Newcastle Waters - population 5?, with us!

On our way to Tennant Creek we turned right off the Stuart Highway into a town called Newcastle Waters. It is completely disused except for a few heritage buildings, an old school building and church, a restored post office building where a few young guys live (may be station hands for the nearby Newcastle Station) and a magnificent brass statue of a drover - a reminder of the meeting place Newcastle Waters was for all passing drovers. It was the evening and we needed to stop. Hoping we hadn't found ourselves in a real life Steven King novel we asked the only person we saw if it would be OK to spend the night on a perfectly mowed piece of lawn near the church. His answer was, "I never saw you!" - so we set up home. We both revelled in being 2 of the only people in a whole town. We had escaped the grey nomads and all the families in their motor homes! (A nearby rest area on the main highway was packed when we passed by the next morning.)

We rode around on our bikes, stopping to walk through all the old heritage, corrugated iron buildings. Nearby was an amazing wetland filled with beautiful waterbirds - pelicans, egrets and others. We watched the sun go down and then, as the dawn broke, went on our bikes to watch the water birds swarm onto the wetland and the sun rise.

That evening and early morning was a rare treat to have been completely alone. The only noise was from the odd road trains carrying cattle from the station.

The one thing about traveling like gypseys is that we never know what's around the corner!

On the road to Tennant Creek from Berry Springs

We were so refreshed after our swim in Berry Springs that all we wanted to do was find the next swimming spot which we did in Litchfield Park - a national park just outside the small "village" of Batchelor. We stayed in a lovely, spacious park which was a treat after being squashed into the caravan park in Darwin. It was so big we could ride around on our bikes and look at everything we wanted - like the feeding of the wild birds in the evenings. Spending the day in Litchfield Park (just out of Batchelor) seeing the majestic waterfalls and swimming in the natural rock holes was fantastic. Chris had an absolute ball and decided that this was his best swimming spot ever! We could have stayed for a week or more but we are keen to make our way to Cairns. (By the way, the girl jumping into the waterhole is not me!!!! she was with her friend and they were trying to capture images of each other jumping in. They were having so much fun and reminded me so much of Mich and Rosanne!)

The NT roads are nowhere near as good as the roads in WA but we drive along slowly, navigating caravan after caravan, motorhomes, road-trains and pot holes - the highway being flanked on both sides by all types of termite mounds. Quite amazing! We had to hit some of our traveling time during school holidays! I think everyone from Vic, SA and NSW are escaping their winter to hit the warmth up north. Hopefully, when holidays are over there will only be the grey nomads left on the road - (together with the road trains!). Some of the minor roads are only one lane width and when oncoming cars approach someone has to pull right over... and avoid a cracked windscreen!

We found the next swimming spot at Mataranka Thermal Pool. It is amazing to think that it flows from the nearby Rainbow Springs at 30.5million litres each day. The springs look as blue as a home pool - only with sand, rocks, fish, logs and ferns on the bottom. It was great going down for a morning bath before we left - 34 deg! The springs are surrounded by huge palm trees whose fronds lie all over the ground due to the population of red bats that force the fronds to fall onto the ground. Quite messy. I thought a lopper had been in!!

While at the Homestead caravan park we met a girl who travels around in her caravan, doing gigs with her guitar and collecting money for orphans in Burma. She has a son who lives in Perth and will visit us when we get back. She does a great gig and has appeared at many music festivals. (Rebecca More - just released her own CD).

Along the way we stopped at Larrimah (population 10) and met a real, NT character, Fran (she in the pink t shirt), who runs a whacky tea-room. She twisted our arm - and those of everyone who stopped to have a peep at the place - to have one of her scones or pasties, or pasties or pasties. I must say, we shared a serving of scones and they were delicious. A bit overpriced but considering Fran's location thought she deserved it.

Stopping and having a look at the Daly Waters world famous pub - extensively used by WW2 servicemen, was very interesting. The caravan park next door was packed and we had no intention of staying anywhere near the place though we had met a couple the day before who said they had a ball there the night before. We are not the greatest beer drinkers and I suppose that's the lure of the place. You can win free beers if you have a small bet on the odd or even of a dice!

So we moved on, wanting to find a free camping spot before getting to Tennant Creek. Diesel, and everything else on the way into the red centre is very expensive. We had to get diesel at $1.95 pl.

Also, I can't resist showing you how some people carry their bikes - and we were worried that ours would fall off!

I saw the beautiful iron work of a wheel of an old shunter in the pub in Pine Creek.

Darwin and Berry Springs

I had to include Berry Springs in the title as it is just the most beautiful place about 45 mins out of Darwin. We took a drive from Darwin to the springs one morning and loved it so much that we returned again on our way out of Darwin. The only way I can describe it is like swimming in a fairy pool - the ones illustrated in fairy stories that we read when we were kids. I think the fairies were even hiding in the greenery, along with the goannas and dragonflies. Swimming is amazing as the temperature of the water is about 28deg. It would have been interesting using our goggles while swimming but it was better not knowing what we were swimming with!!! Chris felt a few fish pecking at his leg while we were chatting with fellow "spring swimmers".

We had to stay in a park 20mins out of Darwin as all caravan parks in town were booked out. It was the first time since we started travelling that we felt that we were too close to our neighbours. They probably felt the same way - though we did end up meeting some nice people again! It meant that we had to drive into town each time we wanted to explore the city which was good as we got to see quite a few of the suburbs. We found it very nice but once again didn't think it would be very pleasant in the wet season. It is not humid now but still very warm with a daily temp of up to 33 deg. I don't know how any of the shops sell any winter clothes at all - they do have them!!

We had a great afternoon swimming in the wave pool on the Darwin water front which we thought put Perth to shame. A beautiful job has been done. We asked if we could pay the senior's rate, which was instantly agreed to!! What does this say?? Anyway, we paid $3 each to have a complete ball bobbing about on the waves in a big, blue rubber tube. It was awesome!

The markets are great in Darwin (we visited 2!) and choosing something to eat from all the tempting Asian style stalls is not easy!! We could not resist a satay prawn kebab along with fruit salad freshly prepared from fruit that had just been picked, I am sure! We also had the most delicious fruit smoothie made with exactly what we wanted - pawpaw, lime and other delicious fresh fruit. It's not Chris's favourite pastime - going to markets - but it made his day hearing a V8 engine rev up. (The V8 Super Cars were in Darwin for the weekend.) I didn't feel so guilty dragging him along to, yet, another market!!!

The one disaster of the week was me washing Chris's hearing aids in the washing machine. (Say no more!) Thanks to a great audiologist I urgently tracked down, the situation was saved by using her good humidifier - $91 later!! While waiting for the humidifier to do its work we shared a breakfast which was the cheapest, best breakfast we have tasted. We think Perth's prices are way too much compared to other cities.

Darwin is a lovely city - green and laid back. Lots of memories of Cyclone Tracey are everywhere which makes it a bit scary to think that cyclones are part of life in Darwin. (The only part of the Anglican Cathedral saved after Cyclone Tracey was the front porch!) Not for me, I don't think - and again crocodiles all over the place! My friend Katrine, from St Anthonys, lost everything she had in the cyclone in 1974, and has never returned!

Katherine Gorge and Kakadu

Our first stop in the NT was in Katherine. Caravans EVERYWHERE!! It's the gateway to the east, west, north and centre of Australia. We decided very quickly that we wanted to move on as soon as possible. We felt as if we were in the wild west with the max speed limit being 130 km per hour - NT drivers and huge road trains coming at us from all angles. Chris was very upset he was pulling a caravan!

We did walk to the top of Catherine Gorge which was beautiful, and pretty steep too.

Also, there must have been a dingo in the caravan park the night we stayed in Katherine as when we woke up in the morning ONE of Chris's good hiking boots was GONE! We searched the place flat but the dingo took it!!! One good thing about bigger towns is that there is usually a Country Target (with very limited choice) so he managed to get a new pair of sports shoes - only one size 11 in the shop! He needed them badly as we were off to Kakadu!

Kakadu is amazing. That's all I can say..... the huge rocks, wetlands with the lilies, the bird life, the ancient Aboriginal rock art sites, the crocodiles!, the varied vegetation, the sunsets, the billabongs, the creeks, the rivers, and Aborigines who live just as they did 1000's of years ago ... just all amazing and beautiful.

We chose to stay in designated bush camps. Few campers, dead quiet at night and an endless ceiling of stars...... a fair few mozzies though, as we were fairly close to wetlands.

We would absolutely recommend a visit to Kakadu.