Cloud 9 Tour Part 2 – Alice Springs to Darwin

Another early morning (can you see the trend?) and we met our new tour guide for the next 3 days. Jane, originally from the Blue Mountains near Sydney was to drive us the 1700km (just over 1000 miles) all the way to the top end with some entertaining stops on the way!
We expected this part of the trip to be the most boring and long and we’d have to have some good entertainment planned in the van as we were going to drive 5-7 hours every day and there isn’t a mass of things to see of the Stewart Highway up to Darwin!

So our group changed a little, only 18 people (including the lovely German couple!) So we headed off up north and after 20 minutes we arrived at the Tropic of Capricorn line, we had a quick picture and then carried on our journey!

We stopped for breakfast in the tiny township of Tee tree and then soldiered on with the aim of covering 600km (400miles) today. We passed through Barrow Creek where the famous English couple got abducted and the girlfriend escaped and the boyfriend was allegedly killed but his body was never found. Some Australian guy is now in jail for the murder but many people at the time suspected the girlfriend!!!

Also at Barrow Creek in 1875, two workers at the local telegraph station were killed by two angry aboriginals and it was seen as very tragic. Their graves lie close to the service station / telegraph station so people can pay their respects. So this tiny little town is very creepy and is kind of cursed!!!

To keep us entertained in van, Jane gave us some whiteboard pens and we drew lovely pictures all over the windows! Daz drew a good Croc and my Kangaroo was pretty impressive! It killed some time though!!!!

At lunchtime we arrived at the Devils Marbles! Amazing rock formations that were formed by rain erosion millions of years ago. Some were so round and were balancing on top of other marbles! We got some fab photos, but still had to get over the fact that the area was so green! It is the wet season now once we crossed the Capricorn line but we never expected to see such lush greenery.

After lunch and a good break at the Devils Marbles we passed through the Australia UFO Capital, Wycliff Well where the most UFO sightings in Oz have been spotted! Was a bit of a crazy town with pictures of aliens and spaceships everywhere! Hilarious!.Jane tried to make the journey more interesting by stopping on the road, taking photos of random road signs and spotting animals and birds. We also stopped and took photos lying on the road burning our bums......the endless road with no vehicles in the distance, crazy! We hit Tennant Creek and the rain started, a few days earlier the highway had been closed up here as they had had so much rainfall. But it wasn’t too bad. We were quite close now to our camp site for the night so we headed into Tennant Creek township (4th biggest place in the Northern Territory) but it was pretty tiny with many aboriginal communities scattered on the outskirts of town. We bought some drink for dinner and then headed back on the road for an hour to Banka Banka where we were camping tonight!

The campsite was set on a big cattle farm, when I say big I mean something like 100,000 acres of cattle farm! Think how many cows that could be too hey? But the highlight of our day was here....there was a watering hole (billabong) a few km’s down a dirt track and about 7 of us really wanted to go, so we were going to walk but the cattle farm manager offered us a lift down in his pickup truck. Now there had been loads of rain recently here so the track was quite soft so after a good roll around in the back of the truck and spotting a big kangaroo we got stuck and bogged in the mud!!!!! Was so funny....you couldn’t see the front wheel! We all tried to help push it out but it was impossible, so the manger had to walk back for help and there is no mobile signal in the outback! Ooops....we felt quite guilty but the billabong was only round the corner so us tourists headed to it and it was so beautiful, such idyllic surrounds and the sandstone backdrop was reflecting on the crystal clear water....it was lush. We all went swimming and it was so refreshing! I learnt that a billabong was a dried up corner of a river and a watering hole was a big hole formed by rocks! By the time we were finished the truck had been saved and we had a lift home in the two trucks and then had a lush dinner at camp! Was a fantastic day.

Day-2

We had another 600km to cover today, so that ment more time in the van. Today was going to be more of a pub crawl as there isn’t that much to see and do on this day of the tour! But we were all good in the van. We got friendly with a brother and sister (Tom and Sophie), originally from Crawley but emigrated to Vancouver 10 years ago. Also Nicki from London and we still had a little group from the red centre. The bus journey was also a good time to catch up on some needed sleep!

We had a toilet break in Elliot and then met a friendly black headed python in Dunmarra. Both Daz and I held it around our necks! I don’t mind snakes at all, its the creepy crawlies that I hate! Its crazy driving trough these little townships as the population of most is only 2 figures and sometimes is lower than 20!

For example....Daly Waters, population approximately 12! Our first pub stop of the day but the town (call it hamlet) is famous for a few reasons! It has Australias first international airport and John McDoughall Stewart initials on a tree stump! And is also home to Australia’s first and oldest pub! And what a pretty cool pub it is too....everyone who passes through leaves their mark whether it be an old i.d card, a t-shirt, flipflop, bra/knickers, photo, money note....you name it they have it!!! And they have a lovely pool outback with a bbq, so lunch was yummy!!!! We stayed there for a nice break and got our group photo with a t-shirt we all signed! So if you’re ever in Daley Waters Pub, our group t-shirt is by the ATM machine!!!!! Darren and I also left a photo of us on the post by reception!

Our next pub stop was at the Pink Panther...everything was pink! And they had loads of birds and animals. This was only a quick stop!

Back on the road for a few more hours....we spotted wedged tailed eagles and saw some crazy cloud formations in the distance....luckily for us we’ve not been caught up in much rain at all. We finally arrived in Katherine and met some fighting aboriginals at the supermarket! Was so funny, one guy tried to steal 12 sausages down his trousers and got caught, so there ended up being this big confrontation outside Woolworths (thats a tesco over here!) I cant explain it, it was just so funny and some dudes came and spoke to us about it!! Awwww it’s the things you don’t expect to see which you’ll always remember!
Yey we reached camp in Katherine! No water hole here, just our tents! Had a good dinner and an early night as we had a hike over Katherine Gorge in the morning!

Day 3

Awwww I woke up covered in Mosquito bites today. Had to sleep out of sleeping bag as it was so hot! Darren didn’t get any, but Jen suffered pretty bad too...they just don’t stop itching! So repellent used in full force today!

Our highlight today was our 5 mile trek walking over Katherine Gorge. There are 13 gorges that encompass Katherine but we only got to see the first one. If you want to see all 13, it will most probably take you 3-5 days to hike. But the gorge we looked so pretty and very big. Fresh water crocodiles are known in this area but we keep being told that they don’t harm you, they would only try and bite you if you went up to them and really annoyed them by pulling on their tale or something! Still.....i don’t think I’d want to be in the water with any type of crocodile thankyou very much!!!!

We asked about the salties (the big killer saltwater crocs) and they have traps all around the gorge for this kind, but there hasn’t been a salty in the gorge for 11 years!
Jane walked a good pace and the first part was a pretty steep climb but once we reached the top the views were awesome! The beauty we’re seeing over here is so different to at home, it was perfect. We walked for a while and even had to take our shoes/socks off to cross a little river because of the rainfall recently. We eventually reached Pat’s Lookout and the views over this part of the gorge were just fantastic! We’re enjoying every part of this tour and we’re so glad we’ve seen true Australia in the ‘outback’. We could hear the water gushing and knew there was a waterfall here somewhere! We had to drop down into the gorge to the Southern Water Hole, climbing over loads of unstable rocks and clinging on to trees to keep our balance! Definitely not for the faint hearted! It was quite a dangerous drop but when you reach the bottom you forget about nearly slipping on a certain jagged rock and you realise what awaits you at the bottom was so totally worth it!
A beautiful rock hole enclosed by big rocks has this gushing waterfall at one end. The water looks so inviting and you feel like this whole place is kind of a secret! We quizzed Jane about crocs and she said she wouldn’t let us in if there was any danger of crocs! We were still a lot higher than the gorge and that ment at the moment with lower water levels the lazy crocodiles would have to climb up some rocks to just reach this area...so it was extremely unlikely! Most of us went for a swim and had an absolute ball.....yet again it was so refreshing! The boys did boy stuff, lots of swimming under the fall and rock jumping! Boys will be boys! It was such a peaceful getaway spot, our favourite place to visit so far. It just felt so special to see and experience, no need to worry about anything, just escapism maybe!?

After drying off we hiked back up to Pats Lookout and then headed back a slightly different way to the bus. It was a hot day so the dip in the waterhole cooled us down but by the time we reached the bus 3 miles later we were back to being hot and sweaty!

We had lunch back at camp, cleared everything away and then headed back in the van for our last 4hrs which took us into Darwin! We stopped at agas station and picked up a newspaper which on the front page showed a saltwater crocodile had been caught in Katherine Gorge the previous day! oooops!!!! It was ok though, where we were swimming was a highly unlikely place for them to come and swim too, although it did make us think twice before getting in any other waterholes!!!!!

We stopped in Madaranka for a toilet break and Adam our solo ‘Team America’ gay dude started talking to some outcast black fella’s and it was so funny! They posed for photos and enjoyed meeting him. We were all watching in the van, but it looked really funny! One large lady started walking off, so we thought she didn’t want to play a part in happy family photos but she couldn’t hear him because she had her ipod on! Man is was hilarious.....you just had to be there!

Our final stop was in Adelaide River.....a township with a river full of salt water crocs! We stopped at a pub and met Charlie the ‘stuffed’ buffalo who was the famous buffalo in Crocodile Dundee....the one he got to lie on the floor and stuff! He was pretty big but was a bit gross too as he was stuffed! And his legs had to be cut off a bit so he could stand up on the bar! These Australians in the outback are crazy!!!!!!!!!!!

An hour later we arrived into Darwin, big port town and the capital of the Northen Territory. Jane gave us a quick tour of downtown Darwin (CBD without any high rise buildings which was nice) and the little tour didn’t take long, it’s a tiny place! Darwin has been completely demolished on two separate occasions. WWII the Japs bombed the town and then in early hours of Xmas morning about 1979 a big cyclone hit. The only building that has survived both tragedies is ‘The Vic’ a pub which we happened the frequent quite often during our stay!!!

We all got dropped off at our hostel, great place, central and had a big pool! The weather was good to us on this leg of the trip and Darwin was dry as well...for now! We had free dinner vouchers for ‘The Vic’ a few blocks away so our little group (Daz, I, Jen, Karolina, Thomas, Sophie, Tom and Nix) headed there for dinner. Some of the others joined us also and when we found out that the goon was only $3 for a large glass.....we knew it was going to be an interesting night! The pub played games and I won a jug of beer playing basket ball and we won more beer and cheap wine doing a jigsaw puzzle! Lets just say it wasn’t an early night! You will enjoy photos of Darren dancing on tabletops and just many a random photos with a playboy bunny, pilot, etc...but it was one hell of a night! Jane our tour guide came out with us as well which was really nice, she was great....pretty laid back but on the ball at same time! She defiantly made the long hours in the bus more enjoyable! Top job Jane!!!!

So yes.....another early start in the morning 5am....and I think we all rolled into bed about 2.30am....oops! But so totally worth it!

Next and final instalment of Cloud 9 coming very soon!!!! xxx