Last Night in the Turtle

We get back to Cooinda for a relax before our sunset cruise with the people eaters, our last night on the road, and our last sleep in the turtle.

When we arrive back at Cooinda we head to our new site, it is much nicer, lots of trees, and close to the toilet for this old lady. With Keem parked up and the turtle prepared its hot, damn hot, and we head for a swim. Little did we know that there are two pools in this metropolis so we seek out the second pool, and find that we are not the youngest in the resort after all.

It appears that the grey nomads separate themselves from the others, and there are families and young couples galore.

It is, brisk, refreshing, invigorating. Also known as bloody cold, it is warmer than Lake Argyle though. NOTE: Lake Argyle will be the measuring stick for cold swimming experiences forever more.

A shower, change, cold wine/beer, and we head to the meeting point for our cruise.

The Yellow Water Cruise was recommended to us by one of the grey nomads that we met in the Bungle Bungles Camp Ground.

According to the website (http://www.kakadutourism.com/tours-activities/yellow-water-cruises/yellow-water-cruise/)

“A Yellow Water cruise is a ‘must do’ experience when visiting Kakadu. This beautiful billabong is home to remarkable scenery and wildlife, Yellow Water Cruises will provide you with an intimate adventure tour that you will never forget.

A spectacular journey through Kakadu’s wetlands.

Yellow Water Billabong is at the heart of Kakadu offering a remarkable journey through the region’s wetlands, with its rich wildlife, dramatic scenery and ever-changing landscape.”

What they didn’t mention was the onboard entertainment in the form of two brothers, whose family are the caretakers of the land. Rueben was our skipper, historian, guide, and entertainer.

If you don’t go for any other reason you should go to hear him speak. And he does not stop the entire time. You learn the history of the land, their family, details on the wildlife, and the billabong itself.

We saw more creatures here than we did anywhere else on our journey, it was nonstop, crocodiles (salties – the bitey ones), Jesus Birds (look them up, they are so cool), sea eagles, buffalos, jabiru bird, ducks, and many more.

I also learnt why birds are so comfy around crocodiles! Apparently feathers are impossible to digest, and the crocodiles have figured this out. Plus there is loads of other food in the billabong, fish, baby buffalos, baby kangaroos and wallabies, and, of course, tourists trying to get that ultimate shot.

We learnt that crocodiles have terrible eyesight, they “cannot see shit”. This was witnessed firsthand when one of the salties sitting on the side of the billabong attacked a log! Even crocodiles see logadiles! I may have been imagining it, but I am sure the crocodile looked embarrassed.

We saw an amazing sunset, and were entertained all the way back to the resort. As we were disembarking Rueben says to Jason “bloody hell, your massive, what are you!, a fireman”. Hilarious.

Still laughing we were back at our camp site for our last camp cooked dinner. And this night we outdid ourselves. Jason cooked the pork chops and I made camp cooker apple sauce, fresh apples, limes, sugar, and it was pure magic. As we sat and ate our dinner, lamenting the fact our road trip was nearly over, dingoes wandered past in the shadows. How bloody cool is that.

Tomorrow we head to Darwin. Keem has a massive chip in the windscreen and we need to get that fixed. It is also today that I found out, despite paying a ton of extra insurance we are not covered for glass, tyres, or Keem’s undercarriage. Completely my fault, should have read that more carefully.

Oh well, how much could it possibly cost

We settle down for the night, good night world.

12^th June – Darwin, why go there?

304kms

This morning we actually have a dew on the ground and on the tent. Probably the coldest morning yet. Jason makes our final breakfast of salmon and poached eggs, I am in charge of the toast (that has been my job).

Everything is packed up and we are on the road by 830am. Ahead of the usual grey nomad exodus, which normally exit at the 1000am checkout time.

We are sad to be finishing our road trip but excited to be staying in a hotel with a proper bed, inside toilet, a restaurant, and rooftop bar. Yep we have gotten soft people, real soft.

The road to Darwin, is long, and flat – yep, we are shocked. But the road is a lot busier and the waves, well they dry up. Only the occasional response to our wave, and we tried all variations, just in case it was a local thing. Nothing.

As we leave there are dingoes on the side of road, maybe a farewell of sorts.

It as easy to tell when we were close to Darwin, god damn traffic lights. Lots and lots of traffic lights. This is not an exaggeration. It’s almost like they had accidentally ordered too many lights and decided to use them all anyway.

We arrive at our hotel Ramada Suites by Wyndham Zen Quarter (good grief, can you make the name any longer people!!!) around 1130 and hope we can drop our luggage off, so we can give Keem a clean, and hand her back. Even better, they had a room, we checked in early, and we were able to unpack all our stuff. We hadn’t been shopping so how the hell did we end up with so much STUFF.

Next stop, the window screen place! Eventually the chap comes outside, its 34 degrees and no breeze, waiting outside is not pleasant! Does an assessment, it cannot be fixed, must be replaced. No shit Sherlock, we already told you that, so he went to quote it up for us.

$1,440 dollars. WTF I ask? Yep, they have to be calibrated and stuff, so that is what it costs. And that is the best price. By this stage Jason is ropeable. Could not believe our insurance did not cover glass, and the price, well yes, the wind screen was costing us a return trip to Europe. Joy. Not only that, but if we did not get it fixed before returning it the rental company would charge us an admin fee!

Deep breath! Find your zen. Deep breath. Find your zen. Grumble FARK, bastards, there were many expletives, but I won’t write them out here, mother would not be impressed.

Jason calls back Australian 4WD, they have a $1500 bond and he tells them to keep it, they can scrap over the admin fee. They must be a little taken aback at his grumpiness as they say they will do their best to get a cheaper deal, and refund the balance – YEAH RIGHT.

Now we need to clean Keem, you must have her clean and tidy before returning her. Its in the contract, and they will charge a cleaning fee of $80 an hour if you don’t (F*CK that – what kind of cleaner gets $80 an hour!).

We find a self-clean thing, and have her sparkly and new within 15 minutes. These things are amazing! I much prefer someone else cleaning my car though – as amazing as it is, going shopping and coming back to beautifully valeted car is even better (yes, I am soft and lazy).

Finally, we drop off Keem, and bid our farewells.

Time for a drink, its bloody hot and we need to swim and relax and eat and drink.

Thus ends our time on the road. We miss Keem but not her drinking habit.

Kilometers: 2,900

Highways travelled: 4 (Great Northern, Victoria, Arnhem, Stuart)

Diesel Purchased: $700

Naked Germans: 1 (that is more than enough)

Waves Perfected: 5

Animals run over: 1 (it was dead before I got there)

Fun had: Exponential

Animals spotted: too many to count

 

 

 

Number of kms and petrol

Number of motorways