We have been a bit slack with the updates again....

When we arrived in Katherine, we went to the tourist info to find a place to camp. We were keen to go back to Katherine Gorge and camp out there, as we did in 2009, but when we made inquiries we were told we would be $38 poorer every night we camped at the Gorge, and that's a non-powered site!! Not likely! We decided on staying at the historical Springvale Homestead a couple of k's out of town, but first, we needed to wash the car and camper. We found a do-it-yourself carwash at one of the servos and proceeded to feed it handfulls of $1 coins. We pressure cleaned and soaped and foam-brushed and pressure cleaned again until we had fed $14 into the machine and decided that was enough. The Pajero and camper were far from professionally detailed (Kathy made comment that they were still dirtier than other cars that were waiting to go into the carwash), but they were a damn sight cleaner than they were 14 bucks ago. At least we got the chunks of mud off the roof... We drove out to Springvale Homestead and set up camp next to the billabong and amongst the wallabies. It is a nice spot, on the grounds of the old homestead which is still standing and is framed by a number of huge Rain Trees that are over 100 years old. Over the next two days we had a look around the homestead, did some food shopping and relaxed under the trees, and that was about it in Katherine...

With the pantry full of food and the Pajero full of diesel, we left Katherine and headed north. We stopped at Pine Creek and enquired about the old gold mining areas to the east of the Stuart Highway. The guy at the Info centre was sure that there was no fossicking or metal detecting allowed out there anymore, as the land is now owned by a mining company that is mining gold commercially. He said it might be worth a drive out there and stop at the Grove Hill pub and ask them, he might be wrong after all. The Goldfields Road runs pretty much parallel with the Stuart Hwy, but is gravel and crosses a number of creeks. What the hell, it's been at least a couple of days since the car got dirty, so we took a detour. It wa a much more interesting drive than the Stuart Hwy, the road rising and dipping through some nice country, a few rocky creek crossings, a dodgy bridge that had next to no bitumen left on it after it had been washed away, and plenty of dust. All along the road there are signs stating that the land is private property, no fossicking, mining in progress. b*****. We stopped at the pub in Grove Hill (or is Grove Hill actually the pub... dunno, there's nothing else there but the pub...) and asked the old lady working behind the bar. She confirmed what the guy in Pine Creek told us... b***** again! Oh well. We wandered around the pub and looked at all the old relics hung up on anything that support their weight. It looks like they are not big on dusting the inside of the pub in these parts, everything was covered in spider wbs and dust. Everything was so perfectly covered that it looked like a set-up for a movie set, sort of like a scene in an ancient cave somewhere out of an Indiana Jones movie. From there we rejoined the Stuart Highway for a short time, then turned off to the Douglas-Daly region. We took another gravel road, with corrugations and creek crossings, to Umbrawarra Gorge. This is a nice spot on a creek that flows into a rocky gorge where swimming is safe during the dry season. We walked in along the creek and spotted a Merten's Water Monitor lazing around in the water. We sat there looking at him for quite a while, but he was happy floating in the water and had no intentions of moving. A short walk further brought us to the gorge. It was quite nice, the creek flows into a number of rock pools, some big enough to swim in. We sat with our feet in the water, taking in the gorge all on our own. It is great when you can score a place like this on your own. Nice scenery, not a sound that's not made by nature and not another person for miles. Just fantastic. We meandered back to the car, past the lazy Monitor that was still floating in the water, and drove back out onto the bitumen. We stopped for the night at the Douglas Hot Springs.

It was our intention to stay here for one night, have a swim in the springs, and move on. The reality was that this is a very beautiful place, and the springs are almost addictive, so one night became three... We were camped about 30 metres from the Douglas River and it was a short walk down a few concrete steps onto the riverbank. These steps are the only un-natural thing about the hot springs. Where other hot springs have a concrete pool, or walkways and handrails built around them, the Douglas Hot Springs is left alone. You walk on the palm-lined riverbank, find a spot to enter the crystal clear river and then walk upstream until you find the right temperature. The river flows as rivers do, but there are sections where the hot springs rise up out of the sand and mix with the river water, so the closer you sit to these springs the hotter the water. At the springs it is hot enough to burn you, but pick a spot downstream a bit and you can sit in there for hours! We did! We met a couple from Melbourne and got talking while we were in the water, we got out when we were hungry and found it was after 2pm and we had been in the water for over 3 hours!! Great spot! The only downside is that there are a number of over friendly fish living in the creek. They are only very small, but they take much delight in nipping your legs or butt as you relax in the water. It doesn't result in any injury, but some of the b*****s hurt! On the subject of wildlife, one night we were sitting around the campfire with two other couples when we heard a noise like a cow running into the camp area. I turned on my good LED torch and we saw a large black animal had run into the campground along the road, about 30 metres from us. At first glance it looked like a large wild boar (which had the girls hiding in a caravan) but when it turned around to go back out, we could see it was a young Buffalo. It was shy of the torch light and promply ran back into the bushes, breaking the wire fence as it went. We were glad to have seen a Buffalo, they are a bit of a rare sight in the Territory these days, most of them have been shot out over the years. So, that was a bit of excitement for the night.

After 3 very relaxing days at the Douglas Hot Springs we packed up again and headed for Litchfield National Park. On the way we wanted to take the Reynolds River Track from the Daly River Road to Litchfield. We had seen on the NT roads website that the road was open, but as we turned onto the Daly River Road there was a sign advising that the Reynolds River Track was closed. Bloody roads morons! So, we continued north, took a quick look in at Robin Falls, and arrived in Litchfield via the boring old bitumen route. Our first camp was at Florence Falls. We had visited Litchfield in 2009 but it was comppletely packed at the time, so we missed out on seeing Florence Falls and Buley Rockhole. We camped here for two night to make sure we saw it this time. The falls were running steady and provided us a great view from the lookout. We took a walk down to the plunge pool and back up again, the pool has been opened and declared safe from crocs, put we decided not to swim anyway, it wasn't the warmest of days and when you're talking about a large predator that can walk over land to get to a water hole, a place like this can't be guaranteed croc free... We walked along the river from Florence Falls campsite to Buley Rockhole and went for a dip in the rock pools amongst the cascading river. No crocs in here because they can't climb up waterfalls! We had our own little rock pool to ourselves, and relaxed in the sun, sitting on a rock ledge with the small waterfall flowing over our shoulders. Hard to take! On the walk back to the campground we stopped at another small, pristine swimming hole and had another dip, again, all to ourselves.

After two nights at Florence Falls we made the huge journey of 25 k's to Wangi Falls, where we set up camp for another two nights. We went for a walk around the falls and through the rainforest surrounding the plunge pool, but again, it was a bit cool for swimming. The next day we decided to take a drive to the Lost City and Blyth Homestead. Before we went I checked the oil and coolant on the Pajero, and while I had the bonnet up Kathy spotted a small fish laying on the plastic panel at the base of the windscreen. I couldn't believe it! When we did the deep river crossing on the Burke Developmental Road he must have been washed up over the bonnet and become stuck up near the wiper arms. It is quite dried out from the sun baking on it for a couple of weeks. Have a look at the video, something you don't see every day! We drove out to the Lost City down a rough-ish track to find all the vegitation has been burnt out, as they do in the Territory. Also, the wind was up and it was not warm, only 19 degrees with a cool wind, we needed a jumper! Stupid weather! We had a wander around the rock formations, took some photos and went back to camp for lunch. Once fed, we took another 4WD track to Blyth Homestead. This was a much more interesting drive and had us cross two creeks to get to the homestead, which was really only a tin shack. Aparently, this was only an outstation for the real homestead, Stapleton, which was 25 miles away. There was a book in the shack which detailed the lives and fun times the family had living in this environment in the 1930s. It made for an interesting read, it would've been a tough life out there.

From Litchfield we headed north along the gravel road, turned left onto the Cox Peninsula Road and took a drive to the Cox Peninsula for a look. The drive out was framed on both sides of the road by expanses of burnt out bush. It seems in the NT they insist on burning vast amounts of bush every year to prevent wildfires, but it ruins the landscape and must be a disappointment for many tourists, who come to see the landscape advertised in the brochures, only to be looking at smoke and black trees. The beaches at the top of the Cox Peninsula are beautiful, clear blue water, clean sand and coloured rocks. From the other side you can look over at Darwin which is only 7 km away across the water. We sat on the beach, ate some lunch and looked out to the ocean. Then we back-tracked the road and arrived in Darwin by mid afternoon.

We found a site in the Shady Glen Caravan Park, on the Stuart Highway. It is a relatively quiet park, set back from the highway. But... it is not far from the airport, so the quiet is regularly broken by the sound of jet engines as airliners depart Darwin airport. Also, the RAAF base uses the same runway, so we have had Hercules and Orion aircraft flying past as well as a couple of F/A-18 fighters. The noise isn't too bad, but I do like aircraft, so I might be more tollerant of jet noise than some other people. We have used our time here to get some things done that we need a town to do. The Pajero has had another service, some dust entry into the camper has (hopefully) been fixed, washing clothes, food shopping, all the fun stuff. Darwin is a different city to most. It does not have a city feel to it. The streets are rarely busy, you can drive into the CBD and get a carpark at any time of the day, people are friendly and it is really easy to get around. We are not city people, but we find Darwin almost livable. On Thursday night we went to the Mindel Beach markets. It was packed as usual, but well worth the look. We bought some Chinese food from one of the stalls and went and sat on the beach to eat it, watching the sun set over the water directly in front of us. Very romantic... well... as romantic as it can be with about 2,000 other people on the beach watching the same sunset...

Tomorrow we pack up again and head back to Katherine. We will stay for a night or two at Edith Falls, top up with fuel and food, and then head west!!

We have now been on the road for 6 months, as of last Tuesday. Both the Pajero and camper have been going well. We have covered 15,000 km and set up the camper 53 times in six months. As you would know from reading our blog, we have had our share of crap weather and trying times, but we are both still having a great time and our relationship is still as strong as ever. Six months, 24 hours a day, 53 camp set ups and not one arguement. Is that some sort of a world record?? Our $500 per week budget is surviving and we are currently $47 in front, which we think is not bad going considering we have had other expenses other than fuel, food and campsites, such as car servicing, a new matress for the camper and various other things. Hopefully we can get further ahead by free camping more in WA. We are both really looking forward to "the west", as neither of us has been there before.

We'll keep you posted with what we discover over there. :)