The site of the flooding was unremarkable from a road perspective as they'd got a temporary road surface in place and had set up traffic lights (only the third set I've seen!) to allow north and southbound traffic to take turns. What was incredible, however, was seeing the rail bridge that ran parallel to the road about 100 metres away... One third of the bridge was washed clean away and the freight train was piled up in the, now low water, river. Amazing to see. It looked like a discarded toy train set; freight car after car in a big pile. That is the only rail link with Darwin and the bridge is going to take some fixing!
As an aside, Birds... (Lorakeets, I think)
I got to the intersection with the Kakadu Highway that basically loops eastwards into and then back out of the Kakadu but although the highway was still officially open I was advised that much of it was under water and it would be very slow going. Indeed, the highway turns back out of the Kakadu at a place called Jabipu and some people there had been evacuated to higher ground only a few hours earlier. Oh well.
So off to the Litchfied National Park it was! This is west of Kakadu and only about 200km south of Darwin. Kind of a mini-Kakadu and very beautiful but quite busy with Aussies enjoying the festive holidays. After a couple of days camping there and exploring I heard that the roads in/out of Kakadu were much improved so I headed that way to make the most of the opportunity.
Even though access to many of the highlights was closed, the Kakadu was stunning nevertheless. For no other reason than it was so wet compared to much of what I've seen over the last month. Lush green, billabongs, rivers, creeks, wetlands, Savannah woodlands and swamps. All buzzing with wildlife. Swarms of dragonflies and butterflies, Bamurra Geese and even my first Dingo sighting!
First night in the Kakadu was spent camping behind a roadhouse. I met three very entertaining characters... Damian, Justin and 'Boy'... Two late-twenties butchers from Darwin with their apprentice along to drive them around, allowing them to indulge in a beer or ten. I think they'd been partying hard since Christmas Eve... They were very funny!
I climbed "Cheese & Bikky Hill", behind there, to see the sunset. Honestly...
I took my camp chair up there and enjoyed a very beautiful 30 minutes watching the sun sink and flocks of birds crossing to roost.
The next day, Kakadu continued to be easy travelling and very rewarding...
After a final excursion to Dundee Beach (purely based on the name) on a bone-jarring, unmade road littered with deep corrugations and potholes, I camped the final night just 30km south of Darwin and then dropped the van off the following morning.
Lots of adventures and situations that I wouldn't normally encounter and lots of amazing places visited and interesting people met (a disproportionate number of farmers!). For so much of the trip, it felt like I had the whole of WA to myself. It was, however, quite a long way! 8084km since leaving Perth.
I've been able to cook and eat every meal outside since leaving Perth and have been privileged to watch nearly every sunset and a good number of sunrises. I don't think you can see 'too many' sunsets! There's something very satisfying/rewarding about watching the sun drop beneath the horizon.
I've overtaken only one vehicle since Perth, seen two police cars, three sets of traffic lights (although one set wasn't working) and been to more fuel stations than I care to remember.
And I didn't have cause to activate this! (emergency beacon thingy)
Almost the entire journey there was only ABC News Radio available on MW (in areas that had radio coverage of course!) - highlights were the meteorological broadcast around noon, The Country Hour (Farming Today basically), The Philosophy Hour (often very interesting), The Science Programme (sometimes fascinating and sometimes so dumbed down it was embarrassing), Grandstand every Saturday (a whole day's sport coverage and the Aussies really are that fanatical about sport! Practically any sport you can name would get a mention during the programme, from a competition going on somewhere in the country), and finally, 4 days' coverage of the Australia/India Boxing Day Test (the Australian and Indian commentators were brilliant and would often go off on such bizarre tangents that they would be in fits of laughter, unable to speak). Poor India are getting hammered in the 2nd Test.
Radio aside, the cab had an IPad input and it's not often you get a chance to listen to your entire (well, not quite) music collection in alphabetic order!
Finally, it seems everyone has a crocodile story or croc advice. The best bits of advice so far:
1. If you actually see a Saltwater Crocodile; it isn't hungry.
2. The only safe places to swim are ones where you've watched others swimming there for at least 10 minutes!
Darwin seems very relaxed. More later
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Darwin
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