from Perth to Darwin-2

first scroll down to read "from Perth to Darwin-1"

Well, sorry for that long story there people. I will try and keep this second one shorter. But at least one of the stories will have given you a good view of how amazingly cool our trip was.

At Coral Bay we met a couple of nice people with whom we spent a night in the pub and a night on the campsite. After Coral Bay we drove further north to Exmouth, a ratherdull place. We camped some 30km outside of the town on a caravan park along the coast. At sundown we went to the beach to cook some seafood pasta.. it was great, sitting there with a beer, under the stars! After that we drove back to the caravanpark at 20km/h. There were kangaroos everywhere. We had a hilarious trip. We got some of it on video, so I’ll try to put these little movies online when I#ve got a chance to.

Continuing north we headed inland for a while, towards Tom Price- on the 2,5hour road we saw about 11other vehicles.... I ran over a snake (our first)! Around Tom Price (mainly a mining town) we visited beautiful Karinjini National Park- beautiful gorges in the middle of very hilly desert landscapes. We swam in one of the river-pools, underneath a waterfall- the water was so blue! And it was so nice and quiet- just great.

After Tom Price we stayed at a beautiful free campsite in the absolute middle of the desert again. Amazing place, an amazing sunset and so many stars! And then when you wake up, the first thing you see is this amazing landscape all around!

Heading further north, towards Broome, we encountered a lot of monotonous landscapes, interrupted by the occasional gigantic bushfire (flames we saw from afar were at least 30m high!). We also encountered dustdevils: small (but big) tornados going through the sandy landscape. One came very close when we were parking for a break somewhere. Amzing how is seemed to have a brain, it seemed like an animal, going through the forest searching for food. It was very small, maybe 1,5-2m across, and (visibly) 8m tall… slowly following its fast and blowing up leaves and sand. We really wondered how things like that sustain themselves. It seemed so small, but kept on going and going.

We stayed the night at 80mile beach, a beautiful caravan park on a great beach, but since the sea is full of, well, virtually anything dangerous you can think of, swimming was not advised. Look but don’t touch! Amazing seashells littered the 100m wide (and 80mile long?) white sands.

The next day we hit Broome, where we stayed two nights on a very nice caravan park where we could just walk onto the beach, even see the blue sea from our van! Broome was very lay-back, but nothing really special. At night there was the rising of the moon- celebrated as the “stairway to the moon” because of the moon’s reflex ion in the mud plains at low-tide. We had never watched the moon rise before, and the whole town came to watch it with us, but it was just amazing. It just takes a couple of minutes. The nicest is just before the moon appears the light shines from behind the horizon for a moment- Brilliant. We tried to meet up with Marielle and Birthe, the French and German girl we met along the way since they had sent us an sms that they were in Broome and up for a beer, but they were in the end already to tipsy to walk all the way from their side of Broome to our side (where the moon was rising). But we didn’t miss it fortunately.

Further north we stayed at Kunnanura, a small town along the banks of a huge lake. I was writing in my little logbook (in which I write down all the nasty stuff I think of all of you, haha) while the sun was setting. Mark was taking a shower and had locked the van, so unfortunately I have no pictures to prove it, but: suddenly the skies turned black and full of noise. I thought they were birds but when I looked better hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of bats, flying foxes, filled the skies. From where I was sitting to the horizon. For about 15minutes! What an awesome sight. Apparently they nest in the trees along the lake on one side and go off feeding every evening, all of the together (poor fruit-farmers). Coolest were the couple of bats after the big group had passed; the followed quickly, but strangely unsure of their route, all alone in the skies: “hey guys, wait up! Sorry, I forgot to put my alarm again!”

At the caravan park, Mark and I barbequed. While at it, some older guys, all Aussies staying with their families, talked to us about travelling Australia, their memories of travelling in Europe, beers, etc. Three nice girls working there, really cool, came up for a chat. One, Jade, spoke Dutch. She had been living in Den Haag for a while and loved it. She was actually planning on going back there in spring, because her boyfriend was Dutch (bommer).

Near Kunnanura was a small National Park with a couple of walks. It was aboriginal land. Many trees and plants were explained through the eyes of the indigenous people: how they were used for food or tools.

Slowly getting closer to Darwin we followed Victoria River for a long while. A majestic river in a megestic landscape. We saw a kangaroo drinking the water, and got a glimpse of our first huge salty (saltwater crocodile, that can easily reach 4m’s)- actually very close to the drinking kangaroo- so we hung around for a while, awaiting some action- but it didn’t arrive.

We stayed the night over at the caravan park at the Victoria River Crossing roadhouse (motel/gas station/ pub/ restaurant). At night we had a free concert there from a oldies-singing-guitar cowboy. Just great. And while drinking a beer we met a couple of construction workers (drunk) busy constructing the new bridge there. A big group of them had been camping out there for a couple of months, working 7-7day/week trying to get a couple of bridges constructed before the arrival of the “wet” (season). They had gotten half a day off, that Sunday, and were all celebrating in the roadhouse… there were not enough women there it seemed, but enough beers for sure!

Near Katherine (Northern Territory’s 3rd largest town after Darwin and Alice Springs) we stayed at a national park where we swom in a nother big waterfall-pool called Edith Falls. There was a nice campsite that we decided to spent the night at, and there is nothing better, I can tell you, then to dive into a fresh natural swimmingpool (still had to watch out for snakes and the occasional croc, but we’re getting used to that now) after a day of driving trough the heat. At the pool we got talking to Gary- an older guy that looked a bit like a rockstar. Check the pictures. He knew a lot about snakes and stuff because he had been collecting them for a long time in his life. He joined us for dinner, shared some beers with us and we spent the night talking about mainly music. Turned out he loved music as much as we did and he had a laptop full of the stuff with him. The best thing was: a very nice bottle of wine. Gary rocked!

The next day we went one a canoo (kayak actually) trip at Katherine gorge. That was nice, but we’d expected a bit more crocodiles (however sweetwater ones, but still, we just got a partial glimpse of one of them). The landscape was awesome. Clouds (first ones in more than a week) and the resulting changing of the sunlight added a bit more drama.

The last two days we spent in Kakadu National Park, the biggest in Australia, west of Darwin. We saw many big crocodiles there, and finally some aboriginal rock art! They had drawn fish and other animals (hunting trophies) in x-ray, examining their internal organs and skeleton. Very cool were the drawings of white men: actually drawn in white, with their hand in their pockets and with wooden shoes! Also many portrayed the stories that they passed on from adult to children for many generations, while they lived among the rock-shelters for many thousands of years.

The best part was the view from on top of these rocks. Mark and I spent at least an hour, watching the wetlands, just silently watching.taking it all in. Overwhelming.

This is the most northern part of Australia one can get to without a 4wd. It is close to Arnhemland, the biggest aboriginal land, where they still live like they have done for thousands of years. It was stunningly beautiful. Just incredible. As some of the picture may show. So many shades of green, as far as I could see. What I life I’ve got! What a lucky bastard I am to be able to come here and see this…

PICTURES