And we’re off and driving with an 11am start!

Bye Victoria!!

Driving through Tailem Bend

Murray River is still swollen from this years floods

Stopped over at Snowtown Rec Reserve, and managed to catch up with Mum and Dad before we headed into the great unknown

A brief stop in Port Augusta for lunch supplies and fuel

Drove past the quarantine centre on the outskirts of Augusta

It’s a long way to our next turn..

Woomera

Coober Pedy

Along the beaten track…

Made it to the border!!!

Stunning landscape approaching the MacDonnel Ranges on the way into Alice Springs

Arrived at Alice Speinga about 6.20. Decided to pause for a day to let the kids stretch their legs so booked into Gday Mate Park for two nights

Managed to get to the Alice Springs meeting on Saturday afternoon (2.30pm). Met some lovely and loyal brothers and sisters. Got some good advice re tourist destinations and also found their hall design (octagonal) very cool. Excluding ourselves there were about 20 in attendance. Their circuit assembly was the following week, held in their hall with only their congregation due to distance. Must be a tough slog there!

Had the chance to go out to the Parrtijima Festival - an annual event in Alice Springs where the light up the Macdonnel Ranges of a night. Was an amazingly organised event with great food and truly amazing light displays, with free buses out to Dessert Park. Thoroughly enjoyed it

Termite hills and wildflowers along the road to Tennant Creek

Found some stunning wildflowers along the way

More wildflowers from todays travels

We stopped at the Tennant Creek telegraph station. You could take a self guided tour which we enjoyed. The cellar was interesting - it was fillled with about a foot of water that had crept in and there was a green tree frog enjoying the bounty of the bugs that brought! Even seemed to have tadpoles growing in the water!

The buildings were repurposed to a butchers in the 1950s so had some substantial buttery setup as well as blacksmiths etc.

After nearly 1000km today we decided to setup camp in Daly Waters. The pub was a great Australians pub, with great food, live music and a pool table (also had a pool but we didn’t get a chance to use it) that we had fun with. Also had some aircraft memoriabiliaand a pet goat wandering around that added to the atmosphere. Had a great time 😊

Stopped at the Daly Waters Airfield. They do medical evacs from there but was also used as a base in WW2 and has a wreckage from the 1950s (?) that’s never need cleared. Also sheds from WW2. Was really interesting.

As per the sign, apparently Stuart and his team stopped here and happened to carve an S into the tree on their first successful track through. The tree is dead now…

Have clocked up the kms, and also enjoying driving at 130km per hour. Sacrificing 1-2l/100km but comfortable enough to drive at that speed so long as it’s not raining or too twisty/ turny.

Mataranka Springs and Bitter Springs… just sensational. Enjoyed our swim/s, Charlie made a friend called Hugo from Perth and found that Mataranka Speings has 30.5 million litres pump through it each day. Can’t get over the stunning blue water or the fish, spiders and other wildlife we enjoyed while there.

We’ve arrived in Darwin at 6pm, having clocked up 3700km

Decided to stay at a caravan parked called Oasis Tourist Park. It has a great kitchen, swimming pool and facilities that were opened literally a few days ago. Owners were incredibly helpful and obviously putting a lot into the park. Kids discovered that Lego Masters was in so have been appreciating the 📺 in the kitchen

Wowwee!! Besides being incredibly hot, Darwin is very pretty. Lots of signs saying don’t swim due to crocodiles and jelly fish, but haven’t seen either yet. Trading Gordon that I think it’s all a conspiracy! Lol

Went to the Darwin Military Museum at Charlie’s request. The video they showed was quite well done with still photographs with addition of sons motion and sound track. There must entertaining things I think we found was a lizard that posed for photos as ur scampered across the Lassen and the realisation that green tree frogs has made their way into most guns.

A quick look at Mindill Beach

Had a nice stroll around the Waterfront and then the rain set in so we went for a drive around, including up to the jetty.

We found the visit to the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery excellent. The Cyclone Tracey (Dec25 1974) exhibit was very informative and the pieces of art in the gallery were also really interesting.

A visit to the Botanic Gardens for lunch was rewarding

Another visit to Trampoline Gelato and a swim in the wave pool for a couple of hours was a massive hit with all

Best fun had at the wave pool on the Waterfront

Fish and chips on the beach didn’t disappoint!!

So… we went to Crocadylus Park today to get a close up of the crocodiles and what all the fuss was about - first we got to hold a 1 year old (which I promptly told Nan we were bringing home for her as a present), and then set off on a boat on the swamp to see a number of crocodiles fed / jumping out of the water to feed. Didn’t realise how territorial and how much social hierarchy there is in that crocodile world.

Other things of highlight were:

- charting to a monkey that wanted to give me a dried leaf. He tried to hand it to me a couple of times and I couldn’t reach, so he threw it to me. I handed it back and we did this a couple of times. It was truly interesting

- there were golden coloured ants with green butts everywhere. When we got back to our car we also found they’d run all over our vehicle and needed to take it to the car wash to get most of them off (also am concenrned we haven’t yet removed them all!!

- also saw the tiniest of lizards running over a statue.

- Apparently crocodiles can hear heart beats from two miles away. Not sure what to do with that information! But suspect it means no swimming in the NT!

Saw the most amazing and unusual sunset on way to the meeting. Cong off about 70 (smallest of Darwin congs, got a very warm welcome. Apparently the hall was originally the Assembly…

What a start to the day! By 4am the tent was flooded, we were splashing through water throughout the tent (having decided the tent was NOT monsoon rated 🤣) and after stashing the things that couldn’t get wet we gave up emptying the pools of water on the canvas and setup the car at about 5am and had a nap in the car until it passed. We cleaned up when we work at about 8am and had a fairly low key day…

Charlie, who had some drops of water fall on him early on, and had pulled his sleeping bag on him managed to sleep through most of it, and when he did awake, after a few minutes of tears realised it was just a bit of adventure and got into the spirit of it. The kids watched some iPad for a while and ended up falling to sleep a bit later. The tent cleaned and dried up pretty well and no permanent harm done…

All up, nearly 50mm in about an hour!

Drove out to Berry Springs. Can see why they’re shut during wet season. After the wet night, the water was in full force and could see how salt water crocs could make their way up there. Would be an amazing spot to spend the day in the dry season.

Stopped at a display of some of the aircraft they used during WW2 in Darwin

Got to Litchfield National Park heading through Bachelor for a day of exploring

The giant termite mounds, are, we’ll, gigantic! Apparently there’s two kinds around Litchfield - Cathedral Termite Mounds and Magnetic Termite Mounds - with the magnetic ones having fins that reliably point north / south. These ones are potentially 50+ years old

Buley Rockhole - had been rain the the past few days so flowing quite fast! No swimming.

Stopped at Florence Falls for a picnic - somehow didn’t end up with a photo of the falls though!! Poured rain while we were there, so was a somewhat wet picnic!

Tomer Falls was astounding!! Truly of gigantic proportions!!

Wangi Falls - was truly beautiful and with the extra rain we’ve had had so much water flowing over it. The fence they’d erected to prevent people entering because there’d be a croc sighting had a river flowing I’m beyond it. The girls and I were also rebels - technically we swam in it anyway (if you can count dipping feet in the stream swimming).

Gordon, Charlie and Millie went to the Aviation Museum and I stayed home tonpack up. We also got a final swim in the pool, which was lovely

And… out second torrential rain was no where as destructive - l worked out to drop the corners of the tent and added a tarp over the sensitive seam to find it was no where near the disaster of last time!

Went out for our last night in Darwin to the Jetty Restaurant and enjoyed the sun setting over the ocean… ahh!!

Headed off the Kakadu today. Saw some interesting crows that had lunch with us at the entrance / info / picnic area at the northern entrance

Edith Falls… a 1km walk in to get to the upper swimming spot but so worth it!! Just wow. Kids loved it.

Katherine Springs, a nice little swim spot

Katherine Farmstay was a great, friendly place to stay, with the hosts being especially welcoming.

Took a cruise on Katherine Gorge in Nitmiluk National Park through the first two gorges. Managed to see a number of fresh water crocs along the banks.

There was a fair bit of burn off happening along our drive today along the Stuart Highway.

Stopped at Mataranka Springs and Bitter Springs again on the way back through. Loved it.

Stopped at a random gravel pit about 10km out of Daly Waters for the night. Interesting wildlife and enjoyed a fire (that also helped keep the bugs away).

Ali our drive today we stopped at a monument to where they joined the north and south telegraph lines (about 1.6km west of th marker). Imagine there were some celebrations that day!!

Francesca says hi, such a great travel companion!

Stopped for a quick look at the Devils Pebbles - a 14km exploration off the Highway with a fair bit of water damage. But was interesting.

Stopped at Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu) overnight. There were a number of areas we couldn’t take photos but was surprising and impressive. The walk we could take up to the top of the putl made for a breathtaking sunset

One of only four Telegraph repeater stations still standing along the line, Batrow Creek is well preserved and has an interesting U shaped design. Still, can’t envy those that were here for months / years manning the station and maintaining the lines.

The Alice Springs Telegraph Staiok was extremely interesting - for the significance as the station, as well as its use as a home for aboriginal children. We happened to be there in the one week that they had telegraphists come from Adelaide to demonstrate their use. They were very capable and showed how much skill was required for what is a dead art now.

KFC Alice Speibgs - a client of ours

The Royal Flying Doctors display had an opportunity to look through an aircraft as well as historic aircraft and equipment used throughout time

Standley Chasm

A day travelling through the Weat Macdonnell Ranges

Glen Hellen Gorge

Who says Carnivals can’t go 4wd’ing?

Had a swim in the freezing water at Ormoston Gorge

The Ocre Pits weee really interesting - essentially a mine of a baked commodity for the local aboriginals

Ellery Creek Waterhole - was so so beautiful but too late to have a swim (was also getting cold). On the up side by going late in the day we had the space to explore to ourselves.

Went out for dinner to the Alice Springs Brewery and had gab pizzas. Also discovered a great new ginger beer

Our stay at the Gday Park Alice Speinga was nice - Charlie liked the jumping pillow

Just a toilet stop with a dry creek bed at Finke River, but thought the truck a fellow traveller was using was interesting

Lunch time stop on our way to Kings Canyon

The landscape and flora was really varied on our drive into Kings Canton. I loved the dessert oaks.

We managed to sneak in a 2km creek bed walk through Kings Canyon the night we arrived.

And of course there’s stunning sunsets

Kings Canyon sunrise ❤️

Our epic 7.something km rim walk around Kings Canyon. Couldn’t recommend it more highly.

First peak at Uluṟu

More stunning sunsets and met the friendly Spinnifex Jumping Mice that hung out with us each night (a bit too friendly!)

Uluṟu sunrise

A sneakily buffet breakfast at one of Yalaras restaurants

We also befriended some pigeons, except that one was a bit nasty!

And the Uluṟu sunset 🌅