Darwin

We have had a great 4 days in Darwin. The weather settled down really nicely after our first couple days and gave us beautiful warm days without much humidity at all – with nice cool nights which was awesome for sleeping…haven’t sleep so well since Adelaide.

We kept ourselves busy with a few touristy things and once again plenty of swimming and school work at our caravan park. The caravan park looked lovely and felt very tropical but was right next to the Airport so we had plenty of planes and military jets flying over all the time so that kept things interesting…those jets are pretty cool but extremely loud.

Caravan park.

We spent our first night at the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets and was treated to another great N.T sunset.

We then went to Crocodylus Park and learnt all about the crocodiles and croc farming – didn’t realize there was such a huge market for crocodile skin goods.

 

                        

 

                        

                        

 

We went to Doctors Gully and fed the fish there.

Doctors Gully.

We also went to the Museum and Art Gallery where they have an awesome Cyclone Tracy Exhibit. It really makes you realise how awful it really was. They have this sound room that plays an actual recording of the cyclone and it’s incredibly loud (much like those jets) and very scary. It was interesting to hear that the cyclone sat on top of Darwin for something like 6 hours blowing one way, then 6 minutes of silence and then of blew the other way…what a nightmare!

 

Simon with his new hat and without his beard.

We went to Fannie Bay Gaol and learnt all about the colourful history of the place. The boys thought it was interesting that when the Japanese bombed Darwin in 1942 they let all the prisoners free and said “fend for yourselves”!!!

 

We also visited the Botanic Gardens and did some more WWII heritage sites.

We finished our time in Darwin with fish and chips on the beach with another great sunset.

On to Kakadu now to check out the wetlands. We are heading in the direction of home now which is a good feeling…a few more adventures and we will be home. Missing you all xxx

Litchfield National Park.

We headed to Litchfield National Park and made a stop over at Adelaide River. Adelaide River has a lot of  WWII history with thousands of troops stationed there in 1941. So we gave the kids a history lesson and headed to the War Cemetery.

This place is beautiful and amazing, it’s got so many stories to tell. There are 434 service men buried there, all losing their lives in the Top End. It was quite an emotional time looking at all the graves and seeing just how young most of them were.

 

                        

Litchfield National Park is similar to the other parks we have visited…it has spectacular waterfalls and swimming holes…a couple swimming holes are still closed because of all water that has come down and they are not confident that it is croc free yet….

                          

More Waterfalls…Tolmer and Florence Falls

During a beautiful rainforest walk around Wangi Falls

                        

Swimming among the fish in the rock holes. Isaac loves getting in under the waterfalls..you can just see him there on the right.

 

                         

While we were there we tried our luck at fishing again….and success. We had a bit of luck and caught 2 fish at the same time! The boys were a bit excited.

                            

Our Spanish friend Aitor.

We shared our campsite at Litchfield with Aitor. He is a Spanish cyclist who is cycling around Australia…well actually the world. He plans on cycling around as many countries as he can. He was a really interesting guy who has experienced so much so it was really cool to spend a few days with him. And the kids got to practice their Spanish as well…..

                          

Litchfield has got great walking tracks so we went on a couple night walks to do a bit off wildlife spotting. We saw rock wallabies, cane toads, lizards, bats, snakes, huge spiders and frogs. The nights were really warm but we still had camp fires…..we only had to enjoy them from a distance!

We arrived in Darwin this morning…and our first impression is humid- it’s amazing you just sit still and beads of sweat just drip off you. We’re excited to check out the city over the next few days. xxx

 

Crossing the border.

We left El Questro, went through Kununurra and stocked up on a bit of food while we were there. We moved on to check out Lake Argyle on our way to the border and the boys were very excited to see our first crocodile, so after a quick photo we kept going so we could make Northern Territory before it got dark.

Lake Argyle

Our first croc sighting…small but exciting.

 

We were talking as we drove along about what our highlights have been so far…and here they are

Mitch – Adventure World in Perth, Jumping into the middle pool at Amalia Gorge in El Questro, Camel ride in Broome, Monkey Mia, Karijini National Park and seeing Dingos.

Andy – Helping Tim on the farm in Gnowangerup, Chocolate Factory in Perth, Adventure World, Driving across river in El Questro, Amalia Gorge, seeing his first crocodile.

Isaac- Camel ride, Chocolate Factory, 1st crocodile, Money Mia, Shell Beach and seeing the Southern Cross in the sky.

Ethan – Playing spotlight chasey in El Questro, 1st crocodile, seeing Emus, and having a flock of birds flying right next to his window while we were driving.

Simon- Everything apparently.

Jacqui- Shell Beach, relaxed time in Perth & Broome, Karijini National Park  and everything in El Questro – especially Emma Gorge.

We also had a bit of a laugh putting together this list of happenings…..

• 1 leech bite – Jacqui
• 3 Inch Ant bites – Simon, Andy-2
• Plenty of Mozzie bites
• 1 Body slam into trailer during spotlight chasey – Isaac
• 1 Arm slammed in car door – Isaac
• 1 Frying pan to forehead – Isaac
• 2 bad burns to the middle finger- Isaac, Ethan.
• 2 blood noses – Mitch
• 1 Beetle bite to the butt – Ethan
• And plenty of bumps and bruises….

Nothing serious……so doing well in that department.

 

The beetle that bit Ethan’s butt and wouldn't let go….Painful for Ethan but amusing for everyone else.

El Questro

 

We were very excited to find out that the Gibb River Rd was open at the other end and we were able to get as far as the Pentecost River….which meant we could see El Questro Wilderness Park. El Questro is a wonderful place with, gorges, waterfalls, swimming holes and warm springs  We spent three nights at the “Station” where you can camp right on the Pentecost.  We were there for a Saturday night which was great…live country music being heard across the Station…river rapids in the background…very relaxing place to be.

The river crossing to get into the camping ground.

                          

Emma Gorge

Mitch enjoying the walk back.

                          

Pentecost River by our camp ground. It’s flowing very fast at the moment so the kids had a great time flowing down then getting out and running back up stream to get in again.

                                                                       Simon relaxing in the rapids. 

 

       Zebedee Springs – nice and warm.

                              

Amalia Gorge

Isaac being very brave.

Pentecost River where it crosses Gibb River Rd…still a metre deep.

The kids did a great job of doing the walks, some of them took a very long time in the hot sun but they kept on going….I guess a refreshing swim at the end was always a great incentive.

Off to Northern Territory now. Hope everything back home is going well, miss you all.

Kimberly’s – via highway

We finished up at Broome and headed towards the Kimberly’s but as we have been told the Gibb River Rd was closed at this end. So we headed East along the main highway through towns Derby, Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek. You don't get to see much at all going this way. The Bungle Bungle’s are off this highway but they were closed as well.

 Boab Prison Tree near Derby.

 Sunset at Fitzroy Crossing

                           

                                 Mitch with one of the many frogs.           Lots of Boab Trees along highway.

 

 Russian Jack at Halls Creek.

This legend once pushed his sick friend 300 km along a dodgy track in a home made wheelbarrow back in the gold rush of 1883.

 

 

 Our camp spot near Halls Creek

                          

                The China Wall near Halls Creek and one of the many huge ant hills everywhere along the whole 600+ km of the highway.

 We ended up at Wyndham and they have a cool lookout where 5 main rivers meet…so much water!!

5 Rivers lookout.

                           

The Grotto near Wyndham.

It was a pretty quick trip but we are heading to El Questro next …….just a little way along the Gibb River Rd on the Eastern end….bit excited about that.