Welcome to the Tropics
My tour is now officially finished and I am sitting in Darwin contemplating how to get to Broome. I met with my group that I was leaving one last time for supper before going to bed for my early morning departure. My room, that was empty when I left, was now occupied by two Canadians. One of whom snored all night preventing me from getting a decent night sleep. I woke up at 4:30 am, got ready to leave, and went down to wait for my pickup. The bus finally arrived an hour later than it was supposed to. I was one of the last people to be picked up so I was relegated to a seat in the very back of the bus. This bus was very different from the one used to get to Alice Springs. The seats were all high which gave good neck support, but impeded conversation. The group was also much bigger consisting of 22 people which nearly filled the bus. We had a female tour guide/driver. The trip over the next three days mostly took place on the bus with a few stops in between.
The main stop on the first day was Devil’s Marbles. This area consists of round boulders perched in various odd places. They were formed by erosion in the area. I believe someone at one time counted them and came up with 5,000 rocks. We spent a while here poking around and clambering over the rocks. We also stopped at various roadhouses (Outback gas stations-caravan park-art gallery). While the bus refueled, I spent time looking over Aboriginal Art which consists of artwork describing various Dreamtime stories. The paintings were made up of small dots put together to form various images. The first night we stayed at the cattle station of Banka Banka. The evening entertainment was a slide show put on by one of the workers describing life on one of the huge cattle stations in Australia. The cattle station of which Banka Banka is a part is about 3.5 million acres in size. The cattle on the stations are herded around by jack and jill-a-roos (Australian cattle folk). The life blood of the cattle station is water which comes from bores drilled down into the Great Artesian Basin which provides water to most of central Australia. Surprisingly, most of these water sources are still found by divining. Divining is the practice of using two metal rods to locate water. When you are near water, the rods cross. We were invitied to give it a try. I was skeptical, but decided to try. I was given two metal rods (which looked liked unfolded coat hangers). I was instructed to hold one in each hand loosely and parallel to one another. They were also parallel to the ground. I was then directed to walk to an already in use well. Much to my surprise and beyond my explanation, the two metal rods went from the parallel position to a crossed position near the well. When I gripped the rods harder to prevent them from moving, I could feel the strain in the rods. It felt like magnets attracting one another. The strain eased when I left the well. At the moment, modern science has no explanation for, and is still skeptical of divining with studies being inconclusive or showing no advantage with divining. It is a practice used worldwide though. The other highlight of the camp was Ernie the emu. She (missexed originally) just wanders around camp and is tame enough to pet. Many people were nervous with the bird though as she would sneak up on you without warning. Suddenly you turn around and are looking eye to eye with a huge bird.
The second day was spent mostly driving. We stopped at various historical points of interest along the way including Daly Waters. Daly Waters was the site of Australia’s first international airport. There is a pub there which is wallpapered with memorabilia from guests. The airstrip is now abandoned with one hanger still being used as a mini museum. The bush on the side of the roads grew thicker and thicker as we headed further north into the tropics. We stopped at Mataranka for a very quick wade in some hot pools. We spent the night at Katherine Gorge.
On the final day, we had half a day to explore Katherine Gorge (actually it is an area of about eight gorges). I chose the hiking option and walked with a Canadian guy on the tour to the rim of the gorge. At this point, I could definitely tell that I had enterd the tropics again for the first time since leaving the Cook Islands. The sun was fierce and the day hot. I had to convert my clothes back to summer mode (zip off pants legs). The hike went through a rocky landscape full of stunted trees and very little shade. We made it to the gorge wall and sunned on the rocks as we watched people canoe down the gorge.The last activity of the day was swimming around in a water hole with a large waterfall.The swim to the waterfall and back was about 200 meters which left me nice and exhausted. We arrived in Darwin late at night. I checked into a 12 bed dorm (much to my dismay). Everything was full. It is the dry season in northern Australia which means peak tourist season.
I spent my one day off in Darwin trying once again to see if anyone was going my way to Broome via the Gibbs River Road. Of couse, my Australian luck continued and no one was. I put up signs in various hostels advertising that I was looking for a travel companion. I spent the afternoon walking around Darwin. Darwin is a small city built on a pennisula. The architecture is modern as the city has a bad tendency to get destroyed every now and then. It was bombed in World War II by Japan. It was then destroyed by a hurricane in the 1970’s. The city was almost abandoned but they decided to rebuild it. The city is decidedly tropical with palm trees and beaches. The temperature stays warm year round with temperatures ranging from “I’m melting” to “Oh this is nice”. I spent the evening watching the sunset on the beach with a Canadian girl and an English girl that I met at the hostel pool. We bought a bottle of wine and sat on the beach with what seemed like everyone else in town. We then explored the Darwin market which is held every Thursday and Sunday nights. There are booths selling everything from digeridoos to possum meat.
On Friday, I woke up early for my pick up for the final part of my tour which was of Kakadu National Park. I was very excited to once again meet up with some of the group that I had left behind in Alice Springs. While I met some nice people on the trip from Alice Springs to Darwin, the group size and bus layout prevented me from really getting to know anyone really well. Several 4WD buses arrived to pick us up. The five of us from my original group were divided among two buses. One of the main dividing lines appeared to be vegetarians and carnivores. I very happily plopped into the carnivorous bus. I was joined by Kellie and Sarah from my orginal tour as well as 10 other people. The mix of people nationalities this time included some Australians, an American (not me), a Canadian, English, German, and Swiss. After much shuffling of luggage and complaints as various girls were told they had too much luggage, we were off. The group consisted of a closer to equal number of men and women this time
The main word to describe this portion of the trip would be swimming. The word to describe this portion of the tour was swimming. Kakadu is full of salt water crocodiles which like to snack on the unwary. Swimming is usually limited to waterfall fed lagoons and gorges up in rock formations. Oh darn. Our first stop was Baramundi Falls. We hiked up to a pool high on a rock face full of beautiful clear green water (not nasty green). The pool was connected to the waterfall by way of a narrow gorge. We could swim up the gorge and get a wonderful massage from the waterfall. There were also high cliff faces to jump from into the water as well as a small underwater passage which linked to another pool. We ended the evening at Ubirr. Ubirr contains some very old Aboriginal rock paintings as well as a high rock face from which we watched the sunset over a wetland area. It was also a filming spot for Crocodile Dundee.
The second day was spent swimming at Jim Jim Falls. Getting to Jim Jim Falls definitely required a four wheel drive. I more than once hit my head on the ceiling as we bounced down a rough dirt track. The water was Arctic cold at best. I came out of the water with very stiff muscles. We then lounged on a sandy beach area to warm up and play Ultimate Frisbee. Kakadu is full of very large termite mounds which rival those that I have seen in pictures from Africa. The tallest ones grow to over 24 feet tall. We stopped and took pictures of some of the mounds. The termite queen can live to be 50 years old.
The final day began with a crocodile cruise through a billabong (remaining areas of water during the dry season) on Mary River. The landscape looked like the costal wetlands of Louisiana. We spotted large crocodiles and many birds including pelicans and jaburus – a large crane. We then stopped to swim at various points on our way back to Darwin.
Once back in Darwin, I checked back into the hostel. This time in a four bed dorm which I had arranged before I left. As it turned out, the only people staying in the dorm room was Kellie and myself. I checked my email and of course had no luck in securing a ride. A group of us once again went down to the Darwin markets where I purchased a didgeridoo. We then went out to experience the nightlife of Darwin. There is just something amusing about seeing a lot of white Europeans bouncing up and down to gangster rap.
Other Items:
1. Australian songs: I unfortunately lost the USB key with the remaining songs on it so I don’t have them anymore. Also, I believe at the same time, I lost my wallet which had my driver’s license and $35 in it, much to my annoyance. They must have fallen out of my pocket somewhere.
2. Random amusing story: Before I begin let me preface by saying that kangaroos make sort of a tsking noise; sort of like a chipmunk or a squirrel. Way back when, there was an Australian version of Lassie. It appropriately enough featured a kangaroo named Skippy. Skippy, like its American counterpart, would run up to Ma or Pa everytime Australian Timmy was stupid enough to fall into the well and tsk away the exact GPS coordinates of the well where Timmy could be found.
3. Some Australian pictures have been posted.
Tags: Australia, Darwin, Kakadu, Travel
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