After watching sunrise we went back to the caravan park for breakfast, and then back to drive around The Rock and enjoy two walks into valleys at the base. One was lead by an aboriginal ranger guide. We did not climb the rock. The traditional owners ask that you do not, because it is sacred. The aboriginals have only ever climbed the rock to signal that a ceremony is taking place otherwise they are not allowed to climb it themselves. Our ranger guide said that he has been up several times but only to get foolish visitors down. Anyway, it looks like a pretty boring climb. We watched people climb up in the full sun and come back down again (many sliding on their bums all the way down). Marge thought that she probably wouldn’t make it and reminded me that "I’m afraid of heights". I chose not to climb as well and wasn't too upset that Marge's crook leg had stopped me (It was a good excuse) . 

    It was very difficult to buy bottles of alcoholic beverages in Yulara. The only bottle shop was at the Outback Pioneer Hotel, the backpackers. The only take away you could buy was wine and only if you had a receipt to say you were staying there somewhere in the resort (including the van park). And the staff were idiots. For example, while we were there I bought Marge & myself a drink, the barmaid asked "do you want that in a glass?" I was tempted to say "No just pour it into my mouth".

    From Yulara we wound our way to Rainbow Valley via Henbury Meteorite Craters. Henbury had to be the most desolate place of our trip. There is camping there, but who would want to?

 

A feral camel at Henbury.	A meteorite crater	Another crater	A herd of feral camels near Henbury

 

    Rainbow Valley was at the end of 23 km of 4WD track. Well, actually, it was more like 22 ½ km of good dirt road and 500 m of deep sand. This was sometimes typical of N.T. roads. This was the first place we encountered the young German family in the rented old Kombi Van. Honestly they got that thing in just about everywhere. Anyway the camping area was basic, a drop dunny and a few gas barbecues. But we camped right next to the sunset viewing area for the valley, which looked spectacular. It was really cold there that night and I was glad to leave after a morning walk.

 

A daylight shot of the hill at Rainbow Valley	The sun starts to go down	The sun is almost gone	The sun is gone

 

    Notice the red in the sky just above the horizon

    So we headed off to Chamber’s Pillar. On the way we stopped at Stuarts Well, the home of the singing, piano-playing dingo. His owner said that he was back at the homestead resting, so we never saw him.
From there on it was dirt road, 100 km, mostly on the Hugh River Stock Route to Maryvale Station. Then we travelled 3 hours on a badly corrugated 4WD track, up and down a huge, rocky, almost vertical jump-up and over sand dunes. This included 30 minutes collecting firewood and 10 or 15 minutes letting air out of the tyres. Chambers Pillar is truly in the middle of nowhere. No water for 100 km. However, its phallic presence in the middle of flat nothingness made it a landmark for the explorers, pioneers, gold miners and Telegraph Company gangs heading north. Each of these left their signatures as 150-year-old graffiti on the rock. “J Ross” was one I remember and P. Cheeseman was another and AG or Alfred Giles was another one.

 

J Ross, EW and other more modern grafitti	A G 1870	P Cheeseman	The view from the Jump Up on the way into Chambers Pillar

 

    Chambers Pillar is a Site of Aboriginal Significance. In the Dreamtime it is said the Gecko ancestor Itirkawara (pronounced it-turk-kar-wara) left the Finke River and journeyed north-eastward. As he travelled he grew into a huge and powerfully built man of super human strength and extreme violence of temper. On the way home to his birth place he successfully challenged and killed a number of unfortunate ancestors with his stone knife. Flushed with the ease of his successes he then disregarded the strict marriage code and took a wife from the wrong skin group. His enraged relatives promptly banished him and the girl. The two retreated into the desert, Itirkawara raging in fury, the girl shrinking from him in deep shame. Among the dunes they rested and turned into prominent rocky formations - Itirkawara into the Pillar, the girl, still turning her face away from him in shame, into Castle Rock to the northeast, about 500 metres away.

    It was also a sunrise and sunset place. The sunset view was a short walk away, but we could see the sunrise glow from the camper.

 

Chambers Pillar at sunset	Chambers Pillar in full sun	Castle Rock	Marge takes a walk around Castle Rock

 

    The isolation was splendid and there was a drop dunny and fire pits, so of course we stayed 2 nights. There were 4 other groups camped the first night and a different 3 the second. There was also a ranger campfire talk. However, during the day, the place was ours, except for a few visitors who by-passed the camp ground. Marge said "I’ve never seen Greg so relaxed and happy. There he was, sitting by the fire, reading, looking at nothing, no alcohol for 100 km, the old outback drover". We even used our Coleman Hot Water Heater for a shower.

    When we left, it took less than 2 hours to get out and then we followed the Old Ghan route to Alice, stopping at the Ewaninga Rock carvings. The dirt road was in horrible condition, possibly because the Finke River Race was on the week before. We tried a different van park in Alice, G’day Mate, it was much nicer, and without all the droppings on the tent. We re-stocked our food supplies, bought a new battery for the Pathfinder, and visited the Flying Doctor Centre for a tour. You can get great coffee there and reasonably priced souvenirs.

    So there we were, ready to head north and the trailer battery had not recharged. Now what we must tell you here is that Greg has done a lot of customised electrical work on the camper. This is good, because if anything breaks, he can fix it. BUT this is bad, because sometimes his installation is not sturdy enough to survive the roads we choose to travel. After much meter reading and poking about, he came to the conclusion that the 240V Smart Battery Charger was not all that smart and was no longer operational. So, for the third time this trip, it was off to Battery World in Alice Springs. I think they are going to invite us to their weddings and name their children after Greg. We finally got away after re-inflating the tyres.

    As we left almost at lunchtime, we did not get as far as the Devil’s Marbles campground before nightfall, as we had planned. This turned out to be a good thing, as we later discovered that the Devil’s Marble camping area was bare, dusty and crowded.  Stopping at a farm in Ti Tree for homemade mango ice cream and mango wine tasting did not help us make up the time. Apparently there is a huge underground aquifer there, with enough water to fill multiple Sydney Harbours. The water in Sydney Harbour seems to be some kind of standard. Pity that I have no idea how much water that is.

    We stayed at Wycliffe Well Caravan Park instead. Now Wycliffe Well is the UFO capital of Australia. Consisting of little more than the van park and a roadhouse, Wycliffe Well has more UFO sightings than anywhere else in Australia. They say that this has nothing to do with them having the largest selections of beer in the outback. The van park was a delight, full of otherworldly murals, models of little green men and cartoon characters. They also had grass, plenty of trees, aviaries, pens of animals, a little train which we took a ride on, out to and around the lake they are building. There was a country singer, a bit long in the tooth, who entertained us by the barbecues in the evening.

 

Some of the locals	Their landing pad	A wall Mural with locals on top looking down

 

    Continuing north, we visited the The Pebbles, which wasn’t worth the detour and the Old Telegraph Station, which was not as good as Alice but interesting just the same. There were workmen there doing the place up so it may be better next time we go there.   That night we by-passed Banka-Banka Station, which the nomads reckon is great value and stayed at the Renner Springs Roadhouse. We were so squeezed in, that we could watch (and hear) the TV in the caravan next to us. That van was owned by a couple of oldies who had been travelling for a few years and the missus had a breast removed because of cancer. I almost went into shock, as she removed her prosthetic and waved it in front of us, just to prove it. She told us that she had left half a bra at the Daly Waters Pub to join the others hanging over the bar.

    Our friend, Caryll, a retired archaeologist, was leading a trip up north. At Elsey, we met up with her and some other friends of ours in her group.  For the next 16 days we travelled in convoy with them. The 10 of us headed north to Katherine and stayed at the Low Level Caravan Park which was lovely and shaded. It was almost perfect except for the barely warm barbecues. It took ages to cook dinner. It was also at one end of a very nice bike track which ran along both sides of the river, just up the road from an historic homestead, which had tours, and near a canoe rental place. We took advantage of all of these and one day had a quiet paddle down the river to a very difficult pull-out place.

Greg paddling the canoe

    From there we towed our camper, A-vans, tents and a camper van to Katherine Gorge. The camping area there was pretty smelly due to a population of fruit bats that took up residence in the trees just outside the ladies toilet and shower block and directly over the clothes lines. The gorges were beautiful- there are 11 of them separated by portages- and we saw some of them from every possible angle. We climbed to the top and walked, and we flew in a helicopter and saw all of them from an eagle’s eye view. Then we canoed the first 3 gorges and this was one of our best days. Stopping for lunch at a remote beach, we scrambled over sand and rocks following a streambed. At the end there was a lovely pool fed by a waterfall that dropped from the cliffs above. Some of us had a dip.

Fruit Bats at Katherine	Katherine River from the lookout	Katherine River from the helicopter	Katherine Gorge from a Canoe

 

Katherine Gorge from a Canoe	The stream we followed to the pool	The secluded pool	Marge dips in the icy pool

 

    We camped in the park near the Douglas River and some of us (that means me) unsuccessfully tried fishing. This was the scene of another repair. The “you beaut”, top of the range, tow bar lock finally succumbed to weeks of red dust and WD40. It would not unlock. I tried the key for almost an hour and finally had to remove the whole Goose Neck assembly in order to unhook the trailer. With lots of perseverance I later got it working, but wisely we used the low-tech attachment from then on.

    Because of the late wet and the cyclone, the road to Butterfly Gorge was closed, a theme that was oft repeated on our journey. However, we did soak in Douglas Hot Springs. The water there bubbles out of the ground at 64ºC, too hot to even stand in. But if you go a short way down stream, you can nestle down in the shallow water for a lovely therapeutic soak. In the tropics, you can’t swim everywhere because of the crocodiles, so we took advantage where we could.

a huge pair of Olive Pythons sunning themselves under a tree next to the springs	a huge pair of Olive Pythons sunning themselves under a tree next to the springs	the hot water bubbles up from the sand

    Our next stop was Litchfield National Park, but the southern half was closed including most of the 4WD tracks. This, plus the unfortunate demise of the battery in Caryll’s and Dennis’ A-van, led to a decision to stay only one night. We stayed at Wangi Falls and Marge and I did the walk over the falls. It was a lovely up one side of the falls and down the other, but at the top there was no view, because of sacred ground or something. The popular swimming hole at the base was closed, too, and we had presumed it was because of crocodiles, but later found out that it was the current. For the rest of the day, we rushed about, seeing the Magnetic Termite Mounds, spectacular Florence Falls and the Buley Rock Holes, a very popular swimming area.

a Magnetic Termite Mound	Several Magnetic Termite Mounds	Even more Magnetic Termite Mounds	Marge next to a Giant Termite Mound

Giant Termite Mound	Florence Falls	Florence Falls	Buley Rock Holes

    If we had time, Buley Rock Holes would have been a great spot for a dip and the 4WD camping area at Florence looked interesting. (I later heard it was expensive for having no facilities.) Litchfield was lovely and a place we would like to revisit and explore.

    Darwin was our next stop. On the way, we visited the Territory Wild-life Park and it happened again. A scheduled two-hour stop became more like 4 or 5 and the highlight was the bird of prey show. Marge came nose to nose with a wedge-tail eagle, on his keeper’s hand. She made eye contact from only a few centimetres away…wow! Of course, we could spend less time at these places, but Marge reckons that I insist on finding every species of bird listed for every aviary.

Marge's Wedge Tailed Eagle	One of the Sea Eagles	Sea Eagle	An Owl