The Last Crazy Weekend of Travelling for The Family

This last weekend was the last for us as a family for a while, we all travel home to Costa Rica for a holiday for me and passport stuff and visas and much much more for my wife. So we decided that we had to see as much as possible. So Saturday we went to the northern tip of the darwin area a place called Gunn Point, maybe something to do with guns maybe not but now there is nothing there at all, just a few old farts desperate to avoid the tourists and drink themselves silly. it was a crappy drive along 25Km of dirt roads and as this country is pretty flat it was a boring drive, we arrived to find the road ends before the tip and you have to drive along the beach to see the end, I asked an old fart who was sitting in the shade drinking i think, as i could smell his breath from 50 paces away and he drivelled on about the mud and people getting their cars stuck in the mud and having to abandon them to the tides and sea, this stopped me thinking about driving along the beach, i didnt want to get stuck in the mud and it was a long walk back to Darwin. The beach was nice and sandy with lots of crazy looking shells, the mangrove trees had a few birds in them but nothing to speak of, there were a few Whistling kites hanging around on the beach, looking as though they had found some dead things but it was too far for me to bother going to look, we had a small picnic and a drink and headed back to Darwin feeling a bit cheated, there should have been a tourist sign up stating " Nothing of any Interest to be Seen Here", at the start of that dirt road.

Lovely Silent Beach With No Tourists




Sunday was a slog, we had to drive 300Km to get to KAKADU National Park, this is a pinnacle of the national parks the whole country and was where Crocodile Dundee was filmed, it is a remote place and we made a tactical error in trying to go the short route and found out it was a dirt road with some deep river crossings, maybe 2 feet deep at the worst and I was regretting that mistake, anyway we persevered and arrived maybe an hour late and missed the 11.30 am boat cruise on the Yellow Water Billabong, so we decided to go to the JIM JIM Falls, this is possible the tallest waterfalls in Australia at 215 meters high. the drive again was on dirt road and i am beginning to hate dirt roads. The fine powder on the roads form corrugations that vibrate out your tooth fillings, and the car pulls in the fine dust into the car getting in your nose and in your hair, we were stopped at a check post and the park ranger told that we had to lock the car into 4 Wheel drive and go slowly, once we set off I realised why, it was a sand track at the bottom of the valley that probably floods during the rainy season, deep sand and the road was so twisty and turny, through little creeks and over huge humps designed to slow you down as it was single track, the sand was so deep that the wheels would sink and turn aimlessly until the you had dug down to more firmer material, i was scared again.

Dirt Road in Hell to Jim Jim Falls




It took about 30 minutes to drive the 10 Km to the car park and then you had this crazy walk that was meant to be only easy but turned into a rock climb over mountains of rockfall material. The little girl thought it was great but i was worn out lifting her about and trying to let her walk while i was skipping across all the difficult stuff trying to keep her safe.

Climbing over Rock Fall Material




This took us almost 2 hours to make it to the base of the falls, the falls were almost dry which i expected at this time of the dry season. but the ravine was fantastic and the cliffs were overhanging a wee bit too much for comfort, i felt almost that they could collapse in at anytime, but I am a whiny scaredy cat.

Dry waterfall




Overhanging ravine walls




We had a picnic well away from the base of the falls as they were another 200 meters away over some silly huge boulders that I didn't want to climb or put the other two with me through torture to say they reached the base of the falls. Once i realised we were running out of time I hurried everyone to get a move on and try and be as quick as possible for the last Boat cruise on yellow water at 4 pm, the walk back was as slow as coming actually slower as we were getting tired by now. Again the drive through the sand was terrible and slow and once we got onto the dirt road i was driving like a bat out of hell, too fast for dirt and we slid once straight along towards a ditch even though the i was turning the wheel. but we managed to get to the main road with 15 minutes to spare, i then floored this thing as was doing about 100mph, to get the cruise, I arrived with 5 minutes to spare and found the cruise was at 4.30pm, I gave out a little sigh of relief as there was a queue of folks trying to get on the last cruise also. It was damned expensive at $70 each for a 2 hours slow boat ride through the weeds.

Slow boat in Kakadu Pary, yellow Water Billabong




Sunset at Yellow Water




We got on the cruise and had to wait for a while and we set off with a humourous guide telling a few silly gags about the crocodiles and the floods they had last year, when crocs were swimming about the flooded hotel where you get the tickets from. Then I realised he knew nothing about bird watching as he only mentioned the large birds, Sea Eagles, Stork, Egret, all the small birds, not one mention of them, he was just a cowboy from the local area.

Two Majestic Sea Eagles




Big Crocodile




Brolga



Jabiru



Azure Kingfisher




Anyway there are not many words with which to describe the bird life other than Amazing, I save the word awesome for events like Aliens landing or Comets swishing through the lower atmosphere, maybe even having to pay $25 a gallon for gas. but not much else. The birds were there in there tens of thousands, as it is the dry season all the small water holes dry up and it concentrates the birds into the main permanent water holes like this one, it had 30,000 whistling ducks, they really do whistle, and many other water fowl, pygmy geese, actually smaller than the ducks. egrets and storks and Cranes of all descriptions, many many pied geese, just too many for description, the most stunning was the Azure Kingfisher, like a flying Jewel. We saw a large croc doing nothing, it seemed all too short, that was because it was all too short, they took us back early and we left late meaning we only got 1 1/2 hours and not 2 hours, the shorter trip is $20 cheaper and i was almost going to ask for a refund but we were running so late, we thought we should have a dinner before we left the hotel so we ordered fish and chips being imaginative and as there being no other place to eat for another 200 Km we didnt have much choice. we waited and waited and waited and my wife eventually through starvation just went and stole someone elses food off the counter and said it was ours, it was delicious but we were now 4 hours from home at 8.30pm, i could see a miserable long drive coming, we set off and i dont like going fast at night here as it is pretty dangerous, there are wild pigs, wild dogs, kangaroos and even wild horses, but after about 2 hours i was starting to fall asleep at the wheel, i stopped the car and got out to stretch my legs and wake up to find the most crystal clear sky with the best view of the milky way i have ever seen, it was brilliant and panoramic, almost awesome(Need the Aliens), I even woke up the little girl from her solid sleep to look also, she said wow and then fell asleep again. I then managed to drive all the way back without falling asleep again and even got home just before midnight and staggered into bed for my 6am wake up for work, but all in all it was a pretty fantastic trip and one that I would recommend to anyone coming up to this part of Northern Territory in Australia. Monday morning the news on the radio mentioned another death on the roads of greater Darwin, a wild horse had jumped out in front of a car with 6 people in it and killed the driver, just goes to show, some days your lucky and then your luck runs out.