Tuesday 29th May to Monday 4th June 2012. Darwin and surrounds.

We felt very blessed to find this gorgeous holiday park in Berry Springs, about 50km south of Darwin, much more reasonably priced than Darwin parks, and much prettier and more relaxed, set amongst palms and green grass with lots of space and a freshwater croc enclosure as part of it! (The kids were pretty excited)! We spent our first day relaxing, saying hi to the crocs and planning our next week.

On Wednesday, we drove into Darwin and spent the day at the museum and art gallery, bicentannial park for a picnic lunch and the WW11 Underground Oil Storage Tunnels, a hands-on school day for all of us! The museum was very good and the oil tunnels interesting, although a bit freaky! Parking is a pain in Darwin - everywhere is ticketed, so you feel like you are always chasing change and watching the clock, a bit like Melbourne city I suppose, but only the size of Toowoomba?? Bit weird! Reuben also needed follow-up dental work in Darwin today, which cost us a small fortune! A great place to live if you earn the wages to afford to live here!

On Thursday, after workbooks in the morning, we had a really nice afternoon at Berry Springs Nature Park just down the road, with a thermal waterfall and pools for swimming. We spent all afternoon there floating around on noodles and watching the stripy fish swim by, the water so clean and refreshing, and much warmer than Litchfield! Apparently home to freshies though, and the salties all get trapped and moved...well, so they tell you!?!

On Friday, we drove back to Darwin to visit a free Water Park we had visited 5 years ago with the kids, but now is even better, with 3 giant water-slides! A picnic lunch packed enabled us to stay all day, and the kids had an absolute ball! Even mummy went down a water slide once! (that was enough!) Todays free recreation made up for parking on Wednesday. It is hard to believe we are swimming in unheated waters on the 1st June, but we are!
Saturday is hot and humid, so we spent a lazy day in the shade and the pool. Saturday afternoon at this holiday park is Croc Feeding Time, for the freshy residents of the park, and the kids got to throw chicken pieces into them! They don't jump up as high as the Salties, so not too scary, but pretty exciting still. Afterwards, a Didgeridoo-making man came and showed us how to make and play a didgeridoo. Reuben had a good go at it! On Sunday, a ranger from the local Wildlife park came and talked to us about crocs, bringing along a baby salty for a look and a pat. The boys were pretty mesmorized. This afternoon, on our final day, I am sitting dangling my feet in the lovely waters of Berry Springs, as we enjoy a last relaxing swim before heading to Kakadu tomorrow. We are a bit sad again today after farwelling another family travelling for 2 years that our kids have had lots of fun with, but we may see them again somewhere. Each time this happens, we get homesick and get mixed feelings about the trip, but know we would be disappointed if we didn't keep going.

Saturday 26th to Monday 28th May 2012. Litchfield National Park.

We left our very friendly freecamp on Saturday and stopped briefly in the pretty town of Adelaide River to walk through Australia's largest war cemetery, where so many rest from the Japanese bombings in Darwin during WW2. What struck me the most was the young age of most, between 19 and 25. Very heart breaking.

Later, after taking a bit too long to reverse into our campsite, we settled in at Litchfield National Park for a few days. Our site was at Wangi Falls Campground, only a short walk to the magnificent Wangi Falls. We swam here for most of the afternoon, and although the water was freezing to jump into, it was great once in. We swam over to feel the force of the falls and swam back again. A gorgeous spot. We can actually hear the falls at our caravan!

On Sunday, we decided to head to the Cascades, and after the particularly tricky walk over rocks and creek crossings, we were treated to some beautiful scenes of cascading water over flat rocks creating many small rockpools to dip in...still cold, but gorgeous! Curtain Falls is also in this spectacular spot.

We went on after lunch to yet another swimming spot, Buley Waterhole, a place we had swum in 5 years before on a short Darwin trip, a popular spot with many cascading rockpools and waterfalls, natures spa! We spent the rest of the afternoon here playing and relaxing in the pools and falls.  On the way back to our site, we stopped at the spectacular Florence Falls, giant twin falls tumbling into a monsoon forest plunge pool below. Awesome!

On our final morning we stopped to check out the huge cathedral and magnetic termite mounds in Litchfield area! They have been getting larger as we travel further north and these are definately the largest!

The showers and lights at the campground are not so spectacular, running on solar, so you are lucky to get anything warm after 7pm! They also do a lot of controlled burning around here early in the dry season, so be prepared to be smoked out at times! We have had an awesome time here though, with amazing natural sights and experiences! We loved Litchfield! Another outstanding little bit of creations' paradise!

Friday 18th to Friday 25th May 2012. Katherine and Surrounds.

There is no such thing as 'a quick stop' at The Threeways, even if you are not getting fuel! But it did give us the opportunity to get some close up pics of the giant road trains we have been sharing the highways with! The landscape starts changing again with more trees and bushy areas and less of a view of the flat, spectacular horizon of the desert.

As you drive into Katherine though, you just automatically start feeling relaxed. I don't know what it is exactly, but its tropical, spread out and country-like, and we just felt like kickin back when we got here. We decide to book in for a week to have a break from moving and also to have time to take in all there is around Katherine. Our first stop is town and the regular Saturday markets, after settling into our van site in the spacious,shady, tree-lined Manbulloo Station about 10km from town. An afternoon picnic down on the Katherine riverbed at the back of the station is very nice, but no swimming here, as a 4mtr Salty waa trapped only 3 weeks ago downstream! Great treea to climb in though.

On Sunday, after meeting some lovely people at Katherine Baptist Community, we spend the rest of the afternoon in the Katherine Hot Springs, lovely and relaxing and very easy to while away hours!

On Tuesday, we head back down to Mataranka, a tiny town south of Katherine we had stopped for lunch in on the way up. Mataranka is the home of 'We of the Never Never, and has a replica of the homestead and characters displayed around the town. It also has the most amazing Bitter Springs and Mataranka Thermal Pools, both in Elsey National Park near the town, where we spent the whole day floating around and swimming in the beautiful warm, chrystal clear water. Very natural surrounds though, with spiders, webs and even a golden treesnake that jumped into the water with us briefly (and I jumped out!) even though it was nonvenemous apparently, so it is not for the faint-hearted. We floated all day, and probably could of been there for many more, it was just sooo beautiful.

On Wednesday, we spent the afternoon at Cutta Cutta Caves, just out of town, which were really great to see and experience. A well done tour. Nice and cool.

We decided to spend the whole of Thursday in Katherine Gorge, a spectacular place, where the Katherine river cuts its way through lava rock creating magnificent scenery. The very steep climb to the Lookout was worth the magnificent views, and we even got to spot a little Freshwater Croc sunning itself on the bank below. We picnicked with the very friendly wallabies beside Katherine River after our long hot walk.

After packing up on our final morning we have one final swim at the local hot springs before we head further north.