Darwin

Lee Point Village Resort

1st May - 1st June 2010

Days 134 to 190

Just in case you thought we had all been munched by a croc, swept away by a cyclone or melted in the humidity I thought we were well past an update.

Here at Lee Point, we have been waking to the screaming call of the curlews and sensational, fiery sunrises. We have had a fantastic time here for many reasons. The weather for the last 6 weeks has been fairly consistently balmy. An average of 30 degrees during the day with gentle breezes keeping the humidity at bay is spoiling us.

We have met some great people, with kids our kids age, so that has lent itself to a very social time up here. Wayne and I have both had nights out with girls/boys allowing us to enjoy our gender preferred activities, like markets, shopping, coffees and girl movies v's crab potting, fishing, footy and pies. The kids are really going to miss building cubbies, bike riding, footy, swimming, fishing, gymnastics and chatting with their new friends once we leave in about a week and a half. Though we are ready to move on now and will catch up with our friends in time.

Wayne has enjoyed work for the most part and being a 3 minute drive from where we are camped, the travel time is no issue. It's been really interesting for him to work in Darwin and what is involved in building homes that will withstand cyclonic activity. To start with, all the new homes are built with blocks with no frames and the roofs take about 3 times as long to put up and tie down because they have to be so much more secure than down at home. He is looking forward to a break and his boss has organised for all the boys to go on a fishing trip next weekend - a great way to finish off.

We have found Darwin to be really family friendly and have enjoyed lots of outings consuming our weekends and afternoons. Here is just a sample of our exploring - to many things to list.

We saw Fantastic Mr Fox at the Deckchair cinema, an outdoor movie theatre right next to the water - didn't know whether to watch the movie or the sunset!

The National Museum was a treat, giving you the experience in a sound booth, of what it was like in the midst of Cyclone Tracy. It was packed with lots of visual displays, plenty to read and lots of artwork to appreciate.

Mothers Day was spent on a SeaCat over to Mandorah, where we enjoyed a few drinks, a jazz band and a walk along the beach. After heading back to the city we found a beautiful park and had fish and chips and watched the ship sails by - hmmmmm!

We went on a Jumping Croc Cruise down at Adelaide River. It was incredible to see the crocs in their natural environment and so close. The strength in their bodies to launch themselves out of the water to snap at a chunk of meat is amazing.

Darwin is a haven for markets. We have nearly roadtested them all - will have to stay to finish them all off.

Lee Point will always be memorable as the place where I last had to put a nappy on one of our kids. No more day or night nappies - hooray!

Mandorah


Saltie near Adelaide River

Too close for comfort

Lee Point Beach

Cool shell

On the ferry to Mandorah

Mindil Beach

Kakadu
11th and 12th April, 2010

Days 113 and 114

After much excitement and anticipation reaching the infamous Kakadu, we were surprised and really disappointed in what we couldn't see due to most of the areas being still flood affected by the wet season. The upside was that it was very quiet and what little we could see, we had a private viewing. We camped near a billabong and woke to the sounds of the low, guttural rumblings of some kind of creature of the night.

We celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary with a BBQ, some beers, a massive downpour of rain and thousands of tiny, tiny green tree frogs jumping all over our camp and us - amazing.

The rock art were saw was pretty amazing and showed the changes in the Aboriginal way of life from the introduction of Europeans to Australia. The Dreamtime images were incredible and the kids were intrigued by the spirits of the Dreaming, asking many many questions. It's great to expose them to how and what others believe and to the many different lifestyles we have encountered so far.

PS The low guttural sounds were the rumblings of crocs in the nearby billabong!! The shine of the torch on the water gave away the glint of slow moving red eyes.

Rock Art


Our camp spot



Admiring the view


Namargon, the lightning man

Great waterhole

Katherine

10th April, 2010

Day 115

After a very brief visit to Katherine to stock up on food, fuel, schoolwork, we headed on to Edith Falls for an overnighter. We couldn't swim in the bottom waterhole or falls, due to crocs. So we took a very steep walk up a lengthy track, on a stinking hot day, up to the next level of falls. The effort was well rewarded with a beautiful afternoon in the waterhole. We had a ball trying to beat the rapids and in the end let them swirl us around and spit us out where they liked. An afternoon storm broke the humidity and cooled us down on our trek back to camp. We woke to sounds of the bush apples dropping on the ground next to our camp. They smelt atrocious and made a huge squelch between your toes when you stepped on them.

Middle Pool

Mataranka
7th - 9th April, 2010

Day 112 - 114

So now we are on our way up to Darwin. We woke to sounds of silence and the sweet smell of tropical sweat in Elsey National Park. The stars lit up the sky each night and the weather is starting to really heat up now we are past the Tropic of Capricorn. Mataranka is also known as "The Never Never" after the famous book "We of the Never Never" by Jeannie Gunn. We visited the graves of the book characters, quite eerie, lucky it was daytime. The homestead they built for the movie still stands. Mataranka has two thermal springs that we really enjoyed swimming in. One of them was in the national park and the palm trees were full of flying foxes. There was about 250,000 of them, so noisy and smelly!! We also checked out some barramundi feeding, where Blake was brave enough to feed one. Lots of water around, with all the creeks and rivers full and flowing and a beautiful mossy green colour.

Barramundi Feeding


Replica of Elsey Homestead



Mataranka Springs

Daly Waters
5th and 6th March

Days 110 and 111

We were well and truly ready to have a bit of a break after a very full on couple of weeks. We spent 2 nights at the back of Daly Waters Pub, swimming, catching up on schoolwork and planning our next leg. A quirky little place, with a bar full of paraphenalia from all over the world, old licences, concession cards, bras, undies, hats - you name it they had it. They were even growing a thong tree out the back!!

3rd and 4th April 2010

Days 108 and 109

Devils Marbles

Woke to the sounds of the unwrapping of Easter Eggs and thought it was ironic that we were spending Easter with massive rock like Easter Eggs. We camped right amongst the marbles and were amazed at how many of them there are, the many formations and the range in size, from 25cm to 6m. We took our time exploring the area on foot and in car, with the brave ones climbing to the top of the tallest one!! We were warned of dingoes around here, but are yet to see one! Happy Easter everyone!!

Ti Tree
2nd April 2010 - Day 107

Another overnighter! After spending the day stocking up on groceries, water, fuel and beverages (no wine though, you can't buy cask wine in Alice until after 6pm - what am I to do!!!) we did some touristy things at Alice. Visited Anzac Hill and The Royal Flying Doctor Service. It was so good for all of us to see that medical needs weren't just a short drive away for lots of people in Australia. We stopped at the Highest Point Marker, between Darwin and Adelaide and the Tropic of Capricorn and a few other historical markers on the way. If you are interested I'll tell you them all. LOL!!

Roadhouse at Ti Tree

Manda can relate to this woman !

Rainbow Valley

1st April, 2010
Day 106

A one night stopover to take advantage of this tiny part of the Simpson Desert before we head back to Alice. To see these amazing rocks at sunset and sunrise was a treat. We woke to the sounds of absolute, eerie silence. We were the only ones around for miles. How's the serenity? Then the kids woke up!

Curtin Springs Days 103 - 105

29th - 31st March

The next three days we spent exploring sights along the Mereenie Loop, Gosse Bluff (a massive meteorite impact crater), Kings Canyon, Uluru and The Olgas.

Nothing could quite prepare us for the magnitude of the monolith as we caught our first glimpse driving through the burnt red sand dunes. Nor how mesmerised we would we be at the continual changing of colour of the rock throughout the course of the day. We were also amazed at viewing the rock from all aspects, and how different it is on all sides. We even got a special treat at sunset when a full moon popped up behind Ayers Rock.

Rock in the morning

Rock in the arvo


Rock after sunset

Spotto the kids at the base of part of The Olgas - its huge!

Ormiston Gorge Days 99 - 102
25th - 29th March

We spent the next three days doing some amazing bushwalks and sightseeing through bush, water crossings, up stairs, over rocks, down gullies, with fantastic effort from all the kids. Blake, Amber and James were able to keep up with Wayne and I as we piggybacked Darcy and Eamon for the tricky and lengthy parts.

The gorges here are spectacular and have beautiful and very full waterholes to reward yourself with a dip after you are done exploring them. Ormiston Gorge waterhole was our favourite. The flies were not anyone's favourite. James, Eamon and Darcy are trying their best to escape them in the photo below.

The flies were a shocker!

Jervois to Alice Springs
Day 99
25th March 2010

The road from Jervois to Alice was half unsealed and half sealed, much better than the run yesterday. The everchanging landscape was indescribable. One minute you are passing low lying shrubs with orangey white dirt then some magnificent ranges will pop up and the dirt turns to rusty red. The mirages on the road are like nothing we have ever seen, you really believe there is a flood plain on the road.

Arriving in Alice was really exciting for us all. We stocked up on food, fuel and water and headed to the West Macdonnell Ranges for our next stop.

We pulled into Ormiston Gorge campground late in the arvo, set up camp and marvelled at the colours and size of the rockface we would wake up to for the next few days, while we explored this part of the ranges.

Agnes Water to Bogantungan
Day 93
19th March, 2010

So we decided to head inland as fast as we could, with the cyclone looming towards the coast. Our aim was to make up as much ground toward Alice Springs as we could. A very dodgy overnight stop at a free camp in a ghost town. We woke to the sounds of silence. A very eerie place where we heard voices inside a house and lights on, but no one ever went in and no one ever came out. Let's get outta here!

Winton
Days 94 - 97
20th to 23rd March, 2010

We pulled up at a free camp behind the North Gregory Hotel. We spent the next few days exploring the "Home of Waltzing Matilda." We visited a museum dedicated to the history of the song, it was full of so much information and very interesting. Winton also has lots of dinosaur tracks close by, so we were very exposed to fossils and life size replicas of various dinosaurs - a boys delight. The kids had a ball banging on the public musical fence, a junkyard of objects that you can into the next Michael Jackson. We were camped in front of Arno's wall, another junkyard creation. A guy has made this concrete wall wth everything you can imagine in it, even the kitchen sink. Just when we thought we had escaped Ului, the edge of it got us. Flooded again!! So over rain!

Boulia Day
Day 98
24th March, 2010

A quick overnighter at Bouila, hot showers, some washing and watching the kids concert they made up for us. We visited the Min Min Encounter which gave us an insight into the very mysterious Min Min Lights and kept heading inland. We headed along the Donohue Highway that had been recently opened after all the rain and made it to NT Border - hooray. The very hairy unsealed road we had been travelling on had turned into the Plenty Highway. We were getting closer to destination Alice Springs.

Jervois Cattle Station
Day 99
25th March, 2010

We were now in the Red Centre. The earth was so rusty and red, it was an amazing feeling to be this far inland. The ground may have been red, but everything else was so green. All this rain we had experienced had given us this enormous treat of new growth and freshness. We filled up with diesel, at $1.88 p/L it must have had gold in it. We also found out that the road we travelled on yesterday was still closed on the NT side. We were officially the first ones to make it across the QLD/NT border on that road for this year. We can brag about it now that we made it across, don't think I would have posted it if it turned out we were the first ones to be stranded on the Plenty Highway. Alice here we come !!