Northern Territory - Dec 1999

I thought I'd post a bit of a retro road trip back from the days when I owned a 'troopie'. We used to travel all over the country at the drop of a hat, I wouldn't bat an eyelid jumping in the troopie and cruising up to Darwin over 2 or 3 days, we would just pull over when we got tired and have a sleep in the back. That's how we found ourselves in the deep north just before the turn of the century.

Tolmer Falls, Litchfield NP, in the wet.

The first stop on our whistle stop tour was Litchfield National Park, we spent the day checking out all the waterfalls in the park, being the start of the wet season all the falls were running a good head of steam, Wangi was closed to swimming due to the potential for saltwater crocodiles to have moved into the plunge pool with the higher water levels. As is crucial in the tropics in the wet we managed to find a couple of places to have a swim without being eaten.

Swimming at Florence Falls.

Another swimming hole in Litchfield, not sure if this one's legal though.

Heading down from the top end we made our way down to Alice Springs, there had been good rain around the central deserts too, we checked out Serpentine Gorge which had flowing water through it, the first time I'd seen that. We then headed back to Ellery Creek Big Hole for another swim before heading into Alice Springs to organise ourselves for our next adventure in the Eastern Macdonnell Ranges.

The country looking very green, near Palm Valley.

Serpentine Gorge from the lookout.

This was the first time I'd seen flowing water in Serpentine Gorge.

Serpentine Gorge even had enough water for a swim.

The last day of the millennium saw us heading east towards Ruby Gap Nature Park, we had been out here before and knew that we would be venturing into rough and remote country. The plan was to drive up the Hale River as for as we could get and then walk up stream and camp near Glen Annie Gorge. The plan was complicated by the fact that the usually dry Hale River was flowing and that the bed of the river was known for its quicksand. Sure enough after a slow drive out from Arltunga we hit the first crossing of the Hale River and there was a bit of water to negotiate, dropping the tyre pressure we negotiated the first crossing safely enough but the bed of the river was certainly soft, it required a bit of speed and a few revs to safely negotiate the 200 metre section of sand.

This was as far as the troopie could go.

So we hiked up towards Glen Annie Gorge, camping on this big pool.

Low range, first gear was the order of the day as we inched our way along the over grown track along the banks of the Hale River, eventually we got to the spot were we would have to take to the river and drive along its bed. Parking the troopie I walked up to the point were we would enter the river, sure enough I quickly found myself sinking into the wet sand, there was no way we were driving any further, returning back to Sam I gave her the good news, that from here on we would be walking.

Ruby Gap Gorge.

Purifying some water in Ruby Gap Nature Park.

The walk upstream along the river was hard going, the sand was extremely soft and the temperature was in the low 40's C in the shade. We had the advantage though of being able to stop wherever we wanted and soak in the river, and that was the way we proceeded towards Glenn Annie Gorge. Eventually we'd had enough walking and finding a spot to pitch the tent on the grassy banks near a deep waterhole we set up camp for new years eve. The rest of the day was spent swimming and soaking in the beautiful pools, New Years was certainly quiet that year, just Sam and I feeling like we were a million miles from anyone, perfect!

A Ghost Gum at our camp in Ruby Gorge, New Years Eve 1999.

The cliffs of Ruby Gorge above our camp.

Looking upstream along the Hale River towards Glen Annie Gorge, New Years Eve 1999.

Next day dawned (there was some debate whether that would happen, remember the Millennium Bug!) hot and sunny again. After a quick morning excursion the remainder of the way to Glen Annie Gorge and a few swims on the way back to the troopie, we were back in Alice in time for dinner.  The next day we started our journey south, breaking our journey at Rainbow Valley were we watched the sun set, lighting up the cliffs.

Rainbow Valley in the late afternoon sun.

We now pushed on a bit, sleeping in the troopie under the shade of a desert oak that night a couple of hundred kilometres north of Coober Pedy. Next day we decided that we would head over to Broken Hill for a few days. Arriving late in the day we picked up some accommodation in an old miners cottage for a couple of days. Broken Hill proved to be a nice interlude on our journey home, we spent some time checking out the various gallery's in town, including Pro Hart's. We also did a trip out to Silverton to check out some more gallery's and visit some of the locations used in Mad Max 2, we even saw Max's 'Intercepter', cool! That evening at sunrise we capped of our road trip with a visit to the sculpture symposium just out of town. 

The Sculpture symposium, Broken Hill. 

Sunset, Broken Hill.

The next day we made the final twelve hour journey home, punctuating the trip with a swim in the Murrey River at Mildura.

Sunset in the desert at Broken Hill.

The Dirt.

We covered around 9000 kilometres on this road trip spread over three weeks. The Top End in the wet season is an amazing place, but you pay in sweat as the humidity is a bit debilitating for some people. Take the time to acclimatize a bit and the pay off is beautiful scenery with minimal crowds and cheaper prices.

The same goes for the Central Desert Area, except instead of humidity you have just plain heat, temps in the high 40's C aren't uncommon in Alice Springs in summer. The overnight walk we did in Ruby Gap Nature Park was really something that nature provided the opportunity for us to do, the Hale River probably only flows for a few days each year and we happened to be there at the right time. We just walked upriver towards Glen Annie Gorge, camped, and then retraced our route the next day.