Kakadu and Darwin

Hello from the top end and a very hot and sticky one it is. Some locals saying it looks like the build up to an early wet season, with clouds starting to appear in the sky and humidity rising.
Darwin is what I remember from previous times; an appealing city with a slow easy pace almost like a big country town.
There is some development going on but according to the Minister of the Territory they need more people and he is now calling on FIFO workers to cease and make the workers of mines live in the territory. Good luck with that if economics have anything to do with it!
Anyway enough of the everyday life what I really want to concentrate on this episode is our week in Kakadu, which in one word can be described as AWESOME!
We started on the south side of Kakadu after obtaining our pass and were told by Kaye and Shane we MUST go to Gunlom (a 4WD road to a plunge pool). This proved to be a very rough, corrugated, arduous journey with the end result a very dry patch of dirt in the shape of a camp. Yes, there was a plunge pool with a very friendly freshwater croc as resident. Yes, we did go swimming, but other than that there wasn't that much to do. Not the best first impression I must admit but if we had stayed a few more days they were having some ranger activities on the weekend that may have been worthwhile. After another 39 kms out we headed to Coowinda on South Alligator River, where we went a bit more civilized in the caravan park.
From here we did our most expensive adventure by taking a boat cruise out on the river just before sunset. Along with about 100 others spread over 4 boats, we had a lovely time cruising up and down the river looking at all sorts of wildlife; crocodiles, Maggie Geese, Black Bittern (very rare apparently), Small Kingfisher (also rare), Whistling Ducks (of which there are many), Egrets, Herons etc. Life is certainly plentiful on the wetlands and this is into the dry season now!
After our sunset we then returned to base where we

Not sure if he was so pleased to see us.

indulged in a Pizza at the bistro, sitting alongside some lovely Dutch people out here for a 28 day tour.
Our next stopover was Jabiru to stock up on a few essentials and to have a quick look at the Ranger uranium mine, a few kms out of Jabiru. Quite a big mine in full action by the number of cars at the entrance to the mine. As nothing held our interest in Jabiru we then headed to the East Alligator camp site. This by far was the best place we found in the park; ranger talks on aboriginal art, ancient rock formation, kinship etc. We even had the opportunity and privilege to do some weaving with some lovely ladies from Arnhem land. 
Ann and Jennifer showed us the process of stripping the Pandanus palm leaves, then cutting them into strands, colouring them with plant matter by boiling them in water, and finally the actually weaving. I have a new respect for these ladies as they plied there talents making us 'balanda' (foreigners) look very tardy. The actual weaving was the easy part; I couldn't get the hang of the stripping the palm fronds for love nor money, yet Ann, particularly, made it look oh-so-easy. All in all a great morning.
I have skipped over the major parts of our time here but there were other walks, talks and interesting places to see and do. Cahill Crossing for one, which is a causeway between Kakadu and Arnhem land, where the crocs actually line up at the causeway, on an incoming tide, to catch the barramundi. Wild!
Please enjoy the photos I have posted as well and I will talk to you another time.  

Jabiru walking on dry floodplain

Could be from Game of Thrones but also a great place to hide from the heat and grind seed.

Cahill's Crsossing

South Alligator river

Ubirr looking over floodplains

Ann and Jennifer showing us the techniques used in weaving and making the colour they use.

Ramsar declared wetland bird hide and Lotus Lilly

Katherine and the top of Australia

Well we have arrived in Katherine after saying farewell to Rob and Ruth back at Threeways: they heading towards Queensland and starting the journey home.
We had a lovely time with them exploring much of Binns Track and the Davenport Ranges. Once again stayed at a station - Murray Downs where we had to share the amenities block with some of the mustering people. With a helicopter starting at 6:00am it was certainly a rude awakening to another bright shiny day (of which we seem to have many). Most days the temperature is around 33C with nights down to about 15C. With what we hear about at home on the weather stakes is sounds like we are in the right place.
The Davenport Ranges, as I said were very pretty, especially the southern end with many rock-holes with water a plenty to be seen. An old tungsten mine, that looks like it could start again tomorrow, was explored on foot around the machinery and old slurry heaps. Apparently it actually hasn't been used since the last world war, but certainly doesn't really show its age too greatly.
We saw some feral donkeys with some of them very noisy during the night, especially when we were stopped at Old Police Station Waterhole a wonderful spot amongst gum tress, green grass and much water. Even enough water for Paul to cast a net and find us some very tasty Red Claw (much like a yabbie).
We all took the short walk around the waterhole to see the ruins of the police station which apparently was abandoned around 1944, following the mine demise. To have a police-station out here must have been one hell of a job, trying to keep the peace between miners, pastoralists and the aborigines.
After our few luxuriant days of 'peace and serenity' it was off to discover Whistling Duck Creek:oh what a disappointment compared to what we had. The place was extremely overgrown with snake invested (looked it anyway, although didn't actually see any) grass, no water in camp area and only 3 out of 16 campsites able to be used. Some of the sites actually having anthills about 12" high!
There was a nice big waterhole if you walked 500 mts, but as it was only a day area and it was hot, we kept our stay to one night and left disappointed.
A few nights in Tennant Creek with some washing, shopping and other incidentals with one night out at a concert for Harmony Week. With kangaroo stew and damper for tea and some great indigenous music we all had a lovely evening except for the cold wind that night.
Onto Bitter Springs after we left the Widdowson's where he spent a lovely night with some wildlife scaring the life out of us. After dark we had a visit from a small wallaby (except we didn't know what it was in the night) that rattled the rubbish bins and scratched around on our ground sheet. Next morning it came again but this time we were awake and quite happy to see the little critter.
Bitter Springs is also well known for its thermal pools and both Paul and I lapped up the clear warm water both in the evening and before we left in the morning; very nice to wake up to.
Now in Katherine where we have caught up with Kaye and Shane who are working at the caravan park. Great to see these two who still seem to enjoy their nomadic life working and holidaying around Oz.
We leave tomorrow and head to  Kakadu NP, so I'm looking forward to seeing another part of Australia I have yet to see.
See you again sometime soon.

Old Police Station Waterhole

Red claw for breaky

Where telegraph line was joined between Alice Springs and Darwin

One of two chairs Paul found on the roadside.