Darwin to Litchfield National Park

Hi once again from the top end we have finally left Darwin after a 16 day stay which was thoroughly enjoyed by both of us but to tell you the truth it is nice to be on the road again and seeing a few places outside of a city Darwin is nice but it is still a city.

We are at this moment in Berry Springs but I had better tell and show what has been happening since our last entry on the blog
which isn't very much as we did a lot of just sitting around a bit of sight seeing shopping and went to a few markets.

so this time I will show a few photo's with explanations underneath:

The war memorials are pretty well in the minds of the Darwin people and the fuel storage from that era and you can enter these, is a thing not to miss.

inside the tubes they are lined with steel and concrete and hold approx 1700 tons of fuel and there are 11 of these underneath the edge of the city

Darwin city beaches above are absolutely beuatifull but you are unable to use them as there are saltwater Crocodiles and dangerous jellyfish constantly around thus they have nice man made beaches.

However we were fortunately here in Darwn when the famous Darwin Beer Can regatta was on and the following are some of the boats built out of cans.

Bianka even managed to sit in one courtesy of the crew.

Mid way during our stay here we did the Darwin sunset cruise which consisted of Seafood dinner and the setting of the sun with the friends we met, had a great evening.

Great don't you think we had a ball.

Above one of the oil rigs being towed in Darwin harbor for repairs or refit?



Apart from the shown sights we visited Cullen Bay the upper market suburb with its large fleet of Yachts, Fanny Bay Jail, Mindle and Parap Markets, the Musuem and lots more, Below Stokes Wharf on our last night where we had Dinner and Music

Berrys Springs CP we are almost parked next to a large Termite Mound .


Berrys Springs Wild life park well worth a visit, its displays like the one below which is a wet season rainforrest down poor and thunder clapping all around you, are great to see,

Crocodile 2.5 meters long glad it is behind glass

Eagle

Bird Wild life display and demonstrations close at hand

Another beutifull display of a birds

Berry Springs water fall great for swimming as pictures below show


This is a quiz

Whose hands? now no cheating.

You guesed right.

Whose hands?

Gee you are all clever!

Goodbeye to Darwin from the opposite end of the bay at Mandora


Till next time Bainka & Sig

Katherine to Darwin

The Ghan Kathrine

Time is flying and we have now traveled from the most Southerly point to the Most Northerly point in Australia and some 11000+ kilometers.

We are in Darwin and intend to stay a while, anyway better fill you in as to what we have done since leaving Katherine.

The stay in Katherine was longer than anticipated as my foot still hadn't healed, test result on the Sunday where inconclusive and back on the antibiotics, but it did not stop us from doing things, which wasn't very much.

Had a surprise call from Kim and Ray Cook who ended up staying in the same CP, thus on Friday we spend most of the day and night chatting and enjoyed a dinner together, it was nice to catch up.

Saturday, Sunday we did very little so it was great to see Monday, and to get on the road again, another supprise a call from Errol and Lyn whom we had met at the Daly Waters pub and again at Mataranka they indicated that they where also on the move and we ended up traveling togheter and still are.

Our first stop, a whole 70 Kl down the road Edith Falls and spent 2 nights there what a great place to stay, a walk to the falls and a swim, with me doing the full length to the fall it self 150 mtrs and sat underneath it.

After a nice evening the next day we walked up to the upper pool called the Lelyn falls some 3.4 Kl great views constantly, a top spot for swimming and just paddeling in the pool, Errol and I climbed the next level of the Upper pool and how serene this was and deep.

Wednesday saw us heading into Kakadu and travelled as far as Mardugal Camp site just before Cooinda just after lunch took a drive to Cooinda and walked the wetlands after inviting ourselves into the pool at the resort Our private pool at Cooinda resort, Kakadu (ha,ha)

We stayed to see the Sunset, pretty impresive, back to the camp site and dinner next to a nice camp fire as it got cold 24 degrees Brrrrrr.

Left early on Thursday visited Jabaru after walking the Mirrai Lookout, pretty tough uphill climb with views of Arnhem Land, called the girls just to rub it in.

Jabaru next stop at the bakery and onto our next camp 45k away at Ubirr (camp Merl), after setting up went for a look around and drove accross the East Alligator River into Arnhem land as this place is off limits to us whities and you need a permit, we only went approx 5km inwards,how beautifull/spectacular this place is and you get the feeling that thier spirits are there.

Back across the border, Icecream at the Border Store and then a track up to the Ubirr look out for Sunset accros Arnhem Land, absolutely thrilling it was, back to camp and by this time the mossies appeared maybe to punish us for intruding on sacred land.

Friday morning headed for a Free camp at the Widows on the Wetlands visited the Fogg Dam were unable to walk the dam due to a large crocidile in the vercinity, so we drove Caravan and all, lucky there was a turn around at the end, that night we where still being punished by the mossies.

Saturday morning off early 5.45 am as we needed to be early to get a place at the CP we wanted to go to, thus arrived in Darwin at 6.30 am with us getting a spot at the Malak CP close to town.

Saturday we did the mundain things washing etc Sunday shopping and then the Night Market with Sunset thrown in and some nice tasty food to top of the night.

I end here untill next time.

S&B

Tenant Creek to Kathrine.

Tenant Creek what can I say is a town with one long street (Shopping and Business centre) and lots of indigenous people hanging around on every corner and in between all day long.

The park we stayed in was great and we stayed three nights so that we could catch up on everything ie washing, hairdresser, Emails etc. visited the the Telegraph station, TC lookout, Mary Ann Damm,Bill Allen Lookout and a few other places of interest.

The park we stayed in every night put on the Bush Tucker Man, he was shown a few times on TV and got his reputation by showing where and how to obtain food in the bush, the nights we saw him he cooked Kangaroo tail or Road Kill as he jokingly called it, second night it was Damper and the bush poetry, a great show.

On thursday 25th June we moved on to Daly Waters

Sitting in the main Street of Daly Waters

and the Beef and Barramundy and a great show by Frank and his Eagles what a laugh and a great sing along it lasting till 10 Pm.

Next day a whole 100Km to Mattaranka, before looking at a place to stay we had lunch and ate the best Beef and Mushroom pie it was so big it was hard to finish but we managed Bianka thinks it was the best in Aust.

Than to 13mile Campground,this campground is called the Jalmurark camp ground and in Elsey National Park, the park is next to the Roper River where we swam and did walks from, the Mataranka falls some 8.5 Km round trip.

Visited the HomeStead and paddled in the hot springs had a beer here, same as 12 years ago, price for two Stubbies $14.00.

Visited Bitter Springs with its flowing hot water.

Monday 29th we arrived Katherine first day washing, shopping all the mundane things I will not mention again for the rest of the year.

Kathrine Gorge

Hiking over the Rocks

Nice to relax after the climbs

nice to see again, we did a hike up to Pats Lookout with great views 3.5 hour walk or 8.4 Return walk the weather was in the 30 degrees and we were glad to get back to the car finished of the day with a swim in the Kathrine hot springs.

Till next time see you

B & S