Enjoying Darwin and surrounds… Wednesday, 28/08/2024
At 8am last Friday morning a diver spent about 15 minutes checking Manuka’s hull. He reported that it was pretty clean. Under supervision, I then had to pour about two litres of some pink liquid into the water system that cools the engine – apparently there is some sort of pest that can breed in the seawater inlet. This liquid had to be left standing for 12 hours, meaning that I could only turn on the engine and move into the marina at 18:30. This was arranged, and I went shopping, including for an Australian SIM card.
Due to the 6 metre-plus tidal range at Darwin, access to the marina is through a lock. This was interesting, and brought fond memories of the Panama Canal! Much smaller obviously, and in practice at the time of entry there wasn’t a great difference between the level outside and inside the marina, only 50cm or so. At right on sunset I was finally tying up to the dock – quite a relief, given it had taken 2 days to get this far.
And Darwin? A wonderful place! The city is small, only 140,000 people – although that represents 53% of the entire population of the Northern Territory (extraordinary because its area is 520,000 square miles, roughly 10 times the size of England!). Given abundant land, it’s no surprise that the city is fairly spread out. Darwin is considered very remote by other Australians, and its people very friendly. They are also younger than average – the city seems to attract young people, probably because accommodation costs are lower than elsewhere. Also, people retiring tend to move away, and it doesn’t attract retirees: too remote and too hot I suppose. It is indeed a very friendly and laidback place. You go into a shop and find yourself in conversation with the people working there. I’ve had a few dozen conversations already – including with a man canvassing for the local conservative party. I said “I don’t have a vote” and he said oh, no problem – and so we had a 10 minute chat about Darwin!
On Monday morning I picked up a hire car and drove about 150km (90 miles) out of the city to Litchfield National Park. The park is famed for its waterfalls, some of which you can swim at in the dry season. (At the end of the wet season, rangers set traps for crocodiles and move them on, so that it is safe. This is a serious matter – unless it’s a place certified for swimming, it very likely has crocodiles, both freshwater and the larger saltwater ones – strangely, saltwater crocodiles can travel up to 200km inland…). Australia after all is famed for its natural hazards to human life: sharks, crocodiles, poisonous snakes, deadly spiders and box jellyfish! So, apart from the hazards of sailing, I’m now at risk of my life being snatched away by some horrible creature. Haha.
What a beautiful place Litchfield is. I started off at Florence Falls, absolutely spectacular, where I had a great swim. The water is cool relative to the air temperature (which was 37 or 38 degrees – roughly 100 Fahrenheit), but it is not cold – probably 22 or 23 degrees. And it’s wonderfully clear. I then drove on to Tolmer Falls for views from the escarpment northwards towards the sea, and then Wangi Falls where I swam again. Returning to Darwin I stopped at Berry Springs Nature Park where there are spring-fed pools surrounded by lush forest, another great place to swim. Swimming makes great sense here, given how hot it is.
In fact I liked Litchfield National Park so much that I’m going back! This evening I hired a car for collection on Friday morning and have booked a campsite a short walk from Florence Falls. Very similar to the setup in New Zealand: the campsite is run by the parks authority and is very basic: toilet and shower, but you need to bring your own drinking water. Not a problem for me, given that I have three 20-litre water jerrycans on the boat. So I will be making use of my tent and basic camping equipment again – which will be a complete contrast to being stuck on the boat for much of the next 5 or 6 weeks until I arrive in Mauritius.
It will make a big difference to actually spend two nights sleeping out there. I was in contact with the Border Force this morning, saying I wanted to leave on Monday morning. They’re pretty busy on Monday, so asked if I could leave on Tuesday. Instead of hanging around in town until then it seemed like a great opportunity to get out into the wild. I could have gone elsewhere, but the problem with many places is that a 4WD vehicle is required. Not so easy hiring one for just 2 or 3 days. Also, I didn’t really want to drive too far in a short time. So Litchfield will be perfect. There are some longer walks there which I can do. I will report back!
