N: Burketown to Adels Grove

We arrived at Burketown late – it had been a long, dusty day of rough roads and river crossings so we stayed in a cabin that was a converted shipping container. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Mum stayed up late and watched the Pies beat West Coast in a ripper game. The next morning we fished unsuccessfully and very successfully got attacked by swarms of midgies. We packed up and left for Adels Grove. We arrived, set up then went for a swim. We where going to stay 3 nights and its great that we did. The next day we swam and also went to Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park where we did a short walk to the “Cascades” where we swam then went back to camp. That night on the fire we cooked pizzas in the camp oven and they were great! We also cooked cakes and sweet potatoes. The next day was Dad’s birthday. (happy birthday to you.....etc) We did a walk to Indarri falls which is where the postcards pictures are shot. There were lots of tame fish there hoping that we would feed them.

N: Robinson River community

N: Mum’s cousin and law have been living in the community for 2 terms on a Carey exchange program. Ahhhhh air conditioning. Went for a walk around the community to see the school, the shop and the river, on the walk we also met some of the locals. We planned to stay only one night but ended up staying two. In the night a pregnant lady who had gone into labour knocked on our door because Lyn was running the clinic, nobody heard so she went to the public phone and called the house I woke and john came answered the phone apologized then Lyn rushed out. The next day we watched a plane came to extract the lady to more advanced medical services but it was too late so the delivery was performed at the clinic. While the delivery was happening Georgie and I went to school, at play lunch I played rugby and did the same at lunch.When we left we tired to cut some kms off our trip by taking a rugged back road but we ended up having to back track because it was to rugged.

Gg: Robinson River

Gg: For an exchange on behalf of Carey High School, mum’s cousin’s husband was teaching in an Aboriginal community, Robinson River’s, primary school. His name is John, and his wife is Lyn, and Lyn found work at the local clinic as a nurse. They were obviously very popular around the community, which was well populated with friendly kids who smiled and smiled and seemed to do nothing else.

Upon arrival, mum and I went in to see John in the school, where he introduced us to the classes and the classes to us, and also where I found out about the kids’ smiling and giggling habits. After he’d shown us the school, John took the whole family over to see Lyn and then back to the house they were living in. It was so air conditioned that often I felt genuinely cold.

That afternoon, at five o’clock, some kids came to pick some vegies from the vegie garden John was growing. So, when they came, they asked me to come play a game they called ‘batting’. We played at the school, where I learnt the names of Nova, Trilby, Cohen and Kathy. When some other kids came along, we took photos of them because it was the first time on the trip that we had even had proper conversations with Aboriginal kids or people.

John and Lyn led the way to the river that evening, to show us. We took more photos of the kids, and, as far as I know, none of the scenery.

Sleeping in an air conditioned house was one good thing, but unfortunately, as Lyn was on call, a woman came in the night knocking on the door because she was going into labour. Nobody heard, so we assume she walked home and brought money to the phone box and called from there. Noah said he heard the phone ring (I didn’t though; I slept through the flood in Fairfield in 2003), and maybe he heard Lyn get up, take the call and take her to the clinic. She must have called Air-med, which is just like the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia but it reaches Robinson River, unlike the RFDSA, because later on in the morning we watched the plane come in. The woman gave birth to a boy.

That day, Noah and I went to school. I met another one of the kids: Claudia.

Our temporary teacher, Malcolm, came to dinner that evening and we had a delicious BBQ.

Robinson River, our first, and probably last, Aboriginal community of the trip, was one of the most friendly places I think we’ve been to.

Mataranka to Borroloola

N: Mataranka was great there were peacocks and a thermal pool.

The peacocks wandered around and would eat out of your hand, and the thermal pool was at a perfect body temperature. After a swim and dinner we went to the bar to watch the Pies smash the Swans (good old Collingwood forever they now how to.... etc). The next day it was to hot to do much so we swam and did a 1.2km walk to “Stevie’s hole” (named after a local tour operator) were we swam.

The next day we drove to Borroloola, a fair drive.

After a while we stopped at Daly Waters which consisted of a pub, a house and a caravan park. Not long after we stopped at a roadhouse to get lunch, petrol and this was were we turned off onto the Carpentaria highway. Cape Crawford was our next stop and 200kms further was Borroloola, yay. We set up and went to the Pub for Dinner. the next day we went to King Ash Bay where we fished but to no avail, I was as sick as a Dog (can someone get me a bag?!).

Darwin to Katherine:

N: We arrived at the Big 4 caravan park at Darwin and had lunch in the sticky humid weather. After setting up we had a swim in the pool constantly heated by the sun’s immense rays, it was humid, well over 50%. We drove into the CBD which was massive compared to the towns we had recently stayed in. In the city we bought supplies for the rest of the week then went back for another swim. The next day we went to the Aviation Museum home of the B-52 bomber that took up the entire space of the hangar (other inhabitants of the hangar included helicopters, smaller planes, memorabilia, and mechanical equipment. After wandering around there for a while we went for another swim. On Sunday we went to the Mindil Beach Markets. Food was up the north end and useless junk was up the other. Countless varieties of foods including camel, roo and crocodile. Useless stuff included Kangaroo scrotums, cane toad purses, crocodile feet and worthless clothes. Performers doing backflips off bins, juggling fire sticks on a ladder held up by ropes, and playing 6 didgeridoos at once. Also at our stay at Darwin we visited the museum/art gallery home of Sweetheart a giant crocodile that started to attack boats and was captured as a safety measure. After packing up we set of to Merl Camping Area in Kakadu national before going to our camping area we went on a Guluyambi Tour where we learnt about bush tucker, spears, plants and we even saw saltwater crocodiles.

We set up our camp at the Merl camping area which much to our surprise had facilities. When it was close to sunset we drove 20 min down the road to Ubirr rock where we did a twenty minute walk around the area and up to the lookout to watch the sunset over the Kakadu floodplains.

The next day we stayed at Cooinda which had a pool! We had a swim set up camp and after a delicious meal of Irish Stew (my favourite) we had a drink down at the bar.

In the morning we did a 3km walk to Yellow Waters home to storks, cranes, magpie geese and Jabirus (a lot more! too many to name). After the walk, breakfast and packing up camp we set off to Gunlom falls. We arrived at 1:30-2:30 pm and after realising that sand flies inhabited the area and cane toads infested it we headed to Katherine. After setting up camp at Katherine we cooked microwavable pizzas in the camp oven on our stove!!

GG: Darwin to Borroloola

Gg: In Darwin, there’s an aviation museum (that I wasn’t really interested in…) and against my wishes, we had a look around. Info about Amy Johnson (first female to fly solo from England to Australia) and other pilots accompanied half of a B52 Bomber that took up well over half the hanger.
Next (still in Darwin), we went to the Mindil Beach Market for dinner. I had Mexican and a smoothie. It seemed like a very popular place.
As well as those two things, we went to a general museum/Aboriginal art gallery. There was an exhibit on boats, one on science and one about different freaky creatures that we looked at. Also, we saw Sweetheart, the gigantic salty (saltwater crocodile).

After Darwin, we rove to Kakadu NP where we had an Aboriginal-run boat tour along the East Alligator River. Apart from that and a two metre brown snake, there wasn’t much at Kakadu.

Then we stopped at Katherine for a night that held the no-oven-so-let’s-use-the-camp-oven inconvenience. It was pretty much that mum and I bought frozen pizzas and there was no oven, so we used the camp oven (dad saved the day again).

Following Katherine was Mataranka Homestead, which acts as a home to the Mataranka Thermal Pool, which, unfortunately, was a bit like a communal bath and gave us all a cold.

Borroloola is now and today we’ll try our luck with fishing!

N: Nitimulik (Katherine) Gorge and Litchfield NP

N:

On arriving at Nitimulik (Katherine) Gorge we were all hot and bothered, so immediately after setting up camp we went to the swimming hole. We where staying here for two nights on a powered site. The next day we would be going on a canoe trip up to the first gorge, where wee could swim and look at indigenous paintings.

We got up early as we were due down there at 8. We had breakfast and then went to down to the boat ramp to board our canoes. After mum and I finally worked as one, we rowed down the river, most sandy banks of the river were fresh water crocodile breeding areas. After a short stop on a rocky area we proceeded down the river to the first gorge where large boats and smaller boats were moored. After getting all our things out of barrels we found ourselves a shady spot and jumped in. In the middle of the river there was a rock protruding about a metre above the water and on the opposite side a ledge to get up on. We jumped off it several times and then had a look at the rock art. On the way back Georgie and Dad sped off while I was pulling mum in the canoe along so I could get on. Mum and I paced it hard enough to catch them and a race was declared; mum and I got a lead but George and Dad were hard on our tails. After some mishaps, the canoes thudded as they collided at halfway mum and got out in the lead again after the collision and got around ten metres tip to tip but the gap was closing, fortunately the line came in refuge of two buoys strung 20m apart. We unloaded and went for a swim while trying to get blood back into our legs. The water was cool and refreshing, we then went for a steep 1km walk up to a look out where views down the river were seen and light was shed on rock formations and aboriginal heritage.

We packed up on an absolute scorcher of a day and then drove back into town were we got petrol and did the weekly shopping, that night we went to Douglas Daly Tourist Park we only spotted it in a magazine and thought that’s where we’re going. After setting up we went to find the thermal pool, we found a sign saying twin pools but wasn’t it and after some more exploring we found it was just about body temperature was great to swim in. The next day Georgie and I went down to the thermal pool and waited until mum then dad came after dad had a swim we went down to the arches where you could float through into the waterhole at the arches there were two ways to go and thank goodness we chose the right one because it was the right one a log sat wedge between the rock that we had to swim under. The waterhole was not great but served to cool us down. The walk back was hot and we cooled off in the thermal pool. We packed up the next day and drove to Litchfield national park where the camping choices were either Buley's Rockhole, Florence Falls or Wangi Falls (pronounced one guy). We had a look at Florence falls campground, and Buley’s Rockhole Campground but neither suited our needs. The heat was blistering so we had a swim at Florence Falls, which was great. We then moved on to Wangi which was perfect, we set up and then went and had a swim, there were two falls. On one, if you climbed up a bit there was a deep pool up on the rock face! The next day we swam and did a 1km walk that walked through monsoon forests which where home to thousands of Flying Foxes. When we got back we slumped back into the water. The next day we packed up, had a swim and set off to Darwin! 42ks was unsealed but I felt somewhat at home while bumping along on the corrugations.