The Stuart Highway to Heaven

14 October 2009

First afternoon we drove down the (only) road from Darwin, the Stuart Highway. I'm sure Stuart himself was deeply honored, but it's pretty much thousands of kilometers of not much. Hour and a half into it, we turned off for Batchelor, population 730, which is the gateway town for Litchfield National Park. Litchfield is Jan to Kakadu's Marcia, but we'd heard good things and it's on the way south. The main sights include Magnetic Termite Hills. Uh-huh. These are giant towers of termite excreta and saliva; the rather ambitiously named Cathedral Termites build theirs with buttresses, which apparently Australians believe resemble mediaeval cathedrals (I'm not making that up, it's on the signs). Dear Australians: they do not. Love, me. 

The magnetic ones are sort of flat, and perfectly aligned north and south the regulate temperature inside. A field of them looks like a graveyard, all perfectly lined up and pale grey. Still, excreta.

On to the National Park campground at Wangi Falls. Thirteen dollars for the site, paid on an honour system, and free barbecues. Parked and immediately had a kangaroo or wallaroo or whatever watching us. We were very excited (nb: that was two days ago, and we're over it as have seen about 700 since). Sorted out Charlotte, and wandered down to the falls, which are all of 3 minutes walk away. Australia is beautiful—you drive through dry, barren land with nothing but roo roadkill and burnt trees, and then suddenly you're presented with an enormous pool with a waterfall splashing into it. There in late afternoon, we had it all to ourselves...sunlight casting shadows on the red and black rockface, the water was dark and clear and still. A couple of Aussies came along and obligingly took photos of us.

Mexican for dinner, as you do in the Northern Territory. Beef soft tacos, guacamole, salad. Cheryl should be proud.
Yesterday we drove on down the highway another few hundred kilometers. Stopped in Adelaide River to see the military cemetery established there after the Japanese bombed Darwin in 1942, it's lovely and serene and quite sad. Each stone has a quote chosen by the family of the soldier or civilian who lies there—they ranged from stiff-upper-lip lines about King and Country to 'Darlingest Daddy.' About 400+ are buried here, including one Canadian and some Brits; the Americans who died in the Territory were repatriated after the war. There were loads of Americans here for the War; who knew?

Next along was Pine Creek, which apparently was once a thriving gold town, and now has signs featuring the silhouette of Chinese coolies to mark historical places. And an old train.

On to Edith Falls, another lovely swimming pool with a slightly less dramatic waterfall. On the plus side, it does have crocodiles. Swim at your own risk. Picnicked in the shady park—taco salad (running out of ideas). I just like the name Edith, so I'm going with it. I know all these places have reverted to their aboriginal names (Edith is back to Leliyn, Katherine is now Nitmiluk) but I'm just going to stick to what I think is nicer. Edith sounds like some Edwardian Gibson girl.

Anyway, on to Katherine. The town is still Katherine, only the gorge and park have changed. Katherine is a decent sized place, stocked up on essentials (kangaroo meat, electric fan, soda). Giggled a bit at the various place names. And left to drive down to Mataranka. Popped into the local spring-fed pool at Bitter Spring...having spent two days in the dry bit of Australian, we've done more swimming than one might expect. Could be worse—swim, drive, swim, drive, tacos, drive. It's a hard life.