Heading North on the Stuart highway once
stopping at Tennant Creek for the night and then continuing on to Mataranka was
a brief stopover, the main attraction being the bitter hot springs. A short
walk from our campsite was a lovely natural hot spring. The surrounding forest
was home to thousands and thousands of fruit bats and there was a sprinkler
system in place to disturb the bats so you had to run between the campsite and
the pool to avoid being soaked by the freezing cold overhead sprinklers. It was
fun though and we were glad to be in our camper that night and not a tent when
a huge thunderstorm hit! |
| Crystal clear bitter springs |
We had been warned about forest fires in
the northern territory but we hadn’t really expected to experience one first
hand. We did the next day however on our drive to Katherine Gorge. We could see
some bellowing black smoke on the horizon but it wasn’t until we got closer
that we realised it was enveloping the stretch of road that we were speedily
approaching. There were huge red flames either side of the road and lots of
black smoke. The birds were going crazy above the scene and the flames were
spreading quickly. Luckily there wasn’t any fire on the road itself and we were
able to cautiously pass safely but we could really feel the heat in the van and
it was quite a scary experience.
We arrived at Katherine Gorge safely
however and stayed in a caravan park with a lovely big swimming pool. As it was
a really sunny day we spent most of it messing around in the pool, seeing who
could do the most backward somersaults in one breath and who could swim the
furthest under water (I won the somersaults, Mike won the latter). We then
decided to go down to the river to swim. Unfortunately there was no one else
swimming and although there was a ‘crocodile management’ sign and it was deemed
a safe swimming area, the water was murky and we were both too scared to swim!
I literally dunked myself in whilst still holding onto the ladder and was
laughing at how chicken I was when I turned around to see Mike doing exactly
the same thing, springing out of the water to the safety of the jetty. In our
defense the river did look very similar to the one we did the croc jumping tour
on.
 |
| Katherine gorge |
Early next morning we set off on a walk to
Butterfly Gorge. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking through the
forest and down a little creek towards the gorge. I enjoyed the walk until I
was meandering along in front and I nearly trod on a snake! It darted out from
underneath where my foot was about to land and I yelped. Mike was of course
furious that he hadn’t seen the snake and then insisted on walking in front in
case there was another one…fine by me! There was another one…if fact there were
another two! The second one startled Mike who in turn startled it and it
slithered away just as fast as the first but the third was not bothered by us
at all and just sat really still on a branch over the path. So we managed to have a good look at
it…luckily Mike didn’t think it was deadly but I was still slightly nervous
continuing along the path. Eventually we came out of the forest and down to the
Gorge…it was really beautiful and this time crystal clear. We enjoyed a very
brief swim…brave enough to enter the water but not brave enough to stay there.
We were glad to be out of the water when we squinted across to a sign on the
opposite beach that we eventually worked out said ‘Keep Clear. Crocodile
breeding area’. When we got back to the Camper there was
only time for one last cheeky dip in the pool before we were heading on to
Litchfield National Park.
Litchfield National Park is famous for its
natural swimming spots and on our first day we visited about 4 different
waterfalls and pools which we swam in. The water was always crystal clear and
at one particular place you could climb between the pools which were on a
slope, with the water from each flowing into the pool below. We also went to
another huge pool where you could swim out to mini waterfalls. There was a circular
walk with a panoramic view of the falls and surrounding valley that we did before
once again cooling off in the pool. We made our staple dinner of pasta and
pesto beside the lake and then headed to one of the campsites for the night.
Throughout the northern territory we saw a
lot of termite mounds, some huge ones that had had hats put on them and faces
drawn on. In Litchfield there is one place where the termite mounds are
particularly large and so marked on the map…we of course stopped off for a peek
and a few photos. The next day we decided to head off early back to Darwin but before
doing so thought we’d get an extra walk in, up to one last view and pool. We
set off early in shorts and t-shirts (and walking boots!). The first part of
the walk was through forest and then the path emerged above the trees and
continued upwards. As soon as we came out of the trees we noticed a couple of
horse flies giving us really nasty bites and it wasn’t long before we realised
that they were everywhere and we couldn’t hit them fast enough. We started to
run up the hill and the horse flies kept coming – it was like something out of
a horror film. I ran in front and mike just continually swatted at the biting flies
on my back from behind. The bites were so painful and we couldn’t run fast
enough! As soon as we got to the top, we stripped off and leapt straight into
the pool to escape the biting beasts. The water was freezing but it was sweet
respite from the flies. They didn’t seem to like the shade around the pool so
from the safety of the pool we inspected the surrounding area. Not seeing any
flies we climbed out of the water only to find that within seconds they were on
us again. We started the crazy sprint back down to the shelter of the forest,
madly swatting as we went…it was horrendous! We completed the 2 hour walk in 40
minutes and were very sore (and out of breath) by the time we got back to the
campervan.
We drove on to Darwin and were glad to say
goodbye to the horse flies. We had the afternoon to play with and after walking
round Darwin for a little bit we had a second lunch of local Barramundi and
chips. For pudding we stopped off by one of the mango trees on the public
highway and picked some yummy ripe mangoes. We’d been given the tip by one of
the people we’d met at the Margaret River wine tour who had fond memories of
climbing on the roof of her parents’ car as a child, picking mangoes.
The next morning we dropped off our little
camper having driven over 4000km in just over 2 weeks. Although sad to be
leaving the northern territory I was ready to leave the humidity and rains that
were beginning to set in. Next stop the
very much cooler (in fact cold) Melbourne!
 |
| We finally got the fly nets! |
 |
| Darwin - storm brewing |
No comments:
Post a Comment