Month: August 2024
We’ve Arrived in Alice Springs
We are gradually making progress south down the Stuart HIghway towards Port Augusta and Adelaide. Yesterday’s segment from Tennant Creek to Alice Springs (505 km) was our longest stage yet. We drove on kilometre after kilometre of dead straight road through largely uninteresting desert country. For much of the way, there was nothing of interest […]
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World War Two Military Operations.
It was a long way from Daly Waters to Tennant Creek today – a trip of around 420 kms on another day of 36C degrees. The topography was quite featureless and the environment grew gradually more arid. The trees of yesterday were replaced with small desert shrubs. It was a rather boring drive. We did […]
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Outback Towns and Pubs
On our 250 kilometre drive to Daley Waters today, we travelled through a savannah landscape with millions of termite mounds, both large and small. The temperature was a little kinder – the daily maximum has droppred from 38C to 36C. Such a difference! Not long after leaving Katherine. we passed the entrance to the Tindal […]
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Kakadu to Katherine
After having a few days around Darwin at Point Stuart and Jabiru, we have commenced our journey south to home with our first stop in Katherine. We have allowed sufficient time here to visit some historic places and to take a boat cruise on Katherine Gorge (now known by its Aboriginal name of Nitmiluk Gorge). […]
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Ancient Rock Art and Uranium
Today is our last day in Kakadu National Park before we start heading south on our 3,800 kilometre (2,400 mile) trip back to Melbourne. We had mentally divided Kakadu into three regions – Central (Nourlangie Rock), South (Yellow Waters) and North (Ubirr). The northern section was our destination for today. Ubirr is approximately 40 km […]
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Boat Cruising on Yellow Waters
Today’s outing from Jabiru took us 57 km south to an area known as the Yellow Waters Billabong. It is one of the most famous areas within the Kakadu National Park.It gets its name from the distinctive yellow hue that appears on the water, particularly during certain times of the year. This coloration is primarily […]
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Onwards to Jabiru
It’s been very hot today with a temperture of 38C (100F). The last few days (and the next week are no different). The trick is to freeze your warer bottles overnight so that they stay cold for a good part of the day. From Point Stuart Wilderness Lodge, we drove toward Kakadu National Park along […]
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A Lazy Day to Point Stuart
We didn’t need to check out of our Darwin hotel until 1100 and seeing that we only had a drive of about 150 km to Point Stuart Lodge, we took it easy and didn’’t leave Darwin until almost midday. We followed the Arnhem Highway toward Kakadu, passing by many kilometres of mango farms. Eventually, the […]
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Our Last Day in Darwin
Yesterday was our last day in Darwin before we begin our road trip to some interesting places and eventually home. After checking out from the Free Spirit Resort in Palmerston (where our reunion was based), we drove back along the Stuart Highway into the city. Our first destination was to the Botanical Gardens. It was […]
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Darwin Reunion – Vietnam Veterans Day
The major event of our 85 Transport Platoon Reunion was held yesterday, on August 18, at Reg Hillier House in Darwin. This venue is the home of NT Vietnam Veterans and named after the only Territorian killed in Vietnam. We, and local veterans, assembled and after all the dignitaries arrived we formed up to march […]
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Darwin Reunion – Day 1
We had a slow start to our reunion yesterday morning and some frustrating time with cars. Our rental car was showing a warning light that we couldn’t delete and I didn’t want to drive all the way to Melburne with it on. We arranged with Hertz to swap it over to a different car, so, […]
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We Have Arrived in Darwin
We are now in Darwin, Australia’s most northern city. It’s the location of the 85 Transport Platoon (Vietnam) reunion. These reunions are held every two years in different locations around the country Those who served in this unit came from many places across Australia. Flights to Darwin often arrive late at night or early in […]
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