Darwin to The Kimberley

The Lazy Lizard Caravan Park
& Tavern.

Our overnight stop at Pine Creek was interesting. This is a frontier style town without a lot going for it. It made its name with a few gold rushes over the years, and in fact The Crocodile Gold Mine is taking a nice volume of gold out of the ground at present. Our accommodation was the Lazy Lizard Tavern Caravan Park. It was very basic and quite small, but the old mud brick tavern was recently renovated, and is a nice place to have a cold beer on a hot day, which we certainly did. There are quite a few very basic Dongas that house mine worker staff. These Dongas are just like shipping containers with a single room, one window and an air conditioner. It is crazy seeing a Mercedes or brand new Landcruiser Sahara worth $100,000, parked out front of a Donga!

Pine Creek's polluted lake.

We asked the lady at the office what there was to see around town. She blew the dust off a pile of A4 sheets that happened to be her own 'Mud" Map of town. She explained it was pretty accurate, and to our surprise listed 30 attractions!! A closer examination showed us that some of the attractions were not on our usual list of must sees, such as the Rubbish Dump, the Sewerage Treatment Plant and the Mechanic, but undaunted we headed off. First stop was the Lookout. It was right on the edge of town and after a steep little climb, we were afforded a lovely view out over the town and a beautiful emerald green lake, which was the result of the original old gold mine pit being flooded. We thought how lucky the locals were to have such a nice recreational spot, but then read that the water was full of heavy metals and a swim would mean you glowed in the dark!!

Pine Creek Cemetery.

We headed back through town past the Old Bakery, the Old Railway Station, the Old Gaol, the Old old old old old everything. Our lady had told us not to miss the Old cemetery, which was actually the current cemetery as well. There is nothing more desolate than an Old country cemetery in need of a little TLC. This one was full of giant termite mounds, which were much more spectacular than the headstones. We wandered around, reading the inscriptions and plaques. On one of the more recent headstones, I read about Zander, who had fled from Hungary in 1948 to make a new life in Australia. Now Zander had obviously suffered a severe head knock in transit, as he chose Pine Creek out of all of the wonderful places in Australia! His new life ended in 2007, and I bet he isn't getting too many visitors from Hungary.

Walking in Umbrawarra Gorge.

Back out past the sewerage treatment works, which is a good place to watch the local bird life, if you can hold your breath for a long time, we headed over to the quaintly named Pussy Cat Flats Golf & Turf Club. You can camp here, and there is an annual race meeting. We drove out to Umbrawarra Gorge along a reasonable dirt road. We did the walk into the gorge which featured rugged rock formations along a slowly running creek. On the way back we stopped in at Lake Copperfield which is the local recreation area. It seemed quite nice, and safe to swim without getting up a glow. Finally, we drove past the old railway machinery exhibition, and the currently under repair Water Gardens, and then we were back at the Lazy Lizard

Bush Fires along the Victoria Hwy.

Kites chasing the fire for dinner.

Next morning we were off to Timber Creek. A quick stop in Katherine for some extra fuel, then it was west towards the WA border. The Victoria Hwy links the Northern Territory with Western Australia. It is very quiet, and we get quite excited when we see another car! The scenery is ruggedly beautiful, with lots of flat topped mountains, red earth and rocks, and sparse vegetation. Fires are raging everywhere, and we came across one right beside the road. The fires are slow moving, mostly

Whistling Kites, Australia's 3rd
largest bird of prey.

burning through the dry grass, but when you get close up it is fascinating, as there are hundreds of Whistling Kites swooping along the front of the fire, picking up the thousands of insects, lizards and small rodents rushing to escape the flames. It is an amazing example of nature at work. We have been told several times now, that these Kites have been observed picking up burning embers and dropping them to start new fires!! As Australia's third largest bird of prey, they are quite a large bird, and up here in the Top End the skies are just full of them, slowly circling around on the thermals, looking for dinner.

Says it all!!

We stopped at the Victoria River Roadhouse for lunch. We cracked up at the sign (see picture) proclaiming "Under New Wife", and settled in to share one of those real Aussie Hamburgers and chips. It was a beauty, but the new wife has to learn that the onions don't go on the bottom. It makes the bun go soggy! Onions on the pattie please! We laughed at a young couple of Japanese tourists who we had passed along the road. They were obviously on a budget tour, or should commit hari kari on their travel agent when they get home. They were driving an old Toyota Lite Ace Van blowing lots of smoke, which must have had a top speed of 80kmph! We actually passed them, just south of the roadhouse. They came to the door of the roadhouse, seeking the cool air conditioning, but got put off by the big sign on the door stating "ONLY FOOD BOUGHT HERE IS EATEN INSIDE". They retreated to a semi shaded table outside and opened up their half eaten loaf of No Frills brand bread, took one slice each of that individually packaged No Frills brand sliced cheese, and washed it down with water from their recycled old 2 litre Coke bottle! Total cost, 30 cents a serve!

Timber Creek Sign

Timber Creek from the Escarpment
Lookout.

We arrived at Timber Creek, the Shire capital of the region, population, very few. It is nicely tree lined, and a drive around shows that there are quite a number of homes spread around among the trees. Actually, when we drove up onto the fantastic Escarpment Lookout, and looked down on town, I had to revise my population estimate, to maybe a couple of hundred! Actually, this lookout was fantastic. The bitumen road comes up onto the escarpment and continues

Carolyn at the Lookout.

along the ridge with a number of vantage points taking advantage of the magnificent out back scenery. Here it almost looks like someone has just dumped truck loads of rubble around in the bush, but it is a natural phenomenon, with the  heavy rains of the wet season continually exposing the layers of rock. At one of the vantage points, is a large memorial dedicated to an exclusive band of Bush Commandos, who were a secret army regiment formed during WW11, and whose job it was to watch over the entire north of Australia. In small bands of 6 to 10 men, and aided by Aboriginal trackers, they roamed the bush for months on end, seeking out any Japanese infiltrators. They used Pedal Radio to communicate, and many of them went crazy with the isolation, or died from malaria and other diseases. Amazing!! 

The Gregory Tree recorded
brother Neil's birthday!

Boab Trees.

The local rugged scenery is home to the Boab Tree, and some of these are huge. One such tree is the Gregory Tree, named in honour of the explorer Augustus Charles Gregory, who explored much of this country in the 1850's. This tree was the site of a base camp set up by Gregory as a small farm producing fresh vegetables and provisions for the various expeditions. The other major feature of the area is the Victoria River, which amazed us as to its size so far inland from the sea. Apparently, supplies were shipped to Gregory's camp along the river on quite large sailing vessels. Today, much of the area north of the river is a huge army camp and live firing range, where the army plays Cowboys and Afghans! There is an impressive bridge across the river, just south of town, that provides access to the area.

Us at Timber Creek.

Victoria River at Policeman's Point
near Timber Creek.

Back at the caravan park, I had neglected to tell you the reason for our stay at Timber Creek. We had been told of a wonderful cruise on the Victoria River, run by a husband & wife. However, when we checked in and asked about the cruise, they told us it had stopped running 4 weeks ago due to lack of tourists. The dilemma this caused us is the fact that just west of here at the border is the Agriculture Checkpoint, and they are strict about checking, and nothing fruit and veggie is allowed. We had 3 days worth of lovely tropical fruit and veggies galore, so we went vegetarian for two days and consumed everything we had except a dicey looking onion and a

Along the Victoria Hwy
near WA border

Food fit for a Grand Final.

shrivelled potato! There was no one in the park, so we took over the pool, which was lovely and cool, and each afternoon at 5.00pm an old local took us down to the creek while he fed a few Freshwater crocodiles and tossed some meat in the air for the Whistling Kites to swoop down and catch in their talons. We actually watched the Grand Final at Timber Creek, and I can tell you we weren't going to be doing the vegetarian thing that night!  We had saved a great piece of beef and a bottle of champagne for the occasion. I know that the Rooster's win made a lot of my family happy, but I still felt a twinge of sadness for my long suffering Manly mate, Fred. Bad luck mate. For me, a long suffering Dragons fan, I'm glad the season is over. I am so over Sonny Bill Wanker and those bloody Burgess brothers! Oh no, Sonny's signed for another year!!! 

Next day we were on the road early to meet the Fruit Nazis at the border, and hand over that onion and spud!