Lord of the Flies meets Swallows and Amazons at the Douglas Daley

The inhabitants of Australia’s Northern Territory, the Territorians, are a breed apart from normal Australians and thus remind me very much of the Scots. Being a Territory and not a full State has led to them having a chip on their communal shoulder which translates into an overwhelming feeling of superiority and a reluctance to conform to the rules and regulations of the rest of the country. A recently cited example of this being the fact that, in all of Australia, only Territorians are able to buy and set off fireworks – a jealously guarded right despite the number of houses burning down and maimings.

This cocking-a-snoot at authority came to the fore during our recent camping trip to the Douglas Daley with Sandra’s sister Gill, her family and several other families. The campsite was idyllic being on the banks of the Douglas River with many plunge pools in which to swim and cool off. The trip was deemed one of rest and relaxation, which translates as doing nothing, no long (or even short) walks with the only exercise being to walk the few feet to the river for a cool dip before opening another cold beer. The exception to this of course being the youngsters who immediately divested themselves of most of their clothes and went feral. Out came the axes to chop down bamboo poles to make deadly looking spears and thereafter all manner of small creatures were ruthlessly hunted down for sport – some were even caught, although never eaten.

Many of the local waterholes have signs saying “No Swimming” and “Crocodiles Live Here” – however this is not enough to deter true Territorians, in fact I think it encourages them to challenge authority. My inflatable dingy came into its own as all the kids decamped and headed for the nearby water hole to hunt crocodiles – with permission of the parents – anything for a bit of peace and quiet! The height of pushing the boundaries of commonsense probably came when the kids posed in the water beside the metal crocodile trap baited with pig meat. I think it was totally irresponsible for Auntie Sandra to encourage such behaviour for the sake of a couple of photographs (not published on this blog for legal reasons)

All-in-all a gruesome mixture of “Lord of the Flies” meets “Swallows and Amazons”

Mind you, Sandra and I entered into the hunting spirit and were responsible for the deliberate killing of many small creatures. Driving back to camp in the dark after the croc trap episode, we noticed cane toads on the road - not one or two but literally hundreds. The cane toad is Public Enemy No 1 in Australia and we did our bit to stop their encroachment into Western Australia by driving over as many as possible. The “pop” as the wheels crushed cane toads was curiously satisfying – in a Territorian sort of way!

Followers of this blog will be aware of how rain has followed us round Australia – so much so we have become convinced we are forever jinxed to be drought-busters. July in Northern Territory is well into the Dry Season and in the 15 years or so Gill has been camping at the Douglas Daley she has never experienced rain. However our arrival heralded a downpour. The headline in the local paper was “Goodbye to the dry…Rain in July” – c’est la vie. At least it was warm rain.

We cut the Douglas Daley trip short in order to visit Kakadu National Park. We had been there before but never been to the south end of the park – particularly a place called Gumlom which came highly recommended by Gill and Co. Gumlom was beautiful, although a full appreciation of this beauty came at a cost – not financial but physical. Whilst there was a very large swimming hole near the campsite where the river cascaded down the side of a cliff, the real attractions were at the top of the cliff which could only be reached by a very stiff climb – agony for aging limbs, mine at least as Sandra has amazing mountain goat abilities (yes I know this is hard to believe). After a multi-stop climb, almost at the crack of dawn (Sandra doesn’t do dawns!) we found ourselves at the top of the escarpment with amazing views. There was a series of smaller pools carved out by the river which were extremely inviting but, with no swimming cozzies, we chickened out of skinny-dipping when another group of crack-of-dawners appeared over the horizon.

After Gumlom we headed north to re-visit some of the other well-known tourist sites when our Kakadu experience came to an unexpected end – Sandra received a text from the organiser of the Parap Market in Darwin informing her that she had been given a place for Saturday’s market. With need to prepare for the market we headed home at speed only stopping to celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary with an overnight camp with the captivating name of Two Mile Hole. This proved to be on the shores of a billabong populated in equal measure by barramundi and crocodiles – the former being hunted by fishermen and the latter being avoided by us! One of the fishermen offered us the use of his “bathroom” which turned out to be a small creek running into the billabong – the proviso being we had a good lookout for crocs before washing – we gave it a miss!

Saturday morning at dawn - when push comes to shove, if it’s in the name of her craftwork, Sandra can get out of bed! Parap Market is mainly food and crafts and runs from about 8am to 2pm. This was her third, and final, market in Darwin and it was very hot – partly due to the sun, but also because she was allocated a spot hard up against the kitchen of a Vietnamese food stall. I had half hoped she had satisfied her creative/selling urges but no such luck – she is now talking about building up stock for the Sydney Christmas market!

This week we head off into the wilds of Western Australia and, for this leg of the journey, we have been joined by Sandra’s sister and her partner Stretch who arrived from Sydney last night.