Litchfield National Park

While we were not treated to a banquet of animals to see, Litchfield National Park was still a fun place to visit. Our second day trip out of Darwin took us on a tour of this place. We started with a visit to Florence Falls.

Out by the Military Museum

After seeing the Egrets on the cliff by the sea, we continued on past the military museum we visited previously to see the shore and beach beyond. On the way through the trees near the beach we found this little fellow out for a stroll. Here is a Northern Water Dragon daring me to take his photo.

Anbangbang Rock Art

Our last stop on the tour of Kakadu National PArk was at Anbangbang to see the rock Art. Most of it is very old but some of it has been touched up in the last 20-30 years to restore it to a viewable, useable state.

Birds!

On our Boat ride on the Yellow Water, we also saw lots of birds. Surprisingly for us Yanks, the crocs don't seem to be interested in eating them. This Great Egret is sunning himself with the Wandering Whistling Duck (related to the Plumed Whistling Ducks you've seen in the blog before).

Crocodiles!

We booked ourselves on a coach tour of Kakadu National Park. Everyone told us that this was a place to not miss and now we know why. After a stop at the culture center to learn about the indigenous people who lived (and still live) here, we headed for the highlight of the visit: the Yellow Water Billabong.

We were told that surveys of the river all the way to the ocean indicate that there is roughly a crocodile every 15-20 meters all the way. To give you a sense of this density, this post is only crocodiles. We may have traveled a total of mile or less on the water and here is a sample of the crocodiles, not nearly all, of what we saw.

Defense of Darwin

On along the road from East Point Beach is the Defense of Darwin Museum. This is a great little museum that tells all about Darwin at the time of WWII and the bombing raids conducted against the city by the Japanese.

As you might imagine, this was all very serious. There were bunkers along the shore where gun emplacements were installed to protect the city.

What a Marathon!

Today, Boxing Day, I finally got all the images taken since we left Perth downloaded, processed, and posted on the blog. There are now posts queued up in the first week of March! This is what happens when you are busy doing and taking tons of photos.

This means you, dear reader, will treated to Christmas posts in in February.

We have a few more days of 2017 left and then we head north. We'll catch the ferry on Jan 1 and drive to Sydney. From there we fly to Cairns to explore that area a bit and to Sydney for our last house sit before returning to the US on Feb 15.

This means that I'll be posting blog entries well into March (and beyond?) before we return. So much to do and so little time.

Hope all had a wonderful Christmas. Over eat. Spend too much. Have a happy New Year.

East Point Beach

North and East of Darwin's CBD is East Point Beach and Park. This is clearly the area for the locals to enjoy the fact that they live at the shore. Nice wide beaches and beautiful vistas. The red trees you see on the opposite shore are called Flame Trees. Natural Christmas decorations.

Darwin

Finally, after more than 4,000 km, we have arrived in Darwin! This is a very different place from the one we left behind in Perth. It is hot, humid and tropical. The above photo seems to suggest that Darwin is a modest city surrounded by a wild place. This is not entirely wrong. This photo is taken from the overlook at the Darwin National Park not far from the CBD.

Elsey Cemetery

Our evening in Tennant Creek passed. That is about all I can say for it. It was just a bit more then uncomfortably hot until pretty early in the morning. We had little shade. I have had to spray several times to knock the ants back to a nearly acceptable level. It was an adventure.

Tennant Creek is a small place and the campground locks the gate at dark. We could hear lots of people noise...yelling, arguing, laughing...until the wee hours. At least the shower was reasonable.

Leaving Tennent Creek we intended to head north to Daly Waters for the next night. However, we found that my estimate of the driving time was inflated and we got to Daly Waters well before lunch. Moreover, this place was a good bit smaller than Tennant Creek. We decided to push on for Katherine. On the way to Katherine, we stopped to visit the Elsey Cemetery.

Devil's Marbles

Just off the Stuart Highway is the Karlu Karlu/Devil's Marbles Conservation Reserve. This is a place filled with lots of big boulders, a picnic area and a campground. And almost not trees.

Termite Mounds

As we drove north, we entered termite territory. There are millions of termite mounds between here the top end and there were times when it seems that if pulled over, we'd be able to reach out and touch them all.

An interesting Northern Territorial habit is the dressing of the termite mounds along the side of the road. I think I only took this one photo of such a thing, but there were hundreds of them along our route.

Big Man, Big Woman

We stopped at the Aileron Roadhouse to refuel and use the facilities. This place is uniquely decorated with statues. The first one we came to was the statue of the Aboriginal person. It just so happened to have a sleeping indigenous Australian on the ground in front of it.

The Red Center

There is really on two directions to go to leave Alice Springs: north or south. We're headed north to Tennant Creek at the moment. Not far north of Alice Springs, we are past the Macdonald Ranges and the land levels out and the true scope of where we are driving becomes clear. We are in the red center of a nearly unimaginably large, seemingly empty place filled with wonders.

There are trees in the distance, but they are not very tall or densely growing. Mostly, there is grass here. We are just north of the Tropic of Capricorn here. There is a monument at the roadside announcing the location of this line.

There are spots with little grass or trees. Just lots of red dirt. Scenes like this one really bring into focus how reliant we are on our transport. If the truck dies, we are in trouble. I wouldn't say serious trouble since there is a reasonable amount of traffic on this road...perhaps a car every 5-15 minutes. Much more traffic that we had on the Great Central Road.

But, we had no mishaps and the ute ran like a top. The speed limit out here in the Northern Territory is 130 kph (a little less than 81 mph). We chose our stops so we didn't have to drive this fast; we stuck with 100 kph as a safe speed. Later, on our return south, we cheated and pushed it on up to 125, 130 to get on with it. For now we are cruising and enjoying the countryside.

Something else the keen eye will see that in the Northern Territory, people are not so careful about littering as they are in other places. Compared to any other state we've been in in Australia, this is covered in rubbish.

Alice Springs Desert Park

Our second day in Alice Springs we travelled a bit farther afield and took a few hours at the Alice Springs Desert Park. This is an amazing place. It is a little like a zoo, but only in places; a little like an open piece of desert, but only in places; and an all around great place to go. Mornings are best because it really does get hot.

Above, is the Spinifex Dove, a colorful relative to our old friend the crested dove. You'd be amazed to see how easily these animals disappear against the red desert sand and rocks.

Alice Springs

After leaving the Reptile Center, we hit up a couple more museums in Alice Springs. First stop was the Royal Doctor Flying Service museum. As in Broken Hill, we took the tour but learned little new information. There was lots of focus on John Flynn, the founder, since he lived in the Northern Territory. We did get to see inside a mock up of one the planes. This is a little startling. The space inside small when you consider that there will be times when the patient will need serious assistance and this is going to be tricky.

Alice Springs Reptile Center

Our first outing in Alice Springs took us the Alice Springs Reptile Center. As you might guess, this place has reptiles every where. Rather than give you a catalog of all 37 animals we saw, here are a few highlights. Above is the Mulga, also known the King Black snake.

Driving to Alice Springs

On the way up the Lasseter Highway taking us from Yulara to the Stuart Highway and one to Alice Springs, we stopped for a look at Mt Cooper. This is much different from Uluru. It looks to be a regular mesa in the desert.

No longer Campers, We are

As of today, we've sold our Tent, both sleeping bags, both camping chairs, and the air mattress. We are now out of the camping business. If we can sell the extra GPS (Australian maps only, voice has a delightful accent), we'll be done with all that travel stuff we gathered to get through our trip west, north, and back.

Our pile of things keeps shrinking and the stuff coming home is slowly getting consolidated for the start of official packing in about 6 weeks.

Uluru at Sunrise

Our last day at Yulara, we again arose early and headed down the road to Uluru for our second sunrise. We were paid for our effort with a spectacular sight of a glowing red stone.

Kata Tjuta at Sunset

In an effort for completeness, we stopped by Kata Tjuta at sunset. This was much more spectacular than sunrise.

Mutitjula Waterhole

Just to the left of the large tree on the left is a gouge in Uluru. This leads down to Mutitjula waterhole. Farther around to the left is this missing bite from Uluru where it seems like a dandy place to take shelter. This combined with the water made this corner a well used place to live during the season when Aboriginals were in residence.

Sunrise at Kata Tjuta

We awoke with the stars still shining brightly overhead. At this time of day and in this season, Orion was about a third of the way up in the sky. We put on yesterday's clothes, grabbed some yogurt and hit the road. In about 50 minutes, we reached the sunrise lookout for Kata Tjuta. This is a metal platform getting us up above the surrounding vegetation.

Uluru

Uluru. It is a majestic place. It feels more visiting Notre Dame or perhaps I should compare it to the temple at Karnak. Something ancient, built to an alien design, imposing, and serene.

After visiting the culture center, we gained a tiny glimpse of what this enormous rock means to the people who have lived here, in this place, for perhaps 22,000 years.

Entering the Northern Territory

Finally near the end of the long stretch of unsealed road as we enter the Northern Territory.

Leaving Western Australia

After Warburton, we had intended to stop for the night in Warakurna but we had two reasons for not doing so.

First, we had a real outback experience in Warburton. Even though there were lights on in the campground all night and the facility was surrounded by a fence with a locked gate and razor wire around the top everywhere, three kids climbed the fence and robbed us. We failed to lock the ute and they got into it and took some money (~$20-$30 or so). Elizabeth awoke to a person starring in the tent and when he called out, they all ran away. We were shaken but safe. No serious damage done. However, this make us a bit skiddish concerning another night on this section of the road.

Secondly, we found that we needed only a couple hours to get to Warakurna, so we kept going. On this, the third day on the unsealed road, we travelled on to Yulara in the Northern Territory. We again found camels.

Animals on the Road

On the Great Central Road between Tjukayirla and Warburton, we met a couple interesting friends. One is the Mulga or King Brown Snake. It is the second longest poisonous snake in Australia (second only to the Coastal Taipan).

Tjukayirla Roadhouse

Our first night on the Great Central Road we stay in the campground at the Tjukayirla Roadhouse. Except for us, it was empty. Completely. We took a spot under a canopy so we could have some shade. Near our campsite was a hose along which the ants were traveling.

The Road

I thought you'd appreciate a few views of the road we are travelling here. It is all graded wide and as smooth as possible. The traffic, especially the large trucks for mining traffic, generate the corrugations. This means that it is graded once or twice a year to knock this down a bit. But the bumps remain.

Birds

About an hour before we reached Tjukayirla Roadhouse, we stopped at the Gnamma Hole. This is a small water hole just off the road. Here we found a flock of Galahs.

Cars along the Road

A sight we'd been told of were the abandoned cars along the Great Central Road. I've collected a few to show you the general character of what is out there.

Getting Serious about Driving

We spent the night in Laverton, a small town on the edge of what we softies would call civilization. Beyond here be dragons, arrrgh!

The thing that was scary and uncertain about planning this trip was estimating the time between stops. The first two stops on the sign you see above are, in fact, the next two possible stops. Google Maps gives travel times between these stops as 7 or 8 hours but when I make an estimate based on a sensibly slow driving speed, I get 3-5 hours. How knows how long all this will take. What is the road like? Will there be mud or robbers? We don't know. It's a mystery. It's an adventure.

Gwalia

Not far from Laverton, the end of the sealed road, is a mine at Gwalia. This is a mature gold mine that is still in operation. It is one seriously deep hole in the ground. that truck you see toward the right side is a really big one.