Now it is only about 3,000kms to home (about 2,700kms to Mingenew for our meetup)

Sunday 11^th August, 2024

We stayed at a couple of good campsites on the way here. The first was in the Gregory National Park, and required payment, even though it is just a basic 24hr camping spot. In fact, there were no bins, as there would be in a normal 24hr stop.

We walked down to the waterhole, but stayed back from the bank as there was a notice about crocs. Likely freshwater crocs, but we didn’t know for sure. Anyway, after someone telling me that freshies can grow to 6’ in length, which is larger than me, I decided to Google the difference. The narrower snout and not quite such fearsome teeth is probably why they are less dangerous than salties.

When we arrived at the Victoria River Roadhouse I regretted not paying extra to stay there as the scenery is marvellous. It doesn’t get much of a rap on Wikicamps, but who cares when the surroundings are magnificent.

Last night we stayed at a very pretty campsite called Saddle Creek Rest Area. We secured a spot with shade and lovely green bushland and we surrounded by cliffs and hills.

This morning we had about a 120km drive to Kununurra. We stopped at a 24hr Rest Area for a cup of tea, then at the WA welcome sign, then went through our quarantine inspection. They are courteous, but thorough, and warn you that they are filming everything.

We booked one night in a caravan park, but have decided to stay two nights. This caravan park is in the town, very convenient, not too expensive, and is small and quiet. All of the caravan spaces in this main area have good shade, though there is an overflow area without good shade as well.

After resting for the afternoon we walked over to the local Coles Store to get some food for our tea. As we have changed time zones we were actually having tea when we phoned Matt. We chatted with him for about 40 mins before he yelled out for a support worker to help him end the call.

Monday 12^th August, 2024

Today we had had to move places this morning, but keep feeling surprised at how early it is as we have sort of ‘gained’ 1.5 hours. Anyway, it’s 10.00 a.m. and we’ve done two loads of washing, now hanging on a Hills Hoist which we can see from our back window now that we’ve moved. We have less morning shade here, but have put out the awning to make things better.

Today is a rest day, and, apart from driving to the next row in the caravan park anything we do will be on foot. Fortunately, located as we are in the centre of town we have lots of options: shopping, including going to a Mitre 10 to see if they have a caravan step as our other plastic one broke, doing more shopping in Coles, going to a nice café for lunch and we can even walk to the local lagoon to see the birds.

Broome is still about 1,000 kms away and it will take us a few days to reach it. Although we have to book the Broome Bird Observatory for camping it’s a bit too early to know just when we will reach it.

Friday 9th August, 2024

The loop was the route from Pine Creek to Kakadu, to Darwin and then back to Pine Creek. We celebrated by visiting Masey’s Café in Pine Creek for steak burgers and icecreams. Our plan was to free camp last night and do shopping, etc. in Katherine this morning. However, we missed the turn off to a campsite and just kept going to the town.

There was emptying and filling up and shopping to do before we could head out to a nearby 24hr stopping place for the night. A long day, but it feels worth it this morning when we can just look forward to a gentle day of driving and finding somewhere to camp.

My impression of Pine Creek has changed from our first visit. We stopped there for lunch on the way up and I thought it was very dry, dusty and overflowing with caravans. It was still overflowing with caravans, but finding the nice little café in a side street seemed to make it greener and more attractive. The lawns were there last time, but didn’t register as much.

We were feeling a bit of motorhome envy last night as the woman next to us had a beautiful Winnebago Coogee. These are based on the IVECO with double axle at the back. She has electric levellers and electric awning and an electric bicycle in a canvas covering on the back.

Mind you, after hearing (we parked quite close to her) us watching the news, she said she is going to order a Starlink to be delivered to Kununurra. I guess she has been thinking about it for some time. So, a little bit of cross-envy!

Watching her backing out this morning reminded me of how much more difficult it is to get into nice camping spots in a larger vehicle, so I am officially over being envious. It would be nice to have more space, but we would still end up in a muddle inside, as we used to do in our Winnie. This small vehicle is so easy to manage in comparison.

Wednesday 7^th and Thursday 8^th August, 2024

We enjoyed our visit to Florence Falls after our night in the campground. We appreciated being able to see everything more clearly in the daylight, though we had to share with lots of other tourists. After taking a couple of photos Stephen suggested we take the 135 steps down to the waterhole. I hadn’t planned on that, but the stairs were fairly easy, with short flights and several landings. It was more difficult going down and up for me because of my fear of heights.

We crossed a little stream with clear water (there was a walkway, no rock hopping) and made our way around to the plunge pool. It was very busy and although we stayed for a while we didn’t feel we wanted to swim there.

Next on our agenda was to see the Buley Rockholes which are popular for swimming. Again, it was quite busy and we didn’t feel an urge to swim there even though it was getting hot.

We had parked in dappled shade and it was comfortable enough in the Sherwood to have our lunch.

Then back through the park to Batchelor and our fairly humble, but spacious park up in the caravan park. We had an ensuite because that was the only powered site available. It would have fitted three Sherwoods easily. The ensuite was old, but well maintained, and there was even a washing machine if I had felt like spending $4.00. I didn’t, so handwashing sufficied and Stephen had to hang up the washing as the line had been put up by a tall man!

We waited out the heat of the day in air conditioning, starting out with a new type of Magnum icecream (mango, white chocolate and coconut with vanilla icecream) which was recommended by our gracious host.

In the evening it cooled down a little bit, not much.

I didn’t shower in the ensuite as I encountered two tiny frogs (willing to cope) and then saw a larger frog in the shower recess (not doing it). Stephen took our awning pole with him to have a shower and said he was able to keep the frog holed up in a pipe whilst he showered.

Still, I appreciated the fact that we had a separate toilet with it’s own basin, so I didn’t have to go into the shower room again.

Before leaving town we went to the General Store, where there were limited supplies, and to the dump point.

Much of the local area is open savannah woodlands/grasslands, but Batchelor is quite lush, with large trees and lots of green grass. I hope it was like that when we were little children. I feel grateful to have had the chance to come here.

On our way south we stopped at Adelaide River for hot drinks and fuel. There was a store, but limited stock, so we stuck to just getting our hot drinks and enjoying being outside on the verandah. So far, the mornings are quite fresh, as they were in Darwin. Even in the afternoons there is a strong breeze that helps us manage in the heat.

The Bridge Creek Rest Area is just south of Adelaide River and not very far from Batchelor, but as it is a designated 24hr rest stop we decided to take it. We sat outside in the breeze, rather than inside where it was still 34 degrees, so pretty warm. For the first time in ages there was a distinct cooling down at sunset, very welcome of course.

This morning at about 5.00 a.m. I woke up feeling a bit chilly and switched off the fan and pulled up the doona. This is what we’ve been hoping for as we head south, that the nights would be cooler even though the day time temperatures will be in the low to mid thirties.

We don’t know if there is water in the creek. It’s a bit dangerous to walk out on the bridge and the long grass at the edge of the rest area could have snakes. It’s not sensible to explore. Some people at Florence Falls yesterday warned us they had seen a brown snake. We had though of walking through to the lower campsite, but gave up immediately.

Tuesday 6^th August, 2024

We are finally on the move again. We ended up spending the afternoon/early evening at the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens. It is such a lovely green space. We took another walk around before driving back to the caravan park.

Yesterday morning we didn’t rush and were mostly ready to leave by 10.00 a.m. The mornings in Darwin are usually cool and fresh at this time of year, but when you are busy it is still possible to work up a sweat, which I did.

The Stuart Highway remains a four lane highway for quite a distance out of Darwin. That made for easy driving. We fueled up at a place out of the city. On our way there we noticed a supermarket not far from the caravan park. We had been looking for one on Google Maps, but the closest one we found was in Nightcliff. A reminder to search more diligently!

We had lunch in Batchelor next to a lovely green park. We were in deep shade and were quite comfortable for an hour or so. Our impressions of the place are that it is a pretty village. I read up on the history of the town. It seems that when our father worked at Rum Jungle the mine was quite new. Batchelor was the residential village for the workers. Marie and I lived there with our parents until we were 3 and 4 years of age. Then Daddy needed to go to a hospital in Queensland and Marie and I travelled in the care of the ‘air hostess’ to Perth to be with the grandparents, now living there. The grandparents lived just a few kilometres from Stephen’s family home in what was then Queens Park, but is now Cannington.

When we returned about 7 months later our parents were living in Alice Springs, and that is the town we remember.

Litchfield National Park

Batchelor is now The Gateway to Litchfield Park and thriving, with about four caravan parks, a general store, swimming pool and small, local population. The mine closed in 1971 and is one of the most polluted places in the world, according to the potted history I read. Fortunately, the National Park was established and has become a very popular place to visit.

Our impressions are that most attractions are contained in a much smaller area than Kakadu. We drove through the park slowly to our campsite at Florence Falls. It was very hot, so we waited until sunset to walk to the falls. Very beautiful, one of the best we have seen on our travels. We will go back this morning to take photos in daylight.

On the way here we also stopped at the Magnetic Termite Mounds. They are very different to the ‘cathedral’ mounds of other termites as they face north/south, with thin edges. They look a little bit like large tombstones. I’ll post some photos in a separate post.

Overnight we set up our new fan with the battery I had bought for it, so as not to draw on the van batteries. On the low setting it worked for nine hours straight. I switched it off towards morning as we were a bit cold. The battery was expensive, but I’m glad I bought it now as it has really proved it’s worth.

There are no campsites available in the park for the next week or so. We want to explore more of the places here, so have booked a night in the Batchelor Caravan Park. A powered site, as we are feeling the effects of the heat and it will be nice to be able to look forward to air conditioning at the end of the day.

Sunday 4^th August, 2024

On Friday we met up with cousin Marnie for lunch. She picked us up in her new car and took us to a pub on the beachfront. We had a lovely time catching up on news and getting to know each other again. She took us back in the late afternoon and we showed off our Sherwood.

Yesterday was a shopping day. I wanted to get a fan to help with getting cool air into the bedroom area. The air conditioning worked, more or less, plus the little fan in the dinette helped cool air to get up there. But, it is always partly blocked by Stephen.

I went for a Ryobi Fan and a battery. My hope is that when we are off grid it’s battery, plus the van batteries and our Delta Mini will be enough to keep it running all night. We tried it out last night and found we slept comfortably with the bedroom windows open and the air conditioner off. The humidity increases a lot at night, which meant that the fan was able to keep us both cool. By slanting the fan upwards it hits the roof and comes over Stephen and onto me. He gets it as well, of course.

The next thing was to get some food. I didn’t want to go to the big shopping centre, so we found a small centre not far from Bunnings in Nightcliff. Marnie had warned us that Monday is a public holiday (Picnic Day) and shops would not be open.

We spent time at another beachside location, then went to the Lee Point picnic area and did a walk along the beach to a bird hide. It was a lovely walk and there was no water in the swampy area that it passed through, but I was a bit worried about crocs. We decided to drive down to Buffalo Creek picnic area (where the walk ended, we only went part way along). Buffalo Creek is quite wide and deep and there are crocodile warning signs. Despite this people were enjoying hand fishing and crabbing, washing their fish in the water. There is a boat ramp and we saw a couple of small fishing boats being loaded onto trailers.

Some photos from Buffalo Creek

Then, home to a snack type meal and a bit of TV.

Today we’ve come to the Botanical Gardens. We arrived a little after 9.00 a.m. and met up with Marnie for a little walk and breakfast at the lovely café. We were unsure of what to do for the rest of the day, but decided in the end to stay in our shady parking spot and wait for the day to cool down a bit so we could explore more of the park. We had our normal breakfast of cereal as lunch.

I’ve settled in and I can understand why people like to visit here and live here as well, at least in the dry season. There are ways of keeping cool and if you wait until evening, or walk in the shade, it’s actually quite a lovely and a good place to relax.

We tried out the fan on the house batteries this afternoon. It needs 240v, so this was using it through the inverter. It uses surprisingly little power, with both fans going, plus running the fridge we were drawing about 25w. So, importantly, it will be good for keeping us cool when off grid. I tossed up whether to buy a camping type fan with an inbuilt battery, but I think this is a much better option. It’s a little chunky, but lightweight, and when it contributes so much to our comfort I don’t think we will mind having to stow it under the dinette when travelling.

Tomorrow we set off on our next adventure.

Wednesday 31st July and Thursday 1st August, 2024

We’ve spent a couple of days going out for lunch and keeping close to the beach to handle the heat. The mornings are usually quite fresh, with a good breeze, but shade is important.

We drove to three beachside areas on Wednesday, the Lee Point Beach, another beach with a French Cafe nearby, and a third beach for the late afternoon. Just to get a feel for things.

Yesterday we went back to the Museum Art Gallery and had a look at things we had missed, then had some lunch. Later we drove to the Mindil Beach Markets for a meal and eventually to see the sunset. Someone told us that there would be plenty of parking and we had no difficulties. I didn’t like the drive home in the dark, but we managed it and only missed one turning.

The nights still require some form of air conditioning as it doesn’t actually cool down until about 7:00 am.

Did I mention what we did on Tuesday? 30th July, 2024

We caught an Uber to a bus terminal at the Casurina Shopping Centre where we caught a bus into the city centre. Arriving a lunchtime it was obviously time for lunch and we found a food hall near the Mall. Then we went to the Legislative Assembly, a beautiful cream/white colonial style building with a very nice cafe. We caught a bus back to Casurina where we did some shopping before catching an Uber ride back to the caravan park. The driver was allowed to drive us right to our door.

This caravan is like a small village. Not only do we have an ensuite and laundry, we have our own bin. Today was rubbish collection day and the bins were put out on the verge for emptying.

Tuesday 30^th July, 2024

Sunday was a good day. We celebrated Stephen’s birthday by phoning in to our walking group as they were enjoying their brunch at Kaffiene. The group walks to the café, then back, or drives if they don’t feel up to walking. After a bit of a catchup they all sang Happy Birthday to Stephen for his birthday yesterday.

At lunchtime we walked across to the shopping centre opposite the caravan park and had a lovely roast dinner. I counted a total of six vegetables with pork and apple sauce. We voted it as good as an English pub carvery meal, though usually there are several types of roast meat on offer and it’s carved in front of you. Well done Coolalinga Tavern.

We did some shopping, including buying a cream filled sponge cake as a birthday cake.

In the evening during our Facetime call with Matt we put candles on the cake and pretended that he was helping Stephen blow them out. Stephen and I sang Happy Birthday, with Matt joining in ‘in spirit’ even if it was hard for him to sing.

Of course, yesterday, Monday, was actually Stephen’s birthday. We were leaving that caravan park and had booked a couple of nights at Lee Point Village Resort. It’s a very large caravan park and Lee Point has ocean on three sides, which doesn’t make it cooler, but makes us feel cooler psychologically. Unfortunately it’s beyond the bus routes, but we have options.

It was too early to book into our caravan park so we went to the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory to have coffee and perhaps lunch and also have a look through the exhibits. Starting with hot drinks, of course, on a beautiful balcony overlooking a park and the sea. There were lots of fighter aircraft overhead as there is a military exercise taking place here in Darwin. You can go the airport and watch them take off and land.

The artwork and natural science sections were the most interesting to me. There was also a whole section on the effect of Cyclone Tracy on the city all those years ago.

The café was very busy at lunchtime so we decided to go to the caravan park and have lunch in the van. We have an ensuite site, which sounds posh, but it’s a very basic ensuite with a concrete floor and no separation between toilet and shower and wash basin. Fortunately there is a good drainage system so we don’t wet the entire floor.

We also get a laundry trough which we are using to do dishes, but I can also use for handwashing. As getting things dry is easy in this climate I prefer to do handwashing most days, rather than chasing down a washing machine and having a huge wash.

We don’t have any shade, but otherwise it’s a pleasant section of the park overlooking grasslands and with a good view of sunrise.

As there was quite a saving in cost Stephen booked us into this park for a week. That gives us plenty of time to enjoy being here and catching up with my cousin Marnie. We will be here for Thursday and Sunday nights when we could go to the Mindil Beach Markets for a meal and to watch the sunset on the beach, as is traditional here in Darwin.

Friday 26^th and Saturday 27^th July, 2024

On our first day of travel we went to Mamukala Wetlands. Most of the area was covered in water lillies and had very few birds. A pity because the bird hide was excellent, allowing a great view and with deep shade and comfortable benches. Our next stop was for lunch at the West Alligator Rest Area. We didn’t see any crocs, but the little mud hopper fish on the edge were fun to watch. It was lunchtime, so we went back inside and had our usual salad, etc.

Mamaluka Wetlands

West Alligator River

Fogg Dam

Fogg Dam: the history is interesting. The dam was built as part of a failed project to grow rice in this region. Unfortunately, too much rain in the wet season and not enough in the dry meant it was a resounding failure. But, the resulting wetlands absolutely team with birdlife who don’t seem to be much disturbed by cars driving though.

The rest of the drive to Bark Hut Inn Roadhouse/Caravan Parkwas very long and tiring. We stopped to rest a couple of times, including at the western boundary of Kakadu. We arrive at Bark Hut after 4.00 p.m. and managed to secure a powered site. The idea was that you could choose your own camp spot near a post with power points. Campers had parked higgeldy piggeldy and it was hard to work out where we could camp in reach of electricity. Eventually we found a spot on the edge, on a slope that we were too tired to correct, and Stephen plugged us into water as well as power.

We had a semi comfortable night with the air conditioning running the whole time and set to dehumidfy. We had four bars of 4G, but it was very slow anyway. I though it wouldn’t work to set up the Starlink as south of us had two large trees. But, I did set up in the morning and we had quite good internet despite the trees.

Yesterday we travelled slightly off the Arnhem Highway to Fogg Dam. This has been on our list since we ran into people in Alice Springs who said it was wonderful. It did not disappoint. There is a dam wall that you can drive across to a viewing point. It was the middle of the day but the bird life was still amazing. There were signs prohibiting walking on the dam wall due to saltwater crocodiles, but we used the Sherwood as a bird hide and croc safe viewing platform to stop at the side of the road on the dam for lunch.

We opened up the windows so that we could photograph and use binoculars to view the birds. Stephen felt a bit nervous about having the window on his side wide open. I’m glad that he is now very cautious about crocs, not like when he was younger and decided to swim with the crocs at Katherine Gorge.

We didn’t actually see any crocs, but are aware that they hide just below the surface. One side of the dam had water and the other side was damp, with some pools and that is where most of the birds were.

Then it was time to head back to the main road and towards Darwin. We decided to take the first caravan park that had room, ideally an actual room or cabin. So we are now at Coolalinga Caravan Park about 30kms from the city.

We have very little internet and this morning when we were recovered from the journey we set up the Starlink. I’ve had the router and power block stickied to the Sherwood stove bench, so had to undo the sticky. We seem to have a good signal outside of our back door.

I’ve also done some handwashing and set it outside on our airer to drip dry. We’ve had a family next door using our car port (admittedly we can’t use it) and they were very noisy at times. But, today they have left.

We’ve decided to stay two nights here to get our bearings and decide where to stay closer to the city. We have quite a large room with three beds, a large dining table, a comfortable sofa, plus kitchen and bathroom. Stephen managed to get us a free upgrade to this space. Nothing fancy and the air conditioning is very noisy, but does a good job. We also have overhead fans and were able to sleep without leaving the air conditioning on. It shows the difference with a van in that the inside temperature is usually within a degree of the outside if you don’t either cool or heat inside. Whereas this place stayed cool from the air conditioning running for a few hours.

We do have air conditioning in the van, but are having to run it all night in order to sleep. We will stay in caravan parks with power until we get south enough for the nights to be cooler. It was 24 degrees overnight here, whereas Broome, for example, had the same day time temperature, but cooled down to 15 overnight.

Wednesday 24^th and Thursday 25^th July, 2024

Highlights of the past two days have been visiting Yellow Waters Wetland Park on Wednesday and dropping in at the Visitor’s centre, where we paid our park entry fees, going to Cahill’s Crossing Crocodile Viewing Platform, and visiting the Ubirr Rock art Site. Cahill’s crossing is a bit north of Jabiru, where we are based and the Ubirr site is just a bit further on from there.

It’s been over 30 degrees, with hot, humid nights, so not at all comfortable in terms of weather. It’s also been partly cloudy, which leaves us wishing it would storm and get it over with, however no rain is forecast.

However, we’ve made the best of our time here and in some ways it’s better to be sight seeing in the open air than sitting inside our little Sherwood in the noisy air conditioning.

We’ve also done a huge pile of washing that accumulated since Banka Banka and there is quite a good supermarket here in Jabiru where we’ve been able to stock up on food.

There are still sights to see on our way to Alice Springs and we’ve planned a night in a roadhouse caravan park for tonight as we will definitely need power for air conditioning in this hot spell. It cools down a little bit in the mornings, but too late to guarantee a good night’s sleep.

The wetlands was a very peaceful place to be, despite warning signs for crocs. It reminded us of visiting a similar place in England, with the wide fields and birdlife. You can take boat tours, but we preferred to follow the boardwalk to a small, shallow area where there was lots of birdlife. We saw the buffalos in the distance.

It was whilst we were there that someone told us about Cahill’s Crossing as a place to see crocodiles. The river is tidal and at high tide the crocs like to fish near a crossing.

On our way to Jabiru we followed signs to a couple of places on the way, but it was too hot for exploring on foot, so decided to get ourselves checked in at the caravan park.

Yesterday we did the washing and shopping before going to the Visitor’s Centre. We decided not to stay as there is no air conditioning, although with wide and deep open areas and a slight breeze it wasn’t too bad. We also spoke with someone at reception and got more information, including tide times. We paid our park fees at that point as well.

I really, really wanted to see crocodiles, enought to drive 40 kms to the viewing platform before we even thought of lunch. The viewing spot is well above the water, though many people were perched on rocks near the causeway, despite a sign saying there had been a fatal croc attack there.

I took many photos before realising my camera was set to over expose. Fortunately I caught it and could go back and take photos and videos with the correct exposure. A problem with switching between two cameras, both Sonys, but with different menus and controls. I use the Sony A7R IVa with a 24-240 lens for wildlife and a Sony A6700 with an 18-135 lens for everything else. The smaller A6700 is more responsive and I have to remember to wait a little for the large camera to focus or can get blurry photos. It’s a much more powerful camera with a larger sensor and high mg count.

The river water is muddy and the tidal rush very powerful, so the crocs had to work a little to maintain a position near the causeway. I didn’t actually see them catching fish, but sometimes they dropped out of sight, so perhaps that was after a catch. Or, they were moving in on the people below the platform.

We had bought a chicken and salad pack from the supermarket and found some tables and chairs at an old store which was now selling art and icecreams. There was a constant water spray on plants and that helped us to be a bit more comfortable as we were eating. We had icecreams as well, of course.

The Ubirr Rock Art site was well worth a visit, though I enjoyed the trees and other vegetation as much as the art works. It was only when processing the photos that I could see some of the paintings clearly.

Our caravan park has a swimming pool and bar, we looked in, but didn’t feel the need to stay. It is fairly casual, so attractive in that sense. There were lots of children enjoying the pool.