Litchfield

Original plan was to stop in Katherine for few days and maybe do some walking and canoeing in Katherine Gorge. Unfortunately there was a crocodile on the loose and therefore all waterways were closed to public. So decision was made to motor on to Litchfield and try our luck with Katherine on the way back. Learning from the past we pulled up in Litchfield in the morning to make sure we can get a campsite and got an awesome one at Wangi Falls. Now to say that the day was hot is a huge understatement so we headed straight for the water. The only problem in this climate is that after a nice refreshing swim it takes about 3.5 minutes to dry and after a 300m walk back to the campsite I was hot again. Therefore lying on the side of the beautiful plunge pool seemed like the ideal way to spend the afternoon.
Next day we set out to see Walker Falls, which are north of Wangi. As it is only 15km each way we took our bikes. That would have been a great idea, if the was about 15 degrees less. By the time we got to the Walker Falls we were hot, even though it was only 10am, and on the way back in the afternoon we nearly melted. But the Walker Falls are awesome, beautiful place for a cooling dip. Third day we went to see more sights in the park but this time took our car. Pretty much every place you pull up is amazing. We wandered around for a bit but in the afternoon the heat pushed us back to the water again. 
The campsite was full every night and every night there were people arriving who couldn’t get in anymore. Our site was way to big for one car so we could fit another little camper in. So every night we offered to share the space with some homeless backpackers and so we were chatting away every night with lovely people.
Both of us absolutely loved Litchfield, it felt like we just spend 4 days in Paradise and it is one of the top highlights of our trip so far.
Puvodne jsme chteli stravit par dni v Katherine a zkusit vyrazit na trek nebo padlovat na reku, ale bohuzel se jim zrovna toulal krokodyl a tak byla cela reka pro verejnost uzavrena. Tak jsem pokracovali smerem na Litchfield a Katherine zkusime cestou na vychod, treba ho mezitim chyti. Poucili jsme se ze zkusenosti a do Litchfieldu jsme dorazili rano a zajistili si mistecko na kempovani. Nasli jsme si prima flek hned u vodopadu Wangi a protoze byl nehoraznej hic, tak jsme rovnou vyrazili na koupacku. Bohuzel v mistnim klima se clovek ve vode sice krasne zchladi, nicmene pote uschne asi za tri a pul minuty a kdyz jsem dosla tech 500m zpatky do kempu, tak uz mi bylo zas desny horko. Tudiz jsme zbytek odpoledne stravili u vodopadu.
Dalsi den jsme se chteli mrknou na vodopady Walker, tak jsme hupsli na kola a vyrazili tech 15km na sever. Nebyl by to spatnej napad, kdyby bylo tak o 15 stupnu celsia min. Takhle jsme se tam doplazili zcela uriceny a to bylo teprv 10 rano. Ospoledni cesta zpatky byla des a nevim jestli je to mozny, ale myslim, ze mi krev dosahla bod varu. Nicmene Walker bylo super mistecko na koupani, kde jsme byli uplne sami. reti den jsme vyrazili omrknout zbytek parku, tentokrat uz ale autem. I tak jsme to museli odpoledne zabalit a uchylit se opet k vode.
Kemp byl kazdou noc plnej a kazdy vecer se nekolik aut uz nedostalo a museli jet shanet nocleh jinam. Nase mistecko bylo dost velky, tak jsme ho pokazdy nabidli mene cestovatelum, na ktere uz nezbylo. Vsichni byli radi, ze nemusi jet buhvikam shanet nocleh a my meli kazdy vecer spolecnost na pokec.
Litchfield jsme si tudiz opravdu uzili a je to rozhodne jedno z nej mist, ktere jsme zatim navstivili.
Wangi Falls
  
Walker Creek

Florence Falls
 
On top of Tjaeba Falls

Tolmer Falls
 

Cesta do Severniho Teritoria

Cesta z Broomu je dlouha. Celkem nezalezi kterym smerem se clovek vyda – je to daleko. Protoze nemame pohon na vsechny ctyri kola, nemohli jsme jet napric pohorim Kimberley, ale pouze po jeho okraji po silnici. Cestou toho moc neni, tak jsme udelali jen par zastavek v Tunnel Creek a Kununurra.
Tunnel Creek je v podstate tunel, nebo dlouha jeskyne. A opet jsme si uzili nasi uz oblibene zabavy – brodeni se vodou. Jen tentokrat to bylo v naproste tme. A takhle nejak to tam vypada:
V cele jeskyni nejsou zadna umele nainstalovana svetla, takze si kazdej musi vystacit se svoji baterkou. Podle toho, jak stastne si clovek vybere cestu, muze skoncit po kolena, pas ci prsa ve vode. Musim uznat, ze kdyz jsme stala po pas ve vode v uplne tme tak jsem si uplne nevyskala, obcas se nevyplaci si cist veskere dostupne informace, napr. ze v teto jeskyni ziji krokodyli a hadi, ikdyz prej jen mali), nicmene pokud nekdy pojedete kolem, tak se urcite stavte, stoji to za to.

Cestou z Broome do Katherine je spousta moznosti, kde kempovat zdarma, prevazne na odpocivadlech podel dalnice. Tam jsme potkali spoustu prima lidi a vymenili jsme si tipy a zazitky z cest. Obzvlaste dve zastavky se nam ale vryli do pameti. Ta prvni je asi 200 metru od dalnice a kdyz jsme tam sjeli, zustali jsme stat s pusama dokoran. Zaparkovano tam bylo NEJMIN stovka obytnaku. Po setmeni by si to clivek mohl klidne splist a malou vesnici.
Druha vyborna zastavka bylo tesne za hranici mezi Zapadni Australii a Severnim Teritoriem. Nektere staty tady totiz omezuji, co se do nich zmi privezt a Zapadni Asutralii je asi nejprisnejsi. Nesmi se tam vzit skoro nic – zadny ovoce, zelenina, med, vajicka, nektery typy vyrobku ze dreva a sposta dalsich veci. No a my parkovali tesne za hranici a byli jsme tam jediny auto jedouci ZE zapadu. Brzo se to rozkriklo a prislo nas k autu navstivit spousta moc fajn lidi, ale navic jsme posbirali asi tydenni zasobu potravin.

Across to NT

The road from Broome is long. Doesn’t really matter in which direction you are going, you will be going for a while. As we don’t have a 4WD we couldn’t take the Gibb River Road through Kimberley but had to stick to the sealed road on Kimberley’s edge. There isn’t all that much along the way, especially not for 2WD so we only made two stops – Tunnel Creek and Kununurra.

Tunnel Creek, as name suggests, is a tunnel. And once again we were back to our now quite popular activity – wading. Only this time in darkness. Here is what it looks like:

Yup, there is no single artificial light in the tunnel, so you have to find your own way using a torch. Depending how lucky you are in choosing your path you will be either knee deep, waist deep or even breast deep in water. I have to admit that standing waist deep in water in total darkness I wasn’t exactly screaming with joy but if you are ever in this area, this is definitely not a place to miss out on.

On the way to Kununurra we pulled up in Halls Creek which had an interesting bottle shop:

The had Cascade Light and Carlton Light.

Along the way from Broome to Katherine there is plenty of free camping along the highway on nice rest stops. Along there we met a lot of nice people and swapped travel stories and tips which was great after our VIC/SA solitude. One rest stop we couldn’t help ourselves and had to take a photo of, unfortunately it doesn’t quite do it justice. It’s a place about 200m off the highway and when we approached it our jaws just dropped open. There was AT LEAST hundred caravans, campervans, camper trailers and tents. In dark you could easily mistake it for a small village.

One other spot we definitely recommend for overnight stay is a rest stop just pass the WA/NT border. You are not allowed to take any fruit, veggies, honey and about 100 other things across the border and as it so happened we were the only ones on the whole rest stop coming from WA and going to NT. Word got out and within couple of hours we met heaps of great people and collected about weeks supply of food.

Broome

Broome is one of the most talked about city on the coast. Once again it was super busy but someone just cancelled their campsite in a camp we pulled up at so we were lucky and got a good spot really close to Cable Beach. It is sooooo hot now, we spent a day wandering about town and then hit the beach and the water to cool down. And today we went for local specialty – camel ride! It was awesome. The camels are so cute! The must be the most relaxed animals I have ever seen. They are just chilling in the sand, then when asked they get up and go, the lay down again, chewing the whole time, totally unworried about anything. And one trivia fact – did you know that Australia has the biggest wild population of camels in the world? Apparently it might the last wild population of camels actually, so Australia actually sends camels to Asian and Arabic countries for their breeding and conservation programs. Also if anyone stayed awake during the movie Australia long enough, these camels appeared in it. Our camel is called Apollo and behind him walked his best mate Murphy, who wanted to catch with with our Apollo so we had an extra camel head by our side the whole time.

Broome je jedno z nejnavstevovanejsich mest na zapadnim pobrezi, tudiz opet narvano, ale nekdo zrusil svoji rezervaci zrovna kdyz jsme dorazili do kempu, tak jsme dostali jejich fleka. Je tu pekne horko, tak jsme se pocourali po meste a pak se usidlili na plazi. Dneska rano jsme vyrazili na mistni specialitu – jizdu na velbloudech. Bylo to super. Ty velbloudi byli uplne rozkosny. Navic to musi byt asi nejuvolnenejsi zvirata, jaky jsem kdy videla. Lezi v pisku, pak se teda zvednout, projdou se po plazi, pak se zase svali do pisku, celou dobu zvejkaj a je jim to vsechno jedno. Australia ma udajne nejvetsi a mozna i posledni divokou populaci velbloudu na svete. Ted dokonce velbloudy vyvazi do Asie a arabskych zemi na jejich pokusy opet vzkrisit tamni velbloudi poulace. Nas velbloud se jmenoval Apollo a za nim sel jeho nejlepsi kamos Murphy, kterej se celou dobu snazil dohnat naseho Apolla na pokec, tudiz jsme meli celou dobu vedle sebe velbloudi hlavu navic.

       

Karinjini

- the gorge(ous) place

After two days driving through desert we finally made it to Karinjini. It’s title of oasis in the desert is more that well deserved. Even in winter the days are hot and there is nothing but hot red sand everywhere you look. Except for Karinjini gorges that is. Even in summer there you can find waterfalls, green forest and pools to dive in to cool down. When studying the brochure we couldn’t help but wonder – 3km with estimated 3 hours time to make it? huh? What do you do, crawl? Well, not exactly but close. As we realized in Grampians earlier, walking can mean scrambling over rocks, even climbing. Here it is wading through anything between little streams and neck deep water. The Dales Gorge is no problem, nice walk with pools to stop at for a swim. The Weanu Gorge is a different story. Now there you take your shoes off about 300m into the walk and it’s not worth putting them on until you get out again as you are in some sort of water most of the time. Sometimes just up to your ankles, sometimes waist deep, if you make a wrong step even neck deep. It’s really amazing, you make your way through pools and passes and you feel like an adventurer discovering new world. It is an incredible place. The only minus would be that now everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is our van is red. The dust just gets everywhere and there is nothing you can do. But even though some of our clothes will never be it’s original colour again, it was worth it. 

Po dvou dnech jizdy pre spoust jsme konecne dorazili do narodniho parku Karinjini. Karinjini je prezdivana “oazou v pousti” a musim uznat, ze je to titul velmi vystizny. Nebot ackoliv kam se clovek podiva je jen cerveny pisek a i v zime je tu vedro, v Karinjini clovek najde vodopady, zelene lesiky a jezirka ke koupani.

Kdyz jsme koukali do brozuky, moc jsme nechapali, proc u 3km treku je uvedena doba chuze 3 hodiny. No ale jak se ukazalo, “chuze” je velmi siroky pojem. V Grampians to znamenalo cokoliv od chuze, pres skrabani se pres sutry az po vicemene lezeni. Tady to zas muze byt cokoliv od chuze pres brouzdani se vodou po kotniky az po brodeni se vodou po krk. Prvni trek nebyl problem – prijemna prochazka se zastavkama na koupani. Druhy a treti trek jsme uz boty sundaval po asi 300 metrech a obuli je zas az u auta. vtsinu casu sjme totiz travili ve vode, nekdy po kotniky, jindy po krk. Oblast je to opravdu uzasna, kdyz se clovek brodi mezi tema skalama, tak ma pocit, ze je prvnim prukopnikem, ktery se sem probojoval. Neustale jsme zasli, jak je to tady krasny. Akorat jedno minus to teda ma – ted mame vsechno cerveny. Auto zvenci i zevnitr – cerveny. Ten cervenej prach se dostane uplne vsude. Ale ackoliv nekolik kusu obleceni se asi uz nikdy nenavrati do sve puvodni barvy, stalo to za to.

  Behind us you can get only with abseiling equipment / Za nas se da dostat jen se slanovaci vybavou.