Stuart Highway

7 June 2012

May 16th.

I don’t know whether something I ate does not agree with me, sulphites maybe, or my neck was crooked when we watched another episode of Underbelly on the laptop, but this morning I have a massive migraine. I haven’t had one for months, but this one comes back nasty. I’m close to vomiting and can hardly get up.

While Claire kindly agrees to pack up everything, clean up everything, do pretty much all the work by herself, I try to get back to sleep. No such luck, f** it let’s get out of here. I’ve taken a couple of codeine pills so Claire has to drive today. She does it nicely, and gets us back on tarmac three hours later. Thanks again.

We’ll be camping at Wycliffe tonight, supposedly the UFO centre of Australia. The place is known for its UFO landing site… The owners were on drugs when they bought the place I reckon. There’s alien statues everywhere in the caravan park, even the shower walls are painted with alien and UFO’s and space stuff…

Well at least they sell beer, and we can enjoy a hot shower again, the southerly wind has stopped blowing and tonight will be a bit warmer. From time to time we can hear the emus growling and a chicken trying to enter our tent.

I reckon the owners actually are from outer space, the place is madness…

Distance today: 261km, total: 17316km.

May 17th.

Well, the UFO center was fun but we must go on. We drive north to Tennant Creek, which actually is a lot nicer than expected. Junk food for lunch and we’re back on the road for another few kilometres. We stop for bushcamping 90minutes later, and we bought beer at Wycliffe so we’ve got it all.

Not much happened today, we just drove. The Stuart Highway from Alice to Darwin is actually a very dull stretch of road. We’ll be doing longer drives from now on.

On the way we pass the Devil’s Marbles, hundreds of massive boulders spread across miles, while the biggest and most impressive are just along the highway. They’re humongous, some the size of a house, formed billion of years ago with erosion and pressure. Quite amazing.

Distance today: 260km, total: 17576km.

May 18th.

We decided to get up with the sun, pack up and go. Much different from this past month, when we’d usually leave around 11AM…

Since there is nothing to do in the car for Claire, while I’m driving she gets to her videos and sorts out her rushes, mixes all together with carefully selected music, and you can now watch the result here : Credits, Episode One, Episode Two, Episode Three and Episode Four.

We stop at the Highway Inn, a very typical roadhouse, decorated much like all roadhouses : truck photos, jokes, stubbie holders and a couple of drover hats.

Further along the road, Larrimah offers a nice break with its zoo. It’s actually pretty depressing to see these animals caged up but at least Claire sees her very first big saltie. Well he’s not that big so she’ll comment with “I want to give him a hug”. Right…

We enter Elsey National Park at Mataranka for its famous hot springs then decide to camp there. The water is not that hot, 33degrees Celsius, but it’s a refreshing oasis on this boring highway. The caravan park is cheap and pretty much empty. There’s a dozen wallabies hopping around the park, oblivious to us humans.

Tonight at the bar, after happy hour, live entertainment. Well, that’s entertainment for sure, the singer can’t sing but she’s obviously very dedicated. There’s even a guy dancing his night away. Karaoke follows and the screeching voices entertain us for dinner until late. Poor wallabies.

Distance today: 451km, total: 18027km

Katherine and Nitmiluk National Park.

May 19th.

The second hot springs are actually a lot nicer. Bitter Springs, as they’re called, run for about a hundred metres along a deep canal, which we swim all the way. The water is still at a comfy 33 degrees Celsius, flows next to waterlilies and various palm trees, and is actually so clear you can see the bottom. I expect it is so full of sulphur and different gasses that no algae or fish live in it. It’s just like a hot tub. Minus the yellow rubber duck.

From Bitter Springs we enter Katherine. The drive is long enough to allow Claire to finish editing her videos on the laptop, and we reach town just after lunch.

They say it’s a bad idea to go shopping when you’re hungry… This could explain why our shopping trolley at Coles is so full, but hey, you only live once and we felt like it. Mind your own business. While we pack up the fridge with fresh fruits and veg and meat and all sorts of nice things, Claire had a great idea : what if we put the Tupperware’s with last night’s leftover on the dash, park the car in the sun and wait for it to reheat. Well, it worked, it’s actually hot, and makes lunch so much nicer.

The main attraction in Katherine is the Katherine Gorge, where we pitch our tent. There isn’t much choice in terms of accommodation as the campground is the only one available. It’s right at the foot of the gorge, has a lot of wallabies, a lot more fruit-bats in the trees, and Internet by the pool. Nice.

I spend all evening writing up the blog articles while Claire does all the work. Thank you dear, by the time I was done, the tent was up and dinner was ready for me to cook: barramundi fillet, nicely cooked in butter, garlic and fresh herbs, medium heat. Served with a salad of crispy fresh roquette. Too bad the bottle-o is closed on WE.

Distance today: 157km. total: 18184km.

May 20th.

Since we shopped when hungry, we could not resist the offer: three packs of crumpets for the price of one. There’s another Australian magical ingredient: crumpets ! I don’t know what they actually are, but it’s like a thick pancake, smooth on one side, and pierced with holes on the other. Like the pancake was bubbling while cooking. Anyways, you eat it warm (toasted or pan-fried), with a lot of salted butter and runny honey. The combo is just the best. MORE, GIMME MORE!

After we’ve licked our fingers, our plates and everything with honey and melted butter on it, we moved to the pool, in the hope of quickly uploading photos, videos and the blog articles… Mmh, quickly is not a word I’d use in this sentence. More like dripping-honey-on-a-crumpet-slow. So instead of one free hour online, I spent four hours at six bux an hour to upload what you’ve now read and seen. And the videos aren’t yet online.

Anyways, it killed my patience, so a nice walk up the top of the gorge should calm me down. Great lookout, too bad we can’t swim in the river, apparently a saltie has been spotted.

Back in town, we’re too weary to look for anything nice, so we settle for the first caravan park available. It’s funny how a day of doing noting ruins your spirit. I understand now why bored people are sad people. Give it a try: spend the day on your couch, watching telly, not bothering showering and slumbering to the fridge to shove potato chips and a can of coke down your throat once in a while, see how you feel at the end of the day…

Distance today: 38km, total: 18222km.

May 21st.

The Information Centre in Katherine was the reason for staying another night here. It didn’t tell us much though, so we leave town and head off to the next National Park: Nitmiluk. It’s not as big as Kakadu of course, but is just next to it, on the South. While Kakadu is more the “bottom” of a massive rocky outcrop, Nitmiluk is its top. Or to explain it better, Nitmiluk is a plateau, through which a couple of rivers run, and when the plateau ends, down below starts Kakadu. Sort of.

Anyways, Nitmiluk has a great many bush walks, leading to Edith Falls. The campground has been devastated by last year’s floods, which washed away the kiosk and most of the facitilies, but it’s still very comfortable. From the campground, there is a 1h walk up the top of a hill, which lead to the actual falls.

Again, the floods have washed down a lot of debris and massive boulders, but there are a series of plunge pools from the cascade. The water isn’t that cold, and makes a great refreshing stop on the bushwalk. We spent all afternoon sunbathing and swimming against the current of the falls. I just love rivers.

Back at camp: a treat Claire prepared this morning. Quick recipe when you’re craving for chocolate: in a saucepan, slowly melt 100g of dark chocolate (the darker and bitter the better, 75 precent cocoa at least). Add a spoonful of salted butter for smoothness. In a large bowl, mix three egg yolks with a spoonful of sugar until it becomes white. Add the melted chocolate and mix together. In another bowl, whip the egg-white until very firm.
At this point there are two methods: either add a third of it to the chocolate (don’t add chocolate to egg-white, it doesn’t work. Always egg-white to chocolate. Don’t argue), then mix it well. Only after, you can carefully add the remaining egg-white and slowly mix it with a wooden spoon. Second method is to add everything slowly with the wooden spoon. I prefer the first method but it’s up to you. So, 100g of dark chocolate, three eggs, a bit of sugar and a bit of butter.

Once you’re satisfied with your chocolate mousse, put it into the fridge for a couple of hours and forget it’s there. This is a actually good time to go bushwalking and swimming in a river cascade, by the time you come back, your dessert is ready. Yay!

Distance today: 66km, total: 18288km.