Dundee Beach

Meeting new people on our travels has been one of the most rewarding parts of our trip. We are far from social butterflies, but try to be friendly & open with everyone we meet. If you have been reading the blog you might remember we met a lovely, like minded, similar aged couple to ourselves at Home Valley Station, Troy & Jackie. They were a few months into their travels, but insisted we had to check out a place called Dundee Beach, it was amazing. We had never heard of it, but when we found out it was near Darwin we kept it in the back of our minds as an option when we caught up with the family. In the end the family ran out of time to come with us, but we just had to visit, we were so close & the beauty of our trip is we don't have a schedule, YEAH, so Dundee beach here we come. 

The drive out of Darwin was uneventful & we soon realised just how much there was to see within a 150km radius of Darwin. We drove past many signs that were very enticing to turn off into like Berry Springs, Tumbling Waters & Crab Claw island resort, but today's destination was to be Dundee Beach. 

The road in was probably 80% bitumen with patches of good dirt & only took just over an hour to get there. We had planned to stay at the Lodge Dundee, which has a camping area & also some accommodation right on the beach, it is essentially a fishing village. As we rounded the corner near the lodge, we were once again struck by an amazing coastline. Red cliffs, red sand & green water. It wasn't as spectacular as some of the WA coastline, but still very beautiful. There were people fishing everywhere & boats all over the place. We booked in for an initial 2 nights, but had a feeling we would stay longer. It was $10 per person per night, with typical caravan park amenities & also a pool. We got a spot out the back in their huge open campground, just a short walk to the beach. We quickly set up & then headed to the beach to check out the fishing. There were heaps of people fishing, but we didn't see anyone catch anything, after a look around we headed back to camp with the idea of going fishing once it cooled down a bit. In the end we got to lazy & just relaxed around camp, the fishing would have to wait until tomorrow. 

Beach at the Lodge above & 3 photos below the greener water photos taken in the morning & the darker blue water photos taken in the afternoon, pretty interesting colour changes. 

The next day after a leisurely Sunday breakfast we hit the beach with our fishing rods, finding a good looking spot on one of the rock ledges. We used bait & lures & got a few bites, but sadly no dinner. Back to camp for another relaxing afternoon of reading & beer drinking. It's a hard life. 

The next day we went for a drive into the town of Dundee Beach itself, the whole area reminded us a lot of Stanage Bay near Rockhamptoon, it had that same fishing village feel. There are lots of blocks & houses for sale, if you lived in Darwin it would make a great holiday or weekend spot. After that we went for a drive behind the Lodge, we had been told you could get down to a creek mouth. After negotiating the tight windy track, we finally found the creek mouth, it looked perfect for a fish. There was one other guy fishing with 4 lines in, so we though we were in with a chance. We started just back from the creek mouth & had a few bites but couldn't hook up, so headed a bit further up the creek to a break in the mangroves. As soon as we started fishing here, we got smashed on the bait lines. It took a while, but eventually we each both got a good sized bream for dinner. We also caught small fingermark, cod & Mat caught some weird fish (photo below) no idea what it was, I need to get the fish book out. We ended up using up the bait we had & decided to call it a day as it was 1.30pm. 

Near Dundee Beach town

Creek mouth

Fishy little creek?

Weird fish?? 

We drove back to camp & had to call in to extend our camping for another couple of nights. By this time it was 2pm & we were starving so we decided to have lunch at the Lodge. They have an amazing beer garden overlooking the water. So after a burger & seafood basket & a couple of beers, we were just deciding whether we should stay to make an afternoon of our amazing beer spot or head back to camp, when a guy came into the bar area sweating profusely asking who wanted to make $100? He had got his 4WD stuck down on the beach & couldn't get out & had jogged the 15 minutes back to the lodge. Poor guy, no one seemed keen to help so Mat offered, telling him he didn't want his money & just buy him a beer. So off they went, it was actually the guy that was fishing at the creek mouth that morning. He had moved to a new spot & got stuck. Half an hour later Mat was a back having pulled him out with the winch. They guy had continuously offered Mat the money, saying that it would of cost him $200-300 to get someone at the lodge to drag him out with their tractor. Mat said it was way to much & just buy him a beer, the guy didn't want to hang around, so gave Mat $50. Still to much, as we always try to help people out, you never know when you will need it in return. 

Beer garden views

So with the $50 burning a hole in his pocket, it was decided we should stay on at the bar making the most of the view & free beers. So as we spent the afternoon watching the view, the fishing charter boats started to come back in. They had obviously had a good day, as there were fish everywhere on the filleting tables. Mat had been keen to do a proper charter for a while now, so I suggested why didn't he go & ask if they had any free spots for the next day. After talking to a couple of different companies, he had his spot booked with Darwins Barra Base fishing charters the next day. As he had to be ready to go at 6.30am, it was time to leave the bar to go to bed to get up early the next day. 

The next morning Mat was very excited about his charter & as I watched him go I was pretty excited to have the day to myself. I spent my day reading, catching up on the blog, that had been very neglected & having some quiet time! 

So here is Mat to tell you how his day panned out: 

Had been on the lookout for a fishing charter for the last month or so, having heard plenty of fisherman's tall tails about the quality of fish around Dundee Beach this seemed like a good place to take the plunge. 

Having been burnt on a few previous charters where very few fish were caught and the guide/charter company didn't seem to work all that hard for their customers we were a bit cagey with who we spent out hard earned cash with.  After speaking to a few guides at the boat ramp (which was conveniently only 50m from the pub!!) I booked a full day charter with Darwins Barra Base Charters.  These guys have a big presence in the top end charter scene, running charters out of a number of places.  They had 3 boats working out of Dundee when we were there.

Having had the chance to meet Paul, the guide and the crew I would be fishing with the night before, I was pretty confident that if nothing else it would be a fun day.  The other 4 blokes on the boat had bought an old beat up Limo in Swan Hill and drove it to Dundee for their annual Fishing Trip, they had been out with Paul the day before as well, and were keen to have another day out as their first had been pretty good. 

We were out on the water by 7:30am with the first couple of spots returning a few mixed reef fish including a good sized Fingermark (Golden Snapper in the NT) for me.  The next couple of hours were a little quiet, with the guide following his bosses instructions and heading to a couple of local Black Jewfish holes that turned out to be total duds for us.  

Keen to put us on to the fish, Paul kept working through a number of reefs and pinnacles marked on GPS, with a few more reef fish helping to keep the boys interested.  Late in the afternoon the call was made for one last big move to try and find quality fish, with Paul taking us to a mark on a reef called "Long Lost".  This last move would mean we covered nearly 200km for the day looking for fish. Luckily the last spot delivered.  All the boys started picking up good reef fish and after 30 minutes or so the Mackerel turned up and the fun really began.  Over the next hour we put 9 Spanish Mack's in the boat with everyone on board landing at least one.  Credit has to go to Paul for how hard he worked to put us in the right spot. 

After the run back to Dundee, however things took a bit of a bad twist, Paul's boss (the owner of the Business) was stomping around the boat ramp carrying on that we had been out for too long, and should have been in hours ago.  The final insult was when he told Paul (in front of all of us that had been paying customers that day) that he was "meant to go out to the Jew Holes, and then when we didn't catch anything just come back in" needless to say this wasn't all that well received by any of us. All in all a great day out, but a bit taken way from by one idiot! 

So as Mat returned to camp that night sunburnt & buggered but with lots of fish fillets! we decided to stay one more day at Dundee beach, which was spent catching up on odd jobs & Mat complaining about his muscles hurting from catching to many fish, poor thing. 

We really enjoyed Dundee Beach & would recommend it to other campers, thanks for the great advice Troy & Jackie!!

Campsite 

Darwin

After Shady Camp it was off to the big smoke of Darwin. We had to pick up Ange (the partner of Mats cousins, mate Baz) from the airport and Mat & I were going to stay with some of my mates that I went to Uni with. We planned to stay for 2 nights. We dropped the trailer off at Lou & Johnos place, but they were both at work, so we went to the Parap Tavern for some lunch & then did a few jobs around town in the afternoon. 

We headed out to Lou & Johnos for the night & had a great night catching up. It was strange not sleeping in the camper trailer & is the first time we haven't slept in their since the 26th of March, wow. 

The next day we caught up with the family again & checked out the Darwin Museum & Darwin Military Museum in the morning & then had a lovely lunch on the Darwin Harbour at the Sailing Club. 

More getting organised in the afternoon & then a last beer with the family. They planned to head to Roper Bar the next day, which was to far out of the way for us, so we decided we would go to Dundee Beach while we were up here & then start making our way back to WA. It was sad to say goodbye, but we had a great time with the family for those couple of weeks. It was great to catch up & have familiar faces around us for that time. So thanks guys, we hope you have a great rest of your holiday!

After we left the family we headed back to Lou & Johnos for another night of catching up. Thanks guys for letting us have a bed for a couple of nights & for using your washing machine (you don't know how nice it was to have a decent washing machine!!!) it was great catching up with you guys & it's wonderful to know friendships can last the distance of time & kilometres. 

We left Darwin early Saturday morning & headed out to Dundee Beach about 130km away. More on that in our next post.  

Shady Camp

Any of our readers that are mad keen fisherman will know all about Shady Camp in the Territory. The boys were super excited about going, but we had heard the camping wasn't great. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised the camping was pretty good, nice & spread out & a fair few trees. There are pit toilets (which badly needed a clean when we were there) & bins, the campground is run by parks & wildlife  and camping costs $3.30 per person. On our visit there were no envelopes to put your money for camping & we were told the ranger hadn't been seen for weeks, that explained the smelly toilets. So in the end we stayed for free for 3 nights. 

Shady Camp is on the Mary River & there is a causeway that splits the fresh & salt water. It is quite a sight & a very scenic area. When the tide is out the salt water side is almost empty & you can see how many rocks there are, the fresh water spills over the causeway, but when the tide comes up the water keeps rising & eventually is rushing back over into the freshwater side, it's is pretty cool. The fish love it, but so do the crocodiles. They are everywhere! We have never ever seen so many crocs in the wild. 

Fresh water side

Salt water side

Causeway

When we arrived we went straight to the causeway for a look & we could literally see the Barra on the causeway. This significantly increased the camp set up time as we were all keen to start fishing. The afternoon was spent fishing, there were some Barra caught, but only little fellas. After a break in the heat of the afternoon, we went back down on dark for another crack. As it got dark we started to use the torches to keep an eye out for crocs just in case, we soon realised there were heaps. As you shone your torch on the salt water side it lit up like a Christmas tree, with red eyes everywhere. We counted at least 25. On the freshwater side there were another 4, holy crap. We were very very cautious. The boys got a few bites, but eventually there was just too much interest from the crocs so we called it a night.

Salt water side at low tide & dawn

 We were still keen so got up early for a fish as well, as we walked down to the causeway we saw a guy carrying a pretty big Barra to his ute to put in the esky. He told us him & some other guys got 5 keepers for the night. The boys fished again & caught some more little Barra's, but couldn't hook that big one. The guy came back down for another fish & you could tell he was a pro, his technique was amazing & we were all trying to copy him & see what lures he was using, ha ha. He hooked up on a huge fish, but couldn't get it in & it spooled him, so he had to get a whole new reel out. Things then got quiet so back to camp for breakfast & we then went for a drive up to Point Stuart. 

As we drove along we came to a sign for Point Stuart & someone had written on it in pen that don't bother as you will come to a locked gate in 20km. We decided to push on anyway to have a look for ourselves, and yes it was correct, we got stopped by a locked gate about 3km from the Point. Very disappointed. Back to camp for some lunch & rest before we went for a fish again after dinner. Again the number of crocs was crazy, so we didn't fish for very long. 

The next day was dedicated to trying to get a keeper Barra. All the boys caught some little ones but no big ones. Mat got a 42cm fish & Adam had a huge bite from a big fish, but couldn't hook up. The boys went down again that night, but were again chased away by too many crocs, with 3 right on the causeway that wouldn't move away. 

Mat & I really liked Shady Camp & if we had on been there by ourselves probably would of stayed for a few more days. If you like fishing you will love it, if not you will probably get bored. There is no water at the campsite, you can get some from the causeway (carefully!) for washing if you did stay for a while, but you will need to bring lots of drinking water as it is very hot. 

So a decent sized Barra still eluded us. I have told Mat we aren't going home until we both catch a keeper Barra, so hopefully we can get two when we get back to WA near Wyndham. 

Time to visit the family & tag along on their holiday for a couple of weeks - Katherine NT

As we left Keep River National Park the plan was to meet up with Mat's Aunty & Uncle & cousins & his mates for a couple of weeks as they checked out some of the Territory. We made good time along the Victoria Highway with a quick stop at Timber Creek for an awesome pie, we rolled into Katherine just after lunch. The plan was to grab a few supplies & head down to Mataranka to meet the family. I hit Woolies & Mat went to the bottle shop. As I was waiting in line at the checkout Mat came into find me with a very disappointed look on his face. As he had carried the beer out to the car he had noticed oil splatters all over the front of the camper trailer.  After a check under the car it looked like our transfer case seal had blown again (we had the same thing happen on a trip to Tasmania so he knew the signs).  It was 2 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon so nothing was open, so we limped into a caravan park to wait until Monday & phoned the family saying we wouldn't make it to Mataranka. 

The next day we stayed at the caravan park as we didn't want to drive the car too far so took advantage of the facilities & got all the washing done, hoping to leave on the Monday. Monday morning rolled around & we were waiting at Toyota at 7.30am when they opened. After some initial "go away we are booked out for the day" they had a look at Ruby. Yes, as we expected the transfer case seal was blown, then came the even worse news they couldn't fit us in to get it fixed for a week & a half, sh!t. After some negotiations we finally got it booked in for Friday morning of that week. They topped up the oil for us & told us to drive back to the caravan park & leave the car there till Friday which suited us as we could run the fridges on 240v power. We then rang our roadside assistance company, who didn't want to honour our claim because the car wasn't staying at Toyota. After many many phone calls & going further up the supervisor line, we finally managed to convince them that it was in the best interests of the car to be parked at the caravan park so our fridges could be run & they finally honoured our claim. So it was then off to a hire car company to pick up our set of wheels for the week, a Camry but at least we could have a look around.

I actually lived in Katherine for 6 months, 7 years ago, so knew there were plenty of things to keep us occupied, even though we were disappointed to miss out on travelling with the family. The family rolled into Katherine from Mataranka on Tuesday morning & decided to stay for the night, we think out of sympathy for us! But it was lovely to catch up & it was also Mats cousin Adams birthday, so we had a nice lunch out & then came back to the caravan park to catch up some more & drink too many beers. We also all decided to do a sunrise cruise at Katherine gorge, so the next day it was up early to get to the boat in time. 

We did the 2 gorge cruise, where you walk between the two gorges & change boats. It was lovely in the early morning with the fog on the water & as the sun came up the colours on the gorge were beautiful. It was over by 9am & we headed back to camp & the family packed up & headed up into Kakadu, it was a bit depressing being stuck at the park, but we definitely didn't want them to delay their holiday because of us & we planned to catch up with them as soon as the car was fixed all going well. That afternoon we headed into town & went for a swim in the hot springs in town.  It was lovely but busy, a great free thing to do in town. 

The next day we decided to check out some of the sights just out of town as we had plenty of kilometres on the hire car. Firstly we went to Cutta Cutta caves about 30km south of Katherine. The tours cost $20 per adult & it's a guided tour, after a short walk you enter into the cave. We were very lucky as we only had 10 people on our tour so we could get lots of photos. These are very interesting caves, you only have access to about 250m of them, but you see lots of different formations along the way. 

Cutta Cutta caves-can you spot the snake skin??

Once we were finished at the caves we ventured further south to Mataranka. We firstly visited Bitter Springs, a lovely blue waterhole that was nice & warm. A great spot, but it was pretty busy, so after a swim we headed out to the other hot springs in the area, the Mataranka thermal pool, again this was lovely, but heavily commercialised. Instead of still being in its nature setting like Bitter Springs, this pool was just like a swimming pool, with everything tiled & concreted. Good for kids but it did take away from the natural beauty of the place. 

Bitter springs above & below

After another swim we made our way to the Territory Manor a restaurant & campground that has free Barramundi feeding twice a day. The Barra were 14 years old & huge, now that is the size Barra you want to catch!! The kids got to feed the big mummas, & it was a great thing to watch. 

We then made our way back to town, did some shopping to get some supplies ready to get out of town once the car was fixed. The next day we were at Toyota at 7.30am & by 2pm Ruby was fixed, thank god, no further issues were found. We went back to camp & packed what we could ready to get out of Katherine early the next day. The family had been into Kakadu & we met them just outside the park at Mary River Wilderness Park, where we stayed for 2 nights. It was a great campsite with plenty of room right on the Mary river. The boys hired a boat for 4 hours one morning, but other than a huge catfish, didn't catch that elusive Barra. It was then off to Shady camp to see if we could rectify that!

Keep River National Park

Keep River national park is just across the NT border & only 50km from Kununurra. It has 2 options for camping. The first campground is about 18km into the park & called Gurrandalng, we pulled in here & it was a very nice campsite set alongside a huge escarpment, it was pretty full with lots of caravans & we knew it would get even busier so we went up a bit further to the second campsite Jarnem 31km in. Jarnem was not as busy with equally good views so we stayed there. It is a really big campsite that has really been wrecked by the use of bollards designating bays to camp in that are tiny & not very well designed. There are ample fire pits but these are in all the wrong places as well, there were 2 pit toilets & a water tank. It could of been a great campsite with a bit more thought. The cost was $3.30 per person per night, so very very cheap, hopefully it will pull our average cost of camping down for the month!!

Our first afternnon & night was really nice & quiet, it was hard to get our body clocks to NT time though as we had gained 1.5 hours. There were only about 5 other camps that first night. During the afternoon hundreds of red tailed black cockatoos came near the campsite, just beautiful. 

The next day we set off on the walk at the campground. A 7.3km loop track. As we moved away from the campsite we were treated to swarms of black cockatoos in the thousands, I have never ever seen so many, it was a bird lovers delight! They were in the trees all around us for almost the whole 7km loop. The walking was easy & we were greeted by some great views. We walked up to the top of a lookout that was just amazing & also completed Nigli gap a gap through the escarpments that had some rock art as well. It was a lovely walk & we really enjoyed it. We were back to camp by lunch & spent the afternoon taking photos of birds & reading. 

That night the camp was a bit busier but not too bad until a family drove in just on dark & camped right next to us. They had 3 kids probably aged 3-6 & wow they drove us nuts. Very loud & they had no discipline while mum & dad shouted at them continuously. They stayed for 2 nights & it really was a real detriment to our stay, it was just constant. 

Black cockatoos

Rainbow bee eater

Northern Rosella

The next day we did one of the other walks up the Keep River itself to an living shelter site where the aboriginals camped during the wet season, it also had some rock art. It was an interesting walk along the rocky banks of the river. We then made our way to the ranger station to look at Cockatoo Lagoon, a lagoon that rarely dries up & becomes a haven for birds, we only spotted a couple of little egrets. We then went to a place called Gingers Hill which has an aboriginal bird catcher on top. They used to hide in it, start a small smoky fire & have a lure on a stick they would use to attract hawks & then catch them, it was pretty cool. 

Cockatoo Lagoon

Hawk catcher

Back to camp & the screaming kids next door & we packed up what we could with the plan to get at least to Katherine the next day. Keep River national park is a great spot to spend a few days, definitely worth a look.