Navigating the Covid Maze July-August-September 2021

Into The Tropics Blog 8

A road trip north from a southern winter, traversing the long distances through the vast outback, is rewarded with the increasing  warmth once crossing the Tropic of Capricorn. From this point on in the journey, 80% of our time will be spent enjoying the long warm/hot days of the tropical dry before re-entering the cold atmospheric orbit, like nomadic road trip astronauts, of the southern chill. 

Crossing into the tropics

Another indicator 'hinting' the entrance into the tropics are the landmark residential structures of one of the many local species of fauna that soon start to appear along the roadside vegetation, 'Termite mounds, of the grass eating Spinifex Termite.  

Typical termite mounds seen all through tropical NT&WA

Archival photo (2013) of not so typical mound.

There is a unique species of termite who are sun smart and collingwood supporters!

Early morning after over nighter at Renner Springs, 690 km's from Alice, before heading 570 km's to Katherine 

The stop over at Katherine was to explore another of our 'bucket list' ticks being the magnificent Katherine Gorge. We decided to explore the gorge via a combination tour boat / canoeing. We had our first canoeing experience a number of years ago on Port Adelaide's Port River. We hired a canoe each and successfully paddled around a section of the river. For this more testing excursion on a 36c day we decided on a double seated canoe for the 7 km round trip exploring gorges 2&3 after travelling by boat through gorge no1 to the canoe station. Katherine Gorge is not a single waterway, but a series of 13 gorges, not all being easily accessible. Our booked 4 1/2 hour boat/canoe was an easy option to experience a taste of the gorge.

Nice grassy campsite

Pre dinner selfie

 Katherine River

Rail bridge over Katherine River-18m flood marker

Boat on gorge1 to the canoe station at gorge2

Ready to traverse our canoe over rocks between gorge 2&3

A Fantastic Experience

A short 300 Km stint up to Howard Springs, 25 Km's south of Darwin, saw us arrive at our holiday park before our 'eco tent'

was ready. So to kill an hour or two we found our way to the 'Howie',

or Howard Springs Hotel for long, for what turned out to be a terrific 'countery'. We returned to the park after our 2.00 pm checkin time and set up camp. 

We noticed on the way up into the tropics that the closer to Darwin, the greater the traffic and this proved to cause some minor issues during our 4 days. 

Settled in

Two of our favorite places to visit when in Darwin are Litchfield  National Park and Berry Springs waterhole. The Florence Falls and Buely waterhole are must visits in the Litchfield Park. We headed out on our first day and the first thing we noticed being the camp sites and caravan parks throughout Litchfield were all bursting at the seams. Entering the car park at the Buley Waterhole had us driving around in circles looking for a space. After the third rotation we headed for the exit. Even one vacant park would not have had any bearing on the waterhole being 'mayhem'. Onto Florence Falls with the same result. Onto Berry Springs with the same result. Oh well, just as well we had experienced  visiting these on more than one occasion. Can't be greedy. Bloody tourists!

What we saw of Litchfield National Park-worth seeing

Buley Waterhole

Florence Falls

What we didn't see! (Archival photos)

Mindil Markets

Mindil Beach sunset silhouette

Our departure from Darwin will see us head south back to Katherine for us to turn right onto the Victoria H'way (Savannah Way) and head due west for the WA border. We had heard all sorts of horror stories regarding the perils when applying for the notorious WA G2G border pass. Rejection for no apparent reason, long waits for a decision and or spurious supporting documentation made for a degree of apprehension when sitting down to apply. Having made a few applications for Tasmania, Victoria, NT and Qld, the WA process was very complex and detailed. Fingers crossed.

 After an hour filling in my application and hitting 'submit' the submission was acknowledged by return email 15  seconds later. A few seconds later, email received to verify my email account then verification acknowledged and a few seconds after that the pass was approved with pdf attachment. Aprox. 30 seconds. The same for Ngaire's application. 

 

 

  

 
  

   

Navigating the Covid Maze July-August-September 2021

The Red Centre Blog 7

Our next destination, a short 300+ Km's, saw the 'ticking the box' off a long standing bucket list destination being Kings Canyon. It also was the first of 5 locations where our alternative accommodation option of 'tenting' was utalised.  The drive to Kings Canyon has you head east from Yulara before turning north onto the Red Centre Way (Luritya Rd) then heading the 200+ Km's into the Watarrka National Park, home to Kings Canyon.   

Sculpture at Junction depicting Kings Canyon as destination on the

Red Centre Way

Our campsite. Solar panel for the car fridge.

 Regular campsite visitors

A must do attraction located in the camp grounds is a sunset viewing platform with a unique pop up bar serving bubbles and soft drinks.

Sunset Viewing

There are 3 walking trails on offer. A short drive to Kathleen Springs has a most scenic, short 2.6 Km round trip walk. Kathleen Springs was a cattle mustering point with stock yards and water troughs filled from a large holding tank which was served from the nearby permanent spring.Another short 1.5 Km round trip is the Kings Creek walk which runs through in the base of Kings Canyon. The creek was dry at the time we were there.

The Kings Canyon walk has 2 options, short and long. The shorter more moderate 4.8 Km walk offers spectacular views from the top of the canyon. This walk is the last 1/3 rd of the much more arduous 6.5 km canyon rim walk which, if capabilities allow, is a must do.

 

Kathleen Springs

Scenes along Kings Creek

Scenes around the rim

There are 2 options for the onward journey to Alice Springs. The most direct is to head north east through the West MacDonnell Ranges. This involves obtaining a permit for the first 90 Km unsealed section which is through community land, which is easy done, but also needs assessing as to road conditions. If the road is good it is suitable for 2wd vehicles, but if heavily corrugated or the creeks are running a high clearance 4wd is required. The conditions were not in our favour with the road heavily corrugated. We had the 4wd option but with our load,the rear of our wagon was lower than normal and with non off road shock absorbers and tyres it wasn't an option.

So we had to take the indirect route, an hour and a 100 Km longer, which meant heading south the way we came, back to the Lassiter (Yulara) highway then east to the Stuart Highway then head north to Alice. Not having the high clearance or off road suspension restricted our sightseeing options along the way but not to a major degree over the entire journey.

Alice was to be the first of two, the second at Darwin, what I describe as 1/2 camping experiences with onsite safari/eco tents and using our own gear for cooking etc. This turned out to be a great mid range economical option.

Alice Springs Safari tent

Morning view from tent bed

Alice Springs offers many amazing attractions but there is one very unique 'attraction' that is, hopefully, of a temporary nature. Alice Springs airport is being used by international airlines, primarily from Asia, to 'park up' their planes during this period of minimal air traffic. Alice Springs has been chosen because of the dry climate which is required for long term parking of such planes.

A380 being prepared for return to Singapore. Departed within 24 hrs

What would have to be a big % of Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific's fleet

The permanent attractions are too numerous to mention. Some are in very close proximity to the town while others are all within reach in a days drive some being worth a longer stay of a day or two to explore more fully, which we did not do on this trip. This was not our first visit here but we were able to see some places we hadn't seen before with others being a return visit which is well worth it.

Emily Gap was a 10 min drive from our camp site.

The very popular Old Telegraph Station a short drive north of town

Most of the attractions out from Alice are to be found through the West MacDonnell Ranges. The furthest out and most spectacular is Glen Helen Gorge, close to the historical site of  Hermannsburg, but it was closed. What we did visit was well worth the drive.

West MacDonnell Ranges

Simpsons Gap

Standley Chasm

The Ellery Big Hole. It so so deep the water is freezing cold regardless of the temp. People have gone into shock arriving here in the extreme heat and diving straight in. That's me on the right and that's as far as I went. The character on the left took a plunge and was soon out.

A constant road trip travel dilemma is the feeling of regret that descends upon one when departing a highlight location. Alice Springs generates such a feeling not only for the amazing features it has, but having family who lived and died and are laid to rest here amplifies the regret that it is time to go! 

Forward: Into the tropics.