Australia has six states and two territories. One is the ACT, or Australian Capital Territory, where we live, which is about the size of Rhode Island. The other territory is called the Northern Territory. It’s bigger than Texas, is situated in the center of the country, and extends north to the Arafura and Timor Seas. It has some of the hottest deserts in Australia and some of the most popular national parks and landmarks. We had wanted to visit for some time and finally planned to go in winter when the weather is at its best. The Northern Territory only has two seasons; the wet and the dry. Winter, which is June to August in the southern hemisphere, is the dry season in the north, and much cooler than the heat of summer.
We left Canberra on Friday, August 23, and had to rise early for our 6:30 am flight to Alice Springs via Sydney. Rita’s frequent flyer miles on Ansett Airlines paid for both our tickets. We left Canberra in near freezing temperatures and arrived in Alice Springs to a sunny, warm day. Quite a contrast. We checked into the Alice Springs Pacific Resort then proceeded to walk into town. Alice Springs is not large and in a short time we covered most of it. We had a good lunch at Bar Doppio Cafe which has Mediterranean foods. We visited many souvenir shops, art galleries, and the headquarters of the Royal Flying Doctors, an Australian institution. The Flying Doctors are chronicled in songs and legends for their help to the peoples of the outback in times of need. Because of our early rise, we decided on a short nap back in our room then had a very nice dinner at the Palms restaurant in the motel. We ate fresh barrimundi, a very tasty fresh water fish found in all of Northern Australia.
Saturday we woke to another of several days of beautiful weather. We picked up our 4WD Suzuki Sierra from Territory Rent-a-Car. We took it for a short check-out drive north of Alice Springs to the Tropic of Capricorn where we stopped for photos at the signs that mark the line. Then we turned around and headed back into Alice and continued south along the Stuart Highway which stretches nearly 2000 miles from Darwin to Adelaide. Alice Springs is about in the center of the country and this area is called the Red Center, because the land is bright red, or ochre, in color. Driving here reminded us of the western USA, especially areas like Sedona, Arizona, or Painted Desert.
In a big country like Australia with a small population, you see very few people in the outback. There is very little traffic but one experience is the road trains on the highways. Since there are no freight railroads to Darwin, trucks pull up to three trailers behind them and are called road trains. They are intimidating and can be a problem to pass.
About 100 miles south of Alice we turned onto a very rough gravel road to visit the Henbury meteorite craters. We encountered a warning sign about “unmarked bulldust holes and sandrift” which sounded ominous. We later found out that bulldust is the fine red sand which a car can sink into up to the axles. But we steered clear of any such obstacles and made our way to the craters. Thousands of years ago a meteorite broke up as it neared earth and hit here in the desert creating about seven craters. We made our way back to the highway and headed south to a roadhouse at Eridunda where we had lunch and bought gasoline. At Eridunda we took the Lasseter highway west to Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park.
Uluru is the current, politically correct, name for Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta is the current name for the Olgas. These are, of course, the aboriginal names for these sites which long preceded the white man. The land has been handed back to the local aborigine tribe who in turn lease it back to the park service for a share of the profits. I use the old names of Ayers Rock and the Olgas, not out of disrespect but because this is what is still on most maps.
We drove to our hotel, the Desert Gardens, where we splurged for a room with a view of Ayers Rock. The resort area is located about 20 kilometers from the rock and is very well planned with accommodations from four star hotels to camping sites, grocery stores, restaurants, gasoline stations and everything needed for a small desert town. We drove to a viewing area where we set up our tripod with camera and snapped away at the awesome site of sunset on Ayers Rock. Just us and a horde of Japanese tourists. Actually, it wasn’t nearly that bad and the view was serene.
We cleaned up and had an excellent dinner at the Kunia restaurant in the Sails of the Desert hotel, probably the best restaurant in the resort. For starters we had a fresh salad and potato parcels filled with goats cheese. Then I had fresh prawns flown in from Sydney while Rita had baby barrimundi. We had a nice chardonnay from the Margaret River area called Plantagnet Omrah.
Sunday was a long, busy day. I woke early to watch and photograph sunrise on the rock. We then had too much to eat at our hotel’s breakfast buffet which caused us to get a late start. We didn’t arrive at the base of Ayers Rock until 10:00 am on a cloudless day that reached about 27° C or 81° F. I had reserved my opinions about climbing the rock until I looked at it. A young marine at the Embassy told me he didn’t make it because it was too scary so I felt I, too, would probably not climb it. But when we arrived, it didn’t look all that dangerous so I said I would try a little way and see how it went. Rita opted to walk around the base which was a ten kilometer or six mile hike. I carried a backpack with water and camera and took my time at the beginning where the climb was steepest. There is a chain anchored into the rock, which is needed. At the top of the chain the going became easier and I felt it was more strenuous than dangerous. But, being in fairly good condition, and stubborn as a mule, I continued to the top where I was rewarded by great views in all directions. I asked strangers to take my photo on top and strangers asked me to take their photos so we could prove we made the climb.
I made it to the bottom about the same time Rita completed her long hike. We both were tired and thirsty and I had blisters on the tops of two toes. Driving back to the hotel for lunch and bandaides, we saw a dingo cross the highway. Fools that we are, we drove to the Olgas and preceded to hike the six kilometer trail at the Valley of the Winds. True to its name, there was a hot wind blowing while we did more climbing to the lookout site. We were quite tired after this hike but made it back to the hotel for a quick shower before our evening entertainment.
We had signed up for a program called the Sounds of Silence and since we only had two nights here, we didn’t want to cancel out even though we had a rough day already. So we took the bus which picked us, and several other people, up at our hotels and took us for a short ride into the desert. Several tables were set up and as we departed the bus we were greeted with champagne and starters of emu, kangaroo and shrimp. We listened to an aborigine play his digaredoo as we sipped champagne and watched a beautiful sunset over the Olgas and Ayers Rock. Then we sat at a table for ten and had a buffet meal of emu, kangaroo, beef, chicken and barrimundi plus salads, vegetables, wine, dessert and coffee. The meal wasn’t especially good but the company was compatible and we had great fun. After we were all asked to keep silent for a few minutes and listen to the desert “sounds of silence”, an astronomer came out and pointed out the Southern Cross, Alpha Centauri (our closest star), Jupiter and various constellations. Since we had a lovely full moon, the night was not best for star gazing. But we had lots of fun even though we were tired.
Monday was still warm and windy with a little bit of cloud cover. We checked out of our hotel after a late sleep-in and headed north to Kings Canyon. We checked into the Kings Canyon Resort (only place to stay) and had a quick lunch before driving the short distance to the canyon. It was about 2:00 pm when we started another strenuous six kilometer hike up to the canyon rim. The trail went through strange rock formations, small oases with palm trees, and along the rim to make a circle. We arrived back at the car about 5:00 pm tired and hungry. We had a beer on our patio and read our books while waiting for the restaurant to open. There wasn’t much choice for food as a roast beef and chicken buffet was all that was offered. But the food was filling if not gourmet and we had a nice shiraz wine to help it along. The night was hot and the air conditioning wasn’t working as the resort was in the process of switching over from winter to summer and it would take a few days until the device could be switched over. As tired as I was, I fell asleep shortly and was quite cool by morning.
Tuesday was one of the few days we set an alarm clock because we wanted to get an early start. We were on the road by 7:00 am, having purchased a permit the previous day to take the Mereenie loop road, all gravel, through aboriginal lands. The road conditions were very rough in places with corrugation the main problem. We were very isolated and didn’t see another car for about three hours. About the only wildlife we saw was mulga parrots. Near the aboriginal village of Hermannsburg, which was founded by German Lutheran missionaries in 1877, we took a four-wheel-drive track into the Finke Gorge National Park to Palm Valley. Here was my first taste of four-wheel driving. We had to stop and set the hubs manually then shift into four-wheel drive. Our Suzuki had roll bars all around and over it, which Rita thought we would need. The track was through sandy spots and dried river beds with really big rocks. I thought it was exciting, Rita was unnerved, but in the end we made our destination (and back). The destination, Palm Valley, was an oasis of giant palm trees of a species only found here in the middle of the desert. We spent a few minutes hiking around the pools of water and photographing the palms. We also saw some beautiful parrots and a rainbow bee eater. We drove into Hermannsburg and had a soft drink before heading back to Alice Springs. We made it back to our hotel and went into the swimming pool to cool off. While we were doing some laundry, a fierce storm blew in on short notice with strong winds, lightning and thunder. It was exciting but only lasted about an hour. Next we went to the Camel Crossing Mexican restaurant for fairly good food and to the Lasseters Casino where we contributed some money to the poker machines.
Wednesday we returned our jeep to the rental company in the morning and had some time to walk around the Todd Street Mall, doing a little shopping for T-shirts and books. We walked back to our motel, checked out and took a taxi to the airport where we caught our Ansett flight to Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory. Darwin is named after Charles Darwin and it sits on Beagle Gulf. Darwin stopped here on his famous trip around the world in the Beagle. The trip to Darwin meant that I have now been to all the states and territories and their capitals in Australia. Rita still hasn’t been to Perth but she will go.
The weather in Darwin was hot and humid. We were told that it usually isn’t so humid this early. But our flight was fine and we took a taxi to the Travelodge Hotel on the esplanade in Darwin. We had rooms with a great view of the bay, however, the hotel was a disappointment as the rooms badly need refurbishing. We spent much of the day walking through the esplanade park by the water and watching the tropical birds. We also walked throughout the downtown area which isn’t all that large. We walked back to the hotel, cleaned up and went to a weekly poolside cocktail party given by the hotel for guests. We had some interesting conversations with other guests and hotel workers then took a taxi to the Stokes Wharf and Cristos restaurant which was recommended by several people. We ate outside on the wharf with a nice breeze on a warm night. Rita once more had baby barrimundi while I had bugs (small lobsters or languistines) in chili sauce with the necessary chardonnay wine. On the wharf we saw our first signs warning people that crocodiles swim the in the bay and harbor. We decided to walk the long way back to the hotel and worked up a sweat in the process.
On Thursday morning Territory Rent-a-Car picked us up at the hotel and took us to their office where we rented another Suzuki Sierra 4WD. These vehicles have had a lot of hard miles put on them and are not in the best condition. On the first one, the seat belts wouldn’t work on one side and the second one had the antenna broken off but we took it anyway. A little ways out of town the turn directionals stopped working - blown fuse. Still we headed south on the Stuart Highway then east on the Arnhem highway. Shortly we saw a pond of water with hundreds of water birds and several water buffaloes. We saw our first black necked stork or jabiru as the aborigines call them. We pressed on to the Adelaide River and decided to take a river cruise to see the jumping crocodiles. These were the big “salties” and they were conditioned to swim out to the boat as soon as they heard the motor since they have been fed for some years now. We saw several and took some good photos of crocodiles jumping out of the water. We had a quick lunch at a roadhouse then drove into Kakadu National Park where most of the movie “Crocodile Dundee” was filmed. Time was running out so we drove straight north to the village of Ubirr and saw thousands-year-old rock paintings representing both X-ray and Mimi art. There was a ranger present explaining the legend of the Rainbow Serpent and how the “dreamtime” is nothing more than the aboriginal religious philosophy which gave them the ethics and laws to live by. I climbed up to a viewing area looking over the wetlands which is a popular sunset viewing place. On our way back to the car we saw six red-tailed black cockatoos in a tree. We drove back towards our destination of Cooinda Lodge and came across fires along side the road. Hundreds of kites were flying around catching the lizards and insects as they fled the fire. This being the dry season we would see several fires over the next few days.
We checked into the Cooinda Lodge at dusk, had a cold beer and cleaned up for dinner at the Mimis restaurant. I should explain that the Mimis are sort of like leprechauns to the aborigines except that they are credited with doing much of the rock paintings and bringing the “dreamtime” stories to the people. At any rate, Mimis restaurant served very good food and I had barramundi once more while Rita had a huge chicken salad. Walking back to our room we watched the full moon rise over the forest and saw signs warning us that we really were in the outback and should remain in camp at night. Shades of Africa!
Friday was hot again but the humidity had lessened. We had too big a breakfast at Mimis again then drove to the nearby Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Center. It is very well done and well worth the visit. Next we drove to Jabiru where Rita found a clinic that gave her lotion for her heat rash and where Territory Rent-a-Car replaced the blown fuse. We went to the park’s visitor center and toured their exhibits of flora and fauna. Unfortunately the slide show, which was recommended to us, was not working. So we went to the gift shop instead and Rita found aboriginal baskets she liked. We drove to Nourlangie Rock and saw more aboriginal rock drawings. We saw the Anbangbang shelter and gallery with Namarrgon, the lightning man, and other spirits. We also climbed to Gunwarrdehwarrde lookout for nice views of the sacred place where Namarrgon lives. We drove back to Cooinda and prepared for our sunset Yellow Water boat tour on the South Alligator River. On our river tour we saw several crocodiles, two large goanna lizards and lots of water birds - jabirus, jacarandas, plovers, darters, cranes, ducks, spoonbills and ibises. Afterwards we had another good meal at Mimis, this time Rita had barrimundi and I had a combination dish of steak and crocodile, which surprisingly enough tastes just like chicken, but very tough chicken.
Saturday morning we again had too big a breakfast, bought some T-shirts, then checked out of Cooinda Lodge and headed southwest. At Maguk, formerly called Barrimundi Gorge, we put the car into four-wheel drive again and headed down the track. On both sides of the track were hundreds of termite mounds about eight to ten feet tall. From the parking area we hiked the short distance to the splash pool, walking through a jungle setting. The area was very scenic and the water inviting but we didn’t trust the freshwater crocodiles (which aren’t supposed to attack) and had to get moving anyway. So we left Kakadu Park and stopped at Mary River roadhouse for snacks and drinks. About twenty kilometers from Pine Creek our engine started to cut out as if we had bad fuel. We called Territory Rent-a-Car in Katherine but they couldn’t come and get us so we decided to try to make it to Katherine. We did but it took a long while driving 40 to 50 kilometers per hour. When we did make it to Katherine they swapped our Suzuki for a nice Holden station wagon. We didn’t care since we had had enough off road adventures.
We checked into the Knotts Crossing Resort in Katherine then drove the 100 kilometers to Mataranka. Here is a thermal spring surrounded by palm trees. Rita and I decided to take a dip in the heated spring and refresh ourselves after a long, hot day. We also examined the old house where Mrs. Aeneas Gunn lived at the turn of the century. She later wrote the Australian classic, We of the Never-Never. We drove back to Katherine and had a good dinner at Katie’s Bistro at the hotel.
On Sunday, September 1, we booked for a half day tour up the Katherine Gorge which started at 9:00 am. At the launch of the boat were several fruit bats, or flying foxes as the Australians call them. The half-day tour takes in three of the 13 gorges and between the gorges you hike over rocks to the next boat. The scenery is impressive, especially in the second gorge. We finished by 1:00 pm, had a quick hamburger then headed to the Springvale Homestead where some country and western singers performed as part of the Flying Fox Festival. Returning to our hotel we encountered a large flock of about 100 to 150 red-tailed black cockatoos. And we didn’t have our cameras. We rushed to the hotel, gathered our cameras and returned. The cockatoos were still there but would not cooperate on photo taking. As a result we have several photos of blurred cockatoos.
We had a beer and dinner (barrimundi again) by the hotel swimming pool to finish the day.
Monday was Labor Day in the US. We took our time checking out of the hotel and drove a little way down the road to the largest classroom in the world, as they bill it, or the School of the Air. The School of the Air is another Australian institution, having taught children in the remote outback by radio for many years. The tour is mostly watching a short video then listening in as a teacher talks with her pupils. It was funny and informative as her class was five and six year olds scattered around the Northern Territory. Their radio etiquette was better than some pilots. We were glad we stopped.
We drove north on the Stuart highway and arrived back at the Travelodge hotel in the afternoon. We did some laundry then proceeded to drive around the Darwin suburbs of Cullen Bay, Fannie Bay and Paraph. Cullen Bay is newly constructed with nice condos, shops and restaurants on the boat piers. Fannie Bay has the nice MGM Grand hotel with casino where we stopped to contribute a few dollars and buy a deck of cards. Later on that night we had a good meal (no barrimundi this time) at Yops in Cullen Bay dining outside on the pier with good harbor views.
Tuesday morning we leisurely packed and had a nice breakfast on the hotel rooftop terrace. We returned the rent car and took a taxi to the airport for our 1:00 pm flight. Our flights took us back through Alice Springs where we connected to another Ansett flight to Cairns. The flight from Alice to Cairns had few people and the captain let Rita and me come into the cockpit for a while. You don’t get that in the US these days! We arrived in Cairns about 5:15 pm, picked up our rent car and drove to Port Douglas and our hotel, the Archipelago apartments. The room was very nice with a balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Four Mile Beach. It was also centrally located to the main street of town where the major shops and restaurants were located. Port Douglas is a very pretty town, still unspoiled, with dogs running in the street. But that will soon change. On the outskirts of town is the famous Sheraton Mirage Resort where President Clinton will probably stay in November. Port Douglas is on the same latitude as Tahiti. We walked into town, bought some breakfast items (our room had a small kitchen) and generally toured the main street.
What a life! At a leisurely pace I got out of bed and went for a short run on Four Mile Beach the next morning. On the beach I came across washed up starfish and cuttlebones. After a nice breakfast on our patio, watching the tropical birds and ocean waves, we got away late and drove to the town of Mossman north of Port Douglas. Mossman is located in the sugarcane fields and is one of the first settlements in this area. We turned off to the Mossman Gorge in the Daintree National Park, a World Heritage site. The rainforest comes down to the ocean and meets the Great Barrier Reef, another World Heritage site. We took the three kilometer hike through the lush rainforest filled with magnificent trees. Next we drove on to Daintree Village which my rent car contract said was the northern limits I could drive as the roads soon turn into gravel and dirt. From here, 4WD vehicles take the ferry across the river towards Cape Tribulation and the York Peninsula. We had lunch then took a boat tour on the Daintree River. I expected that the heat and time of day would mean we probably wouldn’t see much wildlife and I was right. We saw one crocodile, one snake in a tree, a darter, lesser plover, crane and some wild orchids. We went back to Port Douglas and took a walk on the beach at sunset. Then we walked into town and had a great meal at the Cazbar restaurant. Rita had ocean trout while I had red emperor, a local reef fish, with scallops. Back at our room we sat on the balcony and listened to the ocean. In fact, each night we kept the doors open, a ceiling fan on and let the ocean waves put us to sleep.
Thursday was one of the days we set an alarm for an early getaway. I still went for a short run as the sun broke the horizon. We drove back to Cairns for our early ticket to the Tjapukai aboriginal cultural park. Their presentations in the History, Creation, and Dance Theaters are very well done and engaging. We also saw a demonstration on how to make and play a didgeridoo and how early aborigines made fire by hand. Then we took the Skyrail (in three separate sections) up the mountain and over the rainforest to the town of Kuranda. This afforded great views of the Barron Gorge National Park below. Kuranda is full of shops and restaurants so we had lunch then took a tour of the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary. The two butterflies that interested us the most were the local Ulysses butterfly with giant blue wings and the Cairns Birdwing with florescent green wings. We caught the 2:30 pm train on the Kuranda railway back to Redlynch where we had to depart and take a bus back to our car park. On the train we were advised to get in the back car on the left, which we did, and we had beautiful views of the bridge and waterfall at Stoney Creek Falls, which is used in all the promotional photos. When we returned to our car we drove into Cairns and walked around the city. We visited the casino there, too, and contributed another small amount. We sat in the esplanade park as the sun set and watched rainbow lorikeets flock in the palm trees. Finally we had an early dinner at the Fiesta Cantina Mexican restaurant to satisfy that craving. We drove back to Port Douglas in the dark.
Friday was our last full day in Port Douglas and we made no plans except to take it easy. We had breakfast on our balcony after I went for another sunrise run on the beach. We watched sun birds, fig birds and friarbirds in the palm trees near us as we breakfasted. We decided to check out the resorts of the area and drove to the Torresian, Treetop, and Sheraton Mirage resorts. We also went to the Rain Forest Habitat sanctuary where we saw several rain forest birds, water birds, bats, wallabies, kangaroos and crocodiles. We went into Port Douglas and had ice cream after our lunch. We walked around the piers and looked at the shops in that area then went back to our room and read our books on the balcony as the sun set. For dinner we walked to Oskars restaurant and had good barrimundi one last time.
Saturday we woke with dread. We had to leave this paradise. We went to the boat pier and had a nice breakfast at an outdoor restaurant. We went back to our hotel, packed up and checked out by 10:00 am. We slowly drove back to Cairns, stopping at lookouts and driving through the town of Cornella Beach. Finally we returned the car at the airport office and caught our flight to Canberra via Sydney. As we expected, Canberra was cold after 29° in Port Douglas. In many ways it was good to be home again but nothing beats a nice vacation to the tropics in the winter time.
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