Wednesday 8 May 2013 - Daly River

Wednesday 8 May 2013 - Daly River

We stayed at Litchfield for four nights in total, packing up fairly leisurely yesterday morning and heading to the creek for one last swim before we drove off. The two previous days we drove out to Wangi Falls and Walker Creek respectively. The falls at Wangi were closed because they hadn’t cleared it for crocs yet but Walker Creek was open. It’s a nifty little spot where you park at the start and then walk through the bush, following the creek for about 2km. There are eight (I think?) campsites along the creek, which you can only carry your tent and gear into as there is no vehicle access. Unfortunately our girls weren’t up to doing any further than the first spot, but it was lovely anyway. 

Glenn didn’t even make it that far – Sienna put on a turn when he loaded her into the backpack and he was already stressed because the car battery system had been playing up, so he and I ‘conferred’ and he decided to go back to the car and read a book. Sienna walked the whole 300m to the first creek swimhole and we all had a nice cool-off in the water after a quick picnic. On the way back Sienna was still happy to walk, although she took a bit of a stack and grazed her knee in her enthusiasm. But after a quick cuddle she wriggled back down and marched on for the final leg of the journey. When we reached the car, tempers had cooled and we ate a bit more, then took another dip in the creek. Yasmin didn’t want to swim (strangely enough), perhaps because she’d gotten a splinter in her finger a little earlier (she really hates splinters as she’s petrified of Glenn digging them out).

Litchfield was a good spot to visit, but you share most of the waterholes with stacks of other people because it’s so easily accessed from Darwin. The sealed roads also make it a favourite stop for backpackers (called ‘whizz-bangs’ by the grey nomads, because of the sound the doors on their vans make). We would have loved to check out the southern areas of the park, which is 4WD access only, but they weren’t opening them until the end of the month. It would have given us a much quicker drive out to Daly River too, but oh well, that’s life.

Daly River is a beautiful little spot – it’s the name given to the ‘town’ (a pub and a cop shop) and the river. We camped at the grounds beside the pub, which had heaps of shade, power, water and good amenities (of course, it wasn’t free – $30 a night). There’s quite a few nice caravan parks around, but they were pretty heavily booked because there’s a big barra fishing comp on. Glenn took the boat out for a morning, but didn’t have any luck. Apparently no one has been catching much lately because the wet was not as big this year as it usually is. Fortunately though, I got chatting to a really nice woman who’s been visiting every year and she offered us a fillet of one of their barra. We’re not too proud to turn down a free feed of fish, plus it’s huge and should feed us for two nights!  She also gave us some tips for helping the girls avoid the mozzies (which were especially atrocious both at Litchfield and Daly River), plus invited us to call in and stay when we go through Victoria, as they have 25 acres at Ballarat. 

While Glenn went out in the boat, the girls and I ventured into the nearby Aboriginal community called Naiuyu. The girls had a nice time playing on the playground there and then we called into the supermarket to pick up some basics. The store has a few extra things like toys and clothes for sale, as well as a fairly extensively stocked frozen meat section. As I was walking past I briefly scanned the contents and some long and large and pale caught my eye – kangaroo tail, apparently quite a delicacy amongst the natives. I half thought about buying one for Glenn to try his hand at cooking on the fire. The little town has stacks of facilities, including a health clinic, a really flash well-resourced school, huge mechanical workshops (to provide employment as much as any other reason), a post office, art gallery, airstrip and a few other odds and sods. It’s perched right on the river and it surrounded by beautiful green lawns and huge leafy mango trees – not a bad spot to call home.

The weather in this area has been much more tolerable. It’s still warm, but the humidity is lower, there’s a bit of cloud cover at times and when you’re in the shade and a breeze is blowing, it’s absolutely glorious. If the girls weren’t getting eaten alive by mozzies, we’d probably have stayed longer, although there’s not really anything else to do there other than fishing. Glenn said the river is really nice too, but he didn’t take the camera with him when he went out in the boat, so we’ll just have to take his word for it. Unfortunately it’s very heavily populated by our large reptilian friends so it’s not really ideal fishing territory for small kids and certainly no good for swimming. The croc that Glenn spotted when he was out on the water reinforced our desire to exercise caution around here.