The Roper Highway to Ngukurr For another bloke's blog on this look here. The Roper River rises in Australia's top end from many springs, some very hot; it runs east into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Its north bank is for much of the distance the southern boundary of Arnhem Land. The Roper Highway runs on the south side of the river, leaving the Stuart Highway south of Mataranka.
Much of the journey is through tropical savannah, with some rainforest around creeks. Here are some pictures at the Elsey Creek bridge. In the first of these I was trying to photograph a large number of good sized fish.
In the dry country, the anthills are as varied in appearance as there are soil types. Termites in their many species are, in tropical climates, as important to soil health as are worms in temperate zones.
Some of the gravel section of the road was good, some was very rough
At dusk we reached the Roper River, and crossed north into Arnhem Land... thirty more kilometres to Ngukurr, some of the road very rough indeed. But the river was easy to cross at the end of the dry season and very beautiful.
On to Ngukurr
|
