Monday 13th - Tuesday 14th August 2012 - Douglas Springs and Big Horse Creek

After a big pack up in Darwin we left mid-morning and drove south to Douglas Springs. This is close to where the Douglas and Daly rivers join up I believe. The thing that attracts everyone is the hot springs there. We set up camp and then grabbed our bathers and went down to the springs. The water was so hot - it felt like it was boiling hot on my sore mossie and sandfly bitten legs.

We found a spot up river where the hot springs met the cool river which was very nice. Whilst we were enjoying the swim Ed and Thomas went for a walk with their fishing rods to try their luck further down the river. The girls and I met a lovely family from the Netherlands who were spending time holidaying in Australia. Marieke and Peter and their beautiful girls Kim and Joyce were great fun. The girls all enjoyed time playing together.

Tuesday 14th August - My birthday (44 today!)

I enjoyed a lovely lie in and a beautiful card which Ed and the kids had written in (even Thomas!). They gave me a beautiful red necklace. and sang me happy birthday.
Kim, Joyce and their mum Marieke gave me a card and sang me happy birthday in Dutch and Polish.
That was so nice. Ed cooked me breakie and then we packed up before e it got too hot. We then enjoyed a quick swim in the springs before hitting the road again for Katherine. We had lunch in Katherine and bought a few supplies (a chocolate birthday cake!) and headed for the Big Horse campground in the Gregory National Park. The park is meant to have some great 4WD tracks and also some good fishing so we planned to spend Wednesday exploring.
Unfortunately, 10km from our campsite (and 3km out of a small town called Timber Creek) our clutch in there car had other ideas and decided to die. Not a great end to my birthday! We managed to limp back into town to the Police Station where a local 'bush mechanic' looked at it and advised us where to camp for the nigh and to just get into Kununurra the next day. Ed got the car in gear somehow and we got to the campsite and set up near the road leading down to the water in case we had to jump start the car.
Our Dutch friends joined us for dinner, birthday cake and damper that night. Both Kim & Joyce hadn't had damper before so we got a campfire going and Ed cooked one up for us all.
It was fun having them join us for dinner and the kids enjoyed playing together. We plan to keep in touch as they love Australia and have visited many times.

My birthday cake!

Friday 10th August - Sunday 12th August 2012 - Darwin

After a big day yesterday in Litchfield yesterday the kids crashed into bed. Unfortunately 'Exercise Pitch Black' is on at the moment. RAAF and pilots from Singapore, Indonesia and the USA are doing day and night flying exercises and the caravan park is close to the airport. Those jet fighters are so loud taking off and landing!
Today was spent doing school work and journals. After lunch we went to one of the free water parks in Darwin. The girls had a ball going on the 3 different water slides. Thomas went once and then decided to play in the pool and water park with Ed. They all had a great time and it was good to cool off.
Saturday was a day of exploring.

The first stop was the old WW2 Oil Storage Tunnels close to the harbour. They were designed to protect oil stores during the bombing attacks on Darwin by the Japanese during the war. Of the 11 tunnels designed only 5 were built. They did not get successfully used as water kept leaking into the tunnels.
Our next stop was the wonderful Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. We had a wonderful time exploring the history of the Territory from the indigenous stories through to Cyclone Tracey and the amazing natural beauty all around. And we couldn't miss the fishing gallery! The biggest item on display was a huge croc called 'Sweetheart.' Apparently Sweetheart was harassing the locals in a particular river so they decided to catch him (yes Sweetheart was a boy!) and put hime in a croc farm. Unfortunately he drowned after they had caught him and before they could transfer him so they stuffed him and put him in the museum. We don't have any photos as they don't like photos taken of anything in the museum.
After a late lunch we returned to camp. Thomas wanted a quiet afternoon back at camp with mummy so Ed took the girls to the RAAF open day. The girls had a ball there and came back with posters and stickers.
Ed had the offer of a spot on the boat so it was early start to drop him off to Tony & Wendy's house and then the kids and I relaxed for a while before going to visit a cousin of mine. Jan lived not far from where we were staying. She is Dad's first cousin and it was great to have a catchup for a few hours. The kids and I had lunch on the road before going to Crocosaurus Cove. We had a ball seeing all the large crocs in there enclosures. They had names like Harry, Chopper, Burt (apparently famous in the Croc Dundee movies) and a loved up pair whom they have nicknamed Wills & Kate!

Harry the Croc

They also had a pool full of freshwater crocs which we got to feed and the kiss and I also got to hold a croc!

The freshwater crocs jumping for food. We all had a turn later on feeding them with meat on the end of a fishing rod.

Unfortunately Charlotte closed her eyes but she loved holding the baby croc!

Thomas was so cool and calm when he held the croc.

Olivia was so excited to hold a croc.

I couldn't miss out on all the fun!

We had a great afternoon exploring all things croc and also enjoying the reptile displays.

After picking up Ed from fishing we decided that we couldn't miss out on seeing the famous Mindil Beach Sunset Markets so off we went. We enjoyed the atmosphere of the music and food at the markets and had a yummy dinner sitting on the beach enjoying our dinner as the sun set over the water. A lovely finish to a great day in Darwin.

Tuesday 7th August - Thursday 9th August 2012

We decided that as an offer of fishing out of Darwin on a weekend maybe on offer we would come down to Litchfield National Park just south of Darwin. After doing a few jobs we didn't get down to Litchfield until nearly 3pm. Little did we know that all the camp grounds fill up around lunchtime. So instead of starting to look around we tried nearly all the spots until we found the last spot down a 4WD track to Tjaynera Falls (Sandy Creek). This involved a water crossing which was amusing as someone told us a 2wd could get down the track!
We also stopped at the Termite Mounds. One of them called 'The Cathedral' was around 50 years old.

The next day we chilled out at the campsite and did some school work before walking into the falls after lunch. It was another rocky walk but we were rewarded with a refreshing swim to cool off (actually the water was really cold!)

After getting back to camp we went for a drive to the ruins of Blyth Homestead. The Sargent Family (Mum, Dad & 14 kids) lived at a station about 50km away but the kids all worked in the tin mine behind the secondary homestead (Blyth). Our kids don't know they are alive - each child had to start working on the station from the age of 9 years old and they were not paid for all their hard work!

Thomas in front of the tin mine at the rear of the Blyth Homestead

Charlotte in front of the homestead - people were not tall back then. I had to bob down quite a bit to get through the front door!

We then took a drive down towards the Reynolds River before returning back to camp.

Ed and the kids checking out the water depth

We packed up early and decided to see everything that we missed on the way into the park.
The first stop was the beautiful Florence Falls (our breakie stop). They were quite spectacular from the look out. As it was till early we decided not to walk down to the falls as the sun was nowhere near warm enough to warm up the water for a swim.

Next stop was the Buley rockhole. I wished that a camp spot had been available here. It was beautiful and we enjoyed a swim here. I could have stayed all day!

After our swim we drove to the Lost City. It is a series of limestone rock formations in all sorts of interesting shapes.

The Lost City

We then drove to Tolmer falls Lookout. It was a lovely long drop falls that would look wonderful in the wet season.

Our next stop was Wangi Falls. We jumped in for another swim. It was a lovely swim. The waterfalls were warm to touch and there were pockets of warm water in the lake. (and no it wasn't from someone doing a wee!) It was past lunchtime so we drove onto Walker creek for lunch and the kids had another swim. We drove on back into Darwin after a great day in Litchfield.

Wangi Falls

The water coming off this side of Wangi Falls was lovely and warm.

Monday 6th August 2012 - Darwin

We were in need of some fresh food, clean clothes and showers so we drove into Darwin. We stopped into a caravan park and whilst the kids and Ed had a swim I did a mountain of washing. (Unfortunately the clothes still looked dirty but they didn't too smell bad?!?!?!) It was so nice to have a hot shower and a hair wash!
We had an early night as the plan is to go down to Litchfield National Park tomorrow.

saturday 4th - Sunday 5th August 2012 - Shady Camp

We said goodbye to Kakadu and drove out to Shady Camp which is closer to Darwin. We stayed for 2 nights. The fishing was not successful and the mosses were bad at night, but it was ok. We caught up on school work and the sunsets were nice.

Saturday 28th - Saturday 4th August 2012 - Kakadu

We woke up to another beautiful day in NT. The sunrise was gorgeous!
Whilst Thomas and Max played lego the girls caught up on their journals and did some school work in the morning.
We then started exploring around the Gunlom (Waterfall Creek) campsite. The first stop was the very pretty plunge pool at the base of the waterfall. This pool was made famous in the movie Crocodile  Dundee. The scene where Linda K was bending over in her bathers to cool off near the water and the croc grabs her camera bag strap - it was shot in this very spot and helped to make Kakadu famous around the world.
It was actually a very cool pool - I only managed to stand in it and couldn't bring myself to get fully submerged. The kids as usual don't seem to feel the cold and jumped right in. It is home to a couple of fresh water crocs but we never saw them.

After our refreshing swim we had lunch and and then walked the 2km steep and rocky path up to the top of the waterfall. We were rewarded with fantastic views of Kakadu as well as a refreshing swim in the rock pools. The water coming down into the pools at the top was warm. It was sensational.

The rocky hills and cliffs are so beautiful with some amazing red, black, orange and yellow colours.

As we warmed up again on the way back down we jumped back into the pool st the bottom to cool down. What a nice way to spend an afternoon. We had a relaxing evening under a beautiful canopy of stars 

We packed up the next morning and headed further into the park. We stopped off at a lookout to get another view of the park. Unfortunately they had been burning so the smoke haze  prevented us from getting a better view.

Our next stop was Barramundi Falls (Maguk) which involved a walk across rocks following a creek to get to a lovely pool at the end with a waterfall which I am sure would be even more beautiful in the wet. Loads of people again were swimming however again the croc cage put both Ed and I off and we decided that it wasn't the best place to jump in.

We them moved onto Yellow water /Cooinda and did some washing and got fuel and water before going to Mardugal to camp. There was a boat ramp and a billabong so Ed was itching to get his fishing rod out and try his luck. Thomas went with him whilst the girls and I kicked back at the campsite.

The next morning before breakie Ed and the girls went for a fish and they were rewarded when Ed caught a nice size Saratoga (60cm). We packed up and headed out to Garnamarr to camp. We dropped off the trailer and we went on the 4WD track out to Jim Jim Falls. We had a quick lunch and them with our bathers on went for the walk out to the falls. It was a 2km walk over large boulders and past a monsoon forest. When we got there to see a plunge pool surrounded by spectacular 150m high cliffs. The waterfall was still going an it was lovely. The water was cool, but after the walk it was a sweet treat to cool down.

This photo of the kids swimming - it looks better than the photo shows!

After scrambling back over the rocks we made our way further down the road and over a river crossing to Twin Falls. After a short walk we were met by some guys who operate the boat. It was a short boat ride upriver before we again climbed over rocks to see the beautiful Twin Falls. It was well worth it. Along the way our guide (a very shy Aboriginal man) pointed out a water monitor and a fresh water croc. Close to the falls was a huge croc trap with part of a pig carcass in it incase a salty was around!

Twin Falls from a distance....

and up close!

The kids went to bed very tired after a busy day. After they had gone to bed Ed and I baked the fish whole and had a lovely dinner under the stars - Nice!

After packing up we drove up to Jabiru and then up to the Merl campground near Ubirr which is close to the border of Arnhemland.

Along the way we stopped in at Nourlangie to see some great rock art. The owner have to try and protect the art as much as they can (especially from the weather & visitors!) so in some places there are beads of silicon above the art to protect it from the rain. 

I think this was lightening man.

Rocky cliffs near Norlangie

We also stopped at both the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre and the Bowali Visitor Centre. Both had very informative displays about aboriginal culture in Kakadu anmd added well to our experiences so far in the park. I just love the amazing rocky cliffs that are all through the park. They just look amazing. At Bowali there was a lovely wetlands area that you could walk around as they had built a long boardwalk through it for visitors to enjoy another facet of the park.

After a brief stop for some food supplies in Jabiru we drove up to the Merl Campground where we camped for 3 nights. The mosses/sandflies we pretty bad in the evening and Charlotte and I were the two most affected. Ed went fishing several times at Cahills Crossing which is a road that goes over to Arnhemland. You can hear the water rushing over the rocks and the road until the tide comes in and then it goes quiet. Thats when the crocs can cross the road to the other side if they want to. I couldn't understand some of the mad fisherman that I saw there standing in the middle of the road fishing!

Ed was rewarded for his efforts with 2 nice barra (55cm & 61cm) which have been mighty fine to eat. At any one time we saw between 4-7 crocs in the water.

A croc crossing the water at Cahill's Crossing

A croc enjoying it's in the sun before the tide came in

Close to Cahill's Crossing is Ubirr where there is loads of amazing rock art and great viewing points on the rocks to enjoy the beautiful sunsets over Kakadu.

Goodbye Kakadu 

Saturday 28th July 2012 - Katherine Gorge - Kakadu

We started the day with a walk up to the gorge lookout. We didn't make it to the waterfall section as the kids didn't want to do another walk. The view was great of the huge Katherine River and of the gorge walls.

We left around lunchtime and drove north towards Kakadu. On the way we drove into Edith Falls (a recommendation from our friend Nicole). It was a lovely spot. I imagine that it would look really spectacular in the wet with loads of water. The kids had a quick swim before we headed into Kakadu.

We drove onto Kakadu. At the Mary River Roadhouse we bought our passes for the park and then decided to make our way to the Gunlom Campsite near the South Alligator River after a talk with the very helpful woman at the information desk. We met some nice people around the campfire that night - Wendy, Tony and Alex from Darwin and Sue, Axle and Max from Canberra. Max was the same age as Thomas so they had fun playing together - especially with the lego!