If your family is anything like ours then being on holidays means plenty of ice-creams, treats, relaxing and generally living it up!

Being on holiday you feel like you can have that extra dessert, that extra beer or glass of wine (just being sociable you understand!) and generally the only exercise you do is unstructured play with the kids! When your holiday is a year (or possibly even longer now we passed “halfway” far too quickly!) you realise somewhere along that way that you probably need to change normal “holiday” behaviour to something a little less likely to impact on your girth and your budget! Not that we will be missing out on that ice-cream any time soon, more that we will try to balance the eating, drinking and moving so that neither area becomes too much of an issue. You would think that being on permanent holiday meant you have time to do all the things you want and need to do, but it’s funny how even with a pretty flexible agenda we still often find ourselves wondering where all the hours went!

Along with Port Augusta, Tennant Creek wasn’t a place high on our must see list, in fact most of the planning discussions we had involved us driving straight through. But by virtue of the Devils Marbles being such an accessible stop we were ahead of our original plan but not quite far enough ahead to make it much further (we were also planning on overnighting at the Daly Waters pub, but if you don’t get there by 2pm then you won’t get a site!). So it was we found ourselves in Tennant Creek, on Territory Day (this is the day when fireworks are freely available to the general public and you get a great insight into why they are banned in all other states!), on a spot of concrete and without any beer (the “holiday balance” thinking came later in the piece!). While the broken windows and generally run down main street didn’t inspire much confidence we set off on foot to locate the town reserve where the entertainment was happening. As it turns out the food, singers and ultimately fireworks did make for an enjoyable night of fun, even if we adults did have to mask the occasional moment with a false smile and a “what a great (insert positive slant on activity here!).”

They say that the hospital admissions for burns and injuries on Territory Day are greater than the rest of the year put together, and if that’s not enough the common belief is that double this number are at home too embarrassed to seek medical attention until the wound becomes infected! From the number of incidents we heard – explosions in sheds, people running with “shooters” in their hands and generally dangerous drunken behaviour, it’s hardly surprising!

Despite being north of the Tropic of Capricorn (the official boundary between desert and tropics which is just North of Alice Springs) it’s not until you get near the deserted town of Newcastle Waters that you can start to see, smell and feel the impact of the “Tropics.” Pulling off the highway to visit Newcastle Waters its clear to see why this was town was so important when overland cattle drives were in full swing. It is located at the junction of three major overland stock routes and was an important source of provisions and a place to rest before drovers continued on their way. With the development of roads and trucks, overland cattle drives quickly became obsolete, and you can only imagine that with this sudden change the town struggled and failed to remain relevant. So quickly was the change that the life in the old town slipped away to become the ghost town that it remains today. It’s fascinating to wander through the old general store and hotel that would have been such a welcome sight to drovers on their long, dusty and hard treks. It’s hard to imagine what life would have been like for these guys, but looking around you can see you would have needed to be as tough as nails to survive in this hot, hard, dirty and generally inhospitable environment.

Longer drives, or when we need to be somewhere without too many delays, are “lunch in the car” days. Today was a lunch in the car day as we headed off to make sure we got to the Daly Waters Pub early enough to get a spot. Half the caravans we see being towed on the road are driven by early risers (who generally arrive at their next stop before we have even left our current one!) and so it turned out when we arrived just after lunchtime (which is pretty early for us!) we ended up with the third last spot on site..

With a free ice-cream for the kids (courtesy of it being the last helping on the truck) they were happy, we were happy as we had booked in our dinner spot for the “Beef and Barra special” and with happy hour and free “entertainment” there was a whole lot of happiness going around! The Daly Waters Pub certainly is a hoot of a night if you get into the swing of things! By 5pm we had taken advantage of the happy hour and were having a great time in this iconic Australian location, enjoying good company, great food (our first Barra on the trip!) and entertainment that made up for the lack of talent with an A+ for effort! I can see why this is such a well-known location and a must see for most people when visiting the Territory. I couldn’t picture us hanging around here for much longer than a night, but we met some people that loved the atmosphere so much they were planning on sticking around for weeks!

A quick stop at the amusing Larrimah (population 11) Wayside Inn brought some smiles as we looked around the on-site “zoo” and amusing anecdotes scattered around the property. Leaving with an apparently “famous” meat pie (or 3) we were headed up to the hot springs at Mataranka.

Having been cold (in varying degrees) for the last little while the idea of a hot spring had a great deal of appeal and many people had recommended Mataranka (also the setting for the famous book “We Of The Never Never”) before we set off as well as along the way. I think while we were cold we were thinking along the lines of “spa in the snowfields” kind of hot springs, warming us up and being a welcome break from the cold. Of course, Mataranka is only 400 odd kilometres from Darwin, so in fact the weather isn’t cold at all – it’s more of a “spa on a hot summer’s day” than in a snowfield, but it’s still very enjoyable!

There are a couple of different caravan parks around Mataranka, but it turns out the homestead was a good choice when it came to catching up with people we knew! Not only were Barbara and Tony at the same location but as we walked back from our first swim (where we also saw our first “wild” crocodile basking on the other side of the river) we also bumped into a family from Newport school! George had been in Denver’s class for Kindergarten last year and he and his family had left Sydney around June and were on a whirlwind mission to get up the centre, around the west and then back to the east before the end of the year. With the siblings, April and Jack, the four kids bombed around the campground for a couple of days and nights, playing lego, cricket, water bomb fights, swimming and generally having a good time! It was great to catch up with a couple of familiar faces and hear of some stories of their adventures so far!

At campsites there is often some form of entertainment at night time, generally put on by skilled travellers as they look to subsidise their way around the country. Most often musicians, they play for their keep, the entertainment put on nightly or weekly in exchange for a campsite at no cost to them. At Mataranka, during the peak “dry” season, Nathan “Whippy” Griggs, a self-taught whip cracker who currently holds the world records for the number of whip cracks in a minute (530!), had taken up residency. “Whippy” put on quite an entertaining show (he is a pretty down to earth Aussie bloke) who enjoys cracking jokes as well as whips! After the finale with fire cracking we headed back to our site with the sound of cracking ringing in our ears (although that could have just been the kids who bought a whip practising their skills!).

Visiting both the Mataranka and Bitter Springs Thermal pools (where you drift down the river with the flow of the current and the water is crystal clear) we got plenty of time in the water. Despite the smell of sulphur from the springs getting too much after a while, it was a nice way to spend the days (and nights if you were brave enough to venture in after dark!)… It is a very beautiful setting and the water is great, it was just a bit too full of oldies sitting around on their “noodles” for my liking (give me the beach and some waves any day!), but after a long period without much outdoor swimming at all it was nice just to get back into the water!

Arriving in Katherine we booked ourselves on a three Gorge cruise and promptly set off to check out the town! Somewhat amazingly we had made it to that point without having to visit any fast food restaurants, so our visit to Red Rooster got the taste buds tingling even if the ordering process was a little foreign! With the cruise booked for later that week we took off early the next morning for a walk at Edith Falls. As the temperatures were rising during the days (finally!) we wanted to get out there early and get up to the top pools for a swim before the heat made the trek too difficult. Deciding on the Leliyn trail, which takes you up the escarpment and across the top pools, we set off at a cracking pace with the lure of the swim at the top egging us on. Along the way we were treated to some spectacular views of the water as it flows down the escarpment (sorry I know its twice in two sentences, but I just love that word!) and when we finally reached the top pools their temperature was best described as “refreshing!”

It took quite some encouragement for April to summon up the courage to get in, it’s definitely one of those times where you just have to take the plunge and get wet as quickly as possible, trying to edge your way in slowly only seems to increase the suffering!

Katherine Gorge (or Nitmiluk Gorge now as its officially part of the Nitmiluk National Park) is the best known part of Katherine and it certainly lives up to the hype! We did the 3 Gorge cruise (there are 12 gorges in all but most are not easily accessible) and had a great afternoon on the boat(s), swimming in a waterfall lagoon and viewing some excellent aboriginal art sites along the way. The cruise is a great way to see the striking scenery and sheer walls of the Gorge itself. Seeing the crocodiles up close (only the easy going freshwater crocs here as they trap and remove the more dangerous saltwater ones), sunning themselves on the rocks, got us another step closer to these amazing animals. Having a local guide was also fascinating, with interesting insights into plants and hunting techniques, food gathering and seasonality links (where the flowering of one plant lets them know that turtle eggs, for example, are hatching). It was lovely being out on the water and this is a very beautiful area to spend some time…

On the way to Darwin to meet up with Ken and Charlotte (who were planning a reunion of sorts with the place where they had met some 50 years ago!) we wanted to spend some time exploring the world heritage listed Kakadu National Park. Staying at the centrally located Gagudju Lodge in Cooinda we had arrived towards the end of NAIDOC week (which celebrates the culture, history and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people), just in time for the last few days of celebrations. We made some reed bracelets, ate some traditional damper and enjoyed a “Hangi” style pig (buried in a ground oven for hours) as part of the celebrations!

The next morning we were up early for our Yellow River Sunrise tour. One of the reasons for staying at Cooinda is that this is where these tours depart from. Sunrise is a little earlier than us holidaymakers like to rise in the morning, so the idea of then having to travel to get to the departure point didn’t really appeal! This was a truly spectacular tour with a beautiful sunrise over the banks of the river with numerous birds (including Whistling Ducks, Sea Eagles, Azure Kingfishers, Jabirus and Brolgas) as well as the early rising crocs, headed to sunny spots on the banks to try to warm up!

About one third of Australia’s bird species are represented in Kakadu and in the early morning most of them are active so you get to see species after species – a must for any bird lover (and we had quite a few on board!). The operators offer you a second tour at a heavily discounted rate, so a couple of days later we did the same tour in the early afternoon and saw a different mix of birds and crocodiles up close (the local crocodile “Big George” was even showing off in a bit of a territorial battle!). Both trips were definitely very beautiful and interesting and it was great to get the two different perspectives as well as two different guides interpretations of the area and wildlife.

Following the early morning start (the good thing is you get a buffet breakfast back at the lodge once you return!) we travelled south through the park to Gunlom, which is a swimming hole and waterfall often referred to as “Natures Infinity Pool.” When you get to the top you can certainly see why it gets the reference with pool after pool flowing from the river and over the edge in a spectacular waterfall!

Down in the swimming hole we experienced the first hesitation around swimming in a potential crocodile area (the signs tend to put a small doubt in the back of your mind!)… Everyone was happy to stand around and look but there was a certain reluctance for anyone to lead the way into the water. Of course once someone had taken the plunge then everyone else piled in as well for what was a very refreshing swim! The probability of an Estuarine Crocodile (“Estuarine” is the preferred name to “Saltwater” as Saltwater Crocodiles are just as happy in fresh water) in the swimming hole is very small this long after the wet season, but when the first person doesn’t go in you wonder if they know something you don’t and by the time the next few people also stay on the banks you are almost certain that this is the Australian version of the movie “Lake Placid!”

Ubirr is one of the better known Aboriginal art sites in Kakadu. Not only does it have many significant art sites but from the top of Ubirr rock there is a panoramic view of the floodplains and escarpments that attracts many visitors at sunset. There are many guided tours of Ubirr by the local rangers and we joined up with one who shared stories and took us through some of the more impressive Aboriginal art sites in the country. We then joined in with one of the local NAIDOC activity mornings to try our hand at our own Aboriginal Art. As with the language, the art style changes throughout the different geographic regions, and the Kakadu artwork is very complex line work that is applied using a thin reed, stripped down to a single strand and then dipped into the paint. It was amazing to watch not only the construction of the “paintbrush” but also the accuracy, closeness and beauty of this painting style. When we got to give it a go there was no way that an unpractised hand could get anything close to the skill required to produce such an amazing artwork, still we came away with another fun experience and some artwork to boot!

We had decided that we would stick around to view the sunset over the escarpment so in the few hours we had we visited Cahills Crossing (which is the crossing into Arnhem Land) where we watched (and assisted) a few local fisherman casting lines into the river for the majestic barramundi. I’m not sure if many fisherman from this spot get taken by crocs, but you can see them on both sides of the crossing and they are certainly close enough to get the heart racing! Hayley and I had one eye on the kids reeling in the lines and one eye on any movement in the water that was too close for comfort! The kids just love fishing and were desperate to join in, but we may have to find a slightly safer place to fish before we let them try to hook one of the prize catches of the top end.

With an exceptionally nice Thai dinner at the only place anywhere near Ubirr (Border Store) we set off to view the sunset from the popular location atop Ubirr Rock. Watching the spectacular sunset you could easily believe you are in the wilds of Africa and we half expected to see Zebra and Giraffes making their way across the floodplains as the sun sets below the horizon.

Staying at the resort we had been making the most of the facilities, in particular the pool, which offered a very refreshing way to end a day of exploring. There are so many places to explore in Kakadu it’s hard to get to them all, but the following day we were up early again and out looking at the art sites around Nourlangie Rock.

We had the most knowledgeable and interesting guide we could have hoped for and he shared stories of the complex bloodline arrangements of Aboriginal families as well as the archaeological significance of certain discoveries in the area and what these meant in terms of the formation of the land and the history of the area. One fascinating story was of an archaeologist’s dig that had taken place within this area, which not only found evidences of the earliest earthly civilisations but also had been amazed by the ability of the local elders to explain to them just what it was they were finding (tools and weapons etc). Again you could see how stories and information passed through the generations by language had enabled an amazing level of current day understanding. When compared to the western method of recording by writing ongoing history, so easily lost, destroyed or changed (by the victors) you could again appreciate the Aboriginal culture for what it has achieved. You just hope that it can find some way to survive and prosper through the changes that the western world has brought to its shores!

 

Anyway, gotta run, my ice-creams melting!