Sat 6 Aug 2011 Kununurra to El Questro

0745 (8747 km) Left. Had breakfast in the car as we wanted to get to El Questro Wilderness Park early to get a private campsite. Lots of dirt road and corrugated roads. Our teeth were chattering, our whole body tingly and numb from the bouncing in the car. The car's information display screen went off - died, kaput!
1000 (8853 km) Finally, after a river crossing of about 50 cm, we got to El Questro Station. Really nicely set up. Checked in and chose a private campsite 8km away along a 4WD track.


Zebedee Springs



1045 (8860 km) Zebedee Springs. It is magical. Really nice warm clear spring water flowing down the rocks. At one point, we could see the water coming out of the ground between the roots of the Livistonia Palms, as if out of nowhere - it was bizarre. Could have stayed there all day. Unfortunately, they actually close the springs to public at 1200. Oh well, we had our turn.

1200 (8860 km) Left Zebedee Springs.

1300 (8876 km) Went to our private campsite called Kite. It was on the other side of the Pentecost River. So we had to do more river crossings, up and down hill, sand driving. Good thing we had a 4WD. Set up campsite, which was right next to the river. It felt like we were the only people in the world. Tried some fishing but didn't catch anything.

1615 (8876 km) Went to the station.
1645 (8886 km) El Questro Station. Checked out the swimming area but it was cold. Cooked pasta carbonara and had showers.
1845 (8886 km) Drove back to campsite in the dark.
1910 (8895 km) Got back to campsite and played cards and then went to sleep. The only people in the world.

Fri 5 Aug 2011 Kununurra

0830 (8505 km) Breakfast of toast. Because of the change to Western Australia time zone, the sun rises at about 5.30 am and it starts getting hot by 9 am.
0930 (8509 km) Went to Mirama National Park, which is just on the outskirts of Kununurra. It is also known as the "Mini Bungles Bungles". Had lots of domes with layers. Went on a short walk up to the top and it overlooked the surrounding area.
1000 (8513 km) Visitor centre and shopping.
1100 (8516 km) Lunch of baked beans, bacon and spaghetti. Went for a quick swim in the pool to cool down.
1330 (8516 km) Left for Wyndham.
1345 (8522 km) Filled up and picked up census forms.

At the 5 rivers lookout

1530 (8633 km) Wyndham. Went up to the Five Rivers Lookout. Saw the rivers King, Pentecost, Durack, Forrest and Ord all joining up. Awesome sight. It was really wide. There seems to be a lot of industrial work and mining around Wyndham.
1615 (8637 km) Strange statues of "Dreaming" of an aboriginal family with some animals like kangaroo. There were a number of aboriginals hanging around the area. The children appeared to be "attending" class being taught by some elders. Some women were carving boab nuts. One of them came up to us and offered a carved nut to us. We had a look and bought a nice black carved boab nut from them. It was interesting that they had a box of XXXX beer and everyone there was just helping themselves. Then we went to see the largest boab tree in captivity. It was huge. Really huge. And there was a donkey just hanging around the area.
1630 (8638 km) Large crocodile statue. Had a sign that said don't climb.
1715 (8676 km) The Grotto. Had 140 steep and narrow steps down to a water hole that had lots of birds. Smelt of bird droppings. There was a rope over the waterhole. We could imagine in the hotter weather there would be lots of people there jumping into the water.



The Grotto - see the steep steps going down to the waterhole at the bottom? They're scary!



1810 (8747 km) Caravan park. Had dinner of kebabs and rice.



Thu 4 Aug 2011 Katherine to Kununurra

0900 (7980 km) Breakfast of toast. Left Katherine.
1230 (8267 km) Timber Creek. Lunch of sandwiches.
1330 (8267 km) From here on, we started seeing Boab trees! They are the "upside down" trees or "opera singer" trees. Very strange looking trees. It has a large branchless trunk and leafless branches up the top. Some of the larger ones had "graffiti" where people had carved names, etc. on it.
1415 (8455 km) Quarantine check. Crossing into Western Australia. Change time as well, add another 1.5 hours.
1500 (8501 km) Kununurra. Ivanhoe Village Caravan Park. Site 111. Lovely caravan park with nice swimming pool.
1630 (8501 km) Visitor centre. Lots of information and very busy.
1700 (8505 km) Back at caravan park and had dinner of mushroom pork noodles.

Wed 3 Aug 2011 Darwin to Katherine

0930 (7643 km) Breakfast of toast. Left Darwin.
1330 (7953 km) Arrive at Katherine Low Level Caravan Park. Site 26. Lunch of sandwiches.
1430 (7968 km) Went to Top Didj Aboriginal Cultural Experience. It had been recommended by friends. Manuel told us about some aboriginal stories and his background. The we split up - some did dot painting (desert Aborigines) with Adrianna and others did raark painting (Arnhem Land style) by Manuel. Then Manuel told us that we were honorary members of his Dalabon tribe. Also tried our hand at fire lighting with sticks and spear throwing. MK killed the kangaroo. CK got its leg. Fed some rescue wallabies, Oliver and Honey. Had a great time - highly recommend the place.

MH throwing the hunting spear



Feeding Honey, the abandoned Agile Wallaby

1815 (7974 km) Filled up. Shopping



1830 (7980 km) Caravan Park. BBQ sausages and steak. The tricky thing about the BBQ was that it said to turn on at gas bottle. However, the gas bottle was nowhere to be found. It was actually on the other side of the shelter under a shelf between two bins!



Tue 2 Aug 2011 Darwin

0930 (7568 km) Cooked pancakes on BBQ for breakfast. Kids did some homework - catch up with blogs and journal. Always behind, also need to do other school work and Chinese lessons but no time today. Bring down annex. Lunch of rice porridge.
1430 (7598 km) Shopping at Casuarina Shopping Centre for bathers and crocs - the kids' things are wearing out already!
1700 (7612 km) Walked on the Esplanade.
1730 (7614 km) Walked on Mitchell St and Smith St. Dinner at Vietnamese Restaurant.
2050 (7614 km) Say bye to the other 4 as they were catching flights back to respective homes.
2100 (7635 km) Filled up.
2130 (7643 km) Back at caravan park.

Mon 1 Aug 2011 Darwin

0945 (7447 km) Left for the Jumping Crocodile Cruise.
1045 (7501 km) After some gravel roads with funny signs like "Rental vehicles welcome", "Don't rush, we can see your dust", we got to a run down shack and jetty. There were a few cruises to choose from - we decided to go with the small 30 people boat operator (not the double decker touristy boat), so that we could get real close to the crocs! We all got into this tin boat. Even before we left the jetty, the huge "Dominator" had come up to the boat. It was huge! And the tour operator got it to jump out of the water! We also saw the 3 legged huge "Brutus" as was in the newspaper. He also showed us some smaller female crocodiles. We also got to see a nest with eggs. It was amazing - all that in an hour!


We were so close, we could practically touch it!



1230 (7501 km) Left Adelaide River.

1300 (7522 km) Went to Window to the Wetlands. Had lunch of sandwiches and pasta. Amazing visitor centre in the middle of nowhere.
1545 (7559 km) Shopping.
1615 (7567 km) Caravan Park. Swimming. Wash cars. Dinner of honey chicken, rice, pea and ham soup.

Sun 31 Jul 2011 Darwin

1115 (7356 km) Left for the city. As it was Sunday, there were a lot of markets around, so we had decided to do the rounds of mot of them.
1200 (7392 km) Rapid Creek Market- lots of stalls including food stalls! Lunch of a mix of Asian foods. We bought a large jackfruit and pomelos. Then went to Nightcliff market. MJ and MH bought some crystals. We bought some star apples which look like a large mangosteen but the flesh is milder in taste and very refreshing.
1430 (7402 km) Arrived at Leanyer Water Park. Fabulous for water fun! Pool, water slides, water activities. And all for free!


CK and MH on the raft water slide

1715 (7417 km) Mindil Beach Sunset Market. So busy. Lots of food, stalls, people. Dinner of fish and chips. Then snow cones! Beautiful sun set. Lots of people were organised -  brought chairs etc and had dinner by the beach/lawn areas! Not much spare space. Could be that it was a public holiday the next day.

Eating rainbow snowcones with Yeh Yeh and Mar Mar

2000 (7417 km) Left Mindil Market.

2030 (7438 km) Filled up.
2100 (7447 km) Caravan park.