Outback Australia
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2009
1
22
28
Trip End
Nov 24, 2009
Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Australia
Sunday, September 20, 2009
After leaving Karumba, we went back through Normanton and down the Burke and Wills Highway to Cloncurry and west to Mt. Isa. There is practically nothing to see for hundreds of kilometres except for very long road trains. These road trains were over 50 metres long and carrying a variety of freight including cattle and brumbies. There are many cattle stations in this area of the country. We were talking to one local guy at Normanton and he said from his neighbors front gate to his neighbor's actual home is 57 kilometers. I don't know how big his cattle station is, but very BIG!!!!
On one stretch of road in the middle of nowhere, we were driving along and came across swarms of locusts flying all around us. As we drove through each swarm, they would hit the windscreen for about 60 seconds continuously, they sounded like microwave popcorn. I was of course ducking them as they hit the windscreen.
We left Queensland behind and made it into the Northern Territory late one afternoon. As we stopped to take a picture of the “Welcome to the Northern Territory” sign, a small pick-up truck traveling in the opposite direction stopped, turned around and headed back to where we were pulled over. Two big men got out looked at us and then started taking photos of the sign as well. We looked at their truck and noticed cages and dogs in the back – probably hunters we guessed. After taking our photo, we got on the road again and left them behind, about 200 metres down the road we see a speed limit sign, that says "130 kilometres an hour". Everywhere in Australia except the Northern Territory the maximum speed is 110 kmh, - just another photo opportunity. When we pulled up to take this photo, we noticed the truck with the two guys heading back our way again – I was starting to feel uncomfortable at this time, so we stayed in our van, took a quick photo out the window and just kept driving. Not sure what happened to the two big guys and their dogs, but Wayne thought the whole thing was like a potential scene from the movie, “Deliverance”.
We continued West on the Barkly Highway until we arrived at The Three Ways, intersecting with the Stuart Highway and headed south to Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu) via Tennant Creek. Here we found impressive round granite boulders lay scattered, precariously balanced on top of one another. As the sun was setting, these boulders almost glowed. We were as close to the centre of Australia as we will get on this trip.
We will have to do Ulura (Ayres Rock), Alice Springs and surrounding areas on another trip, as we are running out of time. We went back through Tennant Creek and did a short detour to Daly Waters Pub which is set in the middle of nowhere – a real outback pub. There is nothing around this place for hundreds of miles.
Next stop heading North is Mataranka, which is made famous because Jeannie Gunn lived here and wrote the book “We of The Never Never”. We visited the Thermal Pools where the water temperature was a perfect 34 degrees C. and flowed into a beautiful natural swimming hole. This lush palm fringed water hole is home to colonies of flying foxes (bats). See our little video. The bats hang upside down in the trees all during the day, then at sunset they take off for food and return again at sunrise.
Onto Katherine Gorge where we relaxed around another natural swimming hole before taking a hike to the lookout on the Baruwei track to watch the sun go down. That night we listened to some live music at the campground while we had a glass of wine and barbecued lamb chops. Next morning we were up early for a boat cruise up the Katherine Gorge to the 1st and 2nd gorges. There are 13 natural gorges in total carved through sandstone by the Katherine river with rocks and boulders separating each gorge. At the end of the 1st gorge we walked about 600 meters to the next boat that took us to the end of the 2nd gorge. Spectacular !!!
Moving on to Edith Falls where we swam in a huge swimming hole set against dramatic sandstone cliffs. We did a short but very steep hike to the upper pools where we went for another swim. We have really hit the hot and humid weather now. Any opportunity for a swim and we are there.
Comments
Absolutely great photos
Hi Sis,
What great photos you have taken, They have brought back a lot of great memories for us. Some many years ago, some quite recent.
=)
Those guys sounded really scarey, glad you got away from them!
What wonderful swimming holes/springs you found!
Thanks for the email...we're all doing great thanks!
Luv LJx