Fuel costs : Petrol $1.577 (£1.00 per litre) Diesel $1.719 (£1.15 per litre) at an exchange rate of £1 = A$1.55. The fuel costs vary depending on the the remoteness of the country as A$1.87 for petrol and A$1.96 was seen in Renner Springs, North Australia, then A$1.54 and A$1.52 for petrol and diesel respectively was seen near Sydney.
Darwin was basically a stop for shopping, unwinding and realising that I had seen the last of our illustrious leader and her item. What a weight off my mind that was! It felt that the dark clouds of ignorance and uselessness had gone for ever with those two never to be seen again.
I was picked up at the airport by Adam, the driver and his friend, Helen, even though I had sent an email to him saying that I did not expect to be picked up at 2230 hours being the only one on the flight and our illustrious leader telling me that under no circumstances would I be picked up. From the airport I went to the Value Inn, dropped my bags and decided to have a walk round Darwin even though it was midnight. At that time on a Friday night Darwin was hopping so I sat in a pub watching people going past and drinking red wine. A lady (with her partner I later found out) on another table kept on looking at me and smiling but I did not recognise her. Later another man joined them so partner and he were talking and ignoring the lady. After a while she walked over to me, introduced herself and sat down. She was a stranger! We talked for a while until the partner came over and bought me a drink, cider this time. After a while he started to argue with her asking why she was sitting with me when they had come to the pub together. A domestic argument continued but I did not get the black eye I expected, excused myself and went to the hotel and bed.
The night before we were due to leave Darwin I went out to the camp site to stay and to check that I could put up my new tent as the other tent had been sent back to the UK from Nepal to reduce weight and because it was thought that the Australian authorities would not allow a used tent into Australia.
On 8 October we left Darwin for the last part off the trip to Sydney. There was to be a lot of sitting in the bus for this part of the journey as Madventure, because of their incompetence and uncaring attitude, had not told us early enough of when to book the flight from Bali to Darwin so that people could not arrive at Darwin on the expected date making us two days late leaving Darwin and still expected to arrive in Sydney on the original date. They are unbelievable and really need to understand that people expect to receive what they have paid for not being fobbed of with excuses, especially when it is the fault of Madventure themselves.
Leaving Darwin on the Arnhem Highway we headed for Kakadu National Park on a 20 seat bus with the twelve of us on board of the twenty four that left London six months before. Although it was very hot, over 34C, we kept the windows open and enjoyed the fresh hot air. Before camping that night (8 October) we stopped at the Ubirr Art Site to see aboriginal cave paintings, which were quire remarkable for paintings that were 2000 years old.
9 October at Barunei and the Nitmiluk Aboriginal Centre in the Kakadu National Park. Camping that night was like having a free sauna as everyone baked in their tents.
10 October at Matapanka Homestead with the smelly flying foxes and the spa pool, which was free to use and a welcome change from not being able to have showers. A stop was made at Daly Waters Pub for food and to use the toilet. The pub was quite exceptional as the photographs show. Camping at Renner Springs that night was another experience with huge winds that blew the tents horizontal but not completely into the bush.
The Daly Waters Pub
MacDonald's have free wifi in their premises but it was terribly slow even if I could manage to log on, which was the norm. Internet cafes were a foreign word I think as they were few and far between across the Northern Territory. Even where they did exist he usual cost to use the internet was A$16 per hour (£10). We stopped at Wauchope early afternoon for some shopping and then at the Devils Marbles to see the ‘marbles’.
During the night we had a frost and everyone was so cold because it was not expected and they had not dressed for sleeping in the cold. For some reason I was warm enough perhaps because I went into the sleeping bag wearing all my clothes.
The next day, the 12 October, we stopped of at Barrow Creek Telegraph Station, the position of the Tropic of Capricorn, then Alice Springs for shopping only. The Telegraph Station is now kept as a museum of the way the telegraph was used during the early 20th century. That evening saw us camping at Curtain Springs Cattle Station ready to get up at 0330 hours to go to Ayers Rock (Uluru-Kjuta National Park) for sunrise.
Barrow Creek Telegraph Station
Sunrise at Ayers Rock on 13 October and views while walking the 11 kilometres round the rock which I did in 1 hour and 40 minutes follow. The official guide indicates that the walk should take three and a half hours and should be completed by 1100 hours due to the hot weather with plenty of water being available during the walk. The area to climb the rock was closed until we were ready to leave, not that I would have climbed the rock, as it looked too hard and too dangerous. Apparently 35 people have been killed climbing the rock and the Aborigines request that the rock not be climbed as it is a sacred site to them.
Darwin was basically a stop for shopping, unwinding and realising that I had seen the last of our illustrious leader and her item. What a weight off my mind that was! It felt that the dark clouds of ignorance and uselessness had gone for ever with those two never to be seen again.
I was picked up at the airport by Adam, the driver and his friend, Helen, even though I had sent an email to him saying that I did not expect to be picked up at 2230 hours being the only one on the flight and our illustrious leader telling me that under no circumstances would I be picked up. From the airport I went to the Value Inn, dropped my bags and decided to have a walk round Darwin even though it was midnight. At that time on a Friday night Darwin was hopping so I sat in a pub watching people going past and drinking red wine. A lady (with her partner I later found out) on another table kept on looking at me and smiling but I did not recognise her. Later another man joined them so partner and he were talking and ignoring the lady. After a while she walked over to me, introduced herself and sat down. She was a stranger! We talked for a while until the partner came over and bought me a drink, cider this time. After a while he started to argue with her asking why she was sitting with me when they had come to the pub together. A domestic argument continued but I did not get the black eye I expected, excused myself and went to the hotel and bed.
The night before we were due to leave Darwin I went out to the camp site to stay and to check that I could put up my new tent as the other tent had been sent back to the UK from Nepal to reduce weight and because it was thought that the Australian authorities would not allow a used tent into Australia.
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| The Darwin camp site |
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| Typical scenery from Darwin to Ayers Rock |
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| A road train |
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| A road train |
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| A typical view of the road, long straights, seemingly flat but with flood level indicators showing a depth of water up to 1.4 metres |
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| What I call a typical scene with the wind pump |
On 8 October we left Darwin for the last part off the trip to Sydney. There was to be a lot of sitting in the bus for this part of the journey as Madventure, because of their incompetence and uncaring attitude, had not told us early enough of when to book the flight from Bali to Darwin so that people could not arrive at Darwin on the expected date making us two days late leaving Darwin and still expected to arrive in Sydney on the original date. They are unbelievable and really need to understand that people expect to receive what they have paid for not being fobbed of with excuses, especially when it is the fault of Madventure themselves.
Leaving Darwin on the Arnhem Highway we headed for Kakadu National Park on a 20 seat bus with the twelve of us on board of the twenty four that left London six months before. Although it was very hot, over 34C, we kept the windows open and enjoyed the fresh hot air. Before camping that night (8 October) we stopped at the Ubirr Art Site to see aboriginal cave paintings, which were quire remarkable for paintings that were 2000 years old.
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| A fish |
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| Man and crocodile |
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| A bird |
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| The cave painting area |
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| A view from the top of the hill |
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| A view from the top of the hill |
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| The camp site notice |
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| A termite hill |
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| Scenery seen every day |
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| A boab tree |
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| The Alligator River |
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| Add caption |
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| A view from the mountain top |
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| Matapanka Homestead Pool |
10 October at Matapanka Homestead with the smelly flying foxes and the spa pool, which was free to use and a welcome change from not being able to have showers. A stop was made at Daly Waters Pub for food and to use the toilet. The pub was quite exceptional as the photographs show. Camping at Renner Springs that night was another experience with huge winds that blew the tents horizontal but not completely into the bush.
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| Flying Foxes |
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| The spa pool |
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| The thong (flip-flop) tree |
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| Bar decorations |
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| Enjoying a cool cider |
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| I just liked the gates!
The following day, the 11 October, we travelled to Barrow Staging Area, a Second World War area in the bush where trucks transporting war material to the north stopped at night for the drivers to rest. Blogs were now impossible as this laptop battery died and with us camping in the bush here was no way the laptop could be recharged. Even when we stopped in Tennant Creek there were no charging points.
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| Tennant Creek street paintings |
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| Barrow Staging Area Bush Camp |
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| Sunrise with Laura (I think) |
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| The blacksmiths shop with the clay lined forge |
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| The Tropic of Capricorn site |
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| Town sign |
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| Paintings on the supermarket walls |
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| A rest area |
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