As the sign says on arrival, welcome to paradise!

A 1 million acre privately owned NT wilderness retreat, it was indeed, very special. Our first afternoon we spent exploring and traversing the 4WD tracks to a couple of hot springs, however, we didn’t swim. Once back at the main campground we swam in warm spring near the Homestead, it was divine, so blissfully relaxing. And again, we had it to ourselves. Afterwards, we had a drink at the bar and chatted to the chopper pilot and everything and anything and discovered their array of pets. On arrival we met Beep the emu, the wandering peacock and the cranky turkey. We then saw that the pond/pool at the bar housed a Barra and a freshie! Around the corner they housed a troop of baby emus and 2 gorgeous floppy-eared calves!!! A rooster and chickens were always wandering about the grassed area and often crossed the little footbridge to the campground near the spring pool, which always made us chuckle.

On our first night we listened to ‘The Maze Runner’ around the campfire, we were now hooked and had to know what was going to happen next!

Next morning we slept in, then headed back down to the ‘creek’ to go for a paddle upstream in the canoe then had a lazy swim in the spring. After that, we packed lunch and swimming gear into the car to go exploring further afield and headed off to Fern Gully and Nanny’s Retreat, a 40 km drive HALFWAY to the top end of the property. Fern Gully was beautiful for a cool and refreshing dip, and because we were alone there was some clothing shed by some swimmers……

We left there to see Nanny’s Retreat as it was professed to be the #1 Top spot on the property. We had a quick and easy lunch before heading off on the very pretty, 800m walk to the swimming spot. We were certainly rewarded with a stunning and magical swimming hole. It was so naturally pretty it looked almost fake, if that makes sense. We swam up between two rock walls to another pool then walked up and around the rocks to a cave and tunnel, which the boys explored with excitement. We spent time swimming and relaxing in the cool water, again enjoying this piece of paradise in private for a while. Another pair did arrive but Ben enjoyed their company, chatting about travelling etc.

Our drive back to camp was a peaceful one, as we decided that we would have a ‘no speaking’ competition, the winners receiving the remaining 4 lollies in the last pack. The first one to speak would lose and not get anything.

Lachie, hearing this, howled and cried, knowing full well there was NO WAY he could be quiet for one hour let alone one minute, lol! True that. So, considering this and realising it would defeat the purpose of maintaining some peace we gave everyone three chances. Surprisingly, everyone did very well, including Lachie, and everyone got a lolly. It’s dead set mind-blowing what kids will do for a lolly.

That night passed much the same, a delicious roast chicken dinner, a sky full of stars and our story around the campfire.

The other campers had all left so we had the entire campground (about the size of 3 footy ovals) to ourselves, and so it seemed, the entire world.