During the term 3 holidays, some lucky students from Lajamanu and Kalkaringi joined up for a fun filled trip to the top end with lots of adventures over 6 days.
It was a long drive from the two communities up to Litchfield, broken up by a picnic lunch in the park, bread rolls, chicken and salad on the way. As we pulled into the Litchfield Tourist Park, the rains came down, luckily the park had safari style tents and a kitchen tent available as we were going to sleep in swags – we weren’t expecting rains this early in the year!
After a refreshing swim in the caravan park pool, the students all helped cook up a big dinner of hamburgers and salad and then headed off for some sleep before our next big day.
It was an early start in the morning so we could beat the crowds at Buley Rock hole. The day was spent enjoying the beautiful rock holes, pools and waterfalls in the Litchfield national park, Buley Rockhole, Florence Falls and Wangi Falls.
We had another big tasty dinner, with the students taking control of the sausages and mash potato, with lots of butter! It tasted delicious!
Up early again, a quick breakfast and we were off to the Cascades, this waterhole has a bit of a walk in so we only saw a few people at the water hole, it was very pretty and we enjoyed some more swimming.
In the afternoon we drove up to Darwin and tried out some indoor rock climbing, not too far from the centre of town. Simon who was having his birthday was scaling the walls like a gecko, his long arms and legs a big advantage on the climbing wall!
We had a special birthday dinner with some cake and then off to bed for a very early start in the morning to jump on a deep-sea fishing charter.
Out of bed really early, enjoyed some McDonalds for breakfast as our food was still locked in the Caravan park kitchen! We left before the sun came up!
We met Ian and Jacob at Cullen Bay, jumped on the boat and headed out into the ocean, luckily the conditions were calm for the journey. After not a lot of success fishing the sea floor, we headed out to a different spot to chase Mackerel with some big bright lures behind the Arafura Blue Water Fishing Charter boat. After one fish got away, we started to land some good size mackerel that the guys filleted for us to take away! We had 2 great dinners of fresh fish for the next 2 nights! Fish and chips and a fish curry! Not too bad!!!!
Back into the van again after the fishing and we headed to Sandpalms on the way to Dundee Beach. Everyone was up and ready to go earlier than expected so we headed down to check out Dundee Beach before our tour at Matt Wrights Top End Safari Camp. Rowdy the guide met the students by the plunge pool, and we excitedly jumped on their mini bus for the short trip down to the Air Boat ride on the Finnis River to check out the crocodiles and the wildlife. After a few 360’s in the boat and some wild turns we docked the boat and headed over to see some very big crocodiles being fed by Rowdy and Josh.
The crocs were huge! They had some serious power. Even though we were at a safe distance away some of the students ran for it when the first croc leapt out of the water for the feed!
Other than a swim in the Katherine hot springs and burgers at Top Springs all we had left was the long drive and lots of fun music choices on the way back to Lajamanu and Kalkaringi.
Thank you to the Directors of Kalkaringi, Ellie Simmons and Lajamanu, Simon Blake – for giving our lucky students such a memorable week away!
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