Category: Northern Territory

Our journey west

Our journey west continues. We go from Katherine to Flora National Park!

The day we left Edith Falls, we were hoping to get to Flora National Park, but due to an issue with the car we ended up driving back to Katherine and staying there for a few nights.

Katherine wasn’t too bad, and not only did we catch up with mates, we discovered the Katherine Hot Springs and enjoyed spending our time there.

Flora National Park was different. When we arrived, we were a little sceptical but after driving 40kms on dirt roads with loads of bulldust, we were committed. The camp grounds have only been opened since August this year, after been closed for almost 16months. On the up side, these camp grounds not only had toilets but showers as well! We were totally spoilt!!!

Boy was it hot! On the first night, we were both up at 1.30am, so we got up to see the temp, it was 34 degrees…at 1.30am! Crazy!!! Lucky we had the Milwaukee!

Tim did try his hand at fishing but no luck. We saw a few piggies and the piglets were incredibly cute but sadly the destruction they did to the riverbank in such a short time is terrible. And yes, while it looks like a great place to swim, I have two words for you: saltwater crocs!  They ruin everything!!

Leaving the NT

We didn’t get far, but Katherine seems nice enough.

What a week!

We got our car back on Friday and headed to Leliyn (Edith Falls) late Saturday. A picture of the falls is above.

It is beautiful there, but hot. So by 9pm it was a balmy 31 degrees and I’m pretty sure it didn’t drop too much overnight. To say I’ve been spoiled by air-con is an understatement, but thankfully my Milwaukee fan rocks.

We wanted to do some exploring while at Edith Falls, so we had a mid-morning swim, chilled out with a few books while we waited for the heat to subside a little. By 5 in the afternoon, we headed off on a small hike to the upper pool and naturally we had to have a dip! There aren’t many places in the NT you can swim (and those that you can, often it’s signed you swim at your own risk) and when it’s hot, a quick dip is all you are after.

After our dip, we continued our hike – completely refreshed! It was a perfect day.

The following day we were off and called into Katherine. Tim noticed an oil leak so we needed to contact Ford. Turns out this was something we could fix, once they knew we couldn’t simply bring the car back.

Tim spent a few hours sorting out the issue and we drove out of Katherine excited about the adventures ahead!

We got 30 minutes out of Katherine, before deciding to return to have the car looked at. It does happen in threes. A quick refresh – in the past few months, the gear box has been reconditioned, the fuel pump has been replaced and now, it seems something in the back end may need to be looked at.

I started to think the NT doesn’t want to see us leave, but before we were able to get too upset with the prospect of staying put for a few days, we ran into some travel friends at the servo. Of all places. 🙂

We have caught up with these friends a few times on the trip and to see them in Katherine was a surprise. More shocking was the announcement that they have recently been in an accident where their car, and it seems their van are a write off.

Talk about perspective. We have a minor (perhaps more) car issue, they are at the stage of having to sort out where their insurance will leave them.

Let’s face it, there’s not much between Kununurra and Broome and being late spring, it’s the last place I want to be stuck on the side of the road while waiting for assistance. So for now, Katherine is where we are. 🙂

We sit. We wait.

So, we are currently hanging out in our van, waiting on a call about the Ranger. We have no idea what’s going to happen, but if it’s good news, we leave tomorrow. If it’s not so good news, well we will leave some stage next week.  I’m sure I said that last Friday too, so we’ll be on the road, when we are on the road.

Yep, we are leaving the NT and heading to WA. That’s right folk s two states and a territory in 12 months!!!! How exciting is that!

So we’ve seen a lot in Darwin but we aren’t in a hurry to come back anytime soon.

Having said that, if you’re looking for a 10 day get-away come up and experience some great Australian history. It’s amazing to explore the town and to see how much the war impacted the town. Did you know that Darwin had more bombings than Pearl Harbour? The Japanese attacked here only a few weeks after Pearl Harbour and dropped more bombings in that raid than at Pearl Harbour. Crazy no? You can visit the military museum, the tunnels and if you’re strapped for cash, you can simply visit some bunkers.

You can do some great tours, check out the town and even explore the NT if you’re keen on getting out-of-town for a few days. Some great spots up here, like Mataranka and Litchfield.

Enjoy the pics and stay posted for our leaving date! 😊

Darwin

Just a few things we’ve done since Jo’s folks have arrived.

Our first post from the hot sorry, I mean the top end. Yes, while you are all complaining about the cold, we are living it up in the heat. So much so that a few campers have opted to go home early as it’s simply too hot for them here.

We’ve been busy bees since arriving here and we are both working so sadly not seeing too much of the town.

That changed this week with the arrival of my folks. I’ve taken a couple of weeks off work and Tim is trying to slot us in wherever he can.

Having said that, the first few days they were here were epic! We went on a tour of the harbour and ended up taking some spectacular shots of the sunset while eating fish and chips on the sandbar, then we had Territory Day. How amazing is that! It felt like all kinds of good just buying the fireworks, but then to let them off – along Dripstone Cliffs (with what felt like half the town) was simply amazing! Below is a clip of our first ever experience at being pyrotechnics! 

The third night, we had a few drinks with Amanda and John who were heading home the next day and then after touring around town we ended up at Stokes Hill Wharf for dinner.

A relatively quiet day today and then tomorrow we are off to Crocdylus Park and hopefully hitting some other tourist sites before we head to Katherine.

Farewell Queensland ~ hello Northern Territory!

Hey guys. I hope you enjoy the update!

Its been a while since our last update and yep, you read that right, we are out of the homeland and are venturing to places we’ve never been before!

Well, we have both visited Darwin, but that was via plane, so it doesn’t count! 🙂

We left the gulf and had three days to travel 2,170kms to our destination: Darwin. What a trip it was.

Originally we planned to go via the coast, but as it was the end of the wet season we had to change the plan and go via sealed roads which turned out to be just as interesting.

Our first day, we didn’t get away till after lunch and we could have got further, but we were so excited to see a city that we decided to stop in at Mt Isa.  What a rich history that town has and we were surprised to see that the town was built around the mine. Like smack bang in the centre of town, was the mine. So very interesting.

The second night, well, some of you may have seen the pics of us at the Daly Waters Pub, but sadly, google maps was a little off and we missed our intended destination by about 10 – 15kms. Still had a pub, just the wrong one. The pub we were at, was on the Stuart Highway, a lovely spot really, but the one we were after, well, it has more character. And why wouldn’t it when it was built in the 1930’s! Read all about the pub here!

For my mates overseas, this pub is pretty amazing when you realise that the Stuart Highway became a fully sealed road in the 1980’s and the Royal Flying Doctors Service still use this highway as an emergency landing strip.

Back to the pub – we drove past the right pub the following morning and saw that a small town was built around it and an old army base. Surprisingly, a lot of places up here were established from what were originally an army base. Queensland, towns were mostly established from booming mines or ports.

We made it to Darwin on the third day (Sunday) in time for me to start work on the Monday. We weren’t in Darwin long before Tim went home and prepared for the flood. Thankfully, we have amazing friends and family so all our stuff was A-OK! Thanks again to all!

We have started exploring the region of Darwin, and its so interesting being on a working holiday as we capitalise on the moments. Rather than simply saying ‘oh we must try that’ or ‘one day we’ll do that’ we now say ‘that looks fun, when should we do it’ and lock it in!

It’s a nice way to live, but I’m sure we’ll have a weekend or two where we just veg. Having said that, I only have 9 weeks left on my contract! Working holidays can be tough but it’s worth it!

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This was the view from our van at Karumba! Beautiful, simply beautiful.