So the Kakadu family was down to just 12, but we were all assembled bright and early at 5.40am for the next step of our journey down to Alice Springs. Leaving at that time was too early even for me to stomach any breakfast so I was glad of the stop at Adelaide River again to refil my body with some caffeine and some good old bacon and eggs to soak up the previous night's alcohol intake! It was also the first time I'd had my eyes open for more than 5 minutes all morning, so this was chance to meet some of the other people who had now joined our family on the bus.

Thankfully we were now travelling on a big coach (as we had merged with several other groups who were also heading down to Alice Springs) which meant lots of room to spread out and catch up on some sleep over the next three days. After a few hours of driving we stopped off briefly in the town of Katherine (and a five minute stroll up the street in each direction allowed you to take in the whole town!) before we headed just outside the town to our campsite for lunch. And this is where the fun really started as we began to discover what the wet season in the Northern Territory really meant... We went into the national park for the afternoon but due to the level of the Katherine river, which had risen over 1m since the previous day, we couldn't go out on the river cruise up into Katherine gorge. Instead there was only room for 5 people to go out on a speed boat, so with over 30 of us in the group the Kakadu family decided to strike out on foot instead and we climbed up to a stunning lookout point over the gorge.

With a somewhat shortened version of afternoon activities we were back at our camp pretty early that afternoon so it was an early dinner and an early night for everyone. Thankfully someone had some cards with them so that helped to pass a few hours out in the bush. But the evening ended well overall as one of the Kakadu family (Canadian Matt) decided to show off his vocal talents (and his toothbrush) as he serenaded Karen and I to sleep in our tent. Didn't take long for our eyelids to close to his dulcit tones...

Next morning and another 5.30am start as we had over 600km to cover. The real bonus was we were embarking on the world's longest pub crawl, with 4 pubs in 600km. First stop was Mataranka when we were all ready for an early morning dip in the thermal pools. However, the weather was at work again and overnight the rain and caused the river to flood here and what should have been lovely blue warm thermal pools were now a muddy brown cold mass of water. So no swimming but the resident fruit bats were most definitely in attendance for our visit. They live in the Liverstonial palms around the pools and they live there in their thousands...quite freaky and very smelly! Fortunately Mataranka had a pub so the first beer stop was officially 7.20am!

After doing a bit of wallaby spotting on the roadside it was back onto the bus for more kms down to Larrimah, where there is the highest elevated pub in the Northern Territory. So the next drink was 8.10am. But Larrimah also had a small museum to look around and of course a pink panther statue, so the customary picture just had to be taken - how totally random! Then it was on to Daly Waters for the oldest pub in the Northern Territory (1930). We had lunch there and some time to chat to a few of the locals, in fact probably most of the town as there really are only a few locals! The pub itself has to be seen to be believed...inside it seems pretty much anyone who has ever been there has left something behind as a memento, from passport photos and bank notes, to their underwear and flags. I even managed to find a sign for Southampton football club, so it seems their fame stretches far and wide.

Next stop was for fuel at Dunmarah, where of course there was another pub for anyone who could manage it, and then our final stop of the day was at Renner Springs, which eerily is 666km from Alice Springs. Didn't notic anything particularly demonic about the place, but we didn't stay long...Camp this night was on Juno horse farm, with the grand total of 2 horses on over 100 acres - so that means we outnumbered the horses by 16 to 1 or something?! There was a pool here though - a giant water tank with steps up the side so you could just swim around in circles if you were brave enough! So after dark it was back to the cards again, accompanies by an unbelievable number of grasshoppers and giant stick insects in our dining tent. And it was even worse when you went to the bathrooms, grasshoppers everywhere, covering every wall and surface, so showering was a very brief and unpleasant experience accompanied by a lot of screams - even from the men's bathroom!

So onto the final day of this mammoth trek through the centre of Australia and our first stop of the morning was the Devil's Marbles. Legend has it these are the oldest exposed surface on earth. They're basically a whole series of very large boulders of all shapes and sizes. You might have seen pictures of them when you have a look at mine, but there were certainly more than I imagined. There are a couple of famous ones that are always photographed and I thought that was about it but they stretch quite a distance and stand out so distinctly on the flat arid landscape.

Then it was on through the place where the most UFOs have reportedly been spotted in the world. Our bus driver didn't seem too convinced and thought all the hype was overplayed by the guy who owns the roadhouse (cafe/bar) to generate more business as people pass through! But we didn't stop there, we carried on to Wauchope for a coffee break and yet again the toilets proved to be a test of your animal preferences. The grasshoppers had now become mandatory and were of course everywhere, but this time there was an added bonus, you could also share the cubicle with a frog or an extremely large spider - I chose the frog and just hoped he wasn't in too much of a jumping mood!

Next stop was a brief one at Barrow Creek, now famous for the association with Peter Falconios disappearance. Nothing much there just a roadhouse and a telegraph station - not somewhere I'd like to have got stranded. But much nicer was Ti Tree where we stopped for our final lunch and we were treated to a demonstration of the aboriginal tools of central Australia, such as boomerangs and spear throwers,  and how they were used.

Finally we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (I'd already done it once in Western Australia, but this time I crossed it in the southbound direction) and on into Alice Springs for a final Kakadu family dinner at a bar called Bojangles. This bar was pretty cool, had most meats you could think of on the menu so the girls feeling in need of some sustanance ordered what would commonly be known as a mixed grill only this one was slightly alternative - buffalo, kangaroo, crocodile and camal - tasted great! The bar also had one other redeeming feature and that was the web cams. Every night they broadcast live onto the web so if you have the right url you can log on and watch people party the night away or alternatively see your friends making complete idiots of themselves! Such a shame that most office pcs block the use of web cams or I could have sent you all the link..!