Darwin to Litchfield NP

Onto Darwin....I'm not going to recommend the the caravan park that we stayed in at Lee Point....they charge too much and I'd rather have a wash in a bucket than use their showers :(  enough said...Daz got 2 new tyres for the truck and we bought a new camera lense that zooms from 18 - 270 so we don't have to change lenses every 5 minutes now.

Next day we hired a boat and went fishing in the harbour...no fish but we came home with a beautiful muddie and some blue swimmers which we had for dinner that night yummmmm. Tip for young players....don't let your crab traps out of sight....I left a beautiful big Jennie in a trap to attract a buck....two hours later she had been swiped :-(
We headed out of Darwin and towards Litchfield NP where we hooked up with the Summers Family again. We checked out the magnitic termite mounds (weird how they only occur in 1 paddock) and then set up camp at Florence Falls for 2 nights in some pretty good camp grounds. About 400m and 135 steep steps from the campsite is the falls dropping into a lovely plunge pool which was teaming with European backpackers and sooty grunters.
A short drive away we visited te Lost City (not quite as good as the Southern Lost City at Limmen NP)....but worth a look. The kids loved climbing the rocks and exploring the little caves and archways. Then we moved on to Tolmer falls lookout ( also very good to look at). Onto Wangi falls....this is 2 spectacular waterfalls flowing into a large plunge pool. National Parks have made a lovely path and park next to the plunge pool so the grey nomads can hobble right to the edge of the pool and use the very civilised steps and handrail to ease their frail old bodies into the water:-)  OK so it's it's a bit touristised but still good for a swim. If you're not too old and frail you can put your goggles on and swim to the waterfalls on the far side. You can swim beneath the falls and get smashed by the water....that was definately a bit of fun!
We checked out the Bamboo Creek tin mine (no longer operational) and picked up heaps of shiny bits of what we thought at the time was tin. It was here that we decided to take some 'tin' back to camp and try to melt it into an arrow head to make a spear - what a cool idea!! (Commence Nat carving an arrow head mould with her pocket knife in a lump of wood while sitting in the car)
Next stop...Cascades for a swim....this track starts out pretty good but becomes a leech, golden orb, and mozzie infested nightmare near the end where you need to put your thongs into low range to make it to the underwhelming swimming hole....verdict....nah give it a miss.
Back at camp we put on best Bear Grillis impersonations and  got out the Bunsen burner and tried to melt our 'tin'...but it seems the pretty shiny stuff was actually mica and doesn't melt. Not to be beaten we melted some lead sinkers and poured it into the arrow head mould. It made a rudimetry arrow head that was unsharpen-able....and the kids had a great time messing around with the spear (no animals or people were harmed!!)
With Litchfield conqured we're heading back down the road to Katherine where we'll be heading for Gregory NP to hook up with the our Friends, the Nuske Nomads!

Katherine Gorge to Kakadu

Next stop....Kakadu! At the information centre we found out that Jim Jim falls is shut (roads are still under water from the wet season). Not to worry...we camped at Gunlom Falls (formerly UDP falls) in a campsite that had views of the falls. You could listen to the roar of them as you lay in bed which made a nice change from the roar of the air conditioners of the grey nomads' monster caravans at Nitmiluk...(as a side note the grey nomads are EVERYWHERE....their reign of numbers is closely threatened only by european backpackers in hire vans. At least the European Backpackers are nice to look at....I'm still trying to work out what the grey nomads are good for. I'd guess that you'd be pushing your luck to find 10% of Aussies less than 50 years old out here).
At Gunlom we bumped into a family who we'd seen at Mataranka and discovered that we're all headed in the same direction so we've buddied up and spend a bit of time together. That afternoon we climbed the steep rocky path to the top of the falls and had a swim in some beautiful rock pools on top. It was great! Upon returning to camp we found a couple of old blokes camped near us, so with the Summers Family and the two old blokes we had a decent campfire party that night!
Next morning we headed to Jabiru and just had a pretty quiet day. We booked ourselves on a boat ride around Yellow Water Hole. Again, dispite the price the cruise was really good. Heaps of Salties and bird life to see including Rainbow Bee Eaters, Jacanas (with tiny babies) Whistling Ducks, Magpie Geese and lots more. What was especially interesting were the stories and insights we got into the aboriginal culture of the area...really great to see a healthy and thrivinig aboriginal culture that are holding onto the best of their traditions.
After the boat ride we did a few bushwalks around Nouriangie Rock. The rock formations are breathtaking around here and there is heaps of beautiful aboriginal rock art...this art is the top notch stuff you see in the postcards and certainly worth the walk. Jess and Matilda loved picking out the pictures of Barramundi, turtles and kangaroos, as well as the stories about the Rainbow Serpent, Lighting Man, and the Nowinji Sisters. Jess in particular has been drawing her own aboriginal inspired artworks.
Next day we headed towards Darwin. We detoured to do the walk around Ubirr. Again there is some great aboriginal rock art here and a lookout that is beautiful....you may recognise this from the first Crocodile Dundee movie....

Mataranka to Katherine Gorge

After a couple of days at Mataranka we hit the road once more and headed to Katherine via cutta cutta caves (pretty good) to check out Katherine Gorge. These days Katherine George is owned by the aboriginals and leased back to the National Parks and it operates under the name "Nitmiluk". There are many gorges along the one river but you can't just cruise up them in your tinnie because after the first gorge you have to get out and walk past the rapids to get to the next gorge. You can pay through the nose to hire a canoe but this wasn't an option for us as it was too early in the wet season and the National Parks were still working to make sure there were no Salties in the river.
Thankfully the Nitmuluk camping grounds had a great swimming pool to cool off in after a bushwalk and this kept the kids going. Since the National Parks have the area pretty well rapped up we caved in and booked ourselves on a breakfast cruise up the first 2 gorges. If you ignore the $250 odd dollars it costed for 2 hours Inc breakfast (Matilda was free cos she's only 4) the scenery and the food was great.
While Katherine is a pretty big town and good to restock, we had a bit of a let down when the Tyre people we had ordered the new tyres from didn't get them in time...so we said farewell to Katherine and decided to fix the tyre problem in Darwin (we still have a spare Tyre and 2 spares for the trailer that will fit on the truck in a pinch anyway....she'll be right!)

Mt Isa to Mataranka

Here we are at Mataranka in the Northern Territory and we finally have found some mobile phone coverage (Telstra only). There's a fair bit to tell since we left Isa....
We made it from Mt Isa to Lawn Hill comfortably in a day and found paradise at Adels Grove about 10km from the national park. Adels Grove used to be a botanical gardens until someone burned it down, but the unpowered camping area is like camping in the Garden of Eden. While the world out side is a sweltering shadeless scrub, Adels is a cool shady haven with the Lawn Hill creek running through it. There is a great swimming hole which is safe for the kids just a short walk from the camp ground as well as good facilities such as showers, shop etc.
We stayed at Adels for 3 nights and took the kids for some bushwalks and canoeing and swimming up the Lawn Hill Gorge....which was spectular!
After heading out of Lawn Hill we headed north up the Great Top Road (part of the Savana Way). This road had only recently opened after some rain and it put Nat through a few 4wd moves. It was OK (fun even!) as long as we took it easy and by the time we pulled into Hells Gate roadhouse to refuel Daz had the sads cost he'd missed out on the best 4wd bits!
Not to worry...Daz was to get his bit of driving excitement at the Calvert River crossing on the NT side of the boarder. A bloke at Hells Gate had told us that therem was a nice camping area on the eastern side if the river, so we decided to make for that for the evening. With Daz at the wheel we found the track to the camp ground and went down it...as a cliff appeared on our left and a 12 foot drop to our right Nat said "I hope this track doesn't turn to shit or we're gunna have some fun getting out of here"....around the next corner the track turned to shit...
So with Nat doing her best Jungle Jim impersonation in weeds up to her chin "Back! Back! No! Stop! You're gunna jackknife! One more inch! Uhhhh I can't watch!" And Daz doing his best Russel Coight "It's right we can make it" he somehow manage to execute a 36 point turn and get us out of there (hats off to Daz!)....I can say that neither of us want to ever see the trailer on that angle again!
We did find a camp spot next to the Calvert River that night....but it was in the western side after crossing the river.
The next day we continued along the Savana way and made it to Lorella Springs. This is a million acre property that runs cattle and stretches right to the Gulf of Capentaria (it takes about 3 hrs to drive to the gulf from the main camping ground and you've got some decent 4wding to get there). Along this road to the gulf is the Rosie River (beautiful big river) and a camp site next to the Rosie for the keen fisherman....but be warned...get a lure through your finger out there and it's a long way to the doc....I tried but didn't quite have the dedication to push the lure in past the barb - so no need to panic this time. We tried our luck for a few hours on the edge of the Rosie and had a few serious hits from baracuda and queenies but we didn't manage to land anything :-(
As indicated by the name Lorella Springs also has plenty of springs...some hot some cold. There is a warm spring in the middle of the camp ground and several others that are a short drive away. If you visit any of these inland springs, take you snorkling gear because it is really spectacular below the water in some places. Also if you're prepared to do a bit of rock hopping there is an awesome water slide down a granite rock face into a pool. Sounds painful...in reality it's not at all and even the grownups were giggling and squealing like little girls.
All in all we spent 4 nights at Lorella Springs and it's on our list of somewhere we'd like to go back to again for a bit longer and with a boat to fish the Rosie. Matilda had her fifth birthday there as well....Nats first ever camp oven packet chocolate cake was OK....after we cracked the layer of charcole off the outside :-)
So the next stretch was from Lorella Springs to Mataranka (still on the Savana Way). Along the way we stopped to take a look at the Southern Lost City (part of Limen Nat Park)....this is totally spectacular...put it on your bucket list!
Continuing on, after dodging some crazy tourists who were swimming in a 3 foot deep, 6 foot diameter pot hole caused by a spring IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD near the roper river (not exagerating) we refuled at Roper bar and got onto some much welcomed tarmac to get to Mataranka....and wouldn't you know it? 1km from the caravan park one of the truck tyres shreds itself...no probs...change the Tyre and book in to the caravan park. Thankfully after a long day, the pub at the caravan park had dinner and live music....and Jess and Matilda won the prize for grooviest dancing :-) .
Today we headed off to Bitter Springs (a few km down the road). Again take the snorkling gear...this place is spectacular under the water...Spec...tac...u...lar!!
Tomorrow we're off to Katherine for a few days to check out Katherine Gorge and pick up a new tyre for the truck...

Mt Isa

We arrived at Mt Isa yesterday afternoon and have decided to have a day of rest here to catch up on washing and restock the food and water before heading on. Apart from the rain on the first night we have had a dream run. The patrol  and camper have now been hauled over about 600km of dirt and there have been no problems at all.

After our first rainy night at Warra we made it to Augethella for night 2. We decided that we wanted to take  the kids to see  the dinosaur stampeed footprints at Larks Quarry so we took some back roads and stayed at a little town called Stonehenge for night 3. Stonehenge boasts a shitload of galahs and some really friendly locals. Burger night at the pub meant that we got to meet the newly elected local member as well as the newly rejected candidate (bet that doesn't happen too often in the `burbs) as well as a few other locals.

One of the kids at the local school offered to show us their school the next morning, so at 830 next day Jess and Matilda got a tour of a school that currently has 6 students. You'd be surprised at how good the facilities are.

After saying our goodbyes we continued on via "the back way" to Larks Quarry. On the way we saw Wedge Tail Eagles, a shield snake and clipped an Emu! (no permanent damage to the emu or the patrol luckily).

At Larks Quarry we did the tourist thing and had a squiz at the dino footprints which are really quite amazing. Daz took the "tourist thing" to a whole new level by dropping the lense cap of the camera over the edge of the walking platform onto the footprints just after Bill the tour guide finished telling us how fragile they are! :-( To get the lense cap back we had to lower Jessica in bare feet over the edge to fetch it....so now she can say she has walked in dinosaur steps....and that her father is an eco-vandal!

Some travellers gave us a hot tip about Bladensburg National Park, so we took thier advice and camped the night there. The camp area was lovely and shady next to a creek.....and wonderfully quiet.

Next day was on to Winton where we were sure to get the mandatory photos of Matilda in front of the Banjo Patterson monument, and then onto Cloncurry and Isa. The road from Cloncurry to Isa is really scenic with beautiful mountain ranges and the surprising thing about Mt Isa is that the mine (assuming you already know it's a mining town is right at the end of the main street and it is the focal point if the town in every way. About 75% of the people you see here are wearing fluro work shirts and you can tell the shift change times by the traffic heading to and from the caravan park we're staying in.

Anyway that's about it for now. We're fully stocked again now and ready to head to Lawn Hill National Park tomorrow. See you next time we get mobile coverage.