The latest from the dusty road

Time for another update. It's been a while since I've been able to update the blog, mostly due to lack of time or 'technical difficulties' experienced in various internet places along the road. Because of that we've covered nearly 10,000km since I last bored you with tales of our travels. The good thing is about this is that this will be have less detail, but the bad thing is it contains a veritable 'whos who' of places to see in Oz. So you'll be as jealous as ever ;)

We left Alice Springs and headed north. We didn't spend much time in Alice, much to some peoples surprise, but we're not really the type to spend time looking around towns or cities. It was also the Alice Springs show day, which seemed to mean that everything was shut and most people were elsewhere so we stocked the fridge, filled up the tanks and hit the road.

Next stop was the Devils Marbles, a collection of naturally formed granite boulders. They have been eroded but wind and rain to smooth the flaky edges, producing almost round or egg shaped forms but curiously un-marble like. We scrambled around on the rocks for a bit taking photos and enjoying the sun, and getting into the shots of one guy filming it all with a very expensive looking video camera. Later on it became quite clear that he was obsessed with photography, posing endless shots of his family in amongst their campsite setup. I'm sure it'll make excellent viewing.

Next it was on to Mataranka and Elsey National Park for a couple of nights. We did a short walk along the river to Mataranka falls, although falls is a bit of a stretch really, small cascade is probably more apt. It was quite pleasant to sit next to and have a cuppa though. To ease the strains of the driving and the walking we popped round to Berry Springs, some natural thermal pools, for a dip in the afternoon. The water was quite pleasant, not too warm, and very relaxing.

Following that we drove up to Litchfield National Park, looking forward to our first bit of proper offroad action. We arrived to find the campsites pretty full and most of the offroad tracks closed due to 'seasonal burning'. One track was still open, which was supposedly extremely difficult, so we decided to give that a crack the next day. When we hit the track we found that the extreme difficulty must have been too much for most people as it had been smoothed out considerably, making it nice and easy. A spot called the Lost City was at the end of the track though, a collection of natural rock formations that have eroded over time to leave outcrops that look like the ruins of an old city. When the haze from the bushfires and the still smoking burnt trees it looked like the scenes of a recent medieval siege of a fortified city somewhere in Arabia. After that we decided to cool off at Florence Falls, a beautiful set of falls and plunge pool surrounded by cliffs. Because of the heat of the day it was quite busy but most people were lazing at the sides. We swam out for a blast under the falls themselves - very refreshing. The next day we moved on to Wangi Falls, another set of falls in the park, and took a leisurely stroll along a couple of short walks before stoking the campfire and relaxing.

After Litchfield we headed back to the highway to go to Darwin, but because it was so busy we ended up staying out of town on a very nice homestay called Mango Meadows with a very friendly and welcoming dog named Coco. We spent a day in Darwin while the car was serviced, but decided that we really are not city tourists, as we failed to find anything to do and ended up in a pub for lunch. At least they had James Squire on tap...

With the car serviced we packed up and headed into Kakadu in search of crocs and adventure. First stop was a bush camp site - no facilities at all, just a patch of dirt - up a dirt track with our first proper creek crossings. The camp was on the banks of West Alligator river. We had hoped to drive up to the head and get to a remote beach, but unfortunately the road was closed due to some recent and unseasonal rain. For those of you in the know, this saw the first use of the spade too. Kakadu was not as we had expected, the first section when you enter from the north is very flat, lots of flood plains. We headed up to Ubirr in the north eastern corner the following day to check out some art. A short walk took us round some of the best aboriginal art we've seen and up onto a an outcrop where we could see over the plains to Arhnemland. It was also the spot where a bit of Crocodile Dundee was filmed. The views were pretty impressive, we could see out over the floodplains, and back towards the escarpment that forms the backend of Kakadu, where all the water flows from into the rivers and creeks before reaching the sea.

Next up was Nourlangie rock and surrounds, a collection of even more impressive art. The images were very clear, unlike those we'd seen elsewhere. Nearby was Anbangbang billabong, so we went for a stroll. We managed to remember to take the binoculars with us this time and were amazed at the amount of birdlife out on the water. Because of the reeds and lillies you can't see the birds from a distance but they dotted the surface all over. It also got us, or rather beccys, first croc spot. No more than an ear and an eye poking out the water about 15 metres in front of us but he was there watching us. It made us wonder how many others were out there in the waters that we couldn't see. Next on the destination list was Jim Jim Falls, some 60km down a dirt road. We had been assured that the last 10km was strictly 4WD only and were looking forward to a bit of fun. This time we weren't disappointed as the track was very sandy, rutted and rocky. Nothing our troopy couldn't handle though. This could not be said for the Nissan X-Trail we happened upon, who'd got himself bogged in a particularly sandy section. Never fear, matt and beccy are here ! We dug them out, lowered the tyre pressures and I hopped in the drivers seat to back it out onto firmer ground. Our first successful 4WD rescue, and one very grateful but somewhat embarassed X-Trail driver ;) Jim Jim Falls themselves were specutacular as well, after clambering over rocks to reach the plunge pool. The waters were incredibly clear and tempting but despite other swimmers and signage saying crocs were monitored we decided not enter. Besides, I'd left my croc killing knife in my other jeans ...

After Jim Jim we spent a few more days in Kakadu checking out some more walks before heading back to Katherine, and Katherine Gorge. We stayed at the gorge itself and went on a sunrise breakfast cruise. The captain of our boat was a friendly welshman named Taffy :) The gorge itself was very impressive, more gorgelike than most we'd seen so far on the trip. We decided to stay at the gorge for a few nights to relax instead of hitting the road straight away. Eventually though we packed up and drove across the state line into Western australia. After a brief stop in Kununurra to restock the fridge and fuel up we made for the Bungle Bungles.

The Bungle Bungles are home to the famous beehive mounds, named because of the stripey rock and shapes, but there are also gorges and chasms, including Cathedral gorge. It is without doubt the highlight of the trip so far. The park is relatively untouched, and the scenery is spectacular. We took a helicopter ride over the bungles to get a birds eye view of the beehives, but it also showed off some fantastic creeks and gorges. The beehives were amazing as well, and very photogenic :)

After the bungles it was onto the Gibb River Road, on the the big gravel highways of Australia. It cuts through the Kimberley region of northern WA which is roughly the size of Poland. We passed through pastoral areas and rolling hills, enjoying some untouched and unspoilt scenery. The main aim was to reach Mitchell Falls, some 700km of dirt road into the area. The falls themselves are made up of four separate waterfalls, each stepping down the cliff face with large plunge pools. We walked out to the falls from the campsite and enjoyed a leisurely swim at the top - one of the few croc free spots up there - before a short helicopter 'taxi' ride back to the campsite. After the falls we headed back to one of several cattle stations along the road for a night before going on to Windjana Gorge. This is part of an ancient reef dating from when most of Australia was under water. We saw large numbers of freshwater crocs and were able to get up close at they don't bite unless you poke them. We also took a walk through Tunnel Creek, which flows under the old reef.

From there we headed to Broome, before nipping up to Cape Leveque. The cape is a beautiful spot with white sandy beaches and turquoise waters. We've spent some time up here kicking back, drinking wine and watching the sun go down.

Back to broome for a service, restock the fridge and a couple of cold at the micro brewery in town before we hit the road once more, heading south now. We stopped over in Port Hedland, the 'economic heartbeat' of australia apparently. Its a big shipping port with huge iron ore piles, trucks everywhere and a salt mine. From there it was down to Karinjini National Park. This park featured some of the best gorges we've seen so far. We did a couple of day walks, wading through the water and seeing some pretty impressive scenery. We tried to find an adventure company that runs abseiling and rock climbing tours of the gorges but we were out of luck.

Back in the truck again, we drove down to Exmouth, entry point for the Ningaloo Reef. This reef is a coastal reef system, with most of it only 50m or so from the beach. We managed to bag a spot in one of the beach bush camps for 4 nights and spent our time lazing on the beach, snorkelling and spotting turtles, rays of all sorts, and many different vividly coloured fish. We also saw whales from the beach and from the lighthouse on the headland. It was very tempting at this point to say bugger it to the rest of trip and stay there until november.

We have continued on though, and we're now in Carnarvon before we get to Monkey Mia for a spot of dolphin spotting and feeding....

matt

posted by Matt, Monday, August 14, 2006.