Kakadu National Park (AU 10)

Day 83 Tue 07/03/2012

Kakadu National Park

“Today was my day to go look for work in a serious manner.  I went for a ride and to go talk to the job backpacker lady.  She is still trying to make me take a job as a gas station attendant in the middle of the bush somewhere.  No way!  Maybe next week I will be a little more desperate for that kind of job.

I got a text from Roel!

“In Darwin in 45 minutes.”  No way!  This is trouble!

We ate dinner/lunch at Monsoon’s, and we all ordered steaks plus a beer.  My hostel is completely booked up, & they couldn’t find a backpacker at a decent rate.  So guess what, back up bags and head to Kakadu National Park.  It’s too late in the day for all of this but they are going so I am in.  I checked out of my hostel.  We booked for Friday plus the next week.  Got supplies and we were gone.

We tried finding a remote campsite in the dark once we arrived in Kakadu.  After driving out the unsealed (dirt) road towards 2 MILE HOLE campsite on our map we came across a water crossing.  It didn’t look too bad, so I am going to get out and check the depth before we try it.  We then notice a sign made from a scrap piece of clothing hung on a small branch constructed sign warning DEEP!  Ha, well thanks but let’s fid out for ourselves.  I find a stick & begin wading out until it is obviously too deep.  We have to turn around and end up camping out by the welcome station.”

            As far as work goes the only offers I have currently are working at the service station out in the middle of the bush.  According to the lady working at the job center she was going to place me at a station approximately 1,000km out of Darwin.  If you look at the map this would have been somewhere between middle of nowhere and Mt Isa, which is another mining town literally in the middle of nowhere.

            One of the guys I had met my first night in town, Clint, was good friends with Stef.  He had put a good word in with his boss about helping them painting houses.  This was over a week ago and last time I had talked with Clint’s boss he was going to call me when a new job opened up for them.  This was great news even though I had to lie to the guy about my painting experience.



Frank & Roel are very happy to have STEAKS & COLD BEER



            Well it was great to hear from Frank & Roel.  This was going to be a game changer.  I waited for them to pull into the hostel over at Frog’s Hollow.  It was so great to see them again.  Some of my partners in adventure reunited.  They were very serious about getting some lunch at a nice place.  “Steaks,” to be exact.  We walked down to Monsoon’s, and on the way I tried to give them a short tour of Darwin.  The steaks at Monsoon’s were surprisingly good.  They meal even came with a pot of beer.  The guys were really raving about the food, but you have to remember that they have been driving for 1,000’s of kilometers and camping out in the bush.  This is the first proper meal in our current day terms.

            I had checked earlier with Frog’s Hollow about room for two more backpackers, and I was told they were fully booked all weekend.  Frank & Roel had made a few phones calls and only found rooms at a very high price.  I think Frog’s Hollow was something like $22 per night for a twelve share room.  The YHA hostel had gone up to $35-$40 per night for a four or six share.  There was no way the gus were going to pay this much money for a place, and I didn’t doubt them.  After all they have been sleeping in tents for free for two weeks or more.

The best idea was to go camping for the weekend while the hostels were all booked up and come back next week sometime.  I was able to move my reservations to next week and didn’t lose any money, while the guys were able to book rooms for that time too.  After a much needed shower we all hit the road.  We would stop at the Cole’s grocery on the way to Kakadu National Park.

My Dutch buddies cleared out some room for me in the back seat where I had to share spare with two surfboards.  It felt like I hadn’t been in a car in ages.  We pulled in to the park around dusk and knew we needed to make camp quickly.  It was not safe driving at night because of the kangaroos.  You just didn’t drive at night unless you had a “roo” bar on your vehicle.

We pulled past the Welcome sign and after a few more km’s we found the info station.  We grabbed a map paid our small fee.  We saw a campsite on the map just a couple km’s from the welcome sign we had pasted 15 minutes ago, called “2 Mile Hole”.  This was close enough for us to get to by dark, or so we figured.

The unsealed or dirt road became pretty sketchy in a few spots.  Frank seemed very careful behind the wheel.  He was not going to push the Ford Falcon they had bought when they first arrived in Sydney to its limits tonight.   I was glad he was driving, because Roel came across as much less conservative with things like this based on his completely laid back approach to everything.  When we came across the water crossing we hadn’t noticed on the map I was very glad Frank was driving.

Looking at the map we were half way to the campsite.  There was definitely a stream on the map crossing perpendicular to the road we were on.  The crossing looked shallow, but from many years of off road driving I knew this was not the time to find out how deep with the vehicle.  I volunteered to get out and check the depth.  The second I exited the vehicle we saw the small notice left from maybe the last person who thought the crossing was shallow.  Draped across a branch hammered into the ground was a scrap article of clothing that read “DEEP!”  Well was it “DEEP!” after a rain event?  Had the person before us had no concept on the word DEEP.  I had to find a branch to check myself.  Well I walked in a few feet and once I was shin deep we all knew it was not happening.  The crossing was a good 30-40ft across and I was not to the middle yet.  We were not taking any chances.  Looking back getting shin deep into this crossing might not have been the best idea either.  Were we into crocodile country yet?

We were forced to go cook dinner and pitch tents out by the welcome sign to the park.  This was most likely frowned upon but we figured any park ranger here in Australia would understand we did what we had to do.  It would be very easy for us to play dumb with the story of 2 Dutch only speaking blokes and an American, right?

Day 84 Wed 07/04/2012

Kakadu – Jim Jim Billabong

“Bourali Visitor’s Center.  Ubirr Art Walk where we took some awesome pics.  Many Aboriginal paintings throughout the walk.  Lunch at the East Alligator River.  We cooked chicken right up from the banks & made sure we kept an eye on the massive croc sun bathing on the other side.  Camped at the Jim Jim Billabong.  This is the night Roel & I trekked into the woods to pull out a massive load of fire wood & got covered in hitch hikers (tag alongs).  Chair Torch!  Roel burnt his hand.  Roel just ended up burning his socks.  Frank, Roel, & I got a huge log this night for the fire as well.”

            This place is amazing.  Now I am getting to see the natural beauty of Australia and the Northern Territory.  Having a vehicle here in crucial.  Ubirr is famous for the rock art created by the Aboriginals thousands of years ago.  There are paintings of Aboriginal ancestors along with many different species of animals from around the area here.




Path of the Rainbow Serpant

 

            The best part of Ubirr was the walk up to the top where the Rainbow Serpent had visited in Aboriginal history.  This spot has a breathtaking panoramic view of the valley below, and is traditionally a woman-only site.  Evidently the rule is not enforced for tourist reasons because we saw no indication of this tradition, and there were many families and mixed gender tour groups enjoying its beauty.  The “Garranga’rreli” is said to have sang her way across the land while creating the plants, animals, rocks, and people from her song.  This is a very sacred path for the Indigenous people who live in Northern Australia.

 

            We decided to eat lunch over by the East Alligator River, which I thought was a strange name for a river here in Australia because as far as I knew there were no Alligators in this land.  It turns out the name was given when the initial explorer, Lieutenant Phillip Parker King, in 1820 mistook the crocodiles for alligators.  The East, West and South Alligator River are regarded as one of the richest biological areas in Australia.  We were not alone while cooking our chicken.  There was an enormous croc lounging over on the far bank directly across from us.  Chicken is usually what the tour boats use when luring crocs up out of the water too, so we kept a close eye on him.  We boiled our chicken over the camp stove and toasted with our hot beers.

            After lunch we took a walk up the bank along a grassy trail.  Signs said to be weary of crocs and to stay away from the river banks.  No swimming signs were posted everywhere just in case you somehow missed seeing the crocodile heads lurking at the water’s surface.  Roel did have on his swim suit though, so he had to have a photo taken right by the no swimming sign and croc alert sign with the river in the background.

Pic of ROEL BY HIS SIGN

Roel & I covered in hitchhikers and seedlings

            As we set off from Kakadu we all looked at the map for an idea of where we wanted to camp that night.  The guys had a Camp 6 Map of Australia that was loaded with information about all campsites through the outback.  The campsites we were looking for needed to be FREE and allow tent camping.  The more remote the better the site we figured.

            The Jim Jim Billabong looked suitable for our needs tonight.  There were many vehicles spread across a large open field near the water here.  We tried to get as far away from everyone as possible in case we got rowdy and turned up the music.  As we rolled in Roel cranked up the Nirvana Unplugged album and we set up camp.  We built a killer fire tonight.  We all took turns heading into the woods gathering brush.  At one point we found a tree trunk that was only suitable for three people to carry.  It took us way too much time and energy to get this fuel, but it was completely worth it when everyone said they were coming to our fire later on when it got going.

Roel with the flaming chair torch

Somehow Roel ended up burning his hand on something, and I cannot remember if it was a pot or the fire or maybe a beer bottle that had gotten hot too close to the fire.  I just remember we filled the pot from our cooking earlier with cold water and he sat there in his chair with a hand hanging there soaking for a bit while sipping on his wine.  Oh and having chairs to sit on by the fire was almost a riot of passage.  I was new on the tour with these guys so I had to sit on the cooler.  Frank had a chair in decent shape.  Roel had a chair that was falling apart.  It had some cable ties holding it together like most of these cheap camp chairs do.  I believe the reason Roel’s chair was so shotty was because it was the original chair he bought at the beginning of their Australia journey.  Frank had bought the same chair at the same time months prior, but his seat had not lasted this long.  To make a long story short Frank was very pleased with the chair he had and Roel was very pleased with having his chair last this long.

Well before the night was over the chair was thrown in the fire and I had to show the guys the flaming torch “trick”.  This is a classic move with my group of friends back home, especially with Sonnenburg.  I have seen Sonnenburg light more camp chairs on fire than all the rest of my buddies combined.  Tonight ended Roel’s chair’s camping streak.

At one point while on a fire wood mission we tried to spotlight across the water from one of the overlooks to light up some croc eyes.  I assumed their eyes would be very reflective at night and should be very easy to spot.  I guess none were out tonight because we only thought we caught a glimpse of one set of eyes.

Day 85 Thur 07/05/2012

Kakadu – Yellow Water

“Yellow Water.  Flies for lunch.  Awful!  This was the day we ate the mince meat after it had laid in the car for THREE DAYS.  Not too shabby.  Found camp after 13km on washboard roads.  Frank was not happy about it.  Power Hour at the Kambolgie Campground.  NT & OZ slow shutter pictures were done here.”

            Yellow water was another marshy swamp area with lots of critters running around.  We saw the bird here called the Australian Darter that dives under the water and swims around for minutes looking for food.  They will swim below the surface with their long neck extended out of the water and look like some kind of snake.  Frank spotted one and we tried to figure out what it was.  It would duck below the surface and pop up thirty seconds later 20 meters away from where it had descended.  Little did I know these were the exact same birds I had photographed back in Perth at Lake Monger.

Frank & Roel

            There was talk about a gigantic crocodile being spotted here at Yellow Water earlier that day but we never saw any evidence of him.  So after a quick search for him we decided to eat some lunch at the next pull off.  This was not such a good experience.  The flies here were ridiculous, and swarms of the little flying shits we hitting you in the eyes, face, mouth, and anywhere else uncovered.  I usually can handle bugs in excess like this, but I was not happy.  Hoodies were put on and pulled up along with longs sleeves.  Did I mention it is probably 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade?

            To make things worse the only food we had left was mince meat (hamburger meat) that had been sitting in the station wagon for three days now.  It was starting to turn.  We were unsure, but after smelling the burger meat we figured what the hell.  We fought the flies and cooked the mince while bringing some pasta to a boil.  We were going to have spaghetti.  When people ask me about how we ate in Australia I tell this story.  Honestly though the meal tasted completely fine, and you would have never imagined the meat had sat in a car driving through the outback for three days.

            We made our way out across a 13km unsealed road to the Kambolgie Campground.  I thought we would never get there.  The road was so washboard it was shaking us, our gear, and the wagon all to bits.  Frank was very worried about the vehicle.  It was very rough on their ride.  Roel must have been driving because I am sure I remember Frank telling him multiple times “Turn around, mate.  It’s too rough.”

            Roel just slowed down more to try and compensate for the rough road surface, but other vehicles, including another station wagon, just blew our doors off as they flew by.  The shocks on our wagon must be shot or the other drivers don’t care at all about the condition of their vehicle after this road.

Northern Territory, Australia

            Regardless, we made it to the campsite.  We had quite a few very warm beers that we had refused to drink the last two nights, and the vibe in the vehicle was tonight we might be getting rowdy.  After this road Frank definitely needed a cold beer, but a warm one would suffice.

            We played a game of Power Hour and a few card games at our concrete picnic table.  Once it got dark Roel & I decided we needed more wood to burn.  We found the jackpot out across a dry riverbed, but realized we had paid a small fee for this wood as we returned to camp with beggar lice all over us.  I wearing my Carhartt’s, so my boot laces and top were the only items one hundred percent covered in small seedlings.  Roel, however, was wearing shorts and had small burs tangled in every leg hair.  I think these socks were also burned in the fire.

            Tonight I showed the guys how one is able to burn images into the picture by using a slow shutter speed.  With a headlamp each Frank and Roel created “OZ” into a photo.  We also created a “NT” with my headlamp for another shot.  The picture of the blue Ford Falcon station wagon was my favorite though.  She had gone through some rough stuff to get us here.

Frank & Roel's For Falcon FUTURA"MA" with our fire lighting up
a completely dark part of the NT