LITCHFIELD NATIONAL PARK

Since The Alice, I have flown home for a function for work.  I left Stuart at Alice and was home about 10 days and flew back into Darwin where Stuart picked me up and we drove back to Katherine for the show there.  These shows out west are only small but gee they are good for us.

We left Katherine Sunday morning a bit disappointed that I didn't see too much of the area but after Darwin we will have a more extended stay. We headed for Litchfield National Park about an hour and a half out of Darwin.  The caravan park there was all grassed and shady trees.  At $35 a night there isn't much for the money but very pleasant just the same.  We met Mick and Carol who have a much later model Lotus than ours, they are only the first Lotus people we have talked to since leaving home in May, but we have seen about 7 Lotus' on the road.

Litchfield National Park is south west of Darwin covering several hundred square kilometers with numerous waterfalls.

Walking up the gorge to the first waterfall "The Cascades" which involved 'walking the plank' on 2 occasions.
Very difficult as it seemed about 20 feet to the bottom - well 6 inches anyway....

The Cascades

Still the Cascades

Wangi Falls, the most popular in the area

Wangi Falls again but too cold for us to swim

Wangi Falls - the photo doesn't do justice



Florence Falls

Florence Falls, where I actually braved the cold

Magnificent Magnetic Termite Mounds which are tall, wide and narrow.  Named thus because the wide sides face east and west to take advantage of the warmth of the sun.

A giant Cathedral Termite Mound which stands about 25 feet high and has been slowly added to over the last 50 years

Found the one Tracy squatted behind in the 80's to do a pee!
The impression is still there Trace, you really left your mark. 

Tolmer Falls

We had a very pleasant 2 night stay at the Litchfield Caravan Park. On our only full day we set our map lunch drinks and water in hand to see as many of the waterfalls as we could in the day. We walked kilometres in and out of lush vegetation and plenty of fern leaf grevillias and pandanas palms to each waterfall and even swam at a few amongst lots of tourists.

This bought back plenty of memories of when Kathy was pregnant with Ricki Lee and I flew to Darwin for a week.  Mick (Ricki Lee's father) drove out to Litchfield and we had a swim in one of the waterfall pools.  Not a lot has changed in Litchfield since then I don't think. Then it was on to Darwin and after a short consultation decided to do a dirt road instead of bitumen and save about 60 kms.  Although only about 20 k's of dirt it was VERY corrugated and just a little dusty.

After 3 days of the Royal Darwin Show, we were looking forward to a leisurely trip back to Katherine taking in the beautiful Gorge And surrounds and a trip down memory lane at the Low Level Reserve where we stayed all those years ago when I heard that our breakfast cook has broken her foot and is not capable of working for a while.  My first response was to get on the first flight out of Darwin back to Mackay but Kathy's assurance that in the short term thing were covered I resisted.

After a sleepless night I have got a flight out on Friday so that I arrive in time to give Kathy the weekend off and stay until I find someone to cover all shifts before we start off again.

In the meantime, we went out to a restaurant on the wharf called "The Jetty" with two other couples and had the most magnificent seafood buffet for $35 a head then on to the casino for coffee.

Monday we took in the Crockodylus Park and then the military museum which has had a real revamp only 6 months ago with state of the art electronics and video showing the bombing of Darwin in World War 2.  We also had a walk around the gun emplacement where Kylie fell down the stairs all those years ago.  Great memories - of the trip, not Kylies falling...

We will spend the next couple of days being tourists and then it is on a plane for me and Stuart will leave Saturday back to Townsville for the Multi Cultural Festival and then on to Mackay where we will stay for another couple of weeks before heading south.

STANDLEY CHASM

The burial place of the Rev John Flynn just a couples of kilometers out of Alice Springs.
 The Royal Flying Doctor Service began as the dream of the Rev John Flynn, a minister with the Presbyterian Church. ‘Flynn of the Inland’ lived in the Outback for most of his life, setting up hostels and bush hospitals for pastoralists, miners, road workers, railwaymen and other settlers.
Sadly he died of cancer in May 1951 but lives on on the front of the Australian $20 note.

Reverend John Flynn

View from Anzsac Hill through Alice towards the Gap.

Yesterday we wet out towards the west driving along the base of the west MacDonnell Range heading to Standley Chasm. This was a distance of about 35 Klm's.

We had to be there by about 11.15am at the latest as we had to buy our permit to enter the area and then walk nearly 2 kilometers up the creek bed to the chasm, to be there by mid day when the sun was right over head to get the best effect of the colors on the sides of the ravine. We weren't disappointed.
The wait was worth it even though the wind channeling through was very cold.

The rock Brett stood on when we were there 30 odd years ago



Looking into the neck of the Chasm beyond the ghost gums

A length of the MacDonnell Range

The mighty Todd River with as much water in it as at any time of the year

Some of the locals at home on the Todd.  Unfurtunately, too many of them call this sandy river bed their home.  We had to be careful as they object to us taking their photo.

We got up this morning with no water coming through the taps as the hose was frozen.  Haven't had that experience since we lived in Moura in the '60's. We got back just in time to meet Kylie's husband Peter's aunt from South Australia.  Lyn met us at a cafe with her daughter Donna and 2 kids and we had about an hour and a half of very pleasant company.

Friday I'll say goodbye to Alice for this year and fly back for a function at school. I fly via Melbourne, Brisbane and then Mackay and will catch up with Stuart in Darwin in about 10 days.

INTO THE NORTHERN TERRITORY

https://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?msid=203969111167181232113.0004baf26e7608591374f&msa=0&ll=-23.725012,132.495117&spn=19.714644,35.639648

We got away from Mt Isa late as for the first time since leaving home we had to go to a Laundromat.

Finally $21 later all was clean and after a quick cuppa we set off for the west.

Standing beside a young Leichhardt Tree which reminded me of a jiant one that stood where we waited for Mum to pick us up from school in Proserpine in the '50's.



At the border, kids climbed up on top of their trailer and jumped up - this is my version

We got to the border at about 3pm and had to turn all time pieces forward ½ hour. Our first night was spent at a free camp called Woranah Bore Camp which is about 220 kms from the 3 ways on the Stuart Highway. This is signposted all along the road as SH and so Stuart is chuffed that it is named after him –yeah right.

As we travel along I am having de je vieu moments about the trip we did when the kids were much younger in 1974 with Terry, Val and Troy Moore.

We have already mapped out some of the places we hope to see including Kings Canyon, Flynn’s memorial, people sleeping in the bed of the Todd River, Devils Marbles, Ayers Rock, Standley Chasm, and hopefully find the caravan park where I thought native persons were trying to attack us running up to us brandishing spears, nulla-nulla’s and woomera’s when they were only trying to make a quick sale to some unsuspecting tourists.

So many places that we thought were such great tourist attractions apparently have closed down in Alice so I hope I don’t get too disappointed.

On our way along the barkly highway we stopped off the road for timber for a fire. It was here my hunter-gatherer collected firewood by starting up the chainsaw (newly purchased in Mt Isa) and filled the tray in front of the van.

Had a great stop at Devils Marbles. We arrived at the camp spot early and went for a walk through the marbles. It was so hard to imagine they started out as one solid rock mass millions of years ago and through erosion are now the round rocks we see today.

After dinner a park ranger had a big fire going and we were all invited to sit round while he gave us a bit of history about the marbles, the area and the local people.

I didn't crack this one open - it happeneds before I got here!!

A real native came wandering through the camp about 5 pm to check us all out and then again a bit later on and again in the morning to see us off.  The ranger said that he would have been as pure a dingo as we would see on the mainland.

What was very interesting was the straight road.  Going west from Camooweal to the Stuart highway and then south to Alice was like driving on the Nullarbor.  Fuel at tenant creek was $1.89 litre fortunately we didn’t need any.

About 50 Kms out of Alice we did a inside drivers tyre on the back of the beast and crawled into town to get 2 new tyres.

A camp still on the Stuart highway was it for the night and when we woke at 6.00 am it was -3' outside and 2'inside, we made a cuppa and set off for Stuarts Well where we had breakfast and saw the local tourist attraction, the singing dingo which was about 12 years old and not singing at 7 am.

ON the horizon on the left near Curtain Springs on the Lasseter Highway we saw Mt Connor which seems nearly as big as the Rock but with a very flat top.

We booked into a caravan park at Ulara with the backdrop of Uluru and Kata Tjuta ( the olgas). What a community - there were designated areas for different levels of accommodation over a vast area with a shopping area in the middle with a supermarket, post office, news agency and about 4 eating places and half a dozen touristy type places. It must be quite a permanent community as the post office had a bank of about 30 mail boxes. servicing the Rock, as I remembered how cold it was back in the '70's when we stayed there and I needed power and heated air con.

We set up on our site and gathered some nibbles and wine to drive to the designated viewing place to watch the sunset and had to stop at the entry into the sacred site and pay a fee of $25 each for 3 days entry. This is because the government purchased a 99 year lease of the area from the traditional owners.

The changing face of Uluru til about 6.00pm

 We set up our chairs and table and waited along with hundreds of other people for the spectacular event to unfold.  The colour Changes just had to be seen to be believed and with the lowering of the sun so too came the lowering of temperatures so we headed back to camp.

Next morning we headed back to the base where intrepid (interpreted brave or silly) made the climb to the top.

We had discussed it the previous evening and I suggested that Stuart not attempt it and stated that I on the other hand definitely wouldn't.

Next morning I relented and felt that it wasn't my place to say no and said so and after reading the safety notes about health requirements of climbers he set out - but not for long and came back to the ground to a much relieved wife.

A visit to the native cultural canter didn't tell us much except that not a lot has changed.   The guide for a bus tour didn't turn up for work (apparently a common occurrence) and the desk was unattended for over 1/2 an hour while we were there.

That afternoon we drove the 35 Km's further on to the Olga's where we took one of the shorter walks (2kms) in between 2 of the 32 large boulders that make up the Olgas.  This certainly gave us a glimpse of the magnitude of the boulders

We arrived home to a lovely corned beef, white sauce and veg in the dream pot that I had prepared before leaving camp in the morning, and got up next morning to go and watch the sun rise over The rock in the piccaninny dawn.

 I wanted to drive around the rock because I remembered many markings on it that I had seen 30 odd years before but the road now travels a fair way out from the base to protect sacred sights but I did get to see this one that stuck in my memory.
It is just a breakdown of the surface but depicts a warriors face in profile.

On the way out of the area we stopped at Curtain Springs for smoko and thought fuel at the rock where we filled up was dear at $2.04 but here it was $2.34 a litre.  We also didn't get any stubbies ($7 ea and $81 ctn) or cans of bundy and cola ($11,80 ea or $145 a carton.  We did get a nice bottle of port for $19 which included 2 commemorative small pannikins.

We travelled through to Kings Canyon Resort and checked in for the night on an unpowered sight. ( I hope it doesn't get too cold.) Kings canyon proved to be an expensive stop but in my opinion, worth it. 

 While there we walked 2.6 Kms into Kings Canyon along the floor and back which was spectacular.  A better walk would have been the 6 kms walk around the rim but it started with an almost sheer climb up the side and I knew my limitations.

That night we had a barbecue tea in the restaurant with live entertainment and were adopted by a little 8 year old named Zoe from Victoria

We found out that the road we intended to travel back to Alice Springs, was very rough and really only designed for 4 wheel drive and off road vans so we had to fuel up and head back the way we came which was an extra 250 k’s. Stuart only put $100 in the tank as the fuel was $2.33 a litre - the dearest we have struck so far.

Next day it was back to Alice to the show grounds where we will have no accommodation fees for the next week.
I make no appologies for the length of this but we saw such wonderful sights and I had to share.