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.