Litchfield National Park & Darwin



October 2012

Reptiles and Ratbags

 

After 4 weeks of rugged, remote landscapes, we left the relative quiet of the Kimberley and ventured to the picturesque, waterfall-laden Litchfield National Park on our way to Darwin....and we weren't alone.

 

Florence Falls in Litchfield National Park - so tranquil, so serene....

Craigy and all of his friends. Same spot five minutes and four bus loads later - not quite so tranquil or serene.

The ants take their hill building very seriously out here.

Nature's graveyard....the termites create some spooky scenes out in the Litchfield bush

Hold on tight Riley

Tolmer Falls - not quite as hectic

Surprise falls....the slippery rocks here surprised us with a big lump to Riley's head and Paul flattening Archie. Luckily he's a tough nugget...not down for long.

Darwin - party time for the Rowdies

After 5 months on the road, we cruised into laid-back, steamy and fun-filled Darwin to wash off the red dust, regroup and repair. As luck would have it, our good mate Belly had just moved to town and was living in a conveniently-sized four bedroom house all by himself.....but not for long. Stand aside belly, the Rowdy roadtrip is moving in!!!

Ka-ploosh....the free water parks at Leanyer and Palmerston in Darwin were fantastic.

 Belly and Craigy getting friendly with an albino carpet python at the Territory Wildlife Park

 

 

Aww...c'mon baby, give us a kiss.

 Tank swimming with the big crocs - not for the faint-hearted.

Who are you calling a puffer fish......lizard face?

 

The Good: Spending 3 glorious weeks in a house with separate bedrooms and air-conditioning...we owe you Belly. We also managed to reclaim a bit of our social life, catching up with our travel buddies Johan and Lara and going out for drinks with Karen's best buddy Pam and having a great meal with the most relaxed corporate high-flyer we know, Moults, and Paul's old Athelstone footy club mate John Moulds. Leanne even managed a night out and a groove with Belly when the band Gomez came to town.

The Bad: Losing Archie in suburban Darwin within 1 hour of our arrival. After keeping tabs on our little Houdini in the bush for 6 months, we were foiled by our escape artist opening the front door, taking off through the front gate and doing a bit of local sight-seeing. It's the first time I have called 000 and you can imagine my embarassment when he was spotted on the next block and I dragged him back to an awaiting small army of police vehicles and the Swat Team....oops.

The Bad (part 2): There was little risk of a repeat escape, as within 10 minutes of his return Archie locked himself in a bedroom that couldn't be unlocked from the outside. After 45 minutes of attempting to coerce him into unlatching it, we called an emergency locksmith who, for a hefty call out fee, released the little bugger. All of this within our first 2 hours at Belly's place. I don't think Belly quite knew what had hit him!!

The Ugly: Paul's snapped fishing rod after a gruelling 45-minute battle (probably with a lemon shark) in Darwin Harbour. 10 hours of fishing with Belly and Johan and lots of lost lines, lures and bait...but nothing to show for it...except a good day out for the blokes.

 

 Dawn fishing in Darwin Harbour....about the only thing Paul will get out of bed early for.

 A day out on the picturesque Corroborree Billabong with Mouldsy and Belly. Still trying to catch a bloody barramundi. Afew crocs and great bird-life, but no fish for dinner.

 Cigars and beers in the plunge pool on our last night at Belly's place.

Poor Belly - after 3 weeks he was soooo sad to see us go!!!!

 

 

Next stop Kakadu and the Savannah Way through the Gulf country....

The Munja Track

Off the beaten track in the Kimberley

Mid September 2012

We dropped off our camper trailer and embarked on our most adventurous trip to date when we tackled the Munja Track from Mt Elizabeth Station (about half way along the Gibb River Road). We didn't see any other travellers for five days on this rocky, remote track which took us to the edge of the pristine Prince Regent River National Park. Majestic rivers cascading over mighty waterfalls awaited us. We camped with rarely seen northern bandicoots and quolls and enjoyed some amazing Aboriginal rock art dating between 1000 and 20000 years.

Hold on to your hats kids.....it's going to get bumpy!















Hmm - I'm not sure that actually classifies as a road. But, Craigy had that glint in his eyes that big boys get when they are playing with big toys and we made it with all tyres intact.



























Checking out some Aboriginal art that we stumbled across - the overhangs preserving art of 10000 years.

Wonderful discoveries of ages past

 

Please don't tip the car over Craigy...or squash the kids - looks like they're off for another swim

Some of the driving was smooth sailing through classic Kimberley bush

 

 

 

 

Camping minimalist style......

Well maybe not quite that minimalist

 

 

A few flies....but handling the great outdoors well



















Miss arty-farty with her interpretation of the local butterflies

 

 

A cherished moment. For the most part, the kids drive us mad....but mornings like this make it all worthwhile......until one of them jumps on your head that is.

 

 

The Good: The sense of total isolation in a frequently breath-taking wilderness. The competing sounds at night of cicadas, frogs, bats, owls and dingoes even rivalled the sounds of the Rowdy Roadtrippers at times.

The Bad: Depleting our one month supply of alcohol in the first 10 days (no take-away supplies at all along the Gibb River Road) and having to resort to soft drinks and cups of tea which, quite frankly, didn't cut it for us.

The Ugly: Head lice and March flies - an occupational hazard of travelling in the tropics. Our sweet little Nikita with her lovely locks became an overly generous lice-manufacturing factory, taking at least four treatments to destroy the beasts.

 

 Bachsten Creek Gorge

 

Okay kids, we're miles from anywhere. There's no one to help us. It's long pants to protect from snakebite, hats, sunscreen, lots of water, sensible footwear.....everybody stay close to mum!

 

 So who's the eejit who sprains her ankle miles from nowhere????

Another great walk to Bachsten Creek Falls on the edge of true Kimberley widerness.

Small boy - big view

 Water everywhere - creekside camping makes life much easier

Brolgas - a lovely addition to our campsite

































With no camera to capture the sights, Paul is inspired to pen a few words after an amazing walk.....

A Morning to Remember

I leave camp at dawn, leaving Leanne in bed nursing her badly sprained ankle and cuddling the kids.

I have three hours to descend into the lower lagoons of Bachstan Gorge and return, so I set off at a trot through the bush giving hardly enough time to take in the cacophony of birds partying with the rising sun. What a racket.

I over-shoot the unmarked route down the escarpment by a few minutes so I approach the edge of the gorge to take my bearings.

Perched on a boulder there, I look to the east to the series of waterfalls drifting down to the lagoons forty metres below. The nearly sheer rock face on the other side sweeps in front of me then off to the west for miles before opening up to a view that goes absolutely forever.

It’s big and its spectacular and nobody else is here.

I find my way down the falls to the base of the gorge then on to a white sandy beach totally covered with animal tracks. They include wallaby, goanna, bandicoot, quoll and dingo, to name a few.

Not one human print.

I hear a big splash down river and notice (harmless) freshie croc tracks trailing to the water. Big black bream dart under dark ledges.

I ford the river and make my way upstream to the first lagoon and find I have to cross back to the other side as the north face of the gorge is a sheer drop into the water. I think I can see a route up the edge of the waterfall on the other side.

I’m halfway across and mostly wet so bugger it I decide to swim the fifty metres to the base of the falls. On the way I can see a massive overhang just a few metres above the water and the colour of the rising sun is reflecting off my ripples up on the ceiling of the overhang.

There is lush forest on the other side and it is alive with noise.

I reach the base of the waterfall then scale the side which is a bit hairy at times due to my wet boots.

It is another amazing view from the top looking down, then I turn around and see another lagoon and waterfall much the same as the other one.

So I swim and climb that one too.

Then I'm standing at the top and looking back and it's awesome

 



Back at the Farm - Mt Elizabeth Station 

 

The kids had a great few days here feeding, loving (and occasionally tormenting) various fowls, cows and ponies.

 

Nikita and Archie had the time of their lives bottle feeding the baby calves. They even allowed Nik to name one..."Rosie"....how sweet.

 

 

But our most vivid memory was of our overly-excited, corn-tossing children at chook feeding time with terrorised chickens fleeing toward the sanctuary of their pen only to discover their tormentors coming in to `feed' them. And here comes our Archie burning around the corner of the shed brandishing a piece of poly pipe, hot on the terrified heels of a scraggly chook....boy were they sad to see us go!!!

Burning around the farm - woo hoo!

The West Kimberley

Red Rocks & Crocs

September 2012

We put the windows down, turned Johnny Cash up and struck out across the wild west Kimberley. We were soon surrounded by a magnificent rugged landscaped dotted with boab trees and sliced by mighty rivers.

The boabs look like they might grab you if you turned your back

 Fires in the sky....controlled burning and lightning-strike fires are a common feature in the Kimberley and create a dramatic backdrop.

                                            Hmm - Now we just find a place to camp - without getting barbecued

 

Tunnel Creek

With our head torches providing the only light, we waded through the eerie dark water with bats screeching above...needless to say, the kids loved it.





                      Catwoman, The Joker & Riddler in the bat cave.  

 

Windjana Gorge

The hot blue Kimberley sky contrasts dramatically with the black and orange cliffs at Windjana Gorge                           

Our first close encounter with Freshwater crocodiles.

 

 

And these guys are the nice ones apparently!!

Action adventure....zzzz

That's more like it - time to get the wheels wet

The Good: Running so late in the dry season that all the swimming holes had heated up to about 28C and we had most of them to ourselves.

The Bad: Our physical collapse after 4 months on the road. It wasn't only the car that needed a service and major overhaul before setting out across the Kimberley. We spent our last week in Broome booking into physios, doctors for bung shoulders and backs. Leanne's was diagnosed as rotator cuff tendinitis, which I prefer to call heavy-crate-awkward-trailer-wriggly-Archie-itis. After a spot of acupuncture and pressure-point stuff, I was on the mend. Paul fared even worse....

The Ugly: Craigie's lip after having a skin cancer removed (see below). Fortunately, it wasn't a nasty.

 

Yee-ouch

 

The Gibb River Road

 

With great excitement and anticipation - and a few prayers that the car and trailer would stay in one piece - we finally turned on to the Gibb River Road and it didn't take long for its treasures to reveal themselves.

 

Bell Gorge

 

 

Ministry of funny walks

Rock hopper

 

 

Made it and what a treat

Last one in's a rotten egg

Great campground at Manning Gorge.

A rare restful moment for Paul at Manning Gorge

But, it's not all laying about is it Paul? He's getting heavy our almost 3-year-old

 

 

Manning Gorge Falls - a tough walk in, but a big reward at the end

 

Oh guys, do I have to go swimming in another waterfall?

Yee haa!!!!

Not so good for the rotator cuff tendinitis ....but I had to do it.

The Good: The road-grader fairy that seemed to be just ahead of us wherever we travelled in the Kimberley and made our Gibb-River-Road and Mitchell Plateau crossings much less nerve wracking.

The Bad: Despite the above-mentioned fairy, we still managed to shake off our spotlights and spare-tyre carrier, requiring some emergency welding repairs at Drysdale River Station.

The Ugly: The poor lady who broke her leg at Manning Gorge Falls and had to be stretchered out by 6 obliging tourists enduring a torturous 2-hour retrieval over a scrambly, rocky trail with limited pain relief before being helicoptered to Derby and flown to Perth. Happy holidays!