Such an exciting day to open your eyes in the morning. Today is our One Year Anniversary of traveling around Australia. This time last year we'd set off from Shepparton excitedly to start our adventure. This year has gone so quick and has brought so many life changes and memories with it. We have met some fantastic people we now call great mates such as our 'Cape York Crew, The Woods and The Hambrook's plus many others along the way. Our ultimate highlight has been our five week expedition to Cape York, nothing has topped the experience we had there. The friends, laughter, tears, personal growth and confidence and also the nudie runs has shaped the way we are today. There is no hesitation in our minds that we are doing the right thing with this trip. Boo and Meg have grown so much and their personalities are blossoming with the people they meet and there experiences. I truly believe that they will be so close in years to come due to this trip, the sisterhood is getting stronger and more bonded every day we're out here doing this. Marty and l have also grown closer and matured as a couple. I believe we have fallen in love again and we are having so much fun together, like when we were kids. We've certainly had our ups and downs, but we work through them better now. Life's too short to hold grudges, especially when your living in a caravan!! Marty informs me that we've travelled 40,500kms and we're only half way through our trip!
To celebrate our anniversary we had pancakes cooked by moi as per family request! Then we set off for a day of exploring around Litchfield NP. First stop was 'The Lost City' but just as we were approaching the dirt turn off the car started making a funny noise in the right quarter panel area. Nothing related to the engine we think, maybe a wheel bearing, but will have to check it out when we get to Darwin. Can't believe this is the way the car wants to celebrate by making problems, but we carry on. We get to the Lost City and have a look around. The Lost City is a natural formation, formed by thousands of years of wind and rain erosion whose walls, narrow passages and domes give the impression that they were man made. These complex freestanding sandstone block pillar. The sandstone rock is estimated to be over 500 million years old. Some have said that its strange sandstome formations look like buildings, castles, animals, statues, people and aborigines playing their didgeridoos but l just see amazing rock statues. The girls ran around playing in the widened cracks between two rocks pretending they were hiding on caves. Boo even collected done green tree ants for Meg and l to sample. Love the taste of them, like lime sherbet (Thanks Angie!!). After half an hour we make our way back up the 4WD dirt track to the Magnetic and cathedral termite mounds. We must have been over sensitized as we just took a few pics and left. We saw the little b*****s on one of the mounds which was pretty cool. I think our drive to Surprise Creek Falls yesterday let us see more amazing termite mounds than here. Although they do look like headstones from a cometary all lined up in the paddock. On our way back to the car we saw some tourists hovering around something which ended up being a snake around 30-40cm making it's way across the path into the bush. So what do you reckon Boo thinks to do, even after all the snake education she's had recently out in central Australia. You wouldn't believe it, but she throws a bloody rock at it!! Lucky she missed hitting it, but she still got a slap and yelled at l can tell you. She now knows not to do that again.
Next stop was Florence Falls and it looks just as it did the ten years ago we were here. It's great to come back to these places and see it's unchanged, that things might actually be around for our kids kids. We didn't like these falls too much as the entry into the falls is really rocky and sharp. Deep plunge pool as well, not very family friendly really. As we took the 135 stairs back up to the car park we stopped at the lookout and saw this bloody idiot jump into the pool from up tip of the waterfall. I cringe every time l see something like this and pray for the best for them, it only takes one Rick or stump and there life changes! Whilst watching them a rainbow appeared in between the two waterfalls, so beautiful. Since we couldn't swim well here we headed to Buley Rockhole, another swimming area. Again, just as l remembered. The girls loved it, the rock hole is just that, a series of rock holes that have trickle long falls in between. The girls and l slid down from one pool to another as of the falls were watersides. Marty didn't swim, too cold he reckons. Wasn't too bad, but only swimming cause we were there, not due to overheating!
After our wonderful day, we headed back to camp in the early arvo for some R&R. Was loving this side of Litchfield compared to Kakadu, that you could get back to camp and relax rather than your whole day being full. It's due to things being so close in Litchfield, great. We had an early night, which was needed, and had a great day appreciating our 12 months on the road! WOW.....

Bell Xxx