24 - 30 July Darwin

I am finally up to date!!! Darwin. A small city, tourists and backpackers everywhere. Slow pace, no fuss - "Christopher if you can't find your other thong, don't worry about it, no one else has got shoes on in the main city shopping district". Hey we love this place! The boys loved the junk souvenir shops, but being a good Aussie I check labels - it has to be Australian made. Honestly, one of the shops we were in, I could have sworn we were in Hong Kong! I purchased a piece of aboriginal artwork, by a local, Reggie Sultan, which I am so pleased with. The buskers at the Mindil Markets were exceptional - Didge Man Mark, we bought one of his cds, 4 didgeridoos backed with drums - the place just went off! (photo with Helen, she just appeared, kissed and cuddled us to death). Mick the Whip man sold us a whip, the kids are crackalackin now!! They showed off their skills when we went back to the markets a 2nd time. Now, we could not leave without a didgeridoo from Jack. Lovely guy, so enthusiastic, let us trial each and every didgeridoo. The biggest windbag of our tribe was Riley. Jack was equally impressed. Thomas is getting a really good sound now, the rest of us - dying cows. We'll have it mastered by the time we get home. Did I mention the weather here is very HOT. Average 36 degrees - winter. We've been to a large FREE water park like wet and wild and a wave pool, as it's just too hot to do much else. The museum is brilliant, the botanical gardens are awesome and all the surrounding oceans are so beautiful ... and hot! Darwin is green and tropical, easy living, but if this is winter, imagine summer!!!

20 - 23 July Mary River/Kakadu

A beautiful spot to stay for Rileys 6th Birthday - 21st July. We woke at sunrise, which we have on a lot of occasions, watched the wallabies and bird life. We had the choice of beautiful shady green campsites by the Mary River. We went on a bamboo walk, swam in the pool, had a campfire. The boys made didgeridoos, tapping sticks, spears and a pandanus placemat. We made use of a massive "blokes shed", for handball and basketball and generally had a relaxing time. We went to Bowali Cultural Centre and Windows on the Wetlands which were very interactive and informative.

19 July Jabiru/Kakadu

Well it was time to check out Kakadu - all the great pictures that come to mind, the wetlands, birds, rock art, plateaus. It was a lot of weaving in off the beaten track, as Kakadu is divided into 6 main landforms and each one is truly unique. The scenery is everchanging and once we reached the destinations they were spectacular. At Yellow River Billabong we saw a massive crocodile, beautiful lotus lillies, birds. It was very humbling to see the aboriginal rock art at Ubirr - simple pictures telling a story of their day to day life. We spotted the cutest rock wallaby. We climbed a plateau to reveal wetlands and greenery on one side and the sandstone escarpments to border Arnhem Land on the other. I was able to sit for a few "moments" and really appreciate the beauty of this country, so peaceful and unspoilt, until the boys wanted to check out how far they could get to the edge of the cliff before being yelled at!

15 - 18 Katherine

Thursday morning, tourists everywhere and rightly so, a sea of indigenous people, with trolleys, on bikes, on skateboards coming towards us as we made our way into Woolworths. Riley held my hand ever so tightly, but the boys and Jamie and I were really excited to be surrounded by a scene so foreign to our life back in Carindale. We finally caught up with mum and dad and they showed us a great place to stay. Springvale Homestead, just out of Katherine. It was beautiful there, by the Katherine River, water lillies everywhere and a resident crocodile - "Elvis, lived just a few metres from us, but Riley said he could outrun him if need be. We went on walks, swam (in the pool), drank from waterfalls, caught a turtle in our net, looked at art/craft galleries and museums. We swam in the hot springs, but the highlight was our boat trip along the Katherine Gorge - so spectacular, remote and serene. We had many chats with John, a man camping next to us who had been everywhere and had so much useful information about everything really. Wallabies everywhere, blue faced honey eaters, muscovy ducks. Katherine was a hive of activity with groups of aboriginals just sitting everywhere doing what they do.! We really enjoyed our time here and we will return on our way back down the centre.

13 - 14 July Dunmarra

This spot was recommended to us by another traveller. It was a great find! During the day we found out that mum and dad car trouble and had gone back to Barkly Homestead. Communication out here is very bad, although telstra promised us otherwise!!! Anyway our two day stay was very relaxing, as during the day we virtually had the place to ourselves. At night 6.45pm outdoor movies - which was just beautiful outdoors. Riley and Christopher take much pride in pointing out the 2 pointers and the southern cross in the night sky. The stars are awesome. The caretakers promised to let the boys feed the "pet" buffalo if they were good and so we got to see our first buffalo up so so close. We had chats with a gorgeous older couple next to us, Anne and Mike - we now have a place to stay in the Blue Mountains! Having noisy kids that stand out (especially amongst grey nomads) will get you everywhere!!!. We have met younger couples with children on the road, but not many. We also had a pool here and saw lots of little frogs, generally rearranged, put all the winter gear away, fought off ants out of the food cupboards - yum yum look at all those packets of 2 minute noodles, can't wait for another packet! Truly, it was really relaxing here and they looked after us very well.

12 July Barkly Homestead/NT

We stopped for lunch at Camooweal on our way to The Barkley Homestead. It had been a long drive today - 6 hours, the boys have been really good and patient - earphones and movies all round, apart from the driver of course. Jamie flew past the "Welcome to the Northern Territory sign", we'll have to get a photograph on the way back! More greenery and not so barren here. Very exciting as we have never been to the NT before and so many beautiful things to see and experience lay ahead of us. There was a pool here which was nice. Just an overnight stop here really on our way to Dunmarra. I must mention amenities here - impressive! (compared to some)
We have seen 7 cyclists just merrily riding along, brave souls. Our lunches, whilst travelling - open the back of the car - bread and spread and off we go!!

10 - 11 July Mt Isa

What a memorable sight driving into Mt Isa and seeing the mines and chimneys in the distance. The town is much bigger than I thought and yes, much warmer weather at last. We parked ourselves on vacant land, open to campers, behind the RSL and bowling club. A perfect view of the mines was visible from our window. In the early morning before daybreak, it was lit up like a little city and lights that appeared to be the trucks and different vehicles moved across the horizon on the edge of the pits. Riley, Christopher and I loved watching this whilst everyone was still asleep. Moondarra Dam was a most beautiful spot not far from town. The boys covered themselves with mud, we saw dead bats, live peacocks and fed the whistling kites that would swoop down for our scraps. Thomas and Matty bought themselves a bird book, which has proved very handy, as we have seen so many different kinds of birds that we do not see at home.

8 - 9 Cloncurry

The drive to Cloncurry saw the landscape change into something more picturesque, with small mountains, more greenery and termite mounds of red soil dotted here and there. It seems to be common practice to wave to other caravan drivers, now that's a lot of waving - some only manage to lift one finger off the steering wheel. We find this quite amusing. We set ourselves up at Gilbert Park caravan park. (Dad and Mum as well). Here was our big chance to do some serious laundry, dry everything out and just have a rest. The boys made some lovely red, clay paint (I, myself thought we seen enough mud and slop for a while) and proceeded to create lovely dot paintings to get into the mood for the fast approaching Northern Territory. We went to Chinamans Dam, the lookout, Mary Kathleen memorial park which had display of machinery used in the early 1900's. The country and western singer at happy hour, was a bit too much to bare. Unlike the awesome bush poetry and jokes at Ilfracombe, she was very depressing and Jamie just couldn't help himself rattling off his own verse or two. The camp kitchens are a great place for a chat around the fire and to learn of places to stop and things to do in the next town.

8 July McKinlay

We awoke and hoped the day would bring lots of sunshine, as a few days of rainy weather had been enough, even for us hardened campers!!! Our stop on the way to Cloncurry today is the famous "Walkabout Creek Hotel". The boys main concern "will there be a pool table there?" Dare I say, they are really enjoying these pub visits. We looked around at Hoges and Linda on the wall, took a few photos, PLAYED POOL (what have we created?) and kept moving.

7 July Kynuna

We had hoped to stay at McKinlay behind the "Walkabout Creek Hotel" to watch the State of Origin, but the grounds were closed as it was an absolute bog hole. So we battened down the hatches and stayed off road, in the middle of nowhere, with several other campers and listened to the game on a little radio dad lent to us. What a fantastic wrap up to the game. We will not forget this night.

6 July Winton

We had a 1 night stay at Winton on Windermere Cattle Property - 44,000 acres, 7.5km of dirt road which was fine, absolutely no sign of rain. The man parked us near some animals amidst deep red, dry dirt. All was going well. The boys bottle fed the poddy calves and chooks, saw Miss Piggy the black pig and beautiful cows and horses. Curry on the campfire - yum. Looking at the night sky, we were a bit concerned when we couldn't spot any stars. Was that a spit of rain? Down it came. It sounded lovely on the roof of van until during the night - Mum, I'm getting wet! As dawn broke, the caretaker stood at our front door stating - "don't panic we'll get you out." Then the entertainment started! Our car and ute were towed out of the deep, red, wet mud to the drier area where eveyone else was stationed so we could all get fair start to battle the 7.5km track to the bitumen. We were the only ones that made it out (thanks to Jamie's speedway and drift racing skills) mum and dad and 10 other vehicles had to be towed out. We spent a few hours in the rain jetwashing the vehicles, our spirits slightly dampened. Wet pillows and bedding, red mud - "let"s just leave the van here and drive off" - a large dry luxurious caravan would come in handy right now. Our little HAWK is not on the popular list today. We went into the Waltzing Matilda Centre, opal shops, and the boys were fascinated by the rubbish bins in the main street - big dinosaur feet. It was just too wet to enjoy the town,(Jamie can hardly bring himself to say the word) W----N.

2 July Barcaldine

A short stop here for lunch on our way to Ilfracombe. Tree of Knowledge, locusts, pubs.

2 - 5 July Ilfracombe (near Longreach)

Well we arrived at Ilfracombe on a freezing blustery afternoon after refusing to be ripped off(as Thomas describes) on accommodation in Longreach. Ilfracombe has a population of 200 people and the van park was absolutely chock a block, but we were slotted in very nicely right on a corner overlooking miles of peaceful nothing. The stars and sky are just magical. The park owner Jesse, his wife Cathy and 4 young children offered their talents of bush poetry and jokes at happy hours every evening and Jesse especially, was absolutely fantastic at delivering them to the audience of on average 100 people. The Wellshot pub was a favourite attraction for Thomas and Matty. They are now experts at playing pool. Machinery Mile, a donated collection of all old vehicles by the roadside is a great attraction, as well as the artesian pool and loads of memorabilia in little cottages. The first morning on trip to the big smoke, Longreach, we spent at the hospital, as Riley had a barking cough. We were sent away with a bottle of antibacterial handwash. Riley and Chrissy did want to play around at the dump point for caravans at Blackall. He's getting better. We spent a day at the "Hall of Fame" information overload (will we remember anything that we read?), but it was brilliant and we also saw an awesome outback show. We went and checked out Quantas 747 and are still amazed how those things can stay in the air. We have a new little bush kid (not bush pig) in town. Check out the new hat! I'm working it out on being the first to the washing machine - GO AT DAYBREAK. These grey nomads are ruthless and have so much washing!!! As for being the first to the showers, GO DURING HAPPY HOUR, not a soul in sight! It was a sound to behold last night as I was in the shower - over the sound of the water I could hear very clearly "Advance Australia Fair". We love Ilfracombe.!!