Endless Summer

At home in Newcastle it is mid winter, with so much rain that our bathroom ceiling is caving in!  Hard to imagine here as we sweat through 30 degrees, swimming in beautiful waterfalls, kyacking through gorges, and soaking up the culture and beauty of the Northern Territory.   John had planned the trip so that we left home before winter set in, to chase summer as we travelled North.   

Also spent a week in Darwin, a modern city with a deep history.  It has suffered the greatest of tragedies.  The first locaI I spoke – (for those that have been following our story, he was the technician fixing our caravan fridge) had said he and his family fled Darwin after Cyclone Tracey when he was a young boy, and he didn’t return until he was in his thirties. (The government order the evacuation of about 40,000 people from the city after the cyclone – I can’t fathom what that would have been like).  Since then the city has been gradually rebuilt.    A tough task as only thirty years earlier they were rebuilding after the world war 2 bombing of Darwin.  This creates incredible contrasts with most buildings built in the last thirty years, shadowed by a few monumental ruins from both the bombing and the cyclone. 

I hadn’t realised how strong the war history is in Darwin, particularly the trail up on the Stuart Highway
from Adelaide River.  It still has a strong military presence with an army base.   We took a walk through the oil tunnels built to store oil in 1942.  They were wet and we walked in puddles.  Joshua told other passing tourists ‘This is where they made water’ – somehow I think he’s a bit confused after all the educational exhibits we’ve dragged them through.

The greatest highlight of Darwin was catching up with our travelling Newcastle friends we’d met in Atherton.  The kids were thrilled to catch up, and the adults enjoyed a meal of fresh mud crab (great cooking Tony).    The Mindel Markets held at sunset by the beach are a cultural sensation.  Stalls of crafts and international cuisine, with a hundred people all on the beach to watch a perfect orange ball slowly fall and disappear over the horizon, lighting up the sky.   I had taken Amy for a walk around the markets, she found something pink and decided it was hers.  It took me a long time to find the stall it came from to return it.

Darwin’s waterprecinct beachfront was fun for the kids, with a crocodile free netted beach area, and a wave pool.  It reminded me of Newcastle’s honeysuckle with café’s restaurants and accommodation overlooking wharf and beach.  We also enjoyed the war monuments, botanical gardens, art gallery and museum.  So nice to be in a city again.

 Finally ready to leave Darwin we drive off to the sound of a V8 engine revving, and discovered it was us – that sound doesn’t normally come out of a Ford Territory.  It was the same problem we had had with our exhaust back in Tamworth.  We tried every exhaust place in Darwin, but they couldn’t fit us in.  With one last try before heading back to the caravan park John stopped into a tyre centre that looked quiet.  They were fabulous, put the car on the hoist, tightened our loose exhaust screws and sent us on our way for free!  Thanks Darwin we had a great stay.

There is a strong mix of aboriginal people in NT, it is still there home.  The cultural displacement is strongly evident.  They are beautiful, but there is a minority who spoil their reputation and create trouble in the community.   You can tell alcohol is a real problem, even older women - grandmothes - drunk in the streets through the day.   Young men drinking, shouting, wandering and loitering.  There is a lot of iddleness.  It is all product of the western society breaking down and in some cases destroying generations of cultural structure.  A long time ago we also moved in herds of or cattle to destroy the eco system they really on.  When you head into Kakadu, on the border of Arnhem Land, and you see the pride of the people start to emerge, the incredible rock art and stories help you appreciate the deep heritage cultivated over many thousands of years. I don’t know the answers, but I greatful to see all this with my own eyes and grow in understanding - with much more to learn.

At one of the Information centres there is a library and we take the chance to read the boys stories about the aboriginal narratives.  Joshua is taken by the rainbow snake, and spends the next few weeks talking about it, and we chase rainbow snake tracks on our walks.

The kids did some amazing bush walks.  We were told that the sunset at Ubir lookout was not to be missed.  Although sunset is 6.30, the kids bedtime, but we decide to push through on the walk.  The kids were bounding with energy on the climb up, but it was so late, they were really set for a big display of tired tantrums by the time we were headed back.  Sometimes three little kids on the road is a bit of circus, and we don’t know whether to laugh or have a break down.   I am taking photo’s of a magnificent sunset vista across the wetlands, while John is chasing after Josh who has run off to the cliff, Amy is crying for sheer tired, and Sam is having a melt down over not wanting his picture taken. 

 

Our last day in NT was 2^nd of July, and we take a walk to see a boab tree with a date carved in it by explorer Augustus Charles Gregory after he was shipwrecked there in 1855.  To our suprise the date on the tree also happened to be 2^nd of July only about 160 years earlier.  We are in the middle of our trip now, and we feel like we are in the centre of Gods will.

Now we are heading across to WA.  I am very excited, but also a little nervous.  I have been told the spaces are vast, and you have no idea until you experience it.  Meeting other famlies travelling on the road with their kids they have decided not to go across.   Still we head on excited about the adventure.