Days 306-307- Hallowe'en Party

Melbourne -Geelong -Port Arlington -St.Leonard's -Queenscliff -Sorrento -Mornington -around Port Phillip Bay in 36 hours -Saturday, October 28 - Sunday October 29

Yes, we were off on another adventure. This event had been pencilled in months ago when fellow exchanglings Blair and Susan Michaud, from Alberta, ghoulishy volunteered to host a Hallowe'en Party at their house in St. Leonard's, on the Bellarine Peninsula. This area we had never explored, and is in the south west corner of Port Phillip Bay. We had also been invited to visit the home of Keith and Barbara Jones, relatives of our exchange partners. They live in Geelong.
Our route would take us around Port Phiilip Bay, seen in the Map above. We live SE of the City, and would take the M1 through it to Geelong, then, out to the Bellarine Peninsula between Port Arlington and Queenscliff. We would stay in Port Arlington and then Sunday, return via Queenscliff, across "The Rip" via the ferry, and back home through the Mornington Peninsula.

We arose early on Saturday, Matheson being first as he had to clean up after his two night school dramatic performance of "The Pink Panther" (which, I must say, was one of the funniest plays I have seen in a long time!). We picked him up from school and hopped on the M1 through the City towards Geelong.
We had a wonderful visit with Keith and Barbara Jones who had visited our home, and their son Denis, my exchange partner Joan, and their grandchildren, Ben and Zack, last May and June. It was great catching up with our exchange partners' family, as this is one of the things that makes an exchange very enriching. Exchanges allow you this unusual insight into your exchange partners by means of their families, their colleagues, their neighbours, but rarely your actual exchange family. We enjoyed lunch over discussions that varied from travel, to politics to magic! Keith and Barbara had lived in Toronto while Keith was with IBM back in the 1970's. This was one of the reasons we were matched with Joan and Denis, as they wished to see where Denis had lived as a boy of 11 years and had included their desire to be in Ontario on their exchange application.
Late in the afternoon we departed on the half hour drive to St. Leonard's arriving after 4 pm to a full house and a veritable smorgasbord of costumes! Most of our exchange friends from around Victoria had made the trip to this wonderful corner of the State.

Hosts- Blair and Susan and family from Barrhead, Alberta
Kim and Marlene- Edmonton
Wayne and daughter Megan- Winnipeg
Leslie and Joe and family- Woodstock
John and Lori and family- Tilsonburg
John and Cathy and family- Elora
Annika- Toronto
Julie- Washington State
Kiersty and Mark and family- Netherlands
Leon and Sarah- UK
June and grandaughter Stef-Mississauga

We laughed a lot at each other's costumes, enjoyed beverages and a pot-luck dinner. Many of the visitors stayed overnight with Susan and Blair or in the vicinity. We booked a last minute place a few kilometres back in Port Arlington, and were joined (as there was an extra bedroom) by June and her grandaughter. Next morning, we drove back to St. Leonard's and enjoyed a breakfast with many of the overnighters.
Most of the visitors then headed off to Queenscliff, a beautiful historic town at the mouth of Port Phillip Bay. We enjoyed the market, the fish and chips and strolling the shops where we continued to bump into our partygoing friends!
Jumping on the 2 p.m. ferry across "The Rip," the kilometre wide channel that leads out of Port Phillip Bay into the Bass Straight, we arrived in another scenic seaside town, Sorrento. From here, it was an hour or so back along the shores of the Bay, through Mornington and Frankston, to Glen Waverley.

We realised that many of the beautiful sites of this area are very close, and we may find ourselves in one of these pretty villages, or a nearby winery, or swimming at one of the wonderful beaches in the next few weeks, if we can find the time.

Days 298-300- ITA Weekend- Carpé Diem

Melbourne-Wodonga-Mt. Hotham-Sale-Melbourne: Friday, October 19-21

The local ITA (International Teacher's Association) had planned a weekend in northeastern Victoria in Wodonga, which is on the Murray River. Not wanting to miss another chance to see a new and different part of the state, we left Melbourne on Friday afternoon and followed the Hume Highway northeast to the border region.
Wodonga is a border city, and lies opposite the Murray River from Albury, New South Wales.
We were given directions to the home of Gavan, Margaret and Charlotte Brown, who have twice been on exchange, to Alberta and Birmingham, England. Once out of the city, it was a 3 hour drive to our hosts' home south of the town. Arriving in the dark, we were not able to appreciate the wonderful surroundings that awaited us.
We were instructed to meet the other attendees at the visitor centre on the causeway across the Murray that links the two cities. Colleen, Kevin and I, along with the Brown's teenage daughter Charlotte, arrived in time to explore the farmer's market that was already underway.
Shortly, we met up with Kim and Marlene Norsworthy (Edmonton) and Jeannie Whitehead (UK), who were the only other attendees (Jeannie by default, as her exchange is in Wodonga!).
The turnout was disappointing, but we more than made the best of it! Having Jeannie as our senior tour guide and Charlotte as our junior guide, we quickly planned out our day to include visits to the Murray River, the War Memorial, the Albury Train Station (very beautiful and historic architecture, and having the longest platform in the southern hemisphere), the Hume Dam, the Hume Reservoir (sadly only 25% full) and an original post-war immigrant village. And this was just the morning tour! The problems this area is experiencing with water are so apparent when looking at the reservoir. We drove the boat ramp 250 metres to the bottom and were still 500 metres from the water. No significant rain has fallen here in the last 6 months, whereas south of the Alps, just a few hundred kilometres away, severe floods were experienced this past winter.
We drove off to the historic gold mining village of Yackandandah for lunch and were joined by Charlotte's parents. We also visited Beechworth, where Ned Kelly was captured. This gold town was so rich that all the buildings were constructed with very resilient local yellow coloured granite, and so they have all survived, and the town has an amazing 19th century feel. The shops were quaint, the bakery and candy shop were worth the line ups and the Ned Kelly history palpable. Colleen even sent a real "telegraph" to her Mom and Dad from the old "Telegraph Station."
Later, we drove back to Albury and enjoyed a lovely BBQ at the home of other former exchange teachers. It was too bad that our contingent was so small as they missed a wonderful day and a great party!

We awoke very early on Sunday with the goal of returning to Glen Waverley by the Great Alpine Road. This route winds its way through the hills south of Yackandandah, through Bright, over the top of the Alps at Mount Hotham Ski Resort, and south down to the ocean near Sale, and back to Melbourne. This route is significantly longer and slower than the Hume Highway and would take over 7 hours. Our reasoning was that this would be our only chance to see the eastern Alpine Country and Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia (in the NSW section of the Snowy Mountains).
An interesting aside to the drive was that it was already quite warm when we left and along the road, we expected we might see a snake or two sunning on the black asphalt. We did! The first one already had the Michelin imprint still left on it, and the second, a large black snake coiled in my lane, also received my Michelin tread design, despite me swerving to miss it.
We had been on the road since 7 a.m. heading for Bright, where we enjoyed croissants and lattés. Then came the steep, winding climb to the top of Mount Hotham village (1,750 metres ASL, just 100 metres below the summit). The hairpin turns and blind corners would be a nightmare in winter! It was almost +20 C at the top with a gusty wind and most of the snow at the summit was gone, so the ice and chain warnings were unnecessary.
The descent through Dinner Plain was much more gradual down to Omeo. Then we followed the road along a beautiful river valley for many more kilometres, arriving at Bairnsdale, on the A1 "Princes Highway" near Lakes Entrance just after noon. It was worth the extra time and sometimes slow going to enjoy this wonderful alpine area.
The next part of the drive we had done back in January in our rented motor home and was easy. Just a 3 hour drive, which Colleen and I shared, and we were home.
It was another excellent weekend! Thanks to the ITA's who planned it, our gracious hosts who provided bed and breakfast, and for those who were able to particpate, it was worth the drive. We enjoyed making new friends and seeing fellow exchangees.
Don't miss this corner of the country if you have a chance to go!

Days 291-293- Sydneysider meets Melbournian

Days 291-293- Sunny Days in Melbourne

Melbourne- Friday, October 12 to Sunday, October 14

We had the pleasure of a visit this weekend from my former Ruth Thompson Middle School colleague, Sunny Jatana, who has immigrated to Australia after studying here a few years back. He taught with me in Canada in 2006 and finished the school year in 2007 before moving here. It was the end of his school holidays so he decided to come down to the better city (he lives in Sydney) to see what all the fuss is about here in Melbourne.
I picked up Sunny at Southern Cross Station Friday night where he had finished the 12 hour bus journey late Friday, and we explored the city on Saturday.
We sampled the Queen Vic Market, the Immigration Museum, Melbourne Central Shopping District, the Shot Tower, Flinders Lane Cafés, Ian Potter Museum of Art, The Indian Music Festival at Confederation Square, St. Kilda Pier (another latté stop!), quaffed foamy beverages on the street in St. Kilda, rode the trams and trains...
As you can see, we packed in a lot in one Saturday, and would have continued through Sunday, except that Sunny was due back in Sydney for a Sunday afternoon wedding!
It was a great weekend of pretending to be a Melburnian and showing off this great city to the noveau Sydneysider.

Days 282-286- Chilin' in Darwin

Day 282- “Crikey! There’s another croc!” - Mary River Billabong Cruise

Point Stuart to Darwin via Litchfield National Park- Wednesday, October 3, 2007

It was still dark when Colleen and I arose and first checked the location of the St. Andrew’s Cross spider just in case it had found its way into our luggage. It was still where we had seen it the night before.
The Mary River Billabong is one of the largest rivers in the area that is cut into billabongs (disconnected ponds) during the dry season. The 15 km section that we cruised has the largest population of crocs, both Estuarine and Freshie, anywhere. No sooner had our guide, a kind of Crocodile Dundee wannabe, launched the tour boat, we were sitting amongst a group of crocs 100 metres down the bank. Seeing the two species close up, one beside the other allowed us to learn a lot about their similarities and differences. Freshies, we were told, are not interested in eating you, while the Estuarine (or Salties), actually want to hunt you down. I was not prepared to test this proposition.
The bird life in this billabong is quite diverse. Our first observation of bird life here was a Jabiru, a large stork like bird, fighting a crocodile over a fish meal! The croc lept from the water but was no match for the bird, believe it or not!
The Mary River area is world renowned for its bird life, and as our guide began to name of the birds we were observing, I began a list that kept going down the page. The birds were in such number and variety that one could easily forget the number o crocs in the water! They are everywhere! It may be true that the largest concentration of both Estuarine and Freshwater Crocs is found here. It certainly looked that way.
Heading off towards Litchfield National Park, we stopped at Banyan Tree Caravan Park for lunch under the giant fig tree. The area here is well known for its diversity of termites, and more specifically, the various forms of mounds that different species contruct. Some make no mound at all, but two species, the “Cathedral” and “Magnetic” create unique towers, the former a corrugated mound up to 3 metres and the latter, perfectly north-south aligned that look like tombstones.
The afternoon was spent in the cool waters of Florence Falls, swimming in the deep pool while being pinched by Barramundi.
Finally, we headed back towards Darwin and its humidity, to be dropped off in front of the Cavanagh backpackers. We were picked up by by my friend Steve Hawkins, who was on exchange to my school in Mississauga in 2004 and who now works for the Northern territory Department of Education. His apartment faces the Beagle Gulf of the Timor Sea and we watched the sun go down over the ocean from his 3rd floor verandah as we caught up on our adventures and his most recent travels.

Day 283- Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

Darwin- Thursday, October 4

We were moving slowly as it was the first day of not having to rise early in 3 weeks and some of us were having a harder time than others getting out of bed. When we had all got ourselves going (Steve had gone off to work after dropping me off at the airport to hire a car), we drove to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. The collection of Aboriginal art, Cyclone Tracy memorabilia and WWII Darwin bombing archives is quite extensive. We met Danielle, one of our Wayward Bus travelling companions, who had the rest of the day to kill in town before her flight home to Brisbane.
The Museum turned out to be one of those little gems where the small but eclectic exhibits give one deep insights into the city and the Territory. The Cyclone Tracy exhibit was particularly extensive, and we were reminded at how often the city has had to be rebuilt due to war and storms.
Downtown's Smith Street is a pedestrian mall with many Aboriginal Art Galleries to explore. We inrerupted our shopping with a visit to our first Cold Rock Ice Cream parlour, which has outlets around Australia. This was our first and the ice crea, rates very highly. Little did we know that Steve's work colleague owns the Baskin Robbins across the street.
We returned to the Thursday evening Mendil Beach Market and did more serious ouvenir shopping, buying some Aboriginal prints from an Arnhem Land artist, and some tacky souvenirs too, which shall be given to some lucky (or unlucky as the case may be) friends back home...so watch out!
For supper, we met Steve at the Stokes Hill Wharf, which has a wide variety of "take-away" restaurants. We sat on the pier and watched the sun set as we ate Thai food washed down with various local beverages.
Near the wharf is the outdoor "Deckchair Cinema" which is exactly like its name. Although the film selection was not the best choice, we had a great time sitting under the stars watching the film.

Day 284- Darwin's WWII History

Darwin- Friday, October 5

East Point Military Museum is a privately owned museum set up in the battery and gun emplacement with a replica 9.2 inch gun that was built near the end of the war and never used. We visited part way through the morning. There were lots of old artillery and vehicles, but the heat outside sent is back in, where lots of war memorabilia were on display. The highlight, though, was a 15 minute film about the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese. It was hard to imagine that the city suffered over 300 casualties, and that the 64 bombing attacks are not well known.
Later, we returned to the downtown area and expored more art galleries (much to the chagrin of the boys).
We headed back to Steve's, crossed the road by the bay and swam in the pool in the heat and humidity of the late afternoon as the sun set again over the Timor Sea.

Day 285-286- Homeward Bound, but first, let's go for a swim

Time was running out and we felt that we had to make good use of our last day in the heat of the Tropics. Colleen and I got up early and walked the track along the ocean for and hour before returning to Steve's. The boys were barely awake, so we rousted them, told them to grab their bathing suits ("bathers" in Oz), and headed out of town to the nearest swiming hole, Berry Springs, about half an hour south of town.
We grabbed breakfast on the way and were swimming by 11 am. The pools were warm and the sun strong. Colleen, still not quite fully comprehending the tropical sun, forgot to put on sunscreen. Even in the water, it seems, you get quite a burn here, and we were all nicely coloured after our swim. We walked the Monsoon forest track in the park and then drove back to the city.
Arriving back at Steve's, we loaded his gear into our car, as he was heading to the airport on his way to Thailand for his holiday. All we had to do was lock up when our flight was scheduled a few hours later.
Unfortuantely, his flight was cancelled and I had to drive back and get him. Steve spent the next few hours rebooking his flight for early Monday. AS Steve was rebooking his flight, we received a call from Virgin Blue requesting that we change routes from the Darwin to Melbourne non-stop to a Darwin-Brisbane-Melbourne flight. The incentive was a free flight home, or rather, a credit for the value of our flight. Economically, it made sense, but the 2 a.m departure, stopover in Brisbane, and the connecting flight home were very uncomfortable. But I am getting ahead of myself.
We had another swim, went with Steve to a downtown restaurant highlighted in the Lonely Planet Guide (The Duck's Nuts), and then headed to the airport ourselves.
It was a long wait, a crammed red-eye flight, and very uncomfortable. We arrived back at Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne at 9 a.m., tired and without transportation home. A taxi ride home is over $100, so we took the bus-train-bus option.
Finally, at 10:30, we stumbled off the bus at the bus stop next to the house, weary but very happy about our 3 week Outback adventure.
We have seen parts of Australia that many Australians have never seen. We have experienced the true Outback and the Red Centre and the Top End. We have watched the sunset over the desert, over Uluru and over the Timor Sea.
And Monday, when I go back to school, there are only 9 weeks left here, and we will be heading home. Time is running out.

Days 277-281- Alice Springs to Kakadu Park

Day 277- Beginning a New Journey

Alice Springs to Banka Banka Cattle Station- Friday, September 28, 2007

Photos of this part of our journey through the Northern Territory can be seen at our new Photocast by clicking here: http://photocast.mac.com/rod.murray/iPhoto/northern-photocast/index.rss

Our new journey began early when my alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. after a very short sleep. We were to be picked up at 4:45 a.m. by our Australia Adventure Tours bus. They operate three tour companies that offer slightly different styles of travel, depending on what you are doing. Colleen’s sister, Mary Ellen, and partner Sean, also traveled with them. Since we are actually enroute from Alice to Darwin, they operate The Wayward Tour bus service, which makes frequent stops, provides self-contained tent accommodation, meals and activities along the route. The alternative is to travel straight through and see nothing. A 1500 km journey straight through would be unbearable so this was the best option, and we could combine the trip with a 3 day Kakadu National Park 4WD tour to save money.
Our driver and tour leader, Jayme, from Vancouver, picked up our travel companions at a nearby hostel: 4 young Japanese, 1 Dane and an Australian, and headed north, making morning stops at The Tropic of Capricorn, Ti Tree (population 50 but with great coffee and Aboriginal art), Barrow Creek (site of an Aboriginal massacre), Wycliffe Wells (the UFO Capital of Australia), stopping at Wauchope for lunch (the pub was owned by the father of our tour company trainee, Megan).
Our afternoon stop was longer, at Devil’s Marbles, where we spent an hour exploring the granite rocks that have been eroded into round shapes. Warning: Geography lesson follow- you may proceed to the next paragraph and skip the test. An igneous intrusion of liquid rock millions of years ago into the sandstone crust has slowly emerged from below as the sandstone above has worn down. “Onion peel” weathering, where water seeps into the surface of the rock, causes layers of the granite to break off, and creates the round shapes.
We carried on through Tennant Creek and stopped for just long enough to refuel and get an iced coffee. We did see the school and paid homage to our friend back in Oakville, George Brett, who spent a year here while on Teacher Exchange. There appeared to be a mix of those who benefited from the local gold mine here as well as many who did not. Such is the paradox of the Northern Territory, where Aboriginal Australians do not seem to have the same opportunities and quality of life as others. Others we met disagreed with this observation. The debate continues.
Our stop for the evening was at Banka Banka Station Caravan Park where the tour company has its own permanent tents and camp kitchen. The Station is a working cattle station with 58,000 head of cattle on 400,000 hectare. Farm animals and kangaroos wander the campsite, and the kiosk has the cheapest beer in the Territory. We sat under the verandah, drank a cold one and watched the proprietor bottle-feed a joey kangaroo that had been orphaned on the Stuart Highway.
Dinner was taken on the kitchen deck as the sun set over the hills. The stars were wonderful, but it had been a long day and we all settled into bed before 9 p.m. Almost 600 of the over 1500 km between “The Alice” and Darwin had been covered, with almost the same distance to be done tomorrow.



Day 278- Is Katherine Burning?

Banka Banka Station to Katherine via Renner, Daly Waters Pub and Mataranka Thermal Pool- Saturday, September 29, 2007 (AFL Grand Final Day)

Just a short time into our drive and we came across a local farmer and his road train that had lost his load of cattle feed when the third trailer swung off the road and rolled over. A crew of farm hands had been deployed already to gather the undamaged 40 kilo bags and load them into another truck. We stopped to help. They thanked us for our assistance and we were off again, barreling north as the sun rose over the eastern horizon.
The dry desert of The Red Centre finally gives way at a town called Renner as you drive north on the Stuart Highway. It is here that the trees become taller, the termite mounds bigger and the tropical sunshine brighter. The tropical savannah of the Northern Territory is vast, and we traveled through it for hour upon hour.
Detouring at Daly Waters, we first checked out the aerodrome, which had been used in the early days on the Sydney to London flights for a refueling stop. It was also used in WWII as an Australian Air Force Base. Jayme drove around the runway and made us put our arms out the window like wings.
Near the aerodrome was the Stuart Tree. It is claimed that William Stuart, who explored this area 4 times in attempts to cross the country from south to north (only the 4th was successful), carved an “S” into the tree. It was a popular place to visit during the war. However, Stuart never wrote about it in his diary so there is speculation about its authenticity. We also visited the old jail and the original Post Office, relics of more active time period in the town’s history.
The real highlight was having lunch at the Daly Waters Pub, one of the oldest in the country. It is customary to place a personal item on the wall, and every square inch of the place has such items as shoes, currency shirts, bras, student cards…you name it, stapled to the wall. Colleen’s sandal had ripped in two pieces earlier in the day and so she labeled it and nailed it in the shoe section. Matheson placed his Holy Trinity Secondary School student card on the front of the bar, just in case you ever get there and want to see it.
Now, it was only 11:30 in the morning, but I must confess that Colleen and I both ordered a beer with our lunch, just to say we coiffed a draught at Daly Waters Pub. It surely must be the earliest I have ever done that in my life, but it was in keeping with the +35°C temperatures here and the highest per capita beer consumption in the country.
Our stop was not over, and we also set up bowling pins on the main street and had a few games before we hopped back on the bus. There was something silly about watching the 4 Japanese throwing bowling balls down a deserted street in the middle of the Outback. I must confess I laughed at them, and Matheson too.
It was a long drive towards Mataranka, but well worth it the diversion off the highway. This place is know for its Thermal Pools, but today, it was also a popular place since the pub was also showing the Grand Final of the Australian Rules Football from the MCG in Melbourne. The score was already lopsided in favour of the Geelong Cats over Port Adelaide, so we went to the thermal pool instead. The water bubbles up from the earth at a constant 34°C with a steady flow of 16,000 litres per minute. The water is clear with only a hint of sulphur. It was a lovely swim!
Onward towards Katherine, where we noticed huge plumes of smoke as we pulled into town. Jayme joked that this was where our campsite was. The flames of bushfires were actually visible in the town. It was not a joke when we arrived at our camp near the Kathryn Gorge to find that another fire had swept by just hours ago, and that there were still flames visible on our side of the road. Apparently, a burn had leapt the road and threatened both our camp and the helicopter business next door. It was a smoky night, and the orange glow on the horizon was a continual reminder of the fires that were burning not too far away.




Day 279- Paddling Katherine Gorge

Katherine to Darwin- Sunday, September 30, 2007

We began the day with a paddle up the Katherine Gorge. It was already hot (over +30°C) when we set off heading towards the second of the thirteen gorges. The paddle up the gorge is quite incredible. It was already so hot you wanted to hop out of the canoe and swim, but the regularly placed crocodile traps are a constant reminder of the risk of doing so. The crocs make their way here in the wet season, when the water level rises 18 metres, or more.
However, there are no crocs (we hoped) in the second gorge, and Kevin and I jumped off the cliffs into the clear, cool water. It was refreshing! It was so hot that even Colleen went into the water back at the first gorge, apparently unfazed by the prospect of being eaten. It was that hot!
We paddled back to the Aboriginal Culture Centre and drank iced coffee, a regular choice in the heat here. (The big question is whether one chooses Farmer’s Union or Paul’s brand, lite, regular or strong…it’s a daily decision that one is forced to make here in the Northern Territory).
Onward towards the heat and humidity of Darwin we went. It was really hard to believe that a city of such size is so far away from the rest of the country, but it is. Darwin is closer to Jakarta, Indonesia than it is to Canberra, the Australian capital. We checked into the Cavanagh Backpackers (an old converted hotel), in a 6-share dorm (just us 4) over the bar with the band playing full volume. Yikes!
It was a Thursday, we realized, so the Mendil Beach Market was on and we grabbed a taxi out front, leaving the noise behind. The market is full of crafts, food, music and artisans. We enjoyed cheap food, great buskers and musical performances with many of our Wayward Bus traveling companions who had also made their way over.
Fortunately, the bar under our room at the Cavanagh shut down precisely at 10 p.m. as we needed to be back on tour at 6:20 a.m.

Day 280- Kakadu National Park- World Heritage Site

Darwin to Kakadu- Monday, October 1, 2007

It’s the end of the dry season here (May to October) and people are trying to get into the parks before the wet season arrives and closes off access roads as more than a metre or 2 of rain is measured here. So there were 3 groups of 4WD Kakadu tours leaving this morning which means that you may have to wait in line at important sites. Our guide Adam decided we would do most of our driving today so we headed east off the Stuart Highway heading towards the NE corner of Kakadu Park towards the Ubirr rock art site. This place is one of 3 aboriginal art sites in the park accessible to visitors. There are, perhaps, thousands more known sites, and many more that are only known to the Aboriginal custodians.
It was a long drive (3 hours) but worth the views. The rock art is quite detailed and the rocks themselves are just as breathtaking. Consider that up to 40,000 years of occupation of this land is in evidence, the art links the beginning of human existence here until the contact period with white explorers less than 200 years ago. The art of Arnhem Land is done in a unique “x-ray” style, where the insides of animals are drawn into the designs.
Under the stifling heat, the view across the wetlands towards Arnhem Land (the area between Kakadu and the Gulf of Carpentaria that is generally off limits to travelers) and the escarpment was equally awe-inspiring. It was here that author and friend Elizabeth Honey placed the fictitious community of Wakwak in her children’s book “Remote Man.”
After lunch we headed to the southwestern part of the park and headed away from the sealed road along a 4 wheel drive track. The large Mitsubishi 4WD bus we were in does well at 80 km/h on these corrugated rough dirt roads. Any slower and the shaking would knock the wheel nuts off…any faster and you would not make the turns and creek crossings.
We stopped in the middle of a raging grass fire that surrounded us. The Park Rangers burn off the grasses during this time of year. Wildlife escape in large numbers ahead of the fires, and Black Kites have figured out how to catch the snakes that are displaced by the fire. They even pick up burning sticks and fly ahead of the fire line, drop the stick, and wait for the fires coming in 2 directions to trap more prey.
We hiked into the Barramundie Gorge past 2 billabongs where crocs are known to have entered during the wet season. When we had climbed into the gorge past a number of waterfalls, we were given the great pleasure of an afternoon swim in the cool waters. It was refreshing, to say the least!
We hiked back out as dusk settled, and headed back to the centre of the park to the Coolinda campground, making full contact with a wallaby crossing the road in the process. The force bent the steel steps under the front tire. The boys were amazed that other evidence of the roadkill had already been erased when we stopped to set up camp.


Day 281- “As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls”

Kakadu Park to Point Stuart- Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Adam, our tour guide had asked us to rise well before dark so that we would have a good chance of being the first tour into Twin Falls. We ate, packed and departed by 6 am, and started out along a very narrow, winding 4WD track towards 2 of the best sights in Kakadu National Park.
The previous wet season had wiped out the ford along Jim Jim Creek and the Park had set up a footbridge and shuttle at the other side. If we did not arrive first, the line up would prevent us from seeing the Falls. Our timing was perfect, arriving just ahead of a second group. We hiked to the boat tour dock that crosses the billabong to the base of the Falls.
Water was still flowing over the 2 precipices and views were magnificent. The rocks rise 150 metres around you and the water flowing down the faces cannot be adequately captured on camera. We wanted to swim, but Tony, the boat driver told us of the 4 crocs that had been taken from here this season. Wisely, we stood a few metres away from the water’s edge.
It was on to Jim Jim Falls where we would have time to swim. The walk into it is rugged and difficult as one has to scramble around car sized boulders. I wondered how my gimpy knee would fare. The falls were not flowing but the water was wonderful. The sand and rocks burnt our feet as the canyon was now in full sun. We made our way from one swimming hole to another. The final pool, at the base of the falls, was cool and clear. We did not want to leave!
Returning to the interior campground for lunch in the heat of the day, we feasted on hotdogs that had been cooked for us by the campground manager. I could not imagine that I could eat 2 foot-longs, but I did!
It was in the afternoon and a few naps later that we arrived at Point Stuart Lodge, a fishing camp where we would spend the evening. The pool was inviting and we all headed over for a cool-off swim. We had been joined on this tour by a sixty-ish German couple and it was the birthday of the woman, Teresa. Mannfred, her husband, bought us all drinks and we ate supper in the presence of geckos and spiders. Apparently this camp needed upgrading, but the work had not yet been completed.
Our tent had a St. Andrew’s Cross spider and web guarding the front door. This unusual spider weaves an intricate web that includes a large “X” pattern where the spider sits, creating an effect where the spider appears much larger than it really is.