Darwin has been a good city to us, we stuck around for Territory day, which was probably the best day of my life. It's better than Christmas or New Years. It was so dangerous on the day, the blend of alcohol and fireworks made just the right combination for a great day, I can't believe no-one we knew went to hospital. It was such a great day, fireworks were shooting into cars and people were shooting them at each other, we saw one guy on a scooter who had a volley shot at him, and there were so many close scrape explosions, it was just a day of non-stop danger and good fun. I'm definitely coming to Darwin for the next territory day as it's probably going to be axed soon..
At least $1000 worth of fireworks which we let off on territory day
Fireworks going off on the rickshaw
The view of the constant fireworks going off outside the house
After leaving Darwin we headed back home for a bit to catch up with family and drop Rachael's car off before we headed off again. The drive was so long, and it was freezing, we decided to camp along the way and it got down to - 6 degrees in alice springs, and probably less than that in South Australia. Rachael was getting pretty over it by the third night, but we got there. It made us appreciate the bus a bit more after sleeping in a tent.
Me and my Brother and the harbour bridge
After hanging out down south we came back up to Darwin and hung around for a bit until some of our friends came up to Darwin.
Before they came up we decided it was time to finally go to Kakadu, which was a pretty cool national park.
Before we left though we had the usual bus drama's. We took it in for a service and whilst it was getting it's outrageously overpriced service the starter motor suddenly stopped working (very suspiciously).
Then, when we got out of the mechanics the front right brakes started grabbing, which was really alarming because it would jerk the steering wheel out of your hands and veer right violently.
And if you managed to hold the wheel the front right wheel would lock up...
I thought the mechanic had readjusted the brakes dodgily, but it turns out there was a whole lot of crap in the front wheel hub.
Also the rear right drive axle seal started leaking oil again. Which I have replaced again, and have now found out that if you drive for a long period on a fairly tapered road (as we do) then all the oil can pool on one side of your diff and axle, and the elevated (right) side of the axle gets no grease, which can chew up your axle seal. (I think that might be whats happening anyway, that or we're getting too much pressure build up in the diff, but I can't find a release vlave on the old 1972 diff)
So now to prevent the seal getting chewed up I drive on the opposite side of the road from time to time to get some grease to the other end of the axle.
We also keep 2 spare seals now just in case...
SO ANYWAY, Kakadu.
We got in and decided we'd do everything, we had time to burn, so the first dirt road off the Kakadu highway went to a few billabongs which we thought we'd check out. We took the bike in as it was rough dirt road (the roughest road we encountered at kakadu actually).
It was a pretty long trip in (about 36 Kms) when we hit a river crossing before Alligator billabong (not on the map). Being at Alligator billabong neither of us wanted to wade through to check how deep the water was, so we decided to wing it. We went through on the bike and it went well at first, but then just kept getting deeper until the water was almost at the handlebars. ...Which was when the bike died.
We jumped off and pushed it across and then after a bit of coaxing got the bike started again (XR's are great bikes). We headed out to alligator billabong, which was really shit... more of a muddy lake, and then we had to try and get across the river again.
I've been watching a bit of motocross on tv where they hit the water really fast and then skim across the top and the bike doesn't go in so I thought I'd give that a go. Rachael got off and I hit the water at about 60-70K's.
It didn't work at all...
After about 2 metres the front wheel dug in and I went flying off the bike. It got totally flooded, we waded it across, but it wouldn't start cost there was water all through the carburetor.
It took at least an hour of kick starting it with the throttle open and a lot of bruises on my leg to get it started again.
I was so glad it started though, it was getting late in the day, and it would have been a long 6 hour walk back in the dark..
The river crossing. Notice the air filter drying on the log...
Rachael at Red Lily Billabong - a really nice place to camp if you have a 4wd.
Everything else at Kakadu was pretty cool. My favourite spot was probably Maguk, it had some amazing fish in it in a deep rock pool (a good 15m deep). Unfortunately though I didn't think to bring my camera housing so no shots of the fish.
Instead, here's a bunch of other shots from Kakadu and elsewhere:
Rocky ranges at east Kakadu. The western side is all pretty flat with a few wetlands, the eastern side is where it gets most interesting with giant rock cliffs
The bus
Rock Art. I don't think anyone really knows what this paining is about, the sign was a bit vague and said the traditional owners weren't too forthcoming about it. The dude at the top right is the lightning man. We got to see the cliffs where he lives on our tour. I think the top middle guy is narbulwarlwarl who eats women after he hits them with a yam.
Us posing somewhere randomly
A bunch of bush bees (or flies?) settling down at a waterfall near gunlom
Butterfly
Gunlom Falls. A really nice spot, but full of tourists...
Maguk waterhole, my favourite place in our trip to Kakadu. This pool was teaming with all kinds of fish. I wish I'd brought my camera housing. Did get a good snorkel though
Maningrida snapping turtle - We house sitted one of these guys in Darwin for a while and he was a nut case, I've never seen such an energetic turtle. I really like these turtles. They will snap your finger though given half a chance
Little Saltwater crocodile at Yellow River
Me at the edge of Gunlom Falls
Unidentified fresh water fish. I've never seen a fish like this in fresh water, it looks like a seargent baker a little bit... It was a pretty big fish
Catfish (Taken at Berry Springs)
Freshwater Garfish - I didn't even know fresh water garfish existed. It seems like all of these fresh water fish have a salt water counterpart
After Kakadu we headed back up to catch up with our friends, we had a great time. It wasn't easy on our aging livers though...
Push Bike Jousting between Toby and K.C
After our friends left we headed down to Douglas Daly hot springs. These were really nice, with a campground right next to the springs.
These were real hot springs too, no one had made a rock dam to pool the hot water, it just came out of the ground in geysers, and it was scalding hot where it came out, but if you found where it pooled for a while, or where it came into contact with the river it was pretty bearable. It was a really nice place (except for all the elderly people).
The best part though was butterfly gorge. We weren't sure whether we'd bother to head out there, the road that way was pretty rough, but after talking to a D.J nearby who was living in another coaster we headed out, and it was AMAZING. It is easily the best place I've been to in my limited time in the N.T. The moment we started walking in the temperature dropped about 5 degrees and there were big trees all around us.
There was no-one there the entire time we were there, this is probably because you have to climb over a bit of a rock cliff to get there and none of the grey nomads could do that (losers).
When we got there we weren't sure we were at the right pool, and so were a bit worried about swimming in the water (with potential crocs) but the D.J had told us to swim past the first pool and check out the gorge, we gave it a go and it was so good. I'll let the photo's do the talking, but they never do it justice. I think I might get a better camera.
Douglas Daly hot springs
Water monitor at one of the heated pools. This lizard was so drunk on heat he wouldn't move even when we sat right next to him.
Extreme cliff free climbing
Coming down off the rocks into the start of butterfly gorge
Lame photo in front of some cool rocks
The start of the gorge
A worried Rachael as we swim up into the gorge
The first part of butterfly gorge
Hanging in a rock pool
Algae sliding
Thats about everything interesting so far. From there we've headed over to Kununurra, which is a real nice town. It's a bit of a desert oasis with a huge lake in the middle with some beautiful water birds (including my favourite bird up here the Jacana, which can walk on water. I think the lake next to the caravan park we've stopped in has better birdlife than we saw throughout Kakadu actually.
Kununurra has had some fun things to do as well, we've headed out to a few landmarks and fed the fish. It's been good. The main reason we have stopped in a caravan park though is because the bus is playing up again.
It is because of all the dirt roads we've been going through, we've picked up a poltergeist in the wiring somehow.
For a bit the dash lights wouldn't work, then the dash lights worked but we had no headlights, then when you put the headlights on the windscreen washer pump would go on, then the indicators stopped working, then miraculously started working again but nothing else did.
I spent a good 12 hours in the dash trying to figure out what the hell is going on, without being able to exorcise this demon from the dash board. Got the windscreen wipers fixed (bad earth) and then I took the cover off a solenoid under the dash, then saw it was fine, put the cover back on, and now everythings fixed...
Should it have been that easy? ... My prediction is no.
So, with the next blog update expect to hear a lot of facts about indicator circuits.
Here's some pictures of Kununurra;
Catfish feeding at the zebra rock gallery goes on all day, you just have to bring some bread to the jetty. It was pretty cool feeding the local fish. If you stuck your finger in they'd try and eat that too. The archer fish were cool, they'd jump heaps high out of the water to try and get some bread before the catfish could get in.
Infuriating rock cairns. I don't know who feels the need to make these things
The Kununurra landscape
Rachael at some national park in Kununurra
Fish caught spearfishing in Darwin Harbour. The Barracuda almost snapped the spear off (which would have made 3 spears lost to monster fish in Darwin). The fish were delicious. Hyso is in the background
So that's all, next we're heading to the bungle bungles. It's about 120K's of the roughest dirt road imaginable apparently. But no problem for the XR (as long as there are no river crossings), that bike just laughs at every dirt road we put in front of it, we are always overtaking four wheel drives. It's a good feeling screaming past a $30000 landcruiser on your shitbox motorbike.
If we make the trip expect another update in a week or two
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