Northern Territory part 1 - ...it pours!

We’ve seen some truly spectacular areas of Australia over the past week or two, so it’s good to be able to share them with you at last. Read on to hear about how we managed to wiggle our way into the Northern Territory despite flooding cutting off every outback Queensland road. Also, the Great Barrier Reef videos from the previous “Queensland part 4” post should now be ready so check those out too!

Saturday 29th March: Yungaburra to Croydon

Goodbye to Bonadio RV park, we set off to weave our way west through the remaining unflooded roads. We called at the Curtain Fig Tree one more time for some tree kangaroo spotting but came away empty handed. Our end destination was Croydon, meaning our great outback drive would begin later on the day, and so we pencilled in several stops along the way.

Ever hopeful to spot a tree kangaroo we called in at the Malanda falls for a half hour wander around the nearby rain forest. No tree kangaroos, but we did spot a few wallabies and even some river turtles. Oh well, we had a schedule to keep to.

Our lunch stop was at the Innot Hot Springs. Of course, the recent rain had dramatically increased the amount of water in the river, which in this case meant it looked like a normal muddy brown lazy river. It did, however, mean the hot spring water was intermingled with the main river, so we settled for a paddle rather than a wallow. It was a hot day already! (I later found out I left me flipflops here -.-)

Our final big stop for the day was the Kalkani crater walk - an hour-long bush walk around a “recently” extinct volcano. It was a great walk with stunning views of the outback bush, and we even saw some kangaroos with Joey’s in their pouch. The highlight had to be the surprise of a massive wedge tail eagle, the 3rd largest eagle in the world, swooping over us out of a tree we walked past.

A day of around 500km today, most of it on the flattish boring state highway 1, we finally arrived in Croydon. Definitely glad we had audiobooks for the drive, but a few eventful moments when we saw a wild dingo cross the road, and rainbows from small sporadic downpours on the horizon.

Sunday 30th: Croydon

Continued rain around us has scuppered us again so another night in Croydon it is. Thankfully the caravan park is lovely. We arrived too late to pay last night, so went in to pay the lady on reception, it was only then we found out the final bridge we crossed yesterday was now 1m underwater and we had been lucky to get across! We explored the area and went to Lake Belmore, a beautiful man-made fresh water lake. An area known for swimming and water sports; well we certainly were not getting in because just after parking we spotted a 3m freshwater croc happily swimming near the shore line! Our first wild Croc a pretty cool but scary sighting. We headed back to town and stopped at Deihms lookout which gave a stunning view over the town and the ‘Savannah’ area.

We got back to camp and explored the town following the local map taking us around the buildings from the 1890s when the gold rush came through Croydon…and then rapidly went away too! We went for a lovely swim in the campsite pool where we met a couple who like us were stuck in Croydon. They had come the opposite direction to us so gave us lots of information about the drive and the water on the road. Fingers crossed we can head off tomorrow.

We were supposed to have pasta for dinner but the way everyone raves about the pub so we changed our plans! They were not wrong, we had a chicken Kiev, Moroccan lamb pizza and some garlic bread to share. Obviously we over ordered so it’s pizza for lunch tomorrow! The meal was delicious and the hospitality of the staff was lovely. We had wonderful chats with everyone at the pub, most of who were like us and a great evening chilling out.

Monday 31st: Croydon to Mount Isa

The weather forecast for Queensland looked sunny today before another stormfront hit, and so it looked like it was now or never to try and weave our way west to the Northern Territory. After checking our traffic apps and ringing the road agency we finally had a singular route through to Mount Isa and out of the Queensland flooding. Fortunately for other travellers the east-bound bridge flooding had subsided and so everyone departed that morning. We made sure to call into the local food truck cafe for some delicious bacon egg butty before we left!

There was a lot of driving, almost 700kms worth, and a lot of it was straight and uneventful. There were, however, some eventful moments: we saw a big flock of red-tailed black cockatoos, we narrowly avoided hitting a kangaroo that ran into the road at the last second, and we had to traverse across some slightly submerged sections of road (we were surprised they were still classed as open!). We did finally get to see some road trains: lorries pulling 4+ trailers behind them!

Eventually Mount Isa loomed in the distance, vaguely reminiscent of Mordor. Not because of the mountain, not even because of our heroic journey to get there, but because Mount Isa’s coal mine+plant has a MASSIVE chimney looking over the city like Saurons tower. It’s definitely a mining town, but it’s a welcome pitstop for the evening!

Tuesday April 1st: Mount Isa to Banka Banka station

Today we drove over 700km from Mount Isa to Banka Banka station, approximately half way on our journey to Darwin. There’s not much to say about today… It’s a very flat boring road!

Of course, we pulled in for a selfie with the Northern Territory - look how flat it is! One advantage of the crossing the boarding is that the NT speed limit is a whopping 130kph, if you have the suspension for the road surface that is. Early afternoon we stopped in at Barkly Homestead to stretch our legs and make some sandwiches, and late afternoon we stopped for fuel at the Threeway Roadhouse.

By 5pm we’d arrived at Banka Banka Station and boy were we grateful for the face nets that Hannah Stewart bought us! Despite the flies, which thankfully weren’t mosquitos, we had a pleasant little walk up to the nearby hill to get a cracking sunset.

We were also surprised when we opened+closed the drivers door and a small frog fell out the seal onto the armrest! It was quickly ushered out, but we were thankful for its presence later that evening when it appeared on the window flynet and ate a chunk of the bugs! Tomorrow promises our longest drive yet as we hoon it up to Darwin itself.

Wednesday 2nd: Banka Banka Station to Darwin

Different day, different road, same view… Literally nothing to say about today apart from we drove, drove and drove some more. Apart from some flipping delicious burgers at Maiden Lane in Katherine we have nothing to report! Normal content continues tomorrow!

Thursday 3rd: Darwin

We took the free public bus into Darwin to explore the Northern Territory capital city. Lots of the city is taken over by WW2 history and the damage caused by the Japanese air raids or the damage caused by cyclone Tracy. So basically most of the city is very new and surprisingly we actually really enjoyed our visit even with it being the Wet Season.

We started the day in the Oil Tunnels. You get to walk through the tunnels and read all about the effects of WW2 on Darwin and also the story around the tunnels themselves, especially how much they cost compared to how much they actually were used! Despite the blaring sunshine we have seen for the last couple of days, it was obvious how much it rained recently as the first tunnel was somewhat soggy under foot! The humidity was crazy but the tunnels were very impressive and I couldn’t get over how big they were!

Our second stop of the day was lunch, we went to a mexican near the waterfront. While the empanadas were nothing to rave about, the chicken and fish taco were delicious and fuelled us to walk along the esplanade. We got somewhat distracted on our walk over and ended up in an Aboriginal Art Gallery. It was really impressive the art that they had and there was even an artist painting away in the corner. We fell in love with one of his paintings when we heard the story behind it and we couldn’t walk away without buying something. Jonathan was so lovely and hearing the stories behind all of his artwork was lovely. We even saw him on the bus with us at the end of the day!!

We made it to the waterfront esplanade and had a lovely, chilled walk taking in the views and the lovely walk way. We hoped to finish the day with a swim in the Darwin lagoon but alas the recent monsoon caused the place to not only be full of nasty flood water but they were also having to rebuild the beach so we headed back to camp for our swim instead! For all the people that warned us about Darwin being dingy and horrible we actually really liked it and everyone we came across was lovely.

Friday 4th: Darwin

Today we headed to Lichfield National Park it’s around 1hr 30 from Darwin but even in Wet Season was so so worth the visit!

We went to 4 different waterfalls, 2 of which were swimming holes and 2 which were just flipping huge such a worthwhile journey and so different to what we expected from NT! We stopped first at a sign to ‘Magnetic Termite Mounds’ we were unsure what to expect, but the 5m mounds were very impressive and seeing them all working/going in/out was impressive.

The first waterfall we went to was called Florence Falls. It was a lovely little 25-minute walk through the savanna forest before a huge waterfall and swimming holes appears. It was a bit busy when we first arrived but the pool was so big you could swim without being close to people still. There were 2 different falls into the pool and the current was surprisingly strong but a great place to cool down before the 134 steps back up to the carpark!!

Feeling refreshed we headed around the corner to our second swim spot this one was called Buley Rockhole. We had read online it being described as spa like and we didn’t really know why because it wasn’t thermal. But the water was still warm and the flow from the cascading waterfalls like a jacuzzi style when you sat next to it. We had a lovely soak and relax in our own peaceful section for about 30 minutes. The pool above ours was super deep and we had seen some people jumping in. We finally built up our confidence and had a jump of the side rocks into the pool. It was so deep, neither of us touched the bottom on our jump! Such a fabulous morning.

The afternoon took us to Tolmer Falls and Wangi Falls. We viewed Tolmer from the top viewing section it was very tall and quite narrow leading in to an impressive gorge below. It was funny looking the opposite way because it was very flat and nothing much to see - I guess we should be getting used to that! The second falls of the afternoon was Wangi, which we viewed from the bottom. In dry season you’re allowed to swim, but having seen the croc capture net and all the croc warning signs, for both Salties and Freshies I don’t think I would be swimming! That being said the falls were very impressive and had a beautiful little rainbow peeking out near the bottom. We loved our day in Litchfield National Park.

Having basically explored all the park that was available at the moment we headed to Dundee Beach for fish and chips with a sunset and neither disappointed! The fish was so fresh and soft and the chips so crispy. The sky was a bit cloudy but the sunset was beautiful and we got some phenomenal views. A great end to a wonderful day.

Phew, we finally made it to the top of the country, and even maanged to see a croc while we were at it. Our next adventure will take us straight down the middle into the heart of Australia. Plenty of driving, the occasional waterhole swim, and redder and redder rocks. Speak soon!