Good Morning Darwin!
Low 24°c (75°F) – High 31°c
(88°F)
A big day today – and I mean a big day.
Just down the road from the caravan park is a waterway that is covered
in white water lilies – just such a gorgeous show, I had to try to get a photo
even though there is nowhere to pull over or even walk adjacent to it. We had a couple of tries to stop when there
was no traffic and finally managed to capture it.
We decided to take a drive out to Litchfield and take in as many of the
sights as we could, given Kitty was with us.
It was pretty warm so she was more than happy to stick with the air
conditioning and as Shane had visited Litchfield on our last visit it was my
turn to do the walking for photos etc.
We stopped at Acacia to get fuel and as we were about to leave a car and
caravan turned off the highway and drove just down from the fuel pumps and
there was a really strange and loud noise I couldn’t quite make out. As we passed it by on the way out we could
see that they had completely shredded a tire and were driving on the rim. From what we could see on the road, coming
across said shredded tire quite a few kms down the road, they had been driving
like that for a while.
Our first stop was in Batchelor, near Rum Jungle which is on
the East Branch of the Finniss River and the site of a uranium deposit,
found in 1949, which has been mined. The
area derives its name from an incident when a thief stole 750 ounces of gold
from miners after getting them drunk with rum.
Processing and extraction of uranium ore at the Rum Jungle mine had
ceased by 1971, and the control of the township was handed back to the Northern
Territory Administration. The town is an
entry point for travellers to Litchfield National Park which attracts
approximately 280,000 visitors annually.
In the 2016 census, Batchelor recorded a population of 507 people,
with 36% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin. Despite its meagre population, Batchelor was
awarded the Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Communities Tidy Towns Award
in 2000. These awards began in 1968 in
Western Australia and have been running nationally since 1990 so no mean feat
for this little part of Australia.
We stumbled across St Barbara's Catholic Church built in 1954 on the
site of the former 1940’s RAAF Chapel. It was constructed by Irish miners using
a method and materials (recycled timber and prefabricated steel) that are
unique and architecturally significant.
Its pre-fabricated structure was designed with regard to the fact that
it could be relocated elsewhere should the mining town not survive in the
future. The church was named after the
patron saint for architects, builders, carpenters, construction workers,
explosives workers, geologists and miners, all of whom worked on the Rum Jungle
uranium project. St. Barbara also protects against explosions and mine
collapse.
Next stop was Rum Jungle South Lake Reserve, a very pretty little
picnic spot with lots of bird life but the surrounding long grass certainly
made it a concern for any fires in the area.
A Kingfisher was being less than cooperative in allowing me to capture
his glorious colours and meanwhile some smaller birds were diving constantly
into the water securing a pretty decent meal for the day.
Back on the road and a visit to a very large Termite Mound built by
Cathedral Termites. Estimated to be over
50 years old, it is over 5 meters tall. Further
down the road is another gem – Tabletop Swamp.
Unlike the Kingfisher earlier in the day, a large crow was more than
happy to pose for a photo. Our final
stop was at Wangi Falls which is also a beautiful area and has a rainforest
walk that I started on but then rain hit and well…. Frankly I wasn’t sure what
to expect – rain in a rainforest, I’ve seen how the rain goes from a tiny
drizzle to a torrential downpour these past few days – I headed back to the
car.
We continued our journey back to the park via Berry Springs, gave Kitty
a walk and then headed off to the Mindil Markets. I’m not a huge fan of the stalls there, and I
don’t understand why those stalls don’t cater more to the tourist instead of
selling clothing and jewellery which is what most of them consist of – however
the food stalls are another story altogether.
Every cultural delicacy you can think of and a perfect way to end the
day with a feed of Chinese and Churros with chocolate dipping sauces for
dessert. Having eaten way too much but
very satisfied, we enjoyed a dramatic lightening storm all the way home. Sadly I left my camera home for the evening
outing but managed to catch a half decent shot of the lightening even though it
was with my phone through the windscreen.
Miss Kitty was well and truly ready for bed tonight – as was I.
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