Day 1: 07.09.2010 “Playing with the Devil’s Marbles”
No, I didn’t end up staying awake till five, thought it did get pretty close. After a quick breakfast of Tums, Paracetamol and Toast and throwing my stuff into my bags lying around my bed (I wasn’t quite thinking straight yet), I sat outside the hostel, only to wait for over half an hour for it to come pick us up. And by us I mean a lot of other people. We ended up being 26 people on the tour and 2 guides, riding in a big fancy bus that fits 33 and is all high tech and stuff. Maybe it was because I was tired, maybe it was because I had had so much fun roughing it a bit in the previous week, mostly I think it was because I was already missing my fellow Groovy Grapers and the relaxed atmosphere in that bus, but I was not very excited about getting on that full bus. And when I did and the guide put on his little headset microphone and the first sentences alone gave him away as someone who loves to hear himself talk, I wished I could have hopped right off that bus and gone back to sleep. Australian Adventure Tours turned out to be more Tour and less Adventure and in that moment, I just didn’t feel like feeling like a retiree.
Of course, it wasn’t as bad as I might be describing it. Just very different from what I had been doing and enjoying so much. Instead of a small group of backpackers, we had a large group of students and people on holiday. Instead of a tour guide who’s more like a more knowledgeable fellow road-tripper, we had two very structured and organized men in uniform. Instead of a cozy little bus, we had a tour shuttle. Instead of heaps of delicious food, we had quite rationed boring stuff. Instead of everyone works as a team, we had groups on kitchen duty and were instructed in which color sponge to use for dishes and which for sponges and which color tea towels to use for dishes and which for hands (at least he admitted about being anal when it comes to hygiene). Instead of swags under the stars by the campfire, we had permanent tents with beds in them. Instead of drinks and good conversation by the fire, we went to bed… Of course we still drive through the same nothingness, still look at the same sights and learn the same (maybe even more) about them and the land, but it really makes such a difference when you don’t feel like you’re around people who can offer or want the same thing you do out of the experiences. Oh, and instead of being allowed to sleep for a bit, we had to come up front and introduce ourselves (including favorite food, movie and porn star name (pet’s name + first street you lived in). Ouch.
Anyways, I was not in the best of moods and couldn’t even really sleep because we were being told stories through the quite powerful microphone. Most of them were about the discovery and exploration of Central Australia and the many trips they had to do to finally cross from the southern to the northern tip. The Scottsman Stuart, after whom the over 3000km highway up from Port Augusta to Darwin is named, took three attempts and almost died finding his way through the desert. The stories are, of course, much longer and much more detailed, but to be honest, although, to my great surprise, I had no hangover whatsoever, I wasn’t in the mood to take detailed notes… Our first stop was one of three old telegraph stations still standing today – Barrows Creek Telegraph Station. It was a house with a fence around it and smaller, empty houses behind it… We also stopped at a campsite/gas station/pub which is known to be the “Alien capital of Australia”, an area where lots of sightings have occurred and believers flock to, to hopefully catch a glimpse of some lights flickering over the bush.
After lunch we visited the Devil’s Marbles, granite rock formations that look like boulders were placed and balanced on top of each other. In truth, they formed 1.7 billion years ago through a bubble of magma that rose to the surface. The further away from the core it got, the more it solidified to granite. The sandstone above it started eroding and exposing the granite. The relief of pressure caused the granite to crack and air and water then eroded the granite boulders and formed it into the round shapes they have today. The surface texture, looking like rusty skin (similar to that or Uluru) is caused by the reaction of minerals and water in the stone… These boulders ranging from melon size to many metres in diameter are actually called Kalu Kalu, the name “Devil’s Marbles” was given to the area by drovers, who used to move their cattle and stock through there. They’d stop there for the night and wake up to their cattle bleeding from their mouths and dying. When this started happening a lot, they called it Devil Devil Country. Actually, they later found out that phenomena was due to a certain type of plant growing there that had blade like grass and cut up the insides of those who ingested it… We spent around 20minutes here, walking around the formations and taking pictures. I would have loved to climb around a bit, but 1.it was not on the itinerary and 2.like Uluru, this is sacred land.
The next stop was in Tenant Creek, a town started by the gold rush in the 1930s. Beginning as a tent town around the telegraph station, it moved around 6km away from it after a truck delivering alcohol broke down and instead of pushing it into town, the town moved and established itself around that site. Here we rested for another 20minutes at the Ane Mary Damm/Lake. Sticking my feet into the cold water did feel quite nice after being cramped up in that bus all day.
Banka Banka, which in the Aboriginal language describes that feeling you get when your hair stands up on the back of your neck (no explanation given), was our campsite for the night. It paled in comparison to the bush or Kings Creek – permanent tents with two beds and real mattresses and the road running by right behind us. The only consolation I had were the stars, which still shone brightly as soon as darkness fell.
Day 2: 08.09.2010 “Pubs on the way to Katherine”
I had been warned about the preference of starting the day quite early on this tour group, but I was still quite shocked when our guide said:”Be up around 6 and on the bus by 7:30” and the people who had done the Uluru tour with the company all sighed in relief and started talking about being able to “sleep-in”. Wow. But that’s how the morning went and we were rolling off the campgrounds shortly before 7:30am… We passed through Newcastle Waters, a ghost town today, which used to be a resting and meeting place for drovers leading their stock and cattle across the land on the stock routes (roads used for transport through the desert). We visited a deserted and dilapidated pub (pub, btw. Is not only bar and beer but also motel like). It was hot and dry and not even 10am.
Along the roads we drove more and more termite pillars popped up in between the trees, which also grew in height and width the further north we went. Although we didn’t see any dingoes, our guide tell us a bit about the fauna of the region. The dog fence, which we had crossed a few days earlier is actually the longest man made barrier built. This over 5300km long fence was made to protect the sheep grazing country in South Australia and New South Wales. The dingo is the only natural predator of the kangaroo, of which we began seeing more and more of on and next to the road (fresh, flat and dried up roadkill, that is).Kangaroos are opportunist breeders, meaning if there is good food and good water they make a good amount of babies. They can have up to three babies at the same time – a joey, which already hops along its mother and only occasionally suckles on her tit, a hairless pinky in the pouch stuck to a tit and an embryo which isn’t developing and only starts to do so when an environmental trigger tells it to. After 30 days, the mother gives birth and it crawls up on its own, hooking itself to a tit, which then engorges and locks him into place. Also interesting and a bit bizarre – the mother can produce different kinds of milk, catering to the needs of her children in different stages of development. After 4-5 months, it sticks his head out of the pouch every once in a while and by 11 months, it can hop out and in at his leisure. So in summary – kangaroos breed a lot and quickly. Statistics from 1996 state that there were 10million Eastern Gray, 9million Reds and 6million Western Gray Kangaroos around. And those are only three out of over 50species.So it is not surprising that most states actually have a quota on how many kangaroos should be killed per year.
Driving into Daly waters, a 23 person community built around a famous historic pub, the grass was suddenly not so green and every time we got out of the bus, it got hotter. Like many other towns in the area, Daly Waters can get cut off during the wet season. It is furthermore famous for being the “first international airport” in Australia, having built a runway in the 1930s for the last refueling of the planes before travelling up to Asia. And before being asphalted, the runway was actually pave with crushed and watered termite mounds, which created a very hard surface on which the planes could land on (unless it rained to hard)… The pub itself was established in 1893, the building we ate next to having been build in 1930. While one group cooked up burgers, we had time to explore this twisted and trippy place. It is filled with meaningful stuff left behind by people who passed through. There are license plates and bumpers, a gazebo full of slippers nailed to the posts and ceiling, shirts and flags, panties, bras and boxers, badges and trophies, IDs and drivers licenses, pictures and boarding passes and caps. More exotic things included the saw-like nose of those fish with a saw-like nose, a pill pack with 1 pill left, and the goggles of a swimmer of the Olympic team of Pakistan. There was quite a lot of money on one wall and I spotted some Philippine pesos between the dollars, euro, ringgit, pounds, dirham etc as well!
After the best tasting cup of frozen yoghurt (probably because the heat made it taste like heaven) we heard the story about the first McDonalds in the Northern Territory having been here – for one day, because back in 1991, a child with leukemia requested the Make a Wish foundation to make her a Big Mac… and drove on to the next Pub along the road. Larrmich was home to a little free zoo with lots of birds, crocodiles and some wallabies (which you could pet) and baby emus that ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.,. Aside from these pubs, the road didn’t have much to offer aside from watching the trees get larger and the signs requesting that you “Please Arrive Alive” and “Rest, Revive and Survive”.
We took a break at the Mataranka Thermal Springs which you got to by walking on a path through palm trees, and although I didn’t expect the pool to be cemented, it was a nice dip. We did wander over to the river and swam there as well, knowing that there were some crocs in there made it all the more exciting.
It started getting dark by the time we stopped in the town of Katherine to go to an ATM and visit Woolworths. Our camp was just 20minutes away, wallabies jumping out onto the road in front of cour bus (and making it across just in time) - more permanent tents and cars driving by behind us.
Day 3: 09.09.2010 “Katherine Gorge and Edith Falls”
Nitmiluk National Park is, like Uluru, Aboriginal land leased back to the government. It is under joint management and the stores and cafes are run by the Aboriginal people. It covers 300.000hectars of land, including the beautiful river Katherine and the majestic gorges along her banks. While the others went canoeing or on a cruise (both at extra cost), I decided to make use of my neglected legs and take a hike. The walk was made out to be 2h (but I made it in 1 ½) and not difficult at all. A nice early morning stroll through nature waking up, accompanied by butterflies (hi Pops!) and dragonflies, watched by no one but spiders and I believe the hissing in one bush must have been a spider, nothing crossing my path but lizards and nothing breaking the silence but the echo of the red winged parrots, gold crested cockatoos and possibly the sounds of flying foxes (kind of like a mixture between a bark and a miau). The air was still fresh enough, though it did get hotter by the minute on top of the gorge, where I got a beautiful look onto the river, the green forest on one bank turning into the rocky ridge of the gorge. Because I was done faster than expected, I had time to jump into the river, cool off and bake in the sun for a while before we had to head back to the bus and drive on to Edith falls, our lunch and last dip spot - A small waterfall and a large dipping pool. The cold water was so refreshing and the about 200m swin across to the falls felt good. The water was clear enough to see some fish in the sunlight, but thankfully not clear enough to count the crocs we swam over. But since they are just freshwater crocodiles and generally don’t eat meat (only fish), we had nothing (or less) to worry about (and in the end it was quite thrilling to have swum with the crocs).
Only 3 more hours till Darwin from there… I can’t wait.
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