Sep 26
Today was all about hanging out in the park and the van.
Kellie went and did a food shop at the crack of dawn, but that was just about the only useful thing she did all day. (Good thing too! There’s more than enough useful stuff going on as it is.)
Blake & Hannah got stuck into the water park first of all. I got stuck into trying to fix the van fridge, without much success. I made the mods I wanted to make, but its made no difference whatsoever to the temperature of the fridge.
Sep 25
Kel was quick off the mark when we arrived last night and booked us in for the SkyRail / Kuranda train combo before she went to bed.
We started at SkyRail at 11am and had a couple of stops along the way at the landing areas. At each of these you can get out and walk around. At the first one there was an interesting guided tour with the ranger.
Sep 24
It wasn’t supposed to be a big days drive today. We were going to travel about 370km to get to the Undara National Park. We even took our time leaving Normanton, much to Wazza’s dismay, and had a good look around the historic railway station.
Largest ever authenticated croc replica
Sep 23
We survived the bovine horror of Mary Kathleen and woke pretty darned tired with lots of light upon us … yes we’d slept in BIG TIME.
With 500km to go and nothing much to see on the way it wasn’t a real big deal.
Kel grumpily said goodbye to our friendly neighbours and we got settled on the road. There was a monument to Burke & Wills along the way, so the kids got a history lesson. Everybody settled in for the long drive.
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Sep 22
We left Banka Banka at a good time. Managed to get a little bit of a sleep in.
It wasn’t long before we were crossing the border into QLD. The very first thing we did on crossing the border was get breath tested … Welcome to Queensland!
Sep 21
Quick post cos I’m running out of batteries!
Today started out as a short day, only 300kms, but ended up being one of the biggest at 645km.
Down to Three Ways in a shocker crosswind, then down via Tennant Creek to Wycliffe Well. Then a sudden burst of enthusiasm took us back up to Three Ways and across East to Barkly Homestead.
Kel enjoying the endless drive
The day started out early with a quick packup of the van. We had to have our first stop of the day and be back at the camp by 9:30.
Mataranka Hot Springs was that first stop and it was smelly one. The area is very beautiful, but is also populated by oodles of flying foxes … hence the smell.
The area is also the site of the replica of the Elsey Homestead used for the movie ‘We of the Never Never’, that was based on the experiences of Jeannie Gunn in the early 1900’s.
Sep 19
So great to be on the road again! Being back in the van and also back touring feels almost like being home. We’re all getting very used to this travelling the countryside gig.
A couple of little errands before we left Darwin. I finally managed to find another porta potti. I also picked up a fridge fan to give the fridge a helping hand. Since arriving back in Darwin the van fridge has rarely been below 10 degrees. As I write this, its 18 🙁 The fridge is working as hard as it can, but it relies on airflow to cool it down and there is just no breeze, or its coming from the wrong way. A fan will help provide that breeze when its needed.
Definitely our last day in Darwin today. We decided to take this last day and do one of the main things we wanted to do here but just hadn’t been able to, for one reason or another. That thing was Litchfield National Park. It can be mostly done in a day, but its a big day … so we had a big day!
Up at 6 and on the road by 7. First stop was the Magnetic Termite mounds.
No photos today … we just didn’t get much time to think about cameras.
The flight back from Bali was a quick 2 and a half hour event. All very efficient and we all even managed to get a little nap, except Blake. He got a huge nap … nearly from takeoff until landing.
Immigration and customs wasn’t too bad. We had a bit of stuff to declare, but it was quickly sorted out. Lots of people getting pinged for BB guns and laser pointers.
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