The 19th to 22nd August was another hot week in the Territory with daytime temps hitting 37 and night times hovering around 27! We left big city Darwin (see week 18 Darwin for details of this fine city) for the coastal bush on Fog Bay to stay at the tiny rural beachside town of Dundee Beach for 3 days of R&R and got caught up in our first lockdown since we hit the road in April (despite being 1.5 hours out of Darwin or Katherine where the lockdowns were!). It was short and bearable but made us realise how difficult it continues to be for all our friends and family in extended, strict lockdowns in Vic and NSW. We finished off the week with a couple more nights in Darwin then, a few nights in Litchfield N.P. See the full week in action in Parrott’s OzLap Week 19 video.
Sunday 15 – Wednesday 18 August – Dam fine Dundee Beach
After shopping to stock up, we headed out of Darwin Sunday lunchtime and drove south west for about 90 minutes towards Dundee Beach. We stopped off at the Territory Wildlife Park and wandered along 7km of tracks admiring the collection of exotic tropical birds, dingo pups, deadly, gigantic snakes, even deadlier and bigger crocodiles, and the biggest freshwater stingrays (whip rays) I’d ever seen (1.2 m across), wild Buffalos, Wallabies, and Emus. We pulled into the fishing and croc-mecca of Dundee Beach just before sunset and set up for the next three nights right next to the shady pool. Dundee Beach is all about fishing, but it also has a lovely beach with pretty golden sand, rusty red rocks and water that goes from aquamarine to deep teal depending on the tides. Unfortunately, you can’t swim due to saltwater crocodiles – a man in nearby Adelaide River had his toes bitten off by a croc while we were there! – and there are huge tides with water swallowing up the sand at high tide then providing access to a much bigger beach to the north and south at low tide. It is hot but a welcome wind comes off the beach from early afternoon. The Caravan Park has a pool, but unfortunately this closed due to the snap 3-day lockdown on our first day there so we never got to test it out. The Dundee Lodge, next door, which has a bar, restaurant and shop, also moved to takeaway only so we never got to sample the sunset schnitzel we’d heard so much about! Instead, we spent our 3 days and nights scoping out the sunset-spot de-soir along the beach, playing boules, going for walks and trying to catch up on trip planning, van cleaning and our much-neglected books!
Three things to tick in the Dundee Beach area are: 1. Territory Wildlife Park for close encounters with some massive, deadly crocs, snakes and rays 2. Beach walks along the north section of Dundee Beach and 3. The sunsets. Oh so fine from any place along the coast!
Wednesday 18 – Friday 20 August: A little luxury in Lockdown Darwin
We departed Dundee Beach, still in the lockdown, as we had The Duke booked in for a service and this was still permitted. Unsure of whether the mechanic would need the van overnight, we booked in to the cute little Paravista Motel in Parap for the night (and extended it to two nights!) and enjoyed the luxuries of a bed, A/C, balcony, bathroom and TV! Although it was all very depressing watching the news about the escalating NSW and VIC lockdowns, seeing the appalling behaviour of people in Melbourne and Sydney flouting the rules and putting everyone at risk and the horrors in Afghanistan as the Taliban took over. Being out of touch is bliss sometimes! We spent Wednesday riding our bikes up and around East Point and enjoyed takeaway Mexican on our little balcony then when Darwin came out of Lockdown at noon Thursday we rode our bikes down along Fannie Bay to the waterfront for a swim and lunch and enjoyed sunset and dinner at the last of the sunset clubs we had to tick off – the Trailer Boat Club!
Friday 20 – Sunday 22nd August Lapping up the waterholes in Litchfield
Friday we walked to the Parap pool for some laps then shopped before heading down to Litchfield for two nights. We drove down via the little town of Batchelor straight to Florence Falls campground as we’d heard it got full early. We snaffled one of the last 3 spots and set up the van before heading off on the Falls Loop walk then a swim in the plunge pool and under the two waterfalls. Bliss. It was a bit busy but at least that meant the freshwater crocs and catfish had more people to bother than just us and the water was deliciously cool. We had no power at our campsite and with temps hovering around 37 with high humidity and no breeze, it was unbearable at the van so we decided to head back to the falls for sundowner drinks. Jamie kindly cooked our stirfry dinner in the Duke Sauna and we spent a restless hot night staring at the stars and almost full moon.
After such a hot night we decided to head to a powered campground for Saturday night so we packed up early and headed off. First stop was Buley waterhole 3km down the road for a swim but it was already packed at 9am so we kept going to Tolmer Falls where we did the lookout loop walk to gaze down the gorge to the deep green waterhole (inaccessible) and falls. We drove another 20km on to Wangi Falls where we had a pic-nic lunch, walk and a lovely swim. It was busy again but it’s a big enough pool to hold everyone. We decided to head out of the park away from the heat and stayed at the Tumbling Waters Caravan park which had a few nice surprises! We got a super shady site and enjoyed plugging the van in and powering up the A/C. At 5pm we got to watch them feed their fresh water crocodile-pets and discovered they have the largest (3m) freshwater crocodile in the Northern Territory! We had dinner at their lovely leafy outdoor café and in the morning I joined the Sunday Yoga class on the pavilion where the night before they ran an outdoor cinema showing Abominable! After yoga we headed to Berry Springs Nature Park for the Monsoon Forest walk then a swim in the big sprawling waterhole – which was also very busy but big enough to hold everyone.
Three things to tick on a trip to Litchfield N.P are: 1. Shady Creek Walk around Florence Falls. 2. Swim at Wangi Falls. 3. Tumbling Waters Van park restaurant and Croc-feeding!
