Great debate rages locally (and beyond) on the relative merits of the two major NT National Parks, Kakadu and Litchfield. In our books, it’s a ’no contest’. Kakadu wins hands down!
It is easy enough to understand why the locals prefer Litchfield. It’s an easy day trip from Darwin, with many accessible swimming holes and good sealed roads. Sure the falls are very nice and probably a cut above those in Kakadu, but the crowds! Hundreds swarmed over Florence Falls and Buley Rockpool swimming holes when we visited today. The car park was packed and the walking paths clogged with nattering children and slow pensioners.
Litchfield has none of the scenic splendour of Kakadu, no Aboriginal Art and no wetlands teeming with wildlife. I’ts not all bad though. The National Park camping area we are in at Wangi Falls is probably the best of its type we have seen. Hot showers, toilets and individual sites, all for $15 a night! Plus we gave ourselves a fair bit of exercise scrambling over some relatively rough trails, a bonus after a fair few days of driving.
30 June 78km West of Kathryn NT
The title of this blog is fairly indicative of some of the places we have been staying. A no name (that we know?) bush camp.
We were here just after 3:00pm. By no means the first arrivals. This place is topical of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of gatherings like this all over Australia tonight.
If we were travelling in Europe, looking for a ‘free camp’ in our motorhome, this is the very place we would avoid like the plague. Gatherings of caravans in open fields with fires going can mean only one thing there. Gypsies. Groups of nomads who have roamed Europe for centuries. We make no judgements on the reality of the reputation of Gypsies. We just know by our own experiences not to camp anywhere near them!
Camp ‘No Name’ in Australia is however somewhere where ‘travellers’ like us instantly feel safe. We know the drill. Toilets over there. Water tanks by the road - treat both with suspicion! Wandering chatty couples some of whom we have camped with further ‘up the track’. The obligatory European backpackers in a Wicked Van. Some guy strumming a guitar. Road Trains thundering past on the highway, still well within hearing distance. Sunset through the trees.
An Australian Gypsy Camp.
No comments:
Post a Comment