Top End - Part 3

More on Kakadu.

Kakadu is not only famous for its wildlife, but for the Aboriginal rock art that it contains. There are two major sites, Nourlangie and Ubirr. Both are accessible along sealed roads, have helpful interpretive panels and if you turn up at the right times and places a Park Ranger will deliver a free talk. Great.

After reading the post about Kakadu's weather you will be wondering how any painting avoids being washed away during the Wet. The trick is to paint on the highest hills and to paint on sheltered surfaces. Both locations were superb sites for wet season camps, with rocks strategically leaning over to provide shelter from the rain and allow artwork to survive for thousands of years.

The talks at Nourlangie were especially good, and we learned much about Aboriginal culture. this included the complex system of who you were and were not allowed to marry. Adult brothers and sisters are not even allowed to talk to each other, let alone marry. Likewise a man and his mother-in-law may not speak BUT the man has an obligation to support the mother-in-law. The mind boggles.

Anyway, here are some examples of the art:

Lightning Man has a loop of lightning and stone axes tied to his knees to deliver the thunder. The little growths from his head may be more axes or may be antennae. There is a red grasshopper that appears in its adult form during the thunderstorm season and is associated with Lightning Man.

Alas, I have not got the story of this painting with me. I will look it up and post it later.

This kangaroo is in a much older 'solid' style.


A particularly fine example of an overhang. There are paintings on the far left. The partly obscured rocks just in front of the railing have several indentations where paint or seeds were ground down.

Blogger is misbehaving today. Will post some more art later.

Top End - Part 2

Once we had got properly acquainted with our camper van we headed for one of this trip's 'must see' destinations, Kakadu National Park.

To understand Kakadu it is necessary for me to explain the climate. We were there in The Dry, which makes it look like a sensible piece of land. In The Wet rain falls in torrents for months on end and more water runs off the escarpment drowning huge areas of floodplain. At Yellow Water we were shown the park ranger's mooring. It is a floating jetty attached to pillars about 4m high. During the Big Wet a few years ago the jetty floated clear off the top of the pillars and was recovered 3km away. Even in a valley this would be impressive, but plain here is several kilometers across. That's a lot of water!

During The Wet vast tracts are accessible to water creatures. Maturing barramundi (a favoured sport and eating fish) swim down to the sea and spawn in the mangroves. Later their fry swim back up into fresh water for the first few years of their lives. Also, estuarine crocodiles ("salties") swim up from the sea and can get virtually anywhere.

When it stops raining the fresh water runs off in to the sea and the water levels start dropping. In time, there is enough dry land that a freshwater sea with a little high ground has become a landscape with conventional rivers, lagoons and billabongs. The fish, frogs, turtles and crocodiles crowd into these restricted areas. Eventually some of them dry out entirely, which is bad luck on the baby barramundi. The turtles can bury themselves in the mud and the frogs probably do the same. The crocs eventually figure out that they are marooned and set off across country. Most of them make it to permanent water.

We were there in the middle of The Dry, when most of the temporary water had already gone. The last Wet was a very modest one, with half the normal rainfall.

The Aboriginal folk sub-classify the year into six seasons. To read about this click here and use the link to Climate. Note that the indigenous people regard August as the "cold" season, when we were only getting up to 35C in the shade.

OK, now you know how Kakadu works.

At our first stop in the national park we had a good view of the general principles at the Mamulaka wetlands. Here was a lavish permanent hide and marshes into the distance with hundreds of birds. Due to the contrariness of the birds and the angle of the sun, very few of them were suitable for a photo.

An egret paddling through the mud.

There was a well signposted bushwalk at the site. This took us past some helpful information boards and came close to some more marshy places, where hundreds of whistling ducks were enjoying some shade. We also learned about some of the trees:

This is a kapok blossom. It will become a seed pod, like the one above, that will ripen with seeds and teddy-bear stuffing!

Part of a pandanus seed cluster. The entire thing resembles a huge pineapple. The cockatoos can crack the individual seeds to get at the edible kernel.

More photos frm the South

These are a few more photos from our drive along the Great Ocean Road between Melbourne and Adelaide:

A cafe in the Otway National Park puts out food for the birds. Here, two crimson rosellas are getting their share.

Proof that they do have heads. If you click on the picture you can enlarge it and see what a messy eater this bird is. The small brown bird in the background is a sparrow. Well, they can't all be exotic.

Another big wave rolls along the cliff-face at Loch Ard Gorge and crashes into the harder rock that so far has resisted the erosive efforts of the sea.

An island in the same area has eroded to leave an arch, and a layer of harder rock has created a waterfall in the tidal zone each time a wave recedes.

Top End - Part 1

This post will not be illustrated. I cannot get this computer to read my photos disk.

Eve and I have so far spent 2 weeks in the "Top End", the northernmost part of Northern Territory. It is currently the Dry. After several months without rain it will become the Wet, when there will be little else. It is also winter, although with the temperatures in the 30s Celcius every day, it is hard to believe that the Wet is actually hotter - and much more humid.

Although most of the extravagant rainfall of last summer has run into the sea, there is enough moisture left to support a modest but annoying population of mosquitoes and other nuisances of the order Insecta. It is probably due to a mossie bite that got infected that poor Eve is currently under doctor's orders.

After a day of sleepiness a rash appeared and her leg swelled. A local doctor diagnosed cellulitis and she has been filled with anitibiotics. These appear to be doing the trick, but part of the treatment is rest, so we have not been enjoying all the bush walks that are a feature of the national parks.

It took a couple of days to sort out a routine for the camper van. It is a venerable vehicle, with 280,000 kms on the odometer when we took delivery. So that's why it was the cheapest! However, we have added nearly 1,700 kms to that and so far the engine has run witout a hitch and fule consumption has actually been better than was advertised.

Our first week of real touring was to Kakadu, which hopefully will get a couple of posts with lots of illustrations when we next find a machine with a suitable, working disk drive.

We went back to Darwin and did some of the touristy things that the city has to offer, such as the beach market and an excellent museum. There are two rooms devoted to Cyclone Tracey. The audio recording of the winds, estimated to have reached 200 mph (300 kph) is most remarkable.

Eve was diagnosed before we left Darwin, so our visits to Litchfield Park and Edith Falls have been mostly 'drive and look'. But both destinations feature wonderful natural swimming holes with cool, refreshing water. Just the job for an infected leg.

We are currently in Katherine, which boasts hot springs. The water flows at a constant 32 degrees C, which was exactly the air temperature in the shade when we booked in to the campground at 4pm.

Melbourne to Adelaide - Addendum

In the last post I forgot to say that, whatever faults we found in the rental car, it *was* very economical.

Melbourne to Adelaide (with pictures)

At last this blog gets really on the road. I have had the first lot of photos transferred to a DVD from where it is simple to upload them to this blog.

This, of course, assumes that I can remember how to manage the blog posting software.

29 July was D(eparture)-Day and it required a horribly early start to check in at Nelson Airport by 6am. However, we managed it, and boarded the flight to Wellington at the scheduled time in misty conditions. We were all smiles as the 'plane taxied toward the runway. We were off.

Only we weren't. The mist thickened to fog and the captain announced that visibility was too poor to take off. We would have to wait here "for 10 minutes". Promptly, 40 minutes later, we were off to Wellington and the danger of missing our connection was averted.

The flight to Melbourne was pleasantly uneventful, as was possession of the rental car. The car was a Hyundai Getz, with an alleged 1500cc motor, painted a cheerful yellow. The boot would only hold our luggage at the cost of risking terrible mutilation to my faithful backpack and the driver's seat went back *just* far enough for me to drive without crushing my knees.

To avoid the complexities of Melbourne's toll roads we took the scenic route towards the City Centre. In a suburb bursting with lunching places we brilliantly found a park right outside a cafe and had our first meal on Australian soil, followed by some retail therapy in the equivalent of a $2 shop.

The first 2 hostels we tried had no suitable rooms, but one of the YHA hostels came to the rescue and even had a free car park. The local bottle shop had wine specials at $7 so we began our exploration of Aussie plonk by taking a bottle back to the YHA to accompany the very reasonable curry that was dish-of-the-week. I don't remember YHA hostels providing meals in my youth.

The pre-dawn start, the time difference and the wine made for a very sound night's sleep.

Our aim is to see the wildlife and the great outdoors, so Melbourne CBD got two laps in the yellow sardine can and then it was ho for the Geelong freeway. The first stop was unplanned - trying to find the source of a rattle in an almost brand-new car. We eventually attributed it to the rear number plate, which was only attached by two screws.

Lunch was in Torquay, where we also found some cheap reading material in a Salvation Army shop.

The Getz in Torquay, before we got it dirty.

From here on we meandered to Lorne, where there is a fabulous tea room, and the birding got seriously under way. Flocks of sulphur-crested cockatoos and galahs were feeding on the grass by the beach. As far as I could tell they were eating the grass itself, roots and all. This was a splendid opportunity to try out my new camera. For bird photography it has surpassed all my expectations:

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

A galah with a mouthful of food - the only way to shut them up!

The day ended at another YHA hostel. This one, in Apollo Bay, does not serve meals and we arrived at the supermarket right on closing time. We grabbed some fruit and had an unexpected luxury dinner at a local restaurant.

Before we left Apollo Bay we puffed our way up to a lookout, where heavy showers spoiled the view, and then descended to admire the beach. "Have you seen the whales?" asked a passer-by. They were at extreme binocular range, but we did see mother right whale and her calf.

From Apollo Bay we got into the really scenic part of the journey along the Great Ocean Road. We saw our first wallaby/kangaroo and, between showers followed a short bush walk.

The reason this looks like NZ is that Australia was part of Gondwanaland, too. Eucalypts have replaced the beech trees and tree ferns in most places, but not everywhere.

The showers highlighted the worst feature of our rental car. For some reason it would not wipe the windscreen properly, and we got quite a smeary view of the world.

Beyond Cape Otway the coast becomes wild and inhospitable. It has been the death of many ships. However, from the safety of the shore it is rather grand. The sea is grinding the cliffs away at 2cm per year and my thought from the safety of the lookouts was, "Why not even faster?".

The most famous stretch of this coast is the Twelve Apostles, where slightly harder columns of rock have been separated from the mainland. Here are two of them.

Another wave crashes along the sandstone cliff face. Swimming is definitely not recommended!

You can see why the captain of the Loch Ard didn't mean to fetch up here.

We had to drag ourselves away from the 12 Apostles and from the even more extensive paths around the place where the Loch Ard was wrecked in the 19th Century.

Despite the inviting signs pointing to more places of interest, we pressed on. Mostly. OK, I stopped at quite a few of the lookouts to admire the sights and to scan the scrub for birds. And thus we arrived in picturesque Port Fairy after dark. A drive round town in the gloom gave a hint of its charm, and a local pizza parlour gave us nourishment.

We pressed on towards Portland and miraculously found a campground recommended by Lonely Planet in the dark. Even more astonishing, it had ensuite cabins. Luxury indeed.

Eve outside the cabin with a loo.

1st August and we had to make it to Adelaide. The road was mainly away from the coast and, since it was not a major highway, free of trucks. We had to stop at a village called Nelson and tried to take a picture of ourselves by the signpost. It was a rotten picture, but while messing around by the signs we found an expensive-looking cellphone in the grass.

This was a good excuse to go into Nelson and look for a police station. It's far too small for that, but the pub supplied good coffee and promised to hand the phone over to the constable next time he was passing.

Nelson is on the Glenelg River not far from the sea. Someone there owns this funny little boat.

And after that it was mainly drive, drive into South Australia, past Mt Gambier and on to Adelaide. The airport is conveniently close to the sea, and another camp cabin was selected for the night. This one was dearer and required a midnight trek to the ablution block, but it was pleasant and the local wine shop offered a pleasant bottle for only $6.50 to accompany our hamburgers.

The interest in the airport was because we were booked to fly to Darwin the next morning for the tropical leg of our journey.

Kakadu

We have reached Kakadu National Park. Birdlife wonderful. Internet access rare and expensive.

Will try and load some photos when backin Darwin where a long session is affordable.

the birdlist is now well over 50 species and we haven't yet done any guided tours. the most dazzling are the rainbow bee-eaters and amazingly they are quite common.

More later.

On the Travel Trail Again

After a 2-year layoff, my dotage is being misspent once again.

There were 46 emails waiting for me when I sat down in this Internet cafe, so time is almost up and this is going to be a really short post.

Eve and I are in Darwin. It is around 31 degrees outside, but it falls to a clement 18 degrees at night. We picked up the camper van yesterday and have secured a site in a well-populated campsite. So far we have been getting to know how everything in the van works, stocking up with food and doing the laundry. Tomorrrow should see some serious holidaying.

And a future post should describe our drive along the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne to Adelaide.

Nature notes will, of course, be a feature of the posts. We have seen almost 40 species of birds already, including black cockatoos and a colourful figbird in the campground.

Feel free to leave comments.