To the Top End

(Magyar összefoglaló a végén)


Monday, 28 May, Mount Isa - In the morning we tried to look for Land Rover service where I could get our car serviced as we passed the 10k mark since the last service. But we found nothing and I would prefer to have it done by someone who knows the car, so decided to leave it for Darwin. Then we went shopping in a big Woolworth supermarket and managed to spend an enormous amount of money, but now we are well stocked up for the next week or so. 
After lunch, we went around to check out anything interesting in town, but we could not find much. An old "tent house" in very poor condition, showing how people lived at the early days of the town. The open-cut mine just beside the town centre, but you can't get close to see anything. And a lookout hill, where we could have a view of the whole township. We finished with sight-seeing in about an hour and concluded that there is nothing much else we can do here. In fact, Kate would have found more, but I was keen to go.

Tuesday, 29 May, Barkly Homestead, NT - We left Mount Isa around 10 am and got to Camooweal by lunchtime. There is a Drovers Camp just before the town which was interesting, showing the life and history of early settlers and catle drovers of the region. I managed to try my luck at bull riding - fortunately the bull was stuffed, so I could stay on it for a while...

After lunch we crossed over to the Northern Territory, and had a long and uneventful drive in the afternoon. We reached Barkly Homestead by 5 pm and booked into the caravan park. Two clocks on the wall reminded us to set the time back by half an hour. This homestead turned out to be much nicer and better equipped than the previous one we saw at Bourke and Wills. 

Wednesday, 30 May, October Creek Rest Area - In the morning we were treated to a beautiful sunrise and a "bird show", huge flocks of green parrots flying around the Barkly campsite. 

We turned North and went along the Tablelands Highway, a 370 km trip to Cape Crawford. It is a sealed but one-lane road, with very little traffic. The landscape was varied, sometimes bushy savannah, sometimes very flat and bare, not a tree in sight. Lots of cattle around. We had lunch at a rest stop, and got to Cape Crawford by about 3.30 pm.
I thought Cape Crawford is a decent village, but as it turned out, the only buildings are the Heartbreak Hotel and its accommodation, caravan park and services. The inhabitants are mostly the miners and personnel working in the McArthur River Mine close-by. The whole establishment is much less appealing than its name suggests. Our main reason to come here was to arrange a visit to the "Lost City" a famous rock formation 11 kms SE which is only accessible by helicopter. We asked at the reception and after a bit of waiting we found that the "grand tour", a 2-hour flight, including a guided walk around the "city", is not available right now, because everyone is too busy with the mine works. A disappointment, but we know that there will be other similar attractions along the way later.

We turned East on the Carpentaria Hwy, another one-lane sealed road, and travelled another 100 kms. Around sunset we stopped at a roadside campsite, at October Creek. We were alone in the area, another new experience. We saw a beautiful sunset and a bright moonlit night sky.

Thursday, 31 May, Mataranka - After a good night's sleep and a crisp sunny morning we left quite early and got to Daly Waters by 11 am. We stopped at the historic Pub to check the "countless memorabilia" as suggested by our guidebook. It certainly has a lot of character.

From there we drove into Mataranka and checked into a caravan park, which we found a bit disappointing, but it was too late to change our minds. After lunch we went to the nearby Bitter Springs, one of the many ot springs around this town. It is a natural pool with crystal clear turquoise water lined by reed and water lilies and pandanus palms. There is a 120 m long section in a semi-circle where we could float downstream then walk back to do it again. A beautiful spot indeed. 


After the swim, we went to visit the Elsey cemetery and the site of the original Elsey homestead which does not exist any more. This is where Jeannie Gunn lived for a short time and later wrote the classic novel "We of the Never Never". The book was turned into a movie and for that a replica of the original Elsey homestead was built near the Mataranka Homestead Tourist Resort. On the way back we dropped in to have a look, then went into the resort and walked around the Thermal Pool across the palm forest, another very popular swimming spot. 
It was an interesting day. Within a few hundred km's we came back to the tropics. Wednesday evening at October Creek it was 18-19 degrees, tonight it is 28, a big difference. It is much nicer of course, except that with the warm weather the bugs are also back, and it is hard to keep them out of the van.

Friday, 1 June, Nitmiluk Camping Ground - We left Matarnka under heavily clouded skies, drove to Katherine and turned off to Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge). I was not expecting much but it turned out to be another wonderful day. We booked a boat tour for 1pm then set up the van in the adjacent camping ground. We had just enough time to have lunch and coffee then we had to hurry to the boat ramp.
The tour was excellent. Katherine Gorge is magnificent, a very different scale, much bigger than the two other gorges we saw before. We only visited the first two of the 13 gorges, but it was enough to get an overview of the rock formations and flora and we also saw quite a few "freshies" (freshwater crocodiles) along the way. 

After the tour we came back to the very nice campgorund, had a refreshing plunge in the pool, and a relaxing afternoon. In the evening we had a chance to see the resident snake, a 2.5 m long harmless but very impressive animal. 

Saturday, 2 June, Darwin - We got up early and climbed up to the Baruwei Lookout at the top the escarpment, a 20-minute walk and about 80 metres height. From there we had a nice view of the first gorge just after sunrise, it was worth the effort. 
After breakfast we left the campsite and drove all day up to Darwin, with two stops on the way. First just beside Katherine township we paid a visit at the Sprinvale Homestead, the oldest in NT, built in 1879. Apart from the 4 majestic South American Raintrees planted by the first managers, and some old photos in one of the rooms there is very little of interest. The original building is in a rather poor state and function as a souvenir shop and cafe. One needs a good imagination to feel anything historic about the place.

Around noon we made a detour to Leliyn (Edith Falls), which is also part of the NItmiluk National Park 46 km North of Katherine. There is a large pool of water below the (rather small) waterfall, surrounded by pandanus trees. I had a good swim in the water, it was quite cool and refreshing in the 30 degree heat. Then we had lunch and coffee in the carpark.
We reached Darwin by about 5 pm and checked into a caravan park. It is a nice shaded place, but a bit crowded and the spots and access roads are quite narrow. It took me a few attempts to manoever the van into the right place with the help of two neighbours, but now it is finally in there, and we will stay here for a few days.
Sunday, 3 June, Darwin - We spent the day driving around Darwin, visiting mostly the areas outside the city centre, in two stages. In the morning we started at the Fishermns Wharf, then Wharf precinct, a walk around Stokes Hill wharf, then stopped at the Esplanade to appreciate the views of the clean green/blue ocean. The we went out to the Cullen Bay, to walk around the marina and the beach on the other side. It was a very hot, clear sunny day, very few people around, the whole city seemed abandoned. 
We went back to the camp for lunch and rest during the hottest hours of the day. Around 4pm we had another tour, starting at the East Point reserve, a bit further North from the centre, a very nice recreational area, with lots of picnic facilities and a lagoon. There are also the remains of the military installations from WW2 and the military museum. Beautiful views of the city centre across the bay in the late afternoon sushine. The top of the peninsula is called Sunset point where people already started to gather for the evening spectacle. 

From here we returned towards the city and stopped at Mindil Beach, where a sunset market took place, and the sunset over the water was just as specatcular as from the Sunset point. It was now the opposite experience from the morning, the beach and the market were full of people. 


We watched the sun going down, and wandered around in the market for a while, but the crowd was too much for my liking, so we left it quite early to go home.

Sunset at Mindil Beach, Darwin

Our itinerary can be seen at the following Google Map:
http://g.co/maps/wcwv8 
(Note that to see the route after Bowen, you need to move down to the bottom of the right panel, and select the following pages!)

Jó sokat utaztunk múlt vasárnap óta, most Darwin-ban vagyunk, Northern Territory fővárosában, Ausztrália legészakibb részén. De menjünk sorjában.

Mount Isa-ban végül is csak két napig maradtunk. A legfontosabb dolgunkat, az autó szervizelését, nem tudtuk elintézni, mert nem találtunk egyetlen hozzáértő szervizt sem. Viszont rájöttünk, hogy nem tíz, hanem tizenkétezrenként van előírva a szervíz, így elnapolhatjuk az ügyet Darwin-ig. Sikerült bevásárolni, jól feltöltöttük a készleteinket, pár óra alatt megnéztük azt a kevés látnivalót ami volt (Kati ugyan még talált volna mást is ha rajta múlik...:), és kedd reggel továbbindultunk.
Hamarosan átléptünk Northern Territory államba, estére egy Barkly Homestead nevű kis helyre értünk, ahol nagyon kellemes estét és éjszakát töltöttünk. Reggel szép napsütés és érdekes látvány fogadott: hatalmas zöld papagáj-rajok repkedtek körbe-körbe fölöttünk. A Tablelands Highway-n mentünk tovább észak felé, érdekes út volt, nagyon elhagyatott vidék, egy-sávos út, de alig pár autóval találkoztunk, változatos vidék, néha teljesen kopár sima síkság, néha szavannás növényzet, sok tehén, többször meg kellett állni és megvárni míg lemennek az útról. Délután értünk Cape Crawford-ba, ahol egy ún. "lost city" (elveszett város) a fő látványosság, amit szerettünk volna megnézni. de nem sikerült. Ez egy érdekes természetes szikla-képződmény, ami csak helikopterrel közelíthető meg, de most éppen nem volt pilóta és vezető hogy elvigyen. Szerencsére lesz még más hasonló látványosság az utunk során. Így tovább mentünk még egy száz km-t és egy elhagyatott útmenti pihenőben töltöttük az éjszakát.
Másnap visszaértünk a főútra és Mataranka-ig jutottunk, itt szálltunk meg egy kempingben. Ez a hely a melegvizes forrásairól híres, délután mi is jót fürödtünk a Bitter Springs 34 fokos patakocskában, vizi-liliomok között úszkálva.
Pénteken csak kb száz km-t mentünk északra, és eltértünk a Nitmiluk nemzeti parkban, korábban Katherine Gorge-nak hívták, ez az aboriginal neve. Ez is egy sziklafalak közé ékelődött folyóvölgy, de sokkal nagyobb léptékű, mint az amiket korábban láttunk. Leraktuk a lakókocsit a kempingben, és elmentünk egy kétórás hajótúrára, ami fantasztikus volt, nagyon élveztük. Most már nehéz eldönteni, hogy mi is volt a legnagyobb élmény. Lényeg az, hogy mindegyik gorge egész más, nem lehet őket összehasonlítani.
Szombat reggel korán keltünk, és gyalog felmentünk a sziklaorom tetején egy kilátóra, hogy felülről is megszeméljük a terepet. A korai napfényben nagyon szép látvány volt a völgy, megérte a fáradságot. Délfelé még egy érdekes helyet látogattunk meg, Edith falls, egy kis vízesés, alatta nagy kerek tó, ahol jót lehet fürödni, amit én mindjárt ki is próbáltam, nagyon finom volt, bár elég hideg, jó firssítő a vize a 32 fokos melegben. Kati kicsit náthás lett, inkább nem ment bele. Itt ebédeltünk, aztán folytattuk az utat, és öt óra tájban megérkeztünk Darwin-ba. Megszálltunk egy kempingben, és jót pihentünk az exotikus fák közötti árnyékos táborhelyünkön. Most itt maradunk pár napig, reméljük, hogy hétfőn sikerül elintézni az autó-szervizt és megint kicsit feltankolni a külső és belső készleteinket.


Az útvonalunk a következo Google Map-on látható:
http://g.co/maps/wcwv8
(A Bowen utáni szakaszokhoz le kell menni a jobboldali panel aljára, és a következo oldalakra kattintani!!)