On the road again: August 2010

I suppose you all thought that we got lost in the wilderness,but to all who care we are still alive and have not travelled far in the last 4 weeks...After arriving Darwin we set up camp in a nice van park for 15 nights...The weather turned it on for us and we struggled to sleep on a few occasions till we got the air-con running and made life a little easier...We played the tourist for the 15 days and saw all in Darwin town...Markets on the famous Mingle Beach,also the Darwin Beer Can Regatta where i think the whole town turned up,checked out the casino at happy hour ,had a beaut Barra and Chips at Stokes Wharf and went back to Berry Springs swimming hole quite a few times...Leaving Darwin we headed into Kakadu to experience this great wonder..Travelling about 450 kl through we saw a lot of trees and grass but i must say the yellow water boat cruise into the South Alligator River was the highlight of the trip...Quite expensive but it was what Kakadu was all about...The wildlife and the scenery and the bird life were amazing...Would have had a different prospective on Kakadu if we did not take the trip...As the saying goes you never never know if you never never go..........Leaving Kakadu we met up again with our travel partners Ernie and Nita... Did a food shop back in Katherine and another swim at the Katherine springs...Mick found a few friends at the swimming hole so we will put a few photos in...The little fellow thought Mick was a big teddy bear i am sure....We lost our other travel buddies back in Darwin when Keith and Phyllis left to head into Qld and down the centre to N.S.W....We are now in the Capital of the Never Never " Mataranka"....This area is where the book and the movie was made , " We of the Never Never"...Went out and saw the homestead where the movie was made yesterday and did a visit to the cemetery that is famous. We are staying in the great Elsey National Park at the moment on the Roper River...(no barra in Roper River either)We are heading towards Alice Springs ONE day but at the moment we have slowed down....Have you all seen the temperatures in The Alice? ... too cold for us.. Love to All The Baggys

Humpty Doo Pub on the way to Kakadu

Construction workers win the Beer Can Regata

Mingle Markets Darwin Didge session

Fogg Dam

Cahills Crossing... Kakadu...mad fisherman ..

Look what he's fishing with

Cahills Crossing Kakadu

Yellow water South Alligator River

Baggys little friend

Fun was had by all

Can we adopt him....he's so cute

Kakadu Sunset

This sign very appropriate for the next photo

Just could not believe it...

Kunnunurra was a town that we booked into for a few days as we wanted to check out Lake Argyle on the Ord River Dam.....Also Mick had to do the usual and visit the local hard-ware store, so while standing at the counter at the hard-ware store, Mick heard a voice call " Baggy "across the shop and it was Dan Gleeson from Wagstaff, so of coarse the boys had a few drinks to swap stories as Dan and Nora were staying at the same van park...It really is a small world, we had no idea they were in Kunnunurra . Leaving Kunnunurra it was not far till we crossed over the W.A. border to N.T.....and of coarse that meant no more Kimberleys...

Putting a few more hundreds of kls behind as again, we arrived at Katherine and set up in the van park as the Katherine Gorge was another port of call for us , we wern't disappointed as the boat trip and the walk to the gorge was one of beauty.....We also had to have a swim in the Katherine hot pools ..... Leaving Katherine, our next day of travel was only 40kls to Edith Falls and also a wonderful place to stop over in the Nitmiluk National Park where we stayed a couple of nights and enjoyed a night of a wildlife ranger explaining to us how the park is run as a joint management ship between the traditional owners and the N.T. Parks....Very informative......Next night we stayed at a place called Pussy Cat Flats., its a local race coarse come golf coarse and now a caravan park ,its one way to try and get some money together for the club. ...They open the bar at 4pm each day so of coarse it was a little social gathering for the travellers.....Exercise that afternoon and again the following morning was 3 laps around the race trace...Even took a photo of us all in the starting stalls....
Douglas hot springs was another stop-over and you could not put your foot in the water at one area as the temperature was nearly at scalding point....We needed to go further up stream to have it cool enough to sit in.... From this point we were very close to Litchfield National Park where we booked in for 2 nights ........Plenty of waterholes and waterfalls to explore and swim in...Plenty of walks but once again the days were very hot...Had the snorkles out for Wangi Falls and were informed after the swim that the National Parks and wildlife had shot a croc only 3 days earlier, they had tried to trap him/her and was unsuccessful...(GREAT)
Finally have arrived in Darwin.....I am not sure what to say about this town/city yet as it is a little early to make a judgement but i will say the weather has been extremly hot and may-be that's the reason that i could be in a hurry to move on...When the weather man says 33degrees you know that you are looking at 36plus when you walk in to your hot caravan....Whats going on?     its suppose to be winter in the top end....Anyway we went to the Mingle Beach markets last night and were quite amuzed to see everyone coming to the markets with there deck chairs, then just as the sun was setting, everyone crowded onto the beach to see the sun go down with there take away dinner from the food outlets......As soon as the sun set back everyone came up from the beach to the markets.....The Darwin Museum was worth a visit and there is a whole floor on cyclone Tracey which i found very emotional.....Plus the story of Sweetheart the crocodile....I must make a mention the noise from the airport....The park we are in is very close to the airport--domestic,international and RAAF.......I have been told that they all share,also the Americans are in town and the boys are doing some big exercise..... Can you imagine the F1 11 's and F18's flying over head many times through out the day and evening...The whole town vibrates with this booming noise, we are going to watch the runway tomorrow and see if we can catch them take off...Its quite exciting but deafening...   Would hate to have been in London in the war as we think we are in a war zone now.....We still have many places that we want to visit and when we do leave Darwin we are going to go through Kakadu.....Have been told many stories about the area and most of it is Kaka-don't, but ---we need to form our own opinion on that issue.....
           Love to all for this time        THE BAGGYS