Daly Crossing, NT

Hi, this is Pete, Lyndie's husband. Lyndie has asked me to write a blog entry about my trip to the Daly Crossing, in the Northern Territory.  Our daughter-in-law's parents, Phil and Willie, were staying up on one of their son's property at Daly Crossing. He owns a hunk of land, of which one boundary encompasses 7 km's of the Daly River. Phil had travelled up a couple of months earlier and set up camp up the bank from the river and Willie flew up and joined him a month or so ago. I was lucky enough to be asked to go out and join them for the weekend, so as soon as I finished work at 2pm on Saturday, I packed up my car and headed off. It was a long weekend, so I could stay out with them for two nights and enjoy their company and the landscape. It is a 2.5 hr drive from Darwin to Daly Crossing.

On the drive down from Darwin, I came across Magnetite's, a termite mound that is only built facing North/South. They get up to 2 to 3 metres in height, but only about 3-400mm's wide. It was very interesting seeing them in a field, all facing the same direction.

I also came across some common termite mounds. This one is about 3-4 metres in height. Sometimes these mounds can harbour animals and insects, like snakes, small marsupials and of course spiders - Lyndie's favourite - NOT.  They are quite common on the side of the road as you are travelling. I also came across an unusual rock formation as I was nearing Daly crossing, unfortunately it was on private land, so couldn't get close enough for a good photo.

When I arrived at Daly Crossing I found some crocodiles just sunning themselves.

From here, I met up with Phil and Willie, who took me across the crossing and up to the property where they were camping with friends of their son's and his wife.

I slept in a mosquito dome and while the mossies' weren't too much of an issue during the day, at night, I could hear them buzzing around the dome, trying to find a way in to suck my blood. We had a nice feed of fresh caught Barramundi with salads and good company around the camp fire.

The next morning (Sunday) Phil and Willie took me for a boat ride up river which was awesome. Some of the local reptiles were sunning themselves on the small beaches and a few were hydrating themselves along the waters edge. Thankfully, none of them decided to visit camp while I was staying there, but apparently, one did walk right through the middle of the cold campfire one night one it's way back to the river from the billabong.  Last time Phil was staying up here, two large pythons came to visit them during the night - they were thankful they were safely zipped in their tents as these were big boys or girls.

 Photos to the left and below are views from the camp out to the river and up and down the rivr.

Jabiru

It is truly a beautiful area to visit, with plenty of land to go exploring on, take leisurely walks and fishing spots along the river banks (just not too close to the edge, or you may become a croc's meal). I will definitely be taking Lyndie to camp there when she comes up or when we are on our travels around Australia.

Cheers,
Pete

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