Leaving the Northern Territory via the Gulf

On our last night in Darwin we did our favourite Darwin thing, we went to Mindle Market (yep that makes 7 times). It was our last night with Tash and Adam and we met up with a couple of other friends Kurt and Tom. As luck would have it we also ran into some travelling buddies, James and Sophie. So it was a real party.

After enjoying our last spicy laksa  on a balmy night on MIndle Beach we set off for Queensland. Our destination was Cape York which is about 2,000 km's away so we did the trip over several days mostly via dirt roads, often very rough and with numerous river crossings. Our first stop was Mataranka which is a tiny settlement south of Katherine. It is most well known for its warm thermal springs set in lush pockets of palms and tropical vegetation. We met up with the Wright family and we enjoyed a couple of nights with them soaking up the springs, lunching at the Mataranka Homestead and lounging around the campfire. We also bumped into some friends of ours from Margaret River, Betty and David who also joined us for a swim and lunch.

We set off from Mataranka for a long day of driving. We hit the Carpentaria Highway and just kept driving until dusk. Just as the Kangaroos started to appear we pulled off the road about 50km east of Borroloola. We set up camp beside a lovely river and enjoyed the solitude after the hustle and bustle of Darwin.

We got off to a super early start and for several hours drove through gorgeous landscapes, which compared to the Gibb River Road scenery (but without the other cars). After crossing the QLD border and then Hells Gate the landscape became less spectacular but beautiful in its own way. We passed through Burketown and Normanton before finally arriving in Karumba just on dark. Karumba is the furthest eastern town on the Gulf of Carpentaria. After travelling 2000km's in 4 days, we welcomed a cold beer at the Sunset Tavern as we watched.. yep you guessed it, the sunset.

It was a mad dash from Northern Territory to Queensland. And although the days on the road were long and tiring the drive was pretty special, both due to the scenery and the solitude. We are now very excited to head north up to Cape York, our last exploration of Australia's Top End before beginning our journey back down the east coast, home.

Kakadu, Arnhem Land and Nitmuluk

It only seemed fitting that we should end our amazing month in the Northern Territory with the jewel of the Territory; Kakadu. Although we had passed through Kakadu on our way to and from Cobourg, we had saved exploring this part of NT until Tash and Adam arrived. So as we left Darwin heavily laden with our additional travellers, their gear and all the usual Big Red paraphernalia, we were very excited about the week ahead of us.

To get our visiting Sydney-sider out of the southern winter and into the mood for some outback adventure, they decided to head off up Katherine gorge in a canoe overnight. We decided they would either come back totally psyched for the rest of their trip or…. they might not come back at all. We had decided not to join them, partly because it would simply be too difficult with Jarvis and also because we don't have a tent with us. We happily pottered around the campground, went for a swim and walked to the lookout over Katherine Gorge whist we awaited their return.

As it turned out, our visitors did return, weary and tired but with very big smiles. So after a much needed night of recovery, we set off for Arnhem Land. We had managed to get tickets to a performance put on by the Beswick Aboriginal Community. It was a corroboree of sorts set down on a river bed with a rock wall surrounding us and a waterfall flowing into a plunge pool nearby. The whole community attended and most of them took part in the dancing, singing and story telling. The performance was fantastic. It was disorganised and generally chaotic but it felt like it was a night of culture for the community and we were simply lucky enough to be permitted to join in. Just to make the night even more special all the visitors were welcomed to camp in the surrounding bush, normally visitors would only be allowed into the art centre in the town and only for a day visit, so we felt very privileged. 

The next day we were finally off to Kakadu. Tash and Adam had completely relaxed into life on the road and we were all ready to see what Kakadu had to offer. Our first stop didn't fail to impress. We set up camp at Gunlom Waterhole. This is supposed to be one of the most popular swimming spots in the park, but we were lucky enough to have the falls to ourselves for an afternoon swim amongst the palm fronds. In the morning we climbed to the top of the falls to watch the sunrise over the rocky hillsides and grassy plains of southern Kakadu. We again had the place to ourselves and watched the land reflect the sky's changing colours as the sun rose and lit up the world below.

We'd had a taste of Kakdu's waterfalls and wanted more, so we made our way through the rough 4WD track to Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls. The last part of the trip into Twin Falls was via a small boat up the river, run by the local Aboriginal Community and then a walk / climb past waterholes and through steep rocky gorges. Again, as providence would have it, we had the place to ourselves. 

After soaking in the serenity at Twin Falls we made our way to Jim Jim for a swim (no swimming at Twin Falls due to crocs). To get to Jim Jim we wandered under the canopy of remnant rainforest and then clambered over huge rocks. Just when we thought we could clamber no more, we came upon dark green pools surrounded by huge rock walls over which poured a thin stream of water. The pools were inviting enough for us to ignore the biting cold of the water and we washed away the day's grime and floated in the cool water.

No visit to Kakadu is complete without a visit to Yellow Waters. Most people have to pay lots of money to pile on a boat with dozens of other people just to get out on this beautiful billabong. But who needs a paid cruise when you've got a 3.7m tinny. It was a stretch, but we all piled in to our little boat at the crack of dawn for a breakfast cruise (banana and peanut butter sandwiches) amongst the lily pads, flocks of birds and some of the biggest crocs we've seen. Just as we were thinking about heading home, Rob decided to flick a couple of lures around and five minutes later he hooked a Barramundi. He couldn't have staged it better for our visiting friends (yep, it's always that easy). It was a keeper too (60cm) and we had a delicious Barramundi barbecue with camp oven veges for dinner that night.

Being able to have fires and cook in the camp oven was a fantastic part of Kakadu camping, we made basically every meal in the camp oven. But the fires were't the only good point, the campsites in general in Kakadu were fabulous. None of them were too busy and each site was pretty private and large enough to fit a few people. It was some of the nicest camping we've come across on the trip.

The north of Kakadu is renowned for its rock art. So we finished our tour of the park visiting two of amazing sites (Nouralgie and Ubir). Some of the rock art is thousands of years old and relics found in a rock shelter have been dated to 20,000 years. It's fairly amazing to walk the same paths and into the same rock shelters as Aboriginal people have been doing (and continue to do) since before any of the cities on earth were built. At Nouralgie, we made our way up to a lookout which had story boards which put some of the paintings we'd seen into perspective of the landscape and surroundings.

We had started our Kakadu experience with the sunrise over southern Kakadu so it only seemed fitting to spend our last night in the park watching the sun set over the northern floodplains of this remarkable place. We walked to the top of Ubir with several other people and were mesmerised by the setting sun in the west and the rising full moon in the east. A simply perfect moment none of us will forget any time soon.

Kakadu exceeded all of our expectations and the experience was made even better by being able to share it. It was so special cooking dinner with friends by the fire under a blanket of stars, laughing for hours instead of watching the km's tick over on the long drives and sharing our wonder at this amazing place.

A big thank you to Adam for providing us with many of the photos on this post.

Cobourg and Mary River: Mostly Fishing

Once upon a time in a land far far away, there was a lush tropical paradise surrounded by white beaches and sparkling blue waters bursting with fish, turtles, dolphins and dugongs. It was a place where the campgrounds were quiet and shady and no caravans were allowed. But most of all it was a place to fish, known as one of the best fishing spots in Australia.

We heard of this place and it was called 'Cobourg'. And very soon our new mantra was, "we must get to Cobourg". Rob's brother Andy had also heard of this place and our mantra became his. And so the wheels were set in motion, we applied for our permit three months in advance, which entitled us to 7 nights from the 17th July. We would be one of only 20 vehicles (at the most) in the national park at that time and the permit included our camping fees and access through Arnhem Land.

Cobourg (or the Cobourg Peninsula) is within the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park, the most northern tip of the Northern Territory mainland and to access it by land we had to travel through Kakadu and then head north 300km through Arnhem Land. The drive through Arnhem Land is rough and slow (about 5 hours) but parts of it are beautiful and apart from the occasional land cruiser full of locals screaming past with a wave and a big grin, we pretty much had the drive to ourselves.

After five hours of bum-numbing corrugations, we were met by an extremely friendly and helpful ranger who gave us the low down on camping, crocs, fires, fishing, boating and exploring the area. We set off in the direction he had indicated towards the campgrounds. The campsites were nestled amongst the trees and so were very shady and private. In addition, each campsite had its own shade cloth, fireplace and a bin that was emptied every day. The toilets were clean and there was even a shower (all unexpected luxuries for a bush campsite).

We spent the next six days waking early to bird calls, reading, walking, cooking, exploring the beaches, learning bush tucker from one of the rangers and of course fishing. The only problem was, the fish weren't coming to the party. That's not saying we didn't catch anything, it's just that the boys were "keen to stretch their lines", as they put it. They did managed to catch a couple of trevally, a barracuda, some small mangrove jacks, a few decent sized queen fish and the crowning glory was a coral trout. We cooked it whole, wrapped in foil with loads of ginger, fresh coriander, lemon grass and lime. Coral trout has been declared by all present as one of our new favourite eating fish.

Although the isolation at Cobourg was a welcome change from the overcrowded national parks elsewhere and the scenery was spectacular, after several days of battling windy conditions (yet again) and less than forthcoming oceans, we decided it might be time to move on. Andy still had a couple of days left in the NT and the main purpose of his visit had been to catch some big fish, so we decided to head back to the BIllabongs and try our hand at some Barramundi and Saratoga fishing.

Before Andy arrived in Darwin we had spent several days at a place called Shady Camp on the lower Mary River. A barrage had been constructed there in the 1980s and had created the ideal Barramundi fishing environment. The campground was hot and fairly basic but our time spent on the boat on the BIllabong was spectacular. We got out on the water early in the morning when no one else was around and the water was so still it created a perfect mirror of the surrounding wetlands. It was amazing floating around the wetlands, lillypads (helipads, according to Jarvis) and expansive floodplains. We saw hundreds of birds including jabiru, egrets, brolgas, kites and sea eagles. A large buffalo was grazing near our fishing spot with an egret punched on his back and large salties lazed on the banks or watched us with just their eyes and nose poking above the still water. And we caught Barra. Several of them, in fact. Em caught her first one ever and then went on to catch two more. They were all under the legal size so they had to be carefully released but the hunt was fun and watching them stalk our lures and dance above the water as we reeled them in was magical.

Based on our experience at Shady Camp before Cobourg, we decided we would head back in the direction of the Mary River system again. This time we ended going to another spot further upstream called Corroboree Billabong. Rob and Andy had been there 12 years ago and said it was beautiful out on the water and a great fishing spot. On arriving at the boat ramp it appeared that not much had changed, including the croc warning signs. As we were unloading the boat, a fellow fisherman came up to us to warn us of the 5m crocs that inhabit the area. He was looking dubiously at our 3.7m tinny and our Jarvis sized croc bait. We assured him, we would be careful and Jarvis has been instructed on several occasion not to EVER put his hands outside the boat or go anywhere near the riverbanks whilst we are on the shore. Regardless, we decided it would be a good idea if Andy and Rob went out the first afternoon to check out the conditions whilst Em and Jarvis hung out at the campsite and played Lego.

Andy had come to Corroboree with a mission. Twelve years ago, he had almost managed to land a Saratoga with a fly rod, but alas the fish had got the best of him. This time he came prepared, with lures, flies and twelve additional years of fishing practice under his belt. On the first afternoon out, he landed two of the beasts. The grin was ear to ear. Not to be outdone, Rob also managed to land a whopper the following day. Although the Barra seemed to be in hiding, the Saratoga catches, dancing brolgas, giant crocodiles and amazing scenery made the trip to Corroboree Billabong and fabulous time.

Although the fishing wasn't perhaps up to the standard that we would have hoped, we had a fantastic time on the hunt. Plus, Andy and Rob seem to have the itch now and will certainly be back to the area during the wet season when the fishing is really happening. We have now sent Andy safely back to his family and on the same day, picked up our dear friends Tash and Adam. They are going to join us on our final NT adventure: Kakadu, Nitmuluk (Katherine Gorge) and Arnhem Land.