Recent visitors

Some friends of Anne from Kuala Lumpur, planned a quiet trip to Darwin after a rather hectic Bali holiday. As their plane only reached Darwin at 5.00 AM the first day was spent recovering in the comfort of the bedroom.

No long trips were planned as James was still recovering from am attack of Dengue Fever from Bali but a short trip was made to Howard Springs Reserve to see the fish. Due to the runoff from the surrounding areas after the recent rains, the pool still had a lot of vegetation growing and floating in the pool so it was not suitable for swimming nor seeing the fish up close. As we had some Mango and Apple wine the night before they wanted to visit the winery but unknown to us it has now closed down when we went into Palmerston.

That night we went to the Wharf for dinner and we picked up one of James friends, Ahlex and his Australian wife. Ahlex had served in the Malaysian Navy under James and had since moved to Australia. He first came to Australia to train as a diver and the Retired Navy Clearance Divers Association (of which he was a member) was having a reunion on in Darwin at the same time so for them it was a good reunion.

Walkway Howard Springs	Howard Springs

One trip was made to Litchfield National Park where the first stop was at the now derelict Bamboo Creek tin mine which was worked off and on from around 1920 through to the 50’s. From here it was then to the main site at Wangi Falls which has just had a large upgrade and now the area looks quite smart. The upgraded boardwalk is a good piece of exercise as it was a good uphill climb and view over the area then it was back to the park. This was our lunch stop and while we enjoyed our lunch some of the passengers from the bus tours which now arrived, looked on hungrily as we enjoyed lunch.

 

At Wangi Falls	Part of the climb to the top.

As Jesse also does tutoring in English literature and one of the pieces studied was the ‘Drover’s Wife’ she was looking for a good photo of the old time outback homestead so a trip was made into the Blyth Homestead which was built around 1920 and used up to the late 50s. There were two deep crossings of the rivers to be made which showed the advantage of a 4WD, The homestead showed how hard the life was up here as the homestead would be cut off for up to 4 months a year and it was then only reached by horses.

Bamboo Creek tin mine.	Lunch Stop!
The old Blyth Homestead	The old homestead.
Creek crossing	At Tolmer Falls lookout

Next stop was the Tolmer Falls with its view over the falls from up high. By now our visitors were slowing down so we bypassed the Bully Rockholes and continued on to the anthills. Here there are two types of termite mounds close together, the large Cathedral type and the Magnetic Anthills were they are orientated in a north south direction so as to reduce their inside temperature.

The only town we passed through was Batchelor, there were plenty of them here when the nearby uranium mines at Run Jungle were is use during the 1950s and then uranium was a highly secretive mineral. Natchelor also has a Butterfly Farm, which was not visited, and a model of a Czechoslovakian castle which was built over several years by a homesick migrant.

Cathedral type ant hill

Magnetic Anthills

We again caught up with the Navy divers at the Mindil Beach night markets where all could sample the different foods on offer.

One trip was made to Bunnings a large DIY store, the size and stock it carried impressed James to no end. He is a handyman having a trade certificate in carpentry and has not seen a DIY store of this capacity in KL or Singapore. He liked it so much that two trips were made there and he found some special clamps ehich he had been looking for to assist him in repairing musical instruments.

On Sunday we visited the Fish feeding at Doctors Gully. Here various local fish come in close and are fed. A very popular site for adults and children. There were also some stingrays cruising around, From here it was a short walk to the Esplanade where the Greek Community was holding a celebration their Glenti. It was spread over 2 and half days and as well as Greek entertainment there was Greek Dancing and lots of Greek food. A few hours were spent here enjoying their octopus and other baked items.

Fish milling about being fed.	Fish feeding

Next stop was the RSL club were we caught up with Ahlex again for the last meal and listened to his entertaining stories of Malaysian Navy life.

Next day it was back to the airport to send them back to Singapore then Malaysia.

AA guns from WW2.	Gun turret

A few days later we also had another visitor. Anne was outside at night with the rubbish for the compost bin and heard a rustle and there she found a large python. The Snake catcher was called as it was about 2 metres long and seemed to have recently eaten going by its stomach. It crawled up a trellis and rested there until it was caught and placed in a bag for releasing further out bush.