19 - Berry Springs & Territory Wildlife Park

19 – July 2016 - 6/7/16

Heading south from Darwin we stopped at a battery specialist business and obtained new batteries for our caravan. At least we hoped to have eliminated any anxiety about power issues while travelling in remote regions. 

About 50 kilometres south of Darwin was our next planned stay at a caravan park near the small township of Berry Springs for a couple of days. 

We were aware of Berry Springs Nature Park from viewing its location on various maps we had been studying but we hadn’t been the recipients of any comments for this area. After setting up camp and then spending a couple of hours installing our new batteries we drove the few kilometres to the Berry Springs Nature Park. 

Our caravan power supply

We had no idea what to expect. Driving into the largish carpark we found it to be crowded with vehicles and people. We initially felt a bit deflated with the volume of people around, far greater than we had experienced at Edith Falls, Douglas Springs, Mataranka and other similar locations and we thought we were going to be swamped with people in the water. 

We made our way through a beautiful looking large Monsoon Forest along a path towards the water area and there were many grassed sections in amongst the trees with tables and bbq’s. There were many happy groups and families spread out amongst these areas appearing to be set up for the day.

There were so many areas like this to relax at

We viewed the three swimming areas which were all in a very attractive setting and yes there were plenty of people in the water. We chose to dip our bodies into the lesser crowded lower pool and found the water temperature to be not cold, not hot but just right. There were fish swimming around and we could see the sun’s rays shining onto our feet in the depths of the water. Even the water had a pleasant feel to it. A couple of hours later we emerged from the water with very wrinkly bodies.

See the bubbles from Steve's dive to get into the photo within the 10 second time frame

Such a beautiful location

For us on the day, Berry Springs (a high) would have stood as our best water experience for 2016. It was a magnificent setting along with an outstanding water encounter. We could not have done any better to finish off what had become a disappointing day where we had incurred unexpected costs for new batteries (a low) and then the added strain of fitting the 36 kilogram (each) batteries into an awkward location. 

Day two was spent at the other main attraction for this area at a Wildlife Park. We enjoyed a great day spent walking around viewing the Fauna and Monsoon Forest for this area. They are not Rain Forests even if there are similarities in appearance, as the Flora needs to acclimatise to surviving without rainfall for up to 9 months of the year during the dry period of the Monsoon Climate, thus they are called Monsoon Forests.

Blue - walking paths - white shuttle bus

There was a hop on hop off shuttle type bus vehicle transporting people to the various main attractions which we did use for some back tracking but we primarily chose to walk along the various walking paths around the park. After around the 6 hour mark our legs were saying “no more,” so we caught the next shuttle bus back to the Main Entrance, got into our vehicle and drove a couple of kilometres down the road to Berry Springs where we attended to our body’s needs, soaking our weary bodies in the soothing waters of Berry Springs for another hour before returning to the caravan park. We were almost dropping off to sleep floating in the soothing waters supported by our floatation devices.

Tree Frog

Freshwater Crocodile

Lagoon with chatty Pelicans

Eagle

Buzzard with rock in mouth dropping it onto emu egg to break it open to eat its contents

Curlew

A close encounter experience

Crimson Finch

A great photo

Gouldian Finch

A touching moment

Pied Imperial Pigeon

Rainbow Honey Eater flying over the water - too fast to get the perfect picture

There were no other publicised attractions in the immediate vicinity and we decided to do a day trip north from our current location exploring the area to the eastern side of Cullen Bay opposite Darwin at Mandorah.

We viewed a WWII plane crash site amongst the scrub, drove around the township of Wagait which seemed to be a community of alternate type people living in an isolated environment with most houses on 5 to 10 acre blocks of land. It appeared many of the occupants parked their vehicles at the close by Mandorah wharf; (Mandorah seemed to consist of a wharf and nothing else) catching the 45 minute ride on a ferry to Darwin each day for work.

WWII plane crash site

Mandorah ferry jetty - Darwin in the background

It was a day’s outing which we wouldn’t bother with again. There were a couple of other locations east to Dundee Beach which we decided not to view as it appeared that it was an area for fishing persons and primarily for those with boats.

Other than Berry Springs and the Territory Wildlife Park we weren’t inclined to explore the Cox Peninsula located on the south western side of Darwin any further.

Next location will be Litchfield National Park and we are not sure how we will go with site availability due to school holiday period. Fingers crossed.