The Heavi's Go Walkabout: ROAD TRIP!!

ROAD TRIP!! – THE TOP END – 2^ND MAY – 12^TH MAY

The plane journey from Cairns to Darwin was just over 2 hours – a cinch after 11 and a half hours, going to Spain from now on will be easy! Coming down the plane steps, the hot air hit us. It had been hot enough in Port Douglas but this was hot! It averages around 34 degrees all year round up here.

We had 15 minutes to get to the campervan place before it shut – a 15 minute car journey, and there was a long queue for the taxis! It shut for some reason at 3.30pm, but we thought it might be because it was May Day and Australians still have this as a day off as Labour day (but we since found out they just knock off early!)

We made it on time, ringing the office ahead explaining we would be a bit late – and got the standard response “no worries’! We couldn’t believe our luck with the campervan we got. It was brand new. All the crockery, camp table, chairs had labels on still and the interior was pristine. So off we set, with no clue which campsite we were headed for. We were so disorganized! We knew we were going to Litchfield National Park, but that’s all part of the adventure, isn’t it?!

The kids were starving and we needed to stock up on food for the next few days, so we stopped off at a supermarket and to the kids delight, there was a Dominoes pizza take away! We got them a pizza, stocked up with food and set off.

We had stayed longer in that area than we should really and although it was only an hour and a half drive from Darwin to Litchfield, once the sun has set in Oz, it goes dark almost instantly, and we wanted to try to make it to get all set up on the site before it was dark…..we didn’t make it!

Also there are no streetlights so everything is pitch black, then I saw my first snake in the middle of the road in the headlights – that really freaked me out! My first introduction to this area full of goodness knows what bugs, spiders and snakes and I see one in the first hour! It seemed forever before we saw the sign to the campsite and we were beginning to think we had got it wrong – although there is only one road from Darwin right through to Adelaide at the bottom of the country!!

Booked a night at the campsite and had our first comfortable night camping (luxury style!).

Daisy was (very) freaked out by the bugs in the toilets and was refusing to go! There were a lot of funny jumping type bugs, spiders’ webs, lizards and mozzies and a tree frog in one of Richard’s showers!

DAY 2 – LITCHFIELD NATIONAL PARK

We had planned to visit places in Litchfield National Park today. First stop, Magnetic Termite Mounds. They were massive and thought to be over 50 years old.

Our next stop was Florence Falls, a spectacular waterfall with a plunge pool in the bottom. In Litchfield, you are able to swim in some of the freshwater pools, because crocodiles can’t access them! We were so hot from walking down to the falls that we got in for a swim. It was so difficult to swim up to the waterfall because of the current, although Richard and Oliver had a good try though Ol just couldn’t make it!

A few more waterfalls later we decided to drive back up to the same campsite to spend the night before our long drive down to the first leg of the Bungle Bungles.

DAY 3 – LITCHFIELD TO TIMBER CREEK

Today we had a long drive (6-7 hours) down to Timber Creek, before crossing the border into Western Australia and The Bungle Bungles.

Although the drive is long, it wasn’t at all boring, and not like I expected in terms of scenery. I thought it would be desert like and orange. Instead it was very green, trees either side of the very straight road!

After about 4 hours, we hit a town called Katherine and as we were planning on staying here on the way back from the Bungles, we decided to go and book the campsite and stock up again on food from the supermarket. We had not had any phone or internet connection being in the outback, and decided to go to McDonalds to see if we had any mails. That visit was meant to be, we had an urgent mail saying that our Bungles trip was off because the road into it was still closed because it was flooded, until the 10^th May at least.

In this area, they have 2 seasons – the wet and the dry and this year the wet season had been the wettest in years and some of the roads were still closed off to many of the attractions.

After our initial disappointment, we decided to try to see if we could re-plan everything so we could still fit in visiting it. We rang to see if we could sort doing our Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge trip the next day. We were able to do this so we stayed at Katherine for the night. We hadn’t got the phone number for The Bungles office so we decided to do that later when the travel agents were open (the travel agents in the UK was not in the office hours).

DAY 4 – NITMILUK GORGE CRUISE

This was a cruise down the Katherine River which in the wet season is continuous, but in the dry (now), you go down one gorge, get off, scramble over the rocks to the next gorge and get on another boat down the 2^nd gorge. We were on a 3 gorge trip which ended with a swim in a plunge pool – croc free (hopefully)!

The cruise was so relaxing with beautiful scenery. Daisy made a little friend (Mat) who she chatted to the whole time!

There are no saltwater crocodiles in these waters, but smaller, freshwater crocs. We were lucky enough to see one just about to submerge into the water!

Drove half an hour down to Mc Donalds again to look at mails and get some phone connection! We rung the travel agent, who rang the Bungles and they told her that the trip was still cancelled due to the road being closed now until the 11^th and even then it may not be open on the 12^th. So that was it, there was no way we could physically do it. The campervan had to be back on the 12^th, 12 hours drive away! What a disappointment.

So now we had extra days on our hands. Luckily we had phoned our next cruise up at Cooinda and they could accommodate us the next day.

DAY 5 – KAKADU NATIONAL PARK

Kakadu is a massive national park 20,000 sq. kilometres in size and is such a special place. We had a cruise down yellow water and East Alligator River planned today. One of the best times to do this cruise is the 7am, sunrise one. We had to meet at the little shuttle bus stop at the campsite at 6.45am, it felt very early!

We saw lots of wildlife, including birds –Whistling Kite, Egrets, Finchs, a tree snake, the mistakenly named Jabiru which is actually a Black Necked Stork and crocs….!

Then all of a sudden, we were so lucky, Oliver spotted a Water buffalo, which are apparently very rare to see. The guide was shrieking as she was so excited! It trotted along at the side of the water with an Egret on its back like something out of an African wildlife programme! Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a great photo of it because it disappeared as fast as it had appeared!

At first, we couldn’t see any crocs, they appeared to be staying under the water, then we saw one which the guide took us to (named by her as Lumpy!) which had its body in the water and head resting on some pond weed. It didn’t look as big as we imagined and was very still, almost not real. We saw another couple, pretty much the same. Because the water levels are high, there aren’t many banks at the moment for the crocs to bask in the sun. We then started to head back to the dock, and as if it were meant to be, a massive croc swam all the way up to the dock at the side of the boat!