All good things must come to an end and so it is with our time in the Top End (and that 'Top' part isn't just geographical).

Yes I know some of you were probably starting to wonder if we were ever going to leave and to be frank so did Jude and I but with the whole Western half of Australia still to see and rents easily as expensive as the Gold Coast we find ourselves on the road once more tho' it has meant leaving a little part of our hearts in my old stomping grounds.

We had a wonderful time there and got to experience a little bit of the Wet in full force and saw the first signs of the Dry to come.

Time for special mentions, Peta & Nev Wilson, you champions, we spent the better (or is that worse from your point of view??) part of 6 weeks camping out with you; and Peta and I talked the hind leg of 20 donkeys and Jude had the luxury of a fenced yard to run free in and will no doubt take some time still to get used to his re-introduced restrictions of staying within sight of mum.

Adele Pritchard (yes I know you are married but you will always be Adele Pritchard to me!) you make sure that everyone feels at home at your place whether it's their first visit or they land on your doorstep for a week on their way out of town. It was the best way to wind up our Darwin visit with a huge Good Friday party to remind me of what a social life is. Thanks to Johnno, George, Charli and Angus who had never met me before for making us feel so welcome too. And now I have new friends in Jo and her crew so doubly blessed.

Hope we can return the favour one day wherever we end up settling but if not we will definitely be making our way up North again to partake of your hospitality.

Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, it was worth the wait of 6 weeks for you to return from Adelaide/Ceduna so we could spend some time together just chilling. Longer next time please.

Paul, was great to catch up with you after 17-odd years. Who else could I rely on to take my son on a ride on a quad?

Finally, Mr Kotz, cannot believe I was in Darwin for 6 weeks and I still didn't get myself organised enough to catch up - maybe down in Adelaide sometime?

Easter was celebrated in style at Virginia with Adele and co and Easter Tuesday found us on the Arnhem Highway and on our way to Kakadu. Our first stop was at the Wetlands Interpretive centre just shy of Adelaide River (the river not the town) and then lunch at Corroboree Park before buying our Kakadu Pass at the National Park Headquarters and then heading into Jabiru. Jabiru pretty much as I remember it ie not much there and added to the fact that a friend of ours normally works out there but happened to be on holidays while we were there made it all rather desolate so we moved on quickly.

Most of the camp grounds were closed due to the Wet but we found one just past Nourlangie Rock and had the most brilliant moon rise that woke me about 10pm and shone so brightly I had to close the curtain on it to get back to sleep!

After quizzing Jude whether he would be able to sit still for a 2 hour boat cruise at Yellow Waters - to which the answer was no - we skipped that option and spent an hour and a half wandering around Nourlangie being amazed by the art work and stunned by the views. Straight on to Katherine and to the same caravan park as last time much to Jude's delight and the equal delight of the ducks he insisted on feeding lots and lots of bread.

An Animal Rescue moment as we came out of the pool and found a turtle in the middle of the road and so picked it up and carried back to the creek (away from where the freshwater crocodile lives as it was already down one foot!) No photos but it was turtle very very cute and I would like to think grateful and we will go down as legends in its family story-telling nights.

From Katherine we made our way to Timber Creek taking in the many lookouts on the escarpment behind the town and walking the Bradshaw Bridge over the Victoria River looking for crocs, but to no avail. Yesterday was the drive from Timber Creek to Kununurra crossing the border and gaining an hour and a half which meant early to bed but also a very early 5.30am rise for Jude this morning so as I sit here at a 11am it feels like I have been up half the day already - oh hang on a minute, I have!

The weather has become cooler even just this far south but I will qualify that by saying IT IS NOT COOL merely cooler than Darwin and back to that lovely feeling of pulling a blanket over in the middle of the night when the van has finally cooled right down.

So here we are. Western Australia. East Kimberly. The Last Frontier. Lets see what we can make of it……….