Kununurra/Bungle Bungles

We have spent over a week in Kununurra in a great caravan park next to the scenic Ord river system. It is great to find a place lush with waterways and green parks,unlike most of the Kimberley. We have enjoyed relaxing here, watching the magnificent sunsets over the Kimberley,the river teeming with bird and plant life. We went croc spotting at night just metres from our campsite after watching some Aboriginal kids with their torches the night before. We managed to find a fairly big freshwater croc smiling back at us under the torchlight, a cheap thrill for the evening.On our first day here, cooling off in the pool we met a teacher from Woodend Primary, it had to happen...It was good to see a familiar face from home and have spent most nights with her and her husband, watching the sunset and smugly basking in the warmth of this place far from home. Trina and Terry have heaps of local knowledge, they travel up here to do some casual teaching every year whilst escaping the winter. Nice lifestyle.While based here we camped two nights in the Bungle Bungles ( Purnululu N.P.). Did some great walks to see the beautiful bee-hive domes the park is famous for and walked into a great cave like chasm called Echidna chasm. The Bungle Bungles were formed over millions of years, the patterns of conglomerate rocks are amazing, a very impressive sight, worth the hour long very slow and bumpy drive into the park.The Kimberley is of course famous for the Boab tree, we have been interested to spot many a fine specimen. At our camp site we have a Boab washing line, a rope strung between two fine, majestic old Boabs, a real symbol of the outback.We are taking off on the Gibb River rd tomorrow, first stop El Questro homestead. Will write more once we have survived the infamous road, should be a thrilling ride....

Darwin-hot city delights

We have just spent 4 nights exploring the wonderful tropical city of Darwin. Having done some internet research, I was keen to explore the local foodie market, Parap market,so we arrived early on the Saturday morning. It was hot,busy, wok scented smoke filled the air and there was a queue for coffee, I knew I was in the right place for some foodie action. The selection of authentic Asian food was great, the kids were on their best behaviour having been bribed with the promise of an afternoon at the waterslides. I was keen to try as much Asian food on offer as I could, having survived thus far on fairly simple camp meals. For the foodies the menu sampled went a little like this: fantastic authentic satay kebabs, spicy chicken and prawn laksa, coconut and banana pancakes, mango lassi and coconut juice, very spicy and very tropical. This was all before 11am, no wonder my shorts are a little tight! But alas I digress,there were many other highlights to this tropical city. We spent quite a few hours exploring the NT museum, which had a great Cyclone Tracey display and excellent bird and animal sections for the kids. Lots of water action is essential up here in the tropics, any time after lunch requires a swim, so we took the kids off to a great free waterslide park, they had a ball and also to the wave pool at the Darwin waterfront. We did the obligatory trip to the Mindil beach sunset market, great sunset but markets were very ordinary.Darwin, being a city built on a harbor has some beautiful bays to explore, all turquoise shimmering water, Fannie bay was beautiful and Cullen bay was a great marina with some interesting bayside eateries. You get the impression that Darwin is just starting to emerge as an interesting city, development is half finished and it still has an outback town feel to it, which is part of its charm.After Darwin we drove through Litchfield National Park, a day trip for Darwin people so it was fairly busy. The Wangi falls were spectacular, as were the giant termite mounds at the entrance to the park. We stayed a night at Buley rockhole, which were a series of cascading pools and waterfalls, the kids were in heaven sliding and jumping from pool to pool.We are currently in the Kimberley, the hottest we have been so far. We spent last night at a bush camp (ie.no pool/shower) in the Gregory National Park, it was 35 deg and humid. The kids were so hot they decided to use some bush ingenuity and create their own 'bush shower' (see pic), amazing what you can do with some bread bags and tank water!I am writing this from Kununurra, just over the W.A. Border in the Kimberley, such a pretty spot by the lake. We will be here for a few days, awaiting a service on the car before we tackle the mighty Gibb River Rd over to Derby. Over and out from Kylie in the Kimberley...

Kakadu National Park

We've just finished finished exploring the behemoth that is Kakadu National Park. Highlights include the fabulous Gunlom Falls, that were still flowing and just opened after the wet season clean up. Gunlom is a beautiful waterfall cascading down to a wide open pool. Climbing to the top of the falls were several other pools beautifully clear for swimming after the sweaty ascent ( see pics: you may recognize the shot, it's used for a lot of tourism ads). It's mostly a 4wd track on the way in, so that keeps some of the 'terry tourists' ( like ourselves :) away, and makes for a nice campsite. Great spot and not as well known as Jim Jim and Twin falls, that were currently still closed due to the number of crocs still present after the Wet season.We also did the classic Yellow Water billabong cruise on the Kakadu wetlands. It was great bird and croc spotting, not crowded ( we figure we are about 2-3wks ahead of the tourist pack) and very peaceful and serene cruising around such a complex Eco-system. The girls were expecting to see crocs leaping out of the water ( like on the front of the tacky tour brochure where they hand feed them meat in a grand display) but instead found the crocs spend most of the day not moving an inch on the sunny banks.The Ubirr rock art was also amazing, we did a tour there with a ranger who thrilled the kids with the indigenous tales of wonder and dreaming, usually ending with someone being killed or eaten ( most of the stories from the rock paintings are cautionary moral tales about right and wrong). The view over the floodplain at Ubirr was stunning, another classic shot for the Macca-Myer photo album...We really enjoyed Kakadu, there is an argument among travellers to Kaka-don't ( thinking the park is overated)but most people race through the park with not enough time, expecting to see everything.The locals generally seem to prefer Litchfield National Park which is smaller and can be seen as a day trip from Darwin. We were surprised too find that the weather wasn't as hot as we were expecting in Kakadu. Apparently the weather had moved from Yegge (cool but still humid) to Wurrgeng (cold weather) a month earlier than usual. It was still 27 degs every day so it certainly wasn't cool by Woodend standards!Interesting bits: Jules is keeping stats on the amount of kms's we've driven and the petrol price on an I- phone app called 'Gas Cubby'. For the record we've driven 7,000km's, the most expensive diesel price being $2.33 at Kings Canyon ( any more specific boy details will need to be directed to Jules, not my department...) Jules is trying to save money on fuel by keeping the air-con in the car off as much as possible, the girls usually 'crack it' by mid arvo and demand it goes on...Ahhh the negotiations that come with life on the road....Best wishes to you all from the top of Australia...next report from Darwin.

The Tropics- Mataranka, Katherine Gorge

It's hot,it's humid, the Mozzies are a bitin', it's the tropics...After some freezing nights in the desert, the girls were keen to 'fastrack' it to warmer parts. After 2 big days of driving we were promised some serious swimming time in the thermal pools Mataranka is famous for. We'd been given a few travellers tips by some grey nomads eager to impart knowledge to us 'youngsters', that the less commercial thermal springs, 'Bitter Springs' was a much nicer natural alternative to the main Mataranka spring pool. They were sure right, we spent hours drifting down a warm creek (water temp 33degs) with a gentle current floating us past tropical palms and pandanus. The girls came equipped with floating mats to drift down the creek on, joining the gaggle of grey nomads (having done it all before) on their pool 'noodles'. Just delightful ( apologies for such boastful descriptions to those back in the Melbourne winter) and exactly what we needed to soak away the travel miles.We are now in the town of Katherine, having spent the morning on a cruise on the Katherine Gorge. The sheer cliffs were impressive and we saw our first crocs (small freshwater) on the riverbeds. The Nitmiluk National Park ( of which the Katherine Gorge is a part) is jointly owned with the local indigenous people after a land claim hearing of over a decade. It would great to hear some of the indigenous people speak about their country but of course our cruise guide was a wise-cracking Kiwi....In the next blogspot the Macca-Myers go chasing the 'big salties' in Kakadu National Park ( drum roll please) ...