Litchfield, Adelaide River & Kakadu

This photo was taken especially for my sister Angie.

You gotta love those spiders girl.

This was one of the biggest I have ever seen; Jarrod

says that he thinks it is a yellow lobed spider.

Photo taken at our camp ground in Tumbling Waters;

lovely place to stay we had a lot of fun there.

Mike and kids fished, I read and relaxed.

We all enjoyed a movie under the stars complete with

home made popcorn.

Mike's first Barra at Tumbling Waters; you can understand

why he was not satisfied.

Sunset photo of where Mike caught his first Barra at Tumbling Waters.

Wangi Falls in Litchfield National Park; absolutely beautiful place, water very

clear. Only downside is that the saltwater crocs have not been cleared out

so we were not allowed to swim.

Florence Falls in Litchfield; so beautiful and clear the water simply

calls you to come in.

Photo of Mike and Claire just emerging from underneath the Florence

Falls waterfall. We all swam over there and enjoyed going behind the

waterfall. A lot of fun.

Jarrod and Claire at Florence Falls.

This picture gives you an idea of how pristine the water is.

Claire and Mike at Buley Rock pools; this is the bottom pool.

Again the water was so inviting. There were about 5 rock pools to choose from.

The top one was the best for jumping off the rocks into the water; which we

all did a number of times. Childhood was revisited with this activity [for me jetty

jumping at Redcliffe].

Jarrod jumping off into the last rock pool at Buley.

Jarrod and Claire very bravely sitting on a boat next to Godfrey the croc.

We all took a cruise on the Adelaide River to check out the local residents of Crocsville.

Here is the star of the show Godfrey; big isn't he.

This is a female croc showing how athletic she is; jumping up for her meal.

Here is another female croc; she is guarding her nest.

The open mouth posture is for cooling down her brain.

Here we are at our next campground Kakadu Lodge.

Very nice place to stay; bar and bistro located by the pool.

Kids loved pool; we all enjoyed the bistro food.

And to our delight no midges, Yeah!!!!!!

Yellow river cruise; a gentle meander around the wetlands of Kakadu.

As we are at the end of the Wet season there was abundant fauna and flora.

Plenty of bird life and of course crocodiles.

This photo speaks for itself; Kakadu Rock Art.

Meet Gavin the skipper of Kakadu Fishing Tours; the bloke responsible

for putting a huge smile on Mike and Jarrod's fishing dials.

Jarrod wetting a line and of course it wouldn't be the same

without an appearance of a crocodile.

Here they are loud and proud; The Barra Boys.

The all important measurement.

Still smiling after a hard day's fishing; nice sunset mate.

Of course a bit more Rock Art.

Now this is the saddest story of the trip besides the Midges.

This is the only time you will see Claire smiling about the plane trip over Kakadu.

Our hearts simply broke; five minutes into the trip Claire was vomiting.

The poor little darling was crying and vomiting for the one hour trip.

I too did not feel well but thankfully did not throw up; as it was my job

to hand Claire new bags and tissues to stay as clean as she could manage.

The pilot was kind and did not fly as low as he normally does.

In between nursing Claire and breathing through my own motion sickness; I did manage

to take in most of the spectacular view over Kakadu.

Jim Jim falls and Twin falls are HUGE waterfalls; absolutely spectacular.

The roads to these falls were closed so our only experince was from above.

This place is so vast; you simply can't appreciate it's magnitude from the ground.

This is an ariel view of our Kakadu Lodge; the pool is right in the centre.

I think this was Twin Falls.

A family shot on top of Ubirr; the wetlands are still quite full so

the green landscape was simply stunning.

The sun setting at Ubirr; this photo does not do it justice.

Also there was a lot of burning off today so the smoke

haze has impacted the clarity. It was lovely nonetheless.

And now for our own Rock Art; the aboriginal to the left of the

photo is called Don, he was a very gentle bloke.

The kids right in the mix; enjoying different designs and colours.

Jarrod and Claire's Rock Art.

Tomorrow we leave Kakadu Lodge; we may stay a night at the

south end of the park, not sure yet.

We are in no hurry to leave the warmer weather.

Our next port of call is Katherine.

We have really settled into the trip; my concern is how will we

return to "normal life". We will have to keep on having regular

adventures.

Love to you all!

Darwin

After a long day in the saddle; Mike enjoying a relaxing time by the pool.

We have been staying at Hidden Valley Park in Darwin; very nice but those midges are

terrible. Poor Claire is covered head to toe in midge bites; you name it we bought it.

Absolutely nothing seems to work. On our last night some ladies from Orange [who by the way also call me Dahl], suggested a 50/50 mix of baby oil and dettol. Sounds ickky but when desperate will try it.

Well to my delight and especially Claire's she has not been bitten since applying the home grown remedy. 

This is a picture of the Darwin Harbour at sunset the first night we arrived [again another

very good shot taken by Claire]. Being too tired to cook we set off for a meal by the water.

A beautiful place to sit and soak in our arrival into Darwin.

A shot of the wave pool at Darwin waterfront; we ended up spending a few days

here the kids loved it, Mum and Dad didn't mind it either.

Being in the top end it was only fitting that we spent some time with the local fauna.

After a little coaxing Jarrod decided he would like to feed the rather large salty.

It should also be noted that Claire had a go at feeding the crocodiles as well

 [good on you Claire]. It was an amazing experience for us all;

 the tour guide showed us just how dangerous it can be.

 As the guide simulated washing his hands on the surface of the water, 

from out of nowhere the huge salty jumped out of the water.

 Mike was planning to go fishing later that evening; I don't

mind admitting that I was a little bit anxious.

Claire holding a baby croc, very cute at this stage. The guide told us that while the crocs

are young they are easily spooked; also they can go off their food and starve to death.

Mike took this photo of the kids and I with my cousin Adam and his

lovely girlfriend Mercy. Thanks again guys for your warm hospitality. Adam we really appreciate you  taking time off work to give us the grand tour of Darwin; it was great.

Now that Mike's back is rested up we plan to head off Saturday Morning; first stop Litchfield National Park and then over to Kakadu.

Will post soon, Leah

Devils Marbles and Mataranka

Well along this stretch of the journey we came to Whycliff Well where apparently they spot the most UFO's in the southern Hemisphere. Everything is themed to aliens, there's only a caravan park and petrol station so don't think its a dream world or sea world because it isn't.
Fun and interesting stop along the way though.
Along this stretch we weren't sure where to stop for the night as Whycliff was wierd and Tennant Creek was not appealling. We decided to pull off the road at the 'Devils Marbles' and stay there for the night. Great decision as it was a great place to stay with dingoes, heaps of little walks (100-200m) and a fantastic little camp area which was very quiet for a huge price of $7.70 for the night.

Here's Jarrod and Claire holding the rock up, although Claire looks to be doing all the work.

There's a couple like this one that have split and look like big potatoes. How appropriate that there is two potatoe heads inside this one!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunrise at the Marbles was especially spectacular and pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The long drop toilets were not so spectacular or pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!, thought we were going to have to put a rope around Jarrod to stop him falling in!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's one of Renner Springs Roadhouse, just a short stop on the road here. We also stopped a the Daley Waters Pub yet we were keen to get to Mataranka so we 'll return there on the way back through for the night!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhh, Matarankaaaaaa, water is constantly 34deg in the springs here, very beautiful and amazingly clear water. Although due to the large wet season they have had 'Bitter Springs' ,which is the spring you float through, had a very distinct sulphur smell!!!!!!!!!!!! still beatiful and as Leah would say, the perfect temperature.

Termite mounds everywhere up here and I reckon if you fell asleep under a tree the buggers would entomb you like they have to this fence.

Another shot of us at 'Bitter Springs' just drifting along peacefully!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a twice daily events at our van park where they feed the Barramundi, there's some big buggers in there. I went for a fish that arvo down the Roper river and got diddly sqwatt!!!!! My surf mojo is starting to transform into my fishing mojo!!!!!!!!!!!!! apparently due to the recent cool weather all the Barra go off the chew and as they are so fat from the great wet season they won't eat!!!!!, typical!!!!!
I'll still try though further north.
Well due to my back 'screaming out every dam morning', we are varying our journey a little!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are now going to go straight to Darwin from here and doing what we had planned in reverse!!!!!!!!!!
I 'need' an innerspring mattress as my back is murder and everyone reckons I should 'tough'en up cupcake'. We tried to get one in Alice to no avail but its beyond a joke with very little sleep now.
So Adios and see ya in Darwin.

The arrival to Alice Springs

Well, we arrived safe and sound in Alice last Friday (after a pretty hectic week) to stay at the Big 4 park and got ourselves a treat too!!!!!!!!!!, yep really lashed out here, an ensuite site for 5 days, wahoo!!!!!
Above is the big pillow at the park, much to the kids delight and mum and dads!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a picture of Alice, (No not another name I've give Leah!!!) from Anzac Hill with the Mac ranges in the background. Alice Springs is actually a really nice place much to my surprise. It has everything you could ask for and is very similar to an area such as Woden. The locals can be a bit of a problem when on the grog (but so can we) and a little bit frightening to the kids but after a day or two everyone just blends and co-exists rather well.

 We did all the touristy things such as the Royal Flying Doctors and air school

The Big 4 van park every Sunday puts on a big pan cake cook up for everyone. It was great and on Mothers Day to boot, so I escaped breaky in bed!!!!!Well I suppose breaky in a sleeping bag really doesn't have the same appeal does it girls.

On the day I got the car serviced and did business stuff!!!$$#^&@, Terry and Kellie (Brother and Sister in-law) who have lived in Alice for about 10 years took the kids for a bike ride from one end of Town to the other with a swim in between. Kids loved it and probably saw more of Alice than Leah (insert Olga or Darl!!!) and I.

Kids outside the Alice Springs school of air. They really do a fantastic job here with many challenges.

Ahhhh, here's one that will get you googling!!!! One is the Sturts desert rose and the other is obviously the Sturts desert pea, but which one is the floral emblem for which state!!!!
They were both just starting to come out in flower when these two plants were side by side, beautiful.
Bit of my femine side showing here!!!!!!

Righto back to the blokey stuff!!!! We went out for dinner in Alice to a bar called the Bojangle Saloon bar and it was a ripper. It had croc's hanging from the ceiling, guns, knives camel heads and Ned Kelly (don't know why as his from Vic), you name it and it was probably on a wall or hanging from the ceiling. It also had very funny toilets that were quite confusing with things like seven handles to enter with but only one works, push the door and it opens the wrong way, flush a toilet and the one next to you flushes and same with the taps, very funny stuff.
Here I ordered Bo's outback mixed grill, which consisted of Buffalo and Camel steaks, a bit of Roo too as well as Vension sausage and Croc meatball and we all tried our first Crocodile spring roll.
Photo of Leah having a Croc spring roll!!!!!!!!!!! hoping there's no such thing as Karma!!!!!!
Trust me not as much as I am hoping other wise I'll probably get tripped by a Camel, run over by a Buffalo, kicked by a Roo and head butted by Bambii alls while a Croc chews my foot!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, all in all Alice is a very nice spot to restock, rest up and plan the next adventure north.