Litchfield National Park: in a word - "beautiful"

Litchfield NP is within spitting distance of Darwin (well - relative to the distance we've travelled it is!) but we were still going to stay there for three nights before actually going to Darwin itself. I'd heard the opinion that Litchfield was better than Kakadu, which I thought was a pretty big call, given all the publicity that Kakadu has - but seeing it was my father-in-law who said it, I was willing to keep an open mind......... On the way in, we stopped at the Adelaide River war cemetery, which was quite moving, especially (for me) the graves, side-by-side, of three members of the same family (all women and all civilians) who died when the Post Office in Darwin was bombed in 1942. The girls were shocked to find that the youngest person (soldier) to die was just 18. With some 700 graves or memorials in the place, it is the third largest war cemetery in Australia - but Kendall asked if it was the third largest in the world, which just shows how limited their perspective on WW11 is. What would they think of the cemeteries in France or Belgium?

Ironically, the first photos I took in Litchfield NP were of the magnetic termite mounds, which are always built in a north-south plane, with very smooth faces, so they look just like gravestones. Andrew was surprised to find that you could no longer drive between the mounds and touch them, but had to remain on a boardwalk behind a fence. I suppose if they didn't do this then there'd be nothing left for the girls to look at if they came back in 10 or 20 years' time.

The main beauty of the National Park was all the hidden waterfalls and associated plunge pools. All crystal clear, cool and free of crocodiles. We hardly noticed the heat of the day as we travelled from one glorious spot to another - in and out of the water. There was Florence Falls, where a 400m descent down 135 steps took us to the plunge pool below the falls, and then a leisurely 1km walk through monsoon forest (a variation on rainforest - thanks Kirralee) took us back to the carpark. Then there was the Buley Rockpools - a series of plunge pools where you really just took your pick depending on your preference for sun/shade, size and rockiness. LOTS of people there, though - and some real idiots jumping out of trees and off rocks into the pools. From there we went to Wangi Falls - probably the most famous in the park, where the falls are about 100m high and the plunge pool is at least 150m across, cool and clear. There was also a boardwalk up through the rainforest, and lots of flying foxes roosting in the trees above us. On the same day we also managed to fit in a walk to Tolmer Falls, where you look across from a fantastic vantage point at the top of the falls and down (down, down, down) into the plunge pool way below. Despite the fact that you couldn't swim at that one, I think it was the most beautiful. The funny thing about the park is that while you are driving around, the scenery is really drab (to the uninitiated) - dry and scrubby - and you can't believe it when you pull off the main road, walk 100m or so, and suddenly there is this amazing gorge and/or waterfall in front of you.

On our second day, we went "off road" - four-wheel driving through some sand (which I thought was quite adventurous at the time - but wait until you hear about Kakadu!) to a place named Sandy Creek (good choice!) - where there was a camp site (I couldn't believe that anyone would want to camp there, actually, because it was so dry and hot - with the scrubby woodland that affords no shade, and a creek with no water in it and apparently a threat of crocs) and a hot 20 minute walk along the creek bed to a fantastic waterfall and plunge pool that left Wangi for dead! Definitely well worth the trip. We also visited another place where you walked through the woodland and some monsoon forest to the top of another waterfall with an unpronounceable name and swam in a small plunge pool right at the top - with the water disappearing over the edge and plunging down at least 50 metres........ The girls were really good about all the walking through hot sand and rocks in the heat, carrying their towels and goggles.

I think that was five different swimming holes in total - and then we finished with another swim at Florence Falls, where it was still lovely, although rather crowded, being a public holiday, and there were lots of "heros" jumping off rocks - some from the top of the falls!

I've got to give a plug to the Litchfield Tourist Park. It was probably the best so far - in terms of atmosphere and attitude of the staff. Not the flashest or newest, but the facilities were clean and the sites were flat and a good size (two of the top three criteria for a good caravan park).

So Litchfield gets an 'A' in our book. Can Kakadu possibly beat that? In a few days we'll find out........

Captions for pictures

- Magnetic termite mound "graveyard"

- Cathedral termite mound estimated to be at least 50 years old

- Buley Rockhole

- Wangi Falls

- Rainforest walk above Wangi Falls (watch out for bats' droppings)

- Tolmer Falls - absolutely spectacular

- A very tired possum at dinner-time

- Swimming hole at top of Tjaetaba falls. Drop over the edge is at least 50m

- Plunge pool at Tjaynera falls

- Florence Falls

Mataranka - hot pools and cane toads

Well here we are - deep in the Northern Territory, over the Tropic of Capricorn and definitely into the hot (and dry) weather. We arrived at the Mataranka Homestead soon after lunch, fingers crossed because you couldn't book a site in advance. No problems there - except for the other van accidentally parked in our allocated site! After quickly setting up we grabbed bathers and headed for the famous thermal pool that is a five minute walk from the park, through really tall, semi-rainforest trees. The pool is a genuine hot spring, with water flowing through it at 30.5 million litres per day. (Lucky I knew that, because otherwise I'd have been a bit worried about sanitation, with all those people sitting in the same water.) How amazing - to have a natural swimming pool with no chlorination and a constant temperature of 34 degrees! The girls couldn't get over it. We also checked out the river, a few hundred metres downstream, and had a quick swim but were made nervous by the presence of a snake in the water with us and general threats of crocodiles (admittedly "freshies" but I'm sure they'd still give me a heart attack). Anyway - why would you bother when the thermal pool was right there?

(Don't tell the girls, but Andrew and I snuck back down to the pool after we'd put them to bed, and had another swim in virtually complete darkness, which was pretty special, although a bit spooky in the forest. And yes, we did wear our bathers.)

The next morning we checked out the barramundi feeding at another caravan park down the road (which looked much better than ours - typical!) and were filled in on the life-cycle of the barra (they all start out male and don't turn female until they first go to the sea aged about 4 - 5 years "and grow a brain"). We were also given a bonus lecture on cane toads and the devastation they are causing in the NT. Still - it seems that some of the native predators are learning to avoid eating them, which is a good thing except that with no predators they will simply overrun the country. Another amazingly stupid deliberate introduction. The people at this caravan park are doing their bit, though - they give (supervised) children free gloves and plastic bags at night and invite them to go around the park catching as many as they can for "euthanizing". The children even get a certificate of appreciation. Needless to say, we returned after dark for this cane toad busting, and caught 40 toads between us in less than an hour - and that was just after the school holidays, when apparently they had been "cleaned out". We found this achievement rather depressing, but the girls were thrilled with their certificate.

After the barra feeding we checked out the local national park - with a lovely "botanic walk" through the forest, where plaques helped us understand and appreciate the flora around us, and a swim/attempted fish in a different part of the river. No sign of any crocs and it was a designated swimming area, but I was still nervous! No fish, either - although there were lots of tantalising big splashes. Then the highlight: we found another thermal pool called "Bitter Springs" which actually extended a few hundred metres past the main pool as a winding, still-warm creek with really clear water. We put on our snorkelling gear and swam along enjoying the underwater scenery. Tahlia warmed to the snorkel after an initial reluctance and ended up determined never to take it off! (Now that could make life a bit quieter......)

We also had a quick walk through the replica of the Elsey Homestead. The original homestead where Jeannie Gunn lived for a year before writing the Australian classic book "We of the never never" is about 20km south of Mataranka, but the town has claimed its fame. The replica was moved to the Mataranka Homestead after being built and used for the 1980s movie of the book.

And apart from a fruitless attempt at fishing later on (Andrew and Kendall) and the previously mentioned cane toad busting, that was about it for Mataranka. We packed up the next morning and set out for Litchfield National Park - right up in the Top End.

Captions for photos

- Mataranka thermal pool

- Some unusual critters spotted on our botanic walk

- Swimming spot confusingly called 4 mile

- Attempted fishing at same spot

- Replica Elsey Homestead

- The cane toads used in the lecture. Shame the girls make them look like cute pets. NB The poison had been squeezed out beforehand.

Alice Springs to Mataranka: hits and misses

We set off for Alice Springs from Kings Canyon, expecting a 300km journey because there is a short cut along a dirt road that cuts 140km off the main route.......... but when we asked advice along the way we were told categorically not to even think about taking the caravan along it - so that added another two hours' driving time! At least we had a booking, so we weren't worried about getting a place in the caravan park. When we finally arrived and had spoken to a few people, we discovered that the people who drove to Alice the previous day had been held up for five hours just outside of Erldunda because there was water over the road - and some I overheard talking about the dirt road we had been contemplating and saying it had been absolutely terrible. So that was two lucky misses!

Our first morning in Alice was a bit of a dead loss - chasing around looking for a small irrigation joiner that had split on the caravan, leaving us with no hot water for a few days. We had never specifically thought we needed to have the hot water system - it just came with the van, but boy did we miss it when it wasn't working! Especially as we only had a small "two cup" kettle with which to boil water for washing up. We also did the grocery shopping and it might be boring and mundane, but it was really nice to find a Coles supermarket with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables at normal prices! In the afternoon we planned to check out a few places in town, but only really managed one: a "reptile centre" where you could hold lizards and a snake and there were other reptiles in the usual glass cages, and a crocodile that could have been dead for all the action we saw. The next day we found the "Desert Park" and then were even sorrier that we had wasted time on the Reptile Centre. This was the Real Thing. If you are ever within 100km of Alice, I really recommend that you check out this place. It is fantastic. There's a self-guided audio tour around the property, which has three different desert habitats, lots of native birds and all the interpretive information - both aboriginal/cultural and botanical. There was a raptor display that was pretty impressive, and an amazing nocturnal house that really was dark and all the night creatures were out and about. We ended up there nearly all day, so we never got very far into the MacDonnell Ranges - but we did go out to Simpson's Gap, which was very scenic - especially as it was nearly sunset when we got there.

From Alice we had another long haul to Wycliffe Well, where we were booked into a Big 4 called the Desert Oasis or something like that, and claims to be the centre of UFO sightings in Australia. What a heap that place was! Everything was there, but run down and trashy. The girls rode on a little train that ran around the park, and it was so bad they got off and walked back! There was a lake that was only 1/4 full, with rickety bridges and a couple of forlorn-looking wheelbarrows in the dry side, and a 300 seat restaurant/auditorium that looked like an old tin shed and was deserted. Then the next morning, we left early and stopped at the Devil's Marbles about 30km down the road, which turned out to have a lovely free camp site hidden in behind the rocks. That would have been SO much better! If only you could know these things in advance.

Another long day on the road....... we went through Tennant Creek, where Andrew was amazed at the transformation from the last time he had been there (admittedly about 25 years ago!) and stopped at an Aboriginal Cultural Centre where for some reason the message really hit me about just how devastating the arrival of white people was for the Aborigines in so many ways. Forget rabbits, cats, camels, buffal grass, cane toads......... white people are the real feral pest here.

Just outside of Tennant Creek we found a recreation area with a lovely dam, and Kirralee, Tahlia and I swam - despite it being VERY cold. Kendall squealed and sooked but finally got wet (with a bit of help from me) but Andrew completely piked out. He was holding out for the warmer weather and water.

We were aiming for a bush camp listed in our Camps 5 book, but when we got there it was literally wall-to-wall caravans - all by the side of the main road with one bush toilet, how ridiculous! Luckily, Andrew had spotted a camper off on a side road a couple of ks back, so we turned around and went back there, just as the sun was setting, to find a fantastic clearing off the road, with a camp fire site, some wood lying around (not big, admittedly but hey) and only one other group of campers. Now that was a hit (or a near miss, if you prefer). It was a lovely night, too - the first where we could comfortably sit outside. Yes, we are definitely getting further north!

The next day was again a long haul in the car (the girls have been so good!) but by mid-afternoon we were in Mataranka - 100km south of Katherine. Now it was REALLY hot (well - we thought so at the time, but we hadn't experienced Darwin yet!) so the first thing we did was put the bathers on and head for the thermal pool. More about that in the next blog. Hope you are all keeping warm..............!

Captions for photos

- Go-karting in the caravan park

- Lizard cuddling at the Reptile Centre (girls say I gave this an unfairly poor review)

- Brown hawk in raptor display at Desert Park. We can now identify brown hawks, black kites and whistling kites (and we've seen plenty on the road)

- Simpson's Gap in MacDonnell Ranges. Lots of water around!

- Devil's Marbles

- Oops - putting one back that we knocked over

- First swim of the trip

King's Canyon and the Great Hat Rescue

It was a long, long drive to King's Canyon, through some really remote desert country. Andrew and I paid some attention to the scenery (after the fog lifted) but I don't think the girls noticed much. As we came within 50km or so, there was water everywhere - and lots of it across the road, which was fun (I was driving). We had intended to call in at King's Creek Station, about 35km from King's Canyon - just to check out the quad bike safaris for the trip back - but the track in was such deep red mud that we couldn't even get out of the car. Hence we arrived at KC early enough to get a good spot with a view out to the canyon itself. It was REALLY hot and humid, which was a bit of a shock to the system. Of course I made the most of it by washing all the sheets and towels before dinner! That night it POURED with rain all night, which was quite romantic and all that - except that we discovered a small leak RIGHT above my pillow when we went to bed. A hasty repair with a teatowel and some sellotape fixed it perfectly, though! Before bed, we ventured over to the bar where we were promised live entertainment. The free rainbow umbrellas the girls had been given in the Post Office back in Aberfoyle Park just before we left proved to be........ well what you might expect from free umbrellas, but we made it to the bar without getting too wet, and found the entertainment involved the audience: first the kids up on stage playing instruments and then the dads trying to ring cowbells without using their hands (quite obscene in some cases!)........ then the mums singing "do-wa-diddy" etc. Why am I telling you this? I could have left it in KC where no-one knew us. (At least I don't have any photos.)

So - hastily drawing a line under that one.... the next morning we were up early to tackle the "Rim Walk" around the Canyon. It turned out to be a very special experience: a four hour walk that started with (according to Kendall) 600 steps straight up - then an easy but spectacular walk all around the edge of the canyon. The rain had completely cleared, but there was plenty of water in the gorge, and the vegetation looked fantastic. There are cycads there, which are relics from a time 500 million years ago when the Earth was much wetter - and hardly grow anywhere else now. There was also a film crew up there from the Brisbane equivalent of "Postcards" - so we might even appear on TV somewhere, sometime in the future. Sadly they weren't there to catch the great Kirralee Hat Rescue................

Partway through the walk you can take a detour down to a lovely rock pool, where the water emerges from the rocks, because of an impermeable layer below. We had packed bathers and a little towel, but the water was REALLY cold, so we decided to settle for just paddling our feet - that is, until my hat blew into the water, and Kirralee (who had been prevaricating about going in for several minutes) did a quick change into her bathers and jumped in without a second's hesitation - headed straight for my hat, which by then was at least half-way across the pool, grabbed it and came back with it - like a little terrier. What a champion! When we pulled her out she was freezing, but she soon came good in the heat of all that admiration. By the way - for the record Tahlia would like everyone to know that she could have done it too - in fact she was just about to, but Kirralee got in first. Much like Piglet.

After a late lunch and some "chilling out", we went back to the Canyon and watched the sun go down. It's not quite Uluru in this respect, but the rock does glow an amazing deep orange - and really I can't understand why this place doesn't have the profile of Uluru/Kata Tjuta. It is fantastic (and the caravan park is much better!). One more detail: both nights we were woken by the howl of a dingo - which is something not only completely unforgettable, but totally undescribable. What must Stuart and the other early explorers have thought, hearing that for the first time and not knowing what it was?

Captions for pictures

- View of KC from our caravan park site

- View of the rock pool from the top of the canyon

- Another spectacular view - the water is disappearing over a very steep edge

- Kirralee rescuing the hat

- Cold but very proud

- KC at sunset (yes it's somewhere there in the background!)

Raining at the Rock

Our journey to Yulara passed quickly thanks to a very weird but funny Paul Jennings/Morris Gleitzmann audio book called "Wicked" - which kept us entertained for at least 2 hours, and that was only part 1 of 6! We experienced the thrill of our first sighting of Uluru in the distance (after a false alarm with Mount Conner) and queued for literally 15 minutes to check in at the Ayer's Rock Resort - now alternatively called Yulara. By the time we'd set up the van, rain was threatening and we had some heavy falls in the night. The next day was perfect, however (although forecast rain kept Uluru closed for climbing) and we tackled the Valley of the Winds walk around part of Kata Tjuta - the "many-headed" rock formation about 45km west of Uluru. It was a spectacular, three-hour plus walk with some great climbing sections. Tahlia led the way most of the time. I found it easy to see why the Aborigines found it a place of such enormous spiritual significance - harder to comprehend how the formation developed its many "heads" (that's what Kata Tjuta means) over thousands of millions of years.

The next day we headed for Uluru, and were disappointed to find that the climb was again closed - this time because of strong winds. But after we'd joined a guided walk around a small section of the base, we realised how windy (and freezing cold) it was - and when we saw the steepness of the incline with the single chain and heard and read everything the local traditional owners said about climbing (or not climbing) I think we were all quite happy about missing out on this. Tahlia was running a temperature as well - an amazing change after her athletic efforts the previous day - so we took it fairly easy. A guided walk in the late afternoon to the Mutji waterhole, with an Anangu storyteller and her Japanese interpreter (yes, into English) was a very memorable experience and suddenly the features of the Rock acquired a new significance and interest. To top off the day, we then set up our chairs in the sunset viewing area for Uluru - along with about 300 other people - and watched the colours change on the Rock while sipping beer/wine/lemonade and (in the case of the girls) shovelling down large quantities of chips!

The next morning we packed up as quickly as we could and made a beeline for King's Canyon, where you can't book a site so it's first in best dressed. Again Paul Jennings made the time pass very quickly, and we barely stopped for 4 hours. The girls' ability to tolerate long driving distances has greatly improved already! The first half of the journey was accompanied by a thick fog, and we (smugly) pitied those who were just arriving at Uluru that day - or had booked a sunrise walk. We saw no sign at all of the Rock, which in clear conditions we had seen from at least 40km away on the way in.

Captions for pictures

- Walpa Gorge walk between Mount Olga and its neighbouring "head"

- Views along the Valley of the Winds walk

- Kuniya the Woma Python leaves her mark on Uluru in Aboriginal legend

- So the postcards aren't all photoshopped - it really looks like this!

- Kiralee was here: at Uluru at sunset

- Real live Sturt desert peas at the Yulara Resort!

Coober Pedy to the NT border

Coober Pedy felt like the real start of the holiday - with new sights to explore and two nights instead of one before we had to pack up and move on. Luxury! Although the caravan park was pretty awful - sites like carparks packed in together and nothing green to be seen. Showers cost 20c per three minutes and it was SO cold you nearly froze to the spot when the water switched off. Still - I shouldn't complain. Water is very precious in CP and there's no greenery anywhere in the town. It was fascinating, though, and we learned all about opal mining (of course!) as well as the amazing natural rock formations called The Breakaways just outside of town. Noodling was a hit with the girls, who tried very hard to make our fortune for us in the rubble pit.

On Wednesday night we looked for somewhere to eat out, seeing it was the night before our 10th wedding anniversary. We checked all three possible eating places in town before selecting what turned out to be everyone else's choice too - John's Pizza Bar - where the wait for our meals we were told would be up to an hour (and that was if we didn't order any pizzas)! We passed the time with a "quiz" on all the things we'd learned so far, and it was very entertaining. The family at the table next to us played Uno. Lovely food - even Tahlia ate everything.

On Thursday we joined a tour of "Tom's working mine" with the miner (whose name was Jimmy). He gave a vivid and intimate account of the realities of a modern opal miner's life now. It's not enviable, that's for sure! And now it's almost impossible for the small miner, because the cost of explosives has gone from $90 per day to $1000 per day - because of all the new restrictions since Sept 11. By the time we left Coober Pedy it was lunchtime, so we pressed on to Marla where we spent a completely uneventful night if you don't count the girls being fascinated by the code panel to open the toilet door.

From Marla we headed north to the border, and then turned west to Uluru. There was great excitement when we crossed the border, and lots of hopping to and fro across an imaginary line between the states. We've now been on the road for just over a week, travelled about 1700km and spent $700 in fuel. We've got the set-up/pack-up routines worked out pretty well and found out a few things about the van - like what the mysterious little switch in the front cupboard is for (that could have saved us running out of power on the first night!). The girls have settled on their positions in bed and don't argue too much about it (except for Kendall shouting at them in her sleep). Next stop - The Rock!

Captions for pictures:

- Highlight of the caravan park was the giant chess set

- We drove some way along the dog (dingo) fence, which stretches 5,300km across three states

- Coober Pedy with its underground houses

- The Breakaways at sunset

- The girls noodling for opals

- Tahlia doing some (unpaid) work for Jimmy the miner

A shaky start!

A shaky start

Well.......... we've made it to Coober Pedy - but not without incident or stress! Not the cold nights, nor the rough roads - they were no problem at all. Not even the burnt toast and over-zealous smoke alarm in the quiet surrounds of Mambray Creek. Not even the flat tyre on the caravan between Leigh Creek and Coward Springs (our first stretch of the Oodnadatta Track), or the fact that we made it to William Creek with less than a litre of fuel left. It was the fact that the van batteries lost their charge very quickly both nights that we were "powerless", that

the solar panels don't seem to be charging them up again, and that the charming (ha ha) people at William Creek simply couldn't commit to fixing the tyre in time for us to make it to Coober Pedy before dark. In the end we just went without getting it fixed - and had no dramas. Actually the road was really good. We have seen some fantastic desert landscapes, Lake Eyre South with water in it and the amazing "mound springs" that well up out of the earth and form natural spa baths in the middle of the most barren landscape imaginable. The girls have climbed lots of trees, watched lots of movies in the car and worked out their preferred position in their "triple bed". Tomorrow we'll explore Coober Pedy (Kendall thought we were having her on when we told her people live underground here) and get our spare tyre fixed. Surely nothing else will go wrong for a while...............??

Picture captions from the top:

- idyllic setting at Mambray Creek

- coal mining viewing area at Leigh Creek

- natural "spa" at Coward Springs campground (spa was first used by the Ghan railway workers in the 1860s!)

- water in Lake Eyre - seen from a distance. Andrew thinks it's basically just wet sand - but it looked good

- Waiting for our tyre at William Creek - looking much happier than we felt

D-day minus one

D-day minus one

The butcher had to chase me into the supermarket with my meat tonight - lucky my head is screwed on. Will we ever be ready? Why does it take 2 hours to sort out an SMS alert for my visa bill? And the nights are SO cold - can we survive without power in the Flinders Ranges? I can't even face going out to Marion tonight to get Kirralee some new shoes......... I think I'll be okay once we're on the road. With four new tyres and a case of wine, what can go wrong??

Catch you on the road!