SEGMENT 9

Tuesday, May 16. At 3 months, we were roughly halfway through our trip and had put almost 12,500 miles (20,000km) on our odometer. Having left the Red Centre behind, we pushed on north on the Stuart Highway towards the more tropical areas of the Northern Territory. The dry bushland was slowly replaced with light forests; days and nights got warmer; and the flies handed over their role of annoying spoilers to hords of mosquitos. A quick detour took us past Devil's Marbles, huge boulders almost perfectly round which were created by erosion. In the middle of the bush, Magdalena received an original haircut (pic01); Australian water somehow continually caused her long hair to tangle helplessly, which must have happened to pretty much every other woman around as all women's hairdressers were always booked out for days....
In Katherine, we found out that the Central Arnhem Road to Gove Peninsula in the Aboriginal-owned Arnhem Land was closed due to floods at least until June, if not July. This was quite a disappointment as we had applied for a permit to visit this stunningly beautiful area steeped in ancient history, rarely ever visited by tourists. Also, Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge) was also closed as they were still busy "crocodile-spotting", an interesting concept where national park officials search the waters for dangerous saltwater crocodiles. Usually, this gorge only has a few harmless "freshies" but due to the exceptionally long and rainy wet this year, some "salties" made it across natural barriers into the gorge thanks to elevated water levels. Noone could tell us how long this activity would last, so we continued north and spent a wonderfully relaxing day at marvelous Umbrawarra Gorge (pic02), where we had a fabulous pool amongst red cliffs all to ourselves. The next goal was Butterfly Gorge, accessible only by 4WD according to the less than helpful lady at the Katherine Visitor Center - and closed, as we found out after traveling a detour of 20 miles (32kms) to the park. This was the second time we had been given wrong information at a Visitor Center, where staff generally seemed to be poorly or mis-informed. On the way here, we had found two service stations marked on our map closed - one didn't even have pumps anymore, the other couldn't afford to buy more gas (petrol) according to the friendly young backpacker from Germany behind the counter. While we were chatting with this fellow, a helicopter from the Fire Department landed, the pilot came in to buy a cold coke, and left again. Apparently, the department ran control flights along the areas that they were currently burning to prevent wildfires (no kidding), and pilots visited the roadhouse frequently.

Our first destination in the Top End was Litchfield Park, which is sometimes overlooked by tourists in their rush to reach Kakadu National Park. Litchfield offers phenomenal waterfalls and plunge pools in a vibrant rainforest environment and is also known for the huge termite mounts (pic03). Due to the recent cyclones, some of the roads and attractions were still inaccessible, and the most popular pool was closed to swimming because a few salties had been spotted in the water.... This area is also appreciated by dozens of flying foxes who relax in the trees (pic04). We ran into Steve, a four-wheeler from Brisbane who knew our truck from www.ausjeepoffroad.com, an Australian-wide 4x4 forum, and made plans to hook up again in Darwin. When we reached Darwin, with over 50,000 inhabitants the only larger city in the Northern Territory, we took advantage of the urban amenities and relaxed for a couple of days. One night, we had a major rain storm, a late visitor from the Wet, and the unbearable humidity preceding the downpour gave us an idea of what conditions are like during monsoon season.

Kakadu is one of Australia's most famous national parks, and here's why (data from Let's Go and National Park literature): it is home to 64 mammal, 100 reptile, 200 ant, and 1000 fly species (we were particularly excited about the latter), as well as one-third of all bird species found in Australia. Its extensive rock art galleries are up to 50,000 years old and are among the oldest in the world (pic05). The park name derives from Gagudju, one of the Aboriginal languages spoken here in the past. When Europeans arrived in Australia, there were about 200 distinct Aboriginal languages, very different from each other and complex in grammar and vocabulary. Today about 100 are still spoken to some extent. Most Aborigines know 2-3 languages so they can communicate with neighboring tribes, with English being their 3rd or 4th language.
We spent 4 days in this diverse area and enjoyed vast wetlands, intriguing rock paintings, clear plunge pools, impressive waterfalls, and topped it all off with a wetland cruise where we observed saltwater crocodiles (pic06) in their natural habitat. To see a salty hunt fish helps understand why you're not supposed to swim with them! Many fascinating birds call this area their home; among them the inventive kingfisher which divebombs termite mounts in the trees to create a hole for a protected nest - a very dangerous endeavour since the termite mounts are hard as rock and several kingfishers have been found with a broken bill or spine.

As we passed through Katherine the second time, we learned that Nitmiluk NP had been opened to hikers, though canoe trips were still prohibited due to crocodile presence. We walked up to one of the lookouts and enjoyed the impressive vista - this gorge would indeed be phenomenal to explore on the water!

Now we ventured onto the rough Savannah Way, which connects Cairns on the east coast with Broome in the west. It was a beautiful drive on an adventurous four-wheel track with deep, crocodile-infested river crossings (pic07) and many wash-outs. At one water-crossing, we found a hesitant Australian couple who was waiting for other vehicles to test the water. After they had wrapped a tarp across the front of the vehicle since they didn't have a snorkel, they gave it a go following our advice and made it through alright. We continued through lovely bushland and flower-dotted wetlands until we reached the savannah of Queensland.

pic01

pic02

pic03

pic04

pic05

pic06

pic07

for more pics click here