Alice Springs to Darwin

Happy 2014, folks! Sorry for such long gaps between posts lately, I got too distracted being a lazy backpacker over the holidays, but now I’m back to the grindstone! It’s a rough life, I swear. I also have to place some of the blame on Australia and the countrywide lack of decent wifi. It's next to impossible to upload pictures. Also, thanks to anyone who’s still reading! I promise month-long gaps between posts won’t become the norm! Anyway, back to the outback… 

There isn’t much to write about my time in Alice Springs, we only spent two nights and our day was spent lounging by the pool and nursing our hangovers as planned. We were all so exhausted from our trek through the outback that it was all we could manage to get ourselves lunch. I did want to check out the Yacht Club, which is what my mom’s shirt was from, but unfortunately it’s an event that takes place once a year, in the spring.

From Alice Springs Mar, Lala and I were all heading off on another tour together, this one would take three days and end in Darwin. We had a great time, and it was really fun to start out with some friends this time around. There were only eight people plus another awesome guide, and everyone was a lot more subdued than our previous group. Since we were all so tired and this tour was much mellower, we spent almost all the time on the bus sleeping. The days were sort of dreamlike, there was a ton of driving (we were covering the same distance we had just gone in six days, but in half the time) so we would wake up each time at some funky roadhouse or an amazing landscape along the way, the bizarreness and uniqueness of which did nothing to dispel the foggy dreamlike feeling at all.

Our first stop was the Tropic of Capricorn, which marked our official passage into the tropics, even though we wouldn’t feel a difference in the weather until much later. Our guide told us about a phenomenon that takes place mostly in Darwin called ‘going troppo’. Darwin only has two seasons; the rainy season and the wet season, but before the wet season officially starts there’s a time called the build up when it just gets hotter and hotter and more and more humid for a few weeks. It’s incredibly uncomfortable and people go a little crazy, or troppo. Lucky for us we would be rolling into Darwin right in the middle of the build up, so more on that later.

The marker at the Tropic of Capricorn

Our first roadhouse was Aileron, home of one of the biggest kangaroos I’ve ever seen, a bunch of strange statues, and an eagle too.

In case you forget where you are...

I forget his name, but this guy was a beast!

I wouldn't mess with him either!

Never too classy for the outback

Seriously weird statues...

In between these road houses were massive long stretches of open road, exactly what you’re thinking of when you picture driving in the outback.

Just empty road as far as you can see

We didn't worry much about cars in the road when we took these pics...

 

My favorite roadhouse was Wycliffe Well. It’s the site of the most reported UFO sightings and abductions in Australia. Spoooooky.

They're so friendly!

Lala and I in disguise

That looks kind of familiar, doesn't it?

We also stopped at the Devil’s Marbles. I don’t remember what the aboriginal name for the site is, but it was a site of bad energy and negative spirits. The settlers named it that because in addition to being a really unique part of the landscape, there is something in the plants around that area that poisons animals and livestock. Hence the ‘devil’ part of the name. See if you can guess where the ‘marbles’ came from.

It's a mystery to me...

The clouds were pretty out there too

Those rocks were massive! 

 

This was also the place where we finally got our first dose of real outback heat, and it was absolutely brutal. It was easily over 110 degrees, and it hit me like a physical force when I stepped off the bus. Just walking around checking out the marbles you can feel your skin baking no matter how much sunscreen you have on, and you’re exhausted after just a few minutes outside. I don’t know how anyone can live in heat like that!

We camped that night at Banka Banka Station, out in the middle of nowhere. I was happy to find out that we were sleeping in swags again that night, and after a beautiful sunset it had finally cooled down enough to get an amazing night’s sleep out under the stars.

Top of the hill overlooking the station

Banka Banka Station - Talk about the middle of nowhere!

Nothing better than an outback sunset

 

We stopped for lunch in Daly Waters, where the first international airport was built in Australia. They don’t use it much now, so you can walk around in the building and on the tarmac. The pub itself was pretty cool too.

This is the main terminal

 

This pilot apparently didn't stick the landing. Those are termite mounds in the foreground

The Daly Waters Pub

It's much nicer on the inside, even if you still can't escape the heat

The Larriman Wayside Inn had a mini wildlife park in the back.

The Pink Panther was chillin' out there too!

Emus!

I don't know what this is, but it's pretty cool.

 

Almost before we knew it we had driven out of the outback into the tropics. We had gone from unbearably hot and dry weather; small twiggy plants and no water for miles and miles to unbearably hot and humid, big lush trees and shrubs, rain and rivers and creeks. It was unbelievable how fast it happened. We were really excited for some swimming, and the place we stopped was one of the coolest places I’ve ever been.

We walked through a palm forest with zillions of flying foxes up in the trees and flitting around overhead. Flying foxes are huge bats, think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, except they aren’t vampires. They eat fruit and bugs and don’t threaten humans at all. They do make a ton of noise chattering at each other, and every once in a while you hear a big crash and screeching from somewhere off in the trees when too many try to hang from the same branch at once and break it off with their weight.

Look how many there were in that tree!

Now see how many trees there were? We're talking tens of thousands of flying foxes!

We walked until we came to this beautiful thermal pool that was really more a creek than a pool. It was crystal clear and wound through the palm trees under all the flying foxes, and was the perfect temperature for swimming after we had baked under the sun for the last week.

So pretty.

And it just kept getting better!

Underwater Mar

 

Underwater me

Underwater Lala

 

We went to another thermal creek after that, which was a little more natural and a lot scarier since the water looked so dark from the surface. Did I mention we were now in crocodile territory? Of course, since it’s Australia, there is always something to worry about killing you no matter how beautiful the scenery, and in the top end crocs rule the food chain and a lot of the waterways. You never get in the water up there if you don’t have a guide or see a sign that says it’s croc free and safe to swim. Ironically, I did the most swimming of the trip up to that point in the top end. But Winston (our guide) assured us that it was safe here and the water was actually beautiful once you got in.

I’m glad I believed him, because it really was. I didn’t take my camera with me in case there were crocs and I needed my hands free to defend myself (yeah, right) but trust me, it was awesome under there.

Who wouldn't be nervous about crocs in that water?

 

It was like a mirror!

 

The black color in the water comes from all the algae and plants growing over the sides and bottom of the creek, not the water itself. The water is crystal clear, and with the goggles we had you could see fish, turtles, algae covered rocks and logs (all of which looked like crocs to me at first glance), it was beautiful! This creek is also pretty long and has a stronger current, so you just hang out and let the water carry you down to the end. And Winston was right, there were no crocodiles.

That night we camped in a campsite with cabins and a kitchen and everything which seemed like pure luxury, until a storm blew in and knocked out the electricity. We cooked by the light of candles and flashlights and had to carry our water over from a different part of the camp. The adventure never ends!

Our last day we were up early to go canoeing along Katherine Gorge. The river winds along through towering walls of rock broken up by sandy beaches that are off limits to humans because the freshwater crocs that populate the river use them as nesting grounds.

Paddlin'!

 

It's hard to see, but that sign says to keep off the beach because crocs nest there.

 

Beautiful gorge!

 

More of the beautiful gorge

It’s hard to wrap your head around the idea that it’s ok to swim in the river not because it is free of crocodiles, but because the ones you’re sharing the space with aren’t the more deadly type of crocodile. Eventually you tune out the clamoring of your survival instinct and hop in, the water is just too inviting, but it’s always in the back of your mind. In fact, we had been in the water for a only a few minutes when someone asked Winston if there were crocs in the river and he said yes, about 200 freshies in the stretch that we had just canoed! He also told us that we would know by then if there were salties because if they hadn’t snapped a few of us off our canoes as we paddled up, at least one of us would already have been eaten in the two minutes since we got in. So creepy! At least the good news is that you find out really quickly if there are salties in your area…

See? Not a croc in sight! That I know of, anyway...

Eventually everyone got in, the water was too gorgeous!

 

We swam across the river, crawling like crocodiles ourselves across the rocks in the shallower parts, to climb up the other bank and check out some aboriginal paintings done there, some dating back hundreds of years.

Lala trekking across the river

This wall was really tall, and had paintings most of the way up. mysterious...

This handprint is approximately 250 years old

We walked further up the gorge, which the aboriginal tribes of the area say was made by one of the creation spirits, a giant rainbow snake winding her way across the landscape. They say she still lives there, coiled into the landscape, protecting the area. Like the other sacred aboriginal sites I had been to, I could feel the energy and the beauty of the place, and it wasn’t difficult to imagine the presence of a massive being, part animal and part the gorge itself, watching over everything.

Maybe this wasn't a giant magical rainbow snake, but it was a pretty cool little lizard. Only as long as my finger, tail and all!

 

We were all ready for lunch after the long canoe ride back, and after a few more naps and stops at a couple more roadhouses we finally pulled into Darwin. After checking into our hostels we all met for dinner and drinks at Monsoons, a pub we would become quite familiar with in the next few days.

Naps are essential on road trips

So are blurry 'out the window' pics

 

Mar, Lala and I were super excited to run into Michael, a member of our makeshift family from the previous week! He was having dinner with a tour group also, having just finished a three day trip in Kakadu and Litchfield parks. It was really fun to reunite and party together again, and a night of friends, drinking, and dancing in the most uncomfortable weather I’ve ever experienced set the stage for the rest of my time in Darwin! Stay tuned for all the sordid details…

Lala, Michael, Mar and I reunited again!

 

Judith and Caroline

 

Fanny, Jenny and I