SEPT 2012
Finally we roll into Darwin and
turn up at the Shuker farm. Hek and Bev Shuker are old friends from
Blues days in the territory when they worked together in a mineral
exploration outfit.
Hek and Bev stayed in Darwin
and have developed a large hay farm in the Darwin River area about 80Ks
out of town. We had planned to spend only a few days here while we got
our bearings but were still there after 5 weeks during which we spent a
week back in Qld, Blue teaching and Wendy visiting family and friends. Bev
is a wild life carer and has numerous wallabies and birds about the
place. Some are under care and some just keep coming back to visit
after release. Big Big thanks to Bev and Hek for their hospitality
Here we are enjoying a cold beverage after a hard day in the paddock, Hek was in the paddock Blue was in the office.
This is rocky a thumb sucking little guy who would jump into the van at every open door opportunity
Hek has two ultra light air
craft one is enclosed much like a regular light plane and the other is
affectionately referred to as the broom stick. He took Blue for a spin
around the area. Here are some pics showing part of the farm and the
edge of the Darwin River dam.
Blue liked to play with this little beauty and we fetched a few loads of hay to mulch the homestead gardens
A pic of Darwin from Stokes Hill wharf. The wharf is now a tourist
precinct with lots of eateries, you can see lots of good sized fish at
night that just love to eat chips the tourists toss into the water.
We drove through the Litchfield
national park, a very popular area for tourists. We had considered
taking the van in here but a little too crowded with constant bus loads
arriving at the swimming holes.
This is Wangi falls with resident freshie
Also took a day to look around the Daly river area, here is the Daly river crossing with resident salties.
Enough Crocs already but they are impressive in the wild.
Finally we leave Darwin and head for the west at Katherine. First night we spent at
Victoria River road house which it seems has a new boss person
We are now in spectacular looking country with lots of aesthetically pleasing forms.
It just keeps rolling on.
Next stop is Kununurra. Not
much to see in town here but there are some large scale agricultural
enterprises supported by water from Lake Argyle. Access to Lake
Argyle is about 80ks out of town, there are very few places where
the lake can be accessed by road and viewed.
Here is pic taken at the
northern end of the lake from a caravan park grounds near the dam.
We stayed in Kununurra for 3 nights, took a drive out to Wyndam which is located at
the base of the Cambridge Gulf which in turn is in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf.
The port is used for exporting
Iron ore and nickel from mines in the vicinity, the old meat works are
long gone and nothing remains of these.The
town is home to about 900 people and has a long and colourful
history.There are some old Afghan camel driver graves in the area, perhaps some
of the newer arrivals would be at home here hmmmm. It's also very hot this time of year.
Here is a pic from the Bastion, a look out from a high feature behind the port.
Between Kununurra and Derby we took a chopper ride over the Bungle bungle range.
We boarded at a place called Turkey creek. The chopper is a jet ranger and the doors were off.
Here are some pics of the area, the gorge is a well known walk of about
40 Ks, it was closed at this time due to a large bush fire that had
just gone through.
FIrst night out of Kununurra we free camped at Mary Pool, an area on the banks of the Mary river.
Here we meet a nice couple from Shepparton Vic who got their motor home
bogged in some soft sand just in front of us. I
reckon we would have been in it next morning if they hadn't found it
for us. We and others about the place were able to help with the
extraction.
See Blue operating the Suzi they were towing with the motor home.
From here to Halls creek and Fitzroy crossing and on to Derby where we caught our breath for a few days. Derby has a facility for handling the boat people from Christmas Island and there are frequent associated air craft movements. There
is also a new prison due for opening in Oct for 160 males and 20
females, the idea is to provide incarceration for inmates closer to
their families and culture, cost around 60 million I was told. There is a great fish and chip shop at the wharf which we patronized the night before it closed for the season.
Here is pic of the Derby wharf,
where there are also plenty of crocs to be seen, and the Boab prison
tree which is reputed to have been used in the black birding days and
holding prisoners being moved to courts and jails in times gone bye.
And then to Broome which is OCT and will follow
