Sun-up at the caravan park Victoria River
Well folks, it just keeps getting better. Every time I think we have seen the best of the best, we just find something better! I have to say I am disappointed with so many of our friends and acquaintances who have travelled the road from Kununurra to Katherine, and who have not told us of the beauty of that particular route - it is truly amazing!!
We left Katherine on Tuesday the 10th August and hit the road west, first stop being a mind bogglingly beautiful Victoria River. The stop there is behind the servo, and sits right on the bank of the Victoria River. It is a caravan park, but really presents just like a free park with all the comforts of home. Very informal and easy over. The park is sat at the base of incredible escarpments of red rock – as I indicated earlier, I had absolutely no concept of the beauty here. The colours are exceptional and the rock formations stunning. The colours of the escarpment in the early morning sun have to be seen to be believed. The photo might look good, but it is nothing compared to the real thing. The park was very peaceful, except that is for the very peculiar and humorous call of the Little and the Silver Headed Friar Birds. There was a good size colony of these characters at the site and they certainly let us know they were there with their comical noises. The place abounded with bird life and the little Agile Wallabies came in at night for a feed of grass. The night skies were clear and the stars were just out of reach above our heads. We have been so spoilt with the weather, almost wherever we have been and this has been no exception. Glorious sun drenched days of low 30s and delightfully cool nights of low teens. Just delicious. You won’t be surprised to hear that having planned on staying one night at Victoria River, we did in fact extend our stay to two nights before hitting the road again, this time headed for Timber Creek, just another 90ks or so up the road.
I have to say that whilst Timber Creek was also very pretty, it did not compare with Victoria River – we just cannot understand why more people don’t stop overnight there. Anyway, the park at Timber Creek was fine - lovely grassed sites and amazing trees – it seemed that some enterprising sort, many moons ago, decided to plant as many different Australian trees there as possible – the end result being very park-like. We were sat between a glorious big Boab and a Banyan – both beautiful, and we were looking directly at an ethereal and graceful ghost gum. We were right on the banks of the Timber Creek, and so sadly were a hundred or so bats! I have to say, I don’t share the aversion for these creatures that some folk do, however, I can certainly understand why people don’t want them as neighbours. Noisy characters that they are, they wake you at first light as they return to their nesting place for a day’s peace??!! Of course, there is a certain odour attached to the little fellas as well. All in all tho’ at a reasonable distance, they are fine. There are two caravan parks at Timber Creek and we opted to stay at Wirib Tourist Village, that is the one closest to Katherine. The other park (right next door) did have a closer relationship with the bats and they did feature feeding of the crocs each evening at 5. As we are not particularly ‘crocy’ people, we decided we didn’t need to spend the extra $2per night to stay there. Our choice was a good one, our park was both quieter and more spacious. Once again, a very peaceful spot. The big event there, was the River Cruise – simply known as the Victoria River Cruise. They charge $88 for a three and a half hour cruise up the river. It is quote “A powerful 40km journey to a vast wilderness frontier”. Well, we did enjoy the trip and some of the countryside is indeed beautiful, however, we are hard pressed to justify the price. The river is incredible, but we felt that our host (who truthfully displayed the personality of a grey nurse shark), really didn’t put into the trip – he pretty much turned it into a ‘ spot the croc’ exercise, which is all very good, but it could have been just soooo much more. Our hostess (his wife I think) did try to make a few light-hearted jokes but it all seemed to fall pretty flat. They took us up the river to where they had a houseboat moored, and fed us on nibblies and cool drink. They did provide eskies for anyone who wished to take wine or beer – so all was not lost. As I said, it was good, but could have been just so much better. We received very little in the way of local lore which really was a shame, as the area would be rich in stories of past heroes. I guess the reality of it is that the River and the surrounding countryside just had to speak for itself, and it did. The river is incredibly wide for most of the journey and travels through various different types of native bush. The upper reaches where we stopped for munchies were at the foot of the Yambarran Ranges and the red reflections in the river were wonderful. We saw very little in the way of wild-life along the way, just the odd Agile Wallaby and roo. One of the highlights was the feeding of a pair of majestic Sea Eagles and a large number of Whistling Kites. It appeared that this was something our verbose (not) host was interested in as he actually did manage to talk to us a little about the birds, claiming, probably quite truthfully, that this would be the only place anywhere where you would see the Kites and Eagles actually sharing a meal. Not only did they share the meal, but a characteristically opportunistic crow also managed to jump in for his share. We did spot a female Jabiru, a few Egrets and in the distance what appeared to be some Pelicans. The main characters however were the crocs, both ‘freshies’ and ‘salties’ graced the shores along the way. The river was super calm and we did get some wonderful reflections as we travelled. The best part of the trip was the return home with the magical colours of the sunset over our shoulders casting mysterious and colourful patterns on the water. Our host actually managed to laugh when we arrived back at our park, but only ‘cause his wife nearly fell down the steps of the bus! TBBITW has a theory that some blokes are only given a restricted number of words to use each day and this character had already used most of his before the river trip and was therefore reduced to severe rations along the way!
Once again, as is our pattern, we spent two nights at Timber Creek before hitting the road West once again. This time we will cross the border back into good old WA. In truth we are both quite despondent as we leave the Territory behind us – we have been somewhat bewitched we think and will always have a soft spot in our hearts for this wonderful part of the world. We hope to return one day to experience some of this “in the Wet” – that will be something to look forward to.
I won’t bore you with a separate Caravan Park exercise this time as I have pretty much covered that in the main text – so until next time, be gentle with yourselves and each other. Stephanie.
Nature's own sepia tones - the Victoria River at dusk.
Sunset behind the escarpment shedding mysterious and beautiful patterns on the water. 
Could this possibly be real?
Peaceful River Banks in the late afternoon sun.
