Katherine NT

Katherine NT

Monday 30/09/2013

Our first full day at Edith Falls. Our camp site was glorious, a high grassy spot with morning and afternoon shade. We all went down to the falls for a swim in the Plunge Pool. The signs are quite confusing to us. One sign said that the pool was open and then there was a sign warning of crocodiles. Apparently because the out flow river is so low the crocodiles cannot get into the Plunge Pool. Nicholas and the girls swam out to the waterfall and back. Angela was too scared of the prospect of a crocodile lurking somewhere! Good thing we have the noodles because it is 150m each way to the waterfall. 

The tiny dots are our brave swimmers on the return journey from the falls. It really was a long way.

Safely back on dry land.

The plunge pool is really huge. There was an island of rocks in the pool that the girls loved playing on. There was a stone wall someone had started and the girls continued to turn into a fort. If you sat on the edge of the pool the fish came up and nibbled at your feet. All well and good until one of them took a bigger bite and really hurt. Most of the fish were Archer fish, which spit water at insects to knock them into the water. There were also some freshwater Lontom that are very shy and look like Garfish. 

Edith Falls, more of a trickle at the moment!

Chelsea in her fort. 

It was daddy's fault that we did an afternoon walk on the trail to upper pools. The total walk was 2.6km and about half way was a swimming hole. By the time we reached the water hole the three littlest members resembled beetroot! They soon returned to normal colour after a swim above the falls. The water in the rock pools is much warmer than we expected. The sun on the rocks during the day generates so much heat that the large bodies of water become bath like. After the walk back down from the rock pools we were all in need of another swim and a bit of a lay down. 

Tuesday 01/10/2013

Another packup this morning. We are not planning on driving far today just into Katherine town to have a base to explore that area. Still there is time for a swim after packing up just to cool back down. 

When we drove through Katherine about five weeks earlier there was a lady running a popup cafe in a park. She was still there so we stopped for refreshment and to find somewhere to stay. That was easier said then done. There are lots of vacancies at every park but to find one that doesn't charge silly amounts for children is not an easy task. We are not sure what they think children cost, but one park was charging $10 extra per child per night on top of a site fee of $48. We found one that sounded great but when we looked at the sites they were totally unsuitable for our camper; it would have been impossible to setup in the tiny patch of space they called a site. We had found a camps app in the Apple apps store that has proved invaluable. It came to the rescue again locating a farm stay just a few minutes out of town. Probably the most difficult time we have had finding accommodation all trip. 

Following another setup we went in to swim at Katherine hot springs. Having already been to Mataranka hot springs Katherine was a bit of a let down. The water was not particularly hot, possibly not hotter than Edith Falls, and there  were a lot of other people to share a relatively small swimming hole with. European backpackers had setup their vans in the car park obviously with the intention of camping the night. The water was very clear and it was nice to cool off in the water. 

Wednesday we all drove out to Katherine Gorge. We met a park ranger in the car park who was admiring our car and he gave us the low down on what not to do in the park. It was too hot to go on most of the walks and the falls were not flowing much. We did one walk to the lookout which gave great views up and down the gorge from the top of the gorge wall. When we returned from the walk we were all ready for a swim. 

Cruise boat on Katherine Gorge. View down the gorge from the lookout. 

Looking up Katherine Gorge. 

The girls were really enjoying having a filled French stick for lunch and sharing it. It really is a simple way to prepare lunch for us all, and we can all eat together. 

The two foot long at our Subway. Really hits the spot with the girls. 

After another swim in the gorge we took a walk through the gorge interpretive centre. These centres are all put together very well and each one seems to have something new or different to learn. 

All in for a swim off the jetty at Katherine Gorge. 

We all enjoyed our hot day at Katherine Gorge.

Thursday means we are on the move again. Now we are heading south towards Alice Springs and Uluru. A long day in the car as we travel to Tennant Creek. 

Kakadu NT

Kakadu 

Tuesday 24/09

Having slept over at David and Jennie's house last night and been able to catch up with Rae and Keith Shrimpton briefly over a coffee, we packed up and said a final goodbye to David and Jennie to set off again on our journey. Keith rang and we made further plans to meet at the Darwin waterfront to see the oil rig come in. 

Waking up with a snake at Jennie's house. 

Down at the waterfront the oil rig was much smaller than anticipated, so after a walk around we sat and enjoyed some iced drinks out of the humid heat. The three girls especially loved talking to their nanny and poppy and hearing about some of the touring that they had done down the Gibb River rd and going Barra fishing at Bullo Station. Poppy even caught two barras and a ray. Good work poppy. 

All walking with nanny and poppy. 

The rest of the day was less eventful. Angela, Bianca and Chantelle did a grocery shop while Nicholas with Chelsea collected the camper before we drove on to Kakadu and in particular Jabaru. Some people tour Kakadu staying at two or three different camp spots and seeing the sights that way. We decided, with the view to reduce packup and setup times, to make a base at Jabaru and drive to the sights from there. Most of the sites are relatively close with the exception of a couple that we will see when we leave. 

Wednesday 25/09

Kakadu is hot, not just a little hot but a lot hot. The temperature doesn't just laze it's way to 37, it pretty much gets there by 0830 and stays around there until after sundown. 

This morning is a planing day. We had a look around Jabaru which is a town built to support the Ranger uranium mine. At the Kakadu visitor centre we selected the brochures of the sites that we wanted to see and the ranger talks that looked worth listening to. 

The heat of the day we spent around the resort pool even having our lunch by the pool. 

With a picnic dinner packed we went to Yellow water sunset ranger talk. The ranger mostly talked about crocodiles. Since they have been protected their numbers have risen to pre hunting numbers though it will be another 20-30 years before we will get to see crocodiles  to the size that were hunted, up to 6m long!  The sunset was spectacular possibly helped by fires burning in the west. It wasn't until sunset that the Yellow Waters resident croc made an appearance. The rangers affectionately call him fluffy, it is definitely a him because he is over 3.5m and fluffy because he once brought a softened pig carcas out of the water and shook the pig until the carcas fell apart and the wild pig hair fell all about the place making the bank look fluffy. Nicholas was the first to spot him in the distance then he swam right up to the pontoon we were standing on not 8m way from us. Definitely the closest encounter with a wild croc so far. 

Yellow Waters sunset. 

That's Fluffy cruising past. Almost 4m long and only needs a meal every three months. Can dissolve an animal in its stomach bones and all!

Thursday 26/09

Ubirr in the morning for ranger series starting 09:00 about the local rock art. Looking at the art it is some of the most impressive rock art we have ever seen. One section of art is the complete menu for the area. Ranger Annie, our guide, gave great explanation of the art and what it means. The talks were supposed to be complete by 1030 but Annie kept the interest of all the children in the group until she wrapped it up at about 1140. With what she said a lot more of the aboriginal culture makes sense to Angela and Nicholas. 

Annie explained about the 'skin' names and how the 8 male and 8 female skin names interact and in some cases cannot interact. Annie said that this name system is the same for all tribes and clans in Australia and it kept the genes strong. We were going to a line painting demonstration but Annie talked so long that we missed it, reports were not positive from others that did do the painting. 

In the afternoon we drove to Nourlangie for 'Jigsaw in time'; 'Law, Land & Family', 'Views of country and culture' ranger discussions. 

Jigsaw in time explained how archeologists had excavated a rock shelter site and found artifacts dating back 22000 years. Yet they have been able to talk to aboriginal people today and they know how the stone axe they found was made, what wood was used for the handle and where the stone can be found. That is why the Australian Aboriginal culture is the oldest living culture on the planet. The Australian Aboriginal was using stone tools millennium before any other culture. 

The Law, Land and Culture talk covered such things as cultural punishment for breaking law, cultural laws and why the laws are important and how the laws make good sense. Some of the laws related back to skin names and that aborigines couldn't marry people with certain skin names or even be close to people with certain skin names. Even today some aboriginal people are not sure how to relate to someone until they know their skin name and how they relate to other known people. 

Views of country and culture told us about various stories and how those stories explain various rock formations. This talk was from a bluff lookout and we were sitting around on the hot rock. The ranger pointed out some of the distant ranges that even today aboriginal people will not travel to or near. Some of the areas are sickness country where people that spend time there become unwell, scientists have found that some of these areas have high radiation, ie Ranger uranium mine. Some areas are inhabited by bad spirits from the dreaming time. 

View of Country from the bluff. 

Friday 27/09

This morning we ventured back towards Yellow Waters and the Warradjan cultural centre for a weaving demonstration. A lady was set up there with pandanus fronds to teach tourists how to weave. The weave style is to knot a single pandanus strand around a bunch of pandanus strands to make a bracelet. Traditionally this style was used to make baskets and other useful items. Some knotting strands had been coloured using traditional methods to makes yellow, orange, purple, and brown. Chelsea, Chantelle, Bianca and Nicholas each made a bracelet, and at the end the lady gave Angela two. In the cultural centre gift shop they were selling bracelets for $20 or a basket for $160. 

The bracelet makers and tutor. 

It was too hot in the afternoon to do anything other than swim in the resort pool again. 

Saturday we left early to take the 4x4 only road to Twin Falls. From the car park at Twin Falls there is a short walk to a boat shuttle that takes you up the croc river to the next bit of the walk. The river is a no go area for local aboriginal people. They won't swim or fish in the river, though there is a cave in the gorge that is used for male initiation ceremonies. We are told by the boat operator that there is no swimming in the gorge, not just because of crocs but to respect the culture. 

Looking towards Twin Falls from the boat. 

The walk up the gorge was up over boulders and quite strenuous. Another family had caught our boat and we followed them up the gorge wearing thongs and carrying containers of water. No match for our sturdy hiking shoes, camel packs and little packs of dried fruit. When we got there twin falls was berely flowing, too late in the dry season. Oh well we will just need to come back one day. Even with all the requests to stay out of the water there were obvious signs of foot prints in the water. 

Two crocodiles and one swimmer. 

Fish swimming at Twin Falls and footprints in the water. 

A crocodile trap. These are baited with a very smelly pig leg that the rangers 'collect' from the bush when required. 

Sunday 29/09

Our first packup for two weeks went surprisingly smoothly and we were on the road around 0900. Today we are heading for Edith falls in Nitmiluk NP near Katherine. 

On the way out of Kakadu we stopped at Gunlom. Probably the last notable Kakadu attraction that we had not yet seen. We walked up the rock face to the pools above the falls. Even though all the stories say that crocodiles don't follow rules we swam in the pools above the falls quite safely. Even in the natural infinity pool. After a picnic at the bottom of the falls we continued to Edith Falls. 

Gunlom infinity pool. 

Refuelled car and passengers at Pine Creek just before Edith falls at a highly rated cafe/bar/restaurant/resort. Not much else at Pine Creek. We were just 80km shy of our destination. 

Darwin NT week two

IMonday 09/09

After a extremely busy weekend Monday needed to be a bit low key, so Angela and Nicholas could recover. The morning was spent getting things done around camp and some more school work (we keep adding about school work into the blog in case any of the girls' teachers are reading). 

At the caravan park we are using bore water. The water has an interesting taste almost salty and maybe slimy. As we were driving past Bunnings we popped in to see about a water filter. We were in luck, there was an inline water filter with hose type connections. Having the filter made a huge difference to the taste of the water. Though if we put water in the freezer and the water froze the last little bit of water that didn't freeze was super salty. (Mrs Shrimpton's grade can you work out why the unfrozen water was so salty?)

We also happened upon a great cafe in Palmerston, it's called Ben and Sam's and the drinks and cakes are very good, iced coffee was top shelf. 

Bianca catching up on her portfolio at the cafe. 

Tuesday 10/09

Angela is a bit nervious today, she is having her haircut by students at Charles Darwin University! Nicholas is terrified because while Angela has her treatment Nicholas is taking all three girls for Chelsea and Bianca to have haircuts, pressure. We dropped off Angela at CDU and wished her luck. The salon was extremely well appointed and some of us felt confident and if it didn't go well there was months for it to grow out (or back) before we got back home. 

Chelsea and Bianca's haircuts went well and while we waited for Angela the four of us went to the Palmerston Library to catchup on some reading and update apps on the iPads. We finally got the call that the students had finished with Angela's head so we nervously decamped from the library and drove back to CDU. What a great job the student did on Angela's head. A very professional finish and equal to any at a qualified salon, probably due to the close tutor supervision. Apparently the mannequin next to Angela was not so lucky!

Because we were looking so dapper with fresh haircuts we went back into Darwin to the Art Gallery, Museum and Cyclone Tracy Display. The museum had a great children's discovery centre (school just does not stop on holidays). The girls learnt about never ending reflections, fulcrum theory, magnetic objects and inherited traits. The museum also had lots of preserved animals to look at from the NT. The cyclone exhibit had a history of the build up to Tracy through to the reconstruction effort led by Major-General Alan Stretton. There was a sound booth that continuously played a recording of the wind noise of Tracy at the same volume when she passed over Darwin Christmas Day 1974. To enhance the effect the room was blacked out making the experience quite frightening. 

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/fact-sheets/fs176.aspx

Wednesday 11/09

Our car is due to be ready for collection latter today. We had promised the girls that we would spend a day at Leanya water park with a BBQ lunch. The two water parks in Darwin are free and operated for the government by YMCA. Leanya is a monstrous water park. There are three water slides, a massive play area that shoots, drops, or spurts water at you from every angle and a massive swimming lagoon. The play area is topped with a huge bucket that fills then dumps 100s of litres of water on the play equipment with enough force to knock people over. The girls had so much fun spending the day there, oh and mum and dad might have had a bit of fun too! 

The water park. Note the no smoking sign? If you smoke the bucket of water drops on you. 

The water slides. The red one was completely dark inside, a bit scary for some of us!

We left Leanya with just enough time to get to pickup our car, disappointed that they didn't wash the car for us. We were meeting David and Jennie for dinner but before dinner we stopped at the Darwin Botanic Gardens. These gardens were flattened by Tracy in 1974, the curator was away and he reportedly cried when he returned to see the devastation. The gardens have recovered well and some of the trees flattened by Tracy have regrown so have a horizontal trunk before a vertical trunk begins. Nature is so clever to enable a tree to recover like that with half it's roots exposed. 

We met David and Jennie at their house to go out for dinner. Archimedes had recovered from his feed and was happy to be handled again, he is one tolerant snake. We went to dinner at Tim's a local restaurant in the CBD, with Archimedes! This snake causes quite a stir where ever he goes. There were some US marines off a boat in harbour two were happy to hold but one was happy to take photos. Nicholas tried crocodile which was similar to chicken although drier and stronger when cutting across the grain. We said our farewells to David and Jennie at Tim's because we expected that to be the last time we would see them on this trip. 

Nicholas and Archimedes out to dinner!

Thursday 12/09

Today we drop the hire car back at the airport. Darwin airport whilst tiny has some innovative ideas. The airport gives you 15 minutes free parking! Yes you can park for 15 minutes to pickup or drop off with out having to take out a second mortgage. 

We went back to the library at Palmerston and the girls read some more books and Angela finalised our trip to Bali. Last Sunday we saw deals to Bali that were very reasonable. Yesterday we visited a travel agent and started the ball rolling. By the afternoon Thursday the flights and accommodation is fully booked and tomorrow we collect the tickets and vouchers and we leave on Monday. Oh and yes we did bring all the passports with us, you just never know. 

 

Friday 13/09

Friday the thirteenth so more school work to be completed. We really are trying to keep the three girls fresh with maths and English; history, geography and SOSE are pretty much taken care of with what we are seeing and experiencing on the adventure. 

After a swim and ice drinks at cafe at the caravan park we headed back into Darwin to collect our travel documents (and confirm that all names are correct and included) before Monday. We are all very excited (and a little nervous) at the thought of, as Chelsea expressed it, "going on holiday from our holiday". The camper will stay at Tumbling Waters and the car will stay at David and Jennie's apartment. 

We had dinner at the Palmerston Street Market. Angela had heard about this market and had not given it much more thought. As we were driving back we drove right into the middle of it. Finding a car park was a challenge but the food was fantastic. It seems that the Mindil market moves to Palmerston on Friday. After dinner Angela went on search of fruit for dessert. She came back with more watermelon and heaps of paw paw. The stall holder just kept giving her free ones. So yummy. 

Easier to find a patch of grass than a car park. 

Saturday 14/09

Since the repairer wouldn't wash our car we did and it took most of Saturday morning. There was dust EVERYWHERE! When the water hit the thickest of dust it ran like deep red blood and almost the same consistency. Somewhere someone said, "dust is just mud with the juice squeezed out" and we rehydrated lots of mud. Nicholas tackled the outside, Angela attacked the inside and our three helpers flitted between jobs helping each of us with what needed doing. By the time we finished the car was gleaming again inside and out, again. The lack of carpet was proven a good thing yet again. 

Sunday 15/09

We started packing today which proved more difficult than we expected. We only have two bags suitable for putting under a plane and they are full of Angela's and Nicholas' clothes. We played Tetris moving what we don't need into every conceivable space and squooshed the girls clothes in where they will fit. Packup tomorrow will be difficult with things that need to be kept out and packed for easy access when we get home. 

Tumbling Waters do a roast dinner each Sunday and we booked in for dinner for the five of us. For a small cafe they certainly did a good roast and us being short of a campfire and oven we have no way to produce a roast. The girls had been missing having a roast and this really filled that void. 

Bali, Indonesia

You've been to Paris and you've been to Boston 

You've been to Fiji and you've been to London 

But you can't impress me coz I've been to Bali too. 

Redgum

Monday 16/09/2013

The pack up was excruciating, maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the change to the sequence that we usually follow but this pack up took us ages. Sleeping bags needed to stay out of the trailer and be packed in the car as they would be needed on our return, other things needed to be packed differently. With the camper packed, finally, we were able to give that a wash too. The dust had set like concrete inside the wheels and there was a distinct red tinge to the entire camper. 

After lunch we headed toward the airport, but first we had to stop off at the Cash for Containers depot and sell the girls' containers which we had been collecting. The three ladies were very happy to trouser $1.20 each from their stash. They were rightly happy with their efforts. Nicholas dropped all the ladies off at the airport then took the car and locked it up for the next week. 

Just after 17:00 we took off for Indonesia. We landed in Bali about 21:00 and were safely in our hotel by 21:30. Tomorrow our adventure extension begins. 

Tuesday 17/09/2013

The girls were awake ridiculously early for being on holidays. We had a yummy breakfast at the hotel before we headed out to explore the local streets. We all walked down the streets and even a couple of alleys to explore the new surroundings. The footpaths were very narrow and had cars and bikes parked on them so you had to walk on the road. There were manhole covers missing on the footpath and the water sitting under the street assaults your senses. The traffic is all over the place, every taxi that passes toots in hope of a fare (safe to assume that if the taxi in front didn't get the fare you probably won't but let's toot anyway), the motorbikes drive all over the road (the line in the middle is a suggestion only), the bikes will pass on the left or right of a car and travel down the wrong side of the road tooting all the way. The girls found it quite confronting especially when we were forced to walk single file on the road. Every street hawker tried to get you into their stall because the stall next door is selling the exact same stuff. 

View of the hotel pool from our floor. 

We were back at the hotel at 09:30 to meet with one of the tour operators to arrange some tours. Even being back at the hotel at that time we had been out for 90 minutes! We booked a culture tour for Wednesday and an Elephant Safari for Friday. To book a guide, a driver and a car for the day cost $110, costs that much to get to the airport in a taxi in Melbourne. 

After conducting our business transactions in the hotel lobby we headed back out to collect some supplies. Anything produced local is very cheep, 600ml bottle water cost $0.30, bag of chips $0.45, 100ml hand cream $0.50, can of soft drink $0.65. We had a great explore for the day. We ate lunch at a local bakery coffee shop and went along the Kuta boardwalk to find somewhere for dinner. 

Wednesday 18/09/2013

The country side tour was today. Our driver picked us up very promptly at our hotel just before 0830, this was in stark contrast to our experience in Darwin. (Nicholas is still awaiting a phone call about our battery charger from an auto electrician 2.5 weeks after dropping it off. The upside he ordered one online and it has already waiting for us with David). Because this was a personal tour were in complete control of what we see, how long we stay at each place and any impromptu stops along the way. Our first stop was to look at Batik. Batik is the colouring of cloth using wax to restrict dye from reaching areas of cloth to complete a design. It is a very clever craft that is passed down a family. 

The next stop was to see silver jewellery being made by hand. There are no gold or silver mines in Bali so all precious metal has been traded with other areas for centuries. The whole process of making jewellery is very manual and each element is tiny. Some of the balls that they decorate with are smaller than a pin head. We looked through the shop, Chantelle was keen to find a necklace and pendant and after almost 20 minutes Chantelle couldn't find quite the one she wanted. We are not sure if the lady was happy to see us leave or upset that she had spent so long with us with no sale!

We went to a traditional dance performance. Thankfully we were also given a sheet explaining what was going on, without it we would have no idea. Even with the sheet it was hard to follow at times. The costumes were spectacular and the makeup on the dancers would require paint stripper to remove it at the end of each performance. The story was basically good versus evil, and evil was never destroyed only beaten to fight again another time. The performance went for about an hour and held the interest of all girls.

Creature from the Balinese dance

We stopped to see wood caving as the last stop before lunch. They carve beautiful figures out of sandalwood, ebony, teak by holding the timber with their feet and taking to it with chisels. Chantelle was very interested in staying at the workshop to finish the carvings with sandpaper. All timber, we were assured, was sourced sustainably from elsewhere not on Bali. 

Wood carving or toe carving?

Lunch was at a restaurant overlooking the two active volcanos on Bali island. Lunch was a flat $15 per person. Our guide helped us with ordering lunch so that we didn't need to pay full price for the children. Lunch was a mighty spread! There was all manner of Balinese food on offer, some hot, spicy and some mild. Lunch included soups and desserts. We all had a good fill. The view of the volcanos made it easy to see where the last eruption in 1994 left new rock on the landscape. Being so high up in the hills the temperature was much cooler than down at Kuta, we almost needed a jumper. 

Volcano, sleeping today. 

After lunch our guide took us through terraced rice fields. The fields were terraced at least 800 years ago when hini came to Bali. Most of the fields have been owned by the same family all those years. The rice crops, three each year, are food for the family that owns the field, very little rice is sold outside the family. Like the rice paddies the house compounds are handed down from generation to generation. The family all live in a walled compound that contains several houses and a temple. There they live with three or four generations. The older generation look after the youngest generation while parents work. 

Rice fields. 

Our final stop for the day was the Monkey Forrest. The monkeys were every where! The monkeys stole all manner of paraphernalia from tourists. We saw one monkey taking a swig from hand sanitizer that it had stolen and taken the lid off. At least if that one bit you there would be little to worry about. 

 

Nice monkey hat Chelsea. 

How do you get a monkey off your back?

Thursday 19/09/2013

Down the road from our hotel, just a short walk, is the Waterbom park. We went and spent the whole day there together. Entry is priced out of the reach of locals so it really is only for tourists. What a park to spend the day at! There was only one ride that the girls were too little for, and thankfully it was a ride that they really had no interest in. Chantelle went on every ride that she could go on at least twice and some more times than could be easily counted. Some of these rides went so quick that you actually could get airborne on the way down. 

Bianca was somewhat more restrained and left off some of the faster more thrilling rides. Chelsea went on the rides that she was comfortable with and stuck with the ones that she liked. Angela was dragged by the children from ride to ride. At one point we lost Angela and Bianca. When we found them they were enjoying a ride on this thing that looked like a giant plug hole. 

Just been down the Super Bowl. See how white Chelsea's knuckles are! We had to prize her hands off the raft. 

Mum took dad for a ride on the Super Bowl. 

We had a great day at the park but neither Nicholas or Angela would go on the Climax. The Climax is like riding down a straw! You step into a tube the door is closed then the floor falls away and you drop vertical for several metres. Thanks but no thanks. Nicholas did convince the children that he did it until he confessed. 

The Climax in the foreground. Bianca and Chantelle are at the top of the tower to go down the racer slide. 

The girls spent ages playing playing around this equipment. 

The water slide tower. Chantelle tried EVERY slide on this tower. 

Friday 20/09/2013

Another early start this morning because we were heading to the elephant safari park to ride elephants. Everyone was super excited. It took about 90 minutes to negotiate the traffic and roads to get to the safari park. There are 30 rescued elephants that live at the park and several babies that have been born there. The elephants have been rescued from the Sumatran loggers and brought to Bali to live. 

Our elephant ride took us out into the jungle for an hour as the beast miandered along the path. Angela and Nicholas were on Rama, the parks biggest bull elephant and Chelsea, Chantelle, and Bianca were on Amika. Rama needed to lighten the load and took a wee and a poo on the way. It was like a fire hose had been turned on and the other sounded like cantaloupe being dropped. When you eat that much it has to come out some way!

The small people on the elephant.

 Us all on elephants. 

After the ride we watched the elephant show. Very clever animals. They were able to do math, play soccer, walk a log,  sit on the log and wet the audience!

That log must be reinforced.  

The other way to ride an elephant. 

There was a new elephant born there in June and we were able to right up close to it while we were there. The mother didn't seem to mind too much about the tourists interacting with her new baby. A very cute little guy. 

How cute is that little guy?

Saturday 21/09/2013

Today was our pampering day. Almost three months on the road and we have had little more than a haircut for our bodies. In Kuta every 10m there is some one wanting to give you a massage, cut your nails, rub your feet or braid your hair, sometimes quite forcefully. Nicholas was grabbed by the arm once and the girl was told in no uncertain terms to go away and let him go. 

Nicholas and Angela had looked at several places quite thoroughly and had pretty much settled on one but Angela had decided on a pedicure for herself at the hotel. We all went out for a walk after breakfast and while Angela and the girls went to check one last place Nicholas visited Jodie's for his treatment. Nicholas went information the works! A sports manicure, sports pedicure and full massage for $17. A relaxing seat in the chair with two young girls working on his hands and feet. They really should have inspected and quoted first. After three months of setting up tents, moving rocks and sticks and having generally filthy hands there was a lot of work to be done. His feet were even worse with big ugly cracks, yuck. And yes Nina we have some of that cream.

While Nicholas was out the back having his massage he thought he could hear Angela's voice in the front but wasn't sure. As it turned out it was Angela who had brought the girls into Jodie's for Bianca and Chantelle to have their hair braided. Bianca had a full head and Chantelle had the top only done. We all met up for a lunch of leftovers from the previous nights dinner. 

After lunch Nicholas took the three youngest girls down for a swim while Angela had a pedicure at our hotel. Angela enjoyed a little bit of time for herself with a magazine while someone worked on her feet, that weren't quite as ugly as Nicholas'. When Angela was done her feet looked beautiful, fresh and deep red. 

We took the girls back to Jodie's for a kids manicure and pedicure before dinner but all the manicurists were busy on other hands and feet, so we went for dinner at a traditional Balinese restaurant. The meal was delicious and the staff really looked after us particularly helping us order just enough food. Had we been left to order ourselves we would have had way too much food!

Back to Jodie to have the kids manicure and pedicure which included nail polish on both fingers and toes then flowers. They were all lined up in their chairs being worked on. What a sight, what a treat!

A picture of loveliness. 

Pretty flowers, or strange fungal growth. 

Sunday 22/09/2013

Today we explored the local beach, streets and markets. A short walk through some narrow streets and past a makeshift (or maybe perminant) rubbish tip we walked out onto the beach. One thing the the children have found difficult to deal with was the street vendors all trying to get your attention or coming up loaded with goods trying to flog what ever they have to off load. Some of the items are so obviously knockoffs like the Geelong football club jumper with the logo that looked like the slazenger cat, or the shorts that are labeled one brand but have a button from another brand or shoes that are constructed with all leather upper but are canvas (some new sort of canvas style leather perhaps). 

The walk along the beach was beautiful with traditional fishing boats on the beach and kites flying. The surf looked fabulous also. Occasionally we would come across small piles of rubbish being burnt on the beach. After a bit the shacks stopped and the resorts started right on the beach front really nice looking resorts. Eventually we headed up into the shopping area, where proper shops are located. We found one that had young girl beachware and we found new bathers for each of the girls and a few other bits and pieces. 

Beach shelters for hire. 

Fishing boats. 

Down a few more streets we came to the main market area. Most of the market stalls sell all the same clothes, in the same style and the sizes are all big. The size thing might say something about the Aussie tourist that come to Bali? Most of the shorts that Nicholas saw were size 38 and up. He did manage to find some in his size but the attendants were struggling. Same story with shoes all small sizes and nothing that would fit Nicholas' big feet. Angela found a pair of casual shoes but aha in they had to do the run around to find a pair that would fit. 

Our last night in Bali we headed out to a different area of town fr a feed. The girls were pretty much done with spicy food so we found a place that had all types of food styles. We had dinner at a quiet local restaurant and we all had something yummy to eat. 

Darwin NT week one

31/08-10/09/2013

Saturday 31/08

The car left Litchfield on the back of a tow truck. A broken shock absorber has brought us to this reality. To add to the woes RACV did not tell AANT that there were five people to bring out so the tow truck didn't have a crew cab! Angela and the girls were left at Litchfield until Nicholas could drop the camper at the caravan park, car at the repairer, collect a hire car and get back to his ladies. The girls found a cool place at Litchfield, Buley Rock hole, to spend the day until Nicholas returned. Since there was no mobile coverage at Litchfield we used our handheld radios to raise each other when in range. 

A very sad sight with the beast getting a piggy back. 

Nicholas did not get back to Litchfield until almost 4pm. Driving from Litchfield to Darwin is like driving from Melbourne to Traralgon and Nicholas did that drive three times! The only hire car available was a Hyundi Getz, and when driving back to Litchfield it Getz going pretty quick!

It was late by the time we got back to the caravan park, all of us, so after completing the setup we headed off to the park cafe for dinner. No one felt much like cooking after a day like that.

Sunday 01/09

Fathers' Day

It was an early start for Nicholas who was jumped on early by three girls "Happy Fathers' Day daddy!" Nicholas was well spoilt for the morning and was surprised how well the girls kept the secret in such confined space. Nicholas' snooping skills need some refining obviously. We headed out to explore Darwin. Casuarina Shopping centre is Darwin's largest. The girls had some Dymocks vouchers to spend, Nicholas needed a haircut and there were some groceries required for us to eat again. 

We still had some time up our sleeves before dinner so we went to Mindil Beach Market for a wander through in preparation to eat dinner there Thursday night. These markets are a fantastic collection of food outlets of every nationality conceivable, trinkets, touristy things, handcrafts, and services. The girls settled on a DIY slushy, Nicholas got some hot sauce, Angela got a pool dress and Bianca and Chantelle found 'onesies' to match Chelsea's. 

DIY slushies at Mindil market by three!

We were meeting Nicholas' brother David and his wife Jennie for dinner at the Trailer Boat Club Darwin; on the recommendation of the Hinchcliffe's who we met at Longreach. The Boat Club had a view over the water and we secured a table with a uninterrupted view of the coming sunset. David and Jennie joined us with their pet, Archimedes, the NT Carpet Python! Yes we had a snake at our table! Chelsea, Chantelle and Bianca took to him like he was a puppy, Angela is not a fan of things slithery and Nicholas was happy to have the snake wrap around him when he could. 

Archimedes is 20 months old and 110cm long, and will grow to 300cm when fully grown and could live 25 years. A very sensible pet when you think about it, he eats only once entry three weeks, and goes to the toilet very infrequently (and small). Archimedes can be left home alone for a week with no problem. The council doesn't require you register that pet. Perfect. 

Bianca and Archimedes were inseparable.  

The sunset did not disappoint! The meal was sensational, great suggestion Hinchcliffes, and after ten years in Darwin David and Jennie had not been there before. After dinner we all went back to David and Jennie's apartment for coffee and a puppet show by Chelsea. What a great location they have, walking distance to Darwin city and the waterfront. 

Sunset over Darwin Harbor. 

Monday 02/09

A day for getting things done and catching up on some schoolwork. Nicholas chased down what was happening with the car and needed to make many phone calls. After a big day of school work the girls celebrated with ice cream!

Tuesday 03/09

Our car is lost! Our car was collected from the first repairer to where AAMI wanted it quoted. Nicholas rang the repairer and the car was not there, and they knew nothing about a car coming from AAMI. After several phone calls the car was located late in the afternoon at another repairer, who had no paperwork or any idea what needed to be done to our car. Great AAMI a full day lost on the car. 

The family all spent the afternoon at the Darwin Waterfront wave pool. The Waterfront is a family friendly entertainment area that really works in Darwin. Most weekends there is some sort of activity on at the waterfront area. The wave pool goes all day with lifeguards and cost just $16 for a full day for families. There is also a free beach area that is patrolled and is safe for swimming away from stingers and crocodiles. Lots of green open space to picnic on, some restaurants, hotels and apartments. This precinct works so much better than Docklands in Melbourne due to the weather and outdoor culture of Darwin. There were more people at the Waterfront on a Tuesday afternoon than at Docklands most weekends!

Boogie boarding in the wave pool. 

Go little grommet hang loose. 

On the way back home we stopped at the repairer to collect something's from the car but the repairer had moved to new premises, and not updated the details anywhere. What is more they had misspelt the name of their new street on a sign on the door, putting it a long way away. Have a look in Darwin for McMinn st and then McMinns drv, a big difference adding an S to your street name. 

Wednesday 04/09

Territory wildlife park is just up the road from where we were staying. We spent the whole day there. The wildlife park is huge! There is a bus train to take us from exhibit to exhibit. We started with Angela's favorite Australian animal group, reptiles in the nocturnal house. There was everything in this building, frogs, snakes, native rodents and bats. The girls had fun trying to find the animals in each exhibit. We found most of them. Some were either missing, eaten by enclosure mate or had very extreme camouflage.

Port the Tawny Frog Mouth. 

Next we walked to the flight deck to watch the bird handler with his birds. They demonstrated many birds and how they hunt and fly. There was one bird that quite liked to eat emu eggs and has learned to use a stone to break open the thick egg and eat the contents. Then the barn owl came out and demonstrated its silent flight. There is no noise from its wings even when it flaps, amazing. The Brolga came and flew around and picked up food from the pond. Nicholas' personal favorite Australian bird the wedgetail eagle was brought out. In the north these birds are a lot smaller than they are in Vic and Tas. Down south they need larger bodies to keep warm in winter! We were even able to have our photo taken with it.  

In coming Jabaru. 

Wedgetail Eagle with keeper. 

After a lunch break there was a meet the keeper at the flight aviary. The keeper brought with him a tawny frog mouth, which was young and was yet to be named, Nicholas suggested Port; and a mouse for the blue winged kookaburra. There was also meal worms to feed the other ground dwelling birds. Surprisingly the small girls quite enjoyed feeding the wriggling worms to the birds. The native thick knee bird particularly enjoyed the meal worms. Though the name of this bird is not actually correct because the thick knobbly bit is the ankle not the knee. 

Meal worms wriggling between fingers and down bird necks. 

After the flight aviary we took the bus train to the aquarium exhibit. There were many tanks depicting the different wetland environments that exist in the NT. There is an extensive collection of fish from tiny little fish lungs to barramundi, rays and sawfish. And of course there is the very large tank with the estuarine crocodile relaxing in it. Seeing one up close it is easy to see how they are such an efficient hunter. When they move through the water they hardly make a ripple on the surface and their month is so large it could grab even the largest of prey without effort. People are still dangerously complacent about these beasties, even some locals. Just the previous weekend a local was taken while attempting to swim across a known croc river. 

Who's a pretty boy then? 

Thursday 05/09

We found the repairer and the car and have taken what we need out of the car and Nicholas tried to sort out the repairs so that parts didn't need to come from the UK taking five weeks! More phone calls to repairers and trying to get hold of the assessor to make arrangements. 

We visited the WWII Oil Tunnels. Some things never change in government projects over the years. After one of the bombing raids over Darwin (more on that later) officials realised that their oil storage was vulnerable to attack. If you stick millions of litres of oil in big tanks on the ground the Japanese pilots can easily see them and target them on their bombing raids. Idea build secret subterranean storage bunkers near the harbour capable of storing millions of litres of oil safe from the Japanese bombs. Should only cost, what, a budgeted 200000 pounds. Close, the final bill was 1.1 million pounds (Myki)!

Inspecting the oil tunnels. 

They were very big. 

On the morning of 19 February 1942 Darwin was attacked by Japanese airplanes. The same squadron attacked Darwin as attacked Pearl Harbor only weeks prior. The attack was lead by the same Japanese commander. More Japanese planes attacked Darwin than attacked Pearl Harbor, more bombs were dropped on Darwin and more ships sunk in the attack on Darwin. And yet very little is known by Australian's of these attacks from north QLD, across to Katherine, Darwin, Wyndham, and down to Broome in WA. 

After lunch we took the historical walking tour of Darwin city. These tours are usually referred to hysterical walking tours. The tour took us past some interesting buildings and local history from WWII and Cyclone Tracey. Darwin city is very quaint in comparison to Melbourne or Sydney. The CBD doesn't cover more than four or six blocks and because of the cyclone threat no really tall buildings. Darwin CBD has been remodelled by two significant events, WWII and Cyclone Tracy. 

We finished the day with dinner at Mindil market. The food is so yummy and so spoilt for choice. Chelsea had the seafood platter that she had been salivating about since Sunday, Chantelle and Bianca shared some fresh Chinese, Angela enjoyed a seafood laksa and Nicholas had a pig and fig roll. We finished off the meal with some fresh fruit. 

Chelsea and her sea food platter. 

Dinner picnic at Mindil market in several sittings. 

Friday 06/09

Friday was another school work morning then on to visit the Palmerston Water Park as reward for a full morning at 'school'. At the water park we bumped into Jeff and Tamara and children who we had met at Adel's grove. While all the children played together the adults were able to enjoy some adult conversation. We caught up with their trip from Lawn Hill to Darwin, and they had been to Kakadu on the way to Darwin. We got a good insight into what to see and do when we get to Kakadu. 

Racing our friends down the slide racer. It recorded which lane came first. 

Saturday 07/09

Another big day out today. We left Tumbling Waters early and headed into Darwin. We came across Parap Market and had to stop for a browse. Some delicious food for tasting and we purchased some tubs of NT fudge. Mmmmm very good!

After some lunch we met Jennie at the Waterfront for the popup zoo and endangered animals display. This is one of the wonderful activities that the water front precinct puts on most weekends. We were able to hold a little freshwater crocodile, pat a leatherback turtle that was swimming in a kiddie pool,  learn how to identify cane toads and about a giant moth that a foundation is trying to improve numbers of in Darwin. 

Auntie Jennie kissing a crocodile. 

Leather back turtle swimming in its exhibit. 

Chantelle with a blue tong lizard. 

After the zoo we all went bak to Jennie's house to feed Archimedes, a frozen mouse. Since Archimedes only eats once every three weeks we were very fortunate to time a feed. It was amazing to watch a skilled predator strike the mouse and then swallow it down. The whole thing took about 10 minutes and the snake had an obvious bulge move down its length as the mouse slipped down. 

David is on his way back from a work flight around NT and Jennie drove Nicholas, Chelsea, Chantelle and Bianca to meet him for a joy flight over Darwin. David's plane has only five seats so Angela volunteered to go shopping instead. Living in such close proximity we all need a bit of space from time to time. The flight is a great way to see Darwin and to get an understanding of flying around controlled airspace. Every time David wanted to show something he had to request permission from Air Traffic Control to move from one place to another and at what height he could fly. There is a heap of work going on in Darwin. There is a massive LNG plant under construction, which we flew over. Using the trucks as scale the plant and dock will be the size of a suburb when complete. The construction is adding up to 300 road trains per day onto some Darwin roads. David landed the plane at Darwin airport using the same runway that QANTAS uses! We taxied to the general aviation area and saw two helicopters being assembled that were flown in an antonov last weekend.

 

The back seat of David's plane. 

Uncle David and his passengers. 

We all reconvened at David and Jennie's house to go to the Darwin Symphony Orchestra at the water front. We said it was a big day out! Angela had picked up a chook and salads to eat on the pier for dinner. The DSO was putting on a free concert to welcome troops back from overseas deployments. We were lucky to be with David because there was an area set aside for ADF and their families. David is a part time chaplain with the ADF so we all qualified! We got great seats second row with a great view. It was a fantastic concert of water themed music including the music of Blue Danube, Titanic movie and Swan Lake for Chantelle!

The DSO on the barge. 

The big screen and moon. 

It was very late by the time we made it back to camp and we had an early start scheduled for Sunday. 

Sunday 08/09

Way back at Cairns Nicholas received an email about Telstra launching Smurfs 2 movie Australia wide. Nicholas picked up five tickets for the Darwin launch. There were activities for the kids, face painting and colouring sheets and the movie was great, we all enjoined it very much. We had lunch at the shopping centre then back to camp for a quiet afternoon. Though on the way back we stopped at a roadside stall to buy a watermelon. This was no ordinary watermelon this was the most massive watermelon ever! It would have weighted over 15kg and was the size of two basketballs for $7. It took us almost a week to get through the sucker. 

That's the water melon on our table. 

Hmmm yummy!