In this blog we head up through the centre of the Northern Territory along the Stuart Highway with stops at two iconic locations and five nights in Darwin before heading to Jabiru.

Although we were heading for Bitter Springs we decided to check out Mataranka Thermal Springs and caravan park on the way.  It looked ok but we prefer the springs at Bitter Springs.

We had three nights booked in the caravan park next to Bitter Springs thermal pool and we thought it would be  three days of relaxation.  We made a few visits to the thermal pools and again enjoyed floating along the pool  on our noodles but somehow we managed to find lots of jobs to do when we were there.  These included washing clothes, repairing the van and washing the van in their free car wash bay.  Couldn’t resist doing a free van wash, as it was covered with red dust.  Also a lot of time was spent stressing when we completely lost our total blog from the web.  Fortunately our friend, Kevin, managed to retrieve it for us.

After leaving Bitter Springs we visited the town of Katherine to fill with water and stock up at Woolworths, our favorite grocery store,  Its then only a 30 km drive out to Nitmiluk Gorge (aka Katherine Gorge) which is owned by the Jawoyn people.  The Nitmiluk National Park is managed under a 99 year lease by the Northern Territory Parks & Wildlife Commission in association with Jawoyn people, culture and traditions.  The words ‘Sharing Our Country’ feature on the Jawoyn Association logo and sum up their attitude to Nitmiluk.

Two years ago we did a helicopter flight over the 13 gorges in the park.  This time we wanted to explore the park on foot and on the water.  We settled into the campground, not our favorite as it was very crowded, and planned our stay as there were lots of walks along the gorges to chose from (ranging from 1.8 km to 39 km).

Our first walk was the 5km lookout walk at sunset and it gave us (and lots of others) beautiful views of the gorge and the sunset colors.

To start our big day of walking we did the 8 km walk to Pat’s Lookout (we had to really).  Lucky my name wasn’t Lily, as that was a 20 km walk!  A beautiful sunny 32C day, so it was a pleasant outing and we met nice people to chat to along the way.

We gave ourselves a couple of relaxing hours out of the sun before doing a late afternoon two hour, two gorge cruise.  This seemed a good way to get the most out of our Nitmiluk experience, and it gave us another view and appreciation of the gorges and their aboriginal history (our guide was aboriginal).  We finished off our day listening to live music while sitting with our feet in the pool.  After over 21,000 steps in the heat, my feet enjoyed that.

Next stop for us was Darwin and our target for the day was the Sunday Sunset Mindel Markets, so we made an early start (leaving anywhere before 8am is an early start for us).  Darwin was a good place to stock up and get ready for our three week tour in Arnhem Land.  We have a favorite caravan park and quite enjoy spending time in Darwin.  The markets were good, lots of clothes etc and impressive food options. We also enjoy catching up with Lyn and Graham when we are there.

Our five days in Darwin passed very quickly and without trying too hard we managed to support the local community with multiple purchases including a computer, a camera and swimmers as well as fun purchases like tyres, shovel, air filter and a $100 machine to deter insects.  Not to forget the endless washing, filling with water and dumping, so all was ready for 20 days in Arnhem Land. We drove to Jabiru, the one town in Kakadu National Park. As we’d been there before we gave ourselves a relaxing afternoon before officially starting our Arnhem Land tour that evening.

 

 

This post takes us along the Savannah Way through quite an isolated part of the north as indicated on this map.

Boodjamulla NP (formerly known as Lawn Hill) is home to a fabulous gorge system and just 10 kms away from Adels Grove, an almost equally beautiful camping location on the Gregory River. Good hiking, great swimming and just beautiful tropical landscapes – one of our favorite stops in 2017, so a 3 night stop this time as well. Unfortunately the office/reception building at Adels Grove burnt down two weeks before our visit. The fire was front page news around Australia. We really wanted to stay at the NP but they have limited sites and you need to book from 2 weeks to 1 month in advance, which of course we can’t do, due to our ‘flexibilty’ approach. Adels Grove were open to self-contained campers and they seemed grateful that people continued to visit. In fact the staff were nice and helpful and managing well without all their admin, records etc which burnt.

 

The trip out from Adels Grove took us through a number of cattle stations, some river crossing and eventually took us to Hells Gate Roadhouse where we had lunch.

The next morning we thought we were in for a long day of solitary driving, but what a day we had! As we left our free camp we ended up having a two hour chat with our neighbors by the creek, so didn’t hit the road til 11:30. Just crossed the border and within an hour of leaving we came upon a guy bogged on the side of the road.

Dick got out the Maxx tracks, put them under the back tyres and did some digging, and Duncan was able to drive out. He is planning to drive around Australia but did not seem well prepared for the conditions, so we wish him well. After that episode we went a bit further and then met another Explorer Motorhome like ours, so we stopped to have a chat with Ted (#203). A bit later we met Duncan again on the road so told him where we were stopping for lunch and he joined us there. Then as we continued on our way we drove past a group of seven aboriginal women and children by the side of the road. They waved us over so we stopped. They had a flat tyre and were worried about their jack, so Dick had a look. They actually had it under control and were quite strong and capable and managed to get it changed. So after all those incidents we finally got to our destination, Seven Emus Station, where we had a long chat with the aboriginal owner, Frank Shadforth. We then drove 5 kms through his property to our campsite (the same one we had two years ago) and got settled in just before dark. For doing a four hour drive in the middle of nowhere, we met a lot of people on a long, hot (34C) day.

After a fair bit of negotiation we had arranged to do a bush tucker tour with Frank.  We weren’t really sure what   to expect when he arrived at our camp in the morning.  For almost two hours he walked us around the camp pointing out specific plants and telling us how they used to be used; including paperbark, lemongrass, tea tree and pandanus which he is currently harvesting or planning to harvest.  There was some talk of  a bush tucker venture with a woman in Darwin.  However his main message to us was that the land is dying for two reasons: 1- European bees are wiping out the native bees who pollinate all the plants and 2- aboriginal people no longer harvest the bush food and care for the land as they used to do. He has been featured on ABC Landline in 2017 & 2018 and produced a documentary with the NT Environment Centre in March.  All this can be found on his facebook page ‘seven ems station’.

Frank’s father was the first aboriginal to buy his own station.  It is 4300 square kilometers and goes all the way to the Gulf of Carpentaria and includes 55 kms of coastline there, between the Robinson and the Calvert Rivers.  We decided to drive through the property to the Gulf and 34 kms (1.5 hours) later we were almost at the gulf.  Seven Emus was badly hit by a cyclone in March and we could see lots of fallen trees as we drove the rough tracks.

After we left Seven Emus we got back on the Savannah Way, stocked up in Borooloola, and had lunch at the Heartbreak Hotel roadhouse/campground at Cape Crawford.  Decided to stay the night in a free camp for a change, and that put us closer to our next destination, Bitter Springs.