Northern Territory - outback

The Northern Territory Outback - an awful lot of not a lot with vast distances between the nothing.

Mataranka thermal springs - swimming through the crystal clear warm water (34C) surrounded by lush palms. Capital of the Never Never so named because it was the home of Jeannie Gunn the author of the Australian Novel, "We of the Never Never" which was set around this area. 

Fleur and Ellie beside Australia's most remote traffic lights at the Daly Water Pub. Daly Waters was the site of Australia's first international Airport. Built in 1930, the airfield was a strategic destination for planes that had a limited fuel range. On the day we were here we were treated to a low level flyby by 6 RAAF jets practising bombing runs on the main street whilst the whole pub stood in the middle of the road and cheered. Extremely low, loud and pretty awe inspiring.

At the bar in the Daly Water Pub, the oldest living pub in the Territory, where people leave all sorts of calling cards. The walls were full of cards, shirts, scarf, underpants and allsorts of other things which apparently after travelling thousands of km's to get here the owner suddenly decides they no longer need. We are under the bar where all the bra's that are left are hung. 

Hanging around inside one of the broken Devils Marbles, 110km south of Tennant Creek and near to nowhere else. A collecting of impressive boulders which lay scattered precariously balanced on top of one another. It was here that Larry started to develop his nasty habit of not starting. 

Another boarder crossing this time leaving Northern Territory and crossing into our latest state - Queensland.

Camooweal the first place in Queensland after leaving NT. Note the sign "Adjust watches ahead by 5 years and 30 minutes". We stopped here to fill up with fuel and couldn't get going again so had to be jump started by some kind people passing and then drove all day to Mount Isa to avoid stopping again. As Camooweal is classed as a suburb of Mount Isa the 188km long Barkly Highway between the two is the longest main street in the World. 

The Top End - Northern Territory

The Top End in the Northern Territory, home to the Saltwater Crocodile, Box Jellyfish, Mosquitoes, Snakes, Other Harmful Wildlife, Melioidosis, High Temperatures, Cyclone and Storms all according to the first page warning in the brochure 'Essential Top End Holiday Guide 2014-2015

Katherine - in the natural thermal springs which bubble out of he ground at a constant 32 degrees situated just behind the town and caravan park. A nice warm bath for all.

Katherine Gorge in the Nitmiluk National Park. Penny standing above one of the 13 gorges in the Katherine River system. The area was the spirituel foundation tor the first inhabitants of the area the Jawoyn and Dagomen people. 

Litchfield National Park at the Burley Rockhole a series of cascading waterfalls and rock pools with nice warm water again. We dropped in meaning to have a quick look and ended up staying 4 hours playing in the water. Highly recommended.

Litchfield National Park Florence Falls. Just down stream from the Burley Rockhole the river dives off the edge into a plunge pool set in a monsoon forest. Another swim in the warm water plunge pool over to the waterfall for a full on hair rinsing - for those with hair.

Litchfield National Park - Beside the Magnetic Termite Mounds, one of the many thousand which stand up to 5 metres high. The mounds thin edges point north-south minimising their exposure to the sun to keep them cool. Hence the name magnetic due their orientation, they don't attract spoons, we tried.

Darwin - outside the NT Parliament Building. Another spectacular Australian Government Building built to house those necessary to govern a Territory with a population of 235,000 people. Perhaps the idea is that the entire NT population can all turn up at once and fit in the Parliament Building for tea.

Darwin - Fleur and Ellie inside the World War 2 Oil Storage Tunnels constructed to protect the Navy's oil supplies from bombardment during WWII. The five steel lined storage tunnels extend under the City but where never used as construction was not completed before the end of the war.

Kakadu - despite our plan to do the loop to see the National Park, extensive wet season rain meant that nearly all the sights were closed due to high water flow and also saltwater crocodiles so we gave it a missed and moved south to get some relief from the humidity.

The last bit of WA

Kimberley to the Western Australian/Northern Territory Boarder.

April 23 - St Georges Day, celebrated by the family in the Mirima Valley National Park near Kununurra. Fleur and Ellie's school work for the day was a project on St. George.

Lake Argyle - created by the damming of the Ord River with a 98m high dam wall to create Australia's second largest reservoir. Lake Argyle has a surface area of 1000 square kilometres and a shore line of over 900 km and holds 18 times more water than Sydney Harbour. Built to irrigate a vast area of land for farming.

Lake Argyle Caravan Park's infinity pool on the side of the hill overlooking the lake. Unanimously agreed by all to be by far the best swimming pool so far on the trip.

April 25 - Anzac Day. The Dawn Service on the Dam Wall at lake Argyle. We had to get up at 4:30am to attend the service which was undertaken as the sun came up. Fleur and Ellie were chosen to lay the wreath during the service. A simple but moving service followed by a sausage sizzle served on the dam wall.

Crossing the boarder from Western Australia to Northern Territory. Our 6th boarder crossing on the trip. We have spent 75 days and travelled over 9000km in WA alone as it is by far the largest state in Australia, covering the western third of the continent. It is bigger in size than Western Europe and the second largest state/province/national region in the world.

Our Helicopter Trip

Fleur and Ellie's helicopter adventure. At the Purnululu National Park in Western Australia we went in a helicopter over the Bungle Bungles.

 Our Helicopter as it came in to land to pick us up.

Ellie and I sat in the back with Dad, Mum sat in the front with the pilot to take all the photos. We had to sit where the pilot said to balance the helicopter.   

 There were no doors but we had a seat belt. The pilot said that due to the way the helicopter works we would be pushed down into our seats. He also said that no one had ever fallen out. Even so it was scary at first but after a minute I was no longer scared. 

 Ellie had to sit on my seat because there was only 4 seats including the pilots seat.

 Look no hands!

 Back safetly on land after our fabulous flight.

Love Fleur xx

Kimberley

The Kimberley region was one of the earliest settled parts of Australia with the first arrivals landing about 41,000 years ago, probably from the islands of what is now Indonesia. Nowadays the region is regarded as one of the last remaining wilderness areas on earth.

Derby - The Boab Prison Tree, with a girth of 14m the tree is believed to be about 1500 years old. It was used as a staging point for prisoners being walked to Derby gaol.

Down the Gibb River /Fairfield Leopold Downs Roads to Windjana Gorge National Park on only the second day of its opening after the wet season. Bush was alight and burning as we turned off the track into the park.

Windjana Gorge, part of a 375 million year old Devonian reef system which was once under the sea. We are stood inside the 100m high walls carved by the flowing of the Lennard River. No sign of any crocodiles despite looking for some.

Tunnel Creek National Park - The girls inside the oldest cave system in WA. The creek flows through a water worn 750m long tunnel beneath the limestone of the Napier Range. Wading through knee deep water we didn't go far as we were the only ones there and not one of us knew the way and what might have been in the water.

Purnululu National Park, Bungle Bungle Range. World Heritage listed, the view from our open door helicopter of the 300m high black banded beehive shaped domes which rise above the plains. Made of sandstone and rough conglomerates and moulded by the weather over millions of years.

Bungle Bungle - Cathedral Gorge a huge natural amphitheatre with a pool which fills in the wet season from the now dry waterfall at the top of the picture. The acoustics are amazing especially as we had the place to ourselves. The amount of water and the forces it took to form this place are pretty inspiring.

Striking a pose on top of the rock outcrop know as 'Kelly's Knob' overlooking the town of Kununurra. The lookout at 191m gives great views of the town. Kununurra was used for the majority of the filming of the film Australia and Nicole Kidman claims that the local water helped her get pregnant while filming in this town stating, "Seven babies were conceived out of this film and only one was a boy. There is something up there in the Kununurra water because we all went swimming in the waterfalls, so we can call it the fertility waters now." She provides no insight as to how they managed to make such a boring film though.

Broome

Broome - situated at the southernmost tip of the Dampier Peninsular, 18 degrees south of the equator. Discovered by Europeans in 1689 it was made famous for its pearling industry and only became a established tourist town when English building magnet Sir Alistair McAlpine invested millions of dollars in the 1980's.

Ellie in diving helmet at the Pearl Luggers Museum. Broome was founded by Japanese entrepreneurs in the 1880's. The pearling industry peaked in the early 1900's when the towns 400 luggers provided over 80% of the worlds mother-of-pearl, used mainly for buttons. Only ceasing when the plastic button was invented. Now Broome's pearl farms cultivate and produce pearls which includes the worlds largest pearl.

 The sign below the 'Welcome to Town Beach' sign. Last sighting of a crocodile was yesterday morning. No mention of where he went from there so we gave the swim in the sea a miss for the day and went to the pool.

The ladies on a camel trip along Cable Beach. First camels were imported into Australia from the Canary Islands primarily for transport. Australia is now the only country where there are feral herds of camels, numbering more than 1 million, they are culled and the meat exported to Saudi Arabia where it is consumed.

 The lighthouse at Gantheaume Point. Least impressive lighthouse so far but the rock colours are pretty and they are also home to some of Broome's famous Dinosaur footprints.

Sunday afternoon at Matso Brewery the only full mash hand crafted brewery in Australia's north west. Conveniently it also serves as a pub so Penny sampled the Mango Beer and I enjoyed a Smokey Bishop. Excellent beer and a nice Sunday.

Cable Beach - 22km stretch of sand named after the telegraph cable linking Broome to the rest of the world in 1889. Sitting on top of Larry and watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean. Voted the best beach in Australia, we're not so sure, what with the stingers and crocodiles it doesn't make our top ten list of beaches we have seen so far.

The natural phenomenon known as the Staircase to the Moon. It is caused by the rising of the full moon reflecting off the exposed mudflats at extremely low tide - creating the optical illusion of stairs reaching to the moon. Only occurs 2 - 3 days per month between March and October. 

Whilst in Broome we also went to Sun Pictures the world's oldest and longest running outdoor picture house. Good fun to watch the movie outside under the stars and also directly under the landing approach to Broome Airport. 

Fleur's Blog

 This is my blog page of my favourite

things on our trip so far.

 At Adventure World in Perth, my favourite ride was Abyss, a roller-coaster, it went too fast to be able to get a photo of it. This photo is Rail Rider, you pedal to go along a track over the park.

 At Coral Coast I liked Monkey Mia because there were dolphins and I got to feed one. Every night we went to the Monkey Bar but there were no monkeys, I had lemonade and crisps.

 In the Pilbara the Tom Price Mine Tour was great. We went on a bus Ellie and I expected we would go slowly but we went fast at the speed of 90kph. There were monster dump trucks with tyres that were as tall as the bus. They mine iron ore and then take it up to Port Headland on trains. We went to Port Headland as well. 

At Adelaide we stayed on the best campsite ever. There were two swimming pools and 3 water slides. We went to see the cycling and cheered on the bike riders. We also met up with our friends from Newcastle.

 On Cable Beach at Broome we went on a camel ride. We were on the front camel called Isaac. It was lots of fun. There were 12 camels in a train. This is a picture of us on Isaac.

 This is my bed in the caravan I like it because it is the best bed when its hot. I have got a map of Australia where I plot our route with a red line and some art work that I did last year in school.

Hope you enjoyed reading my blog. Lots of love Fleur