Today is Kaidan's 9th birthday. Yesterday we had a fairly quiet day around the Shady Lane CP and went into Katherine Hot Springs, which are warm and simple. This morning we visited the Katherine School of the air - it was very interesting. In the afternoon we went on a 3 Gorge cruise through Nitmulik (aka Katherine Gorge). It went for 4 hours and included a short walk between gorges, aboriginal art and a swim in the river. We saw lots of freshwater crocs and...

This morning we packed up camp and headed for Katherine, detouring to Gunlom on the way. The waterfall came off the escarpment into a large clear pool. We all swam out to beneath the falls. I feel more of an appreciation for Kakadu after spending a few days there. The birdlife was varied, we saw a snake each day in the wild and the scenery was spectacular in some areas. It is obviously a very different place at different times of the year and we were quite disapp...

Today we drove down to the Jim Jim Falls. We had been warned that it would be very busy as it was the first day of the season and the map said to allow 2 hours to travel the 4wd road. Well, we arrived at the Jim Jim falls in less than 1 hr, seeing only 1 other car on the way and staying in 2wd the entire road! The 1km walk to the falls was beautiful and fun, with lots of rock hopping. There were small sandy beach areas on the river edge near the base of the fal...

Yesterday we left Mel and Trev's after a lazy morning and drove on to Kakadu NP. Last night I could not see why Kakadu is so famous - We drove 100km into the park and saw no interesting landscapes. We did see some beautiful white egrets and jabiru on the wetlands. Hopefully my mind will be changed after a few days here. This morning we drove to the Nourlangie region. Unfortunately the billabong is still closed after the wet season but the view from the lookout (p...

It was quite nice to snuggle up, the 4 of is in our camper trailer (surprisingly it felt a bit like home). Today we went to Litchfield NP - a day trip from Mel and Trev's house. I love this place. We went to Wangi Falls first and Jeff and the boys swam, I thought the water was a bit too cold! We then drove to the Blyth homestead (photo), which was near an old Tin mine. After lunch we visited the Buley rockholes and Florence Falls - again Jeff and the boys swam wh...