Australia (North) - The Stuart Highway

The next day we continued our trip towards the red centre. We stopped off at the Cutta Cutta caves and had a very informative tour by the very professional guide there. He spoke as if he were performing to an audience of hundreds, with emotion and feeling behind each little speech and story. Unfortunately for him there were only 5 of us on the tour of the small caves but we enjoyed it all the same.

Cutta Cutta Caves

Our enthusiastic guide

We left the caves and continued our journey towards Daly Waters, the town where we had planned to camp for the night. We had been advised by everyone not to travel at dawn or dusk because there are often lots of animals on the roads at those times and driving can be dangerous. On the stretch of road just before Daly Waters we must have seen 50 or more bits of road kill, primarily Kangaroos but at least 5 large cows, on the side of the road. It was horrendous! Every 50m another horrific smell seeped in thorough the air vents and we saw another mound of fresh road kill more often than not covered in hungry birds. We were relieved to arrive at the campsite in one piece just as dusk was really setting in!

Daly Water is a tiny town with a population of 25 people! It has a historic pub with lots of memorabilia decorating its interiors…a wall of bras hanging up, a wall of money, a wall of underpants, a wall of old t-shirts and a wall of passport photos amongst many more. All of which have been donated over the years by people passing through and visiting the famous pub. It is renowned for its Barramundi, a large fresh water fish up to a metre long, popular with the local for its excellent flavor. Therefore Mike and I in true traveler style shared a ‘Barra’ burger and half a pint of lager J Apart from the pub there was not really anything else to see so after a long day driving we retired to bed early. Unfortunately the camper was like an oven inside and we were so hot we couldn’t sleep. We also couldn’t open the doors because there were so many mosquitoes outside. Needless to say we had a horrendous nights sleep and set off the next morning exhausted.

'Barra Burger'

Ghost town - Newcastle

Once again on the Stuart Highway we stopped off at a couple of the attractions mentioned in either the lonely planet or other various tourist pamphlets we’d collected along the way. The first was Newcastle, a bizarre little ghost town with derelict corrugated iron houses, sparsely spread across a flat piece of land with a small memorial park in the middle. We also paid a visit to Renner Springs which turned out to basically be a watering hole in the middle of a caravan park. We ended the day at Tennant Creek which is 700km south of Katherine and 500km north of Alice Springs. It has a population of 3500 and has one of the largest aboriginal communities. Unfortunately there appeared to be a bit of an alcohol problem amongst some of the local residents and we heard some pretty heated arguments as the evening progressed. We also met a really nice Australian couple in the caravan park who had taken a year out of work to travel Australia. I think we were probably similar ages to their children and obviously tugged on some kind of parental heart strings. They ended up giving us all sorts of useful things for our trip and lent us their mosquito net for the night so we could open our doors and get some sleep!

Seemingly never ending - dead straight
highway

The rest stops were extremerly basic

Just south of Tennant Creek are the ‘Devils Marbles’ which are huge rocks in the middle of the desert that have formed over time with wind erosion. They were very impressive, particularly with the early morning sun shining on them. We went for a walk around the marbles and then continued on to Alice Springs, stopping only to sample amazing mango ice cream at a local mango farm – it would have been rude not to J In contrast to the vast barren land we had seen it was bizarre to see rows of green mango trees in the middle of the desert.

The amazing devils marbles

Part of huge 'Road Train'

Although we certainly clocked up the miles and the hours driving, we actually really enjoyed it. The road was so straight at times that it looked endless, disappearing into the horizon. We had been warned that it might be boring but it was far from boring as the scenery changed from small trees and bushes to tussock grassland and bright red earth. It was certainly a very unique experience and none like any other we’ve had before. We swapped drivers regularly and listened to the entire contents of our ipod to help pass the time, stopping of course for regular breaks and to let the HUGE road trains pass. We had been warned about over taking road trains because they can be four trucks long but I don’t think we ever overtook a road train as they travelled so fast, it was always the other way round.

Dead insects attracted to our candle

Huge termite mounds were everywhere

Trying to exercise in 40 degree
heat was a little optimistic

Making lunch at the back of the camper

Australia (North) - Darwin & Kakadu National Park

Our van/ camper

We arrived in Darwin on Saturday 13^th October and headed straight to pick up our campervan. After much debate and numerous changes of plan we had decided to hire a campervan in Darwin, drive to Alice Springs, do a tour of Uluru and then drive back to Darwin. In doing so eliminating the ‘remote fee’ had we hired in Broome and driven to Darwin (our original plan), and also the ‘one way’ fee had we chosen a different drop off destination. We had been warned by more than a few people that to drive both ways was quite a colossal distance (more than twice the full length of the UK) but despite it being a long drive we figured it probably was the cheapest option and could be a bit of an adventure too!

Those crocs could really jumped!

We set off on the Stuart Highway, the road that goes from Darwin all the way to ‘The red centre’, stocking up on two weeks’ worth of supplies on the way. First stop…the campsite 20km out of town (!) but the next morning we drove on to Kakadu National Park. As we were in a two wheel drive we had strict instructions to stick to the bitumen (tarmac) road with the exception of a particular ‘croc jumping’ operator in Kakadu National Park. We made our way there and soon realised why we were not meant to go ‘off road’. The 12km to the river along a red dirt road took us forever and despite travelling at 10kmph the journey was not comfortable! The croc tour was worth it though and we spent the next hour on a boat going up and down the Adelaide River looking for saltwater crocodiles. We must have seen about 15 crocs in total and as we approached our skipper dangled a piece of meat off a long rod. He dangled it just out of reach and the crocs had to jump right up out of the water to grab it!! Amongst the crocs seen was ‘Brutus’ a huge 5m beast that apparently has been featured in ‘The Sun’ newspaper for his jumping ability. It was actually a bit scary when he leapt out of the water and even the skipper casually said ‘I’d stand back a bit for this one if I was you’. Nothing like a small boat with one horizontal metal bar across to protect you from a huge jumping crocodile. The tour was great fun though and it definitely reminded us how many crocodiles there are in northern Australia and quite how dangerous it is to swim in murky waters with no swimming sign!

Brutus...seriously big

Brutus again near the bank

We continued on our way hoping to find a campsite and perhaps squeeze a walk in, in the National Park, before dusk. Annoyingly on the way we pulled in to a rest stop to find we had a rapidly deflating tyre – a massive nail in the road being the culprit. That’s fine we thought…it was only 3pm and we’ve both changed tyres before. Unfortunately we found that once the jack was in place and the old tyre removed…the jack wasn’t actually lifting the van high enough to put the new inflated tyre on. We tried everything and eventually admitting defeat thought we’ll just put the old tyre back on and call the road side assistance. Problem 1 – no network signal. Problem 2 – having removed the old tyre we then couldn’t get it back on because once again the jack wasn’t high enough! Luckily we had pulled into a rest stop with a toilet and an ‘emergency button’. We were able to call the emergency department who, when they realised there were in fact no injured persons were happy to get in touch with our free roadside assistance team. To make the story a little shorter…having spent the whole afternoon outside the van because it was precariously balanced on the tiny jack, the roadside assistance turned up at…10.30pm.

Just about to discover the jack was
useless

Stranded with only a tea towel to keep away the flies -
Tea anyone?

We had long finished our water and were using the purification tablets we luckily had in our kits from Nepal. Thinking back we were seriously lucky to have broken down somewhere with a water supply that we could purify because it was such a hot day we’d have been in serious trouble if we hadn’t! Needless to say we travelled with excess water supplies ‘for emergencies’ after that.  The other revelation that took place that afternoon was how insanely annoying flies can be…they were ridiculous and they were everywhere. They seemed to particularly like flying into your mouth, eyes and ears and after 4 hours of no respite we gave a sigh of relief when the sun went down and as if by magic they all disappeared. Relief until the mosquitoes started their shift about 5 minutes later L We later invested in fly nets for our heads and have since decided that they were one of the best buys of the trip!

Aboriginal rock art

Spending our second afternoon by the road, covered in flies and eventually settling down to sleep in that same spot covered by mosquitoes, didn’t deter us for long and the next morning after a breakfast of ‘weet-bix’ we continued our trip in high spirits. We visited a wetlands centre in the morning and then went to see some aboriginal rock art in the afternoon. After admiring the rock art, some of which is said to be over 20,000 years old (!) we walked up to a beautiful lookout point where you could see for miles across the surrounding lands. Learning about the Aborigines and their way of life and their culture was truly fascinating and seeing some of the art that still exists after so many years was actually incredible. The ‘paint’ used is a mix of red ochre and animal fat and the drawings were drawn in order to tell stories over those thousands of years. It wasn’t the preservation of drawings that was important to the Aborigines, rather the act of drawing and the stories that are told in them. As a result the drawings are all drawn on top of each other, the new ones obscuring the old. They were used as educational tools to teach and pass on knowledge, morals and beliefs to the younger generations.

In the evening keen for some more bird watching, Mike joined the sunset wetlands cruise whilst I set up camp (and dinner) in the nearby campsite. I’ll spare you the details about exactly how I made the dinner but I will let Mike tell you about the wetlands cruise J

‘The Wetlands cruise was run by a mixed race aboriginal whose parents have lived in the Kakadu National Park and its surrounds for thousands of years. Being a traditional man he took great delight in pointing out the many crocodiles, birds and animals and telling us whether they were good to eat and how they tasted. We found out that by living off the land, Aborigines have learnt to incorporate almost every animal into the local bush tucker. The cruise itself was excellent and the wildlife was superb…well worth the trip.’  

Glossy Ibis

Lilly

Australia (West) - Margeret River and the South West

We arrived in Margaret River at ten to five in the evening. Just enough time to go to the visitor centre and book accommodation and a wine tour for the following day before the lady behind the desk, as she kept reminding us, would be herself going home to enjoy a large glass of wine. The Home stay we chose was a lovely old farm set a little out of town. They owned 100 acres of bush land out the back so we were able to go for a couple of walks. The first evening we got there we saw about 100 kangaroos in back field…there were so many that we had assumed they were farmed there but when we asked they said they were all wild!

Our red faced wine guide
was excellent

The next morning we were collected from the farm by our tour guide. He was, like most wine buffs, very entertaining and very red faced. We had spent at least ten minutes deciding from the promotion leaflets which wine tour to pick, we didn’t want a ridiculously expensive one but we also really didn’t want one that was full of young backpackers who weren’t going to take it seriously or be taken seriously.  Subsequently we were delighted when we climbed onto the bus to see four well dressed middle aged (mostly retired) couples smiling back. Their hearts probably sank when they saw us but I think our English accents made up for it. Several of them had all spent time living in some of the nicest parts of England and had fond memories. We visited 5 vineyards in total, with an average of 10-14 wine tastings at each.

The vineyards were often spectacular

We also visited a cheese, a chocolate, a venison and an olive oil factory and finished the day with a brewery! We ate lunch at the third vineyard which was a lovely Manor house and with our large glass of wine we had an exquisite but rather small fillet of gourmet fish and some fresh bread with dipping oil. As you can imagine as the day progressed we all became better and better friends and we finished the tour promising one couple that we’d visit their son in Melbourne and everyone else that, as they were so insistent upon it, we would make every effort to come back and work in Australia!!

Hundreds of types of chocolate

Olive oil tasting

The huge 60m trees - see the platform
1/2 way up and the hut
at the top!

The day after the wine tour we headed further south to the Valley of the Giants and spent the morning trekking through a forest of huge gum trees. In the forest there is one famous tree called the ‘Bicentennial Tree’ that has had big metal spokes drilled into it spiraling up to the top 60m above ground. The spokes enable people to climb up to the lookout hut at the top of the tree as it sways in the wind (!) Tourists obviously climb at their own risk and with only a fine mesh preventing falls,  Mike and I didn’t make it more than half way up but it was very cool to see.  Although quite a popular walk we didn’t see another person from start to finish and we were able to enjoy the beautiful forest all to ourselvesJ Having made the detour down to the forest we started making our way back to Perth for one night in the city before our flight to Darwin the next morning.

Climbing the tree - safety was
questionable

Australia (West) - Perth and the South West

G’Day Australia!! We arrived in Perth at 4am, tired from the flight we waited in the arrivals lounge until 6.30 to collect our hire car. We decided to drive straight to Freemantle, or ‘Freo’ to the aussies,  about an hours drive from Perth, where we would spend our first night. Having not driven for about 3 years I made the most of the quiet roads and drove around the town whilst we looked for a hostel. Coming from Asia it was a bit of a reality check to find out how expensive Australia was!! We paid the most we’ve paid our whole trip for two dorm beds in a really crappy hostel… on the up side however we finally had a kitchen after 6 months that we could make our own meals in!

The first full day in Freemantle we took the ferry across to Rottnest Island. We hired bikes and cycled around the island on the coastal track stopping at various deserted beaches along the way. The sand was incredible…pure white and literally like powder! It was like walking on flour J The water was crystal clear…and freezing, Mike made it as far as his thighs and retreated back to the beach. I think six months in Asia has made us soft! In the afternoon we went on a whale watching tour with Rottnest adventure tours. 

We all strapped into our seats on this huge speed boat and before long we were crashing over the waves bouncing up and down…it was like a roller coaster ride and absolutely brilliant! The wind whipped in our faces as we tried, and in my case failed, not to scream. We hadn’t even seen any whales and were having an awesome time and then in the distance we spotted a huge whale emerging from the ocean. We had to keep a 100m distance from the whales but the skipper had said if they approach us then what can we do?! And they did…we saw four huge humpback whales and one of them must have been 15m from the boat. To start with they were flapping their huge fins on the water, communicating with each other. Then one of them started to breach the water doing huge jumps right up out of the water – it was absolutely incredible!! They were huge!! We stayed with the whales for about half an hour watching their display before they continued on their journey, migrating north for warmer waters.  We then continued our rollercoaster ride round to the south tip of the island to visit the resident New Zealand fur seals. They were cute, lazing in the sun on the rocks when we arrived and then they all slithered off into the water to bathe. There were hundreds of them, all bathing with one fin in the air in order to catch the cool breeze and help thermo regulate. The crew were very good at giving us lots of information about both the whales and the fur seals and all in all it was a brilliant trip, we would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Rottnest, or should I say ‘Rotto’ at the time of the whale migration.

The breaching humpback whales we
incredible!

From Freemantle we continued south down towards the wine region of Margaret River. We had a brief stop on the way in Rottingham for Mike to swim with dolphins. I’ll hand over to him to tell you about his adventures.

Lined up waiting for the dolphins

‘After my failure to get close enough to the dolphins in Indonesia I was very keen to have a proper go at it in Australia. The dolphins off the coast of Freemantle are completely wild, but the skipper has built up a friendly relationship with those that have inhabited the area over many years. Donning our wetsuits we headed out on the speedboat on the hunt for dolphins. After two hours driving around we spotted a large pod of dolphins and the excitement on the boat was electric. We were given a snorkel and masks, but instead of diving straight in had to enter the water slowly and quietly to avoid scaring them. We formed a line in the water holding onto the person’s wetsuit in front of us to avoid excess splashing. The person at the back of the line had to wear a “Shark sheild” band wrapped around their leg, which was supposed to emit a magnetic punch on a shark’s nose if one came within several metres. With 7 fatal shark attacks in Western Australia, 4 of them in the last 18 months, we were happy for this extra precaution.’

‘One of the tour guides had an underwater scooter and she was driving around below us, making circles to attract the dolphins. The other guides would then shout “faces in the water” to ensure we didn’t miss any of the action. The only problem was that the water was so cold that it almost took my breath away even with the wetsuit on. Being used to the 30 degree water of SE Asia the 17 degree water was a real shock! When the dolphins approached it was amazing! They were swimming around us, underneath us performing twists and somersaults underwater. They were playing with the instructor who was driving the scooter doing laps with her. After 5 minutes we got out of the water freezing to warm back up, while another group went in. Although only 5m deep, the sea had a sandy bottom which meant that the visibility was impaired. It was a shame as sometimes the dolphins would appear out of seemingly nowhere and often made watching them difficult. We dived back repeatedly over the morning with the dolphins coming so close you could touch them if we weren’t told that it was not allowed! Despite freezing temperatures and murky water it was still an amazing experience and worth every penny…..next stop Margaret River wine region.’

Freemantle

Rottnest island