The Reynolds River Track - a one day excursion from Darwin.

This time, Karen was going to Alice Springs for work. She loves her job, even with the silly political posturing that is a part of any job that involves industry bodies and political control. Yeah - you get nutbags and office psychopaths everywhere. Still, that is all just window dressing and it doesn't actually affect things on a day to day working basis and she can continue to enjoy her work, and she loves the travelling that goes with it. This time she was staying over for a couple of nights to see our daughter, Laura, who has recently relocated to Alice.

So I grabbed the opportunity to head off down the Reynolds River Track to see what it is like at the end of the dry season and packed the Patrol with all the gear I thought I might need

• Snatch straps (2) and rated shackles
• Long handled shovel
• Toilet shovel (just a small spade really)
• MaxTrax
• Radiator blind for those deep water crossings
• The usual spares kit (hoses, belts, repair bits etc)
• Swag, just in case I get caught out.
• Fridge - only holds my lunch and a few bits of canned food in case I get stuck
• Water - 4 litre "keg" and three 1 litre water bottles plus some tablets to clean up any river water I may need
• Second spare tyre? Nah - I'll leave that at home and just take the tyre repair kit

This is always a welcome sight, especially as we have had a few storm cells blow through recently - I was worried that the track may have been closed due to localised flooding or wet track.

Airing down at the start of the track.

I dropped pressures to 24psi to give me a bigger footprint and better corrugation absorbence - I was going to need that!

Bear in mind that this is a hot pressure so it will equate to about 20psi cold pressures.

Looks good eh?  Places to go and things to see, can life get any better than this?

Now this looked nice! A simple creek across the track with a firm bottom and not too deep but it promises something more exciting along the way, The water itself was crystal clear and flowing very gently with some beautiful trees along its path.

Corrugations - uncomfortable and noisy, but they keep some people out so that is a good thing. The Parks people try to make us keep the speed down and protect the track by placing erosion mounds across the track every little while. They are like speed bumps on steroids and stop you travelling fast enough to iron out the corrugations. Unless you actually WANT to take off every couple of hundred meters that is!

They also trap water behind them so you always end up with a big muddy puddle to drive through.

The storm cell also brought down some trees and branches - I tried to drive to the Blyth Homestead but the track was blocked by this small tree across it that I just couldn't pick up and move - half the roots were still in the ground.

Wish I had a winch! I suppose I could have unshipped the axe and gone to town on it, but it was just too hot to engage in any physical work that I didn't absolutely have to. The Blyth Homestead will have to wait for another trip some day.

Termite mounds are everywhere! This is a Cathedral mound and they are all over the place - if you look closely you will see more of them in the trees in the rear of the picture.

Further down the track, on the flat plains area, the dominant termite mounds are the magnetic mounds and at the bottom are those mounds that look like nothing more than giant dog turds. The change in soil type and the local vegetation dictates the changes.

Glad I'm driving a Nissan! :)  It was almost a surprise to find that this was the only wrecked vehicle along the track - you get so used to finding wrecks almost everywhere you go around here and they are almost always Toyotas.

Of course, Toyotas actually form around 90% of the vehicles you'd see on the tracks so perhaps that isn't a surprise.

I kept driving along, checking out the occasional bird or small 'roo, and generally enjoying the drive and the scenery. The recent rains have not really affected the track but they have made everything green and pretty.

What a shame it is so hot! This far away from the ocean's effect it has been between 38 and 40 degrees all day and the humidity at about 80 odd percent is oppressive.

I took the turnoff to Tjaynera Falls and parked up and prepared for a walk to the falls themselves. At about 3.5 klms return it is not a long walk, but the track is not as easy as some. On top of that is the fact that in the valley the temperature and humidity seemed to soar so when I headed off and the sweat was dripping off my finger tips I knew it was going to be tough.

Pictures are below:

This is the Falls and the plunge pool and I had the place all to myself. What a beautiful place to be. The photo doesn't show the size of it, but that plunge pool is about 75 metres across and filled with fish.

I went for a swim (I NEEDED to cool down) and after splashing around the place I retrieved my hat and just sat in the water and chilled out.

The water was in three distinct layers with the top four inches being warmer than blood temperature, the next foot or so being warm and then below that was cool. It wasn't cold, just very, very pleasantly cool.

Sitting there I ended up being investigated by lots of fish including some decent sized sooty grunters.

Magic.

So, what does this display of clothes drying on a rock suggest to you?

Yep - they were sweat laden and needed drying while I went skinny dipping!

The last art of the track looked like this - all rocky and difficult to find firm footing,

Some of the track was just sandy like this.

And other parts needed you to be part mountain goat.

All in all, it was a beautiful lace and well worth shedding a couple of kilos of sweat to get there!

From that point on I drove through some grassy plains with the unusual magnetic termite mounds.

Edge on - you can see how thin they are. This example was about 8 or 9 feet tall.

This is the same mound from the side with the car door showing to give it some perspective.

As you can see, there are lots of them around and just look at how green that grass is!

Now, the really interesting part of this trip was the river crossing and I had a ball going through them.

The first crossing (the West one but I always think of it as the Northern one) I completely forgot to photograph because half way across I came across the first of only three vehicles that I saw on the track - yep - right in the middle of the river.

From the northern bank you drop into the river and drive downstream for about 40 metres before negotiating an island (about 40 square metres but it has lots of trees) and driving up onto a sand bank. That part of the crossing is made a little longer by the Parks people having roped off two thirds of the river to keep people out of a big hole and push them round the shallower part. The second part of the crossing is just to drive across to the far bank. Anyway, it was at this section that I met the car coming the other way resulting in some reversing up onto the sand bank and then a chat with the other driver.

Anyway, no photos I'm afraid, not even of the water washing up the bonnet!  Well, over the numberplate anyway. :)  Yeah - it was disappointingly shallow with the depth markers indicating that it was around 400mm deep for most of the river. Still, it is always exciting driving along a creek, especially when you see the croc warning signs at the entrance to it - will I see one or won't I? The answer is no, I didn't see one.

The second crossing (see below) was not even worth mentioning.

Yeah - disappointing isn't it?

So I trundled on, just checking things out until I got to the turn off for Surprise Creek falls where there was a Nissan Pathfinder parked in the parking area.

The walk to the falls was a short one, although very sandy, and I got to the falls after about five minutes where I found a family of four people enjoying the water.

This plunge pool is not only more open than Tjaynera, it is also the beneficiary of a much more gentle slope of the ground so it is much safer for kids - there really is a shallow end unlike Tjaynera where the water drops off into the VERY deep within a metre or so.

Anyway, I didn't think the family would appreciate me stripping off and joining them so I left them to their swim and headed off again.

From that point on the drive was easy with some water holes before heading off to the Adelaide River pub for a couple of cleansing ales and a welcome burger before going home.

Reynolds River Track? A pleasant day trip out of Darwin, but it isn't the dramatic challenge that some accounts make it to be. Of course, on another day and with more water around it would be, so perhaps I can get back here then.

Thanks for reading this.