Day 29 - Litchfield to Shady Camp
Another warm night at Litchfield but sometime during the night it cooled
off enough to sleep. We were up early enough to start packing up (after a
coffee, of course) and were on the road by just after 9am. We travelled the 64
kilometres into Batchelor (to make some phone calls to book Kakadu accommodation),
passing a dingo on the way and then another 50 or so kilometres to Humpty Doo.
We all stopped at the bakery, the service station and then the pub, to fulfill
memorabilia requests. On the road again for another 94km before we turned off
on the Point Stuart Road. We had a quick stop at the intersection for lunch and
then headed down the road, expecting gravel sooner than we got it, but for the
most part the gravel was so good we didn't even let tyre pressures down. Before
3pm, we arrived at our destination of Shady Camp.
It was our wish to visit here, after we read "Outback Heart" by
Joanne Van Os. Joanne and her husband, Rod Ansell (the original crocodile
dundee, the person who Mick Dundee was based on for the movie) owned a station
here in the 1980's, called Melaleuca (it's still here, about 20km east of our
camp) and established Shady Camp to make some extra money when the station
wasn't doing so well. Joanne put lots of effort into establishing the tourist
side of it and when she and Rod divorced, she asked for 100 acres of land
including Shady Camp to be separated from Melaleuca as her settlement. She sold
it sometime later and now it forms part of the new Mary River National Park.
There is a barrage across the Mary River here, to separate the saltwater
and freshwater so the saltwater can stop destroying the vegetation. As we stood
at the barrage, the freshwater is to our left and the saltwater to our right.
On my first visit down to the barrage, there was a saltwater crocodile not far
off the barrage to the right, but that didn't stop the fishermen from standing
in the overflowing water (from the fresh to the salt) to throw their lines in.
The mullet fish were jumping out of the water on the freshwater side, so we
could see why this is such a popular fishing destination.
(upstream - freshwater side of the Mary River)
Later, we headed back down to the barrage as the sun set over the other
side of the Mary River. This was a spectacular sight, although the tide had gone
out on the saltwater side so the crocs were less evident.
This is a very unique piece of Australia, that I'm sure most Australians
will never see.
posted by Tracey @ 5:37 pm
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