Day 43 - Mataranka and Better Springs Hot Springs

This morning we had a relaxing start to the morning, with a bit of a sleep in and a casual breaky.  The kids fed the wallabies and peacocks/hens in between their breaky.

Then we went for a swim at the Mataranka Thermal pools here at the park.  The water was just beautiful, it was so warm, like swimming in a bath.  They advertise that it is a constant 34C but I don't know if it was quite that warm.  You can go for a walk upstream and see where the water bubbles out of the ground all day, a massive 30 million litres of warm water comes out of the springs every single day.  Hard to believe I know!!! We could have stayed there all day, just freezing to hop out.

Next stop was Bitter Springs.  This is another warm pool but it is longer, with quite a strong current.  It reminded me a bit of the drift dive at Turquoise bay at Exmouth, in that you hopped in at one spot and the current took you down stream where you hopped out at the end.  The kids all got their goggles on and Cody tried to catch some fish with his bare hands, but he didn't have any luck.  There was a lot of algae which was a bit gross, but great to have the goggles and snorkel on again.


After this we went to the Territory Manor and watched the Barramundi feeding. This was great.  Shannae and Cody both had a go. This guy hand feed them and they had been trained so they were quite happy to be handled.

 That night we decided to go and have tea a the bar.  Every night they have a musician playing aussie music so that was a lot of fun. 

Day 42 - Gunlom Falls

Today we crack the whip again as we decide to see one more thing in Kakadu before making our way out.  We head to Gunlom Falls.  There is 36km of gravel here that we debate about taking the van down, luckily we decide to unhook it and just take the car as the road is pretty bad.  When we arrive at Gunlom we decide to do the lookout walk before we swim.  Well, this is hard work.  A very steep incline straight up the side of the escarpment to the lookout at the top.  Quite scary too, Glen informs me that many people have been killed or injured doing this walk in the past, glad I didn't read that before heading up.  It was an awesome view from the top, but the walk down was even scarier than the walk up. 

You can see our car at the bottom in the car park.

The steep decent!!

We have a beautiful swim in the pool at the bottom.  We can see some people sitting at the top of the falls and just hope to goodness they don't fall down as it is quite a height.

A couple of back packers are sitting at the top here!!

We then stop at Mary River Roadhouse for a quick bite to eat as we have run out of food.  We stop at Katherine on the way through to refuel, do a grocery shop and do some Father's day shopping.  We decide to keep going to Mataranka even though we know it is a bit late.  As soon as we arrive in Mataranka the first thing the kids notice is the wild life.  The Mataranka Homestead caravan park has a number of local wallabies and peacocks that just wonder the park.  After tea the kids sit outside with a bowl full of carrot and hand feed the wallabies.  They think this is just awesome and take a million photos.  They love Mataranka already and we haven't even hit the hot springs yet!!!!  We manage to do about 430km today as well as sightseeing so we are pretty tired when we finally hit the sack.

Day 41 - Jim Jim Falls - Twin Falls

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAIDEN!!!!!!

Today we decided to tackle Jim Jim Falls and Twin Falls.  We were told to allow 2 hours for the 50km stretch of road, but we were very pleases to discover that the road had recently been graded, once again and we had scored big time, as we were able to skip along at about 100km/h.  Very happy, it was only the last 7km to Jim Jim that was a real nightmare but we could cope with that.  We then had a 900m walk into the falls, "great" I thought, however, not so great, a very challenging walk over rocks, that got bigger the further we went in.  Every stretch of water we stopped to admire had huge signs say "no swimming" and one spot had a massive crocodile trap.  At 10am the temperature was also making a rapid ascent. We were lucky enough to hook up with a small tour group.  This is always handy, as they are these people are the ones with the real local knowledge and it is always nice to have a few more people around in these isolated places.  The frenchman on the tour comes across a really long, thin, orangy coloured snake, I didn't stop to take a really good look, but discovered I can scale big rocks really fast when need be!!!!

You can see the croc trap in the background here!!!

We eventually arrived at the "beach" area, and wouldn't you know it, another snake wrapped around the rock just where we would like to enter the water.  Yes, you can swim at the end of this track.  We are assured that the rangers have taken any unwelcome crocs from the holes at the bottom of Jim Jim falls.  A bit unnerving after just walking passed all the danger signs.  Anyway, I wasn't being left on the beach with the snake, so we all swim around to the bottom of Jim Jim, as it is the only way to get there. The kids just love it and none of the tourist group are being eaten ahead of us so I relax a little!!!!  Unfortunately Jim Jim is not flowing however, it is still a spectacle and well worth the walk in.

The family climbing over rocks to swim to the plunge pool at the bottom of the falls.  Plunge pool is 100m wide and 40m deep!!

After this, we take the very bumpy road further on to Twin Falls.  This requires a 200m walk to the creek and then a small boat ride for $25 to the end of the creek where, once again we have to trek over some big rocks.  No swimming here, which is such a shame, as it is one of the most beautiful spots we have seen.  We had been told we can't swim because of the crocs, but we find out from the "skipper" that is actually because the aboriginal elders have put a stop to it.  People were coming in and trashing turtle nests and making such a mess in the water with sunscreen and insect repellent.

There was a 3km walk we could have done at the top of the escarpment, but we decided against that at 2:30 in the arvo.  The 13km back to the main gravel road takes 45 min, the road is really sandy, windy and rough, then we only have 50km of reasonable gravel to go.  So the kids hit the pool again when we get back, it is a welcome relief in this heat.

Day 40 - Nourlangie - Cooinda

This morning we moved on.  We called into Jabiru on the way and just happened to pass the Kakadu Bakery.  Everyone has said this is awesome so we couldn't go past without trying a crocodile pie.  Only morning tea time but .......hey!!!!!  We aren't coming back this way.  What a fantastic bakery and so cheap, everything here is cheap.......go figure!!!!!

We stopped at the Anbangbang Billabong which was a 4 km walk, including the lookout, which was at Nourlangie.  Lucky we did that before lunch as it was absolutely sweltering by the time we had finished.  The kids have been fantastic with all the gorge walks to date, they have been loving the challenge and have just been awe inspired with the swim and the falls a the end, however, with this heat and no relief in a swim at the end of the walk, due to the crocs, the complaints are starting!!!!! 

We plan to head to the next campsite but figure we will pop in and have a look at the "Cooinda lodge" on the way.  This is right next to the Yellow water river and the aboriginal cultural centre which we had planned to come back to.  Well, we walk into the reception of the lodge and make enquiries,  they have powered sites for vans, that are quite cheap considering our "free camping" in the national park has cost us $20 a night with very basic facilities, so we figure for the luxury of power all night to run the aircon, some washing machines, water and, the thing that sells us all, "the best pool the kids have ever seen"!!!.... we decide to book into the lodge.

 It is just so hot, we spend most of the arvo at the pool.  At 4:30pm we decide to go for a look at the Aboriginal Cultural centre.  This was very well done, easy to read all the the displays and after spending some time in Ubirr, we could understand the places they were referring to.  I was amazed to learn that there used to be 200 different aboriginal languages, now there is only 50.  Afterwards we went for a walk on the board walk at Yellow Water which was just lovely, we opted out of the river cruise as it was going to cost another $350 for the family.  Your hand is in your pocket all the time out here!!!

Anyway, home at last and enjoyable barbi on a very balmy night.  We decided after tea to take the kids for a late night swim which they just loved.  We were joined by a couple of local cane toads which didn't thrill me a great deal, my biggest concern now is Cody wanting to catch them!!! We are trying to teach him the difference between the frogs, lizards, any all creepy, crawlies for that matter, that he can and can't catch!!!!

Day 39 - Arnhemland (Guluyambi)

Can you believe that we arrive the day before the Stone Country festival - which is the one day of the year that anyone is allowed into Arnhemland without a permit!!!  So we decide to head across the Cahill Crossing at low tide, no salties to be seen, but we don't dilly dally, as we have seen how big they are on this river.  Arnhemland is just beautiful, very much untouched until we reach the township.  What a mess.  Rubbish and broken down cars everywhere.

The day begins with a footy match and a basketball comp which runs for most of the day.  It is so hot, I don't know how they could play in this heat.  There are a lot of cultural activities going on during the day.  The girls discover the basket weaving and love sitting with the locals under a tree doing their weaving.  The language barrier is not a problem.  Bush tucker is being prepared and we see geese being decapitated and plucked and cat fish being alfoiled for the bush oven.

Shannae discovers spear making and spends a lot of her day working on making a spear in preparation for the spear throwing comp later in the day.  We head to the bumper cars for Cody which is quite a laugh.  The little indigenous children just love these cars and buy a handful of tickets at a time so it is hard to get on. They fit 3 or 4 per car including babies and they pick up and drop off passengers throughout the ride.   So it is a scramble for a car.  Cody and Glen look just hilarious as they are the only whiteys out there.  Next stop is the "$2.50" shop for Cody, he thinks he is at the fair!!!  He purchases a massive lollipop that keeps him entertained all day!!!

So we return to the spear making area ready for the spear throwing comp which is advertised on the sign to be held at 2pm....but hey... ..we are on "Arnhemland time", at about 2:30 we ask one of the locals when the spear throwing comp is going to be held "dis arvtanoon"  ........as we thought.  We are trying to "chill"..."go with the flow!!"  ....By now it is sweltering and we have had enough of the dust and the flies but we have a budding spear thrower who has been looking forward to the comp all arvo so at 2:45 Glen asks one of the whiteys, who are organising the competition, what the go is....."Oh yeah.....  I don't know!!!!"  They have a little "claytons" throw for the kids, which Shannae just loves and then we head for home, all pretty exhausted.

We cool off in the van for a while before we head to the Aboriginal Rock art at about 5pm.  This was really great. All the art has a story to tell.  I am amazed that it is still here after all these years.  I was also surprised to see art that I remember reading legends about when I was a kid.  There is so much history here.  So we think the day is over, when Glen announces on the way home there is one more walk he would like to do, only a short one of 1.5km return, the problem is, these can take from 20 min to 2 hours you never , really know!!!!!  The whole car groans at Dad's suggestion.  It is still really hot and the walk is through "Monsoonal rain forests"  I picture snakes hanging from the tree, so I put my foot down and decide to sit this one out in the air con of the car.  Cody was very loyal to his dad and went with him, the girls however, where with me on this one!!!!  Cody is not disappointed, he returns with stories of the biggest spider he has ever seen and snakes and croc sightings, we are yet to get to the bottom of whether these sighting are myth, legend or just Dad's tall tales!!!!.

What a day!!!!!

Day 38 - Ubirr - Kakadu

This morning we got away just after 7am and headed for Kakadu.  The road into Kakadu from Darwin doesn't have a lot of sightseeing opportunities when you have a 24ft van in tow, so we pretty much make a "b"line for the visitor's centre.  The visitors centre is great.  Fantastic interactive displays for the kids and movies showing different aspect of the park.  As Kakadu is so big, we decide that it is not very economical to use Jabiru as a base, as it is too far from everything, so we decide to make lots of one night stop overs throughout, which we don't normally like to do, but in this case we think it is the best option.

First stop Ubirr which is 40km east of Jabiru and right on the border of Kakadu and Arnhemland.  We arrive at the campsite to find an aboriginal painting activity begins in 30 min, great timing.  So the kids are straight into that, a couple of aboriginals from Arnhemland and a ranger conducting the session.  And wouldn't you know it, our travelling buddies are here also.  We thought by now they were a couple of days ahead of us, however, they found there was a lot more to see here than expected and decided to stay on a little longer.  Robbo, you wouldn't believe it, we are in the middle of nowhere and we met another couple from Perth  who had bought Tracey and Woob's camper trailer off them, what a small world!!!

So the girls really enjoyed the painting and did a wonderful job.  The aboriginal guys showed them how to make brushes from reeds.  I couldn't believe what a steady hand they had to paint all those lines that they do.  Cody wasn't very interested.  All him and his little buddy Alex wanted to do was go back to the van and play checkers!!!

At 3pm we went on a boat trip up East Alligator River.  The river creates the border between Kakadu and Guluyambi ( Arnhemland).  Our tour guide was a very humorous aboriginal guy who had a very thick accent as english is very much a second language for them out here.  Anyway, we saw heaps of salties, and we docked on the edge of Arnhemland for a bit, and he gave us a run down on the spears and some other aboriginal tools.  He also gave us a demo on throwing the spears using a woomera (sp?)  Very interesting.

Today was really hot.  The car "outside temp" said 39 when we hopped back in at 5pm, now I know that it isn't always really accurate but it still has to be pretty hot to reach that.

In the evening we went to suss out the sunset from the lookout as we had heard so much about it.  We quickly walked past the amazing rock art that we put on the list for tomorrow.  I think every tourist and his camera were at the lookout, but it was pretty special.  Grassy plains and billabongs and flocks of birds as far as the eye could see and the rock formations that encircles the entire area, just beautiful!!

We try to keep the generator running as long as we can tonight to keep the van cool.  Lots of mozzies and march flies are a real problem here.  We have every possible window open to go to sleep but there is not a breath of wind, not  a frog croaking, not a cricket creeking....nothing......Glen thinks this is the quietest place we have been.  Glen gets up in the middle of the night with a torch and sees tiny green eyes looking at him from everywhere......spiders.....thankfully, I didn't see any in my travels.  Have seen a few dead cane toads but Tori is the only one so far, who has encountered a live one, at Litchfield.  The temp drops to a bearable temp at about 3am!!!

Day 37 - Mindil Beach Markets Darwin

Surprise....!!!!!!!  We haven't left Darwin yet.  As we laid in bed this morning at 7:30am we decided we weren't really organised enough to move on yet, so we booked in for another day.  It was great to have some time to just hang out at the park and get things in a bit more order.  The kids even got some school work done!!!!  Glen washed the van and the car and I washed clothes, bought a few more groceries and sorted some photos into albums.

The best part about staying another night was the Mindil Beach Markets.  They are only on a Sunday and a Thursday and last year when we were here, we went along and it was just a mass of people and incense!!!  But, somehow the girls and I managed to convince Glen we should go again.  So this time we had a different plan of attack.  We arrived at 4pm when it opened, so it was just great, we had the whole place to ourselves.  The girls and I were in seventh heaven, trinkets galore, we just went from one stall to the next, making major decisions about what to buy next.  Cody on the other hand did not want to go at all, as he is saving all his money, however, he kept asking us about ice-creams, fairy floss etc so we told him he could have what ever he liked if he wanted to pay for it with his own money, his wallet was out in a flash.   He seemed to think that food was not a waste of money.....that's the "Bywater" in him!!!!!

We ended up having tea here also, you just can't go to these markets without eating here.  Half the stalls are food and the variety of cuisine and the different aromas throughout the markets are just awesome.  You can choose from Greek to Japanese to Thai to Sri Lankan to Mexican it is just awesome.

Anyway, and early night for us tonight as we are now very organised and plan to crack the whip in the morning.  Look out Kakadu!!!!

Day 36 - Darwin Museum

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLEITH!!!!!

This morning was a bit crazy as we had the car booked in at 8am for a service, so Glen left at 7:30 and the kids and I caught the bus and met him in town a little later.  We had heard the museum was really good, so we decided to take the bus out there and have a look.  Well, it certainly was awesome, absolutely free and just captivating. All the animals we have seen in our travels were on display so we were able to identify them at last, and replace the weird and wonderful names Glen had given them all!!!!!  I thought the kids would be bored after 5 min, but we would have spent about 2 hours there and they were engaged the whole time.  There was a fantastic display of Cyclone Tracy and the devastation that it inflicted.  It made us think about the poor people in Queensland earlier in the year, at least there weren't as many lives lost in more recent events.

Glen and the kids went to pick up the car and I couldn't resist any longer ........ I caught the next bus to the biggest shopping centre I could find!!!!.  I was feeling a little weak after 5 weeks without shopping, enough was enough!!!!!, so after a couple of hours of solitary shopping, I was quite energized, however, another 60 odd hours wouldn't have gone astray, but hey........you have to take what you can get!!!!!!

The kids had a great afternoon at the pool and Glen and I made plans for the next few days in Kakadu.  May not have service there, so until we get service again, stay safe.

Day 35 - Wave Pool

Wow......35 days, I can't believe we have been travelling for 5 weeks already.  Just looking at the days we have left until we fly home, I am wondering how we are going to fit everything in that we want to do....might have to stay in the van a little longer........just joking Ron!!!!

This morning Glen went off to the Aviation Museum and was most impressed.  There is a lot of history here from the Darwin bombing and Glen said they even had a B52 bomber on display, which he couldn't believe the size of.  Plus numerous other planes which he really enjoyed looking at.

When Glen came home we took the kids for a swim at the pool and decided to indulge and enjoy lunch at the pool bar.  We are enjoying civilisation for a short time.

In the afternoon we met our travelling friends at the Wave Pool with their kids Vivi and Alex.  Tori, Shannae and Cody have just been busting to get to the wave pool as we spent a fair bit of time there last year when we flew up for my 40th, so it was a "must see" for the kids when we came back to Darwin!!!  and to go back with their new friends was just awesome.  We all decided to head across to the wharf for dinner afterwards.  What an awesome spot.  The wharf is still in use and there are numerous options to choose from for a meal, it is almost like a food hall, except with seagulls.  We watched the sun go down and enjoyed a beautiful meal with our new friends.

Day 34 - Darwin

We decide to do a couple more things in Litchfield before heading to Darwin, as we only have a 200km drive today.  First, while it is a little cooler, we visit the abandoned tin mine in Bamboo Creek.  Very interesting and the kids love the sparkling sand which is full of tin fragments.  We then head to Walker Creek which is a 3.5km walk with 8 camping sites along the way.  When we reached the pool, Glen did the "check of the perimeter" for crocs, snakes and nasties, however, he came across a bit more than he bargained on when he found a native bird sunning herself topless on a rock.  He returned looking a little sheepish, gave us the all clear to swim, then went for a cool dip himself!!!!!   The walk was relatively easy compared to what we have been accustomed to and the water warm, so it was a lovely way to end our stay at Litchfield.

Next, back to the van for lunch and pack up to head to Darwin, a very easy drive, however we notice the quality of the roads are starting to deteriorate.  We pull into the Free Spirit Caravan park which is just awesome.  With 3 pools and a massive bouncy pillow, the kids want to stay for a week.  Unfortunately, it will only be a couple of days, so we will have service until about Thursday.

Thanks again to everyone for your emails, especially the ones for the kids.  They look for them every time we stop now, so keep them coming.

Day 33 - Litchfield National Park

We had a slow start today as with the time difference, it is too cold to go swimming at 9am, so we were all happy for a bit of a sleep in.  We left at about 9am to go down a 26km 4WD track to Surprise Creek.  It had some awesome river crossings and was a pretty rough road so we had worked on it taking about 1 hour.  On the way we stopped at Blythe Homestead, which was a little outstation that had been built in 1929 where the oldest of the 14children, of the Seargent family, where sent, in order to mine tin and run the cattle, about 25 km from the main homestead. This explained why the little shack was so small as they were only children living there.  Our children were amazed that the kids living here were only as old as Shannae and Tori's and maybe a couple of older siblings as well.   We tried to imagine what they did for food without a fridge, shops, washing machine etc.  Quite remarkable what kids were expected to do in those days!!!!

Anyway, we continued on, I saw a little croc scuttle off the river bank as Glen assessed the situation before entering Reynoldson River, no way was I getting out if we got bogged!!!  We also passed hundreds of termite mounds, these things are amazing, many over 2 m tall.  And one breed of termite in particular, has worked out that if they make really tall skinny mounds that face in a north/south direction, they won't heat up so much.  Clever 'ay???.....at some places we could just see dozens and dozens of these things all facing the same way, it looked like a cemetery!!!

So Surprise Creek was awesome.  Glen found this fantastic rock hole that him and the kids proceeded to spend all their time swimming in and doing bombies from, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  I was on croc and snake patrol!!!!  I had the "Heeby jeebies" and wouldn't go in here!! 

We eventually dragged the kids away and headed back to the main road.    We stopped at the Litchfield Tourist Precinct which wasn't too exciting.  The kids saw their first "cane toad money purses" and they weren't too excited about them.  Next stop was "Cascades" a 2.4km return walk to a lovely water fall and pool.  Very refreshing as it was getting a bit hot by this time.  Very tropical in places and lots of signs to say "crocodile management" had taken place in the area!!!  I just hope they had done a thorough job!!!!

Anyway, back to camp and time to relax by Wangi Falls again, Glen and I with a refreshing drink this time.  And wouldn't you know it, we decide to do the Treetop platform walk just to finish off the day, "It's only 400m to the top"  says Tori, she failed to mention is it was about the same amount of steps!!!!  Forgot I had quads.......I have now remembered that this muscle group does exist!!!

Day 32 - Litchfield National Park

It was a bit weird this morning with the time difference, we woke at 7am which was really 5:30am so it was a bit like daylight savings for us today.  We drove straight to Litchfield National Park and were pretty happy to be arriving so early as we managed to get a camping spot at Wangi Falls.  This was as close to "free camping" as we could get here, we had to pay a small camping fee but were pretty happy to given we had access to flushing toilets and warm showers.  Who needs them though when your days are spent swimming in the crystal spring water of all the falls in the park???

Soon after we arrived, we walked the 200m to Wangi Falls......wow, no trekking over rocks or fighting off wild snakes to get here, we follow a beautifully concreted path, down to some man made steps and hand rail to enjoy a swim in an enormous natural pool with cascading water falls in the background.  How lovely!!!!

Afterwards, we have lunch and decide to make the most of the rest of the day.  Everything is so close here, we drive the 24 km to Florence Falls on a bitumen road, how cushy!!!  We take the 400m walk down to the falls which also included about 276 steps, yes, great exercise.  This was also a fantastic spot, however, it appeared that half the European population and half the "yahoos" from Darwin, complete with floating esky and getting louder by the minute, also thought it was a pretty great spot.  So after a fairly quick swim, we decided to head onto the Buley Rockholes, which we had been told the kids would love.  Well, they did,the pools were at various levels joined by water falls and they were so deep the kids dived and bombied off them all arvo and loved floating the noodle from the top one down to the bottom.  It was a great spot and certainly the highlight of the day.

On the way home we decided to take the 10.5 km 4WD track out the "The Lost City".  This was a formation of sandstone blocks and majestic pillars formed and weathered by the elements to resemble the ruins of a long lost civilisation.  It was also an opportunity for Dad to get his 4WD fix for the day!!!!

We also popped in to have a quick look at the Tolmer Falls.  Described as one of the most "spectacular falls", however, we were only able to view them from a lookout as there was not swimming allowed in this area.

It was a very big day of sightseeing, everything was so easily accessible, so we could see so much in one day, place the additional light at the end of the day was, for once, an advantage to us.  We went home pretty tired, but excited about planning the next days itinerary.

Day 31 - Crossing the border to the NT

We left Kununurra this morning at around 7am.  We were all very excited as we were only 35km from the NT border.  We stopped and took the obligatory photos and the kids got a buzz out of standing with one leg in WA and one in the NT.  We wound our clocks an hour and a half forward, and wouldn't you know it, the kids were looking for morning tea!!!!  The first thing we noticed in the NT was the 130km speed limit signs, we were going to stop and take a photo, as we thought this was really bazaar, however, we have since learnt that it is the standard speed limit out on the open roads here, not that we can do any where near that speed with "Big Bertha" on the back.  We also noticed a considerable amount of "crazy"drivers, one incident nearly resulting in a head on alongside us, as a guy over takes us on a hill, and sends the oncoming ute into the ditch..........not impressed!!!!!

We were surprised at the size of Katherine, I would loved to have stopped and had a look at some "real" shops, but we only stopped long enough to pick up some mail and get fuel, then on we went. After travelling 650km we stopped at Emerald Springs, which was a tiny little town, but a popular truck stop. Remembering we only average about 80-90km an hour, it is a slow trip. It was a huge day of travel, our biggest day so far.  We would loved to have stopped and explored a lot of the places on the way, but we put them on the " next time we come back" list, which is getting longer.   The kids are coping very well with the travel and it's about the only time they watch DVD's, they also have an esky full of food,  so they are always happy in the car.  Glen and I find this is a great opportunity for us to chat and make plans without interruption.

Day 30 - Last day in Kununurra

"Organisation day" - gas bottles filled, sheets washed, diesel tanks filled, water tanks filled, fridge filled, blog updated, kids diaries updated, toilet emptied....gross!! ..exhaust pipe welded back together..............yeah, a casualty from the Gibb River Rd!!!! Ready to head off on a big trip tomorrow towards Litchfield National park and to hopefully get a few nights of free camping under our belt. 

But the highlight of the day, was Dad cooking pancakes for lunch.....yummo!!!!!!  This was a real treat.  It also got Tori into the "cooking mode" and she decided to make some home cooked snacks and try out the oven for the first time, making berry and white chocolate muffins, maybe this also has something to do with our shrinking clothes!!!!! 

We have bought some beautiful local fruit and veg here, bananas for $6 a kilo!!!  We are pretty sure we don't have to declare anything at the quarantine stop on the way into NT and that it is only when you come from the NT to WA that they are really strict. 

Glen saw his first Cane Toad today, very sad to think that they are here already.  Fortunately it was as flat as a pancake on the road.  Anyway, we will possibly be out of touch at Litchfield so will do the blog when we have access again maybe in Darwin.  Ciao!!!

Day 29 - Bus and Boat Tour

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKAELA

The kids were treated to a very pleasant surprise this morning.  We met this lovely family in Broome that we just clicked with, we bumped into them again at El Questro and this morning the kids come rushing back from the toilets having found them again.  We are headed in the same direction as they are, so it is really great.

At 11:30 we were booked on a Triple j Tour to Lake Argyle by bus to return on a boat cruise down the 55km of Ord River, to be dropped off at our caravan park on Lake Kununurra by 5:30.  The bus trip took us 70km to Lake Argyle stopping at he Durack Homestead on the way.  We went to the lookout at the point where the Lake has been dammed and could not quite contemplate the massive expanse of water that this community has access to.  At the dam's highest point during this year's massive wet season they said it held the equivalent of 44 Sydney harbours of water.  Below is a photo of where Lake Argyle has been plugged with a wall of clay 300m x 300m, the first photo is the top view and the second the side view.  We travelled down the Ord river for the afternoon on a very informative and enjoyable boat cruise.  Glen I could not believe the amount of water this community has at their fingertips, they use whatever they need, to irrigate all the agricultural land in the area, then they just let the excess go out to sea. We wondered how we could get a pipeline down to our farm!!! 

The boat trip was awesome.  We thought we would just tonker down the river at a leisure pace, but that was not the case.  The kids loved the speed of this boat and Glen was most impressed with the 1050 off horse power hanging off the back of the boat!!!!  We watched an awesome sunset on the river and were then dropped off right at our door step of the caravan park.

We had our new found friends over for drinks which was really nice.  Great to have a chat with a family doing what we are doing and compare notes on places to stay, places we've seen and the trials and tribulations of being on the road.

Day 28 - Kununurra

A lazy day today.  We don't get up until 7am and it is like a Sunday morning for us.  We relax over breaky, the kids do some school work while I sit on the computer.  Glen and I take it in turns for quick trips down the street.  In the arvo the kids swim in the pool.  We play cards, do washing and have an enjoyable barbi by the lake again for tea.  I am a bit annoyed though as the water up here seems to be shrinking our clothes, at this rate we might need a whole new wardrobe by October!!!!!

Tori tries to access her LOTE class via the internet but #!!${%!!!!  .....computers!!!!   We didn't have any luck, but she was very excited to ring school and speak to Mrs Bear at the library.  Mrs Bear put her on speaker and all the kids were able to hear her and were yelling out to say hi, so that made Tori's day.  The kids continue to receive emails from their friends which they just love.

Mozzie's are pretty bad here, so we lock ourselves in the van and watch tv, a bit of a treat as we haven't seen much so far.

Day 27 - Kunurrura

Today we sleep in.....ha,ha......awake at 5:45 but try to stay in bed for a while before packing up.  We leave by 8am but are in "go slow" mode today as we only have 100km to go to Kununurra. We arrive before our site is even ready so go downtown to suss things out.  We have decided to spend 4 days in Kununurra to recharge the batteries a bit.  Lots of stuff to do here.  Updating the blog, washing, grocery shopping, photos to develop, school work and of course bills to pay.  I keep thinking it is January and we are on our Christmas holiday!!!!!  It was great to receive some photos from Ron and Cora of the crops at home, can't believe we are away during such a good year, but nice to know things are going okay at home.

The park we are staying at is the Big 4 on Lake Kununurra, it is a lovely spot and has a resident croc that comes to the waters edge every evening, George, poor thing, doesn't look too healthy as he is missing half his bottom jaw. We buy a couple of bags of fish food and the kids feed the catfish.  Tori decides to feed them her thong, which they weren't too interested in, however, we managed to fish it out of the lake without becoming crocodile tucker.


Barrie, Glen set up the dish, so we watched tv until 10pm, and I learnt something, the decoder still works after having cider spilt in it!!!!...I wasn't very popular after he had just got it all going.

Day 26 - El Questro-Gibb River Rd

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY BRYCE.

Today was a massive day at Elquestro, I was thinking of you all day Karen you will just love it.

Well, to paint the picture, El Questro is basically the first stretch of the Gibb River Rd from the Kununurra end.  It is an operating cattle station one side and a tourist resort the other, and covers an area of approximately 1 billion acres.  The lovely photos you always see publicized, of the homestead hanging on the edge of the gorges, you can't actually access unless you are a paying guest at $2000 per night with a minimum stay of 2 mights!!!  So within  El Questro there is also a variety of other accommodation and some spectacular scenery, gorges, hot springs and water crossings, which is what we came to look at.  We would loved to have done a lot more of the Gibb River Rd, however, it is mostly "off road" terrain and we knew when we chose the comfort of our full van, that our "off roading" was going to be limited.

First we went to Emma Gorge, a 2.4km return walk to a spectacular water fall and pool at the end.  The walk out here doesn't take you down steep gorges, but the terrain is just rocks all the way, so you can't take your eyes off the ground.  Emma Gorge is definitely one of the best we have seen.  We make our way out after 2 hours and fill our water bottles from the Boab tree.

 
Next stop is Zedebee Hot Springs.  The hot springs are approximately 28C.  Just beautiful for a soothing dip.  Could happily have sat there all arvo with a glass of champers, but at 12 the general public has to vacate the premises.  At first I thought is was some sort of environmental reason, however, not so, after 12 is when the people from the resort are bought down, so they can have the springs all to themselves, how the other half live 'ay!!!!

So, relaxing over, we move onto the next gorge, El Questro gorge, this one has two parts,  to go to the end, it is a 6.8km return hike which would take approximately 4-6 hours, so we opt for the short walk which is 2.6km return to the first pool which should only take 2-3 hours.  It is difficult to describe the beauty of these places.  The waterfalls, the ferns, the fish, the spectacular scenery is something to be seen to be believed.  We did also come across three other wonders of nature in this gorge, of the slithering kind!!!!  Glen came face to face with a beautiful 6 ft snake right on our pathway.  And wouldn't you know it, we were lucky enough to encounter him again on the way back!!! 

After this, we decide to suss out "the station" and have a well earned drink at the bar.  This is where the poorer people stay at El Questro.  It is like a caravan park with powered sites and chalets. It is just great with a natural water hole for the kids to swim.  Had we known a little more we would definitely had stayed here, we think we could have got the van in, as the water crossings to here weren't too bad, but you don't know these things by looking at the website from the office in Wongan.  We'll know next time. 

Now Glen's testosterone kicks in and has had the urge to cross the Pentecost River.  The water crossings we have tackled today have been pretty cool but they have not quite satisfied his appetite for adventure, so we head 25 km up the road.  This is really awesome, the width of the river is about 150m.  Glen's eyes light up as we approach and the kids are all very excited.  It is a very bumpy rocky ride across, then we turn around and come back.  Glen very happy to have done a "real" crossing and survived!!!








We decide to call into Emma Gorge resort on the way home to see if we can get fish and chips, at your recommendation Lyn, however, unfortunately the kitchen doesn't open until 6pm so we head back to the van after a huge day!!

 

Day 25 - Wyndham

We head towards Wyndham this morning with the plan to stop at a place called Parry Creek Lagoon Caravan Park, unhook the van and head back to have a look down the Gibb.  Well, it was a bit further than we thought and after repairing a chipped winscreen we got travelling along a beautiful stretch of bitumen road.....go figure!!!....we decide that by 10:30 it is too late to have a crack at the Gibb so we will visit Wyndham instead.  The most northern town in WA and race day, we seem to be following the races all the way and we haven't been to one yet.  My apologies to all our friends who would love to be up here during race round..sorry guys!!!

Not much to see in Wyndham I'm afraid.  We do the Five Rivers Lookout which is where the Pentecost, Ord, King, Durack and Forest rivers meet, pretty awesome.  We contemplate going to the croc farm but have been told it is a bit "tired" which was a pretty accurate description from what we could see, so we gave it a miss.  We went into the local museum which the kids just loved.  Made me feel very old seeing typewriters, telephones and old toasters I was familiar with from my childhood.  Very interesting to read about the cattle station history.  What a harsh environment the pioneers must have endured.

Anyway, on the way back we go to the Mulga Billabong which is a watering hole which has a boardwalk and shaded bird hide to allow for birdwatching.  The area is a significant breeding ground for the water birds in this area and it is a bird watchers paradise.

Back at the caravan park the kids swim in the pool.  A 3m salty has been spotted in the lagoon here and I notice a croc cage, that is obviously a permanent fixture downstream, so we try to keep the kids away from the water's edge.

Day 24 - Bungles and Cathederal Gorge

This morning we wake up at 6 am which seems to be the norm at present.  Pack lunches, fill water bottles and organise back packs for a big day.  We are a bit nervous about leaving the van at the rest area for the day and make a note to buy a tow hitch lock a the next opportunity.  The place is full of vans so surely it will be safe!!!!

The road to the Bungle Bungles is pretty rough.  We had heard that the 77km will take us 2 hours and we didn't really believe it, however, if you can imagine a gravel rally track full of holes, steep, unpredictable hills, random rocks, corrugations, water crossings and Brahmans regularly popping up on the road, then that about covers it.  Glen just loves it!!!  But it is worth the drive, the Bungles are just awesome.  It is easy to get a bit nonchalant about the display nature puts on , so we make sure we appreciate it.  We take the 3 km round trip hike to Cathedral gorge, something I've always had on my bucket list!!  What can I say, it was absolutely beautiful so we sat for ages and soaked up the scenery.  We wonder how long it has been this way and how long ago the massive rocks fell from the overhanging roof top.  We often find ourselves wondering what it would be like in the wet season.  I've attached photos but you just can't capture the whole thing in one photo, hopefully you will get the idea anyway.

 We would love to do another gorge, but it is really hot, so we decide against it.  There is so much more to see here, we never realized, until we went to the visitors centre.  We get back to the rest area by 3 pm, relieved to see the van still there, even though it is the only one, as everyone else has long gone.  We decide we might as well keep moving as there is nothing at the rest site in the heat for the kids, they are better off in the air con, so tonight we make it to Doon Doon Roadhouse.