Still heading up inland towards Darwin, we stopped at free camps, enjoying lazy days and meeting new friends along the way. After a quick fuel and food stop in Katherine we headed out to Edith Falls, another great spot that we visited two years ago. With good walks and swimming in beautiful rock pools, it's easy to loose a few days there.
We had a mishap just out of Camooweal, before Katherine, where we had a stone flick up and cracked our windscreen which needed to be replaced.
We are now back up in Darwin, enjoying the beautiful weather, meeting new friends and catching up with old ones. We are again staying at Tumbling Waters Caravan Park and it's still a great a spot to be. People often ask us where our favourite place is and this park has to be high up there! Everyone is so friendly with great happy hours and live entertainment at the cafe on a Friday night. Kelee is still the best singer by far, and a beautiful family, along with husband Heath and kids, Tyson and Hayley.
There is always something to do here, from bingo and trivia nights to aqua aerobics. Who'd have thought I would be doing regular exercise?!! The ladies do aqua aerobics at 9.00am on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and then the guys follow on at 10.00am. Nothing too serious though and we all have such a laugh. Tummies in girls!!!
We are again getting our "kid fix" with the little ones that are here, from the young German family (the Germians, as Blake would say) who are coming to the end of their year long adventure in Oz to the "Rascal Maskells" from Melbourne who are beginning theirs and seem to be stuck here at Tumbling Waters. This place really draws you in and it's so hard to leave!
As we did most of the touristy things while we were here two years ago, we are not finding the need to go into Darwin too often. We have done the Casino, sunset at Mindil beach and Berry/Howard Springs again, as well as the local markets, Territory day fireworks and half price meals on a Tuesday night at the Litchfield pub. We even had a "Christmas in July" at our happy hour, with 40+ people bringing a plate, Christmas lights and secret Santa pressies included. There was a wonderful selection of beautiful food and a great evening was had by all.
We have had our share of excitement here with bush fires coming close to the park. We often see smoke and controlled burnings around the area and don't take too much notice but when the locals start to panic, it's time for concern! A fire jumped the road, coming close to the back of our park and Darren the owner, was worried that he was going to loose his cabins in that area. We had spotter planes overhead, helicopters dumping water and filling from the Darwin dam and plenty of fire engines. This was happening around us for two days before things seem to have now settled down.
While we have been experiencing beautiful weather up here, the rest of the country is having a cold spell, with the snow from down south reaching up into Queensland. I feel I must mention that although our temperatures are no where near as low here, we have had the heater on in the van a few mornings. It's cold overnight, down to nine degrees. Not good for us delicate petals!! Is that a unanimous groan I hear??