Friday 26^th and Saturday 27^th July, 2024

On our first day of travel we went to Mamukala Wetlands. Most of the area was covered in water lillies and had very few birds. A pity because the bird hide was excellent, allowing a great view and with deep shade and comfortable benches. Our next stop was for lunch at the West Alligator Rest Area. We didn’t see any crocs, but the little mud hopper fish on the edge were fun to watch. It was lunchtime, so we went back inside and had our usual salad, etc.

Mamaluka Wetlands

West Alligator River

Fogg Dam

Fogg Dam: the history is interesting. The dam was built as part of a failed project to grow rice in this region. Unfortunately, too much rain in the wet season and not enough in the dry meant it was a resounding failure. But, the resulting wetlands absolutely team with birdlife who don’t seem to be much disturbed by cars driving though.

The rest of the drive to Bark Hut Inn Roadhouse/Caravan Parkwas very long and tiring. We stopped to rest a couple of times, including at the western boundary of Kakadu. We arrive at Bark Hut after 4.00 p.m. and managed to secure a powered site. The idea was that you could choose your own camp spot near a post with power points. Campers had parked higgeldy piggeldy and it was hard to work out where we could camp in reach of electricity. Eventually we found a spot on the edge, on a slope that we were too tired to correct, and Stephen plugged us into water as well as power.

We had a semi comfortable night with the air conditioning running the whole time and set to dehumidfy. We had four bars of 4G, but it was very slow anyway. I though it wouldn’t work to set up the Starlink as south of us had two large trees. But, I did set up in the morning and we had quite good internet despite the trees.

Yesterday we travelled slightly off the Arnhem Highway to Fogg Dam. This has been on our list since we ran into people in Alice Springs who said it was wonderful. It did not disappoint. There is a dam wall that you can drive across to a viewing point. It was the middle of the day but the bird life was still amazing. There were signs prohibiting walking on the dam wall due to saltwater crocodiles, but we used the Sherwood as a bird hide and croc safe viewing platform to stop at the side of the road on the dam for lunch.

We opened up the windows so that we could photograph and use binoculars to view the birds. Stephen felt a bit nervous about having the window on his side wide open. I’m glad that he is now very cautious about crocs, not like when he was younger and decided to swim with the crocs at Katherine Gorge.

We didn’t actually see any crocs, but are aware that they hide just below the surface. One side of the dam had water and the other side was damp, with some pools and that is where most of the birds were.

Then it was time to head back to the main road and towards Darwin. We decided to take the first caravan park that had room, ideally an actual room or cabin. So we are now at Coolalinga Caravan Park about 30kms from the city.

We have very little internet and this morning when we were recovered from the journey we set up the Starlink. I’ve had the router and power block stickied to the Sherwood stove bench, so had to undo the sticky. We seem to have a good signal outside of our back door.

I’ve also done some handwashing and set it outside on our airer to drip dry. We’ve had a family next door using our car port (admittedly we can’t use it) and they were very noisy at times. But, today they have left.

We’ve decided to stay two nights here to get our bearings and decide where to stay closer to the city. We have quite a large room with three beds, a large dining table, a comfortable sofa, plus kitchen and bathroom. Stephen managed to get us a free upgrade to this space. Nothing fancy and the air conditioning is very noisy, but does a good job. We also have overhead fans and were able to sleep without leaving the air conditioning on. It shows the difference with a van in that the inside temperature is usually within a degree of the outside if you don’t either cool or heat inside. Whereas this place stayed cool from the air conditioning running for a few hours.

We do have air conditioning in the van, but are having to run it all night in order to sleep. We will stay in caravan parks with power until we get south enough for the nights to be cooler. It was 24 degrees overnight here, whereas Broome, for example, had the same day time temperature, but cooled down to 15 overnight.