I am in LOVE with THE NORTHERN TERRITORY!!!!

[Heelssss]

Oh my goodness.... A Big shout out to those that helped me deciede where the sun shall take me while up in NT.
LOFTYBOB, WOKKA, LONGQI, FUSCUS, DARYLN, CACTUS2U, WARUIKAZI, GILLSY, KARLY and a HUGE thumbs up to STEVE NT, which i pretty much organised my time there with your info. What i planned to stay for a week i ended up staying here for 2weeks. I pretty much toured the city within 2 days to get that out of the way and boy was that what i didnt expect. So much rich history & culture. From Tiwi to Coonawarra then Larrekeyan, east point and nightcliff.The city pretty much came to a still to watch the sun set. Totally gorgeous. Then my real fun started as i went on a tour to the arnhemland - Maningrida and somewhere remote which kinda freaked me out a bit. And BOY was it hot and humid. Also spent time in Jabiru in a cool hotel the shape of a croc. Ubirr was breathless as i watched the sunset, Nourlangie Rock, TWIN Falls & Jim Jim falls AMAZING, yellow water had a great wildlife cruise which was fun. I 4wd through old jim jim rd and 40km into the drive we had to camp out on the side of south alligator river as we couldnt cross it as the 4WD that i hired was a nissan xtrail and not diesel and i didnt want to risk crossing half a meter deep creek. But to my surprise it was an oasis where we camped over night. (mozzies galore). And No crocs. which was a bonus for a dip. Pine Creek,Katherine, Dunmarra, Dundee Beach, berry springs, litchfield, kakadu all definately natures best. Not much reptile sightings but birds galore especially the magpie geese!! Then i made my way to Uluru - breathless. I did a 2 day tour to exploring litchfield with the wallaroo tours and that was great.

If only the properties were'nt so damn expensive id move up in aheart beat!

I will be going up again in 2months time. As 2 weeks was definatley not enough time!!!!

I will post up some picks in my album very soon.

Thanks all

 

[saratoga]

I 4wd through old jim jim rd and 40km into the drive we had to camp out on the side of south alligator river as we couldnt cross it as the 4WD that i hired was a nissan xtrail and not diesel and i didnt want to risk crossing half a meter deep creek. But to my surprise it was an oasis where we camped over night. (mozzies galore). And No crocs. which was a bonus for a dip.

OMG!!!

South alligator on the Old Darwin Rd(Jim Jim Road)....I have seen some BIG salties go through there.....~4m+ and regularly see smaller ones. There also used to be quite a few freshies!

Nice camping spot but this time of year watch out for the river level rising really quickly. You could have been caught out with the river rising to impassable and barramundi creek coming up behind you.....not a great place to spend the wet season!

 

[Heelssss]

very true thats why i decied to camp out it was very quite, well apart from the mozzie buzz that almost made me insane. thank godness for the rum!!! Yes i did feel like i was being stalked but nothing a bit of noise didnt control. the river was rising very quickly and at a speed i couldnt believe.

 

[Karly]

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself! There is definitely something about the territory that gets under your skin...

 

[waruikazi]

Ha! Fantastic!

Glad you enjoyed yourself.

 

[Heelssss]

it was magnificent, its so true there is something about the territory that gets under your skin!!!

 

[Cockney_Red]

You was there 2 weeks....as the territorians say, you gotta stay a calendar month......did most of that in 2000, fantastic!

 

[Heelssss]

lol yes i wish i stayed a month, but work suxs so i have to turn up damn it!!! BUT i will be back for more

 

[SteveNT]

OMG!!!

South alligator on the Old Darwin Rd(Jim Jim Road)....I have seen some BIG salties go through there.....~4m+ and regularly see smaller ones. There also used to be quite a few freshies!

Nice camping spot but this time of year watch out for the river level rising really quickly. You could have been caught out with the river rising to impassable and barramundi creek coming up behind you.....not a great place to spend the wet season!

+1, I have seen big salties there too. And never never hire a Nissan Xtrail. There are vehicles up here with an "Xtrail recovery vehicle" sticker on them. That's how often they get hung up. It's not so much the 4WD as the clearance that gets you through! Glad you enjoyed it, nice album and you will never run out of things to see up here.

 

[Heelssss]

eeeek thank goodness i didnt see any doesnt matter the size. i will still pee my pants. hehe

Yes the xtrail was the worst ever no power what so ever especially as i own a patrol and he is a true goer. Got me all through fraser island no probs. i was very worried to cross the creek as there are about 3 other crossing on jim jim road which i was worried about. So i played it safe and travelled another 40 km back to the freeway in the morning.

 

[SteveNT]

Yep, correct on all counts. First rule of 4WDing is "do I need to go there? Is there an alternative?"

That's the big crossing on that track (which went all the way to Nhulunbuy in the 30's!) Those guys did it tough, most of them got through because they had the nouse to solve their own problems. There are stories of people carving pistons from ironwood and clutch plates from acacia.

 

[kawasakirider]

There are stories of people carving pistons from ironwood.

Lmao, blow by much.... IDK if I quite believe that one, the clutch plates are credible enough. I have seen a doco where an aboriginal man made brake pads from a boomerang, that was pretty awesome!

Can't wait to see these pics. So where you were swimming, are there known to be crocs there? Balls of steel mate, I wouldn't try it.

 

[SteveNT]

No pics, we're talking 1930s in Arnerm Land. No pics just stories.

Ah my mistake! The pics are on her home page? there is an album.

 

[waruikazi]

Yep, correct on all counts. First rule of 4WDing is "do I need to go there? Is there an alternative?"

I thought the first rule was 'how much fun will it be? Will i look good?' lol

Quickly followed by 'Don't leave the track in the wet season!'

 

[Heelssss]

I thought the first rule was 'how much fun will it be? Will i look good?' lol

Quickly followed by 'Don't leave the track in the wet season!'

the track looked way to much fun but stupid, i am not in a xtrail hehe

 

[saratoga]

Here's a shot along the old Darwin road early Wet before you even reach the South Alligator or Barramundi Creek(coming from Cooinda)!

As for xtrails, they are great little cars; we have one here in Melbourne, but they are really toys more than serious 4wds. Where they really fall down is in not having a low range gear so you can't crawl slowly through rougher terrain. Of course ground clearance is also a problem but the low gear is by far the biggest issue. Having said that I'm surprised by where you can push them. We've taken ours through a few decent crossings, one at around .7m with now worries.

However if your'e going bush in the Territory you want nothing short of a Toyota, a practical working one....not a slick Toorak Tractor!

 

[SteveNT]

Ha ha, familiar with that sight!

Sometimes I feel the fear and do it anyway, but only if I know the locality.
I got a Torana through 1.0 with a tarp on the front. Keep that bow wave going!

Drive the Xtrail to the shops and back and leave it at that. What bothers me is that they are marketed as an off road vehicle and they're not even in the ball park. I've pulled a few out of the poo myself and they're just not up to it.

 

[Heelssss]

And what sucks is that you get charged double for hiring a 4x4 - which was useless in the out backbut fine in the city.

Geeez now that is a crossing!!!!

 

[Darlyn]

Next time your up Fangs might wanna catch up for a cool bevvie with SteveNt and I.
If your up in 2 months you may get to see some of our magnificent lightning storms.

 

[meatman]

Glad you enjoyed your time up here. There is definately plenty to do.
If you are up here again in 2 months you may be able to experience the monsoon rains.
Plenty of water and mozzies around then.

Cheers Justin