Kakadu- Part 2

Twin Falls

Our day trip to Twin Falls was an adventure. It is a 4WD track that has a river crossing. Our very first river crossing! The Prado did great- no dramas. It was 1 hour on a dirt road, then another hour on a single  track 4WD road, then a short boat ride through the gorge, followed by a rock scramble before eventually arriving at a very beautiful waterfall and waterhole. It reminded me a bit of the movie ‘The Beach’ in that it seemed like a hidden treasure that was hard to get to and not many people experience . We stayed for a while before heading back and doing it all in reverse. It was a really hot day and the only downside of the place is that you can’t swim there.

 

Here we go!

 

no turning back now

 

Can't see any crocs which is always good ;)

 

That was fun!

 

Greeted by another gorgeous gorge



a bit of a rock scramble

 

Twin Falls

 

Precious Caitlin

 

Us!

Well that was part 2 of Kakadu. There is still one more instalment. Will post again soon.

Kakadu- Part One

When planning this trip, I was trying  to work out where to go and what to see. To be honest, the photos of Kakadu didn’t really grab me. Distances between sites seemed large and I wasn’t really sure if it was the place for us- the whole Kakadu or Kaka-don't thing. But being a World Heritage Area and one of the most well known National Parks I thought it would be silly to come all the way to NT and not go there- well thank goodness we made that choice as it’s been one of the highlights of our trip so far. It is a spectacular place with a  lot of history and ancient culture and the scenery is amazing. We had planned to stay at one of the many National Park campgrounds but most of them are a long way from the highway and also alcohol free. No big deal usually but at 37 C degrees we really felt like a cold beer at the end of the day! Also, there is no swimming in most waterholes so we thought somewhere with a pool would be essential. So we stayed at Gagadju Lodge Cooinda which was a great place to camp. Large shaded sites, a large resort pool and a bar restaurant that would be showing the Bledisloe Cup- enough reason for us to check in and relax. Our Melbourne friends were also there which meant friends for the girls and good company for us too. What was originally going to be a short stop dragged into 4 days as the lure of 'stay 4, pay 3' won us over! 

The day after we arrived we went on another cruise- this time Yellow Water cruise on the floodplains and wetlands of Kakadu. It was a sunrise cruise so a very early start but well worth the wake-up call. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves…..



The very first photo of the day- first saltwater croc. A sign of things to come.



The mist on the water before the sunrise

 

We were on a boat like this one

 

Magic sunrise

 

 

The sun is up and new day dawns

 

'What you lookin at'

 

This is Big Kev. He's the only adult male in this stretch of water as they are territorial and he rules this part of the river. He's over 4 metres long and was seen last week eating a wallaby....

 

Sophia and Big Kev

 

A female croc- small by comparison but still up to 3 metres.

So that was our Yellow Water cruise. One of the highlights for sure. It was also followed by a buffet breakfast- who doesn't love a buffet breakfast! Part 2 of Kakadu coming up soon.

Katherine Gorge/ Edith Falls (Nitmiluk National Park

After Mataranka, we drove the short trip to Katherine. We didn't stay in town, but in Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park about 30kms out of Katherine. The campsite isn't your usual National Park campsite but a commercial tourist park with a gorgeous pool surrounded by a resort bar & café. Not exactly doing it too tough here. It was a close walk to the Nitmiluk Visitor Centre and also the area where the Katherine Gorge boat cruises leave from. We would have loved to kayak the gorge instead of doing an organised cruise, but they don’t allow under 5’s and you have to be over 12 to paddle yourself which ruled our family out for that one. Maybe one day when the kids are older because it looked like a lot of fun.  The cruise was beautiful and as much as we are not usually fans of group tours, you do get a lot more information and it puts things in perspective when you hear the background of the place from a tour guide. The gorge is spectacular and we had front row seats on the boat so Chris got some great photos. This was also where we saw our first croc on the trip- a freshie. We learnt the difference between a freshwater crocodile and saltwater crocodile. Apart from their different snout shapes- a freshie is timid and will swim away from you while a saltie is aggressive and will swim towards you. Not exactly the way I wish to find out which is which!

Katherine Gorge

 

After the cruise we had a short drive to the north side of Nitmiluk NP- Edith Falls. We were lucky to find one of the last spots in the popular National Park campground that was walking distance to the lower pools of Edith Falls. Here we had a refreshing swim with our new friends from Melbourne, who we have travelled with for the last week or so. Then back to camp for BBQ dinner and a few drinks with friends while the kids played together in the grassy campsite- bliss! Next stop- Kakadu!


The beautiful Edith Falls, Nitmiluk NP

Alice Springs to Mataranka

We've had a great week here in the Northern Territory. We have definitely packed the winter woolies away and are living in shorts & singlets. It is hot and dry, but now we are officially in the 'Top End' rather than the 'Red Centre' it's much more green and we are now surrounded by large trees, including palm trees which make us feel like we've left the desert behind for at least a little while.

We have not seen a single cloud in the sky for almost two weeks. Not one single little white fluffy cloud.

We met a lovely family from Victoria when we were staying in Alice Springs and as we have been travelling in the same direction as them, have basically been travelling together for the last 4/5 days. It's great for the kids to have other kids to play with as they have 3 kids at very similar ages to ours. It's also nice to have other adults to share happy hour with!

In Alice we visited their cultural precinct. The highlight was the aviation museum with lots of old restored planes, some of which you could climb in. The kids really enjoyed looking around and sitting in an older plane- they agreed that they looked far too flimsy to fly!

After leaving Alice and saying good-bye to the rather luxurious (by camping standards) Big 4 Holiday Park, we headed north to Devil's Marbles for a one night stay. It was bigger than we expected with a large area of huge boulders all stacked on top of each other. The best thing is you could walk through them and climb all over them so the kids had a great time with their new friends discovering the Marbles and doing some amateur rock climbing. Chris got the good camera out at night and got creative with some great shots of the Marbles at dark.


Devil's Marbles

 

 

 

The Marbles at night lit up by our red torch while taking a long exposure photo

We haven't been doing much school work- very very little in fact. I am not too concerned as they are learning so much being out & about in the world and they're asking so many questions, but they have to do something soon as we've carted all these books half way around the country!

After Devils Marbles we had another long drive, this time to Daly Waters Pub. They have done a great job of turning a basic country pub into a destination all in itself. You could easily drive the extra hour to get into Mataranka but I'd heard good things about the place so we stopped for the night. It's a basic campground, cheap as chips, but they get you in to have dinner and drinks in the pub. The pub is a real institution- it's one of those pubs where people leave things behind- hundreds & hundreds of I.D. cards, hundreds of bras, hundreds of thongs- you get the picture. It has a nice courtyard with a stage where a local character plays guitar and sings Aussie songs and recites poetry while you enjoy happy hour and wait for you 'beef & barra' meal to be cooked on the BBQ. We had a fun night out.

Next day we're off to Mataranka which is known for two things- it's the location for the book & movie 'We of the Never Never' and its also got hot springs where you can soak all your aches away. The water is clear as the thermal spring pumps out a huge amount of water which is constantly replenishing the pools and keeping it a constant temperature of 32-34 Celcius. We visited Bitter Springs last night which is walking distance from our campground and drove to Mataranka Springs this morning which is 7km away. Both worth a visit, especially early or late in the day when the tour buses have gone home and it's a bit more peaceful.






Mataranka Thermal Pool

Bitter Springs Thermal Pool

After a two day stop here, tomorrow we will head to Katherine, only 100km north of here. We will visit Katherine Gorge and probably do a cruise down the river. We've in croc territory now so no swimming unless the signs say it's a safe swimming zone- or we stay at a park with a swimming pool!

One interesting thing we have found is the lack of kangaroos- both alive & on the side of the road. Caitlin spotted a baby wallaby this morning on the walk to the hot pools, but the wildlife is few & far between. Probably because they are out at dawn & dusk which is when we avoid driving. The quality of the road is better than we both expected too. You can travel further, easier and faster than we thought as the roads are well sealed and STRAIGHT for most of the way. We have seen a few more crazy cyclists on the Stuart Highway riding along with their panniers for what must be hundreds and hundreds of kilometres in over 30 degree heat. Someone we met in Alice said they had befriended an 18 year old guy who was riding around Australia on his own with a bike he made himself equipped with a solar panel roof shelter and other mod cons. What ingenuity for an 18 year old! His mother must be beside herself though. We will keep an eye out for him and give him a cold drink if we see him. He's apparently heading in our direction.

Hope you're enjoying the blog- it will be a good record of our trip when we look back on it in the future. I'll try to get Chris and the girls to do some posts too as Chris is taking some amazing photos and the girls would love to write to their school friends.

 

 

Uluru to Alice

Well, so much for blog posting every day! Life is busy on the road and there is not as much free time as you would expect, although in reality, all our time is free time so I guess I've just been slack- or getting used to the rhythm of travel. We've had a great week travelling from Uluru to Alice Springs via Kings Canyon and the West McDonnell Ranges.

It was fantastic to see the girls again a week ago after the 4 days on our own.

 

Our family of five back together again

Thanks to Mum & Dad for taking such good care of them and flying with them to Uluru and spending a few days there with us. It was an action packed time with walks around the Rock, a trip to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), astronomy tours to learn more about the amazing stars, spear & boomerang throwing, lots of cheese & champagne and yummy dinners out.

Sophia & Chris managed to walk the whole way around Uluru. We had all planned to do it but after an hour or so we decided that it was a bit much for Caitlin (and probably Sam as well) so Chris & Sophia continued. The walk is over 10kms and after a few extra diversions to see waterholes etc, they walked over 12kms which is a great effort from Sophia at 9 years of age. Uluru is a lot bigger and more diverse than I expected. There are caves, waterholes and even trees growing in places.

One night we all went to a 'family astro tour' to look through telescopes as the stars are so clear out here. The girls learnt about galaxies, star clusters and got a great view through the telescope of Saturn and it's rings. They were so keen Chris took Sophia & Samantha back the next night for the regular adults astro tour. They apparently asked lots of sensible questions and as they had been the night before were able to tell the other guests what some of the constellations were. Budding astronomers! The tour guide said they were welcome to come back free of charge for the rest of the stay but we were leaving so two tours had to be enough.

Walpa Gorge at Kata Tjuta is well worth a visit if you're in the area! It's a short 2km walk so very manageable for the kids with great views.

 

After 5 days at Uluru, it was time to make a move and start our trip as a family of five. It was great hanging out with Mum & Dad (not to mention the fact that they were staying 5 star while we were at the camp ground so we fully utilised their bathtub, free laundry facilities, air conditioning and pool!). We headed out for the two hour drive to Kings Canyon.

We stayed at Kings Creek Station. It's a working farm and dust is everywhere. They have a calf that thinks it's a dog, lots of camels and a freezing swimming pool. It is run by the Conway family who raise money to help educate the local Aboriginal high school age kids as they only have a primary school. He was the subject of Australian Story which I watched when I was there. http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specials/unfinishedbusiness/

I walked around the rim of Kings Canyon.



Chris's photo from the Rim Walk- we didn't take the kids up here!

After a great two days at Kings Canyon it was time to head to the West McDonnell Ranges. This is a scenic stretch of road heading into Alice Springs with lots of gorges, waterholes and chasms. We had been recommended a camp ground from another blog of a family we have been following. It was a great recommendation. Finke River Two Mile was isolated and had beautiful 360 degree views. It was by the river so the girls had a great time trying to perfect their rock skimming skills. There were even more amazing stars and lots of wildlife. We could hear dingos howling so we locked up all the food in the car or trailer. We managed to damage a tyre on the Prado here so thankfully we could hop into Alice Springs and have it replaced.



Fun by the River



View from our campsite at Finke River

Night time at Finke River and another of Chris's great star photos

The gorges in the West McDonnell Ranges are spectacular and we discovered the water at the base is VERY cold.


Ellery Creek Big Hole



Our gorgeous Sami

So that brings us to today. We've had a couple of days in Alice to give us time to catch up on life like hot showers, washing, shopping and we've been staying at a Big 4 campground which is tailored to families with jumping pillows, playgrounds and a great swimming pool area. The girls have made friends with a family who are travelling for 6 months. They are going in the same direction as us so with any luck we will see them again. Today's we are heading north to Devils Marbles. See you next time!

Melrose to Uluru

Hi everyone

3000km covered in 4 days- what an effort! Now it's time to slow down and not move so fast. We were due to arrive at Uluru today, but yesterday afternoon we were on a roll and had more sunlight so decided to press on. So here we are!

But let's go back a step. Melrose in the Southern Flinders Rangers, South Australia was beautiful. It was a slight detour from the main drag, but worth it. It nearly turned out to be a far bigger detour as I thought I was using Google Maps on my iphone but was using Apple Maps by mistake. BIG mistake. It was suggesting we take roads that ended up being dirt. Never use Apple Maps is the lesson I learned here. Once we were back on track it was a lovely scenic drive and the towns in that area of S.A. are definitely worth a revisit when we have more time to spend there.




Bartagunyah Estate, Melrose, South Australia. We had this all to ourselves.

We stayed at Bartagunyah Estate and were the only people camping there. Surrounded by hills, grape vines and an open fire pit, it was a lovely spot. Chris got a 2 hour mountain bike in before we headed for the highway up to Coober Pedy, 600km away. We were told that the driving from Sydney to South Australia was some of the most boring roads in Australia but we both found them really interesting. The changes are subtle but you start to notice the small things and even though it can be flat, dry and straight, there is something about huge wide open spaces as far as they eye can see that is exciting for a city slicker like me.


Wide open spaces

We had a chuckle at the GPS voice telling us 'in 530km, turn right'. OK then, better keep a look out for it!

The rolling green hills slowly changed into scrub, then red dirt, then Coober Pedy- what a bizarre interesting weird place that is! Nearly 80% of residents live underground to escape the extreme temperatures. There homes stay between 22-24 C all year around. What is strange it that it looks like there are empty blocks of land everywhere but they have what looks like a shed in the corner which is actually the entrance to the underground home. Things like the RSL had a sign at the front and nothing else. You had to look for the way in. A hill side would just have little chimneys sticking out. It's so bizarre! We found a lovely little underground restaurant that was new-ish and treated ourselves to a lovely dinner out- just the two of us as it's the last time we will be able to do that for a few months. The restaurant reminded us of some in France & Italy that were underground with the wine cellars.



Underground Restaurant, Coober Pedy. It filled up after a while!

Our campground looked run down and dirty but it had the most luxurious loos & showers that would not have looked out of place at the Hyatt or Hilton. It's a crazy place I tell you!

After having a look around Coober Pedy the next morning, we hit the road hoping to get just over the NT border. We saw a couple of cyclists on the way- in these areas it is 200-300km between places and even then, it's usually just a roadhouse, they're brave or stupid, I'm not sure which- but it would be an adventure. As I said, we were on a roll with light still left (we don't want to drive in the dark or near dusk because that's when the animals come out) so we made it all the way to Uluru. The sky was looking good so we headed straight to the sunset viewing area for Uluru before checking into Ayers Rock Resort Campground. It really is amazing seeing the rock for the first time. You expect it to be big, but it really really is a huge rock! It was shivers down your spine stuff seeing it come into view. Chris got some good photos with the tripod.

 

This morning we woke at 6am so decided to get in the car to see the sunrise. The sun rises at 7.22am here which is quite civilised I think! We drove to Kata Tjuta (Olgas) to see the sunrise there. Beautiful. Again Chris got some good photos.

Which leads us to now. It's 90 mins until our gorgeous girls arrive into Yulara Airport, 6km away with my Mum & Dad. We can't wait to see them. It's been a really great 4 days just the two of us but we're looking forward to the next few days of relaxing (not too much driving!) and then the next chapter of our adventure once Mum & Dad fly home and the five of us start to head deeper into the Northern Territory. And it's my gorgeous hubby's birthday today, so Happy Birthday Chris!



Uluru



Happy Birthday Honey!

Day One!

Day 1
Great first day of the roadtrip- 870km travelled. Left Sydney at 6am and got through Sydney before peak hour. Once we got past Canberra turn off everything was unfamiliar.
It's flat and straight for hundreds of kilometres. We went hours without passing anyone or anyone passing us. The only vehicles on the road were trucks and car/caravans. It's a quiet part of the country but a lot prettier than we expected.


Long, straight & flat



Lunch/Milo Milkshake stop

 Passed through Wagga Wagga and Hay before arriving at Yanga National Park where we stayed the night.
Got excited when we saw our first wild emu but stopped counting them at 30. They were everywhere! Thankfully none too close to the road. Yanga NP is just out of Balranald and is a great place for an overnight stop.
There were 3 or 4 caravans sharing the area with us but we got our own little spot right by the Murrumbidgee River. It was a lovely spot and free. Fancy facilities too with toilet, basin, soap and hand towels!! The little things excite me when I'm camping!
The stars were incredible too- as your eyes adjusted to the dark you could see more & more. Chris got out the camera & tripod and got some great night sky long exposure photos.


It's day 2 now and I'm typing this in the car. We are heading to Mildura this morning and then over the border to SA where we will be staying at Melrose tonight which is in the Southern Flinders Ranges. Booked in to Bartagunyah Estate this evening which is a winery than also has camping and mountain bike trails- sounds like our sort of place!



Chris's night sky photos



Milky Way- amazing stars

 



Our style of camping!

 

So currently in NSW, will be in VIC in an hour and SA by this afternoon. All going well. Looking forward to seeing the girls on Saturday when they fly to Uluru to meet us.