G'day from Down Under!! Back in Australia and loving it.

We arrived into Melbourne from Christchurch and had to wait in the airport for a couple of hours for our internal flight to Darwin, of course we spent it in the bar! When we arrived the tropical heat of the Top End hit us, it was 36 degrees average every day, bit of a change to the weather in NZ! Had one day to see Darwin then went on our first camping safari.......

It was a great tour travelling round in a little bus with the guide and 9 other tourists. Every day was action packed - walking through the bush and swimming in freshwater pools and under waterfalls. Explored Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks in the Top End of the Northern Territory. Started off with a visit to the huge termite mounds. There are loads of termite mounds dotted all through the land up here but these were the biggest. At 6m tall we were dwarfed by them. Also saw the unique Magnetic termite mounds which all face north to south in order to get the maximum amount of sunlight. These termites are only found in this part of the world!

Went on a wildlife cruise down the Mary River, mainly to see crocs! There were loads of them! The boat was quite small and low in the water but we weren't scared. We were amazed at how many crocs we saw and how close we got to them. There were freshwater crocs (freshies) which are shy and generally leave us well alone and then there were the big saltwater ones (salties) which are the aggressive maneaters! Saw a couple of big salties about 4 m long and lots of freshies swimming and bathing on the banks. It was very exciting but aswell as crocs we saw lots of birdlife and wallabies along the way.

Throughout Litchfield and Kakadu we swam in lots of water holes and gorges which were all beautiful. It was amazing to just jump into all these natural swimming areas. There were lots of crocodile warning signs near the water but our guide assured us we were safe! At some places we could jump off the high rocks and even swim through an underwater tunnel (see Phil's video, to follow shortly!). As it is the dry season some of the huge waterfalls were dry, must look amazing in the wet season! We also visited an ancient Aboriginal art site which was very interesting. Amazing to think that the art could be up to 50,000 years old - Britain was in the ice age then!

Leaving Kakadu we drove to Katherine Gorge. There were a lot of long drives, as the country is so huge (Kakadu National park is the size of Belgium!). The scenery is amazing though, vast areas of grasslands and savannah. The typical bright red dirt roads seemed to stretch on forever. We did a canoeing trip down Katherine Gorge, well not all of it as there are 13 gorges in total! Lots of freshies live here and as we were paddling along we saw beaches closed due to the crocs nesting season. There was one beach we could safely swim at though which was nice and refreshing. The gorge was stunning and the walls rose above us 200m or so. We could see the water level for the wet seaon and could not believe how much it rises - up to 8m! Paddling back up the gorge we were busy looking at a sea Eagle when Phil said "Kim i'm not joking there's a croc just ahead". Sure enough there was! So we were at a low level in our canoe and the croc was about 10ft away looking at us! I was a little nervous as we were so close and it was almost as long as the canoe! It watched us for a while then just disappeared under the water. Wow! It was such a thrill to have seen one in that environment!

That afternoon we saw the gorge from a completely different perspective as we did a helicopter flight round the area. We could not imagine how far the gorge went on for, it was long! Could see the small part of it we'd paddled up earlier. The vast wilderness stretched out to the horizon in all directions, you would not want to be lost out there! Had a great 5 days and made some nice friends, so when we were back in Darwin we went out that night.

We only had one night back in Darwin though before our next tour began. Almost missed it though as we slept in and woke up 10 mins before our pick up time! Too much booze the night before. This trip was a 9 day tour taking us all the way to Broome through The Kimberley Region of Western Australia. This area is Australia's last frontier and covers a whopping 430,000 sq kms! More camping, mainly in swags under the stars but some nights we had net tents to protect us from the mozzies.

There were 16 of us on this tour and we had a big 4WD as the terrain was much tougher. There was a lot of driving to get to the Western Australia border where we had to eat all the fruit and veg before crossing. They have strict quarantine laws in this state to keep out the fruit fly - a big pest. They are also trying to stop the cane toad spreading into WA - a huge pest in Oz! Stopped at Lake Argle, the largest man made freshwater lake in the Southern Hemisphere! It is 17 times larger than Sydney harbour. Saw some more crocs here, some from a lookout high above and one from the river bank below the dam.

As we travelled further inland it got even hotter and every day our average temperature has been 40 degrees! We embarked on the Gibb River Road, which is a 665km long dirt road. It was built as a transport route for the cattle road trains to and from Kunurrura and Derby, the towns at either end. We saw several Road Trains and they are long! They can pull a max of 5 trailers and reach 54m in length. wow!

Had a few stops along here to do more hiking and swimming. We walked into several gorges down the dry riverbeds and were always relieved to reach the billabongs for a swim (Billabong is an Aboriginal word which means 'always water'). Saw lots of monitor lizards and a couple of small olive pythons in the water but they are not dangerous unless provoked.

One of the highlights of this tour was a visit to Purnululu National Park, also known as the Bungle Bungle. This is a massive rock plateau, 130km wide and 250m high in places. There are deep gorges running through it and areas where no one has ever stepped foot in. This is home to the famous beehives - sandstone dome shaped rocks. Our first view of this area was from the sky - we treated ourselves to ANOTHER helicopter ride! That's the third on our trip! This flight was longer at 30 minutes and the helicopter had no doors so it was more exciting too. The views were breathtaking. Saw down into the deep gorges filled with palm trees and flew close to the 'beehives'. The pilot also did a few twists and turns following the route of the gorges. I felt like I was going to fall out, aaargh! Got many wonderful photos, some of which will be added shortly..........

After our flight we did a few walks into the gorges including a really narrow one and one with a big open top cave at the end. Saw a complete Taipan snake skin which was as long as one of the girls on our tour! It's the most dangerous snake in Australia, so we didn't hang around there for long! There are obviously lots of venomous creatures in Oz but we only really encountered one - the Mouse Spider! This spider does not eat mice but is ugly looking and very venomous. At one of our camps we saw 4! Our guide was shocked to see so many and he killed them to protect us!

Every day was amazing and we did so much but another highlight was visiting Windjana Gorge - the premier place to view freshwater crocodiles in Australia! You cannot swim here and you wouldn't want to! We saw literally dozens of crocs here! Walked down along the gorge and saw a 3m long croc in the river with a big bird wing in it's jaws. This is the max length for a freshie so a big one! Saw some smaller ones too and lots of baby ones, how cute. Got really close to 2 crocs sunbathing on the beachy shore, one was about 2m long! They looked fake, so still and posing with their mouths open! There was a group of us and we edged closer and closer ending up about 10ft away. We have learnt a lot about these animals and sort of knew we were safe. They do not bother with us at all and if they were to attack they would give us a hissing warning beforehand. So we have seen lots and lots of crocs in our time up North, brill!

Arrived in Broome on Sunday in time to watch the sunset over Cable beach, perfect end to our trip. Had a night out with all our group and tour guide, a sunday roast, with Yorkshires too! Have had 3 days in Broome just chilling out and socialising with friends we'd made on the trip. Made some good friends but we didn't get on with everyone! Broome is a pretty little town on the coast and was the main pearling area in the world. We had a lazy beach day yesterday sweltering in the 42 degree heat and cooling down in the 30 degree Indian Ocean! Yesterday evening we did a sunset camel ride along cable beach, a famous activity to do here. There are about a million wild camels living in the Australian deserts which they catch and train to do these rides. They are well looked after though and live 20 years longer than camels in the wild. The camel we were on was huge and it felt funny when it stood up and sat down! The picture for this blog is of the famous Broome camel ride.

It is our last day in Broome, we fly down to Perth later this evening. When we were last in Oz we did a lot of the West coast so are not missing too much out by taking the quickest option to Perth! We will be staying with family friends of mine who kindly looked after us when we were last there. Before we leave the tropical north however Phil is doing a skydive! He did one 5 years ago and has been itching to do another. I'm still not tempted!

Having such a great time, we love Australia and even though this is our second visit to see places we missed out last time there is still so much to see. A third trip may be on the cards! Hope you are all well.

lots of love us 2 X