Sat 30 Jul 2011 Batchelor to Darwin

0945 (7110 km) Packed up and left for Litchfield National Park.
1010 (7145 km) Termite Mounds. We looked at two types - Magnetic and Cathedral. The Magnetic Termites build mounds that "face" the sun and wind and as such it appears they are magnetically aligned. The Cathedral mounds look like cathedrals with fins that radiate from the centre.
1120 (7156 km) Quick look at Florence Falls.
1140 (7160 km) Quick look at Buley Rockholes.
1210 (7189 km) Lunch of Indomie at Wangi Falls. Had a good swim at the plunge pool. There were lots of fish around. Swam across to the waterfall and found there was a "spa pool" naturally carved into the rocks. Then lost the goggles. The kids put on masks and searched the bottom of the plunge pool and found it! MK dived in and retrieved it.
1445 (7189 km) Left Wangi Falls and drove towards Cascades. There was a 1.3 km walk and so we decided to give it a miss as it was too hot to walk that far.


Florence Falls



1530 (7231 km) Went back to Florence Falls for another swim. Lots of people there. Ron swam across the pool to rocks on the other side and someone started shouting. There was a snake right next to where he was sitting. Like lightning, Ron jumped off the rocks. Whew! Close call. There was a lot of fish around, fairly big too. Swam to under the falls.

1650 (7231 km) Left Florence Falls.

1730 (7277 km) Pick up camper trailer at Batchelor Resort Caravillage.

1845 (7356 km) Arrived at Howard Springs Caravan Park, just south of Darwin. Site 128 and Cabin 13. Dinner of pasta.

Fri 29 Jul 2011 Katherine to Batchelor

0945 (6825) Shopping at Katherine.
1000 (6828) Filled up.
1100 (6891) Arrived at Edith Falls, which is part of Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park. Magnificent pool. We brought in flippers, body board, wet suit and braved the cold water. Once you get in, it is fine. We hung onto the body boards and paddled to the falls (about 150m away) and back. It was great fun, highly recommended. Had lunch on the grassy banks when suddenly something slithered across the path. A black snake!  It disappeared into the grass. Later saw a yellow snake slither across the grass, near where we were sitting. Later worked out that it was a water python. Also saw the green tree ant and their habitat. The ant had a green bottom. Really green. The habitat was up in the trees and looked like a clump of leaves. They were everywhere.
1345 (6891) Left Edith Falls.
1600 (7109) Batchelor. Checked in to Batchelor Caravillage. Site 28 and Cabin 10.
1650 (7109) Played 18 hole mini golf. Saw bird feeding. Apart from the bird seeds, they were being fed porridge and cheese. BBQ dinner.

Thu 28 Jul 2011 Mataranka to Katherine

0900 (6656 km) Breakfast of toast and packed up.
0930 (6656 km) Barramundi feeding show at the place we were staying at (Territory Manor). The fish were bigger than I expected! Huge! And they ate with a "boof" sound. MJ went into the water to feed the fish. Brave boy. Fortunately he still has all his fingers.
1030 (6658 km) Filled up. Go to Katherine.
1145 (6769 km) Katherine. Site 374. Checked in and ate lunch. The others had arrived the day before in Cabin 392.
1215 (6769 km) Go to Katherine Gorge.

1245 (6797 km) Katherine Gorge. Bats! Bats hanging on the trees. Must have been thousands. Went on the two gorge cruise. There was an incredibly large rock art halfway up a cliff. Apparently, the art was painted when they were more rocks around the base. The rocks have moved and so the art is left halfway up the cliff. Katherine Canyon had 2 sheer cliffs on either side and looks magnificent. Passed some 'raining rocks'. They were part of the cliff where water seeps in form the marshy area on top and then starts dripping where it overhangs the river. Lots of people were kayaking around and swimming. Saw a baby fresh water crocodile on a log - he was quite well camouflaged. Very cute. Learnt the words "logadile" and "rockadile".

Freshwater crocodile

1530 (6797 km) Left Katherine Gorge.

1600 (6825 km) Set up camper trailer. MK did his Maths Olympiad. Kids had a swim in the cold pool. Cooked Fajitas on the BBQ and ate by the pool. How civilised.

Wed 27 Jul 2011 Tennant Creek to Mataranka

0915 (6059 km) Breakfast of toast. Left Tennant Creek. Filled up.
1200 (6315 km) Elliot.
1345 (6470 km) Daly Waters. Lunch of sandwiches and rolls. Had a look at the pub. It had collections of memorabilia such as caps, t-shirts, underwear, bras and other personal items. The collections were contributed by visitors.
1445 (6480 km) Filled up.
1630 (6650 km) Mataranka. Site 32. Quickly set up and got changed for swim.
1700 (6654 km) Bitter Springs. It was nice and warm - a constant 34 deg. The water was very clear and we went in with snorkel, goggles, flippers and surf boards. Tied our footwear to the boards and drifted down the creek. Saw fish and a long-necked turtle-just like Tickles! Walked back on the track and floated down the creek again! The water was warmer than the air.
1850 (6656 km) Dinner of spaghetti bolognaise.

Tue 26 Jul 2011 Alice Springs to Tennant Creek

0815 (5517 km) Phone call to say that our camper trailer was ready to be picked up in half an hour. Hurray!

0920 (5517 km) Quick last minute grocery shopping.
0950 (5525 km) Filled up.
1020 (5526 km) Pick up camper trailer. Like new.
1030 (5534 km) Pack up - loads to pack as we had unloaded everything from the trailer when we sent it for repairs.
1200 (5534 km) Left Alice Springs. Crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, latitude of 22.5 degrees South. This is the line where the sun is directly overhead in the Australian Summer Solstice.
1315 (5620 km) Noticed camper trailer white light cover was missing. Not going back to look for it. Took some photos at Aileron with the giant man with spear and giant woman and child.


At Devil's Marbles - how strong are we?



1700 (5951 km) Devil's Marbles. It really does look like someone huge has been playing huge marbles and just left them around. There is a nice little walk around a bunch of marbles. There was a very interesting 'marble' that had split in half. Two hemispheres. Naturally we all went between the hemispheres for photos. There were also frogs buried in the creek bed, we didn't see any. Some of the marbles seem to be balanced precariously. It looks as if all you need is a little push from a little finger and it would roll down.

1830 (6058 km) Tennant Creek. Site 27. Had dinner of leftover Shepard's Pie, sausages, puff pastry and tandoori chicken.

Mon 25 Jul 2011 Alice Springs

A favourite past time at this caravan park.

0900 (5448 km) MK had Skype session with his class 5/6G. He was told the class were going to work doing an inquiry unit on running businesses and they will be working with "Poppy Dollars" this term.

0915 (5448 km) Mum, Dad, SL and Ron left.

1130 (5448 km) Lunch of Roly Poly.

1245 (5457 km) Visited Alice Springs School of the Air (ASSOA). The classroom covers 1.3 million sq km, huge. In the past they used radio. Now, they use the Internet with satellite to connect to the outlying places. They are using a custom application where the kids and teachers can interact, written by some people in Darwin. Looks amazing - they showed a recording of a class and it showed how the teacher can change from a camera showing how to work through maths problem on a piece of paper and then changing to his face to talk to the kids. When the students enrol, they are given thousands of dollars of equipment to set up - computer, satellite dish, etc. Workbooks and library books are still sent via mail every fortnight. The children come together a few times a year to have face-to-face catch ups.

1400 (5457 km) Left School of the Air.

1430 (5465 km) Caravan park. Played pool again and cooked dinner and prepared for an evening outing.

1720 (5465 km) Left for Simpson's Gap.

1745 (5492 km) Simpson's Gap. Had dinner of fried rice while sitting at the gap looking at the rocks. As we finished dinner, the black footed rock wallabies started scampering down the rocks. As it got darker, they were right at the water's edge with us. They were just metres away. One even had a small cute joey peering out of her pouch! That was a fantastic night out. It was really good to see the wallabies up close.

1900 (5492 km) Left Simpson's Gap.

1920 (5517 km) Caravan park.

Sun 24 Jul 2011 Alice Springs



There were 5 on the branch, and then a little one flew away



0830 (5404 km) Pancake Breakfast at MacDonnell Range Holiday Park! Mmmmm. . .

1030 (5411 km) Went to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. with MK & MJ. MH went exploring with the rest. walked through Todd Mall Market.

1330 (5419 km) Went to Alice Springs Desert Park. Attended a talk by an Aboriginal ranger on how to find water in the desert. Bird show was amazing - how do they train those birds?? The park was arranged into different zones - woodland, sand dunes etc. Very informative - well signed and we also each had an audio guide. Nocturnal house had lots of snakes, lizards, nocturnal mammals, thorny devil. Kangaroos. Lots of different birds in various enclosures.

1815 (5448 km) Back at caravan park for Shepard's Pie for dinner. Kids played pool while the women cooked. Packed and sorted food and belongings as the rest was going to move on the next day while we waited for the camper trailer. Will probably meet up again in Katherine.