Not Before Time

but we’ve finally made it to Darwin.  This is once again a very long entry!  In fact, you will probably have to click on ‘previous entries’ at the bottom of this page in order to read all of the update!  Sigh, I really need to do this much more regularly.

We’ve been here nearly 2 weeks now and we’ve both picked up some work so we might stay for a while.  We’ll see how we go with the weather.  We initially stayed at a park where my sister and her partner were staying so we could catch up with them, but now we’ve got work we’ve moved to another park that’s closer to town.  Hopefully we’ll get time between jobs to do all the tourist stuff, particularly Kakadu and Lichfield national parks. 

The trip up from Adelaide was really good.  We stopped at roadside rest areas for a couple of the nights.  Most of the rest areas on the highway aren’t what you call pretty, but there are a couple of good ones for an overnight stop.  One of these is Ingomar, south of Coober Pedy, where you can get some brilliant shots of the sun going down.

Another good place for an overnight stop which is good is the Finke River rest area, 126km south of Alice Springs.  It’s a dried up river with beautiful big gum trees and lots of birdlife.  There are toilet facilities (which were really clean) and a bbq area with a fireplace which we used to cook a couple of steaks on (well David cooked, I stood there watching supervising, while I quenched my thirst).  Initially we were the only people there. The stars were really amazing – millions of them were out, it was a beautiful night and apart from the occasional truck on the road there was no noise at all.  Another vehicle pulled in at around 9:45, and it was a young couple who were obviously worried about disturbing us as they tried to be really quiet as they went about cooking some dinner and setting up their tent.  We slept just fine.  The next morning the young guy was apologetic about disturbing us (he hadn’t, but thought he had).  They were a young Israeli couple out here for a year or so touring around and having a great time. 

We stopped in Katherine for a couple of nights as we wanted to check out the gorge and plan the activities we want to do in this part of the northern territory when we come back down here early next year.  You have to come back to Katherine as it is the only way out of Darwin heading east, west or south!  We think we’ll do the breakfast tour through the gorge – it seems to be the best one as there will be a lot of wildlife out before it gets too hot.

One thing we didn’t see much of on the way  up to Darwin is wildlife.  Not sure why.  When we went to Alice Springs earlier in the year we saw heaps of kangaroos, emus and eagles.  This time we only saw about 1/2 dozen eagles until we got up near Katherine when we started to see Falcons.  Maybe it’s been too hot for them.

Anyway, I’ll be doing a better write up of Katherine later on.

110kms south of Katherine is Mataranka hot springs, a series of waterholes which are apparently fed from underground thermal springs.  We went to the two main springs for a swim, Homestead Springs and Bitter Springs.  Homestead Springs has been dressed up with concrete edging and a gravel bottom and is great for families with smaller children as you can touch the bottom all the way around.  Bitter Springs has been left in a more natural state with only a deck and a ladder added.  The water is a lot deeper here (David couldn’t touch the bottom) but it is really nice and very clear.  You can let the current take you down the river and you can get out at various exit points and walk back down the path to the main entry point again.  Both springs are at a constant 32-34 degrees Celcius.  Beautiful.  Mataranka is also where the book on Elsey Station by Aeneas Gunn ‘We of the Never Never’ was written.  When the movie of the same name was made, a replica of the homestead was built and stands in the grounds of the homestead.

One place we really wanted to stop at on the way through to Darwin was at the Daly Waters pub.  We’d heard and read quite a bit about this place and were looking forward to seeing it.  When we got about 30km south of Daly Waters we started seeing signs that there was a rodeo scheduled for that weekend at Daly Waters and we thought we might not get in.  However we didn’t have a problem at all, probably due to the fact that we were there by 11am!  It did get really busy later in the day though.  We decided that since we hadn’t been to a ‘proper’ rodeo we would stay the extra night and check it out.  Glad we did, we had a great time both at the pub and at the rodeo.

The pub does a great Beef and Barra BBQ for $19 head which was just fantastic and really good value – I’d recommend this over the normal menu options.  It’s also fun just sitting in the bar watching everyone else.  The bar has an interesting décor – consists mainly of donated knickers, bras, jocks and thongs, with a few overseas t-shirts and lots of foreign money also on display.  It’s interesting watching people’s reactions.

The rodeo was very good.  Unfortunately due to equine influenza, some of the horse events weren’t on, but there was still plenty to see.  This was the first time we’d seen a campdraft where a rider has to separate a bull from the herd and then guide it through a series of obstacles.  Watching the horse and rider do this is amazing – this event is usually undertaken by jackeroos and jilleroos.  Talking to some of the riders later, it was interesting to find that they do this as part of their job and as soon as they get the opportunity they then do it for fun.  It’s also when they get to catch up with friends that they don’t get to see very often, and to eat all the junk food they want to (they eat very well on the stations).  Everyone we spoke to who works on a station really loves what they do, whether they are a jackeroo/jillaroo or the station cook, and some of them move around from station to station.  From what I heard, they can work 3 months straight then have a week off (and if there’s a rodeo on somewhere, then that’s where they spend their week off).  It’s hard work and long days but they love it. 

Once you get up towards Mataranka you start to see millions of termite mounds.  I started thinking they were just like housing estates, with some being very close to their neighbours, and then other areas had them spread out with plenty of room around them.  The shapes and sizes of them are incredible – with some of resembling mini cathedrals, fortresses, even groups of people.  With a little bit of imagination you can see all sorts of shapes in them.  I even saw one that looked like a happy Budda.  And I hadn’t even had a drink!  I must admit I’m a bit fascinated by them, only the thought that they are full of ants stops me from going right up to them.  I’m looking forward to seeing the magnetic termite mounds in the Lichfield National Park.