WA 2022: Post 6 of 6 10 June 2022
Time zone adjusting seems to be much more painful heading east. We jumped 90mins into the future when we crossed the border into the Northern Territory and it took a few days for our heads and bellies to adjust.
The Keep River National Park is about 20mins across the border and is home to a number of beautiful bushwalks through varied vegetation with some pretty special Aboriginal rock art. A deadline to Darwin meant we only had time for one walk before zooming east to Katherine, but I have Keep River and Judbarra National Parks as essential future camping destinations.
The Jawoyn, Dagoman and Wardaman people are the traditional owners of the lands around Katherine which is known as the place where the outback meets the tropics. We started the day with a swim in the Katherine hot springs which are surprisingly awesome, before heading north to Nitmiluk National Park to do a sweaty hike to swim in the delightful Edith Falls.
Litchfield National Park was our last camping spot and our first real rain. After 6 weeks of camping we figured we were pretty efficient so we timed ourselves setting up our camp site in full – we did it in under 8 mins! The rain was actually a terrific thunderstorm which saw us retreat into the back of the car and do a crossword while we waited it out. We could hear people in the caravans around us watching DVDs which according to me is not real camping – we got to enjoy the lightning, meet some neighbourly animals and watch the stars come out. Ahhh nature…
Litchfield was a bit of a shock after WA with people everywhere, carparks overflowing and any serenity long obliterated. Litchfield’s proximity to Darwin (about an hour’s drive), means it is an easy destination for a weekend camping trip. We did the full circuit which included some great swimming at Florence Falls, birdwatching at Tabletop Swamp and nice walks at the other destinations. I had a good chuckle when I overheard some people whinging that a 2.7km walk was too long right after we had been whinging that it was too short!
Litchfield hosted the two most serious incidents of the holiday, the first being a powder pink legless lizard losing his tail to Aditi’s foot at Tjaetaba Falls, which left us all in shock. The second incident involved a million mosquitoes unleashing a morning mauling on us, and then a hundred or so stashing away in the car to nibble on us all the way to Darwin. I was not impressed!
I highly recommend Aditi as a travel buddy. Besides being a wonderful human, she is a crazy creative in the kitchen. I’ve had the most amazing meals made for me – crab curry, prawn special, savoury pancakes, gorgeous granola, spinach fancy something, vegetable delicious, cheese extravaganza, lentil patty surprise, beetroot rice and the list goes on (names made up by me). Every meal was immaculately presented – I really wish I had kept track of the recipes to create a handy catering guide for campers.
I spent a few days in Darwin, sweltering in the 100% humidity and 35 degree heat, catching up with friends and enjoying the deckchair cinema, museum, markets and sunset swims. I popped into Alice Springs to visit friends on the way back to Sydney and nearly froze my nose and toes off in the 10 degree winter weather. It made going home to Sydney slightly more appealing but not a lot.
And that is the end of my trip from Exmouth to Darwin. It involved a lot of kilometres, a decent amount of cash, a whole swathe of adventures, all types of interesting humans, fantastic flora and fauna, and sunsets and sunrises to satisfy me until the next trip. My only complaint – I only saw 1 emu. Perhaps the next holiday needs to focus on addressing that.
Lots of emus around Broken Hill, Nonnie. Maybe that’s the next trip
Like I’ve said a number of times before, I’ll miss having you around, being so organized for both of us, being my spotter in the bush and finder of fun facts and lastly being a very calm and reassuring presence. Even though i am still on the road, I’m a little bit sad that Exmouth to Darwin came to an end.