The Outback: Part 2- Alice Springs to Darwin
Trip Start
Unknown
1
5
Trip End
Ongoing
Alice Springs to Darwin, Australia
Sunday, October 21, 2007
First stop on the commencement of this trip was a nice place called Ti Tree where we had breakfast and looked around the Art Gallery which displayed some lovely Aboriginal art work.
From here we drove to White Cliff Wells for one reason: the U.F.O petrol station. This weird place in the middle of the outback where people dare to fill up their cars, displays aliens everywhere! The owners were obviously bored... In the late afternoon we arrived at our destination, Devils Marbles. The Aboriginal people believe these strange granite boulders to be the eggs of the Rainbow Serpent! As the rocks are slowly eroding, scientists believe that in about 50million years they will be little pebbles!
After lunch we drove through Tennent Creek, a town that was formed purely because a lorry carrying beer broke down here and never got repaired. People moved their belongings around the lorry to be close to the beer and the town was built-amazing!
the relaxing part of the day came when we landed at Mary Ann Damn for a swim, this is also when we discovered that green frogs love living in the toilets! Our camp for that night was Banka Banka, a massive historic sheep station in the middle of the outback. We were able to watch a comical slide show here on how the sheep station is run on a daily basis.
On day ten of our tour, we headed to Katherine Gorge driving through Elliot on the way. This town resides on only one side of the road due to soldiers camping on the other side during WW2 and it hasn't changed! We also travelled via Dunmarra where we were lucky enough to witness the solar Car Race which goes from Adelaide to Darwin and is held every two years. Its odd to see as every now and again on the highway you will pass something that resembles a small UFO. It takes them about 4 days to complete the race and according to the judge, England were 4th at that time! We stopped for lunch at the famous Daly Waters pub, an unusual but highly popular stop off for travellers going through the outback. The walls are full of foreign tat, including T-shirts, signed underwear, currency, hats, flip flops and there was even a Yorkshire flag hung up with a signature from Wakefield!! From here we relaxed at Madaranka thermal springs where we enjoyed a swim in the swampy water..as the day drew to an end we reached Katherine and set up camp. It was here that i met the pilot of the helicopter that takes visitors for short but expensive rides over Katherine Gorge. I asked him if it would be possible to take me and Tia for a ride the following day- for free! He agreed under one condition...we had to be naked! Not one to pass up a great opportunity i agreed (much to his horror), so we booked in a trip for the following lunchtime! The following day was one of my favourite days of the tour. We drove the short distance to the beautiful Katherine Gorge set in Nitmiluk National Park. From here we set off in Kayaks down the river for a four hour paddle! it certainly works the muscles in your arms!
After lunch, Buzz dropped me and Tia off at the helicopter pad in our towels (to the cheers of our fellow travellers!) and we headed nervously to the helicopter. The pilot was great, he was young and more nervous than us! He said that no one had done a ride in the nude for two years and as it was his first time, he agreed to fly us over all 13 gorges.
We stripped off and headed to the sky, it was bumpy and quite scary but probably the most enjoyable flight of my life! The views were fantastic and it was definitely worth it! Life is too short and when I'm old and on my death bed i can always say "i did a naked helicopter ride when i was 25!!".
Still on a high we all headed to Darwin for a nights partying before the final part of our tour!
We left Darwin the following morning with a new guide, Karl and drove to Kakadu National Park. First stop was Rock Hole Billabong for our crocodile cruise down the Mary River. The cruise was lovely and enabled us to see so much wildlife. Of course it wouldn't have been complete without spotting a wild croc or two..It wasn't long before we came across a freshwater croc, these are much smaller and friendlier than the famous saltwater ones.
The funniest part of this trip was when we approached a "freshy" and got really close it jumped out of the water and everybody on the boat screamed and nearly lost their camera's! Before the trip ended we spotted a nasty looking saltwater croc lurking in the mud..scary..
From Mary River we made our way to Barramumdi for lunch and had a short walk over to a lovely waterfall.
That night we camped at Cooinda, this is where me and Tia had a broken and scary nights sleep. We both got woken in the middle of the night by a madman shouting in the bush who then proceeded to walk around out tents...we really did fear for our lives!!
Next day we drove to Jim Jim Falls, a beautiful plunge pool surrounded by 700 feet high rock! During the wet season its difficult to access the falls so when we visited there was no water flowing. Nevertheless it was beautiful to swim in!
In the afternoon we headed to Ubirr where we admired lots of Aboriginal art work and the stories behind them. This day was the hottest day i had experience and we were all suffering in the 45degree heat. This night we camped at Point Stuart and was where i got bit by a March fly, possibly the most painful bite i have ever had!
On our last day we leisurely made our way over to Litchfield National Park to visit some gorgeous waterfalls. First was Florence Falls, then Sandy Falls and last of all Wangi Falls which was my personal favourite...swimming in paradise...(with crocs!)
This brought our two week outback tour to an end. It was a great experience of one of my highlights of travelling. It was difficult in places but the beautiful things i have seen made it all worth while.
I'm heading back to the place i call home, Brisbane.
Bye for now Faye xxx
