Top End Travels - Ngukurr

Saturday 25 May 2019

Our breakfast call this morning was for 6:30 again so I was up and rearing to go. We were to leave early for our series of helicopter rides but a very thick fog delayed this activity. It was actually a beautiful morning and so quiet in the fog.

It was decided that we would go to the Ngukurr Art Centre first. There we met a number of artists who produce a stunning range of artworks but my favourite was a textile designer Karen Rogers. I eventually decided on two of her things - a small shoulder bag for use on this trip and a half metre of one of her fabrics.

However, before I could buy it we were called for the first group to go on the helicopter ride and I was in this group. We were driven out to the airport where we met our pilot Tristan and settled in for the ride. I am always apprehensive about such things as I can be quite motion sick. But it was such an interesting trip. The aim was to fly over "the hidden city" which is a younger version of the Bungle Bungles. It was stunning. We also saw buffalo and brumbies.

On our return we were driven back to the Arts Centre to make our purchases then home for lunch. We had an easy time chatting while all the others went on their helicopter rides (4 groups in all) each one getting almost an hour in the air.

It was then time to drive down to the river for a cruise downriver to the site of the old mission. It is a huge river and we even saw sea eagles and their nest.

We had a short time ashore at the mission station to look around and even saw some Australian Crow butterflies.

Back home to catch up on emails and blogs for the last time for a few days as this is our last Telstra tower until Boroloola.

Top End Travels - Darwin to Ngukurr (Roper River)

Friday 24 May 2019   (A to B on the map)

Breakfast call was for 6:30 with our bags down and ready to leave. So I had a normal breakfast of meuslie, fruit and even toast, at my normal breakfast time of 6:30. A much better start to a morning.

We left the hotel by 7:15 and headed southeast out of Darwin on the Stuart Highway. On our way I spotted some Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos and some interesting plants included Cycads, short Livistona palms, a golden fine-leaved Grevillea, Callitris intratropica and lots of Pandanus.

Map of My Journey - Darwin to Cairns - Click this link to see the map larger in Google Maps

We stopped for morning tea at Adelaide River at the war cemetery. Next to the cemetery is a huge mowed shady picnic area so there was lots of opportunity to walk around spotting birds - Red-winged Parrot, Rainbow Bee-eaters, and even some other unidentified parrots flying around. There were lots of Grass-blue Butterflies and the huge tree under which we had our morning tea was an African Mahogany.

Further on we spotted Brolga, Jabiru and the yellow flowers of the Kapok bushes. The termite mounds are many and varied.

Lunch was under another interesting tree (Mallotus or Baloghia in the Euphorbiaceae) at the helicopter airfield at Katherine. We met the pilot who will be taking us up tomorrow (Tristan).

On south to Mataranka Springs where we had a very short time slot of half an hour for a dip in the thermal pools but I decided I'd rather walk than end up spending all my time changing then getting dry and dressed again.

From Mataranka we turned east on the Savannah Way towards Roper Bar (Ngukurr pron. Nooka). The road was mostly single lane bitumen for some time. There were lots of places close to the road which were being control burned or had been a few days before.

Near Mt Cook we saw our first Triodia. After Roper Valley East we hit dirt road but it was reasonably well maintained. Along this stretch we saw Bustards, Budgies and Buffalo.

We arrived at Ngukurr at sunset and settled into our motel quickly before having dinner provided by the local store out under the stars.

Ngukurr is within Arnhem Land and is an aboriginal community who are trying to be as self sufficient as they can so have set up various businesses and industries in the area. No-one can stay in the town without an invitation and apparently Outback Spirit is the only tour company allowed to stay. We were given a rundown about how the community works and a bit about various culturally sensitive behaviours.

Top End Travels - Darwin 4

Thursday 23 May 2019

Up and out to breakfast at Ally Cat, another cafe owned and run by Brigid and Joe. This cafe will be closing this week so we just made it. The home made meuslie was fabulous and just what I needed to get me back to a normal breakfast.

We returned to our apartment and finished our packing so we could check out and drop our bags at our hotel for tonight. We then drove along the Esplanade closer to Parliament House where Karen had found reference to a quilt on show. However the quilt was off for repair but we did have a nice time browsing the exhibition of Darwin and watching a short slide show with lots of old photos.

It was then time to drop the car out at the airport and meet up with our Outback Spirit guide Faye and fellow travellers as they arrived on their respective flights. We just had nibbles for lunch while we waited and we used the time for Ally to crunch the numbers so we could divide up the costs of our three days at the apartment.

The bus was waiting to transport us all back to the hotel (Double Tree by Hilton) for checkin. I have a beautiful room overlooking the water of Darwin harbour.

I spent an hour or so walking back to the town centre partly through the waterfront park.

I returned back via Mitchell St., meeting K and A on their way out.

It was then time to sit in the aircon and catch up with writing, photo sorting and just admiring the stunning view. Today's breeze has blown in a few clouds but blown away a lot of the smoke haze from all the control burning.

I went down to the Poolside Bar and enjoyed a wine and a chat with some of our mob then sat down to dinner with Karen and Alastair, Ian (from Mortdale), James (from Hobart), Wendy and Bob (birdos from Goolwa SA).

The meal service was appallingly slow but good food. I eventually excused myself because I was nearly asleep. Up to my room and virtually straight to bed at about 8:30.

Top End Travels - Darwin 3

Wednesday 22 May 2019

Up and online while having early coffee before the others were up. We decided to go to the Botanic Gardens cafe for breakfast and again, after negotiating the lack of signage and the building works we enjoyed quite a late breakfast.

Because very little of the gardens was free to walk around we returned to the top carpark next to the cycad garden area and spent some time browsing, cameras at the ready.

A small flower at the apartment with native bee in the centre.

Karen pointed out that the Cannonball tree was in flower. What an amazing flower it is!

Then of course there were the cycads with their bold form and separate male and female parts ...

Some other interesting things we saw ...

A fly agaric which was putting out a potent odour to attract lots of blowflies...

A beautiful native waterlily...

A pair of northern brush turkeys...

Back to the unit stopping on the way at Officeworks for supplies. We then drove out to get a takeaway lunch to eat at home in the cool.

Lunch was followed by a short wallow in the pool while the washing machine worked on our clothes. With the hot dry air it was completely dry on the clothesline in about two hours.

We drove out to see Brigid and Joe's new house which will be a project for some years. On the euphorb in their garden there were more native bees.

It was then time to head for the Deckchair Cinema down on the harbour. We bought dinner there then enjoyed watching the changing colours in the sky as the sun sank.

Eventually the movie started - Bohemian Rhapsody. I had not seen it and was suitably impressed. It was not even too loud (I had bought earplugs at Officeworks in anticipation but did not have to use them). I think we were far enough from the speakers.