In our time off up here we’ve been going to some of the local
tourist attractions to update our knowledge so when we chat with tourists we know a little
more about where we are directing them.
Just 6km up the road is our ‘local’ waterhole. Now this is normally just used by the locals
but at this time of the year when tourists are starting to come through and
none of the other swimming holes are open yet due to crocodile sightings and
road conditions – we suggest a swim at Moline Rockhole.
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Moline Rockhole
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| Reflection was beautiful |
The local Ranger station is another 6km on from Moline and
has an interpretative display. Pretty
rustic but as you need a park pass for Kakadu a great place to stop and get a
pass at the same time.
We’ve also been to Yurmikmik which has a 2km walk to a
lookout and a loop walk through Boulder creek.
There is also a 3.5km each way walk to Motorcar falls which we have yet
to do. The main attraction at this end
of the park however is Gunlom which has amazing waterfalls and swimming holes
at both the top and bottom. Gunlom
however isn’t open yet – yes that’s right – due to crocodile sightings in the
bottom swimming hole. Damm crocodiles
are everywhere although as I say to Rob – at least they stay in the water which
is better than the Buffolo’s. Why does
everything up here want to kill you I ask???
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| View Yurmikmik Lookout |
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| Its such a facinating area |
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| Loving it ! |
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| Boulder Creek |
At the back of the Ranger station is a group of sheds and
housing which the rangers use. They work
on a 10 day on / 4 day off roster and usually live here whilst rostered
on. Whilst I don’t think the Rangers
over work themselves they do have a pretty varied role here and keep themselves
busy with things like Crocodile studies,
checking road conditions, moving illegal campers on, wild animal control
(including shooting of cranky buffalo’s).
Wild animal control involves horses, donkeys, dogs, dingo’s and the
maintaining of sustainable numbers of these.
Apparently they did a big cull a few weeks ago. Without harping on it – not enough buffalos
culled for my liking! Another thing the
park rangers are responsible for is the control burning of the park. They do this both from the ground and the air
– using helicopters. A traditional owner
of the land is in attendance with them and they plot which areas to burn and
when. At present the fires are little
and don’t burn too far due to the green growth, however they tell us that this
will soon change as things dry out.
Tony (boss) has already had a go at burning around the roadhouse but
it’s still too green to do much good.
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| After burning |
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| How amazing is life - the day after |
We also had 2 days off and used this time to travel to
Mataranka to catch up with niece Aimee.
It was lovely to have some time with Aim’s and a big thank you to our
hosts Betty and Jimmy at the Territory Manor & Caravan Park – we thoroughly
enjoyed our night. Aimee and I went to
the thermal pools at Bitter Springs (3km away) for sunrise and it was just
beautiful. We were lazing in the water
listening to all the bird life and watching the sun rise and we had the place
to ourselves. Much better than the last
time I was there when the place was overrun
with people. And what a small world it
is – Jimmy said that he knew a Robert Burns which turns out to be young Rob and
they went to school together.
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| Aimee Barramundi feeding at Mataranka |
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| Rob's a bit worried about size of bait !! |
4th May.
The traffic passing through is increasing now and we are getting
busier. Good for the owners but can be a
bit daunting for us as we learn everything.
The owners are away quiet abit at present attending to medical issues
and that only leaves 3 of us to cover everything. We had another couple turn up last Friday but
they only lasted until the Monday. They
really weren’t suited to the work and hadn’t been completely truthful with the
owners when they applied. The next
couple aren’t due here for another 10 days AHH…
At present we have 10 staff from the NPWS staying in the
motel. They are here for approximately
10 days with the release of 8 Quoll into the park. Yes more NPWS staff then Quoll!! They collected the Quoll elsewhere and spent
time training them to not eat Cane Toads.
They do this by feeding them chopped up Cane Toads laced with Laxatives. The poor Quoll poo themselves so much they no
longer touch the Toads (well that’s the theory). Once this is instilled in them they brought
them here with little collars with monitors and released into the park. Of course they then have to contend with
Snakes, Wild Dogs, Dingos and everything else up here that wants to kill
them. Day three and we have 5 Quoll
still alive. Twice a day they take a
helicopter up and check the monitors and see who is still moving. It they detect a death they then send in a
ground team to the spot and they collect the dead to investigate what
happened. Stupid idiots bring them back
here and put them in the motel room fridges.
YUK. You would think with the $1M
budget (yes $1M for 8 Quoll) that they would buy their own damm fridge. At
least with the release of Billibies by Western Plains Zoo they had enough sense
to release them into a sancturary where they had a chance of survival.
Day Five and we have 3 Quoll remaining. They will have to do autopsies but looking
like their toad training wasn’t as effective as they thought. They say that they’ve collected lots of great
data – doesn’t really help the poor dead Quoll though does it!
It’s been helicopter central here the last few days with the
NPWS coming and going and we’ve also had the NPWS fire lighting (yes lighting
not fighting) helicopter based here as well.
Lots of burning happening and some days the air is just thick with smoke
& ash. Tony did more burning off
around the Roadhouse again yesterday which can be a bit confronting when it’s
so close.
My cooking skills have really been put to the test over the
last couple of days. I’m okay with a
couple of meals at a time but not sure how I will handle a big order – might
have to be a few free drinks given out whilst they wait for their meals 😊
And we received news today that the other couple are no longer coming. Anyone want to be Roadhouse cook for the next 5 months??
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| Helicopters at front of Roadhouse |
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| Burning around the Roadhouse |
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