Australia
Part 1 - Darwin, Northern Territories
Australia is my favourite English-speaking country in the world and the Australians are my favourite nationality with English as the native language. This may seem strange coming from an Englishman, but, after travelling the world and spending a month travelling around Australia, I still haven't met one Ozzy who I haven't liked; and this is true of no other country or nationality that I have experience of.
I arrived in Darwin in North Western Australia on the 18th of July 1991 after spending a few days in Hong Kong. It was the summer holiday from my job in the Sultanate of Oman. From the airport, I booked into a small hotel and immediately went out for a beer in the hotel bar. I can't remember now exactly what happened, but I managed to make some friends in the bar, got extremely drunk and my new 'friends' took me to a local cassino by car. It was the only time in my life I've ever been inside a cassino, but I was so drunk at the time that I can't remember anything at all about it! The only think I'm pretty sure about was that I neither won nor lost much money! I did however drink so much that I had wet my bed when I surfaced the next day, which was extremely embarrassing!
I spent a couple of days at the hotel, during which I explored the seaside parks and clicked a photo of a sign pointing to 'The Rainforest'! I also found a beautiful and deserted beach; the weather was fine, so I stripped off down to my boxer shorts and dived into the sea. It was only after I had spent some time sunbathing and returned left the beach that I saw the sign warning against sharks! In a local pub, I was also told about the Portuguese man'o war jelly fish, which put me off swimming for a while (apparently, around 10,000 Ozzies are stung by these creatures each summer)!
Then I decided to move to a cheaper hostel, which I found on the outskirts of the city. After checking in to a simple room, I went out to look for a car to hire because I'd seen a poster advertising a rodeo in a town called Catherine a couple of hundred kilometres inland (Darwin is a port city) in the outback. I went to a local car rental shop, but at the time I didn't have a credit card, so the guy said "I'll tell you what, I've got a mate who will rent you his car for cash, are you interested?". I agreed and after taking me driving license details, I drove away in a Toyota Carolla with a rather strange number plate.... it was the single letter 'A' on a Northern Territories plate. When I arrived back at the hostel, there were a couple of old timers sitting outside by the car park and one of them said to me "You better be careful with that car mate!", I replied, "Why?", and the guy said, "because the number plate is probably worth more than the car!". "Of course!", I thought, the letter 'A' as the only digit on a number plate in a country beginning with that letter!
Anyway, the next day I was ready for my trip to see the rodeo. I set off early and was surprised, as I left Darwin, to see a traffic sign with a line through the 60mph speed limit. I soon realised that what that meant in practice was that on the road I was taking - the Stuart Highway - speed limits no longer seemed to exist!!!
Checking the map, I liked the look of a road called the 'Arnhem Highway', so I took this branch not far outside the city limits, and then couldn't resist stopping at a town called 'Humpty Doo' and clicking a photo!
I wanted to see some of the natural beauties of northern Australia, so my first destination was a park called 'Fogg Dam' which I found after taking a left turn an hour or so down the Arnhem Highway. Both the bird life and the natural beauty of this place made it worth the visit, but then I drove back to the highway and on further to the Adelaide River Queen jumping crocodile cruise!
This was absolutely fantastic!! The first part of the show involved a sea eagle, which I spotted in the trees, swooping down to take fish suspended from a rod over the side of the double decked boat. I was able to snap the exact moment that the eagle took the bait! It then flew off to devour its dinner riverside.
Then the stars of the show started to arrive! Several crocodiles started leaving their resting places on the river bank and swimming towards our boat, while the crew started preparing the same fishing rod used with the sea eagle to feed the crocodiles. These huge reptiles at first were encouraged to take food directly from the fishing lines, and then slowly but surely the bait was lifted from the water and in order to get their lunch, the crocs had to jump out of the water! While this was going on, I noticed a side show going on the river bank. First I noticed a baby crocodile moving towards the shore as if it wanted to join in the fun, then further down the river bank, one of the larger crocs arrived, and next thing I knew, the big fellow was chasing after the nipper, obviously thinking that baby crocodile would be less hard work than jumping out of the river for dinner! The big croc was out of luck though, and the baby crocodile was able to outrun the adult and escape into the forest next to the river bank. Later on, a local explained to me that the other people living on the Adelaide River were not happy with the River Queen's show; according to them, if you are fishing in a small boat, the last thing you want is the crocodiles in the area trained to jump out of the water expecting to be fed when they see fishing rods!
After this wonderful boat trip, I drove back along the Arnhem Highway, stopping at the Humpty Doo Hotel for lunch on the way. This, incidentally, was memorable in itself! I ordered a T-bone steak with vegetables, potatoes and gravy which makes my mouth water to this very day!
I soon rejoined the Stuart Highway for the long drive south to Katherine (there are 310km between Darwin and Katherine). It was then that for the first time in my life I realised what it was like to drive on a road without speed limits! The Carola had a listed top speed of 117mph (188kph) and I pushed my rental up to this speed reasonably soon after starting the trek south. I had a tape of an album by George Thorogood and the Destroyers called Maverick which was playing at full blast when suddenly a car whooshed by me! Now, I drive carefully and check my mirrors regularly, and that car appeared out of nowhere! I would imagine that it was travelling at over 300mph, still below the unofficial speed limit!
After an hour or so, I stopped at a picturesque creek (2 photos) which I could see on my left from the road.
The rest of the drive down to Katherine was uneventful and I arrived there at about 4pm and watched the last part of the rodeo.
As the day wore on, I perceived that I still had over 300km to drive home in the dark along roads I only knew coming from the opposite direction! As I was heading north out of Katherine, I stopped briefly to take a photo of an anthill of a size I'd never imagined before, and then, as the sun set. I focused on summoning up the concentration necessary to get me back to Darwin.
Darkness fell quickly, and after driving alone for about an hour, I was overtaken by a convoy of three cars going far faster than I was. I thought "Ok. They know the road, let's sit in their wake and I'll get back much faster". I did this for about 20 minutes before I suddenly saw the headlights of the front car swerve right and immediately back to the right again. Literally milliseconds later, cars two and three did the same, virtually simultaneously, and then I was faced by a large cow in front of my windscreen and metres in front of my car! I swerved violently right, then fought to control the car and get it back in the right direction again. I did this as an automatic reaction, the result of literally tens of thousands of miles driven, and then said to myself "Ok. Let's go back to driving at my speed, according to what I can see in front of my headlights". I let my companions steam on ahead, and it must have been about two o'clock in the morning when I finally arrived back at the hostel, tired but happy after a day well lived.
After my 'walkabout', it was time to move on to the next stage of my trip, and this involved returning the car and buying a bus ticket from Darwin to Cairns, a journey of over 28 hours (2,767km). I would make this journey the following day.
