Day 16 - 22
Day 16
We got out of Mataranka ASAP in the morning. There was a terrible odour in the air – reminded me of possums wee! We drove through Katherine which looks like quite a large town – we are stopping there on our way West. We got to Batchelor in the early afternoon. It is a very pretty town – we were a bit worried that it could be likened to one of those towns in the X-Files; looks pretty but strange things happen there. The caravan park was quiet but very clean and Andy took pity on us (I think he really just wanted privacy to experiment with his facial hair again) and booked us into an ensuite site. It was our best site yet and I am almost ashamed to say how excited I was to have my own private clothes line and washing machine! We went into Litchfield National Park in the afternoon to try and cool off as it is now very hot (around 37). We swam in Florence Falls (refer photos), a very pretty waterhole at the bottom of twin waterfalls. Even though it is the end of the dry season it is still all very green and the water is still flowing down the falls (albeit at a lot lesser rate than it does in the wet season). The swim was very refreshing and the kids loved looking at the fish in the water. Andy and Nick spent about half an hour letting the fish nibble on their toes, Bubba and Chris bolted after the first nibble – tough guys?! That night we had a very heavy rain shower and heard some weird noises coming from the forest but that was the extent of our X-Files experience.
Day 17
Today we went back into Litchfield Park. We went to Wangi Falls- a popular waterhole in the park but fairly quiet at this time of year. Again it is a twin waterfall into a large waterhole (much bigger than Florence Falls). The first thing we saw was a sign that said “Waterfall Open”. “This is a good thing” we thought. Then we read the fine print –salt water crocodiles removed from area, fresh water crocodiles may be present DO NOT ANTAGONISE. How the hell do you antagonize a fresh water crocodile? Chris and Bubba were very scared and wouldn’t get into the water. Andy had to tell them that Fresh Water Crocs only feed at 8am and 4pm to get them in the water. The whole time we were in the water Matthew kept asking the time. When Andy and I had had enough we just told them it was 5 to 4 and they swam so fast to get out of there they could have won the Olympics.
Next we went to drive to an old Settlement along a 4WD track. We came to quite a large river crossing with a big sign that said “CROCODILES”. Nobody knew we were there and we had no signal on our mobiles so I have to confess that I said no way, turn around we’re not going through. The kids were very disappointed but I felt the river was running a little fast and I didn’t like the idea of having to scout the crossing with possible crocodiles. Anyway, maybe I am “Missus Boss” because we turned around and headed for Buley Falls. Buley Falls is a series of small rapids and waterfalls that have been cleared for swimming. The kids loved it. They could jump in from the sides and sit under the waterfalls. It was great fun. Andy and I had a laugh at a tour guide with 4 young European girls – he had the biggest gut I’ve seen in a while and acted like Don Juan it was hysterical.
On the way out of the park we stopped at the Termite mounds. We had been seeing the Cathedral variety along the side of the road as we had been driving up the Stuart Highway for quite a while but seeing them up close was something else. They can be huge. There is also another variety called Tombstones that are built by magnetic termites. These ones build huge flat “tombstone” shaped mounds that are aligned to the north fir climate control reasons. When you see them all lined up it looks a bit like a military cemetery.
Day 18
Today we drove to Darwin. We are staying at the Free Spirit Caravan Park in Berrimah. It is a nice park, 3 pools, bistro, restaurant, central to everything, has a special on at the moment so kids are free (pretty handy when you have 4 of them) but alas it doesn’t have ensuite sites! I am so spoilt after Batchelor that I find this very disappointing. We are right next to a camp laundry, camp kitchen and we share a double bathroom with four other sites (all of which are empty) but it is still not the same – must be the duchess in me coming out! Anyway, we drove into Darwin to see the city and the sites. If we had of blinked we might have missed it. It is very much like a large country town –I swear the city area and shopping would be similar to Traralgon. We were looking for the wave pool which took us 3 drive-bys to find because signage is not that good and the brochure made it out to be enormous and it actually wasn’t! Nevertheless we found it and I was particularly happy to find the entrance fee was only $12 for the 6 of us. We spent about 3 or so hours there and had great fun. The kids loved it and it was a great way to keep cool.
Day 19
Today we visited Harvey Norman for some housekeeping. We needed a memory card for the video recorder, a lead for the computer, some more prepaid internet modems, etc …..Anyway quite a bit of money later we headed to one of the bigger shopping centres in Darwin (Madi wanted Chadstone but she had to make do). Anyway miracles do happen because the whole family shopped for around an hour, together, with no-one sitting on benches outside shops and that has never happened – ever. After that we headed to the Water Park. This was even better than the wave pool because it was free! 3 water slides, a water playground and a big pool. It was a Thursday so it was fairly empty and we had a great time. Feel kind of ripped off that we paid $12 for the wave park!
Day 20
Today we did not much at all! Andy spent about 4 hours setting the kids laptops up with individual prepaid internet modems. He went from being very happy with HN Salesman to very unhappy because he had to individually activate them all, often through numerous phone calls to overseas call centres, which was very frustrating. The kids and I hung by the pool, did some laundry, sat under the air-conditioning and basically just recharged our batteries. It is very draining just existing in this oppressive heat. No wonder things move much slower up here! You can’t get a cold shower because the cold water isn’t cold. Even the pool isn’t cold – it is colder than the air but really just lukewarm. No wonder things move much slower up here and drinks start early! We had a knock on the caravan door around 5.30pm so I did a quick head count to see which child could have done something wrong only to find they were all inside! When I opened the door I found we had a visitor – Sascha (sister of Andy’s friend Jehrom in Melbourne), her husband Bruce and son Bailey (2). We had a nice chat and then went to the pool for a late dinner and swim. Bubba decided that he quite enjoys this life. Hot chips and swimming in the dark and wants to know if we can do it more permanently!?!
Day 21
Today the kid’s friends showed up at the pool. They arrived last night and so we couldn’t leave the pool until both families left together. We went into town and checked out the Tourist Centre. Madi suggested we leave the boys there and take off and do some shopping. I fear she will never be able to save money, her birthday money is burning a hole in her pocket and she is desperate to spend it! Needless to say I said no and she had to contend with Crocasaurus Cove. Here we saw real salt water crocodiles – in Chris’ words “Man are they big”. Matthew is no longer keen to take one home – they look big and dangerous and scary! We enjoyed this place; the kids were able to interact by holding different reptiles, watching the feeding of the reptiles, holding a baby salt water croc (which was scary even though its mouth was taped shut!).They also swam in a pool that made it look like they were swimming with the juvenile crocs. Needless to say they had a great day.
Day 22
The day began well. Buffet breakfast at the Bistro - $15 for adults, $5 for kids (this may change after they work out their profits after a morning with the Noones). The children were slightly embarrassing – you would think we had been starving them in preparation. Even Matthew, who said it was a waste of time, had 6 pieces of toast and baked beans and he ate less than the rest of them! After breakfast we headed off to see the sights as we are leaving tomorrow. We started at the Military Museum – Andy and I found this very interesting, the kids not so much (apparently it is no fun looking at guns you need to be able to touch them and fire them). I liked it as there was a 15 minute film about the bombings at Darwin (64! I thought it only happened the once, shame on me) and lots of photos, displays of artillery, guns, jeeps, etc all used in the war as well as guns and there history. Very informative.
Next we moved to the NT Museum (gotta love the NT this was free too!) to see the Cyclone Tracey display. I found this very informative. Another video showing the devastation, a recreation of houses, sound tracks, lots of pictures. I think the kids enjoyed it but it was hard to tell as they were running laps around the gallery and playing tag. Reading them the riot act we moved on to the Oil Storage Tanks in the city. These were actually commissioned after the first bombing when the oil stores were hit and badly damaged. The Japanese knew where everything was due to photos from the late 30’s and also the fact that they had been responsible for a detailed map of the top end prior to the breakout of War! However, the stores (which are basically dug into and under a hill) where not finished until the end of the war so apart from some jet fuel were never actually used. Still very interesting and cool! After that we went to the Stokes Wharf. I think we were expecting it to look a bit like it did in Australia but we were disappointed. Not much to see except a few eateries and a nice view of the bay. The kids were well over it by now (Chris had that face on again) so we headed to a supermarket (yep the whole family shopped together again – which is lovely except I never know what actually goes in the trolley) to stock up for a few days as we are off to Kakadu in the morning.
