Today we packed up real quick in anticipation of arriving in Darwin and meeting up with the Hambrooks. We were on the road at 9am and arrived at the Free Spirit Resort in Holtze (a suburb just outside Darwin city) around 10:30am. Luckily Bronny pulled some strings and got us a site for the next few months as when l started to ring around all the parks were full being peak tourist season and all. Its the first time on this trip that we've encountered this problem, so thank god for friends on the inside hey!

Anyway, as usual, the parks where we're are staying for months on end always end up causing us the most grief in the beginning. This time, they put on on an unpowered site for 6 nights in a short term area until our other site became available, which was fine, but it was meant to have power! I had confirmed this on booking, a day prior to arrival and on check in, and they still put us on an unpowered site! Anyway, eventually l got it sorted and we were set up before lunch. On arrival we were greeted by two very excited kids, Brendan and Moggy, in which the girls were excited too. It was great to see them all together again and taking off like there had been no time in between hanging out. We also met up with Boomerang Johnny, was awesome to see him and l think he was happy to see a familiar face.

After lunch Bronny got home from work, hugs and smiles were exchanged with an excited ear piercing "hello". It was a tad hot so Bronny and l took the kids down to the main pool (there are 3 here!) for a quick dip and chill out. After which we were heading through the walkway and noticed a lot of kids crowding around. We stopped to check it out and found out the Crocodylus Park bloke was here to show off a few lizards, snakes and baby croc. The kids were very excited, Meg more eager than the others to get in and have a touch and hold. Boo needed a bit more coaxing, but after a while she was fine. The blog pic is of the bloke demonstrating to the kids how he can put a croc to sleep! Apparently they fall asleep if their bellies are rubbed. Was cool to watch, almost cute, but the croc did have its snout tapped shut, dont know if l would have thought was cute if it was able to be snapping away!! Lol....

In the late arvo, we hung out with the Hambrooks and caught up over a few wines and beers while the kids were nowhere to be seen, hanging out at the jumping pillow together. Was nice to have some time apart really after being under each others skin for the last few months....

So the Free Spirit Resort seems great, bloody big, the biggest park we have stayed in yet. The priciest too at $357.00 per week!! But most of Darwin is similar, but at least there are a few bonuses such as the jumping pillow, pool and the free kids club which runs to the end of September. It looks great with free activities scheduled throughout the day 6 days a week, so means l have some bargaining tools to keep the kids in line and also the opportunity to have some free time to ourselves as well. Its a bit out of town but most of the parks are, there arent any central in the city anyhow. There seems to be alot of families around which is good, seeing the girls havents seen many kids over the last few months it will be good to have them interact and play again with people their own age.

So with the weekend to follow, we can catch up on laundry and chill out because next week means back into business with finding a job and getting school for Boo going again!! Hope Marty finds it easier this time as l dont want to have to work too much this stop. Wait and see what the next week brings l suppose........

Bell XXX