Woodies on tour!: July 2015

Our last stop in NT

Katherine, Mathison and Timber Creek

Monday morning and 90kms south to Katherine, we didn’t fuel up at Pine Creek so we were a little low!! Well we managed to get into Katherine and filled up that cost us $104 we were low! Once here and back on cell phone communications Helen called a few Caravan Parks but no luck for tonight. Eventually she got us into the Big4 which is a little way out of Katherine so we decided to visit the supermarket first and stock up with more supplies. We would buy much as we were heading to Western Australia where there is big quarantine laws and we wouldn’t be able to take many fresh vegetables or fruit.

We parked the caravan and Ute on a large grassy area alongside other caravans and walked over to the Woolworths supermarket. Richard noticed that the BWS liquor store didn’t open until 2 p.m. so suggested we did the food shopping and then eat lunch here and wait until 2. This Woolworths must be the busiest store in the Northern Territory it was worse than the London Tube on a bad day. Not enough staff….Helen made a note that she will email the Woolworths CEO and give him a piece of her mind! We must have queued for an hour to get out with the groceries.

Next stop was the alcohol shop, after a bite to eat we went back into the small shopping mall and saw the queue of people trying to get in for their supplies. We forgot about the policeman asking for our ID and wanting to know where we are going to drink out purchases. Darwin didn’t have the policemen on duty in their alcohol outlets! Whilst buying our supplies a woman called out to Richard, it was Lee and her husband Hedley who we had met back at Tumbling Waters, they were staying at the Big4. We arranged to catch up this evening, if they could find us!

Our pitch at the Big4 was a drive thru site so we didn’t unhitch, it was OK for the night. Lee and Hedley duly found us and we had a couple of hours together, they were leaving in the morning too but heading east to Queensland, really nice people.

Big4 Katherine

A very busy Big4

Next morning we didn’t go too far just to a free camp called Mathison creek. It took us quite a while to get there as we got stuck behind some Military vehicles their speed being 60kmp. We arrived and got into a fantastic spot with a very nice neighbour. Some more Military vehicles went passed on the highway but some did turn into the rest area. Helen had a lovely conversation with some of the young men, they were all US soldiers and all 5 or 6 of them were from California they had been in Australia arriving in Bunbury then going by ship again up here to Darwin with all their vehicles.

A nice little spot

The US army vehicles lots Hummers

Richards favourite, starting a fire

This free camp did get busy but not too bad and all campers in bed early and up and off before 8 the next morning. Of course we don’t get up and off for 8….we are usually 10 a.m. people. Well off we did go and once again encounter more military convoys along the Victoria Highway…

Ready to go

We carried on and decided to stop for the night at Timber Creek where we would use all our onions, capsicums and tomatoes as they would be taken off us at the WA border....Now there is another story! Timber Creek caravan park filled up very quickly, we had some friendly neighbours Neil and Joan and Ian and Sue we had a few drinks with them and it seems we are all heading for WA and Lake Argyle. Our new friends left early but we took our time as we would be gaining one and half hours of time! leaving the caravan park we came across more US soldiers doing a great job of clearing any litter they found, apparently they had volunteered to do this.

Scenery en route to Timber Creek

More US soldiers

On the road to WA

Pine Creek

Pussy Cat Flats Caravan Park

12 and 13 July 2015

After what seemed a short drive down the Kakadu Highway we had decided to stay at a less expensive Campground for two nights called Pussy Cat Flats. We were guided to a spot by Sharon, we had power and water for $24 per night.

Sharon and Roger were Kiwis and had been here in Pine Creek for a long time. They were the caretakers. Sharon was from Invercargill and Richard mentioned the Bert Munroe Museum and the Indian motorbike. Sharon said we would see the fastest Indian later that day. She enlightened us about which Indian it was, there behind us was an old Indian Bike that belong to Roger and he starts it up and rides around the race track every afternoon just before Happy Hour!!!

Richard was in his element, this bike was a 1941 Indian and Roger had bought it when he was 13 years old for 2/6d and obviously took it with him to Australia.

This campground is on an old racetrack and 9 hole golf course it has a covered area with bar and restaurant where they sold reasonably priced food. It was a welcome sight for us as we hadn’t eaten out for a few weeks and thought tonight we would have “fish and chips” of course its Barra! We succeeded in a Facetime session with Jonathan and Kyan. Kyan was so happy to see the playground which was next to our van!

We had a pleasant evening, enjoyed our dinner and decided to head back for an early night as we were the only two people there at 7.30p.m. Sharon was shutting up!

Sunday morning, we had a walk (2 laps) around the racecourse before the sun got too hot, chatted to a few people too. Unfortunately, we didn’t venture into Pine Creek township as we were still hitched up to the caravan. This afternoon we had a drink at Happy Hour and realised that there was a roast dinner being cooked tonight and entertainment for us punters by another Kiwi playing his guitar and singing. We had a lovely roast pork dinner for $15 can’t grumble at that.

Monday morning and off this time South to Katherine for supplies.

Kakadu National Park

Kakadu National Park

Jabiru

5 July 2015

After saying many farewells and being quite emotional we managed to get on our way on the Arnhem Highway to our next stop in Jabiru (name of a bird) where we had reserved a spot with our own en-suite. It was a very wide open Caravan Park called, Anbinik which is the name of a tree.

Just outside Jabiru town is the Ranger Uranium Mine, which produces more than 6% of the worlds uranium but it is due to close completely in 2021. It has been running down for quite some time as the number of uninhabited properties bares witness to this.

It was just lovely here but unfortunately Helen had complained of a very bad/strange throat. A look around the very small town later in the afternoon and then back to BBQ some food. We had very quiet neighbours and Helen did speak to them but didn’t get anywhere so she gave up, a lot different to where we have just left. After a not too good a night we were up early and decided to go off and meet the Ranger at Ubirr for the free walk and talk of the Rockart. This was really something, the Ranger was Indigenous one of the grandsons of one of the Traditional Owner (hope that makes sense?). He told the group some lovely stories and showed us the Rockart this lasted for nearly two hours. We did a short climb where we could view the awesome green land towards Arnhem Land it was magical.

Helen wanted to see Cahill’s crossing this is the Alligator River crossing where many Crocs are spotted by the many fishermen. We didn’t see any but there were lots of people fishing. Our next cultural experience would be a demonstration of local painting. It was at a NP campground not far for us to drive. The demonstration was done by another Indigenous man with some of his family, Rangers were here too handing out paint and brushes but, the locals showed us how they made their own brushes from reeds, he just pulled the plant out of the ground and made his own brush. Here in Kakadu, we discovered that the artwork was very different to other Indigenous artwork we had seen on the road, here they use straighter lines and not dots. They seemed to like painting their “Lightning Man” and the fish “Barramundi” We enjoyed this experience and we met some nice people. Helen had a very poor night, she was up coughing for hours and so not really happy to do much the next day. We stayed around the campground, Richard used the swimming pool to cool off! He also booked our flight over Kakadu for tomorrow at sunset. After another not so good night, Helen had an extra sleep. We did a short drive to the Bowali Cultural centre where we encountered two coach loads of people, who immediately raided the ice cream freezer!

All set a ready to go on our flight, very excited about it too. The little plane was a Cessna 172, very small and cosy. Helen sat in the back with Richard as co-pilot. That brings me to tell you about our pilot was called David from New Zealand, he learned to fly at Ardmore not far from where we lived! He was great and so knowledgeable about the area. Look at the pictures, it was just wonderful, we took off and flew towards the escarpment that is the beginning of Arnhem Land and over the Alligator River. We had a great flight! Our next day adventure took us to a lookout called Mirray it was quite a climb and once again very hot. At the top we had a large covered platform that shaded us from the sun, so we just sat and took in the views. We met some people from Perth but originally from Sheffield, we had a nice little chat. After the decent which was quite hard to do we went on to a place called Cooinda where there was a large Caravan Park with large swimming pool that anyone who was in the National Park could use. This is the area where we could have done the Yellow River cruise but we didn’t bother.

Friday saw us drive to another Rockart site called Nourlangie, we had missed the free Ranger talk and walk, but my goodness this place is just the best. Again the Rockart was remarkable! The walk around the area was approximately 2kms and in places stairways and viewing platforms had been erected. This is surely the most abundant example of Rockart in the country! If any of you reading this have the chance to visit Kakadu this is the place.