Author Archives: Dearne and Rod

Our return journey to Darwin on Wednesday night was long and tedious. We will never fly Jetstar again. While other airlines may cost a dollar or two more, at least they leave close to the advertised departure time!!

Once landed in Darwin, we then had a forty kilometre drive to our motorhome at Humpty Doo. On arrival at about 6am we decided to leave everything in the jeep and jump into bed for an hour or so’s sleep. Five hours later the people on the property next door moving their farm vehicles around jolted us awake. The rest of the day was very slow and not much was achieved really.

The motorhome went in for her service yesterday and came out with flying colours. We treat her like a princess really so we were not expecting too much to be amiss. Since we are living in the vehicle everyday, you get a sense of what might not be going too well. She is not due for the next service until we are back in New Zealand early next year.

While the navigator went off to do a bit of retail therapy yesterday, the captain made a visit to the Darwin Military Museum. The exhibition space concentrates primarily on the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942 but includes the activities leading up to the day and the consequences of the event. He spent a couple of hours there and thoroughly enjoyed himself. Even while living in quarters, we still manage to maintain our own interests.

It is our last day in Darwin today so we have used the last few days to restock the motorhome and to make sure we have seen as much of Darwin as we wanted to. You know you have been in a place too long when you don’t need the GPS to get your around anymore. Our plan is to depart here mid morning tomorrow and make our way to the Mary River in the Kakadu National Park – the start of our Kakadu adventure. Apparently the Mary River region has the highest concentration of crocodiles in the world. We doubt we will be needing our swimming togs!!!

For those of you wondering why there has been no blog updates for the past week, another ‘Plan B’ came into play last week. We have had our properties in Whangamata on the market for about two years now. As a result of the tightening of financial markets in New Zealand, there has been very little movement in the ‘holiday home’ market some time.

However, as always happens, and when you least expect it, a few days before we arrived in Darwin we were advised that our front house had been sold and the rear property had a conditional deal over it. Based on that information we made a snap decision to fly home last Saturday, pack up the houses and put everything in to storage until be can get around to buying a new home. Our plan is to buy back in Whangamata and not be out of the market for too long.

It has been a frantic four days trying to pack in the rain and be ready for the removal truck yesterday. The job is now complete and we can look forward to returning to Darwin on Sunday and getting back to the journey.

Sunset at the Mindil Beach Market last Thursday night

Prior to coming back home we did get a couple of days to look around some of Darwin. Last Friday night we visited the Mindil Beach Sunset Market. Food is the main attraction − Thai, Sri Lankan, Indian, Chinese and Malaysian to Brazilian, Greek,Portuguese and more. Colourful arts and crafts vendors peddle their wares – handmade jewellery, buskers, bands, natural remedies, artistic creations and unique fashion statements. As the sun set into the Arafura Sea it seemed that most of Darwin descends on Mindil Beach – tables, chairs, rugs and eskies in tow.

On Saturday night just prior to catching our flight home we visited the DarwinTrailer Boat Club for dinner. The boat club is Darwin’s oldest seaside Club and commenced trading in 1954. The club’s westerly aspect is ideal for witnessing Darwin’s famed tropical sunsets and its absolute water frontage makes it an ideal dinner venue. We had a lovely meal before heading out to the airport.

We depart New Zealand at around 4pm this Sunday afternoon and arrive in back in Darwin at 1am on Monday morning. We then have a 30-minute drive to our motorhome which is parked up on a small farmlet at Humpty Doo, a small town in the Northern Territory, situated just south of the Arnhem Highway and 40km from Darwin itself.

Our sincere apologies for not being able to catch up with all our friends while we have been home. Unfortunately we have had very little time to socialise. We look forward to maybe catching up with everyone when we are home for Xmas.

Our Litchfield National Park adventure concludes today and tomorrow morning we make our way into Darwin – the finish line to our journey up the centre of Australia. It has taken us five weeks and we have travelled a total of 3400km. We have had ‘tons’ of fun, met some life long friends and seen some stunning scenery on the way.

Another ‘bucket list’ item ticked off.

The Litchfield National Park is a 1,500 square kilometre park and features a myriad of diverse environments. While three days is probably not enough time, we have managed to take in stunning rugged sandstone escarpments, spring fed streams, monsoon rain forests, magnetic termite mounds, waterfalls and historic ruins.

The Florence Falls in the Litchfield National Park

If there was a standout for us it was the numerous crystal clear waterholes (crocodile free) and the pleasant bushwalking trails. We followed a bit of a path in the days we were here and visited the magnetic termite mounds (the mounds are about 2 metres tall, have thin edges and point north and south to minimize exposure to the sun), the Buley Rockhole, Florence Falls, Tolmer Falls and Wangi Falls. With the temperature around 35C, the falls and pools were a welcome cooling off opportunity as we travelled around the park.

We even managed to get in a few kilometres of 4WD adventure – the little jeep performed superbly.

We discovered an area just north of Batchelor (our home base in the Litchfield National Park), called the Rum Jungle, a lush green area of jungle type growth. Rod was intrigued by the name so sought its history. Apparently, in 1873/74 the teamsters who were given the responsibility to transport goods from Darwin to Pine Creek to support the gold rush, took it upon themselves to tap the 40 gallon kegs of rum they were carrying to alleviate the arduous conditions of their journey south.

Steve, Dearne and Rod at the Magnetic Termite Mounds in the Litchfield National Park

Unfortunately the ‘party’ got out of control and the teamsters had to be relieved of their responsibilities. The owners of the teams and the mining equipment rode to the site and took over the journey. Rod gave some thought to the story and commented ‘that while not involving horses, and on a personal note, the story had a familiar ring to it’.  Our conclusion – nothing really changes in life.

We have a few technical issues to sort out in Darwin. Our deep cell batteries (they provide power to the motorhome when we are not connected to a 240 volt supply) are not performing to their usual high standard. We think they may be at the end of their life. We have arranged to have them load tested tomorrow and if they need replacing, that is what we will do.

Our digital satellite TV antenna is struggling to find a satellite. While the ‘operator’ is prepared to accept some responsibility for its performance, we think it may be a cabling or LNB fault. We plan to be in the Darwin area for about two weeks so we have heaps of time to get things sorted.

Swimming in the Wangi Falls in the Litchfield National Park

As an aside, we are just a few days short of being on the road in Australia for 12 months. While it may seem a long time if you are following our blog, the time for us has just flown by. We cannot believe it has nearly been a year. We now have to think of timeframes for shipping back home next year. Shipping schedules are promulgated quarterly and we have to book well in advance to ensure we arrive back in New Zealand before our Carnet arrangement expires in early May 2015. We are looking at the latter part of the 1^st quarter to be absolutely safe. The tax penalties should we arrive after the date are quite punitive (whether our fault or the shippers).

We will keep you posted.

We spent a very relaxing three days at Leliyn (Edith Falls). Located on the western boundaries of the Nitmulik National Park, the area lived up to its reputation of stunning waterfalls and fresh water pools along with numerous walking trails and extraordinary scenery.

The waterhole just beside our motorhome at Edith Falls, Nitmiluk National Park

The Falls are a series of waterfalls and pools on the Edith River in the Park that descend from about 170 metres above sea level and range in a height between 8 and 12 metres. The Falls then connect to the Katherine River in the Katherine Gorge. I am not sure what else we can say – you have to do the walk to appreciate the beauty.

Saturday morning we had one of those long journey days – 45km!!. As we headed north toward Darwin, we came across the township of Pine Creek. While it looked nothing on the surface, after a wee bit of ‘poking’ around we found it had quite a lot of history and was an excellent overnight stop opportunity.

Pine Creek was named in 1870 and is located at the junction of the Stuart and Kakado Highways. In 1871, posthole diggers laying the Overland Telegraph Line discovered traces of gold and this led to the goldrush of 1871. While there was not too much happening in the town the night we stayed, it is still famous for the annual gold panning championship held in June of each year.

Jane, Steve and Dearne resting during our 8km walk at Edith Falls

We did our bit for the town and had a quiet ‘one or two’ at 5 o’clock at the local hotel. We even met a kiwi who hailed from Wanganui and had worked in the area for some thirty years. We asked the courageous question as to whether he gave any thought to returning home. His response was, ‘never –  my fridge here never gets as cold as it gets in Wanganui’. Question well answered we thought.

Sunday morning we departed Pine Creek and made our way toward the Litchfield National Park. On the way we made a brief ‘coffee’ stop at the township of Adelaide River. One of the towns claim to fame is the Adelaide River Rail Museum. The museum was built in 1889 and was used as a railway, military centre and hotel before is finally became a museum a century later.

The Adelaide River War Cemetery is also a significant location that was built purely for service people who died in the area in defense of Australia during the 2^nd World War. Adelaide River is a small outback town but is worthy of a stop if you are passing through.

Jane and Dearne taking a dip at Sweetwater Pool out the back of Edith Falls

Our home for the next three days is Batchelor, known as the ‘gateway to Litchfield’. Uranium was discovered in the area in 1949 and the township of Batchelor grew to service the mine. Although the mine is closed, Batchelor now services visitors travelling to and from the nearby Litchfield National Park.

For those interested in wartime history, we learned today that in 1941 an aviation area was established in Batchelor that enabled B-17’s to land here. The heavy-duty airstrip played an important role as a base for General McArthur’s bombing force from December 1941. Thousands of troops were stationed here during World War II.

Our plan over the next three days is to see as much of the Litchfield National Park as we can before making our way to Darwin on Wednesday. We are aware that we will be unable to get to some parts of the Park as a result of the recent rains but it is our aim to get to as many areas as we can. What could possibly go wrong!!

We have had a relaxing two days in this part of the Nitmulik National Park. We based ourselves around the Nitmulik Centre and have explored from there. To be honest, we haven’t felt too much like ‘taking to the hills’ as the daytime temperatures have been around 35C and with a relatively high humidity. Carrying water with you is the key to survival.

Wandering around in the Nitmiluk National Park

The Nitmiluk National Park is 345km south-east of Darwin and 30km north-east of Katherine. According to the experts this is the best time of the year to visit the Park however they say the weather we are experiencing during our visit is strange for this time of year – the dry season. The Park lies at the junction of three geological sandstone plateau and was formed some 1400 million years ago. Monsoonal waters have eroded the sandstone over the last 20 million years creating the massive gorge and countless ravines. I know we have been banging on about this before, but scenery wise, this is a stunning piece of Australia. Visit here if you can.

Rod relaxing in the pool before the snakes arrival. He was not this relaxed a few minutes later!!

We have ‘met’ numerous type of wildlife over the past two days – freshwater crocodile, flying fox, a broad variety of birdlife and wallaby to name a few. We had a close encounter with a snake this afternoon when it swam into the pool to cool off.  We have never seen a swimming pool clear so quickly (that includes ourselves).

We depart Nitmiluk Central tomorrow and make our way further north to Leliyn (Edith Falls). Located within Nitmiluk National Park, Edith Falls are made up of a number of falls and rock pools. Other travellers tell us the area is very popular and is visited for its wildlife, beauty and scenic views around the Edith River. There are various walking tracks with a number of fresh water pools to cool off in during the walk.

Our plan is to stay at the Falls on Wednesday and Thursday and carry on further north on Friday.

We do not very often involve ourselves in projects being managed by others however we felt this was worthy of our consideration and we are hoping some of you will be interested enough to help out – especially if you are considering a journey such as ours in Australia.

A few weeks ago we came across a travelling couple who were developing a website to assist Australia’s travelling nomads.  The website is a directory of free and low cost campsites similar to that of Wikicamps only it will provide a lot more options and offer member discounts. For example, they are currently securing a deal with national food and fuel chains, which would provide significant discounts in both areas.

As part of the project, the developers are conducting a ‘campers’ survey to demonstrate to intended participating companies that independent research has been undertaken to show what campers want.  The Survey is 18 Questions long and mainly about habits when camping, preferred shopping locations and how travellers choose certain business.   People can remain anonymous if they wish to do so.

The website, while still under development, can be found at www.freerangecamping.com.au

We believe the site will be a great support to travellers. If you are interested, we ask that you please help out by clicking on the link below and completing the 5 minute Survey.”

SURVEY LINK

Our journey from Daly Waters to Katherine last Thursday was one of a ‘history lesson’.

The first town we passed through was Larrimah. Larrimah became a town during WW2 when the historic Gorrie Airfield was built about 10km to the north. At that time the railway from Darwin also terminated near Larrimah. Today the town boasts one hotel and a tearoom that operates out of the old police station.

The next historic town was Mataranka in the heart of Never Never country. The town has Elsey National Park close by and the Mataranka Thermal Pools are approximately 9km out of town. The area was made famous by Jeannie Gunn in her classic ‘We of the Never Never’ who describes her experiences on nearby Elsey Station in 1902.

The end of the first gorge we ventured into

We arrived in Katherine mid-afternoon on Thursday. Katherine is a major centre in the heart of the Northern Territory at the junction of the Stuart and Victoria Highways. The reason many visit the area is to experience the Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge. This was certainly the reason for our visit.

Our home for three nights was the Manbulloo Homestead Caravan Park. The park is on a working cattle station about 9km out from Katherine itself. It was a great little spot beside the Katherine River. Our wakeup call each morning were the cattle dogs going about their business.

Hundreds of trees populated with thousands of flying fox in the Katherine Gorge

We had a big day on Friday. Our first adventure was the Baruwei Loop walk over the Katherine Gorge. It was 2-hour climb through some fairly challenging landscapes but we found it to be another stunning piece of the country. Words cannot adequately describe the scenery we came across on the climb. One of the standouts for us was the colonies of flying fox in some parts of the Gorge. There were simply thousands of them hanging in the trees. We were especially privileged at sunset when they all took to the sky for their evening search for food. A magnificent sight.

Our second adventure on Friday was the Katherine Gorge boat trip followed by an onboard dinner. The boat took us through two of the 13 gorges with our dinner commencing at sunset. We feasted on crocodile, kangaroo, barramundi, local beef steak accompanied by champagne and a variety of wines. A brilliant way to end a busy day. We slept like logs that night.

As an aside, we sighted two crocodiles while on our boat cruise so we made a majority decision not to swim in the Katherine River while we are here.

A few more shots of our Nitmiluk Gorge adventure HERE .

The natural warm spring just down from our Katherine camp – a welcome cooling off in 35C temperatures

Saturday was a motorhome maintenance and cleaning day. The chores still have to be done whether at home or on the road. We did however take advantage later in the afternoon of a swim at the local hot springs just up the road. It was nothing sophisticated – just a dammed stream of natural warm water but the team spent a relaxing couple of hours at the spring.

This morning we decided to stay in the area for a few more days but move further into the Nitmiluk National Park and stay at Nitmiluk Camp, an excellent facility 32km northeast of Katherine itself. After a brief stop off in Katherine to pick up a few supplies we made our way into the Park and are now settled for the next two or three days.

If you ever get the chance to get up this way – do it. It is a historic and brilliant part of Australia. The scenery and wildlife is amazing.

Our plan is to stay here until either Tuesday or Wednesday then make our way Edith Falls, about 60km north of Katherine. We are not quite sure what is there but apparently it is worth a couple of days stay. We will let you know.

While in Alice Springs we were told that we would remember the next 500km of our journey north as a tedium of red dirt, scrub and kilometres of nothingness. To a point we believed that may be true but novelty of the Australian outback still amazes us so we knew that we would still enjoy the ride.

From Left: Steve, Jane, Rod, Dearne enjoying a quiet ‘red’ before the ‘Smite’ challenge

We departed Alice Springs on Monday morning and made our way north along Stuart Highway. Our goal was to catch up with Steve and Jane who had spent Sunday night at Gemtree and then make Barrow Creek our next overnight stop.We lost cellphone coverage about 50km out of Alice so had no way of knowing how far they were ahead of us.

We meandered through Aileron, and Ti Tree arriving at Barrow Creek early Monday afternoon. It was not what we were expecting! There was a population of 11, a very run down hotel and some not so friendly people loitering around. We were convinced that Steve and Jane would not have hung around so we made an instant decision to carry on some 80km to the next roadhouse at Wycliffe Well.

Wycliffe Wells is known as the UFO Capital of Australia and provides a great stopover opportunity for travellers. For those with a ‘flying saucer’ bent, there are plenty of UFO statues and extra terrestrial memorabilia for collectors.  Steve and Jane were there when we arrived so we made Wycliffe Wells our stop for the night. There were no UFO’s spotted that night.

Dearne retracing her steps after climbing a sectiion of the Devils Marbles

Tuesday morning we made our way through more outback towards the township of Tennant Creek. On the way we made a stop at ‘Devils Marbles’. About 1700 million years ago molten magma squeezed through ancient sandstone of the earth’s crust and cooled into hard granite rock, the Devil’s Marbles granite. As the granite surfaced and was ‘weathered’, the present marble form resulted. The area is a popular tourist attraction.

We were advised to ‘pass through’ Tennant Creek as the town was known to be a bit unruly. However, we found the locals friendly enough and there was a low cost camping facility available so we decided to stay the night. It was a nice quiet night with no problems. We have to admit to being a little relieved when everything was intact when we awoke.

This morning (Wednesday) we continued north with the goal of making Daly Waters our next nights stop, a journey of about 400km.  It was again one of those travel days where there was not too much to see except more of the outback and a broad variety of road kill. Because there is very little fencing along the inland roads, cattle and other animals unfortunately become victims of the very large and fast road trains.

We arrived in Daly Waters around mid afternoon. Daly Waters was named in 1862 in honour of the governor (at the time) of South Australia, Sir Domonic Daly. The area has a colourful history in that it was the last watering hole before the long and perilous Murranji Stock route – the stock route from Queensland to Australia’s west coast. Daly Waters was also a major Air Force Base during WW2 for Australian and American Air Force personnel. The airfield was the first international airport in Australia.

Rod partaking in a quiet ale on our arrival at Daly Waters this avo’.

Our stop for the night was beside the iconic 1930 Daly Waters Hotel. Not only does the hotel provide nightly entertainment, meals, an excellent bar and plenty of history, it also has a brilliant caravan park. We had no hesitation in spending the night here and enjoyed the village’s hospitality ‘til the late hour.

Tomorrow morning (Thursday) we are making our way to Katherine. Our current plan is to play in the area three for four days.

Uluru at sunset just before our dinner – stunning

Our “Sounds of Silence” dinner on Friday night at Uluru was perfect. We were picked up from our camp at around 5pm and were taken to a prepared dinner venue in the desert that had views of Uluru on one side and the Olgas on the other.  As the sun went down we were treated to the most stunning colours and views.

At our ‘Sounds of Silence Dinner’. From Left: Jane, a guest from Germany, Rod, Kathy and Stuart. Missing in action – Harry and Dearne.

We were met on arrival with complementary champagne and hors d’oeuvres followed by a three course meal and free flowing champagne, wine and beer. Local people provided entertainment by way of an aboriginal welcome, a demonstration of didgeridoo playing and a night sky familiarisation.

It was a brilliant evening – we enjoyed the company of travellers from both hemispheres and it was a fitting end to our Red Centre visit.

On Saturday we made our way 460km back to Alice Springs. On our arrival in Alice we took the motorhome and the jeep into a carwash to give them a good exterior clean. They were both looking most unloved after our week in the red dust. All good now though’ and both looking new.

With our Australian Travelling companions. From Left; Rod, Stuart, Dearne, Jane and Kathy. Missing again – Harry.

As we indicated in our last blog update, our Australian travelling companions of the last week were leaving on Sunday. So on Saturday night after meeting with another of our Kiwi travelling couples (Steve and Jane from Waiheke Island), we all headed into town for a farewell dinner. Thanks for the company guys – the last week has been brilliant. The photos will be on your computer before you get home.

Steve and Jane are driving north today to spend the night at Gemtree. We will meet up with them up again Monday night at Barrow Creek, some 300km north of Alice Springs.

Harry found – he was providing the didgeridoo player with additional skills

Today (Sunday) was a day of perparation for the next leg of our journey, 1560km to Darwin. We are now topped up with diesel, LPG, groceries, water, wine, beer, Coruba rum and of course, Coke Zero. Our intention is to leave Alice Springs tomorrow (Monday) morning around 10am.

We have quite a few places of interest we would like to stop off on the next leg so we are not expecting to get to Darwin until around 7 June.  Again we are not sure of the quality of reception as we head further north. If you are unable to contact us you will know the reason why. Just leave a message and we will call back as soon as we are able.

Inside Simpson Gap

After a very social Saturday night, we departed Alice Springs on Sunday morning in a westward direction to the West MacDonnell Ranges. The plan for the day was to visit a few of the standout attractions in the Range and to spend the night at Glen Helen Gorge.  We had a great day and managed to take in and walk Simpson’s Gap, Standley Chasm, Ormiston Gorge arriving at Glen Helen at around 5pm.

We had selected the best little spot to stop for the night as there was a nice restaurant on site with live entertainment. After a quick tidy up, it was over to the restaurant and another very social evening was enjoyed.

Walking through Ormiston Gorge

On Monday morning we hit the road quite early as we wanted to visit the local Aboriginal settlement of Hermannsburg some 350km further on. We also had to be back in Alice that night to ensure Janet was able to catch her flight back to New Zealand first thing on Tuesday morning. Hermannsburg is situated on the northern banks of the Finke River and was founded by the Hermannsburg Missionary Society from Germany in 1877. Over the years the village has experienced a number of set backs least of all its ability to survive the severe droughts experienced by the Red Centre.

Hermannsburg today is an Aboriginal community. We spent two or three hours at the historic precinct getting an appreciation of the difficulties the early settlers faced. As an aside, Hermannsburg is the birthplace of Albert Namatjira, the famous Aboriginal landscape artist.

On leaving Hermannsburg we made our way back toward Alice Springs. Just out of Alice we decided to stop at Desert Park, a local wildlife attraction.  The standout for us was an open-air demonstration of the feeding skills of Australia’s eagle and falcon population. We are still not quite sure how the Park was able to bring the birds in at will for the demo.

On Tuesday morning it was an early start to drop Janet off at Alice Springs airport. It was great having her travel with us for a week and to be honest, the van was a bit ‘quiet’ when she left. On leaving the airport we hooked a left and made our way 170km south to Eridunda where we caught up with Harry, Jane, Kathy and Stuart. We all then turned onto the Lasseter Highway and made our way toward Uluru (Ayres Rock).

The Hikers team on top of Kings Canyon

One of the features of our travel is the number of times we change our mind in terms of an ‘end of day’ destination. Tuesday was no different. About 110km along the Lasseter Highway we turned onto the Luritja Road with the intention of paying a quick visit to Kings Canyon. What an absolute stunning place. Australia only broke away from the Antarctica some 45 million years ago however the land formations we were walking over were 400 million years old. While standing on these incredible formations, one measures one’s time on our planet as a mere  ‘spec’ in comparison. Our conclusions while taking in the views – “do not waste the ‘spec’ you have been gifted with. Unlike the rock, we are not blessed with a second chance”. We so enjoyed the area that we ended up staying two days. To top it off, as were we sat down each evening to contemplate our days adventure over a very nice red, wild dingo walked through our camp. They would watch us from the safety of a 2-metre gap and at no time did we feel threatened. Words cannot really describe how much we enjoyed our Kings Canyon visit.

Click HERE for more shots that we hope will do justice to our visit.

Dearne cycling Uluru – 16km on a stunning Friday morning

Thursday morning it was back on the road to tackle the final 350km to Uluru (Ayres Rock). The roads we have been travelling to get out there have been great. It is all 100kph blacktop and by 2pm in the afternoon we were settled at our camp spot at Uluru. With a few hours of daylight left we decided to go and have a look at Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). They are stunning rock formations about 60km northwest of us. We even got a small walk in while there – the Walpa Gorge Walk. A few shots of our Olgas visit HERE .

This morning (Friday) it was a crack of dawn start with a 30km journey to Uluru to see the sunrise. Unfortunately for us there was a bit of cloud around so it was not as spectacular as it could have been but it was still a wonderful experience all the same. After sunrise we hired a couple of bikes and cycled around the rock – a total of 16km with a wee walk at the end of 2km after returning the bikes to the shed.

We are now back at the motorhome and awaiting our transport back to the Rock so as we can partake in a ‘desert dining out experience’. For $195 each it had better be a cracker!! A few shots of our days excitement HERE . We will let you know how it went on the next blog update. We are heading back into Alice tomorrow (Saturday) as Harry, Jane, Stuart and Kathy are catching their respective flights home on Sunday morning. It has been brilliant travelling with you guys.

Where to after that – we do not have a plan yet but it will be north.