After 5 weeks in Darwin it was beginning to feel like home so leaving felt strange. I guess Darwin was our turning point. We are now on our way home.
On arriving in Darwin it was stocking up time, repairs and preparing for our10 days in Bali. We had an early surprise visit the day we arrived from Sally and Shaun from Hobart who had caravanned up the east coast and were on their way across the top to Broome. It was great catching up and sharing our stories. We spent a lovely day together at Berry Springs just south of Darwin.
Next Kathy and Lynden arrived to house sit our van while we were away. We had a couple of days with them, catching up and showing them around Darwin and of course our van. Wednesday July 30th after a lovely lunch at Cullen Bay marina with Sally Shaun Kathy and Lynden we boarded our evening plane for Bali.
Just 2 and a half hour flight on an Air North smallish plane we arrived in Bali just a few hours before Kelly, Luke and Luke’s parents. It was so exciting to be back in Bali and of course catch up with Kelly and Luke. We had not seen them since Easter. We had a wonderful time. Bali is back to the Bali of old, before all the dreadful events it’s faced in the last few years. It was good to see it thriving again and to be back with all the friendly Balinese people.
The time to head back to Darwin came too soon so we left Bali with a bit of reluctance. Kathy and Lynden had done a wonderful job of van sitting and we enjoyed a few more days with them before they headed back to the cooler weather of Hobart. We took them to Litchfield National Park where we enjoyed a lovely day. We swam at Florence Falls, Bulley Rockhole and the highlight of the day,our swim in Wangi Falls where we swam across the rockpool to the otherside and climbed up the rockface to a lovely warm pool. We laughed so much we were like little school kids.
Murray and I were now on our own again, but only for a few days as Monday 18th August I flew back home for a week where we celebrated mum and dads 50th wedding anniversary at our home on the Saturday afternoon. It was a wonderful celebration and we had all members of the bridal party present. Must also mention they arrived at our home by stretch limo which was a total surprise to them when the limo arrived to collect them.
Murray was happy to spend the week on his own in Darwin. He visited the Military and Aviation Museums, walked around Darwin while the Prado was serviced, did Mindil Market a couple of times, visited the dentist and generally filled in time.
Back in Darwin I was amazed at how much the weather had warmed up. The days were now into the mid 30’s and the humidity had increased so much that the locals were saying it was an early build up to the wet. It was pretty warm especially when the nights were only getting down to 27. For the first time we were beginning to wish we had air conditioning in the van, but we just had to rely on our little fan.
We spent our last few days visiting the museum, and learning about Cyclone Tracey, revisiting Mindil Market (think we got there 6 times not to mention Murrays 2 visits when I was away) a day on the beach, an evening at the outdoor picture theatre and wandering around a big cultural festival that was on at the Botanical Gardens.
From Darwin we headed into Kakadu for 5 nights. We headed to Merl Campground for the first night where we visited Ubir Rock for sunset. The next morning we did a boat cruise on the South Alligator River with a couple of aboriginal guides and set foot on Arnhem Land and learnt a little on their culture. A highlight of this trip was seeing the crocs feed at Cahill Crossing at high tide. Our little boat sat amongst them and as the tide was coming over the crossing with all the fish the crocs were having a feeding frenzy with crocs and fish jumping in all directions.
We then moved to Muirella Campground and visited Nourlangie Rock and art site, Arnbangbang Billabong and Sandy Billabong. We both really enjoy Kakadu. Some of these places we had visited last time so we revisited some of our favourites and added a few new. Believe it or not there is still plenty we haven’t seen and would love one day to do a tour into Arnhem land.
Our next stop was Cooinda Campground where we now had power and a swimming pool which was a nice relief as a couple of the days had reached 40. From here we did a tour into Jim Jim Falls and Twin Falls. We were extremely lucky as 5 people had cancelled from the tour so we were ‘it’, so we ended up with a very personalised tour and because of the way our tour leader arranged the day we were the only ones in at both of the falls. It was a great day. We had been sorry we‘d missed this last time but it was worth the wait. We swam in the huge plunge pool at Jim Jim but because of the crocs you cannot swim at Twin anymore. Think that was the more picturesque though and the only one still running.
Next day we drove ourselves into Gumlon Falls. A very pretty spot. After a 1 km climb to the top of the falls (it was a hot walk!) we spent the next 4 hours lounging around in all the rockpools. The main pool is perched on the edge of the escarpment with views back over the National Park – a truly spectacular spot! After the climb back down we cooled off in the huge rock pool at the base of the falls before driving back to Mary River Roadhouse where we camped out for our final night in Kakadu.
We are presently in Katherine for a few days before heading south to Tenant Creek where we have decided to head east to Cairns via the Gulf. Another part of this wonderful country we haven’t yet seen.
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