Alice to Litchfield

It's a long way from Alice Springs to Darwin - around 1500km - and we made our way up slowly, spending an overnighter every 250km or so. We have hit the start of Northern Territory school holidays and there are an awful lot of caravans heading both north and south. Many caravan parks / camp spots cannot be prebooked and operate on a first come first serve business. Most places we stayed were full every night and for the most part they were pretty rustic.

Not a great deal to see along the way, but there were a few photo worthy opportunities.

Stop 1 - Ti Tree - just before this town at Aileron there is a 12 meter high statue of an Aboriginal warrior set high on the hill. At ground level there was another large statue of an Aboriginal woman and child (and goanna) looking up at the man.

Stop 2 - Devil's Marbles or Karlu Karlu - we were too late for a campsite at the Devil's Marbles hotel but were able to free camp out the front along with another 20 or so caravans. We walked around the Devil's Marbles - I kind of imagined them to be bigger.

Stop 3 - Renner Springs - nothing to see here... moving on.

Stop 4 - Daly Waters - this is an iconic stop... apparently! We had heard that the caravan park at the pub was extremely busy so we stayed a few km down the road which turned out to be a good choice. Not only did we get a nice quiet site looking over a horse paddock, they also gave us a voucher for a free beer and wine so of course we had a meal there which was of generous proportions. We checked out the other caravan park and there were vans lining up to get in, packed in like sardines. The attraction? Just quirky I guess. There were donkeys wandering around and old junk planes and cars littered around. The beef and barra at the pub is supposed to be good and they have live music every night. We were more than happy with our choice though.

Stop 5 - Mataranka/Bitter Springs - if we thought Daly Waters was a mad house, then Mataranka was unbelievable. We arrived about 10.30am and there were only about 10 unpowered sites left. By 11am the park was full and vans were being turned away. Anyway, we got our spot and spent a lovely afternoon floating down the crystal clear springs. They were a little warm (thermal springs) but it was relaxing. I sent Brad down later to take photos and he came back saying the rangers were closing the Springs because a croc had been sighted just a few metres from where we entered the water. So, no swimming for several days. Lucky we got our turn.

Stop 6 - Pine Creek - just a halfway point between Mataranka and Litchfield National Park.

We will be glad to be able to stop for a few nights at Litchfield and then a couple of weeks in Darwin as moving on every day is a bit tiring.Читать далее