Darwin is only a few hours drive from Kakadu and along the way the road runs through the Adelaide river floodplains. We camped at a rest stop in the middle of the wetlands because we wanted to visit an information centre called Window on the Wetlands. The camping spot we chose was possibly the worst choice we ever made. There was literally millions of mosquitoes. We had to burn one of those insect killing sticks inside the car to get rid of them and when we woke up the next morning there was hundreds of dead mosquitoes in the car. On top of the mosquitoes the weather was extremely humid. It was a horrible night. The next morning the information centre turned out to be a positive surprise. It was nice to get our thoughts away from the nightmare that had been.
Darwin
The last few weeks I and especially Annina have been missing a real bed so we decided to sleep in a hostel in Darwin for two nights. We got a nice double room with a awesome bed and a fridge and it felt like a hotel in comparison to the car. We could also buy food that needs a fridge again like cold milk, cheese and butter. Hot showers as often as you want is also a great thing! I really liked the hostel. It had a lot of trees and plants that made it feel like an oasis in the middle of the city.
Apart from relaxing and enjoying our new comforts in the hostel we also went out and explored Darwin. The city is named after the famous Charles Darwin by a friend that wanted to show him respect. The city is quite big for being so far away from everywhere else, around 100.000 people live in the area. One of the attractions we visited was a Taoist/Buddhist temple. There is a lot of Asian people in Darwin (especially Chinese) and they built the original temple in 1887. In 1974 cyclone Tracy destroyed the temple and the building you can see today is a rebuilt version. During WW2 Darwin was bombed by the Japanese and their oil reserves destroyed. The city decided to build underground storage tunnels to protect the oil from the air raids. But by the time the tunnels were completed the war was over. 50 years later the city opened the unused tunnels to the public and they are now the second most visited attraction in Darwin. Since I find stuff like that interesting I visited them as well. It was quite interesting to walk through these massive underground tunnels and to look at photos from WW2 that were on display on the walls.
Because Darwin is so far north the waters are almost always filled with box jellyfish which makes it extremely dangerous to go swimming in the ocean. On top of that there is always a crocodile threat in Northern Territory anywhere where there is water. To make people happy the city has created a project called the waterfront precinct where there is a beach with nets out in the water to stop the jellyfish and a wave lagoon next to it. The wave lagoon was a fun place to relax. Every half hour they make waves for the people to enjoy. You can either just swim around and have fun or grab one of the free bodyboards and go play. When you are bored of the water you can lie down on a beach chair and enjoy the sun. From the waterfront precinct we walked along the coast back to the hostel. The path took us through the Bicentennial park, a long park with lookouts, benches and plagues. My first impression of Darwin were not that great, but it changed as I explored the city.
That evening we went out partying. First we went to a bar where they showed Australia vs. Denmark, a friendship soccer match before the world cup. Australia won. Then we went to three different clubs. The two first were really backpacker places and the last one was more of a mix. We both had a great night and I was pretty drunk in the end :P I can remember eating a monster hamburger on the way back to the hostel and thinking it was the best burger I ever ate :) It was nice to do something different than just sleeping as soon as it gets dark. (There is not much else to do when you are camping at a rest stop along the highway).
We went to the Northern Territory museum and art gallery on our last day in Darwin. Originally we planned to be there for about an hour, but it turned out to be much more interesting than I first thought. It was a nice blend of art galleries and museum exhibitions. Among the highlights was a gallery of indigenous art, a natural history of Northern Territory exhibition, an exhibition about cyclone Tracy and a crocodile exhibition. I think we spent over three hours looking at everything and we still had to hurry through the last few things. I found the natural history section especially good. I took a lot of photos to try and show some of the things that I liked. Here is the album I made from our visit:
Museum and Art Gallery of the NT: 02. June 2010
http://picasaweb.google.com/fatsheep/MuseumAndArtGalleryOfTheNT
Litchfield National Park
We finally had to leave the NT museum and art gallery before it became to late to drive to Litchfield national park. Litchfield is located just south of Darwin and is a popular getaway for locals and tourists alike. There are many waterfalls and plunge pools to swim in and the area is rich in natural beauty. We arrived at a place called Florence falls that afternoon and went for a quick swim in the pool below. You could swim right through one of the two waterfall to a small hollow behind it. Big rocks were visible just under the surface in the middle of the pool and you could sit on them and relax. A few kilometers upstream is a place called Buley rockholes. Here a series of small waterfalls form several rockholes that are ideal for swimming in as well. It was getting to dark to go swimming, but we came back the next day. That night we camped at a campsite next to the rockholes.
Our first destination the next morning was a place called The Lost City. From the main road we had to drive a 4x4 track 10km into the woods. At the end of this road is the "Lost City". The place looks like ruins from a lost civilization. However it is just stone pillars and walls remaining from what was once a permanent layer of rock many many years ago. The place is still very impressive. We walked along the short track between the stone formations and it really did feel like it could have been an ancient civilization living there thousands of years ago.
Our next stop was the Tolmer falls lookout. The falls are not accessible to the public, but there is a walkway to a lookout with great views of them and the surrounding landscape. We then drove to Wangi falls. It is usually a great place to swim, but it was now closed due to increased crocodile risk. The Wangi falls are two waterfalls next to each other both plunging into the same pool below. Since we couldn't go swimming we walked the walking track around the falls instead. It went through moonsoon rainforest at the bottom before climbing up the cliff to the top of the falls. Here we had a great view of the forest below. It was after the Wangi falls walk that we drove back to the Buley rockholes to swim.
The last thing we did in Litchfield national park was looking at the Magnetic termite mounds. These gigantic termite mounds can get over 2 meters high and are found where there is a clearing in the woods. There are no mammals in Australia that keep the grass growth down like in other parts of the world. Instead millions and millions of termites harvest and eat the grass keeping the natural circle complete. We saw these termite mounds the first time just south of Coral Bay on the west coast and could not understand what they were. From there they are seen everywhere along the whole north part of Australia. The Magnetic termite mounds of Litchfield were the biggest ones we have seen.
On the way back to Darwin we took a small detour so that I could go on a cruise on the Adelaide river. The cruise is famous for showing jumping wild crocodiles. As soon as we entered the boat we saw the first crocodiles swimming in the river. As we slowly cruised upstream the captain talked about the crocodiles living there. The ones that we saw were all saltwater crocodiles which are the biggest of the two species of crocodiles in Australia. They are also the most dangerous and can easily kill a human if they want to. They can get more than 6m long. From the second level of the boat a crew member was dangling pork chops down over the water and crocodiles were jumping into the air to get them. These crocodiles were 100% wild and apparently all crocodilian reptiles have the ability to jump. It was an amazing way to see wild crocodiles close up and to learn more about them. The biggest one I saw was about 4.5m. On the way back down the river at the end of the cruise one of the crew also fed a group of predator birds. She through the food into the air and the birds caught it midair. All in all the jumping crocodile cruise was well worth the money. I left with awesome memories and great pictures.
To save some money on fuel we decided to offer up our two back seats to fellow backpackers that needed a lift to Alice Springs. We posted an add on a website called Gumtree before Darwin and during our stay we decided on two people we wanted to travel with. This was the reason why we had to go back to Darwin after Litchfield national park. Back in Darwin we picked up the first passenger, a German girl called Nicole, and started the long drive south to Alice Springs. The next morning we stopped in Katherine again to pick up our second passenger, a French girl called Florence. It was nice to have some new company especially when you are driving the whole day. It's about 1500km to Alice Springs from Darwin and there is almost nothing to see on the way. As we drove south we also left the Top End and that means the end of this blog post. My next update will be all about the red centre and our journey through it.
There is not much to write about Ayr, but Bowen is more interesting. It was in Bowen that Baz Luhrmann filmed the Darwin scenes in the movie Australia and there was still remnants of the set that we looked at. Bowen also has many good beaches especially Horseshoe Bay. Apparently there is a reef that you can see if you snorkel just off the beach. We didn't check as the weather was cold and so was the water, but next to Horseshoe bay is Horseshoe Bay lookout with a nice view of the bay and surrounding beaches. We climbed up there instead and took some nice photos of the landscape. Just south of Bowen is the big Mango which we of course stopped at and took some photos.
We got up really early the next morning and sailed towards Whitsunday Island (the biggest island in the Whitsundays) and Whitehaven beach. (The most famous beach in the Whitsundays and among the top tree most beautiful beaches in Australia). First be walked up to Hill inlet lookout where you could see out over the Hill inlet and Whitehaven beach. The view was amazing with the turquoise ocean, the white beach and the green forest. We then walked down to Whitehaven beach and relaxed. When we first arrived the weather was gray and overcast, but suddenly the clouds were away and the sun was shining. Just next to the beach was a tiny sand island and next to that again we saw stingrays swimming around. At lunch time Tongarra picked us up from the beach and we headed north towards our first snorkeling spot, Mantaray Bay!
The snorkeling spot was amazing. Just next to Hook Island in the bay that we had sailed to was tons of corals and fish just under the surface. We put on our stinger suits (to protect against dangerous jellyfish and keep you warm and afloat) and our snorkeling equipment and jumped into the water. The reef here was in my opinion even better than the reefs up by Cairns and I was really sad that I didn't have an underwater camera. I saw tons of fish in all different colors and a Napoleonfish which looks like the fish in the picture. They are really big! We went to two different snorkeling spots that afternoon before anchoring. My only complaint was all the jellyfish in the water. Even with a suit they stung me on my hands, feet and in the face. That night we saw the most amazing sunset and just to make the picture perfect a sailboat crossed the horizon as the sun sank in the ocean.
By the last morning we had made new friends and emptied a four liter casket of goon. We started the day with a quick snorkel at a third spot called Caves Cove also referred to as "the third snorkel spot" by the skipper. We then headed back towards Airlie Beach. The weather was fantastic that whole day and it was nice to just relax on deck and enjoy. That evening the crew went out with us to the pub and everyone got drunk, especially the skipper. We had booked a hostel for the night because Germany was playing their World Cup semifinal and the game was 04:00 in the morning. They lost :( The next morning we left beautiful Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays and headed south yet again, this time towards Fraser Island!
