The next 2 days we spent travelling west across the Great Northern Hwy towards Derby on the west Kimberley coast. The first day we travelled through Halls Creek and stopped for the night at Fitzroy Crossing. These were the only 2 other towns along this stretch of highway.

Halls Creek was established as a gold mining town in the late 1800s. The gold rush only lasted 3 or 4 yrs there, then it became basically a ghost town. It re-established eventually as a service town to the surrounding pastoral holdings. There were a couple of points of interest to see there. One was a statue of Russian Jack outside the shire hall. This statue is dedicated to a gold miner who pushed an injured miner mate over 300km in a wheelbarrow to get help – it serves as a memorial to the comraderie and loyalty of these bush pioneers. The other attraction we visited was called ‘China Wall’ and was just 6km out of town. It is a section of quartz reef that is on a fault line and had been ‘pushed’ up out of the ground below. It looked like manmade white bricks making a section of wall, but it is just the limestone quartz with marks on it. We had a chance then to teach the younger girls about the Great Wall of China. We also stopped in the town centre of Halls Creek to pick up just a few groceries and visited a camping and electrical store to buy a new caravan electrical cord.

It was then another 2 hrs to Fitzroy Crossing which we reached by 4pm. The mighty Fitzroy River is large enough that it still had plenty of water in it, even this late in the dry season. We stayed at a very nice caravan park called Fitzroy River Lodge. It had very lush green grass – obviously water is not too much of an issue there. They had a nice swimming pool which the kids swam at just before dinner.

The next day, we drove the 200 or so km to Derby, arriving soon after lunch. We checked into the Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park, set up and had some down time for a while. At around 3pm, we drove down to the port and the circular jetty to view the high tide. Derby is said to have the biggest tide variations in Australia, with a difference of up to 11m between high and low tide. There were quite a few people fishing off the jetty at low tide. Apparently the best time to fish off the jetty was an hour before high tide (incoming tide) and an hour after high tide (outgoing tide). We took a walk around the circular jetty and saw different fisherpeople with their catches. One friendly couple saw the kids and asked if they would like to pull up the crab pots that they’d lowered down earlier. Sam was glad to oblige. There was nothing in it, but the man showed us a good sized crab he had caught on the incoming tide. There was definitely no swimming off the shores of Derby due to the presence of saltwater crocs. We then drove to the public swimming pool the van park owner had told us about ( no pool at the van park) and the kids enjoyed a swim. It was a very nice swimming pool, with a water play area for youngsters as well as a 25m pool and toddler pool. They swam for about an hour and then we headed back to the van for dinner. We made plans for the next day – doing a day trip to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek.

Well, we didn’t leave the van park until 8.45am. Then we needed to do a few short jobs in Kununurra still – go back to the mechanic with our car’s log book for them to log the service, fill up with petrol, and go to a shop to buy a water jerry can ( in my reading the previous night I had read that the water at the campgrounds is bore water and needs boiling before safe to drink – so we wanted to take lots of water. Then we were about 15 mins out of Kununurra, Michael was concerned about the oil pressure gauge being high and he wanted to go back to the mechanic, so we turned around. We actually drove to the Toyota dealer in Kununurra and Michael spoke to them about it – he found out that the gauge is not accurate and it wasn’t a problem (a mechanic came over a did a quick check of the oil) but to definitely change the oil and oil filter more often out here. So after this delay, it was about 9.45 before we were leaving Kununurra – I didn’t know whether we’d still be able to do one walk late this afternoon or whether we would run out of time – would have to see.

It was a 2hr drive to the first town/locality along the hwy – Turkey Creek – or Warmun as the aborigines call it. It is mainly an aboriginal community. We didn’t stop there. It was then another half an hour to the turnoff to Purnululu NP. We came to the turnoff, which is at Mabel Downs Station, and drove the 5km in to where the Bungle Bungles Caravan Park is located. It is a very basic and sparse caravan park. We booked in to leave our caravan locked up there tonight and then to stay at a powered site the following night. I had planned for us to have hot dogs for lunch at the van before we left to drive in to the NP. Michael went to set up the generator so I could use the microwave oven and that’s when we realised we didn’t have the caravan electrical lead – it must have accidentally been left back at the Kununurra van park as we were hurrying to do our morning pack up. We went back to the office to ask if they had a spare one we could borrow until we could buy a new one – luckily they did. We eventually got through lunch and finished packing the last minute refrigerator items in the esky we were taking in the car. It was another very hot day, so doing all these jobs in the heat tends to take its toll a bit more. Finally by about 2pm, we were ready to leave the van and set off along the 4WD Sandy Creek Track in to the NP.

The information I had read said that it was 58km from the turnoff to the visitors centre of the NP, however it was slow going so could take 2-2.5 hrs. Perhaps they’ve improved the road since that website was written, because it only took us 1.5 hrs to reach the visitors centre. We had a little while there booking in to the campsite and getting some advice on walks etc. It was another 20mins to the campsite (we stayed at the one in the southern end). So it was after 4pm when we reached the campsite – there was not going to be enough time to do a walk today. So we might not be able to do all the walks I had hoped to do before it gets too hot tomorrow. Oh well.

We set up the tent and set of the back of the car for sleeping, then the kids all went for a walk around the campsite for 15mins or so while Michael and I sat down and had a relax together.

Then while I had a game of Happy Families with all the kids, Michael started cooking the sausages on the portable BBQ. We ate our dinner, washed up from the billy we boiled on the fire, and then decided we needed an early night. So off to bed.

All the kids slept quite well. Michael and I slept better than we thought we would, although there wasn’t much padding on the floor of the tent so that made it less comfortable. We were awake at about 5.45am and got up to have breakfast. We started the fire again so we could boil water for a cuppa. We had to then pack up all the sleeping bags, the tent and pack everything back into the car. We were done and ready to go by 7.30am.

We drove to the carpark for the walks on the southern end – called Picanniny Creek carpark. The last 10 mins of the drive we could start to see the domes for which the Bungle Bungles are known. They were amazing to look at. There were 4 walks here – the Cathedral Gorge, the Dome walk, Picanniny Creek walk and the sunset lookout walk. We decided just to do the Cathedral Gorge walk (about an hour return) and the Dome walk (a 15min detour loop off the gorge walk). It was already quite hot and only around 8am. The first part of the walk was mostly in the sun, but once we got further into the gorge it was nice and shady. The Dome walk obviously took us amongst some of the domes. They are orange and black striped (like bee-hives). The reason for these colours is that the orange is the sandstone which gets the rusted iron on it, and the black is ? which has a black algae which attaches to it. The Cathedral Gorge is so named because of the amphitheatre-like structure of the walls at the end of the gorge. A tour group arrived at the area about 5 mins after we did, and a group of 4 of them became a choir and gave a ‘recital’ – they sang ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘Advance Australia Fair’ – I took some video. We walked back to the carpark then, stopping several times for a drink as it was quite hot.

We then planned to drive the half hour drive to the northern end of the park which had some more walks. This top end didn’t have the domes – it had the sheer cliff face walls and gorges and chasms. The most popular walk in the north end was Echidna Chasm which took you into an area which was created by a fault-line opening up a cliff face. It was so narrow in parts that you could easily touch the walls on both sides. This rock was different to the striated orange and black rock of the domes. This one was called conglomerate rock and had lots of small rocks within the sandstone. Although we were walking in the middle of the day, inside the chasm was shady and cool – it was just the first few hundred metres in the sun that was a killer. But we got back to the car and recovered in the airconditioning.

That was all the walks we were doing today, but there was one other activity we had decided to do that day – go for a helicopter flight over the Bungle Bungles – we decided to splash out to do this. So we drove to the airstrip area. We had actually called in here in the morning and worked out a time with the pilots. We were scheduled for 3.15. There would be 3 of us in each of 2 helicopters, and it would be a 30min flight. In one helicopter was Sam (next to the pilot), Hannah and myself. In the other was Lauren (next to the pilot), Michael and Bethany. Michael had the video camera and took lots of video footage. The doors were off to give a better view – it was amazing. Michael and I both had a firm hold of the younger girl next to us, but we all had seat belts on. We saw the high plateaus and gorges in the northern section of the park and the fascinating domes in the southern section. It was the first time in a helicopter for all of us, except Michael, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was now 4pm and we commenced the drive back to the caravan park. We got back around 6pm, unlocked the van, moved it to the powered site, and heated up one of our frozen dinners. We ate a late dinner, put the kids to bed, had a shower to wash off the sweat from the day, and fell into bed ourselves after 2 long but fulfilling days.

We had booked our car in for a regular service today (Tues), so we planned to have a rest day, mainly staying around the van park. This was good after the last few busy days. Lauren, especially, was very thankful for a chance to sleep in. The other 3 kids were awake early as usual, and so was I. Michael would have liked a sleepin, but wanted to get the car to the mechanic early, so that it would be ready earlier. The mechanic opened at 7am. He left the van park around 7, dropped the car off and had one of the workers drop him back to the van park (Kununurra is not that big, so it was not a problem to drop people anywhere).

I decided the kids should do some schoolwork today (inward groans from Mum and Dad and outward groans from the kids). I started this with the 3 who were awake while Michael was gone. Michael helped a bit when he got back, and then Michael and Sam walked into town to do some grocery shopping, as we were very depleted on our food stores. They got just the priority grocery items as they had to walk back with them. We decided we would do a bigger shop in the afternoon when we had the car again. We continued with schoolwork for most of the morning ( it took some of the children longer than it should have). They had ‘recess’ on the playground near our caravan. Then they had a short swim as a reward once they were finished. We then had some nachos for lunch – yum. Everyone had a rest time after lunch, reading books or listening to books and watching a short movie. Then Michael and I decided we should do some planning for our trip into the Bungle Bungles the next 2 days. We had briefly discussed it when we first arrived at Kununurra and had planned out the things we were going to do on different days. We knew we couldn’t take the caravan on the 4WD track into the Purnululu NP, so it was either go in and out in one day, or stay overnight in something other than the caravan. There is a camp area with safari-style tents already setup, but when we looked into this, it was going to be hideously expensive. We had brought one of our 3man tents with us. We thought maybe we could buy another inexpensive one, and just take the 2 tents in. Then Lauren and Sam said they would be happy to sleep in the back of the car, and we decided Hannah and Beth would fit in the tent with Michael and I. So we decided to take this approach.

I spent a half hour or so working out what we would need in the way of food for the day and a bit in the Bungle Bungles and then the next couple of days before we reached Derby. Then I dropped Michael and the kids off at the swim beach area at Lake Kununurra, and went and did the shopping. I picked them up after they’d had a nice swim and we all went back to the van park for showers, unpacking groceries and cooking dinner – hamburgers. The kids were a great help with all this. We had dinner and got the kids to bed, then I started to read up on the walks to do at the Bungle Bungles and started to write a list of all the things we’d need to pack in the car to take in with us. It was a bit more last minute planning than I usually do for this sort of thing, but since we’d been travelling for about 10 weeks now, I thought the kids were getting pretty good at being flexible if I’d forgotten anything – and it wasn’t like there would be no-one else in there. I packed as much of the food as I could that night and had the list ready to pack the remainder of things in the morning. We were hoping to leave the van park by 8am, so it was going to be another early start.

We got away by 8am, not 7.30, but that was still pretty good. It was a 20min drive back along the Gibb River Road to the turnoff to Emma Gorge, then just a short drive to the carpark. There is a ‘resort’ with accomodation at the entrance to Emma Gorge. Some people stay here, rather than at ‘the station’.
We parked and were ready to start the walk by about 8.30. It was already feeling warm. It took about an hour to walk all the way into the gorge to the waterfall and swimming hole. The walk was a bit scrambly at times, over rocks a lot. It was not as pretty as El Questro Gorge walk, but the swimming hole at the end was lovely and made it worth the walk. There is a tall sheer cliff face which is in a semicircle shape around the waterhole. At this time of year the waterfall is only fairly small, but I can imagine it pouring down in the wet season. All of us except Michael went for a swim (too cold for Michael). Lauren and Sam swam to under the waterfall (it was very deep here) and said the droplets of water were like pinpricks, they were falling so fast. As we were getting out of the main swimming area, a lovely older couple said to us “We can see your kids are having such a great time, so we just wanted to tell you about a nice ‘spa’ area tucked away behind those rocks – its nice and warm over there”. We thanked them and went to discover the thermal area – we found it and enjoyed sitting there for a while. We then warmed up in the sun and changed back into our walking gear ready for the walk out. A couple of stops along the way for drinks and lollies/biscuits helped everyone get back OK (although Bethany needed a piggy back just for the last 5 mins – she had done magnificently well to do what she did). It was about 12noon when we got back to the car, and we were glad to be in the air-conditioning.

We ate our sandwiches for lunch as we drove towards Wyndham. We had to continue backtracking along the Gibb River Road back to the Great Northern Hwy and then turn left to head north towards Wyndham. It was about a 30min drive then. Everyone was still a bit hungry and we had decided we would find a cafe at Wyndham to have a milkshake and maybe a muffin or something.

We drove into Wyndham about 1pm. There was a big croc at the entrance to the town. The main thing we wanted to do here was see the Five Rivers Lookout, but thought there may be some other things to do also. We found the information centre and I went in to get a map and find out some information on things to do. The port area was a little further north than the main part of the town. We decided to drive there and see if we could find a cafe there. We walked down the main road of the port area and found a shop that sold souvenirs – we asked them if there was a cafe, but were informed “No sorry – there is only the pub”. There was a small museum at the port area, which could have been interesting, but the kids weren’t keen, so I thought it best we just head back to the main area and find a cafe. We were told there was the Five Rivers Cafe on the main road which should be open until 3pm. We found this cafe just after 2pm and it had just closed! And this was a week day. It was a sign of how small and isolated the town was and how it did not benefit from tourists passing through – only those who wanted to make the trek to the end of the road. We continued our search for a place to buy a drink and we eventually found ‘Lu- Lu’s Asian restaurant’ – it only had hot food but at least it had some takeaway milkshakes. We enjoyed these and got some muffins out of the freezer from the caravan to eat.

We then drove to the base of the hill where the lookout was. We had been told we couldn’t take the caravan up the hill because it was quite steep and had some tight corners. But there was a large area were we could leave it. This we did and then drove up the hill. It was a great view from the top, looking out over the Cambridge Gulf. This is a deep gulf that comes south from the Timor Sea and where 5 rivers start. Those 5 rivers are the Ord heading south-east, the Durack heading north-west, the ? heading west, the Pentecost and ? heading south-west.

We were all fairly tired so decided just to head straight back to Kununurra, rather than taking the 50km detour to see the prison boab tree. There is another one near Derby which we might try to see.

So we drove the hour back to Kununurra and went back to the Kimberleyland Van Park. We asked if there was a site close to the pool, and we were fortunate to get a spot close to the pool, the playground and the amenities. It was great. The kids were keen for a swim, so I took them over to the pool while Michael set up the caravan and started to get dinner ready. We had showers, then dinner and then were all ready for an early night again.

El Questro Wilderness Park is about 130km west of Kununurra along the Gibb River Road. It used to be a privately run station, but has now opened itself up to tourism, having accommodation at the homestead or camping area and running guided tours or allowing for selfguided tours to the many gorges and waterholes and rivers and lookouts. It is 1 million acres in size. We had heard of it from a few friends as a good place to visit and to stay overnight. So we decided to go and stay there 1 or 2 nights rather than doing it as a day trip from Kununurra.

It was Saturday by this stage and there were markets on at Kununurra on a Sat morning from 8am, which I said I’d like to go to before we headed off. I was up early with the younger girls anyway, so had most things done by 8am. It turned out that Michael, I, Hannah and Beth all went to the markets while Lauren and Sam stayed home and read/watched a movie. We were back bys 9.30 and packed up ready to leave the van park by 10am.

We had a little detour on the way as we missed the turn onto the Gibb River Road and were heading towards Wyndam a little while before we realised. Then we got back on track and were at El Questro Station by about midday. We checked in and set up and then proceeded to get some lunch. It was a very hot day again (around 36 degrees) and, because El Questro campsite was all unpowered, we couldn’t use the A/C – oh no! We struggled through the chores and then headed for a swim at the Pentecost River beside the campsite. I was very happy to go in also. The kids found a deep area where there was a tree with spreading branches overhanging the water. This was just perfect for adventurous kids – climb out along the branch and jump into the water. Sam could have done that for hours. Lauren and Hannah joined in for a bit, but also played some other games with Bethany and so on. They had a ball and I had a nice relax in the water and then warming up again on the sand bank. We went back to the caravan for a snack and a rest and then Michael took them for another swim before showers, dinner and to bed – not before deciding what walks and swimming spots we were going to visit tomorrow. We were going to have to start early to do any walking before it got too hot. So we decided to try to be ready to leave the van by 7.30am and do the El Questro Gorge walk and then Zebedee Springs in the morning.

So we did get away around 7.30 the next morning. We all had our swimmers on under our clothes as there was a swimming hole at both spots. It was a 15 min drive to the start of El Questro Gorge walk. The information had said about 1 hour walk to the halfway pool (which was as far as we were going to go) along a rainforest area by the creek. This is one of the reasons we had chosen this walk – it would be cool along the way. And we weren’t disappointed – it was a lovely walk beside a cool creek within the gorge – very pretty. It took us about 50mins to reach the halfway pool and there we enjoyed a lovely cool swim. We were then refreshed for the walk back. We then drove 5 mins down the road to the Zebedee Springs carpark. Zebedee Springs is a thermal springs and it is only open to the public from 7am until 12 noon. It is closed in the afternoon for private tour groups. We arrived at the carpark at 10.45am and it was only a 5min walk to the springs, so we would have plenty of time for a swim. They were fairly crowded but we were able to find a spot to sit and soak – it was lovely! There were a series of little pools as the water cascaded down the rocks and then there was a larger pool at the bottom where the kids could move around a bit more. We stayed about an hour and then headed back to the car and then back to the van, having enjoyed our morning of walks and swims.

We had lunch, a short rest and then the kids were keen to have another swim in the Pentecost River beside the campground. So they swam, had a break for some afternoon tea and a play and then swam again – 4 swims in a day. Then all of us except Lauren and Bethany (who wanted to just rest) went for a short drive to a lookout as the sun set.

Then we came back for a BBQ dinner. We had eaten every meal, except breakfast outside whilst at El Questro because it was cooler outside. We made plans for the next day – we were going to try to be packed up and away by 7.30am again so that we could do the Emma Gorge walk on our way out of El Questro, once again before it got too hot. So we all got to bed reasonably early.

We had read that triple J tours do great informative cruises on Lake Argyle (and also up the Ord River). We decided to do the 2 hr morning cruise, feeling that was long enough for the kids. We weren’t disappointed. It was a fantastic cruise with a very friendly and informative tour guide, Graeme.

We had to leave the van park at 7.45am for the 50min drive to Lake Argyle, southeast of Kununurra. We needed to be at the Lake argyle Tourist Park by 9am. We were there in plenty of time and had a look around at some of the maps and things in the office area. We then got on the bus which took as the short drive to the boat ramp and got on the boat called the ‘Kimberley Durack’. The boat was much more roomy than the smaller ones we had gone on at the Daintree. It was actually a catamaran and it had a toilet on board and also a servery area for tea and coffee and homemade morning tea biscuits and slice. There were eskies filled with soft drinks and juices also for the kids to have whenever they liked – the kids loved that idea!

The boat could actually go quite fast too. We sometimes travelled slowly and looked at things on the shoreline, and we sometimes travelled quite fast to cover the long distances.

On returning back to the tourist park and to our car, we drove the short distance to the Durack Homestead museum. The Duracks had been a pioneering family in this area of Australia and their homestead was on the grassy plains which were going to be covered in water once Lake Argyle started filling. It was thought they would have a couple of years to move before the lake got that big, but it filled up quicker than expected. A group of people were able to move the house (a stone house) but not any other buildings from the homestead. It was perfectly restored in a different location near the lake as a museum and testimony to this family. It was interesting to look through.

We then drove back to Kununurra and our van (which was hot!), put on the aircon, and rested a while before a swim and then an early dinner. The younger girls were still trying to adjust to the new time zone, so were very tired by evening.

The younger girls were awake around 5.30am local time. It was quite light outside already and the birds were becoming noisy. They rested in bed for a bit longer but then I got up with them. Sam also got up fairly soon after. We all had breakfast and then Sam suggested he take the 2 younger girls over to the playground at the park across the road. I was happy for him to do this and it gave me a bit of quiet time before I prompted Michael and Lauren to get up, so we could get going to do a bushwalk early.

We left the van park a bit before 8am and drove the 10mins to Mirima NP, right on the edge of Kununurra. This NP is known as the mini bungle bungles, because it has the same beehive shaped domes as the real bungle bungles, just a smaller version. We did the main walk up to the lookout where we could see over the domes and also over the town. It was very hot walking, even at 9am and we were glad we didn’t leave it any later. All the kids were great troupers though and persevered (with the help of some snake lollies every now and then – and lots of water of course). We then headed straight back to the van to sit in the airconditioning for a while and get our strength back.

Michael took the kids over to the pool (which we were glad was covered). Then we had lunch and a rest. Then it was another swim. Then we went for a drive to the Diversion Dam wall just west of Kununurra. This is all part of the Ord River irrigation project, whereby they damned the mighty Ord River and created Lake Argyle to be able to have a permanent water supply for farming in the area. The diversion dam near Kununurra is the smaller dam wall. On the upstream area from the dam wall is Lake Kununurra (really just a section of the Ord River). It has a swimming area where they do croc checks and feel that the chance of saltwater crocs is minimal. We had a look around here, but didn’t have our swimmers with us, so didn’t swim.

Our last stop on the drive was at Kelly’s Knob lookout – at a hill within Kununurra. We enjoyed the views.

Then it was back to the van to prepare dinner and the usual night time routine.

Victoria River area is a beautiful spot. It would have been nice to explore it a bit more, but we felt we needed to keep going to get to Kununurra at a reasonable time today. But even just the drive through the Gregory NP was lovely. Many red cliff faces and amazing mountainous scenery to view. I decided not to start the kids on schoolwork straight away that day, so that I could just sit and enjoy the scenery for a while. I took some video while we were driving.

We got to Timber Creek about an hour on, and stopped at a shaded grassy area near the roadhouse to have morning tea. If we felt that it hadn’t been warm enough on our travels yet, that was certainly changing now – big time. It was well over 30degrees that day – there was definitely no standing in the sun. Timber Creek was also close to the Victoria River and we drove down a side road to get a view of the river and take some photos – but were then glad to be back in the air conditioned car. We continued on the further 250km to Kununurra.

We had forgotten about the fruit and vegetable quarantine going over into WA until a couple at the caravan park that morning had asked us which way we were travelling – they had wanted to give away some fruit they had, rather than throw it out. I realised that we still had quite a bit of fruit and veg that we wouldn’t be able to use up that day. We ate as much as we could for morning tea and lunch that day, but still had a bit when we got to the border. Before going to the quarantine station, we stopped to have our photo at the WA border sign (defying the heat again as we stepped out of the car). We then drove over to the quarantine station, which at least was under shelter. We found out that we also couldn’t take honey over the border – so had to give up our almost full honey jar plus the completely full spare. I had thrown out fruit already, but wasn’t sure about veg. The quarantine officer came into the van to check our fridge and pantry. I found out we could keep sweet potato and mushrooms bought at the shop. We could also keep carrots as long as we cut off the heads (which we then did). The officer said there are about 100 diseases that they are trying to keep out of WA. He admitted that they know they won’t be able to keep them out forever, but the longer they do, the better. He also reminded us we needed to turn our clocks back an hour and a half now. So it went from 2pm to 12.30pm as we crossed over.

It was then only another 50km to Kununurra. We only came into 3G range about 5 mins out of Kununurra, so i didn’t have much time to research caravan parks. But we ended up at a park near the Lily Pond Lagoon called Kimberleyland. It suited us fine. We set up quickly in the stifling heat and put the aircon on in the van as soon as we were hooked up to power. Then stayed in the cool for a little while. I then took the kids over to the pool, while Michael went and saw the Toyota dealer (about having the car serviced) and picked up some groceries.

For dinner that night I cooked up the cherapin we had caught at Katherine and had them as an aside to a prawn stir fry. We were all a bit disappointed in how little ‘meat’ there was for the effort put in to catching them. We would have had to improve our hunting techniques to survive like the aborigines!

We put the kids to bed a little later than their usual bedtime as we had to adjust to the time change. We knew they’d be waking up early for local time, but thought this would be a good thing, since we wanted to get out and do some sightseeing before the main heat of the day.

Well we stayed at Katherine for just on a week and felt much more rested afterwards, and ready to keep travelling. We didn’t do any sight-seeing in that time, and the only touristy place we visited was the hot springs because they were such a lovely place to swim each day.

It was great to see my sister, Liz, and for the kids to catch up with their Aunty Liz. Although she had to work during the day for the first 3 days we were there, we really enjoyed having the evening meal with her and Michael and I sitting up late talking with her. There was one night her and Michael got into a really good discussion which covered all sorts of topics – I excused myself at 11.00pm to go to bed, and I found out the next day Michael and Liz had kept talking until 2am – they were obviously enjoying the conversation! On the Saturday Liz spent the day with us, doing her own usual chores while we did a big cook up of biscuits and slice, and then taking us cherapin pot fishing in the afternoon at the local river site. Sunday, she came with us in the morning to a Teddy Bears Picnic community event (part of the Katherine festival) and then headed off to Darwin where she had previously booked some committments for  Sunday afternoon and Monday ( an accrued day off work).  She was happy for us to stay on at her house a bit longer. We did this, as we still needed to attend to a few jobs on the Monday when the shops were open again. We left just after lunch on the Tuesday.

Some of the things we did in Katherine were:
– the kids rode their bikes around the property where Liz lived – they found a spot down near a dry creek bed where they made a ‘fort’.
– we downloaded some new movies from  a set one of Liz’s friends had loaned her – so the kids watched some new movies over ‘rest time’.
– we did lots of washing and gave the caravan a good clean out.
– we baked a whole lot of biscuits while we had access to an oven and froze some.
– we cooked a whole lot more dinners to freeze – ended up with about 10 more frozen dinners which will be very handy. I put them in vacuum seal ziplock bags so they don’t take up much room. Carrying the extra camping freezer for this reason has been a good idea.
– we did some schoolwork for an hour or so on a couple of the days.
– we went swimming at the hot springs every afternoon except one – this was a favourite with all of us as it got quite warm by the afternoons and this was a lovely way to refresh. Even though they were ‘hot springs’ they were actually just lukewarm in the section where we swam (and most people swam) and because it was a lovely shaded area, it was just the right temperature – even for Michael (who only swims when the temperature is over 30 degrees).
– Sam, Hannah and I went fishing at a local spot Liz told us about – only caught snags – found out that evening when talking to Liz that we were using the wrong technique. In that area, we needed to use lures and keep the line moving rather than let it sink to the bottom where there were lots of rocks – we still have lots to learn about fishing!
– then Liz took us to another spot to put the cherapin pots in ( cherapin are a bit like prawns) – we caught 2 overnight on the first night, then  4 on the second night. The kids really enjoyed this.  I bought some prawns with my next grocery shop and thought we could add the cherapin to the prawns with a stir fry – will do that tonight or tomorrow night.
– we went to a community event on the Sunday in the grounds of the Katherine museum. It was a teddy bear’s picnic. Hannah and Beth took their teddies and had cuddles with the dressed up teddies. They had faces painted and went on a jumping castle and did some craft things. There wasn’t as much to do for the older kids, but we relaxed and had a sausage sizzle lunch there.

All in all, a good week and on Tuesday 21st August, we set off again, just driving 2 hours to stay at Victoria River roadhouse caravan park that night.

We took 3 days to get to Katherine. We had thought we would do some free camping both nights, but as it turned out, we stayed at Alice Springs for the first night. This is because, as we were driving back along the Lasseter Hwy during the first day, an orange light lit up on the dashboard indicating that the fuel filter was dirty. Michael was worried that there might have been water in the fuel, so he stopped on the side of the road to check it. He also looked up the instruction manual for the car to find out more about the fuel system. He learnt that the indication was just for a dirty fuel filter, not water in the fuel. So he was happy to keep driving, but wanted to stop at Alice Springs for the night, rather than travel further north, so that he could buy a new fuel filter and install  it the next morning (it was Sunday that day, so we were going to have to wait until Monday morning). We stopped at Erldunda for lunch that day and he did some reading on the internet about the issue – he thinks that perhaps the fuel out here is dirtier (perhaps from the red dust) and so fuel filters need changing more often than otherwise specified.

So we ended up going back to the same caravan park we had stayed at previously (we had found it good) and the kids had another play at the playground. 

The next day, Michael bought the new filter and installed it, and then we were off north along the Stuart Hwy. This 2nd day was mainly retracing the 500km or so we had driven a couple of weeks earlier. We came to the Threeways again and continued on for another 60km to a free camping area at a place called Attack Creek. We had a bit of a history lesson, as I had read where this was the site where John McDouall Stuart and his team had been attacked by aboriginals during his 2nd attempt to cross the continent from south to north. The attack was severe enough to thwart that attempt. History tells us that he was successful on his 3rd attempt. Once again, this free camping site was quite crowded. It was also closer to the road than the previous one, and, being the Stuart Hwy, lots of road trains passed by, which were quite loud. We didn’t hear them in the middle of the night though. The kids were still keen for a fire so we did another one here – but had a break from the marshmallows this time.

The third day of driving was another 600km to reach Katherine. We passed through localities called Pamayu, Elliott, Daly Waters and Mataranka. Most of these were no more than a roadhouse, perhaps a general store and a few houses. Mataranka was probably the largest. We stopped here for afternoon tea and a play at the park. It was the site of the ‘Big Termite’ – depicting how much of the landscape of the NT was covered in termite mounds. We had certainly noticed it even more prevalent as we drove further north. The other thing we noticed was how much warmer it was getting as we drove north. It was definitely more shirts and shorts weather by the time we reached Mataranka – in fact it was nudging towards 30degrees. Mataranka is only an hour south of Katherine, so we had texted my sister Liz at that point and she was going to wait for us at her workplace and meet us somewhere in Katherine to guide us out to her place, which was on a property about 18km out of Katherine. We arrived at Katherine just after 5pm and wanted to pick up a few grocery supplies and also go to a dump point and fill up with fuel. We ended up meeting Liz at the Woolworths carpark. From there, she led us back to her place. She lived in a granny flat attached to the back of a shed on a 36acre property belonging to an older couple. The main house was a long way from the shed, so she had a lot of privacy and tranquility to herself. She had only moved in about a month ago but was loving it. We were able to park the van close to her granny flat and use an extension cord to plug in to power. This meant we could keep our fridge running and everything and not have to overtake Liz’s small fridge. We had dinner under the pergola outside her flat – and celebrated with a dessert of apple pie and ice-cream (since we were able to use Liz’s oven – and she had a big deep freeze). It was good catching up with her.

It was Tuesday when we arrived and Liz still had to work the next 3 days. But she was happy for us to chill out at her place. This is just what we needed. So I’ll take a break now from blogging for a few days and just ‘chill’.