19 – 23 April 2013
Sorry to not have been in
contact, we’ve been on the road and off the beaten path. Actually, we’ve been on the standard
path of Top End travel, but this really is 
out in the middle of nowhere. There may be electricity, but our
internet devices don’t pick up the satellite or wifi signals, so we’ve been out
of contact with the world.
From Katherine, we drove
north on the Stuart Highway and turned east on the Kakadu Highway, going to the
Kakadu National Park. We stopped
at the Mary River Roadhouse, where one can find out what areas are open and
what areas are still closed. And
buy the 
necessary park pass.
April is in the shoulder
season – the monsoon rains of the summer are usually over, and the wetland
parks are drying out. Rivers
return to their normal courses, roads are open, waterfalls 
are no longer raging
torrents, and saltie crocs return to their estuaries.
Or not.
This year, the wet season
wasn’t as wet as usual. It was,
however, later than 
usual. Which
means in April, much of the wetland area is still under water. Park roads are closed. Rivers as well as waterfalls are still
raging torrents. Canoes aren’t
allowed. Swimming isn’t
allowed. Roads and parking lots
and 
campgrounds are still under water.
And saltie crocs are still swimming around, hoping for some unsuspecting
tourists.
In Kakadu, about 75-80% of
the sites are closed or 
inaccessible.
We chatted with the ranger at Mary River, and he showed us on the park
map what sites and campgrounds were open.
(Not much.) He also agreed
with Richard, that it made sense to NOT buy the pass, drive up to the major
visitors center, and get more 
information before buying the pass – since so
many parts of the park are still closed.
So we drove in about 90 km, to the first campsite. And circled. It was about 4:30 PM, and the wallabies were just waking up
– so we 
encountered some fifteen or so wallabies who stopped to watch us, a few
bouncing off into the distance.
We still had an hour or two
of sunlight, so we drove up to the Yellow Water Billabong, 
to stand on the dock
and look 
for crocs. Except, of
course, the parking lot was still underwater. We drove on to Cooinda, a resort – and walked to their
billabong (which connects to Yellow Water) to look for crocs. (Didn’t see any.) The resort had a dining area, a
camp 
area (including unpowered sites for tent campers like us) – so we figured
we’d stay there. Turned out the
unpowered site area was underwater until last week, so it’s still closed off and
drying out – so we were told to park in a certain area and just not use the
power.
It was fairly nice, and we
were comfortable in our funny rooftop tent. We hung out in the dining area for a while, and I met a
funny little boy (he had me take his photo hiding behind a green frog) 
and his
lovely great aunt, as well as her daughter. They’re Aborigines and live in the area – Kakadu, like
Nitmiluk, is Aborigine- owned lands leased back 
to the government and run as a
partnership with the national parks department. So this woman and her family were 
hanging around, and then
heading home. (I’m not quite sure
if they lived in the park or not.)
She was so nice, and welcomed me to Australia and their park!
There were all kinds of
crested white cockatoos, green and red parrots and lorikeets and rosellas and
who knows what else – some green all over with red patches on the wings, 
some
green on the top side and red underneath – all kinds of interesting birds. Various hawks, buzzards or vultures,
and even the wedge-tail eagle, which is beyond huge! But my favorite was the little white and brown owl, who was
sitting on a bench in the bus stop – he really was just sitting on the back of
the bench, looking around, and didn’t seem to 
mind when I went over to say good
evening. He looked at me, looked
around, looked at me, turned his head, and then went off flying into the night.
And there was some kind of
bird that let out a shrill scream, long and lingering, into the night. No idea what it was, but really sounds
as if someone is being tortured or something. Very eerie.
So we spent one night at
Cooinda, in Kakadu. The next
morning we drove up to the main visitors center and found that more areas were
closed than we thought. Since there
wasn’t any chance to hike, or swim, or much of anything else, we continued on
the Kakadu Highway to where it meets the Arnheim Highway and heads west, back
toward the Stuart Highway which sort of bisects the country. More wallabies along the 
road, watching
us drive by – and one adventurous wallaby later in the day who for some reason
decided to cross the road in front of us!
Fortunately, we saw him 
from a distance and were able to slow down from
our 120 kph – and wallabies are funny animals. When they walk slowly, they use all four feet and look like
hunched over old people limping across the road. So he started like that, 
and we thought maybe he was sick or
injured. But halfway across, he stood
up and looked at us – we stopped – and then he straightened up and bounced the
rest of the way across and into the bush.
We drove through bush,
forest, over low rolling hills and across floodways, low spots in the road
where there are measuring sticks up to two meters tall, so that you can see how
deep the water is and decide whether or not to attempt driving across. (Does anyone seriously drive through
two meters of water???) Kakadu is
beautiful, very green and lush – and then suddenly we were in the wetlands, the
marshes, where the trees stop and there are just miles and miles of bright
green marsh grass, interspersed with ponds and puddles and lakes and
billabongs. Tons of waterbirds
here – ibis! Spoonbills! Jabiru! And of course great blue and great white herons, other
various herons, small shore birds.
We saw all of them. But no
crocodiles crossing the road, or even looking up from their billabong.
We exited Kakadu and headed
for Litchfield National Park, on the west side of Stuart Highway and a bit
south. We spent the night in the
town of Batchelor – which has the funny entrance sign saying “Voted The Tidiest
Town in the Northern Territory” – and it really was a very clean and tidy
little town! Found a nice
campground on the road heading to the park, and settled in for the night,
seeing more wallabies hopping around between trees and campers.
And there were dingoes
howling in the distance all night, in addition to the occasional screaming
bird.
In the morning we had
breakfast in the camp kitchen, and watched the wallabies bounding around in the
fields surrounding us – big, medium, little wallabies, and my favorite: the
mama and baby who came out of the bush, looked around, the baby climbed into
his mama’s pouch, poked his little head back out, and she went bounding across
the field. I always wonder if the
joey holds on inside, or yells “wheeeeeeee” as they speed along, or what!?
We drove into Litchfield National Park, which in addition to the usual giant termite mounds in this part
of the country also has numerous waterfalls and swimming spots – of course,
most of them are still closed.
Still waiting for the summer flood water to recede. Or to dry out. Or the saltie crocs to go home. So we drove to one waterhole that was
open, and Richard did a little swimming in the cold cold water. People weren’t really swimming, more
like sitting in the pools and letting the river zoom by them. It was like a series of shallow
waterfalls emptying into pools, then a few rapids, a drop, another pool – and
of course one had to climb over and down rocks to get into the water. I skipped it, but Richard braved
it. For a short few minutes.
Well, since we had the same
problem with not much to do in Litchfield, we left the park and headed south
again on the Stuart Highway, to the town of Adelaide River. It looked like a nice town when we
drove by on the way to Katherine earlier in the week, so we thought we’d
explore. And we found another nice
campground, with space for our funny little tent – this one is located at the
Adelaide River showgrounds, I
guess like an annual or seasonal livestock show and fair, or something. There seems to be a race course, which
is fairly overgrown. And overrun
with wallabies – I walked out at sunset and saw wallabies in the fields, under
the viewing stands, around the race course – and yes, a few bouncing and
bounding along the course itself, racing each other.
There are the usual white
cockatoos, green and red rosellas and parrots and lorikeets, various hawks and
eagles.
And Australia’s national
bird, the mosquito. The
mozzies! We’ve met them, up close
and personal. Endless legions of
mosquitoes, who call their friends to sample the new blood that has shown
up. They bite through clothing. Swarm car doors. Swarm tent doors and windows. And of course occasionally make their
way inside. Fortunately, they
don’t like insect repellant, so we both stay sprayed up and sticky. And the mozzies are worst at dusk and
dawn – as the evening cools off, they slow down, and they disappear in the heat
of the day. But they are
relentless little guys, and they really make the camping rather uncomfortable
when they’re around.
But waking up with wallabies
for three days in a row makes up for it.
PS:
On our way back to Darwin,
we stopped in the town of Acacia for a bit of brekkie, because things were
still closed in Adelaide River. We
had toast and tea or coffee, and were talking about where next. A man came in, possibly the husband of
the lady who made our toast, and asked if we were afraid of snakes. We said no. He came in with a baby python, a dark grey with pale grey
zigzags, twining itself around the man’s fingers. He showed us the little guy, we chatted about this kind of
python (I forget which kind it was), and he told us all about the snakes to
avoid because they’re so deadly.
I told the man this was the
first snake we’ve seen in nearly three months in Australia.
So he turns to the little
snake and says, “Look at that, you’re a celebrity!”
Oh this country cracks us
up!
