.

“You need to stop! YOU NEED TO STOP!”,
She waved her hands around.
The ‘cruiser’s brakes were straining
on the rough, uneven ground.

By now the pool was filling up,
and bets were being laid.
As Clancy swung the van around
and backed into the shade.

The drop-off reared up thick and fast.
The wheels were getting closer.
As fifty-three began to show
it’s nasty side below her.

“STOP… STOP… STOP!!!”, she yelled again
as Clancy stayed his course.
The big van lurched and began to buck
like an angry rodeo horse.

“I’m tryin’ to stop!”, he shouted back.
“The brakes are barely holding!”
“Chock it quick!”, he yelled some more.
By now she wasn’t listening.

“Get ‘em in!”, he yelled and screamed.
The van’s suspension groaning.
“I can’t!”, she said “It’s too far gone!”
The cruiser’s brakes were moaning.

More bets were laid, the pool folk cheered.
Advice was in the offering.
Clancy pulled with all his might…
The van was teeter-totting.

Fifty-three would have it’s way.
The van was going over.
With one last gasp his wife screamed out,
“Get out and hit the clover!”

Clancy knew he wasn’t beat...
Through gritted teeth he set his jaw and threw it into low..
He planted his foot and gripped the wheel
and revved as high as she’d go.

The van went south, the cruiser north
and there ensued the struggle.
The pool folk sank another beer
and the caretakers joined the huddle.

The brake-safe snapped, the chains still held,
the cables all a tangle.
His wife peered out and had a look,
“You’re still on a bloody angle!”

Clancy couldn’t admit defeat
and threw a sideways sneer.
The pool folk gasped and looked away
from Clancy’s poisonous stare.

“I’ll get you straight and line you up!”
“You mother effing prick!”
As Clancy slowly centred himself
and lightly grabbed the stick.

The wheel was damp, the seat was wet,
The engine running hot.
The chains were all but holding
As he gave it one last shot.

Fifty-three was holding on,
the van was barely hitched.
As Clancy gunned her one last time
to avoid the dreaded ditch.

Now somewhere in this sunburnt land
the campers all have fun.
The kiddies play, the kooka’s laugh
and there’s peace beneath the sun.

But not on van site fifty-three.
The pool folk are not cheering.
For Clancy, mighty Clancy,
Had finally lost his steering.

Big Trip – August 2022, The Grand Tour

Mataranka

December 2, 2022 Rob Maguire Leave a comment

Larrimah Hotel/Museum

Mataranka

Bitter Springs

Mataranka Springs

So… after a pleasant and interesting night at the Daly Waters Hi-Way Inn we saddled up the next morning and headed north to Mataranka. A little bit over half-way you come across the Larrimah Hotel. It is one of those very quirky outback hotels that is impossible to miss as it’s bright pink and adorned with a number of pink panther stuffed toys and a whole heap of weird and wonderful things including a ‘rotor-less’ gyrocopter mounted on a pole.

To be honest… it’s looking a little bit run down but that’s probably to be expected after two years of COVID and the difficulties of attracting workers experienced all the way up and down the Northern Territory. That said… it’s still open and operating so we stopped in for a coffee and a look around.

The first thing we noticed, apart from the pink panthers, was a seat with spring-style animal trap on it called the ‘Nutcracker Seat’… The verandah and outdoor area is covered with all sorts of amusements and whimsical artefacts…

Most notable of course are the various pink panthers inculding a trio riding a bike made for three… The hotel is just so out of place and time but seemingly perfectly located in the middle of nowhere in the Northern Territory…

But having said that… right beside the Larrimah Hotel is the Larrimah Museum. Larrimah has a strong WW2 history, having been established as a military staging place and rail terminus. The museum is located in what was the Larrimah Telephone Repeater Station and Powerhuose.

Entry was free and gave a glimpse of the WW2 communications technology of the time as well as beginning the the education process, for those travelling north, of the Japanese bombing raids on Darwin during WW2. The invasion came as far south as Katherine just a couple of hundred kilometres north of Larrimah.

The museum has a number of rusty relics outside the Repeater Station that are interesting in their own right but the real story is in the indigenous peoples of the Northern Territory who served in the military and as coast watchers, labourers and nurses… More untold Australian history of the debt of gratitude that we owe to indigenous Australians who, once the war ended, were returned immediately to a position of having no rights and little recognition in their own country. Thankfully that story is starting to be re-told and the past injustices acknowledged and there contributions being honoured.

Although a bit tired, there is a need for places like Larrimah that remind us of the Australian sense of humour, the immensity of our country and how close we came to being invaded during WW2. On top of that it reminds us poorly we have treated our indigenous peoples and how much they have given to us when it was needed…

Beer Garden – Territory Manor Caravan Park

Guinea Fowl – Territory Manor Caravan Park

And so… To Mataranka. A town of around 350 with a 30% indigenous population. The town itself is only a small strip town with a large park on one side, and IGA, pub and service stations on the other side…

We pulled in at the Territory Manor and Caravan Park, which proved to be a very sizable caravan park but not terribly busy while we were there. A bit surprising because it was a very good van park with large, spacious van sites, a great bar and cafe with live music some nights, and good facilities.

We were greeted by ‘Des’ who was good for a chat and finally asked us, “I suppose you’d like a nice drive-thru site?” To which Rob replied, “That’d be great!” To which Des responded, “Yeah… but we don’t have any…” He then proceeded to guide us down to a very large end-to-end double site that was drive-thru anyway because neither was occupied until we arrived. Bit of larrikan was Des…

The grounds of Territory Manor and Caravan Park are also home to a flock of peacocks, peahens and the odd guinea fowl. They roam around everywhere at their leisure and are quite tame, feeling free to walk through your campsite and peck at the crumbs.

We’ve seen quite a few peacocks on our trip so far in Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory. But not until now have we seen a peacock put on a show and lift his tail feathers in the glorious display that only peacocks can do when they’re courting a mate. Jo was very excited about this after having coaxed and cajoled just about every other peacock we’d seen to do this… unsuccessfully.

The major attraction of Mataranka is, of course, the hot springs, which we’ll cover in separate tabs. Jo had been on a mission to buy some pool noodles since Victoria. Every major town required a visit to KMart, BigW, Discount Shops and even Bunnings to try and acquire pool noodles for floating in the springs at Mataranka.

Nowhere in Victoria, South Australia or the Northern Territory thus far had had pool noodles available. We had heard that there was a major recall of all pool noodles due to an incorrect warning being printed on them. We had also heard of them being sold for $15 or more since they were so scarce.

It ended up being a little ironic that after scouring a third of the country in search of pool noodles that the Service Station in Mataranka had boxes of them for sale at $6 each… With that little problem out of the road we were then fully set for a few days of relaxing in the hot springs of Mataranka as well as all the other waterholes and springs of the Northern Territory yet to come…

The primary reason for every person visiting Mataranka is to swim in the crystal clear springs. Bitter Springs was only a couple of kilometres down the road from our van site and can only be described as stunningly beautiful with the clearest of spring fed water.

The springs are inappropriately referred to as hot springs and thermal springs, where in fact they are not heated in any way at all. They are simply ground water springs that bubble up from the ground under natural pressure. That said… the water in Bitter Springs is the same temperature of a tepid bath, around 32-33^oC.

The water flows in a lazy but distinct current from the top of the springs to the bottom with entry/exit ladders at both ends and in the middle. A pool noodle is an absolute must so that you can slip into the water and slowly ride your noodle from one end to the other…

Bitter Springs are a natural water course, excepting the paths and ladders, with the banks lined by native plants , palms and trees. The waters edge is adorned with water lilies and a some areas of floating green (not blue) algae from the decaying vegetation that collects in the water and ultimately floats back to the top.

Despite this, the water itself is as clear as crystal and, combined with the temperature, gives the illusion of floating in glass as you slowly wind your way down the few hundred metres of pristine waters. The reflected water colour ranges from clear to green, blue and purple… sometimes shimmering in a mixture of all colours reminiscent of a Monet painting.

We decided that we would spend one day at Bitter Springs, one day at Mataranka Thermal Pools. Although both were beautiful, Bitter Springs was the clear winner and this is where we returned to for the second time. In either case, the springs at Mataranka are a unimaginably beautiful wonder on the outback…

Mataranka Thermal Pools are another set of spring fed pools a bit further away than Bitter Springs. They are located at the Mataranka Homestead, a historic homestead (Elsey Station) that has evolved resort and caravan park.

Jeannie Gunn, whose husband was an early owner of the station, returned to Melbourne after her husband died and wrote the classic Australian story “We Of The Never Never” based on her time there. The book was also made into a classic Australian movie.

Mataranka Thermal Pools, like Bitter Springs, are a naturally fed spring, however they differ in that they have been artificially shaped to be more pool like with formed walls with easier entry and exit points. And although the water flows from the spring there is no discernible current so it is more like being in a natural pool than a flowing stream.

The water just as crystal clear though and tepid in temperature at around 32^o-33^oC. It is perfect for just floating on a pool noodle, relaxing and letting your mind relax and de-stress. Not quite as pleasant though as floating with the current at Bitter Springs…

Unlike Bitter Springs, the actual spring at Mataranka Thermal Pools, which is a little way away from the swimming area, is much more visible and bubbles away looking just like a genuine thermal hot spring like you see in Rotorua. The only difference is that the Mataranka Thermal Pools spring is not heated and bubbles up from pressure rather the heat.

It is an absolutely beautiful spot that we thoroughly enjoyed although we both agreed that we preferred the more natural beauty of Bitter Springs.

Big Trip – August 2022, The Grand Tour

Birdum (Daly Waters)

December 2, 2022 Rob Maguire Leave a comment

Chicken Scnitty with Creamy Garlic Prawns

So… After Banka Bank Station you feel as though you are starting to leave the arid centre of the N.T. and begin the transition into sub-tropical N.T. At this point most people head towards the legendary Daly Waters Pub to stay there and experience the outback pub culture and their ‘beef & barra’… After reading reviews, listening to others heading south and hearing of a massive pub brawl a few nights earlier we decided to forego this experience. It seems that current opinion of the Daly Waters Pub is very polarised and a lot of travellers are choosing to bypass it as we did. Perhaps it is becoming a victim of its own popularity and failing to live up to expectations… Some really enjoy it, some were hugely disappointed by it. No regrets from us for avoiding it.

It was a decent 300km to from Banka Banka to the Daly Waters Hi-way Inn, which we broke up with a lunch stop at Dunmarra Roadhouse. It too is a camping option but not far enough up the highway to warrant the extra night. It is, however, famous for its pies and vanilla slices. We can confirm that the pies are superb with soft, flaky pastry and rich chunky filling. The vanilla slice was huge, high and beautifully messy to eat requiring a trip to the bathroom to wash hands and face afterwards. Apparently the roadhouse owner is/was a baker so it comes as no surprise…

Arriving at Day Waters we chose to stay at the Daly Waters Hi-way Inn, a roadhouse with a much more relaxed and calmer atmosphere than the pub and yet another excellent example of roadhouse stopovers and outback cuisine. It was first in first served for to choose your own van site and we snagged a nice big site with power and water that we could stayed hitched for a quick exit the next day.

Two vans pulled in behind us belonging to Julie and Ian, and Thresa and Greg. Two couples who had met on the road at a previous southern stop and decided to continue travelling together. At first we thought that Greg and Ian were having a blue over their van locations but quickly discovered that they were in a bromance with their long-suffering spouses forced to go along with them… They were genuine Aussie characters that were always up for us laugh but, like us, not overly interested in the Daly Waters Pub kind of experience. Back to them shortly…

We had a few intermittent electrical outages after we set up, which were unrelated to the two sparkies that were there re-wiring a whole bunch of ‘stuff’… Seemed everytime a new van came in and powered up the circuit breaker would trip and the caretaker would go and reset it. To be expected in outback roadhouses so no point complaining. It’s good to have power and water at all…

We noticed a roadtrain pull in out front that was hauling huge cotton bales south processing. It’s an impressive site but still can’t understand why we grow water-thirsty cotton in Australia instead of hemp which produces a higher yield for much less water consumption… There’s obviously politically vested interests around this industry.

After a quiet afternoon we wandered over to the roadhouse beer garden for happy hour where we got to talking with Julie and Greg, and Ian and Theresa. Jo was in her element sharing travel gossip and Rob joined in with the blokey banter for some social intercourse. They invited us to join them for dinner and continue the moment, which we readily agreed to.

Rob and Ian decided to brave the ‘Truckies Mixed Grill’… A magnificent over-abundance of carbohydrates and protein consisting of:

Two fried eggs
Full steak
Sausage
Crumbed lamb cutlet
Bacon
Grilled tomatoe
Grilled onion
Chips

Thankfully Rob hadn’t eaten too much that day and managed to demolish it as did Ian. IT was highly reminiscent of the mixed grill at Queanbeyan’s Central Cafe of years gone by. With a couple of glasses of Shiraz it had all the food groups…

After dinner we kept on chatting until last drinks were called at 10:30 due to a scheduled power outage… As last drinks were called an indigenous chap, James, asked if he could buy Greg a beer in exchange for sitting with us for a bit of a yarn. Greg accepted the offer and James joined us.

He explained that he was a machinery operator heading back Katherine after working in northern Qld. He was an interesting chap and we learnt about the difficulties of outback road work, that emu (cooked in the ground) is delicious whereas wallaby… not so much. The thing you take out of an impromptu discussion like this is how completely different our lives are to that of an indigenous worker in the outback who is prepared to travel thousands of kilometres for work and be away from family for long periods of time.

The night came to an end and we farewelled our dinner companions with the knowledge that we would most likely catch up with them again at Mataranka…

Big Trip – August 2022, The Grand Tour

Banka Banka West

December 2, 2022 Rob Maguire Leave a comment

Banka Banka Station, also referred to as Banka Banka West Station as the caravan park/campground, is a working cattle station owned and operated by indigenous people. It also operates a caravan park and campground that is a welcome stop between the Devils Marbles and Daly Waters…

The station homestead is right on the Stuart Highway and and easy 217km tow from the Devils Marbles. The bloke that manages the camprground were very friendly and hospitable. Typical Aussie outback character…

We were given a prime van site close to the mudbrick bar… but still a fair walk from the loos! The site was quite large and right next to a boab tree. We later learnt that the two boabs were brought in an planted. They only occur naturally in the Kimberly region of W.A. and the north western side of the N.T. Beautiful trees none the less.

Banka Banka Station differentiates itself from roadhouse campgrounds by offering campers the chance to view the station buildings and some historic equipment in the sheds. The happy hour operates out of the historic mudbrick homestead building and often has live music around the massive fire-pit area. A number of campers used the fire-pit (more like a fire trough) to cook on the coals.

There are a couple of fairly docile bulls and donkey in the yard by the campground. The donkeys occasionally let off a series of incredibly loud ‘hee-hawing’ that takes you by surprise with its volume as it rolls across the campground.

We stayed two nights so that we could break up the drive and also talk a walk to the nearby waterhole and take in the view from the lookout. The waterhole was about 2km from the campground and a fairly flat walk through the scrub. We passed a number of old car wrecks on the track but didn’t really see anything in the form of wildlife.

Arriving at the waterhole we discovered that it was pretty low and not suitable for swimming. Still id a number of small fish living in it despite it slowly shrinkng. It’s amazing that these permanent and semi-permanent water holes can exist in such a hot dry environment. That fish live there is even more amazing.

After returning from the waterhole we trapsed up the hill behind the station to the lookout to see Banka Banka Station from above. We discovered that the lookout was a bit of a deception… Upon reaching the top you quickly realise that the lookout is actually a plateau that extends off onto the far distance behind the station, which is really more like a wide valley along the highway. We took the drone up to get a birdseye view of the station and the plateau behind.

We were told by the caretaker that there was a camel in the stock pen near the campground but having not seen one we suspect that this is a bit tourist leg-pulling to see if they fall for it by thinking that the brown Brahman bull is a camel because of the breeds hump…

All in all… Banka Banka Station was a really pleasant stopover and we imagine that you could easily stay three or four days earlier in the season with the nightly happy hour, fire pit and live music. As it was we were arriving towards the end of the season and things were beginning to slowly wind down as campers either header north or south for the coming wet season.

Rob & Jo Seeing The World

Category Archives: The Grand Tour

Kununurra

Hoochery Distillery

Sandalwood Shop

Lake Argyle

Victoria River

Katherine

Bees Creek (Darwin)

The Laughing Daisy Homestead

Freds Pass Markets

A Quick Trip Back To NSW

Darwin Habour Cruise

Stokes Hill Wharf

Crocosaurus Cove

Nocturnal House

Flight Deck & The Aviary

Oolloo Sandbar

Aquarium

Billabong

Other Habitats

Mindil Beach Markets

Parap Markets

Sandy Creek

Wangi Falls

1934 QANTAS Hangar

Museum of the Northern Territory

Adelaide River

Florence Falls

Buley Rockhole

Magnetic Termite Mounds

Clancy Backs Her In

Mataranka

Birdum (Daly Waters)

Banka Banka West

Places we've been and the way we do it…