Saturday 7th September I park my van at Banyon Tree Caravan Park beside my daughter's family once again. We are 13kms west of Batchelor on the edge of Litchfield National Park . We've booked 4 days here as there looks to be lots to see and do including some great looking swimming spots...can't wait to find out!!
For our first adventure we stop off to look at the magnetic termite mounds These are amazing!!! Although the top end of Australia has many many different termite mounds from a huge variety of termite species (around 400), it appears these magnetic termite mounds are unique to only a very small area in Northern Australia.
The family and I in front of the "magnetic' termite mounds
The girls in front of a "Cathedral" termite mound. If interested, check out the following regarding the types of termite mounds... https://www.experiencethewild.com.au/?p=Wildlife-Cathedral-Termite
termites at work
Over the course of the next four days we swam at some stunning falls - Florence Falls, Wangi Falls, Buley Rockpools and did some lovely walks along the rivers.
Florence Falls
Wangi Falls
Buley Rockpools
We also took a few short to medium walks around Litchfield NP.
Shady Creek walk
Bamboo Creek tin mine. This had just had a fire go through so it was very black with smouldering ash still around...It was hot so very happy to get in the CP pool when we returned.
I really loved Litchfield Park. We had a beautiful shady caravan park with a great swimming pool to cool off each day, the falls and walks were beautiful and I was with the family. The girls were taking turns sleeping in the van with me so it gave me a lovely opportunity to have a one on one with them.
One afternoon the girls decided they wanted to cook biscuits and sell them at the CP. They went with Sara to the local supermarket and purchased all the ingredients, came back and made rum balls (minus the rum) and M & M biscuits then set about designing notices to put around the park after getting permission from the CP owners. In no time they had customers and had sold out. They had enough ingredients for a second batch, which also sold out. Three very excited little girls had run a very successful little business.
Nellie and Leah with a happy customer, Sara keeping a watch on the handling of the exchange!!
On 11th September we all packed up and drove into Darwin and parked our vans side by side at Free Spirit Caravan Park and Resort. This CP was huge with three swimming pools, a restaurant, entertainment every day around the pool for kids, music in the evening. Although large it was an excellent park, and as we are now in the "shoulder" season prices are more reasonable. Finding a good spot in the park was easy, although I had problems with birds nesting in the tree above my car parking spot, so every morning I washed my car😝...It's never been so clean!!! (I can hear you say...why don't you move the car to a different parking spot?" That wasn't possible because of the trees within my designated camp spot!!!)
The weather in Darwin is very dry and starting to get quite hot... I bought an end sunshade for the awning ⛱ and very glad I did. It made a lot of difference!!! At least there is almost no humidity and locals tell us by this stage of the year there should be a lot more humidity. Referred to as "the build up'", it's the season Darwin-ites find oppressive. They say once the wet season starts the humidity is more bearable!!! We're finding it extremely pleasant so we don't mind it being late👍 👏
I took the time while in Darwin to get the car serviced. The result was, I needed new brake pads fitted so I had to return the car a few days later for that to be done. Luckily I was only a few kilometres away from the service centre and they provided a pick-up service so it was pretty painless. I also had my eyes tested and the result from that is I am trialling new contact lens for the next few weeks. I even visited the skin doctor for a check and have been given the all clear...yeh!! 😎
Darwin has quite a few markets, one being the famous "Mindil Beach Sunset Market" held every Thursday and Sunday evening during the dry season. We had to go look of course. The crowds were enormous and loads of stalls and food vendors. When the sunset was almost upon us we walked over onto the beach and got a shock to see an even bigger crowd sitting watching the sunset.
Other markets included "Parap" and "Palmerston". All were unique in their own way, but many had the same food vendors. They were extremely popular and plentiful and the crowds were huge at all of them. You could attend a market in the Darwin region almost every day of the week. The place seemed to have a market mentality.
I spent time doing some great fun activities with the kids. One was huge water park in the suburb of Leanyer and did we have some fun there!!! The orange slide was a blackout slide, so vision in the tube was nil!!! There had to be two people on a dingy to be able to use it.
Leah & Kate 😍😍
You're never too old 😎...with Nellie 😍😍
We then went rock climbing in an old WW11 Oil bunker that had been turned into a rock climbing gym. The girls were amazing, spending 2 to 3 hours climbing with Sara, John and myself acting as their "Belayer". ie. the person who supports the tension on the rope and releases the rope when the climber is ready to descend. The girls got right into it going through all the safety checks before starting the climbs and looked like effortless monkey's doing all the available climbs.
Sara (the "Belayer") and Leah are in the middle climb . This photo gives a perspective of the height.
Other climbers were there training as well.
Kate tackling a fairly difficult section.
After rock climbing to drove down to Cullen Bay for a late fish and chips lunch . They had "crumbed Crocodile on the menu and it was delicious.
Time to say farewell to Sara, John and family as they are off to Bali for 2 weeks. Their van is packed up, but on site at the CP. I took them out to the airport and saw them off on Sunday 14th September and felt very sad 😔 as I probably won't catch up with them again now for a few months. I feel very privileged to have been able share this past couple of weeks with them. I have another week in Darwin before I meet up with Susan P, a friend from Albury who is flying in to do the trip from Darwin to Broome with me...Another Thelma and Louise trip....we're still looking for Brad Pitt!!!🤪
On Monday 15th, I arranged to meet Kit, a fellow painting friend for lunch and we went on a tour of the street art displays around Darwin city. Darwin has a street art festival each year for two weeks and it had just finished. The art has become quite an attraction in the city and is helping to reinvigorate the CBD as a tourist destination.
Kit showing me around her studio
Although the festival was over some artists were still working. This is on the woolworths carpark wall in Darwin CBD
Gurrumul
When I took this photo I didn't know that a few days later I would be privileged to meet this aboriginal man on a cultural trip in Kakadu. His indigenous name is Gyydnah (I doubt this is the correct spelling, but when I asked him about his aboriginal name I found it difficult to interpret his pronunciation or get him to spell it out for me). He introduced himself as Hilton. More about him later in the blog!!!
I finally got to a Rotary meeting...Yeh!! It's been hard to get to one and it's not been for want of trying. Often it hasn't coincided with my night/s in the town I'm or they had a cancelled meeting that week!! Just my luck 🙃That was the case with the first club I approached in Darwin.
Darwin Rotary Club meeting, 6.30pm Thursday 19th September
I had a fabulous night of friendship with a great bunch of guys...they are an all male club of 49 members (about 22 at this meeting) who made me feel very welcome and were a lot of fun. They always wear Hawaiian shirts to the meetings and tell jokes (the President told a fairly risque joke forgetting they had a female in the room🤪) They also do some serious fundraising and community work here and internationally. The following day I met up with one of the members to discuss a great fund raising idea we had discussed at the meeting and I was given the template to take back to my club on my return.
One of the Darwin tourist attractions is a sunset cruise on the Darwin Harbour. I took the "Fish and Chips" sunset cruise and loved it. One of the highlights was having fish and chips delivered to the boat, then walking on a sandbar in the middle of the harbour with the tide coming in. By the time we got back on board the sand bar had almost disappeared.
The sunset selfie from the sandbar
Sunset from the boat on our way back. Our skipper gave us a final thrill by doing upping the speed and doing some 360 degree turns as we came back into the wharf 😀
I also decided to take a day tour out of Darwin to Kakadu with "Offroad Dreaming". This small company run a cultural tour out to Jabiru which includes a 2 hour river cruise on the East Alligator River that borders Arnhem land...It was a sensational day and I'm so glad I did it. The day started at 5.30am (it was still dark and I'm not one for getting up in the dark!!). After seeing the sun rise we stopped for coffee 😃 about 8.30 (Corroboree Hotel). Along the road we saw loads of wildlife including wallabies and reached Kakadu about 3 hours later. We were kept entertained by our tour guide driver telling us lots about the region. Such as, Kakadu is made up of 5 different indigenous countries and each country has it's own individual customs, culture and language. Arnhem Land has 52 different indigenous countries. Kakadu has an area of 20,000 square kilometres. Arnhem Land has almost 100,000 square kilometre.
After calling into the National Park office to register and collect our day passes (and doing a quick run around the fabulous art gallery and indigenous museum), we drove to Ubirr to see the rock art and climb Nabdab rock lookout for a sensational view of Kakadu.
There was a small rock wallaby with a young one in its pouch at this site.
Most of the art is on a sandstone rock. Some of the older paintings date back 20,000 years or more.
Some of the later paintings are what is termed Xray Art and is very common in this region. Artists paint the internal bones and structures of the animal and fish . These paintings are reported to be around 1500 to 2000 years old.
Climbing further above the rock paintings is the Nabdab lookout point, which is a huge rock formation about 100 metres across at the peak. It's a relatively easy climb and once there is easy to walk around. It gives you the most amazing 360 degree panoramic view of the Kakadu region. It took my breath away and I'd have to say, photo's do not do it justice. Seeing it in reality is so much better than any photo shows....Still, here's just a few...
Ubirr - Almost at the top of Nabdab lookout looking North.
At the top with the wetlands below
Another view from Nabdab lookout point, Ubirr looking towards the west
A pano.
Before leaving for the East Alligator River cruise we were treated to a beautiful lunch at the day parking area. We sat under a large shelter with tablecloths on the benches to enjoy chicken, salad and fresh fruit.
Next stop was the "Guluyambi "Cultural Cruise on the East Alligator river, which was very close to Cahill's crossing where there are many....many salt water crocodiles. Our tour guide was Gyydnah, but he introduced himself as Hilton. He was the subject of the street art painting I wrote about earlier in this blog post.
Check back at the Darwin street art to see the painting of Hilton.
He initially took us down stream to Cahill's crossing to see the crocodiles. There were quite a few people fishing in boats. I'm not sure I'd be game to be so close in a small dinghy to these rather large reptiles. The "Salties" can move 8 times faster than humans in water, so I'd hate to fall in the river😱
We saw this one catch this barramundi and watched him eat it in about 3 mouthfuls.
Hilton then turned the boat upstream and we motored for a good hour along the East Alligator river while he told us about the aboriginal language, taught us aboriginal words, showed us how spears are made and gave a demonstration of throwing them.
A spear making lesson. Later Hilton showed us how to hold them and throw them.
Arnhem land on the left bank, Kakadu on the right bank
The tour was sensational, but It had been a huge day so the following day, Sunday 22nd September, I took it easy. I also needed to do a few housekeeping jobs in preparation for my next visitor who was arriving the following day to travel with me through to Broome.
I'll close this post off here. The next edition will be around the time Susan leaves for home in early October.
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Until the next time...enjoy the ride with me 😀