The crowd gathers

Fast forward - 2 June....

So I am sitting here in our camper on the 2nd of June at Cape Leveque about to post this blog. You may notice that the last entry is 14th May, which means that I am more than 2 weeks behind. I guess that means I must be having either too much fun or too much sleep and not enough time to blog. But fear not, faithful readers, my memories are still fresh and I will catch up, I promise.

7 May - Devils Marbles

I remember the Devils Marbles campground as a dusty and somewhat desolate place with smelly pit toilets, but very few people. S has similar memories except that he remembers the campground being also adorned with toilet paper and garbage. But none of that matters because as well as visiting a truly iconic Australian place, we are also meeting up with J&M who have travelled from the east to complete our merry bunch of campers.

I have probably told you before about our little home on wheels, which carries the badge “Ultimate Elite Gold” possibly conjuring up false images. It is really just a light, but very robust and well appointed tent on wheels. Clearly tent-on-wheels doesn’t quite have the marketing allure of “ultimate elite gold”. Regardless of badge our little machine is perfect for us, but not everybody’s cup of tea. The reason I mention this here is because somehow we seem to have managed to sell the benefits of the Ultimate to the erstwhile caravan pullers J&M and they have invested in a slightly less pretentiously titled Ultimate X-plor. It will be delightful having both them and their little contraption join us.

Despite the less than 5 star camping experience (although much better than S and my recollections, particularly after we found a sneaky hidden toilet further away but less used, therefore less stinky), Devils Marbles is an amazing place. For me it is a little bit like Uluru in that it is something of a spiritual experience to be walking through a holy aboriginal place, a place of their Dreamtime stories. It is also a pretty awesome place visually. Amazing rocks, All formed back in the Dreamtime by a devil man passing through rolling tufts of hair and tossing them down and spitting on the ground as he went.

J&M arrived early and saved us spots so that all three of us could camp together. It was lovely to catch up, set up and then go for a sunset walk amongst the marbles.

Sunrise

8 May - Daly Waters

Beautiful sunrise at Devil’s Marbles followed by a nice walk before we pack up and head for Daly Waters. We stop for a rest at Tennant Creek, where J&M have spent the last week or so revisiting some of M’s (misspent??) youth. The Tennant Creek art gallery sounded like a nice place to stop, and they advertised coffee as well, so a perfect choice for me. Two of my favourite things, coffee and, well, coffee. Whilst wandering through the gallery we bumped into an eccentric looking English gentleman painting a beautiful monochrome portrait of an aboriginal couple. A quick glance around the room revealed a half a dozen other portraits all painted in the same distinctive style, all beautifully done. I suspect he made it his business to have people bump into him, so that he could tell them about his work and show them the other dozen or so portraits not hanging on the wall. His name was Bevel Staley (what else could you be but an artist with a name like that). Some might say that Bevel was a little bit full of himself, but he was a very interesting person doing what seemed to be a really good thing. For several months in the year he donated his time and works effectively as artist in residence at Tennant Creek. Initially his intention was to paint (from archival photos), portraits of past aboriginal identities, but his current effort is around portraits of local contemporary aboriginal identities. Arrival of our coffee gave us good cause to thank Bevel for his ear bending and to move on.

The last time we were up this way we intended staying at Daly Waters because so many people had said “you must stay at Daly Waters, it is a real experience”. Our plans however were thwarted, because the Saturday in May that we arrived happened to coincide with the local B&S (bachelors and spinsters) ball at the hotel, and the strong recommendation when we went to book in was to go back to the quiet campground out of town, rather than the one beside the hotel, which would be way too rowdy for a greying couple such as us. Reluctantly we heeded that advice, but Beth felt a little ripped off.

So despite the fact that we were again arriving on a Saturday in May, Beth had resolved to stay in town regardless of whatever rowdy event might be on the agenda. Luckily, no B&S ball stood in our way this time and securing sites was no problem. But in the interest of a good nights sleep we did opt to stay across the road in the overflow camp area rather than right next to the hotel. Again our remoteness paid dividends financially. Because the toilets at the overflow area were out of action, we got powered sites for the price of unpowered. Downside of course was that long walk to the toilets. Inconvenient conveniences seems to be a developing and worrying trend.

Daly Waters really is just a really remote party town, not surprising when you consider it consists pretty much of the pub, the campground and some associated, tourist focussed entertainments, including a captive saltwater crocodile, fed according to the signs, on naughty children. Although none of us felt inclined to indulge in the drunken debauchery which is standard fare for outback party towns, we did go “out” to dinner at the pub and feasted on gourmet delights such as chicken parma and fish and chips. Very nice though, and again a welcome departure from the fruit and beans regimen of recent days.

Daly waters was also an important stopping point in John Mcdouall Stuart’s intrepid journey of discovery northward from Adelaide to Darwin in 1862, and is also the site of an historic WW2 airstrip, which means of course that there are plenty of places (apart from the toilets) to walk to, which needless to say we did. All in all, a very interesting place, but one visit in a lifetime is possibly sufficient.

Airport hangar

Daly Waters Museum???

Standard outback pub display

Unique urinals

More standard outback pub display

Fuel

9-11 May, Katherine (Nitmiluk National Park)

After an early morning walk out to the airstrip and final visit to the pub and it’s unique toilets we pack up and head towards our first real destination featuring the key reason for our travels, namely gorgeous gorges. Somebody counselled us against visiting the hot springs at Mataranka en route to Katherine, because apparently it is infested by bats and very unpleasant indeed. One needs to take care not to necessarily take too much notice of what Somebody has to say, because quite often, they are just plain wrong. Luckily, we made a group decision to ignore Somebody and check out Mataranka. Beth and I had fond memories of our short visit to here 7 years ago and C’s sister worked at the hot springs many years ago, so there were good reasons to pop in and have a look. As it turns out there was not a single bat to be seen and the Springs and attached gardens were pretty much as we remembered them. So a dipping of the toes and fruit lunch in the gardens was vey pleasant.

After our fruit, I was sent forth to find coffee, which seemed like a pretty simple task, until I asked the gentleman at the kiosk counter for some lattes, upon which he pointed to a coffee machine on the opposite wall. This threw me of course, because coffee machine coffee is often fairly average, so I needed to make a decision whether to proceed or not. I feared the consequences of returning empty handed, so bravely ventured forth to the coffee machine only to be thrown again, the machine needed coins, of which I had none, and being a 21st century sort of fellow, neither did I have any paper money to convert into coins. Again I returned to the kiosk chap to make him aware of my plight, only for him to point again, this time to another wall housing an ATM, to which I duly shuffled to withdraw cash. Then things became more difficult still. The coffee machine required three different denominations of coins. Luckily kiosk man had skills other than pointing and he made sure I had the right number and denominations of coins to complete my transaction. By this stage I was rattled, and I hadn’t even pressed a button on the machine yet. Needless to say I was in no state of mind to tackle the machine, but I made a good fist of the first two cups, only to come unstuck on the third when I forgot to put the cup in place. I did sort of recover mid cup and managed to finally get the coffees together in a reasonable state, whereupon I returned nonchalantly to our table with nobody any the wiser regarding the 10 minutes of torment I had just endured. And yes, the coffee was just average.

The Nitmilik National Park caravan park is laid out much the same as most, in a grid fashion, and the standard way to park your van is to drive past the chosen spot, then reverse into that spot making sure that it is, as near as possible, lined up straight with the edge of the spot, with the towbar pointing out towards the road. This is how most went about their parking at Nitmilik, and you would think Beth’s delight for straight lines and symmetry would drive her to conform in this matter, but no. Beth and J had choreographed a dance in which the two Ultimates swirled and twirled then gracefully settled in a gentle embrace with their canvas lightly kissing. This whole Ultimate ballet took about half an hour to reach its climax, as opposed to the 5 minutes to just back them squarely into the space. Whilst somewhat perplexed at the time, I have to admit, despite the strangeness of the arrangement, it did work well.

Katherine Gorge in Nitmiluk National Park is one of the most beautiful places in Australia, and the Nitmiluk resort, run by the local indigenous community is the perfect base for exploring its beauty. We have only two full days available to us, and the heat during the day precludes strenuous activity after about 10:00am, so our walking possibilities are limited. Nonetheless we manage a couple of very nice walks, one down into the second gorge on the Katherine river (I think that there are something like 13 separate, but connected gorges on the river), another taking us to some magnificent lookouts overlooking the river. Each of these walks took us through beautiful rocky terrain and incredibly diverse flora.

On our day of departure we take a dawn boat tour through 2 gorges. This is something that Beth and I have done twice before, but it is something that you just do not tire of. The scenery is quite spectacular, and hopping off one boat to wander up to the second gorge (which is probably 10 metres higher than the first) via a rocky but very easy path is also a lot of fun. A real highlight of this trip was spotting a black dingo. Our indigenous guide had never seen one before, and wondered if it might be the result of a mixed marriage between dingo and domestic dog. But it absolutely looked like a dingo, and my later research (google of course), confirmed that black dingoes do exist. So we are claiming it as a black dingo sighting.

I suspect that Somebody, who gave us that bum steer about Mataranka, may have had wires crossed, because there is one particular area along the river and near the resort, which is absolutely teeming with bats. During the day when the bats are resting the trees look like they are heavy with black fruit, as the bats hang upside down in the branches with their wings wrapped around themselves forming a little cocoon.

The general consensus amongst our group was that these bats are odious, noisy little creatures which we would very much prefer to be somewhere other than where we were. However, when all is said and done, they are native animals, albeit inhabiting areas which have not previously been within their scope. I didn’t do the research to understand what has driven these creatures to extend their horizons, so I won’t proffer any explanations. Despite our distaste for these little chaps, we did enjoy their evening deployment to find food. You could set your clock by their blackening of the skies, which lasted only a few minutes in the evening, and then again in the morning as they returned “home” to hang out.

As I mentioned earlier, the heat of the day makes active pursuits a little difficult. Luckily, the good people of Nitmiluk took this into account by providing a very nice sheltered swimming pool and a lovely area to enjoy coffee and cake. Both of these amenities were put to excellent use during our stay.

Nitmiluk really is an amazing place, that although we have visited several times, we will surely be looking to return again.

Mataranka hot springs

12 May, Timber Creek

After our early morning boat trip we pack up and bid farewell to the beautiful Nitmiluk National Park and head west towards Timber Creek, a place that Beth and I remember well from our last trip for its very nice cafe with wifi and delicious scones with home made jam and fresh cream. It provided a wonderful base to make contact with family whilst also providing sustenance for us. This time, to my disappointment, we choose to forego the delights of Timber Creek and head straight to our campground at Big Horse Creek just outside of town.

Beth suggests that en route to Timber Creek, we should take a short walk to an aboriginal rock art site which we found and really enjoyed 7 years ago. She insisted it was quite an easy walk which we should be able to knock over in half an hour. My recollection was a little different and I recalled that there was a bit of scrambling required to get under the escarpment where the rock art hid. But Beth is usually right with these things, and I am usually wrong, so I kept my recollections to myself, besides, I really wanted to do this walk again, because I do know that I really enjoyed it the first time around, and I didn’t want to put anybody off by making it sound difficult.

Turns out that my recollections of the Nawulbinbin walk were more accurate than Beth’s. Although the walk was only 1.7 kilometres, it involved climbing up to the escarpment of a long curved sandstone rock, and then scrambling over rocks to find the artwork. So quite a strenuous walk of almost 2 hours. But the other part of my recollection which proved accurate was the magnificence of the walk. Not only for the rock art, but also the beauty of the rocks and the almost rainforest vegetation growing in the shadow of the rock in an otherwise parched and somewhat desolate landscape. Although I am sure we were all weary, there were no complaints.

The Big Horse Creek campsite had basic amenities (aka smelly toilets), but was very nice nonetheless. It was just a short walk down to a boat ramp on the Victoria River, which is very wide at this point, and close enough to the coast to be tidal, which means of course that it’s brackish waters are a perfect home for saltwater crocodiles. So we chose not to dip our toes in the water. A smart move as it turns out, because the next morning our friendly camp host Mick excitedly announced the sighting of a “saltie” just 50 metres off the boat ramp. We all went down to take a look, but although we kept a very safe distance, we didn’t linger.

Resting on the Nawalbinbin walk

Nawulbinbin

Sunset Big Horse Creek

Saltie Victoria River

Nawulbinbin

Rock art Nawulbinbin

Nawulbinbin

Sunset Victoria River boat ramp Big Horse Creek

13-14 May, Lake Argyle

Today is exciting because it is the first international day of our travels. Or at least it seems like that. Again we had the double whammy of COVID border control and fruit quarantine. Getting a permit to enter Western Australia has been orders of magnitude more complex than for any other state and I am still reeling from the application process.

Beth still carries the scars of having a heap of nuts quarantined at the WA border years ago, and so she has been stressing that the nuts she has been a-gathering-in-May will be taken from her at the border. All the material we have read thus far has suggested that nuts are ok, but Beth is not convinced, and is preparing for the worst. I am more concerned about M’s jousting sticks. On our travels somewhere out of Timber Creek, when we convened at a lookout point, M came across two straight sticks about 30mm diameter and neatly cut to 5ft lengths and stripped of bark. Clearly something that will come in handy for something, and not to be thrown back in the bush.

As it transpires, despite the border crossing feeling akin to crossing the Berlin Wall during the Cold War, we all got through relatively unscathed. A forgotten tomato and half a jar of honey were the only casualties. Jousting sticks and nuts passed through without incident.

Lake Argyle is essentially the village that serviced the Ord River Scheme in the 1970s which dammed the Ord river to create Lake Argyle. Once the dam was created somebody had the idea to convert the village to a resort, build a caravan park and hope that tourists may want to come along and look at the lake. And what a fine idea that was, because today the Lake Argyle resort really is a very pleasant place to stay.

Not a lot to see and do unless you enjoy looking at dam walls and floating around on vast quantities of water, but an infinity pool, shady sites, grass, and most importantly, a bar that sells coffee, makes this an ideal place to put our feet up for a couple of days. Beth is most disturbed of course that here is no real opportunity for long walks, but her discovery that someone in the park does early morning yoga classes does provide some sort of substitute. J & C also join in, but M, S and myself all decline in favour of meditation. You know, that thing you do with you eyes closed.

It is probably a little unfair to say there is nothing much to do at Lake Argyle. We visited the Patsy Durack homestead museum, which was painstakingly relocated from its original site (which is now well under water), and eventually rebuilt near the Lake Argyle resort. This was really interesting and helped to fill in a few gaps in my knowledge. Unfortunately way too many gaps remain. One of the exhibits at the museum was a video explaining the construction of the Argyle dam, and I have to say I was transfixed somewhat. It was a monumental undertaking achieved on the smell of an oily rag. The video did show how things have changed though. Most of the materials for the dam wall were sourced essentially from the site of the dam. The clay plug infill between the rock faces of the wall was basically gathered by using tons of explosives to blow up a very large hill. The fuse to detonate this massive charge was lit by a worker’s cigarette, with said worker sauntering away ahead of the blast in shorts and without hard hat, taking a drag from the ciggy.

We also took the opportunity to take a cruise out on to Lake Argyle for a swim at sunset. We seemed to cruise forever. I though we were halfway to Perth, but so massive is this lake that when our swimming spot was pinpointed on a map, we had only traversed a tiny portion of the lake. The cruise was a wonderful and relaxing way to round out our stay.

Unfortunately some family health issues have developed for J&M which has forced them to reconsider their travel plans and return to Queensland. So sadly, after only just welcoming them into our little wagon train, we have to bid them farewell. So after cracking the WA border control code just days before, J&M head back into NT and the remainder of our troupe head down to Purnululu, but not before a ceremonial passing of a jousting sticks from M to S. With this stick comes great powers. Use them wisely and for good not evil.