Darwin

Darwin

As indicated in the last blog we arrived in Darwin just as the V8 Supercars hit town. In fact we ended up right behind the last police car in the parade of semi-trailers housing the various cars. As the procession headed into town we felt like celebrities. People waved to us and took photos of our car. They must have thought we were a part of the support team! Not knowing where we were going we pulled up beside one of the police cars and asked for directions to the tourist bureau. He said to just follow him. We did this and after going through the centre of Darwin city we found the said bureau.

As a result of the car racing weekend, accommodation in Darwin was at a premium. We fortunately secured a place at a caravan park, or at least we thought we were lucky until we saw the place. With little or no choice we had to accept the sardine conditions presented to us. To give you some idea of how poor this place was, we did not eat one meal at the campsite for the two days we spent there. We just slept and showered at the camp and tried to spend as much time as possible out and about in Darwin.

Darwin is a modern city after being raised by cyclone Tracy in 1979. It is a relaxed place with plenty of bars and pubs. You can imagine that these were all really pumping with the V8’s in town. We managed to find a quiet place for a drink in Cullen Bay. As you can see from the photo, this is an up-market area where all the wealthy Darwinians hang out – what were we doing there!

Darwin’s wartime history is very present in the city and surrounding area. Old airstrips are abundant and there are interesting oil storage tunnels next to the harbour. Other monuments and displays describe events around the bombing of Darwin and provide context in relation to the magnitude of the attack being significantly larger than Pearl Harbour. Why do we know so much about Pearl Harbour in popular media and so little about the Darwin experience?

One highlight was the Mindil Beach markets. The markets are only on a Thursday and Sunday evening. By chance we were in Darwin on the Thursday and made a bee-line to them. Half of Darwin must turn out to go to these markets. They are huge! Every kind of food is available and just too many art and craft stalls to see in one visit. A must-do of the market is to watch the sunset and hundreds of people gather to experience this. It was quite spectacular and not just because of the sunset but because so many people were enjoying a common event that was free to see.

Another well visited attraction is Aquascene. Large numbers of fish (mullet, milkfish and batfish) gather every high tide to be hand fed. We spent about two hours here feeding and interacting with the hundreds of fish swimming around our feet.

After two days of living in a sardine can we made our escape to places where one could swing a dead cat or more appropriately and dead croc! Having decided to bypass Kakadu we headed for Litchfield NP. We have discovered that if you want a campsite at the more popular places you need to arrive early – we didn’t. Campsites were thin on the ground but by luck and persistence we managed to secure a really great spot. Litchfield is kind of a mini Kakadu with all the main features within easy reach. The next day was spent roaming around, walking and swimming in the various spots. A couple of 4WD tracks made the day interesting with water-crossings, sandy sections and generally fun type tracks. Photo of Tia attempting to swim under one too many waterfalls provides an appropriate image of the day. (The photo is actually misleading. Tia is not drowning, just trying to extend the experience of being in the waterfall). Other photos are of the magnetic termite mounds and the incredible rock formations of the Lost City.

Given that the Kimberley’s is the main focus of this adventure we left Litchfield comfortable in the knowledge that we had seen most of what was on offer and having spent two nights in a great campsite with some like-minded and congenial people.

The drive to Kununurra provided one real surprise. The Victoria River end of the Gregory NP was spectacular. Dramatic cliffs, red ranges and the very wide Victoria River had us wondering whether we should have spent a few days here as well but you can’t do everything. We camped out on this day and I am hoping that we get more opportunities to do this in the Kimberley.

We saw our first Boab trees on the road west just outside of Timber Creek. We are now over Boab trees!

The last photo above is our first view of the Kimberley’s just outside Kununurra. We have spent today taking in the sites around here and will head off tomorrow to El Questro. Beyond that we will spend the next two to three weeks around this part of the world. I am therefore not sure when we will be in range again but rest assured I will keep the blog upto date and post it when I can.

We are now over half way through our trip! It doesn’t seem like it but soon we will be heading south and then east for the first time since leaving home.

Regards to all

Alan and Tia.

Heading West

We set off from Mission Beach knowing that we have seen some amazing parts of Australia so far and the thought of what is to come is full of anticipation. As we leave the Queensland coast and head back through the Atherton Tablelands we are reminded of just how beautiful this part of the country is. The turnoff to the Savannah Way marks the start of a trek that should take us all the way to Broome.

Our first night out is spent at Mt Surprise. Nothing more to be said. The next day we headed off to Normanton. Normanton is at the eastern end of the Gulf of Carpentaria and is a simple but attractive place. As luck would have it we arrived at the start of the Normanton Rodeo. Friday night has a parade through the town and everything comes alive. We quickly made a decision to camp at Leichardt Lagoon. This is a low cost camp with no sites set out. We just camped where it took our fancy, right beside the lagoon – but more about that later.

We went back into town to be with the locals and experience the atmosphere. A walk down the main street clearly identified the Purple Pub as the place to be for the parade but probably not for the rest of the evening. It looked a bit rough and when Tia asked the barmaid why she had bandages on both hands she said it just came with the job! We think she is the bouncer as well as the barmaid. Anyway, the parade was a blast! Everyone was in pink – to raise money for breast cancer. First came a whole bunch of people on horseback then agricultural and road maintenance machinery. The local police had their car draped in pink. The CWA and local businesses were represented. The whole thing was commentated by a local MC who could have been the Mayor for all we knew – he seemed to know everyone. We decided to have dinner in town but NOT at the Purple Pub.

Back to Leichardt Lagoon for the evening. (Chris, take note of this site for when you decide to roam this way) It was a very peaceful place with hundreds of waterbirds in the permanent lagoon. The lack of structure in the park makes it all the more attractive. Simple showers that are open to the environment adds to the experience.

Next morning we decided to have a look at the Rodeo and spent a couple of hours watching stockmen and stockwomen rounding up cows. Great horsemanship and Tia was in her element. After buying a stockwhip we left Normanton to its festivities. Next stop Lawn Hill NP.

Lawn Hill is a remnant rainforest trapped in a gorge and surrounded by a dry savannah plain. It is quite remarkable to find palms and ferns after hundreds of kilometres of dry dusty country. The place has a great deal of natural beauty. We took a couple of shortish walks; saw some aboriginal rock art and marvelled at the view – see pic’s of the view, not the rock art as this was prohibited and rightly so. Riversleigh is also located in the same area and is described as one of the most important fossil fields in the world. They have discovered fossils of distant relatives of croc’s, turtles and ducks plus many other mammals. The fossils are unremarkable in themselves but the mere presence of them leaves one to wonder about what the place looked like when they wandered the earth. What we did see however was a huge live snake on the road as we were leaving (see pics). Tia lost her head and her fear to get the best photo. I was staying put in the car and recommending very strongly that she beat a retreat to the car as I did not fancy having to administer first aid for a snake bite!

Our original plan was to leave Lawn Hill and head south to pick up the bitumen all the way to Darwin. The map shows an alternative route across the top and this was irresistible. The report of the road conditions was not promising however and there was a real possibility of travelling 200 – 300kms and then having to turn back along an alternative route adding about another 400kms to the trip. Late rain in NT is playing havoc with the roads. Never shrinking from a challenge we decided to give it a go!

The road/track/quagmire from Lawn Hill to Doomadgee tested us at every turn. Either the road disappeared into a dried up muddy track that was rutted so deeply that we had to place our tyres on the top of the ruts and carefully negotiate the path or there were water crossings that kept getting deeper. One particular crossing nearly stopped us but as luck would have it as I was wading across the stream to test the depth and river bed a local station manager turned up and gave me the thumbs up to get across. This done he also gave us much needed directions to ensure we stayed on the Doomadgee track.

We reached Doomadgee and headed for Hells Gate. We had been told that the Culvert River was probably impassable but the people at Hells Gate would be able to give us better information. The information turned out to be less than clear. It appeared that some vehicles were making it while others had become stuck in the middle of the river and had to be towed out. We met four young men at Hells Gate and agreed to meet them at Culvert River to assess the practicability of making the crossing together. On the way we also met a couple of on-coming cars and again we had variable reports. Some said “stick to the downstream side and you will be okay” while others said “watch out for the big rocks in the middle of the river – one guy is still stuck there”.

The trepidation and fear were building and when we arrived at Culvert River we had good reason to be fearful. The guy who had been stuck had now had his car towed out and shouted instruction to us about the best crossing – does one believe someone who unsuccessfully attempted the crossing? The four young guys we met in Hells Gate finally turned up and together we walked the crossing. We found the big rocks and moved them out of harm’s way. The boys decided to take their two vehicles and boat trailer through. We watched them and they succeeded. They then offered to take our trailer through and let us cross with just the car. I accepted this offer and set out across the dreaded river with my heart racing at full belt.

To our delight the Jeep handled the crossing brilliantly. I had it in low range and we crawled across the rocks comfortably. In fact everyone commented that the Jeep managed the crossing better than the Land Cruiser and Hilux. This was no reflection on the driver but a great accolade for the car. We camped in the bush just near the crossing that night and experienced one of those magic peaceful nights you can only have in a remote place.

The rest of the trip to Booraloola was reasonably easy and it is amazing how after doing a difficult crossing like this one lifts your confidence. We did crossings the next day that just 24hrs earlier would have daunted us.

In two days of driving we had only covered about 500kms. We needed bitumen if we were going to make it to Darwin in any reasonable time. We decided to stay in accommodation at Daly Waters so we could get an early start the next day without having to pack up the trailer etc.

About lunchtime on Tues we needed a break and saw a turnoff to Edith Falls. This seemed like a good place to rest and it was. In fact it was so good we decided to spend two nights there. The Edith River tumbles down a series of escarpments producing delightful waterfalls. The water is at a great temperature and is clean and fresh. Taking a number of very pleasant walks we swam in the lower plunge pool, the upper pool and Sweetwater pool. This again was one of those unplanned stops that turned out to be a highlight.

The rest of the drive to Darwin was plain sailing and we arrived just as the super V8 motorcade hit the town – but that story will have to wait for the next blog.

Until then,

Love to all

Alan and Tia.

Tully

Tully

We arrived back in Cairns on Sunday morning. Everything going like clockwork through immigration and baggage collection. We declared the fact that we had artefacts from PNG (Tia’s strategic purchases) and the fun began. Weaving, bamboo and coffee presented no problem. We had purchased however a wooden bowl from Madang that had teeny weeny little holes in it. The customs officer prodded and poked around for about 45mins and finally satisfied himself that it was okay – phew! Can you imagine what I would have had to endure if he had confiscated it? I think he sensed this and took pity on me.

Our car was waiting for us as promised and having turned on our phone were surprised to find a message from Jennie letting us know that her and Jason were in Cairns. We caught up with them for a quick coffee and after purchasing provisions for the fridge we set off for Mission Beach, about 2hrs south of Cairns and just outside Tully.

You may recall that I posed a quiz on the last blog. Which rafting adventure did we take? If you said the Extreme adventure you would have been right – no prizes for this however.

The day started at Mission Beach where we were staying. The bus picked us up with the driver, Vinnie. Vinnie turned out to be our guide for the trip and he was absolutely fantastic. He was naturally funny and a very competent rafting guide. Raging Thunder by the way is name of the firm and if you ever get the urge to go rafting in Tully, do it with them – very professional and friendly. Anyway, the group was split into two, those doing the Extreme adventure and all the other wimps. The Extreme group consisted of two boats and the other group about five boats.

You can imagine that Tia was feeling a little nervous about the whole rafting thing and in particular what “Extreme” meant. After some basic instruction we tackled the first rapid within minutes of being on the water.

I couldn’t help but put in a few extra strokes as we floated down the river and Vinnie quickly realised that I was keen to have a go at taking control of the raft. We made a deal that I would not put any extra strokes in (which tended to throw the raft off course anyway) and he would let me steer the raft later in the day. Our “Extreme” adventure included swimming down rapids on our back and shooting a waterfall without the raft. We also climbed up onto high rock ledges and jumped several meters into the river below. Our guide also deliberately tipped the raft over on a couple of occasions. In other words, we had a more intimate experience of the river.

Let me expand on a couple of the adventures.

Floating on our backs down a rapid sounds innocuous doesn’t it? Well the guides describe this experience as simulated drowning. The rapid consisted of a series of standing waves. As you hit the first wave you are sucked under the water. When you surface you have less than one second (seriously, not exaggerating) to take another breath before being hit by the next standing wave and being sucked under again. This happens about 5 times and just when you think you are about to run out of breath the rapid ends and you swim to the bank for a well deserved rest and to get your breath back. This is perhaps a once in a lifetime experience – WRONG! We all went back upstream to do it again. The second time should have been easier because you knew what was coming but I was starting to run out of energy by this time ( I am not 25 anymore you know). I seriously thought I was going to drown on the second attempt. Thankfully I didn’t and bravely pretended that it was a great experience. In fact it was but perhaps I should have done it only once.

Tia, with naturally built in buoyancy, floated down the rapid and while she also experienced the near drowning effect it clearly did not have the same impact.

The next ‘extreme’ experience entailed shooting a two metre waterfall on your back. Vinnie said that some people go down for up to 20 seconds when they reach the bottom of the fall. I was becoming a little gun shy at this stage but male bravado overcame my fear and away I went. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and thankfully I surfaced. Tia had decided not to do this stunt and instead shoot the waterfall in the raft. About half way down however she fell out of the craft and ended up shooting the rapid with Vinnie trying to control the raft and hanging onto Tia. What a stunt just to be the centre of attention!

No more extreme experiences for the rest of the trip.

In the end, we both agreed that it was a fantastic day and really worthwhile. Tia’s apprehension about rafting proved unfounded even doing the near death defying activities.

Needless to say we had a well deserved drink back at the camp and a good night’s sleep.

We are now heading west towards Darwin and the Kimberley’s.

Love to all,

Alan and Tia.

PNG

PNG

Arrived Friday 28^th and the views from the plane were excellent, the weather was warm and wet and the welcome was equally warm and wet (South Pacific (SP) Beer, Patrick’s G&T, wine etc...) Nate and his housemate Patrick cooked home- made Pizzas – what a way to live! After camp cooking for three weeks it was a treat to have something cooked in an oven rather than the frying-pan or saucepan.

Nate hired a car the next day and we explored the sights of Port Moresby. PNG is a place of contrasts. On the one hand it is a geographically stunning landscape with amazing plant-life and on the other an urban streetscape that displays a certain randomness and dilapidation that detracts from the overall cohesion of the city. The people are engaging, friendly and welcoming but the appearance of razor wire around most of the buildings and residences belies the level of insecurity felt by the people living here. We were reminded by Nate of the need to be aware of personal security and this aspect of Port Moresby limited out ability to fully experience the place. Never-the-less, we were able to get to see much of the city including a walk around the botanical gardens.

The Ela Beach Markets are the main artefact and flower markets in Moresby. They are only open one Saturday each month and we were able to time out arrival to coincide with this. Every type of local craft, weaving, carving and painting are on display. Tia took advantage of this and made some strategic purchases. Strategic because they had to be able to be packed into a Jeep back in Cairns that has only just been relieved of excess baggage – see last blog; I think this was a well planned clearance to make room for the PNG purchases! So we will again be packed to the gunnels when we get back with our new excess baggage.

Sunday was a quiet day with Ash leaving to fly back to Sydney after being in Moresby for two months.

GOROKA

Monday morning we caught the early plane out to Goroka. This is where Nate spent his first spell in PNG with AT Projects. Goroka is located in the Eastern Highlands and again the flight offered some amazing views. After driving part the way up the rough track to where Nate used to work we headed back to Dauli Pass. We couldn’t go all the way to AT Projects because the track deteriorated severely and it may have been touch and go with the hire car (a 4WD Hilux Dual cab) to make it. On the subject of roads (my favourite topic of this blog) I have never seen roads like these. The wash outs and landslides make for interesting driving. The local practice of dumping a load of dirt and rocks on the road just before a landslide is simple, cheap and effective. If you look at the photo of the landslide above (you may have to tilt your screen to get the horizon oriented) you can see the undercutting of the road. This landslide reduced the road to just one car width but semi-trailers still seemed to be able to negotiate the obstacle at speeds you would be proud of on the F3. Dauli Pass is at 2480mtrs and this is not the highest peak (Mt Wilhelm 4500mtrs). When you consider Mt Kosciusko at approx 2100mtrs it puts the PNG landscape into perspective. Finally, just before heading back to Mick and Celine’s place (Nate’s friend from his previous stay in Goroka) for an afternoon nap we visited the local food market. There are rows and rows of local produce on sale. I didn’t know there were as many varieties of banana as existed in these markets. You could buy almost any vegetable you want and the quality was excellent. Fruits were all tropical and also great quality. We had to buy something so bananas, sugar fruit (like passionfruit but larger) and peanuts were the choice. It should be noted that these markets are for the local population. We tended to stick out as the only westerners amongst the locals. It was a bit confronting and yet interesting to be in the minority for once.

PNG does not have a national rail system or a Greyhound bus service. They have PMV’s. A PMV is a Public Motor Vehicle and they are privately run. They go wherever people generally want to go but there is no scheduled service. It helps to have a guide who speaks fluent Tok Pisin (Pigeon) and Nate proved to be more than adequate for the job. Quite strange to hear him conversing with the locals and clearly getting respect for his ability to speak in their own language. PMV’s get their passengers from a central location where they drive around in a sort-of circle shouting out their destination. Our PMV driver and his mate went like this:

“Madang gadang gadang gadang” This was said quickly running all the words in together in a high pitched voice and sometimes with a sort of yodel at the end – very entertaining.

This was repeated continuously for two hours as we drove around the market trying to pick up enough passengers to fill (or over-fill) the bus. The bus was a Toyota Hiace. “Toyota – oh what a feeling” I can assure you at the end of a very long day cramped up in the Hiace, I did not have good feelings about “Toyota – oh what a feeling” But I am getting ahead of myself.

We finally got under way and about ten minutes down the road we encountered a Police road block. Remembering that we have already been in the PMV for two hours, this was an ideal opportunity for a comfort break. What about toilets I hear you ask! No, there are no toilets, just the roadside bush. This is okay if you are a bloke (of which Nate and I easily fit in) but if you are a woman then the prospect is more challenging. Add to this the fact that the ground drops 3mtrs just a couple of metres off the road and Tia is now seriously challenged. Does she stay on the road-side where the likelihood of being observed is high or risk life and limb down the bank. Preservation of dignity over-road personal safety and whoops! Down the bank she goes. At this point a kind woman on the PMV takes it upon herself to guard over Tia and help her up the bank. This lady becomes Tia’s wee buddy and they share more exciting lavatorial experiences before the trip is over. This lady can be seen in the photo above of Nate lying down in the PMV. She is looking over him. As an aside, I was concerned about including this photo in the blog as it may have given you the wrong impression of 1^st class passage. The seat Nate is lying on is the seat that all three of us shared for the 9hrs of the trip.

Roads, roads, roads. What can I say? I am incredibly impressed how far you can go in a Hiace with very good tyres and a very good driver. He took us over roads that I would have baulked at in the Jeep. He managed to keep the vehicle on the road when the landslides had destroyed all but a couple of metres of the road. He negotiated pot holes that where literally as big as the Hiace. His wheel placement and judgement made what was a harrowing trip less harrowing. My only concern was in his judgement of where and when to overtake other vehicles, especially a large semi. The semi tried to run us off the road and nearly succeeded. Double white lines are only advisory in PNG and playing chicken with on-coming traffic has unwritten rules about it that I still do not understand.

Oops! A tractor has jammed a farm roller on a bridge and blocked the road (see photo). This would normally require the assistance of a tow-truck, crane or some other heavy lifting equipment. Not so in PNG. Everyone from our PMV and other PMV’s jump out and with a little bit of coordination the roller is moved. While all this is happening and Nate is lying down – photo above – Tia is having her next lavatorial experience. This time it is peeing in unison. The girls go down to the river, behind some bushes to commune with nature in harmony. Not surprising this is a new experience for Tia and after some stage fright managed to relieve her overworked bladder.

We finally arrived in Madang and more G&T’s and beers! The knees have gone beyond pain from being cramped up. The backside is numb and the back is saying “you are not 25 anymore you know!” Despite this, we are glad we experienced the PMV. The views were fantastic (seriously need to check the thesaurus for more superlatives). The contact with the locals is humbling as they are all so friendly, cheerful and helpful. We feel that we have experienced a small part of the everyday life of Papua New Guineans.

MADANG

Madang is picture perfect in terms of its waterways and islands. The main town has a similar appearance to all PNG towns with local markets and dilapidated shops. The Madang Lodge where we stayed is beautifully laid out with well kept gardens and impressive carvings everywhere. Service is excellent and very accommodating. The next day was spent snorkelling and diving off the islands near Madang. This was my first scuba experience and it was very weird to be breathing under water. You may have noticed the absence of a beard in the photos. It had to go because the seal between the mask and the face would have been difficult with the beard. A quick visit to the hair dresser in Madang Resort soon sorted this out. I couldn’t help taking a big breath before submerging just in case the air didn’t come through. It did come through however and the ability to swim down to 15mtrs and spend some time observing the fish, coral and war relics was captivating. Mind you, if I was concerned about getting enough air under water I shouldn’t have been. Our diving master was a Japanese woman who smoked constantly when she was above the water – a bit difficult to smoke while underwater I guess. It seemed a bit incongruous diving and smoking.

The snorkelling was equally interesting with most of the most colourful coral and fish residing at 2 – 3 mtrs. We were out on the reef for about 5hrs and the cost in A$ was very reasonable. The day was capped off by a lazy walk back to the Lodge with drinks in the seaside bar watching the sun going down. I didn’t have any idea of what the rest of the world was doing at that moment and I cared less. It was just great to be in the moment.

We flew back to Morseby the next day and have just been chilling out at Nate’s place. His apartment overlooks the Port Moresby harbour and it has been a constant source of interest for us watching boats come and go. The added bonus of watching the sun set over the sea with Nate and Patrick has made the time in PNG all the more enjoyable.

We fly back to Cairns tomorrow and pick up the car to begin the next phase of our adventure. I am looking forward to getting back on the road and to our white water rafting. Assuming we survive this experience, it will be reported in detail on the next blog.

Love to all,

Alan and Tia.