Half-lap Day 53: Timber Creek -> Keep River National Park

LiAM and I were up well before sunrise (although the sky was getting light) and decided to go back to the bridge to see if we could see any crocodiles – a guy had told us yesterday that he’d seen one near the bridge that morning. It was quite cool and LiAM put his jacket on. We drove down and walked out across the bridge. There was a mist rolling across the water and it looked quite spooky at times. We wandered all the way across the bridge – LiAM had wanted to do that yesterday and we hadn’t gone that far. We saw birds (little wrens and other small birds, and kites and crows) and some fish in the water, and a few logs and sticks and buoys that initially we thought might be a croc. At the far side of the bridge we peered through the gates into the restricted military area, and appreciated the sign that said ‘Do not touch anything you find. It may explode and kill you’. LiAM read all the signs on the gate about live fire and lasers being used etc.

The light was changing constantly as the sun started to rise, and it was so beautiful and peaceful. Great reflections in the water. We were about to head back over to the other shore when I saw a log down towards the boat ramp – but it was moving against the current. I looked through my long lens and while I couldn’t make out the shape yet, it was definitely something swimming. It was headed towards the bridge so it wasn’t long before I could see its scales and basic crocodilian shape – very very exciting. It slowly swam up the river, nearly under the cover of the trees on the edge, and through my lens I could see it swishing it’s tail from time to time. It was so silent, just gliding through the water. It turned towards the centre of the river and then submerged. We were talking about how exciting it had been to see it when it came up again near the middle of the river, parallel to the bridge. In the early morning light the spikes on its back and it’s bumpy head, which was all that was out of the water, looked like a black skeleton floating past. Added to the mist and the distant sound of trucks on the highway, it all felt quite eerie.

He submerged again and we assumed that was the last we’d see of him. We crossed to the eastern side of the bridge to get a good view of the sunrise on the river, and the crocodile came up again, on that side. We could see his wider snout and the definite dark colour of his hide and felt confident that this one was a saltwater crocodile. We were able to stand directly behind him as he swam up the river and could see the clear lines of his back spikes – he was incredible to watch. He swam for a while longer then turned towards shore, but didn’t get out. He turned again and headed across to the other side of the river then started to come back towards the bridge.

A man on a motorbike arrived at the bridge as well as someone on a bike. LiAM started to go over and tell them that there was a crocodile when he realised that it was Caitlin on the bike. She’d ridden up from the campsite and was happy to be there in time to see the crocodile. LiAM told the motorcyclist as well. The croc submerged before he got back to the bridge so we went back to camp.

It was warm enough now for LiAM to take his jacket off. We had breakfast and the kids wandered around camp chatting to people, patting the dogs and watching the birds, while Tony and I started to pack up. The kids found a lady who was selling her paintings on greeting cards. They talked to her for ages and bought a card each. She came over to meet us too and had lots of tips about places to go and things to do on our travels.

When we pulled the peg out of the ground water flowed out of the hole and down the hill. I spent ages trying to find a contact number for the ranger, and eventually rang and left a message. I would have preferred to talk to someone directly but no one ever answered the phone.

It was hot while we were packing up and we decided that it would probably be better to set up in a place that has morning shade, rather than afternoon shade, if we need to choose. We were on our way by about 10.30, and continued west along the Victoria Highway.

We’d been given a tip back in Mataranka that the Keep River National Park, right before the WA border, was pretty special. There were rock formations there which were similar (though much smaller) to the Bungle Bungles, so we thought it would be nice to see them as we won’t get to the Bungle Bungles. Our Camps book said that the road in was rough dirt, so we had almost decided not to go, then we checked on wikicamps and the reviews said that the road had been recently graded and was fine for 2WDs.

We drove into the park and stopped at the ranger station. They had a fantastic display there of all the types of things you could see in the park, and a map of the walks. I was thinking we’d need to do the longer walk, at the furthest campground, to see the beehive rock formations, so we thought we’d camp at the closest campground and drive further the next day. Talking to a couple in the ranger centre they said that the walk at the 1^st campground was beautiful and had lots of those types of rocks, so we figured we might not need to go all the way to the end.

We headed off on the dirt road, which was occasionally corrugated but not too bad. We filled up our water containers at a drinking water station, and stopped a bit further on to collect firewood, then continued on to the campground. There was one sandy creekbed which worried us slightly, but we got through easily. We picked a spot (again, a narrow spot that we needed to back in to) that we thought might have morning sun (there was one better spot, but the car that had gone past us when we were collecting firewood, had set up there).

We unhooked the trailer and put it in place, and got out our chairs, then went and sat in a shady grove of trees to cool down, it was very very hot in the sun. The view was amazing – a large formation of red rocks rising up just near the campground, with lots of smaller beehive rocks in the foreground. There was a large rock right in the middle of the campground too, which the kids used for shade while they played some games and then they climbed it a little way and sat up near the top.

We had some lunch and spent the hottest part of the afternoon sitting and reading, chatting, doing puzzles and so on. After a couple of hours we set up the tent, then the lady we’d met at the ranger station came over and said there was something interesting at her campsite that the kids might like. They had an old termite nest next to their van, and the meat ants were destroying it, going in and out of the nest and bringing out eggs and termites. We could see how big it used to be (spread between 3 trees and as tall as me), now it was just a mound, only 30cm or so high. It was fascinating. We talked to the couple about their trip and ours, and about this area, and the boab trees (we’d seen lots today) and how the indigenous people had eaten the nuts and the seeds.

The sun was getting lower in the sky so we all got ready to go for a walk. Millie was reluctant at first so I said she could take photos with my camera, and once we got started I suggested she look for rocks that looked like animals – she found a camel, a turtle, and a gorilla almost immediately and was happy for the rest of the way. It was a 2km walk through the rocks, and it was magnificent. Amazing rock formations every way we looked, a range of plant life, lots of little valleys, and the big red cliffs, with holes and jutting out bits and interesting features, towering above us. Tony walked ahead with LiAM and Caitlin while Millie and I went a bit slower. There was so much to look at that no one complained about doing a walk or felt that it was long at all. There were places that echoed and the trail led gradually upwards so we were soon looking back across the woodlands of the national park. We were on the highest part of the trail when the sun dropped over the escarpment on the horizon, which looked pretty special. The walk led back down to ground level then through the brush back to camp, with rocks all around us as we went. It was very very cool.

It looks like there's a crocodile climbing the escarpment

Back at camp Tony started to get the fire ready to cook tea. There was a ranger talk scheduled for this evening – we’ve been seeing them advertised at every NT National Park we’ve been to, either talks or guided walks, but have always missed them by a day or so. So we were excited to be here for this one. Tony was just about to light the fire when the ranger arrived – he wanted to use the fire to heat the billy so that everyone could have a cuppa during or after the talk. We were happy to move our stuff out of the way and figured we’d eat after the talk.

The ranger showed us a slideshow and talked about all the different features of the Keep River National Park, and what the rangers’ role is at the park. It was really interesting and he spoke well. The kids asked lots of questions (as did other people – there were probably 30 people there) and he answered them in a lot of detail. After the talk the kids had a hot milo, and chatted to the ranger a bit. He’d been working as part of the crocodile removal team in Darwin until recently, so it was fascinating to talk to him about how they removed crocodiles from Darwin Harbour.

We finally headed back to our tent and had toasted corned beef sandwiches for tea. Caitlin had set up the green tent next to our big tent and moved Millie’s bed in to there for the night. There was lots more room in our tent with only 2 beds (Millie slept on Caitlin’s). Being right next to us she could still hear so I was ready to read Brisingr, then realised that LiAM had fallen asleep while he waited for me to come to bed, so we didn’t do any reading tonight.

Half-lap Day 43: Darwin

A wind came up in the night and I was feeling quite disoriented, couldn’t figure out which way the tent was facing, and I slept quite badly. The weather was much cooler in the morning though, very pleasant. Tony had a sleep in and felt much better when he woke up, although his knee is still quite sore. We had breakfast and pottered around the tent, Tony put the awning up, I had another go at everyone’s hair, we haven’t quite managed to get rid of all the head lice yet. We chatted a little to our hosts then had some sandwiches for lunch.

In the afternoon we drove in to the Darwin Museum. The kids spent a lot of time looking at the natural history part – displays of shells, birds, reptiles, desert animals, Darwin Harbour creatures, fish, dinosaurs, mangrove dwellers – all based on animals that live (or have lived) in the Northern Territory. We moved on then to the Cyclone Tracy exhibit – I loved it when I was here 20 years ago and it was pretty much the same, although equally as moving. Having experienced the strong winds we did in Hahndorf last month, the kids could really appreciate how much stronger the cyclone’s winds must have been to cause the damage that they did.

From there we went up to see Sweetheart the crocodile – a mounted skin and skeleton from a 5.13m crocodile that drowned when it was being moved many years ago. I’d been trying to explain to Millie how long saltwater crocs can get – and seeing the actual size of a big one boggled all our minds. It is hard to comprehend that a living creature could get so big. It was also cool to see a skull replica of the ancient crocodile ancestor which was at least twice as big as the real crocodile.

Caitlin and I wanted to look at the indigenous art section, so Tony took the others to the Discovery Room for kids. The art was fascinating, especially looking at the very different styles from different parts of the continent. In the Discovery room the kids were playing with blocks, the did some drawings and looked at the animals displayed around the rooms. Tony went out to watch a bit of the Collingwood game on his phone, and Caitlin and LiAM and I had fun with a poster where the names of colours were written in a different colour and you had to say the colour of the ink rather than read the word – it was really difficult. Caitlin went to browse the gift shop and LiAM and I played with some cogs and wooden bars on a little tool bench – we were trying to move a bar from one spot to another using the cogs – we refined our design probably 7 or 8 times and eventually got it to work, it was a lot of fun.

We all went to the gift shop then and there were things that everyone wanted but they weren’t specifically Darwin related things, more cool museum toys that we can probably get in the shop at Melbourne Museum so everyone decided to leave them. I still haven’t found any aboriginal art that I like that I can afford, so thought I might buy something from here with art printed on it, after a while I found some lens cleaning cloths that I really liked with a beautiful print, and the proceeds go back to the artist’s community, so I got that.

We had a look at the fish pond, seeing a pig-nosed turtle and lots of archer fish (my new favourite fish) and rainbow fish, then wandered down to the harbour shore. It was pretty exciting – when we left Port Augusta 30 days ago we said we wouldn’t see ocean again until we reached the other side of the country, and here we are! It was so vast and so blue, and the afternoon sun was shining brightly on it – very pretty.

We wandered around on the shore for a while, found some tiny little brown crabs that were so camouflaged we really could only see them if they moved, a shell with a crab in it, a tiny spider, lots of skimming stones for Tony (the water was really smooth), and lots of cool rocks and shells. The kids didn’t have hats on and the sun was pretty strong (less humidity today but still hot) so everyone got tired really quickly. We had stressed to the kids that we don’t swim in the harbour because of crocodiles (and stingers) but there were people tubing and in the water – not something I’d want to be doing.

Happy to be back on the coast

LiAM with crabs and shells

Back to the car and we went for a drive around East Point reserve, seeing mangroves and the sun on the cliffs back near where we were, and the big gun turrets from WWII. Everyone seemed fairly uninterested in exploring further, so I drove us in to the city to have a look around there. It was cool to see places I recognised from last time I was here. We were trying to decide whether to just head home or to have something to eat before we went, and ended up going out to Nightcliff and getting hot chips and watching the sun set over the water. There were so many people at Nightcliff, but we drove a bit past the jetty and found somewhere to park and a spot on the beach that wasn’t too crowded. We sat on some rocks that made a ledge over the beach – LiAM jumped down onto the sand a few times – and ate and watched the sun set and the water change colour continually, it was incredibly beautiful.

Once the mossies came out we headed home, driving back a different way and seeing a bit more of Darwin. Back at the tent we had a quick chat to our hosts then got ready for bed and read a few chapters.

Half-lap Day 37: Katherine

Tony and I were up early, getting things out of the car and figuring out what we’d need for the day without the car there. He put his bike on the back of the car and drove it to the mechanic’s. The kids and I played with the puppies and played on iPads and did some puzzles, had some breakfast and hung around the tent. Tony rode his bike back to camp after dropping the car off.

Later in the morning the girls came over to play so all the kids wandered around chatting and looking for animals and looking at the fish.  The girls left in the late morning and everyone was sad to see them go. Tony and I started packing up so that we could leave as soon as the car was fixed, he’d said it would only take a couple of hours. Tony rode his bike back over to the mechanics but it wasn’t ready yet so we hung around the tent some more, played games and chatted, talked to a few friends on the phone. We were reluctant to pack everything up in case the car wasn’t ready in time, so it was a long, slow, hot, uncertain afternoon.

At 3pm we decided it was too late to pack up and go now even if we did get the car back, and it did feel better to know what we were doing. I paid for another night and throughout the afternoon we got the beds back out and set things up again. Tony rang and they said the car was ready, he rode into town to something and got another puncture so walked out to the mechanic, who said the car was all fixed. Tony drove back in to town to get his bike and buy food for dinner, then back to camp, and the engine was overheating again. I rang the mechanic and he said to bring it straight back – by the time Tony got there it had cooled down and they couldn’t reproduce the problem – he drove back to the tent and it was heating up again.

We were both feeling extremely frustrated and everyone was hot. Caitlin had been really keen to go to the hot springs, so I said I’d take her and see how the car went. We drove for a while with no problem, then I turned the air con up and the heat started to rise. I turned it off and it didn’t go back down! We drove to the hot springs and had a really quick dip – basically just in and out. There were other people swimming, not very many, and the signs were still saying do not enter the water because of crocodile sightings. The water was very clear and we checked it carefully before we went in, and we’d been told that the sulphur in the springs usually keeps them away, but any more than a minute in the water felt too risky and scary. A quick dip was enough to feel refreshed anyway. We walked along the springs, they are quite pretty, then back to the car. I drove home via the low-level bridge, and the temperature kept going up. I stopped a few times, let it cool down a bit, then kept going. I drove past the mechanic and the shed was still open with lights on so went in and called out but no one answered so we went back home.

Puppy cuddles

We had dinner, everyone a bit subdued, and played with puppies and kittens and read our books and did puzzles and hunted for geckos. The kids and I went over for a shower – took ages to get all of us organised – then in to bed as quickly as we could, Millie was really tired. Tony had a chat to his dad about what the car problem might be, still no ideas, and he took the car for another drive after we’d gone to bed – still getting hot. Town driving seems to make it worse, but it’s all a bit mystery.

Half-lap Day 29: Devils Marbles -> Elliott

It got a bit windy overnight, and with the windows open it felt different, and none of us slept very well. It meant that we were easily all up before sunrise which was great because we really wanted to see the sun come up over the rocks. There was a rainbow to the west, and some nasty looking storm clouds (heading south) – the rainbow was there for hours and added to the magnificence of the changing colours on the rocks as the sun rose.

We packed up but didn’t rush – it’s quicker after a 1 night stop because we don’t get so much stuff out. I had trouble with the zip on the main door of the tent – Tony managed to get it to a point where it can be closed all the way, but we can only use one of the zips, not two. As we were packing Caitlin’s iPad mini slid out of the car and the screen cracked. When Tony went to put his bike on the trailer he discovered he had a flat tyre. When Millie sat down to have her breakfast I noticed a spider on her seat – a redback! I was feeling a bit jangly after all of that but the rest of the pack up went ok, the kids played with their stuffed animals in the tent and had a great morning. It was pretty cool packing up with these huge boulders looming right above us. Oh and it only cost $7.70 for the night – a great place to camp. We had a long chat to our neighbours as we finished getting ready, a very friendly couple with a gorgeous little maltese terrier who the kids adored.

We drove to Tennant Creek and got petrol, decided not to do anything else there. We had hoped to go out to see The Pebbles, but it was 6km of dirt road each way and we chose not to risk taking the trailer out there. The drive north was quite similar to the day before, and we were hoping to do another 450km and make it to Daly Waters. Tony noticed the engine temperature rising alarmingly – we stopped, checked the engine and the coolant and everything else seemed ok. We kept going – the temp went up again. We turned the air conditioner off and the temperature went back to normal. We tried it a few time – air con on, the engine temperature rose, when we turned it off, it dropped back down. So we continued driving, with windows down and Harry Potter as loud as we could make it. It wasn’t too bad for a while but as the outside temperature reached 35 degrees it became more uncomfortable in the car.

The next town we reached was Elliott. We thought perhaps we should stay here for the night and continue on in the cooler part of the day the next day. I jumped out of the car to go and check out the caravan park, and could only find one of my Teva sandals. I looked everywhere and the other one didn’t turn up – I must have left it on the ground when I went to get out of the car to help Tony check the engine. I was inconsolable – those shoes were my birthday present for this trip and they were starting to get really comfortable. Caitlin lent me her sandals and she wore her thongs.

Tony went to see about the caravan park but they weren’t there. We had seen that there was a mechanic in town so we drove to see him and the kids and I walked back up to the BP to get ice blocks. The kids got a slushie each and I got a zooper dooper – they did help us cool down a little. The mechanic said he thought that maybe the compressor on the air con wasn’t working, and gave Tony the number of an auto electrician in Katherine. I asked at the BP about camping (wiki camps had listed it as an option) and he said only at the caravan park. We headed back down there as we figured we couldn’t drive any further in this heat without air con. A local indigenous man offered us a painting for $30 – I wasn’t prepared to pay that much at this stage.

The caravan park cost $30 for the night and it was very very basic. There was one other lady camped there in a campervan and no one else. The grass was long and unkempt in places, the fittings were all old and broken in places. We’d been given a key for the ladies toilets but the men’s weren’t locked – that makes it seem like it was a safety issue which made me a little nervous. It didn’t feel like a nice place to stay but we were all too tired and hot and a little stressed to keep going in the car. The girls were feeling so hot they went and had a cold shower in their clothes, which cooled them off a little.

There were a lot of peacocks and peahens around the park which was pretty cool. We got set up and sat around for a while, the kids played their ipads, I hung the washing out, Tony fixed his bike tyre, then another family arrived in their caravan and set up next to us – things felt a bit safer then. They had a 5 year old girl and a 3 year old boy and had driven all the way from Mt Isa that day – 880km!! The kids all played together – Millie and the other girl got all their stuffed toys out and played a Frozen game, LiAM and the boy wandered around and looked at peacocks and sticks. One peacock kept attacking its reflection in our neighbour’s car, it was pretty funny. More people arrived as the afternoon progressed and we relaxed a bit.

Tony and Caitlin went for a bike ride around the park, and found the swimming pool – wiki camps had said there was a pool and we hadn’t seen it so thought it was old information. The pool looked very inviting and not old and run down like the rest of the place. We went for a twilight swim which was beautiful. There were bats flying overhead and birds in the trees and a swim made all of us feel much better. Tony left first to go and heat up left overs for dinner – when I went to leave I couldn’t reach around to open the latch to get out of pool enclosure. The manager came out to feed his dogs and I asked him to help us – the dogs came with him and started fighting with each other right in front of the gate where we were standing  - it was quite scary. The guy called them off and we made it out of the pool yard and back to the tent with no further problems.

The town’s little supermarket was the store at the front of the caravan park, so I was able to buy myself some thongs so that I had shoes to wear. I haven’t worn thongs in probably 20 years or more so it’s going to take me a while to get used to them – they are pretty comfortable though.

In our visits to the toilets and showers through the afternoon and evening we saw several frogs (on the soap dish, on the window, on the floor) and geckos on the ceiling. After we ate leftovers and potatoes for tea we headed for bed as we were all exhausted, but it was still in the mid 20s so it took us a while to settle down enough to fall asleep.