Caravan park behind the pub, nice spot, everyone ranked the meal as very good to excellent, and a nice quite spot, well almost.
As we sat down for a meal that night a chopper arrived and landed at the back of the pub.
He was a young bloke that does a bit of mustering in the area, looking for a meal drink and a bed after a long days work.
The fact that there were a few young girls as barmaids in the pub would have nothing to do with it would it?
Anyway he started the chopper at daylight, very amusing, off for another days work,
Our girls were a bit upset at the early noise, but at least we were all on the road to Alice Springs by 8 am.
Daylight Ascent on the mount while everyone else was in Bed
Banka Banka is a working cattle station, of approx 390,000 acres, with about 80,000 usable, the rest is stone, of various sizes. I don't know how the cattle get around it, you would have trouble walking it, let alone get a vehicle over it!
Famous for its red-back spiders if you believe the manager!
But there is a steel sculpture of one at the front gate, so probably not far wrong.
Pay Phone
The homestead and park are right on the Stuart highway, so owners obviously thought it a good idea to take advantage of passing tourist trade a few years ago so setup the caravan park.
The mount!
No power or phone reception, but a pay phone on site if you need one. Plenty of water, that is as good as you would get drinking water.
We arrived early afternoon, so got a good shady site.
Incidentally I was the only one to climb Mt Banka Banka, the others in the team declaring the climb "Too difficult".
I did it in a set of roman sandals, next time I will update my foot ware, kicking my toe several times, in the rocks I wasn't quite sure if I had kicked a stone or been bitten by a Death Adder.
Its incredable how well they were built, and how quickly, it amazing what people achieve in Wartime.
Daly Waters has one just out of town, dropped in and had a look, some interesting history, one claim to fame was a diversion to the airfield by a Qantas Supersconstellation Airliner in 1953.
The car in front of us had a group of European tourists that claimed they saw a snake near this wreckage on the airfield, Butcho decided he would put his snake chasing boots on, and go for a look, I decided to stay behind and take the photo!
Stopped in to Mataranka Thermal Springs. according to the sign,
The springs generate 30.5 million litres of water per day at an average temperature of 34 degrees Celsius. Pretty impressive, and you can stay here, good looking pub, and enjoy a swim. But you would need to get here early as the place fills up quickly.
Its amazing how much cooler it has been in Katherine compared to Darwin, but we might have been lucky! Busy town with plenty of tourists going through, stayed in Big 4 Katherine Caravan park good spot. Katherine Gorge is situated in Nitmiluk National Park, about 250 k south of Darwin. We stayed in town and drove out the 30 ks, on a good bitumen rd, so no problems getting there. The water system is massive, and comes together above Katherine so in any flood Katherine cops it. The gorge tour gives you a good look at the gorge, so well worth it. Cameras don't do these places justice, you have to see it for yourself.
If you look stand back and look at this rock, it resembles a crocodile head,
even I can see it! pretty clever.
The Katherine museum is worth a look, you can spend a few hours there reading the history of the region, Pastoralists, WW11 and flying doctor memorabilia and the recent floods.
I'm not sure who the biggest character was on this tour, Our kiwi bus driver Rohan with Wallaroo Tours, or Pat, owner and operator of The Great Ozzie Bite.
The tour is a day trip to Adelaide river to The Great Ozzie Bite, where you are taken on a short boat tour to view crocodiles in their natural habitat, this was well worth it, Pat understands crocodiles very well, and is quite passionate about them.
Pats a bit of a character, and you also get a bit of his philosophy on life on the boat, so very entertaining.
Pat had done most things in life, including being brought up with aboriginals, he had a great understanding, love and respect for them, that was refreshing.
You would hope that politicians listen more to people like Pat.
You get the impression that Pat could do pretty much anything, and commented that the only thing he hadn't had a go at was an Astronaut!
But you wouldn't want to underestimate Pat, he would be quite capable of a left hand seat in the space shuttle!
On returning from the croc part of the tour I asked Rohan, our bus driver, what Pats Surname was?
Rohan quickly quipped that his name was "Chappel", this immediately allowed him to bring up the Chappel underarm Cricket incident, back in 1981 I think?
I am sure Rohan would not have been born at the time, but that didn't stop him!!
Its a bit sad, but it would appear that this unfortunate incident is so entrenched in the psyche of the average Kiwi, it is now passed on in their childrens DNA!
But they are getting their revenge, you can't get on a tour up here without it being run or owned by a Kiwi, good luck to them.
From the Adelaide river you travel back toward Darwin and then out to Litchfield National Park.
The falls are worth a look, and water pristine, and the swimming holes great, but its a bit of a bus ride from one favorite swimming hole to the next, so you get over it, the park is pretty much about that, so unless you love swimming that part of the tour will be as boring as bat shit!
Sunset Fanny Bay Darwin
Without the outstanding effort of the bus driver I would have found this part of the tour a bit slow.
We pulled in at Bachelor on the way home, to buy some beer for those that didn't like champagne. great idea Rohan!
So finished the tour at sunset with Champagne and Prawns at Fanny Bay, just getting there with a few seconds to spare at sunset, great job Rohan!
I had to spend some time in the city, catching up with an oncologist, so between appointments had a wander around the Darwin Museum.
This is well worth a look, and on a hot day, great air conditioning with free entry, great spot to take the family.
The cyclone Tracy exhibition and the Aboriginal artifacts are incredible, you need a few hours, great spot.
B52 Cockpit, 8 throttles and 8 sets of engine gauges for 8 engines
no fly by wire stuff here!
The other part of history that's important to Darwin is its involvement in WW2.
Darwin was subjected to many raids by the Japanese, with many Australian deaths.
Something I was unaware of was that Post WW2, in the 1950s and 60s Darwin had a US squadron of B52 bombers that visited and refueled here, as part of US global defence.
There was always a B52 bomber airborne between Guam and Darwin, as a contingency against any possible soviet aggression in the Cold War Period.
Pretty interesting stuff!
Mans Greatest invention was supposed to be the wheel, but in this part of the world, from Karratha on, its air conditioning! thank god for the Lunagazers aircon!
Stayed at the Kimberley Land Caravan Park, fantastic spot right on Lake Kununurra, full of small fish, and an odd freshwater crocodile.
Had a dinner cruise on the lake, given that the boat was open with no fans, great look at the Lake Kununurra which is the diversion dam, the beer was excellent.
Lake Kununurra Cruise
The temperature while we were here was 37 degrees every day, humidity fluctuates between 60 and 80 %, The calendar says its the 2nd June, second day of winter!!!
Lake Kununurra Cruise
I don't know how they handle it in summer, reminds me of The Diary of a Pom.
The Ord Dam is massive with plenty of water, its classed as an inland sea.
Its hard to work out why the area hasn't been more successful as an irrigation area, Water is $6 a Megalitre and plenty of it, Southern high security water at market price in Goulburn Valley is probably closer to $600 Click Here for info.
So you would think there would be Southern farmers flocking here for the cheap water.
So there must be reasons why the area hasn't taken off, one is the heat, its bloody hot, so people would find it difficult to acclimatize.
The area is a long way from southern markets, so trucking distance and spoilage would be a big issue, and the lack of a deep sea port close by would make exports difficult.
TFS Corp Share Price
The main crop here is Indian Sandalwood, with 60% of the farming area planted to it.
All managed by TFS Corporation, we visited the visitors centre, so got the corporate rundown on how good it all is, share price looks pretty flat, but as it takes 15 years to grow, they are only just getting into the production phase, could be worth a small punt.
Apparently the biggest plantation of the species in the world, which is in high demand in see TFS corp video for further info.
Photo Courtesy Aviair
Kunannura is the a door to the Kimberly.
The best look is from the air, so took the tourist fight, a 2 hour flight over Lake Argyle, and he Bungle Bungles, with Aviair, good tour worth the money.
You leave just after daylight, and get back before it gets hot, so ride is nice and smooth before any thermal activity.
The distances here are vast, with many hundreds of Km between Cattle stations, the early settlers must have been resilient, even now the homesteads are a long way out, without helicopters and light aircraft, management would be impossible.
