So we crossed over the border and nothing much changed - still long straight roads and the burning sunshine but we are coping well.... and getting each other through the realllllllyyyy hot parts of the day with a little cussing and lots of cold showers.

Our first stop was Keep River National Park, a small park which has stone features similar to the Bungle Bungles so we braved the heat (why do we always arrive just in time for the midday sun?) and took a short 2 km loop walk to see what the park had to offer and it was pretty and worth a short visit. After the National Park, we had a long journey up to Katherine. We arrived just as it was getting dusk. The sky was pink and suddenly it was full of screeching flying foxes - and I mean thousands and thousands of giant bats! It was like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock film - I HATE bats so rushed in to Woolworths so I didn't have to hear or see them...yuk!

We got to the caravan park after dark so set up and had a yummy steak and salad dinner....it was while washing up that Max encountered his second close up of nature when a 10cm grasshopper came and flew head first towards him and landed on his .... (I think you can guess where) - he jumped even further than the lizard encounter and his shriek was an octave higher....there is no lasting damage :o).

The next morning we left Katherine as we are going there again later and headed North for Berry Springs. Unfortunately, the famous springs are shut due to bat poo bacteria (yuk) so I'm glad we couldn't go. We headed to the Territory Wildlife Park where we spent an enjoyable few hours walking though aviaries, seeing turtles and crocodiles and chatting to Hugh, a guide who lived in Amsterdam for a year, and loved to talk to us about it and re-practice his Dutch.

The next day we headed to our most Northern destination and the top of the Top End, Darwin. We stayed in a lovely campsite about 20 km from the city centre and they had a beautiful pool so we decided to extend our stay here and cool off some more given Darwin is hot and humid (however not as bad as we thought it would be). On Sunday we headed in to Darwin and to be honest, there isn't a lot to see or do unless you have lots of money for shopping, drinking and eating out. We visited the Wharf and the Wave Pool as well as the Northern Territory Art Gallery and then headed to Mindil Sunset market. Unfortunately, Max didn't feel too well so we left early and headed back to the campsite to relax...and cool off in the pool. The next day we had a day off from driving and spent a lovely day by the pool, chatting to a few nice old couples before heading South the next day to Litchfield National Park.

Litchfield is lovely. As it was very hot, we were happy that we didn't have to walk 8km to see the falls or plunge pools so started our day in Buley Rockhole, which is a lovely place for swimming in the higher and lower pools. We then went to Florence Falls which again, had a lovely plunge pool and again we took advantage given it was about 37 degrees. We then went to Tolmer Falls lookout but the falls have been closed to protect the bats! Those dirty screeching things are taking over! Our last stop was Wangi Falls for our final swim of the day before heading back to Batchelor and our stop-over for the evening. As we are now in the low season, the sites are quiet...lovely! In the middle of the night, it started raining as we saw the tail end of a storm that had taken place in Litchfield. Max was superman jumping out of the car to get everything like the table, chairs, towels etc in to the car! :o)

After Batchelor, we headed South to Katherine National Park and a trip to Edith Falls. A 2 km uphill walk in the blazing heat was rewarded with a beautiful swimming pool. We were joined by a 3 foot (90 cm) lizard who swam from one rock to another on the other side of the pool. I don't like to think what else was in the water! I guess he just needed cooling off like us! We then chatted to a group of Dutchies on a tour from Den Helder before heading in to Katherine and the Riverview Caravan Park, our stop for the night. We had a scrummy stir-fry dinner before heading to the pool before bedtime to cool off..lekker!

From Katherine we went to Mataranka but I didn't like it. Bitter Springs, the famous thermal pools were dirty and full of algae and the Mataranka Springs were even worse...in a bat forest - it was smelly and dirty and I didn't like it at all. Max thinks I'm weird but I think I'm normal...We stayed in a nice camping where we watched Barramundi feeding...They make such a noise when they take the food, like they are sucking your hand in with the fish! We declined the offer to feed them ourselves as the largest was about 3 foot (90 cm). The campsite was full of wildlife including a chicken, guinea fowl, peacocks (that crowed at 5am and slept in the trees), wallabies and I had a frog join me in the shower!

From Mataranka we spent the next two days in the car and travelled over 1000 kms to get to Alice Springs through the baron and arid Outback.

Driving this route you see a lot of interesting things:

1) Dead kangaroos everywhere

2) Dead cows everywhere and they stink soooo badly

3) Scrubland dotted with burnt out cars

4) Smashed up caravans that have been blown over by a strong willy-willy

5) Enough blown tyre parts to make hundreds of kms of rubber

6) Unsealed red roads taking you for hundreds of kms to lonely outback farms and homesteads

7) Roads that stretch for miles and miles and disappear in to the horizon. They are soooo straight that you get excited when you see a corner and you can turn the steering wheel!

8) Groups and groups of aboriginals doing nothing apart from drinking, shouting at each other and sitting under trees

9) We even saw a big dead dog that had been strung up by its tail, hanging from a tree branch!