Monday, April 03, 2006

Road Trippin' (Back To Darwin)

The next morning after a heavy night on the tiles with Beejay and the gang, we packed up for our trip back to Darwin. We'd booked a 3 and a half day road trip, which took in many of the sights between Alice and Darwin. Including Litchfield National Park, the Devil's Marbles and Daly Waters (the oldest pub in Oz).

Our guide was Scott, another full-on Aussie bloke. We came to the decision that all tour guides are full-on Aussie blokes, even the female our guides. Anyway, eventually us and 19 others from all over the world (mainly Europe), set off on the Stuart Highway north. On the way we stopped at many weird and wonderful roadhouses. This was going to be a proper road trip, to remember.

The first night was spent near to the Devil's Marbles, where we'd watched the sunset. On the way, we'd had our mind changed about Aboriginal art, after seeing reasonably priced and well done works, at the Red Sand Gallery. We also visited Wycliffe Well, the UFO centre of activity in Australia. One thing to note, all the roadhouses are usually painted with murals, or have some kind of bizarre attraction. They are certainly entertaining places in and of themselves, far more fun than any motorway service station in the UK.

Second day saw us visting more roadhouses, one in which I got up-close-and-personal with a Blue Tongued Lizard. It was mid-sfternoon when we stopped for the day, at Daly Waters. This is noted for being one (if not the) oldest standing pub in Australia. It certainly is probably one of the most remote and the most famous pub in Australia. That was where we were to spend the night. So we found the bar (not too hard), and settled ourselves in for a night of drinking and chatting with locals and other people passing through.

Next morning we had a quick stop at an old aircraft hanger, randomly, and then onto Katherine Gorge. A natural wonder of the world. As Sam kept saying, it's unusual because it turns at right angles all the way along. We paid to do a fast boat trip through the gorge, bouncing through rapids, and sweeping passed 100m+ sheer cliff faces. It was well worth it. We blasted up to Adelaide River for the last nights camping, as we would be going to Litchfield National Park early the next morning.

So once again another pre-dawn wake-up call, and we headed into Litchfield to check-out a series of waterfalls. Many of the waterfalls were such that we could swim in them, which we did. Four waterfalls later and we made our way out of the park, via the huge termite mounds. Darwin was only a few kilometers away, so by late afternoon we found ourselves in familiar surroundings.

Dropped off at the otherside of the park on Yanula Drive near to the house, our 10 day adventure was over. It was Saturday the 1st of April, we'd seen as much of the Northern Territory as we could. Only 2 weeks left in Australia, before heading to Indonesia and home.

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