Into the Northern Territory
After two days in Darwin, 14 and 15 October – and no actually serious mishap –
...we went to the Greyhound bus station for the 8am bus for Katherine, a journey of 400km. The bus for Cairns (3100km) was just leaving. The next bus, our bus, then came in, bearing the simple destination "Perth" — 3250kms away. After carrying us south to Katherine, it would head west in the afternoon, and cross the border into Western Australia early in the evening, still far far from its destination. So our 400km on the bus seemed pretty modest. As did the distance of our four and a half hour 2000km flight from Sydney to Darwin. Such a simple matter to fly over a continent, compared with scratching your way along its surface.
Distance can also be measured in quality as well as quantity. After busing to Katherine, we collected Bindi and Matumba's Toyota Surf from Matumba, who is teaching in Katherine for another three weeks near the end of of his teaching degree, and drove to Ngukurr, a journey to another planet.
Until the mid-1970s when Aboriginal Australians were granted land rights, there was no Aboriginal land. Now half the Northern Territory is Aboriginal land. The Northern Territory is one sixth of Australia, with one percent of Australia's 20 million population. That one sixth of Australia means 1,350,000 square kilometers, or the combined size of France plus Spain plus Italy. (More info here) We were on our way to be grand-babysitters in Ngukkur, southeast Arnhem Land, for three weeks. Ngukurr is an Aboriginal community of 1400 people, where Bindi has taught for two years now, after transferring from Palumpa (Nganmarriyanga), to the west, where she taught for three years. In the northern end of Arnhem Land, the World Heritage Kakadu National Park is a much admired tourist destination accessible from Darwin. At the southeast corner of Arnhem Land, Ngukurr is more remote culturally and more difficult of access, with very few visitors. From Katherine, we were to drive 100km further down the main highway, then turn east and drive 200km along the Roper Highway, eventually crossing the Roper River (very low at the end of a very hard dry season); then another 30km or so to Ngukurr.
So this is the beginning of our photodiary in this place. Here is a picture of the evening road as we approached Ngukurr...
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