Across the Top  (Cairns - Darwin)

After a long flight (a total of 30 hours from door to door), we arrived at 4 a.m. On the leg from London to Singapore, we had three seats to ourselves, as the plane wasn’t booked out. We could spread out a bit and even get a couple of hours of sleep.

At Darwin airport, we took the shuttle bus to the hotel, which was a bit cheaper (8 AU$/person) than taking a taxi, but took longer, as our hotel was the second to last drop off point on the list. We got a sightseeing tour through the sleeping town. In the hotel we slept for a few hours and then ambled down to Smith Street Mall, where we bought a pre-paid Vodafone mobile phone card. In the afternoon we called Trevor and Evie, as promised. We’re lucky, they had a fair bit of rain in Cairns, but now the sun is shining.

As usual we had a prime rib steak in the Hog’s Breath Café for dinner.

We had to get up at four a.m., as our flight to Cairns departed at six. We had ordered a taxi for a quarter to five. As the hotel’s breakfast room opens at six a.m. only and everything at the airport was still closed as well, we were hoping for a nice brekkie on board. Our hopes were shattered when our trays were handed out: Qantas granted us a tiny bowl of muesli, a miniature (if good) raisin bun with butter, a small orange juice, coffee and a small tangerine.

Evie and Trevor were waiting for us at Cairns airport and greeted us so warmly that it felt like coming home. They took us to KEA to pick up our Troopie (Landcruiser Troop Carrier). Trevor had told us on the phone the previous day that he had seen our car. We thought he’d just popped in to KEA to take a general look. The surprise was all ours as we saw Rob in the depot! Trevor and Evie had met him and his wife, Meg, last year in Kununurra and introduced us to them when we caught up a few days later. We knew that Rob and Meg had settled in Cairns, but didn’t know that Rob was working for KEA. Evie and Trevor had kept that piece of information to themselves. Rob’s (German) boss, Michael, and his (German) colleague, Elke, were really nice. They gave us an almost brand new Troopie – 2 months old, only 12,000 km down. KEA now supplies comfortable camping chairs with armrests. We also received a radio safety beacon. Rob had read our travelogues on our website and given us a personal ‚survival kit‘ – four cans of VB and duct tape. Our Troopie no longer has a gas camping cooker, but one that runs on methylated spirits. We wonder if it’s any good (it was great). This gives us an additional small storage compartment, the one the gas bottle used to sit in.

The furnishing of the unit Evie and Trevor have rented is basic, but everything’s clean and big enough for four adults. From the kitchen and living area we had a wonderful view to the ocean, the beach and the palms fringing them.

Our pavement-weary big city feet got a rest walking along the beach in the afternoon.

Meg and Rob came over for a true-blue Australian barbie for dinner (or should we say ‚tea‘?). Everybody had a good time.

We could get used to starting the day with a relaxed brekkie with a view to a tropical beach.

Trevor and Torsten went to the beach to watch the fish-trawlers for a while, then we went on an extended shopping spree to fill up our camper’s fridge and buy all those little bits and pieces we still needed, among which a gaslight at Mitre 10. One of the blokes working there asked us if we were from Sydney (wild guess, we suppose). Torsten told him that we lived in Brussels, and suddenly another bloke starting talking Dutch to him. Must have been an emigrant, his Dutch was pitch-perfect. We already bought all the postcards we intended to write on our holidays, and some Aussie coffee to take back home with us.

This morning, the right side of our car was covered with green tree ants, as it had been parked next to bushes. We thought they’d get blown off while driving, but most of them somehow managed to hide in tiny gaps in the car’s body. Torsten and Trevor killed the survivors with a massive Aerogard spray attack.

Evie treated us to a beautiful lamb roast, mixed vegies and chips for tea. Yum!

• Map of trip section

We followed Trevor and Evie up to Kuranda, but then turned off to the Barron River Falls, which unfortunately are dry at this time of the year. We met up with them in Mareeba, then continued to Chillagoe, where we joined the guided tour through the Royal Arch Caves (limestone caves). The caves are inside an ancient reef that looks like the one in Windjana Gorge. There were another five tourists in our group, all Aussies. ‚Our‘ ranger and tour guide, Danny, handed out strong torches. All the caves are dark with the exception of two, the ceilings of which have already collapsed. The tour takes about two hours and is very interesting. There is some severe damage to the limestone caves, as the people from Chillagoe used them as a picnic spot in earlier times. The stalagmites and stalactites are thoroughly impressive, some of them resembling an elephant, a mountain sheep, an emu, a bear or even a cowboy on a horse.

Danny told us that there were 54 people on his very first tour. When he arrived back at the entrance at the end of the tour, he was very proud that everything had gone well. Then he counted the heads of his troops: there were only 10 left. He had to go back and pick up the missing 44. They don’t do such big groups anymore.

Years ago, before the caves were opened up to tourism, two couples went in and got lost. Eventually, they settled down in one of the ‚open‘ caves, waiting for rescue. Sadly enough, they had not told anybody were they’d be going. The cave they were waiting in is called the Fig Tree Chamber, as a fig tree growing on top of the cliff has pushed its impressively thick roots all the way down to the cave floor (about 30 m). After a two days wait, one of the men took off his shoes and climbed up the fig tree roots. When he emerged on top of the cliff, he realized that leaving his shoes in the cave had been a big mistake. The weathered outer rock of the cliff is razor-sharp. He still made his way across and hobbled into Chillagoe with cut and bleeding feet.

• Map of trip section

123 km easy gravel road with creek crossings that were either dry as a bone or sporting a small puddle. We saw hundreds of cattle, a few roos, and three wedgies. We needed two hours driving time, passing two homesteads and a small tour bus. We waited for Trevor and Evie at the Kennedy Hwy crossing. They arrived about 15 minutes later, the very minute that we had turned the video camera off again… We filled up our cars in Mount Surprise and drove straight on to Croydon, where we had a picnic lunch in their nice little park. Wooden benches and tables were scattered around the park, we chose one under a huge mango tree. After lunch we pinched four lemons from a lemon tree. We were obviously not the first ones to do so, as there were only a few left on the topmost branches. It took the joint efforts of Trevor and Torsten to get them.

Our next break was in Normanton, where we had a beer in the Purple Pub, and bought a few things in the mini supermarket next door. We had originally planned to spend the night in Normanton, but as it was early enough and only 70 km to Karumba, we carried on. We decided to spend two nights there instead of one, as Karumba’s our only stop on the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The bitumen road to Karumba led us across a flat, treeless plain. We saw three wallabies, some 10 brolgas (or sarus cranes, couldn’t precisely identify them as they were too far away) and three jabirus. And cattle, of course.

By the way: the biggest estuarine crocodile ever caught in Australia was shot by a woman in the late 50s of the last century, in the Norman River in Normanton. It was a male, 8.63 m long and weighed about three tonnes. You can see a life-size replica on the main road in Normanton.

In Karumba Point we didn’t go to the famous Sunset Tavern, but settled on the beach next to it to watch the truly beautiful sunset over the Gulf. The campsites in Karumba Point were fully booked, so we went back to Karumba, were we managed to get one site big enough for both our cars. They only charged us one site plus extra persons. We were on one of three sites with a round concrete floor, which made us wonder, till somebody told us that they used to have three huge water tanks there.

Torsten and Trevor grabbed Trevor’s fishing rods and accessories and drove to Karumba Point, were they rented a boat, bought bait and set off for a few hours of fishing on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Evie and Claudia enjoyed a lazy day on the campsite, doing the washing, buying some bread, reading and basically following the wandering shadow around the cars. Around 3 p.m. the fishermen returned, tanned, happy and carrying three breams and a filleted catfish. Initially, Trevor wanted to throw the catfish back, as they don’t like them, but Torsten kept him from doing it. The catfish took revenge on Trevor by stinging him between the thumb and the forefinger. That has to be quite painful. We offered some of the Paraderm Plus cream against stings, bites, sunburn etc. we had bought in Cairns. To be highly recommended, Trevor had to apply it only twice, then the pain and swelling were gone.

Tea that night was delicious: fresh fish, Evie’s homemade chips, salad and the fresh, untreated Croydon city park lemons.

Later that night Torsten and Trevor held the first ever world championship in beer can crushing. Trevor won, but there was to be a second competition!

• Map of trip section

Good dirt road, flat country, cattle and brolgas. The Leichhardt River ford is interesting: a concrete causeway, very long (approx. 400 m) and winding, leading along the lower level of the riverbed. For the most part you cannot see the oncoming traffic. As the ford was completely dry,  pulling over for oncoming traffic would not have been a major problem. On the far side of the river we turned right onto a small track leading to a plateau above the river. The falls are dry at this time of the year, but there was still water in the river. On the plateau were wallabies, a handful of tourists and hundreds of bush flies. Because of the latter, we retreated to our car and sprayed ourselves thoroughly with Aerogard (nothing beats the feeling of a bush fly attempting to crawl up your nostril! Well, almost nothing.). When Evie and Trevor still hadn’t shown up after an hour, we were a bit worried. Although they were slower than us on average – because of their trailer – they shouldn’t have taken that long. We crossed the river again, to make sure they wouldn’t miss us. We had barely parked our car when they drove up. They had a  tyre punctured on their trailer on the way, ironically enough not on the dirt road itself, but on the shoulder when taking a short break. As they only had one spare tyre each for the trailer and the car, they were kind of anxious to get to Burketown, hoping that the roadhouse would be open even though it was Whit Monday. It turned out that everything in Burketown was closed, so we drove on to Escott Lodge, about 17 km out of Burketown. The campground is nicely laid out, very spacious, with many shady trees. A few wallabies were grazing on the empty and very large tent area. After setting up camp, Torsten, Trevor and Claudia went up the Nicholson River for about 15 km. Along the river, you’ll find a couple of fishing spots (called camps, but overnight camping is prohibited), and the blokes wanted to give it a try, Trevor hoping for a barra. This fishing trip ended without fish, but with Torsten completely tangling one of Trevor’s fishing lines (needs a real master to do this!). He had to cut it in the end. The Nicholson River lay peacefully and picturesquely in the soft light of the late afternoon. Visibly, but gently the incoming water raised the level of the tidal river and covered the sand banks. A grey heron was more successful than Trevor and Torsten and caught two fish. Don’t let yourselves be fooled by the idyllic setting, though, the Nicholson is known for its estuarine (saltwater) crocodiles. And big ones, too!

At night the ground of the campground was covered with cane toads in all sizes. They also sat in the washrooms. A green tree frog stuck out like an emerald from the mass of toads.

Every now and then, we heard the distant howl of a dingo.

read part 2