West Macdonald ranges to Edith Falls

Day 110

Woke up and it is freezing. Must have be down to nearly zero overnight so its straight on with the hoodies and hoods up! A couple of coffees to warm us up and we pack up and are off.

Head back into Alice Springs to do some shopping before our long drive North over the next few days.

(In case you didn’t know!)

Without delay we fill up again (much cheaper in big towns) and head 400KM North to Wycliffe well and the ‘UFO capital of Australia’!

Basically it consists of a Roadhouse and a van park and that is it. We had read about the place and been enticed in with not only the near guarantee UFO’s but also the largest selection of beer in Australia!! What more could you want??

Paid our fees and parked up in a good looking spot down the back (away from the highway) little did we realise that we had in fact parked in area 51 (cue X-files music)! Popped the top and as we are setting up we notice that every available surface has something alien related painted on it, to be honest it was all a bit eerie.

Then looking around the campsite we notice there is a small train with tracks leading just round the corner to a large man-made lake that still looked under construction and we began to think the owner might be a bit mad. It looked like the beginnings of a very bad theme park! There were also quite a few animals running about including Chickens (aliens favourites), Emu’s, and an Aviary with all sorts of birds in it.

This bloke is potty.

So we go inside to see this rage of beers and to be fair to him he did have a lot of beers as well as X-boxes and huge plasma TV’s for sale (I didn’t dare ask how much).

We enjoyed our fancy European lager and had a look at all of the newspaper clippings covering the walls, telling of all the UFO sightings and then one article jumped out.

It was about the murdered British backpacker Falconio and was saying that some remains had been found nearby and they were suspected to be his. Then it dawned on us this is the area that all of that happened.

In my best Australian accent I bid the landlord good evening and we retired to the van where we locked the doors.

Day 111

Thankful we had survived the night we packed up (quickly and quietly) and drove straight off to Tennant creek where we filled up and headed further North.

Now we have been wondering about how far we could get on one tank of fuel since we left Sydney and now was the time to find out. We had plenty of spare fuel on the roof and so we headed off with a (very) full tank.

It was textbook driving conditions as well, straight level road and a slight following wind. The fuel low light came on after 395KM and we coasted into the petrol station after 409KM. Well done Polly!! (I think we could have done another 20KM)

Drove just down the road to the famous Daly waters pub and our overnight stop.

The Northern Territory’s oldest pub and a mecca for tourists who over the years have left a wide range of items including flip flops, hats, business cards, bras and pants!! All of which are affixed to the bar and walls. There was also the promise of Live music from ‘Chook man’.

We decided that we would eat in the pub tonight and when the food arrived Carmen proclaimed that it was the biggest burger she had ever had! We washed it all down with pints (yes pints!) of beer and waited for Chook man, and waited, and waited. The crowd started thinning out and after a while we had enough as well and so went to bed disappointed that we hadn’t and probably never would see the great ‘Chook man’ in action.

Day 112

Its time for another ‘Beard update’

3 weeks in and looking suave.

Up at our usual (seems to be just after 7 these days) and a couple of hours drive to ‘Mataranka hot springs’.

Natural hot springs in Elsey National park and the setting for ‘we of the never never’ (and just 5KM off the highway!). Excellent they were as well with year round 34 deg water and lots of flying foxes nesting in the trees above the hot pool. So many in fact that they have put sprinklers up in the trees to frighten them off when they are asleep.

Had a nice long soak and very much refreshed headed on to Katherine. Pop into the information building to pick up some maps and the supermarket and head 20KM out of town to Nitmuluk national park and Katherine gorge.

Set up and as the sun sets families of agile wallabies come out hopping about the campsite (We can tell the difference now) and there not shy either coming right up to see if you’ve got food, but if you don’t feed them they soon hop off.

Day 113

Up early and off to explore Katherine gorge, it’s a large gorge with 8 separate stages and a full sized river running through it.

Decide to do a walk in the morning (whilst it is still cool) and come up to a nice lookout over the first section of the gorge.  

After lunch we hired a canoe and paddled our way up to the end of the first section. Lovely way of seeing the gorge from the water and although it was quite a paddle into the wind we had a nice swim in a rockpool at the end and had the pleasure of the wind pushing us all the way back to the hire jetty. Wonderful afternoon!

We returned to the van and were sitting about looking at all the wallabies bouncing about when we heard a soft thump from inside the van.

We both jumped and turned to see a wallaby in the van!

He looked quite at home and I was hoping if we left him he might do the washing but no, he jumped out and bounced off to brag to his mates no doubt.

Day 114

Time to leave Katherine gorge and today heading for Edith falls in the same National park as yesterday but further North. A short drive and we are there and set up, get our swimmers straight on and Walk to upper pools.

They are beautiful, the water is crystal clear and the pools are pretty deep near the falls. I was straight in for a swim and Carmen cooled off in the shade. The water was lovely and with rocks for climbing you could spend the day here.  

Whilst having a look round the rocks I saw a snake slithering about!

 I gave him a wide berth and we walked back down to the lower pool and this time Carmen was straight in! We both swam around for a bit and then warmed up again the sun before heading back.

On the way Carmen spotted a flyer for a ranger slideshow in the park and it was tonight!

With thoughts (still fresh) of the bloke carrying on at the Macdonald ranges we retreated to the van.