The Darwin Adventure

It was a relatively short hop across from Jabiru to Darwin, so we arrived relatively early to set up camp yet again and go in and refamiliarise ourselves with Darwin. There has been a lot of growth in the city itself since our last visit about 3 years ago. Much more hi-rise development and of course when it comes to the shops you could be anywhere in Australia, same old, same old. Still the weather up here is just beautiful, going up to about 37 during the day and a cold night is about 20. Needless to say we are enjoying it, especially when we hear of the ghastly temps being experienced back in Sydney.

So what have we been up to....well before leaving Kakadu we did an all day trip into Arnhemland and wow, we just loved it. We followed a road alongside the East Alligator River, which was teeming with crocodiles, stood on top of rocky outcrops and gazed out along the Arnhem escarpment. Everywhere was so lush and vibrant, the reds, greens and blues. We visited the Injalak community and saw many of their works of art, and spoke to the artists. Their work is beautiful, they work with lines not dots like many aboriginal mobs do and their work is known the world over. Not cheap by any means but you can't expect it to be given away. We had lunch by a billabong, sitting under the trees, being eaten by mozzies and went for a walk through the bush. All in all a great day, we loved it and are now planning to come back and spend some quality time there, even if we do have to jump through hoops to do it.

Next day we did an early morning boat ride down the East Alligator River croc watching. We counted quite a few of them lying on the river banks and it does make you wonder how many are out there that you can't see.

Back to Darwin....our first mega outing was to the Tiwi Island group and to Bathurst Island in particular. Bathurst Island is about 60 km off the coast and about 2.5 hours away by boat. Bathurst Island played a mega part in the defence of Australia during WW11 and it was actually from Bathurst Island that the first warning was given to Darwin of the approach of a massive squadron of planes, this advice was ignored by Australia. The rest of course is history.

Bathurst Island has a certain charm and is probably typical of many aboriginal communities that the place is a mess, with rubbish everywhere and everything seems to be in a state of steady decay. We visited several churches, which being the focal point of the community are in good condition. The museum was most interesting and was well photographed by the missionaries when they were stationed there in the late 1800's. We enjoyed morning tea and damper with a group of aboriginal women who also put on some traditional paint and did a bit of a song and dance for us. All the locals we met were really friendly and only to happy to talk about their island. We did visit their 'store' where again we got to talk to some of the artists and had the opportunity to purchase their work. Mike and I both agreed that the quality of their work did not compare to the Injalak and the prices were very dear in comparison. Still it was an interesting day and we are glad that we had the opportunity to visit.

Back in Darwin we have visited the Charles Darwin NP which is really a collection of WW11 bunkers up on top of a hill overlooking the city. The botanical gardens are very good and cover a huge area and considering they were totally blown away in Cyclone Tracey are well on the way to total recovery – although they do not compare with the wonderful gardens in Rockhampton.

East Point Nature Reserve was a delight, especially the mangrove walk. Sounds boring but the boardwalk extends out to the ocean and goes partly underwater at high tide. It was just so cool and refreshing in there we did not want to leave. Of course we visited the Mindil Markets, that is a must for anyone visiting Darwin, the highlight for us was seeing a guy playing 5 dij's at the one time, just amazing and then to top it off a group of young aboriginals got up and started to dance, throwing their bodies around in time to the dij. Fantastic.

Yesterday we visited Fogg Dam and were very disappointed by the lotus lily display or lack of display. Apparently it was a crook wet season so it is very dry up here as a result. Late in the afternoon we did a magical sunset cruise down the Adelaide River, croc watching yet again and just enjoying the cool breezes and the beautiful light as the sun set over the grassland and pandanus,

Today has been out last day here in Darwin, we have done the necessary shopping to stock up for the next few weeks. Tomorrow we head back to Katherine for the night, then over to Lake Argyle where we will stay for 3 nights. We stayed there once before but only for a night and because it looked so lovely we felt we should revisit to explore the area properly.

From there we move on to El Questro where we have a private site booked. We have stayed there before and to be right out in the bush, with the nearest camper being at least .5 km away, no power, no running water etc etc, it will once again be one of the highlights of the trip. Of course there will not be mobile phone coverage, so it could be about 10 days before you hear from us again.