The starting point

The starting point

Friday, 14 August 2015

Up the creek 14/8/14

   Today was catch up day , things to do , places to go - you know - stuff !! 
 Decision was made to go for a drive early , first stop - Policemans Point Lookout - just down the road about 3klms away . Driving down this red gravel road , we found the end and we were at the Victoria River . We could see up the river on the right side and down the river to our left , separated by a large grassy rock section - it looked like the grass had been planted in rows .


 Back to the ute & out to the hwy and head toward WA , next stop was the turnoff to the cemetery , rubbish tip , and the town lookout , also the Nackeroo Lookout . 
The Nackeroos were a group of men that had the honour of patrolling the northern areas of this area after the bombing raids on Darwin ,  they did this by foot and horseback where possible , and thought they were safe when they had an aboriginal guide with them - they wouldn’t starve - bush tucker kept a lot of them alive & well .
 The views from the town lookout were great , we found ourselves up on top of the escarpment , looking down over Timber Creek township , not so much of where we are staying beside the Hwy .


 We also had a view toward the river & Policemans Point .


 The ground up on the escarpment is rock , rock & more rock , how things grow up here is amazing.


 We made our way back down to the Nackeroo Memorial & Lookout . It looked more to the west , again over the river and you could see the Bradshaw bridge . The bridge was built by the government to access their new military firing & training range , it cost $10 million dollars and took 12 months to build .
 There is a tree with interesting bark , so here’s a pic of it as well .



 The Kapok trees are flowering prolifically at the moment , while we were in Kakadu they were nearly finished flowering . They are like a lot of trees up here in the dry season - they look dead , no leaves , just sticks - they do this to preserve moisture , but in the wet season they grow leaves , flowers , buds & seeds all in a frantic rush before the next dry - if they dont get a decent wet season this year , there will be a lot of trees dying - apparently they cant do the dry season stuff continually and will die . 


 From here we head to Bradshaw Bridge and walk across to the other side and back , there are gates closing it off on the other side , so it’s a bridge to nowhere unless you have a key!!



 You can see where the water comes up to from the tide marks on the support legs .
Back in the ute and off to the Gregory Tree about another 10 klms out . The tree is a Boab , and they are prolific growers , around here at least - this is the start of the area where they grow the best - it stretches into WA also ! 
 The Gregory Tree is a very old tree that has the dates of the expedition of Augustus Charles Gregory - he set up camp here for a considerable amount of time , getting some timber from a local creek to repair his boat - hence the name Timber Creek !! His botanic recorder/artist carved the dates into the trees trunk , and also left a letter and its location on another boab tree further up the track we walked down .
 There was also a tree that had some seed pods that caught my eye , the pods were red , green foliage and a big blue sky !!



That was it for the day , we headed back for a cooked lunch , Lyn then cooked a heap of stuff up to use all our vegetables before we head into WA , as you have to use or cook them all before you cross the border or you have to surrender them , honey as well as walnuts in the shell !!
 I decided to get the tax stuff organised - what a fun afternoon !! 
We may well be out of reception for a few days , stay tuned !!

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