Exploring the Northern Territory

Our time in Darwin wasn't all maintenance, as I wanted to make sure that we explored as much as we could within our time limits. So we booked a couple of tours; 1 day to the Litchfield and 2 days to the Kakadu National Parks. Both involved a lot of driving but "Damo" on the Litchfield Escape tour and Tom on the Kakadu Dreams tour were both entertaining and knowledgeable and kept the trip organised and on time.

Litchfield started with a crocodile viewing trip on the Adelaide River, with croc man Pat, whose huge beard, and wide brimmed hat immediately commanded attention, until you saw his large bare feet. His 4WD Toyota was appropriately numbered CROC 1. Our small group made its way in pairs across the swamp walkway to the waiting flat bottomed boat, where we were protected from leaping crocs by strong mesh. Pat took us up river to meet his friends; a series of female crocs guarding their river bank territory were enticed out to see us by chicken carcasses dangled on a string from a long pole. Then in mid-stream we met a nervous young male and later on were introduced to the mighty bulk of "Gnasher", a 900kg dominant male, named after comic book character, Dennis the Menace's dog. Apparently he could not detect that the boat was full of tasty humans, otherwise he would have been over the barriers in seconds! Meanwhile Pat held forth on the evils of the modern world, McDonalds and processed food, and the lack of connection of modern man to Nature. All very entertaining.

Nine Hundred kilos of Croc - "Gnasher"

 Once in Litchfield National Park we climbed hot rocky gorges to find wonderful waterfalls and pools at Florence Falls, and other sites. The landscape dry, but full of bird life, and stunted woodland.

Sketch of Darwin café under an ancient tree

We got back that evening to Mindil Sunset Beach Market, full of colourful stalls, delicious food and cool jazz wafting through the warm evening air. A frustrated circus act struggled to hold his audience despite astonishing feats including running around in the bridge position like a demented spider (for which he holds the Guinness Book of Records title) and then, after sword swallowing, doing multiple back flips with the sword still in place. Terrifyingly dangerous! I talked to him afterwards, and he apologised for getting cross with children who wandered into his arena mid-show, and complained that he hardly collected enough money to buy a beer. Somehow he needs to find a way to make a reasonable return on his astonishing skills.

West Wind Film

On Friday we had a rest doing maintenance again, but in the evening went to the Darwin DeckChair Cinema for one of the first events in the Darwin International Film Festival. The premier of the film "Barra; Westwind" was introduced by the filmmaker who had spent three years with the clan learning about their oral traditions. The clan then came on with their chief. Djalu Gurruwirri, to dance the West Wind dance before the showing. Sat in the deck chairs with cushions provided for the head, an ice bucket of cold white wine between us and a sunset memory of a hot curry from the theatre cafe it felt an idyllic way to watch a film. The story was emotive as old Djalu struggles to pass on his vital tribal stories, songs and dances to his son Larry. Larry is struggling to fit between the Balander (white) society and the Yolnu society, and takes his traditional yidaki (didgeridoo) music into performance with his rock band. It left us with a sadness that thousands of years of oral tradition will die with Djalu, and probably cannot now be carried forward for the tribe.

Next day we had another early start to Kakadu. 

Stopping at Fogg Dam for a sunrise view of the masses of birds there. Then a long drive in our 4WD truck towing the camping trailer until we lunched in a billabong under a searing sun. Onwards them to Maguk, where we climbed a hot red rock river gorge to swim in the Barramundi river pools, and for the braver amongst us ( Justin and Mark) to dive through rock tunnels. 

I sat sketching and then had trouble finding the group, resulting in lots of hot fast walking along trails before cooling off in the river again. 

The Pool in Barramundi Gorge

Barramundi Gorge

From there Tom drove hard to get to our campsite before sunset, and while he set things up we sat, cold beers in hand, and watched the sun redden the Arnhem escarpment, whilst I frantically tried to capture the scene on paper distracted by maddening flies crawling in and out of my ears, nose, eyes and mouth.

Arnhem Escarpment at sunset

Jim Jim Falls (dry season)

Thankfully the flies left us and at the camp we found a blazing with meat sizzling over the embers, and pots on the boil. We erected dome tents of mosquito netting, and with only 6 of us out of 17 possible there were plenty of mattresses to soften the ground. After supper we sat looking up at the stars, and then Tom played his digeridoo, and gave us lessons. He makes his own, and I considered buying one, but my abject failure to evoke the wonderful vibrant resonant digeridoo sound (unlike everyone else) meant that I didn't get tempted. I'll stick with the flute!

We rose at 05:00 next morning for a very rough drive to the spectacular Jim Jim Falls gorge, and after a long walk up to the pool were there as the sun rose to illuminate the red rocks. No water was flowing at the end of the dry season, and a croc in the pool put us off swimming!

Our final visit was to Nourlangie, where there are amazing rock paintings. I suddenly realised that I had seen these before when Anne and I visited in 2003 for our 50th birthday present. 

Very fascinating to learn more about the culture of the people, and how for millennia they have been managing the ecosystem to maintain productivity, encoding vast amounts of information in song, stories and dance ritual to maintain a deep understanding of the environment and how to manage it.

Another visitor recommended a book called The Memory Code which I subsequently read with great interest, as it dealt with using landscape and song to help maintain the tribal memory of many thousands of plants, insects and animals.

The Lightning Man, Nourlagie, Kakadu National Park

Back in Darwin we had a lovely encounter with Frances and Ted who have been sailing all their lives since children, and who invited us for a evening on their immaculate yacht Kaylie. Frances produced her beautiful log books, kept since childhood while sailing with her parents, and amongst them Justin recognised boats that he had met in 1977, during his circumnavigation.  (Sadly we learned, many months later, that they had decided to separate)

I also had a surprise meeting with Andy and Michelle Goss who were up from Sydney for a few days surveying the marina equipment. Andy recognised our Cornish ensign and we soon established that he, and his brother Pete Goss, had sailed their Newlyn Lugger, Spirit of Mystery, to Australia. A remarkable voyage, in memory of the original Mystery in which seven fishermen had set off from Newlyn to Australia to seek their fortunes in the gold rush of 1854.

I had then seen Spirit of Mystery last summer in St Mawes off Tavern Beach and had followed the original voyage. Pete has now bought a Garcia Expedition 45 to circumnavigate in, which I had been to look over under construction in Cherbourg. Small world!

Spirit of Mystery's route to Australia

Spirit of Mystery left Newlyn at 18:00 on 20 October 2008, bound for Cape Town, just as Mystery did in 1854.  The crew was Andy Goss, Eliot Goss, Pete Goss and Andy Maidment. She arrived in Cape Town on 25 December 2008 and left on 13 January 2009.  

At 09:30 hrs local time on 4 March 2009, Spirit of Mystery was hit by a wave which rolled her more than 90 degrees on her side. Although she righted herself, Mark Maidment sustained a broken leg in the incident. The boat's liferaft and dinghy were lost overboard. Spirit of Mystery was off Kangaroo Island and some 300 nautical miles (560 km) off the coast of Australia when the incident happened. 

Painting of Spirit of Mystery getting a hammering in the Southern Ocean by Gordon Frickers

This painting shows the type of Southern Ocean conditions that I am hoping to avoid!