Northern Territory part 2 - Stuart Highway

As signal becomes more common at our campgrounds (not quite while on the roads) we’ve finally chewed through a bit of blog backlog. Enjoy some rambling through the Australian outback.

Saturday 5th April: Darwin to Katherine

This morning we said farewell to Darwin and began our big, long journey straight down the middle of the country from top to bottom. We got through a backlog of chores (washing, blogging, petrol, etc) before stopping in at Humpty Doo, seriously it’s a real place, to see the Big Boxing Croc. Yes, we’re aware how surreal that sentence sounded.

Our next stop on our way down was the Manton recreational dam for a bit of lunch and some scenic views over the lake. We were put off by the croc warnings, both salties and freshwater, but that didn’t stop the locals who had brought their inflatables and jetskis. We did however manage to spot a blue-winged kookaburra over lunch.

With lunch out of the way we set out to see Edith falls, about 2:30h drive south of Darwin. We got the full Aussie outback experience on the drive in to the falls as we spotted our first, fortunately small, wildfire! Being the good Kiwis that we are we called it in to the emergency services when we got emergency-only signal at the Edith falls carpark. Hopefully it was a deliberate controlled burn.

We briefly wandered around the lake at the base of the falls, before briskly hiking our way to the Edith falls upper pool for a quick refreshing dip. Our campsite in Katherine check-in was between 4-6pm and we had a schedule to keep! Back on the van we made our way out towards Katherine, noting the wildfire size had increased and hoping it smoulders out or gets dealt with soon if needed.

Our campsite was out in the bush on private land, and the owners had put in a cracking sunset viewing platform. We took up some nibbles and a bottle of wine and watched the sun set. Oh, and we also saw a tree frog that tried jumping on me shortly after the video was taken!

Sunday 6th: Katherine

An early start today as we headed into the Nitmiluk/Katherine Gorge National Park for a boat tour and a walk. we had booked the 2-gorge tour but due to the prolonged wet season conditions we had to change to a single gorge trip, but to be honest we think we enjoyed it more than just sitting on the boat!

We saw the whole of the first gorge and the ‘lovely’ brown water! But also got to get off the boat for a small walk to see some ~10,000-year-old rock art that the Jawayn tribe did. It was really interesting to learn about the Mimi spirits and what the animals meant, along with also learning that if you see hand prints it means it is a safe place to sit/relax/camp rather than if it was upside down people which means it’s either a bit dangerous, or it’s a burial site!

The second stop of the tour was to the Southern Rockhole for a lovely swim and waterfall. Thankfully the water wasn’t brown at all and in the 35C heat the water wasn’t so refreshing and clear, we could even see some fishies! On the walk back to the boat I took a great slip/slide in the mud and despite probably chuckling on the inside the guide described me as looking like a ballerina!

We headed back to the visitor centre for some lunch in the camper before heading out on the Baruwei loop. It started with a walk through the bush before heading to the top of the gorge for some great views around the national park. We weren’t able to get to some of the further lookouts, but Mike was very glad about that because it was chuffing hot up there on top of the sand stone rocks! We had a well-deserved ice cream at the bottom to cool down before heading to our campsite in Katherine for another swim. We are loving the warmer weather and swimming holes at the moment.

Monday 7th: Katherine to Daly Waters

We are starting our slow journey down the middle now and leaving ‘The Top End’ behind to head to the red centre. We had hoped to be able to stop at some hot springs, but Katherine Hot springs was closed due to crocs, and Mataranka/Bitter springs was closed due to flooding. We were a bit naughty and hopped the barrier to take a peek at bitter springs but compared to the online pictures of beautiful clear blue water this was more like the dirty UK rivers so you’re not catching me in that at the moment anyway! Guess we will just have to come back in the dry season at some point! We did stop in Mataranka for some lunch and also saw the ‘famous’ termite mound, it was HUGE in both width and height but they had to do some work on the opposite side to strengthen it, so it did seem slightly fake.

Our next stop was a tiny little town/hamlet called Larimah. You might have heard of it from the random Netflix program called “Last Stop Larrimah” about the local and his dog who just randomly disappeared one night never to be found again. We saw the signs for a $250,000 reward but we didn’t see anyone apart from the pub landlord to talk to anyway so doubt they are solving that for a while! Seeing the giant pink panther was good and reading about how the indigenous peoples helped so much in the war when groups were stuck/lost in the desert without even being acknowledged as part of the armed forces was eye opening. A lovely little stop off and leg stretch before the next stop.

Our stop for the night was the iconic Daly Waters pub, now this truly was in the middle of nowhere, but Tim knows how to make something out of nothing! We saw 2 horses, 1 pony, 2 donkeys, Kevin the croc, 2 buffalos, and some chickens in a coop with a KFC sign above it. There were apparently some Brahman cows too, but they have eluded us! Not only do they have animals, but they also have a whole heap of eclectic cars, motors, helicopters and stuff! Here are a few of the things we found on our little walk around the pub. After exploring our home for the night, we went for another swim in the pool before a pub dinner consisting of lasagne and salad for me and Chairman’s Chicken for mike (schnitzel with avocado, bacon, cheese and hollandaise sauce!) a delicious meal washed down with a cider and a pale ale.

Oh, and they had “a famous tree” that the first European explorers had marked with an “S”…. disappointing was an understatement!

Tuesday 8th: Daly Waters to Karlu Karlu

We headed south again today with our final destination being Karlu Karlu. It was about a 4-hour drive but we pencilled in a couple of stops along the way.

The first stop was obviously a toilet stop in Elliot, well that was an adventure in itself because the toilets were pretty hidden and 2/3 had massive toads in them! We headed on to go to Lake Woods Reserve which is apparently a nice place to sit/stroll around the water’s edge, but we couldn’t find a road anywhere so in just our delicate 2WD van we had to skip the lake. I’d love to know where the road is if anyone knows though. We stopped at Attack Creek for lunch and read about how the area got its name…they don’t mince their words when describing how some European explorers were attacked while trying to be the first group to take stock from Adelaide to Port Darwin! However, it was a lovely little stop and we used the water to refill our windscreen wash - there are flies galore on these roads.

Next on the agenda we’re some stops near Tennant Creek. The first was the Kunjurra/the pebbles. These are smaller versions of Karlu Karlu/Devils Marbles and are sacred to the local mob. The 5.7km corrugated dirt road was interesting and I’m sure we wobbled something out of place, but it was well worth it to see them. We were the only ones around apart from the gazillion flies so out came out attractive head nets again!

Just across the road was the historic Telegraph Station. Built in 1872 when the line between Australia and the UK was first completed the houses were in such good condition and have lots of information. The inside was also so nice a cool compared to the heat of the day. We are definitely getting close to the desert.

We stopped at the Mary Ann Lake Dam another man-made Lake to allow the people of Tennant Creek to have a continuous source of water at all times. It said it was suitable for a swim but despite lots being around no one was in the water, so we weren’t brave enough for a dip either!

About an hour outside of Tennant Creek is Karlu Karlu or the Devils marbles. These huge granite boulders are another scared site, but this time for the men of the Warumungu. We headed up to the viewpoint to watch sunset and the rocks were stunning and changed colour as the sunset. A calm and relaxing evening after a day of exploring the Stuart Highway.

Wednesday 9th: Karlu Karlu to Alice Springs

Despite a scorcher of a day yesterday the outback desert temperature drops a fair bit overnight and so we woke to a pleasantly cool morning. We woke up just before sunrise and made our way to the top of Karlu Karlu to watch the sun come up. After a bit of breakfast we donned our fly nets and set out on an hour’s walk around the area, seeing more cool boulder formations. The end of the walk was somewhat tarnished by the sudden appearance of a brown snake darting across the path just in front of Chloe!

Our destination was Alice Springs and we pencilled in several small stops along the way. Our first stop was a derelict roadhouse in Wycliffe that was UFO themed. Unfortunately it went out of business in 2022 due to flooding. We also stopped a bit later in a small town called Ti Tree for a quick leg stretch.

Our third stop of the day was in Aileron: famous for its giant aboriginal man sculpture on top of a hill, as well as its Hollywood-style town sign. There was also a small art gallery with a giant aboriginal woman and child statue, but alas the gallery itself seemed closed. Our fourth stop of the day was at the Ryan Well historical reserve: apparently the geographical centre of Australia. Our fifth and final mid-route stop was the Tropic of Capricorn.

Not far outside of Alice Springs we began to hear a very sporadic clunking sound at the front left of the van, so we drove to our campsite for the next two nights and pencilled in to go to a tyre place in the morning at the van rentals request. We had politely said their initial suggestion of driving to their Darwin depot, 1300km away, was a little bit silly…!

We called next door to the Alice Springs Brewing Co for a quick tipple before catching a free bus to the outdoor Parrtjima festival - an Aboriginal festival of light. The festival was incredible, with lots of contemporary light exhibitions celebrating culture and the land. We saw an impressive light show on the side of the West MacDonnell ranges and listened to live music too.

Thursday 10th: Alice Springs

An early start to the morning for our 8am appointment at the tyre place. We left the van with them and headed to a nearby cafe for some tasty breakfast. After a short wait we heard back from the tyre place saying that they could hear the clunking but, unsurprisingly, there didn’t seem anything wrong with the tyres so they couldn’t help. We took the van to a mechanic that the tyre place recommended and set out to explore a bit of Alice Springs.

We visited some of the local aboriginal art galleries which had some stunning pieces, but unfortunately one of the gallery owners had some “interesting” opinions on the local aboriginals. We plonked ourselves at a cafe around lunchtime and did a few hours of admin stuff, before grabbing some tasty pie and pastries at a nearby bakery. We also visited the Araluen cultural precinct to round off our day of culture.

Late afternoon we got the call from the mechanic to say that they could also hear the clunking but despite their best efforts they couldn’t really find anything wrong. We collected the van from them and headed back to the campsite for a relaxed evening and a bit of trip planning. (We did note that our driver door now contained a piece of plastic trim from the side of the radiator, and we are yet to hear the clunking again… Mystery solved?). We planned our next few days and headed to bed for an early start the next morning heading out to the West Macdonnell ranges.

That’s all folks. Stay tuned for the next blog post - we finally make it to Uluru!