The Daily Grind .. with some adventures thrown in

March 17 - Alice to West Mac Ranges

2010-08-05T22:19:00.001+10:00

March 16 - Tennant Creek to Alice Springs

2010-08-05T21:50:00.006+10:00

After an uneventful night in tennant creek in our "usual" hotel - ie we stayed there on the way up so of course two stays become the 'usual' ;-)

Another long day ahead to Alice Springs, at least today the scenery will be somewhat more interesting - at least once anyway - Devils Marbles !

the outback had turned on a stunning day for us the blue of the sky is unbelievable - just like the pictures in magazines - its amazing.

we arrived in Alice mid afternoon, checked into the hotel - possibly our last creature comforts with 5 stars or less :-) for alittle while. we found the highest point and took a look around the city with pizza and beer the order of the night.

March 15 (2009) - a sad farewell to Darwin

2010-08-05T21:32:00.006+10:00

the first day of our journey home, bidding a sad farewell was harder then we had thought it would be. Even in our catbox we had grown quite attached to little big city - humidity and all. we loved the sunshine and the outdoors, the scenery is unbelievable and we had had the best of adventures and made some amazing friends and except for the high cost it was definitely a city we could see ourselves living.

we somehow managed to squeeze and push and shove all our stuff - camping gear included into Noddy for the long ride home and long day ahead - the long and straight road to Tennant Creek, a reasonably dull 10-11 hr journey

another road trip was beginning - this one a mammoth 2 month trip taking us through the center of the Australia, to South Australia, Victoria and back home to NSW.

there seems to be a pattern forming :-)

2010-08-03T22:58:00.003+10:00

its seems that we start off blogging really well then ......... yep we don't get back to it and this little adventure was no different .. as you can see there are no details about our wonderful 2mth road trip home from the wonderful and beautiful land of Darwin

will try to fix that up and add a few pics as we go

A return trip to Litchfield

2009-03-17T00:34:00.008+11:00

We couldn't leave without re-visiting Litchfield. So when the sun rose and the sky was blue weekend before last we headed straight to Litchfield with the first stop - Termite Mounds.

Driving into the park we were admiring the height of the Spear Grass without really thinking too much about it ... then we arrive at the boardwalk ... the boardwalk to view the magnetic termite mounds that look like a graveyard ... only thing being the Spear Grass was like 12 feet tall and there was nothing to see ... sucks to be those tourists turning up for the first time !!!

After the mounds we headed deep into the park to Wangi Falls where the water was thundering over the falls. So we took a walk around, up and over the falls which was great and had great views over the park.

From Wangi we went to Tolmer for another walk around the Falls and then onto Florence falls where we walked through the streams - ahhhh very relaxing - but again umm crocodiles people - nope they don't seem too concerned at all

Frequent Flyer

2009-03-17T00:23:00.005+11:00

A few weeks of travel for me for work - Canberra then Adelaide - with a lovely dinner with the lovely Boss - so great to see you Nic; then Sydney - and a chance to catch up with mum and dad (and also offload some crap that we didn't need on our trip home ;-0 ) then Canberra again

So a quite weekend or two was in order with a nice relaxing BBQ at friends of Tash's from work - Rod and Janet

A return trip to kakadu

2009-03-17T00:07:00.004+11:00

we head back to Kakadu to see what the Wet has transformed. Our first stop Ubirr - our favourite from the last trip - but the wet strikes again the Magella River is flooded and the road is impassable. We stand at the edge of the river bewildered by not only the water that must be around for this crossing to be under water but also the local children swimming , right next to the Beware of Crocodile sign and the man with his son fishing in thigh deep water - we must be getting to old or just big sooks cause you wouldn't catch us dead in that water, but then maybe local knowledge is gold !

From Ubirr we headed around to the Cooinda to the lodge we stayed at previously and then in search of a sunset. We found a bridge and set about getting some sunset shots all the while trying to fathom the water we were starring at - last visit these rivers had been barely been mud puddles now the water is about half a metre below the bridge, even seeing it we cant get our heads around it - its a volume that the brain cannot compute

The next morning we headed out to Yellow Water for another cruise and again the water just spread for as far as the eye could see, the banks and tree trunks that were vi sable last trip our now one to two meters below water - only two crocodile spottings on this trip and no brolga's or jabiru's - which mate for life did you know ! :-)

this billabong is beautiful and i am not sure that there would be anytime of year that wouldn't be magnificent but we both agree somehow the timing for our first trip was just perfect - the water was up so the birds were flocking the crocs were breeding and the river was just beautiful. This trip the water so high the birds were pushed further inland the crocs had no banks to laze about on.

After the cruise we headed to Nourlangie rock stopping just before it at Nourlanga rock - for a short but steep walk with a rewarding view of Nourlangie rock and the wetlands spread out in front of us.

We then slowly headed out of the park taking in all the sights including the rising water levels of the South Alligator River before leaving the Park for the last time and making our way back to Darwin

Finding Darwin hidden treasures

2009-03-17T00:02:00.003+11:00

With the wet set in and many of the parks closed due to flooding or boggy road conditions we have been spending the weekends exploring Darwin and its surrounds.

We have found the nightcliff pier, casuarina coastal reserve, dripstone cliffs and mandorah. now obviously when we say 'found' we don't literally mean found someone else did the hard yards all we did was take a left turn instead of the usual right turn at a particular roundabout or T-intersection

they have all given us a new look at Darwin, a new set of photos and something else to miss when we leave - it is a truly remarkable city with many different facets to it.

Australia Day Long Weekend

2009-03-16T23:33:00.003+11:00

Well the wet monsoonal rains put an end to all thoughts of getting away somewhere, anywhere that wasn't the apartment.

So we went shopping instead, as one does when its raining cats and dogs. We bought up all of gear that we would need for our trip home, and possibly a few things we hadn't planned on buying but of course things we needed !!!

with the rains keeping us indoors we were happy to see the sunshine come Australia day, so headed to the epitaph for the 21 gun salute from Australia's finest in khaki. afterwards we had our own Aussie BBQ and lazy arvo watching the footy :-)

more goodbyes - kates last dinner

2009-03-16T23:21:00.004+11:00

after a weekend of monsoonal weather we were all more then ready to get out the apartments so we headed to Stokes wharf for one last hurrah (and ice cream of course!)

we sampled the food, checked out the fish watched the sun set on darwin and then headed back to the city unable to even fit in ice cream .... so to make up for it we headed out the next night for one last ColdRock experience .. mmmm choclolate with mars and flake - heaven in a cup !

we are gonna miss you girls big time !!!!

sad goodbyes - nic's last dinners

2009-03-16T23:14:00.002+11:00

well we knew that it was coming but not this soon, Nic is leaving but not just leaving Darwin leaving the fold for newer greener pastures so she is shipping out early - so in good ole Darwin tradition it was time to eat ourselves stupid!

First stop - the best mexican in town of course - Prickles !!! who once again managed to fill our bellies beyond their capacity with yummy yummy food.

Next stop - Skycity casino buffet - a little different yeah but we figured that we should venture to the casino at least once before we all left - well except for the desserts we could have totally bypassed that one and not missed much - but their desserts oh my g-d devine !!!!

Jan 10 and 11 - Katherine Gorge

2009-03-16T22:53:00.005+11:00

So with weekends running out before the girls were leaving - just like Georgie - we headed to Katherine Gorge.

We stopped at Adelaide River War Memorial and Pine Creek before stopping at the Northern end of Nitmiluk NP - Edith Falls, which unfortunately due to the Wet was closed for walking and parts were cordoned off due to flooding. So we took a look around at what we could and and then headed on way to Katherine Gorge for lunch and a bit of a walk.

Saturday afternoon we talk the Baruwei Walk (via Lookout ) loop which took us up along the ridge over the visitors centre and then down along the gorge - an awesome sight on first glimpse

Dinner was supposed to be at the Sports club but that was closed we ended up at the Country Club - i still reckon the sporties was better the schnitzel was massive !!!

Sunday we were ready for our gorge boat trip. unfortunately - well kinda - we were only able to get into the first (of thirteen) gorges instead of possibly two or three (it all depends on the river level and what boats they are able to use) but instead we got to walk some parts of the first gorge and see some of the rock art, and then walk to the southern rockhole - through a number of streams that were refreshing fresh.

Then it was time - time for our helicopter ride over the 13 gorges !!!!! awesome love those birds. The view is amazing and the gorges are just spectacular. After that it was pretty hard to decide what to do - nothing was going to quite compare - aside from the fact that kate and nic were high as a kite from the buzz of a helio flight :-)

After much debating we decided to walk the track towards the Southern Rockhole along the Windolf track - maybe not the best of ideas in the searing daylight sun. Nic was suffering from the heat which we managed to beat by lazing in the pools at the top of the rockhole, however Kate then decided to take a slip and smash her elbow which immediately blew up and we were all like oh no she has broken it, its broken so we walked out thinking of a hospital trip but luckily with a bit of ice from the esky and some trusty coke and lollies she started to perk up and the arm started to go down a little and throbbing stopped so there was no hospital visit just stern words to call us during the night if it got worse !!! (thankfully it didn't and all was good there wasn't even a good bruise for bragging rights !!)

Jan 9 - Mindil Adventure

2009-03-16T22:43:00.004+11:00

Kate has returned .. so we decided to celebrate with an Emma Adventure - yay come on guys they are fun. This one was exactly planned we all went for our afternoon walk together and ended up at Mindil beach the tide was out and i exclaimed - hey i reckon we could walk to Cullen bay over those rocks over there ! Kate was in, Tash was kinda in and Boss well she got out voted :-)

So over the sand across the tide running out - well we thought it was and it looked like it was so it was alright - over to the rocks, which well more kinda like boulders with moss and water and were kinda a bit slippery .. so if u r wondering if we all made it without injury - yes we did Boss did good :-)

So after what did seem like a very long time we made it to where the tree lined shear cliff turned into more boulders and started climbing where we reached a grass knoll - and no there was no book depository. So then we had to make a decision keep climbing around the boulders or go through the possibly snake (and G-d knows what else) infested grassy knoll - somehow or other the bloody grassy knoll won so we high-tailed and i mean high-tailed it through this grass we weren't stopping for anything .. until the plovers came yes the plovers - they were literally dive bombing us - so we were really high tailing it now except now we laughing our heads off course Boss - well she doesn't really do flying birds, actually she doesn't really do birds in general - so she was kinda screaming kate and i were running like mad men and my little hero had for who knows what reason decided to try and swat them so is running behind us swatting the plovers with her hat - far too funny

So after all that adventure we decided the only safe thing to do was go straight home!

Jan 3 and 4 - animals animals animals

2009-03-16T22:29:00.007+11:00

the three amigos .. Kate was yet to return to the fold, so we three amigos headed to Aquascene - fish feeding - which is pretty cool the fish come into the ramp area on the lower tide and you get to throw the bread to them and also hand feed some of them.

After a strenuous morning of fish feeding we headed to the Deck Bar for some pub grub that was quite delicious

After lunch we headed out to Crocodyllus Park to get our fill of crocodiles - and there were some big momma's there !!! Boss got to feed one - though made sure that i was not there with the camera and we all got to hold a little baby croc - they are soft and weird like a lizard not like a snake or rough like i had expected so a pretty cool day

Sunday we headed to the Territory Wildlife Park. A reasonable large area with a pretty good array of animals, nicely set out and it even has a little shuttle train/bus that takes you round the different animal areas if you arent up for walking - or in our case if it is raining.

It seems that the Wet has decided to come with full force since we have returned from holidays.

whats been happening ...

2009-03-16T22:22:00.003+11:00

well Georgie up and left us to return home to husband - apparently more important then all of us crazy kids combined - humph !

so then it was Xmas and we all headed off in different directions. Kate back to the Mount and with a few flying trips to Melbourne in the hope of finding a home to live in, Boss back to Adelaide where it turns out her puppy wuppy didn't miss her - didn't even recognise her (well almost) - devastation .. and us ? we headed home to newy for what turned out to be a not so relaxing holiday!

rush rush rush, pebble pebble pebble oh and a few minutes to sit, relax and enjoy some time with our mates in new BBQ heaven - yay !!

after Xmas and new years we headed back to Darwin to see what else awaited us ...

Georgie's last supper .. or maybe last suppers !!

2008-12-18T00:59:00.003+11:00

Well talk about the last supper to usurp all last dinners ! Its actually hard to know whether Saturday's rib dinner was the first of the last suppers or just a supper. If it was then following ribs was malay/thai/indian at Nirvana, which was just lovely, again leaving us feeling very ill, and laughing all the way home due to once again monsoon rain wetting us and allowing us to puddle stomp and "Darwin run" - barefoot with shoes in hand - all the way home :-)

Following that supper was almost Spanish on Wednesday, except for a stomach saving grace offer from georgies work mates.

Thursday nite was Mexican at Prickles where yes once again we managed to stuff ourselves to over flowing with mouth watering food.

But in the end even a cyclone couldn't keep Georgie from leaving us. We had a great time and can you believe that she was only here for 4 weeks. Was awesome meeting ya georgie love your laughter, smile and even your singing :-) take care xxx (and say hi to husband for us!)

Markets, Museums and a harbour cruise not to be forgotten !

2008-12-18T00:46:00.011+11:00

So last weekend we hit Parap markets nice and early this time without Kate who had ditched us for Uluru - yeah tough choice really, which unfortunately didn't save us from the heat or the disgusting sweat drippin down our arms as we attempted to eat breakfast - oh yeah baby its a pleasant little world up here !! But at least the nuttella and strawberry crepes tasted great !!

After eating ourselves silly - which seems to be a common theme with us - we headed to East Point Military museum to check out the guns. We wandered around the museum checking out the 9 inch guns and NT war mementos, pictures and stories - stories of the Japanese bombing of Darwin that i knew nothing about, now i know that i didn't like history all that much as a kid but i reckon I'd remember learning about 200+ bombs being dropped on Australian soil by Japanese bombers pretty much destroying Darwin (for the first time - second by Cyclone Tracy).

We then took a lazy afternoon before meeting up for dinner - at the apartments we are staying at - which apparently have the best ribs in town. They were pretty good but i wouldn't say the best i have eaten - those Lone Star ribs are damn good ! And apart from the obnoxious waiter we had a lovely night topped off with Cold Rock and Baskin Robbins.

Then Sunday - wow what a day. We woke up before sunrise and watched it rise from down at Stokes before boarding our mangroveroute.com habitat and harbour cruise with our friendly guide Jim. We had an awesome morning cruising the harbour, learning some of the history and checking out the croc trap and mangrove alleys. We even attempted to catch some crabs but unfortunately no luck for us, but Jim did have some juicy sweet mangoes on hand to keep the hunger pains somewhat at bay.

The tides are quite amazing, and the sheer extent of them was going to be crystal clear to us later in the day. Jim showed us the headland and the congruence point of the harbour and watching the sheer power of the water at high tide swirling around extraordinary, and the colours of the rockcliffs, you could really see why the aboriginal people regarded these areas as sacred - truly amazing!

We headed back to the wharf a little disappointed we didn't see any turtles or dolphins, but to our delight just as we were about to tie up at the jetty, some hawk eye spotted two swimming around - oh that's right it was me !!!

Starving and needing some fuel we headed to Macca's for bacon and egg mcmuffin ... mmmmm. After refuelling we braved the shopping centre for a little while before heading back to the wharf hoping against hope that it was just going to be us on the lunch time "let the tide decide" cruise with Jim again :-)

We arrived at the wharf, to find that "yes" it was just us. Spinning out at the tide, again we had seen low tide at the wharf but this was really low and we cant seem to get our heads around the difference in the tides - todays went from 7.2m (left) down to 0.26m (right) - mind boggling hey.

So headed out of the wharf off to find our lunch spot, the boys had pointed out a pole on our trip this morning and had said "this is where you will eat lunch" ( up to the right) and to be honest we didnt really think about what they were saying, had we thought about we probably would have thought they were talking about the waters edge not what we came across ...

we rounded the point and there rising like a monolith of the water was a sand spit/island/mountain where only 2-3 hours earlier had been rushing water and there was our pole no longer looking like the tide was going to push it over but rising out of the sand like a triumph of the industrial era to even get it to the middle of the harbour let alone remain standing ! (and yes the little figures at the bottom really are the girls, to see the height difference look for the little red marks on the pole!)

With blue sky and orange/brown sand, the ocean/harbour lapping at the sand this was the ultimate in harbour dining.

Jim slide the boat up on to the sand, pulled out our chairs, tables and umbrella's, put our bubbly on ice and proceeded to set up our dining suite on top of the mountain whilst we remained still in shock and awe of what we were seeing.

After a few photos of the spread and tucking into what was a delicious bento picnic lunch box and downing our bubbly, waving to the somewhat awestruck boats going past a site that must have have most certainly appeared as very strange to say the least we wandered around our island, as we had come to refer to it finding beautiful shells and corals lining the waters edge.

Watching the time and the even closing in storm someone decided that we should explore both sides of our island - oh that was me again. The sand was as we had found getting off the boat was extremely hot - now you would think that after being drowned by metres of water for more hours of the day then it is dry that it would be soft and cool but no it was hot, to hot to walk on, but anyway back to the story of crossing our island. So i thought it would be nice to see the view from the other side, the girls were sceptical but i convinced them it was a great idea, so tash lead the charge and about 15m away started running like the wind, but it was too late for me and georgie we were on our way and yep we were running like the wind too legs flailing to the sides as we tried to run on air because it was actually possible for the sand to get hotter much hotter, so hot that it felt like our feet were being burnt to the bone and running across the coral at the top was like running on glass - not pleasant.

But do you know what, like all my adventures the girls were laughing - see they are fun !

We got back to lunch table to see the boat rounding the point just in the knick of time, as by the time we had loaded everything back onto the boat it had started sprinkling, then about 3 mins later as we headed towards the wharf it came, we couldnt see 10feet in front of the boat and we were getting drenched by monsoon rain that was so heavy it hurt when it hit your eyes. Unfortunately for Georgie wearing white in the wet is not a good look so she was trying to hide behind the seats and laminated information sheets and the rest of us, we were laughing our heads off it was the absolute best finish to one of the best days (if not the best day) we have had ! The worst part we were so wet and laughing so much none us took any pictures !

(more pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88736&l=24e78&id=645435069 )

Kakadu - part 2

2008-12-18T00:37:00.008+11:00

Sunday we woke up with a start, quite literally. I thought that i had set the alarm on the phone, apparently you need to set either AM or PM !!! So at 7.50am we literally jumped out of bed ran around like chickens without heads and still managed to be on time at the car at 8am to meet the girls. After loading the car we headed to the bus taking us to Yellow Waters Cruises.

Yellow water, a land-locked billabong brimming with native flora and fauna, is one of World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park’s best known landmarks and gets its name from the algal bloom found floating on its surface.. Yellow Water is home to crocodiles, wild horses, buffalo and other wildlife. The billabong, which floods to join other waterways during the tropical season, also attracts millions of migratory birds each year, including jacana, egrets, jabiru, sea eagles, magpie geese and many other native species. Paperbark forests, pandanus and fresh water mangroves line the shore, and the water is dotted with beautiful pink and white waterlilies

We sat in the steaming drilling sun on the boat for about 20 mins waiting for some tosser guys to join the boat, and then we were on our way. The scenery was amazing, a few crocs and heaps of bird life and did you know that Brolga’s and Jabiru’s mate for life – so very sweet !!!!

So after a lovely cruise and learning alot about the local area and birdlife – did i mention that brolga’s and jabiru’s mate for life – No, well they do.

From the cruise we had a lovely morning tea then headed up the road to the cultural centre and then to Mirrai Lookout where we embarked on an adventure walk to the top of the lookout – aw come on girls it was great, just cause it was steep, stinking hot and a crap view, doesn’t mean it was great !!! i do have great ideas don’t I !!!

After the walk we headed towards the south exit to Pine creek stopping at the south entrance visitor stop for lunch, yeah okay maybe it was more like linner (a cross between lunch and dinner) ! Then up the highway to home with a carload of exhausted and stinky but very happy girls :-)

(more pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87982&l=b413a&id=645435069 )

Kakadu National Park - the tale of a girls road trip !

2008-12-16T19:00:00.012+11:00

Well, this post is a few weeks overdue, but its been a little busy. After the weekend in Kakadu i had two days in Katherine for work, dinner with an old friend of Tash's and a weekend to remember.

We headed to Kakadu on the weekend of the 6th December and this is the story of our road trip ...

We hit the road early on Saturday morning loaded up with lots of goodies for our road trip. We headed south for a few hours being entertained by the girls singing until we reached it – Kakadu National Park

Encompassing almost 22,000sq km, it is one of the largest parks in Australia and is renowned for its protection of a spectacular ecosystem and an important concentration of ancient rock art. In 1984, Kakadu gained World Heritage Listing for both its ecological and cultural heritage.
The name Kakadu comes from Gagadju, one of the languages spoken in the north of the region. Much of Kakadu is aboriginal land, leased to the government for use as a national park. It is jointly managed by Parks Australia and the traditional Aboriginal owners.

We entered the park via the north entrance on the Arnhem Highway and headed west towards Jabiru. We stopped at Mamukala Wetlands and had a bit of a look around at the birds starting to congregate at the large water source.

From the wetlands we made our way to Bowali Visitor centre and had a look through the cultural exhibits and made our plans the rest of the day. From the visitor centre we had a look at Malabanbadju and went on short walk another watering hole where we spotted some Jabiru’s.

From here we headed to Nourlangie art site. The 1.5km round trip walking track takes you past Anbangbang rock shelter, which may have been used for 20,000 years as a refuge from the heat, rain and the frequent wet-season thunderstorms. The Anbangbang gallery was repainted in the 1960s a respected artist, fisherman and hunter. The major character in the gallery is Namondjok, who broke traditional law by commiting incest with one of his clan sisters. Next to Namondjok is Namarrgon, the Lightning Man – who we believe is now going to haunt or deliver terror onto us all after Kate decided to yell into the canyon from the top of the Arnhem Land escarpment, and Lightning Dreaming (Namarrgon Djadjam), the home of Lightning Man – thanks Kate !!!

After ensuring that terror will be brought to us we decided that we better be prepared so we headed to Jabiru to fuel up on lunch. We found a lovely little spot along the river for us to eat our yummy chicken rolls.

From Jabiru we headed back along the Arnhem highway alittle and then turned down the track with Ubirr our destination. We arrived at Ubirr to find the gate closed (after the ranger told us at Bowali that it would be open). We wandered down to Cahills Crossing on the east alligator river which forms part of the border between Kakadu and Arnhem Land. After a lot of debating about whether to stay and wait or leave we left and then about 10 km up the road we passed a ranger car heading into Ubirr, so we did a U-Turn (on a whim and prayer) and headed back to the gate where we found the ranger waiting for the gate to be opened. So we waited too and again were entertained by the girls singing and dancing. Finally the gates opened and we drove up to car park. Ubirr is an outcrop of the Arnhem escarpment, famous for its spectacular aboriginal rock art. After a somewhat strenuous but also easy climb we were on top of the rock cliff looking out on a most spectacular view of the Nardab floodplains. We left Ubirr very inspired and extremely pleased we turned around and decided that before Lightning Man got really angry at us for whatever reason it was time to head towards Cooinda for our overnight accommodation.

The lodge was very cute and the rooms were very nice, we had a lovely if not filling dinner, or should i say Tash and I ate just enough whilst the others, well let’s just say they ate more than enough – see kids meals are good !!!

Jail and Art

2008-12-01T20:52:00.004+11:00

Today we all headed to Fannie Bay Goal and the NT Museum. The buildings at the gaol were erected in 1883, and the grounds housed Darwin’s main jail for nearly 100 years. It is also the sight of the last two hangings in NT in 1952. The jail closed in 1979, when a new maximum security lock-up opened at Berrimah.

The NT Museum and Art Gallery has a large selection of Aboriginal Art and a fantastic Cyclone Tracy display including a sound room you can stand in and listen to the whirring sound of Tracy at full throttle and is home to “sweetheart” a 5m 780kg saltwater crocodile, which became a Top End personality after attacking several fishing dinghies on the Finniss River south of Darwin.

Cyclone Tracy built up over Christmas Eve 1974 and by midnight the winds began to reach their full fury. At 3.05am the airports wind reading equipment failed, after recording a wind speed of 217km/hr. In all 66 people died and of Darwin’s 11,200 houses 50-60% were destroyed either totally or beyond repair, and only 400 survived relatively intact.

After the museums, Tash, Nicole and I headed into town for a lovely pub lunch whilst we left the other girls to shop till they dropped.

Litchfield National Park

2008-11-30T23:14:00.007+11:00

Today we had an early start, heading off to explore Litchfield National Park with Nicole, Kate and her two friends – Kristen and Georgie.

We headed off before the others to Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve (Kate and Nicole had been there previously on a tour) a wetland home to numerous water birds. In the 1950s investors pumped a load of money into the Humpty Doo Rice Project, a scheme to turn the Adelaide River floodplains into a major rice-growing enterprise. It lasted about 10 years due to poor infrastructure and highly variable seasons, however the dam became an important Dry-season refuge for wildlife.

We took the 2.2km Woodlands to Lillies walk, which by its sheer name one would imagine that it should take you to lilies, but no it went nowhere literally nowhere – not happy, as remember its not even 10am and the thermometer has already hit 30deg, there have a been a few storms this week so the humidity has risen alittle and i am dripping with perspiration – yep not a pretty sight, especially for no reward ! We then drove along the dam wall where we did see the lillies we came to see, and just standing there taking pictures had me producing my own natural springs and going through a shirt by 10am. You know that you are trouble when you are a sweaty person and you are dripping so much that you gross yourself out – this weather better result in weight loss !!!

From the lillies we headed further down the Arnhem Highway to Adelaide River Crossing for our Croc Jumping cruise where we met up with the others. Here we cruised the river looking for the beasts of the depth to feed them a pork chop and see them jump. These creatures whilst man-eating and not exactly the prettiest of the animal kingdom are magnificent to watch. The boat would be cruising along and then the tour guide would tap the chop on the water and instantly these animals were water-skiing along at a great rate of knots, and then to watch them curl the tail lift their head then raise their bodies out of the water – quite an impressive sight indeed.

From the crocs we headed back through Humpty Doo, where we stopped at the famous Humpty Doo Hotel, which was like walking into a crocodile Dundee film. The only females in the pub were behind the bar, the beer was kept cold in old ice fridges and there were ruggers and blue bonds singlets everywhere and we felt like aliens in another world. So we purchased our stubbie coolers and high tailed it out of there before they found out where we all worked !!

With our Humpty Doo stubbie holders safely secured in the vehicles we headed towards Litchfield NP, a 1500-sq-km 115 km south of Darwin, which encompasses the spectacular Tabletop Range, a wide sandstone plateau mostly surrounded by cliffs. The parks main attractions are four waterfalls that drop off the edge of this plateau, unusual termite mounds and curious sandstone formations

Our first stop inside the park was at the magnetic termite mounds, a field of curious termite mounds that are all aligned roughly north-south and the nearby giant mounds of the aptly named cathedral termites.

From the mounds we headed deep into the park to Wangi Falls for a refreshing swim in the plunge pool. The falls flow year round however the current can be quite strong in the wet and there is a marker showing when the water is too high to be safe for swimming.

From Wangi we headed to Tolmer Falls. The falls cascade spectactually into a deep, narrow gorge, screen a series of caves that form the largest known breeding site for the endangered orange horseshoe bat and ghost bat and as such there is no swimming at these falls to protect the habitat.

From Tolmer we headed to Florence Falls, and then another refreshing swim at Buley Rockhole, a popular spot of bubbling cascades and pools.

With the sun dipping we headed back to the city for what appeared to be a funky cool idea for dinner – cushions on the floor of the Thai restaurant – actually turned out to be uncomfortable and hot, but the food as always was great.

More Pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86152&l=8ea20&id=645435069

Storm Watching at Stokes

2008-11-30T23:06:00.004+11:00

Thursday we were watching the BOM and thought we were in for a decent storm, which we havent really had since we arrived, which given that it is supposed to be the wet season which is also supposed to be storm season.

So we headed home after work, changed and wandered to Stokes Wharf, an old wharehouse on the end of the old jetty (which is still a functioning jetty) that has been converted into a takeaway alfresco food centre, where we had a lovely dinner on the water watching the sunset and a storm that never evenuated, well not whilst we were at the wharf anyway. At about 3am we were woken by claps of thunder and monsoonal rain drenching the city.

A day at the Springs

2008-11-22T20:39:00.008+11:00

Today we headed off with Kate and Nicole (from work) to Berry Springs about 60km south of Darwin for a swim in the pools.

Berry Creek begins as a series of springs, forms a small creek, then reaches Darwin Harbour through a mangrove lined estuary. There are three main pools along a length of the creek, beginning with a small waterfall and shallow pools running into larger, deeper pools and finishing with a small weir. During World War II, Berry Springs was part of a rest and recreation camp set up by the armed forces for the 100,000 personnel based in the area. A number of huts and weirs were built at Berry Springs during this time.

We arrived early to avoid the crowds and little people - hopefully, which we did. Even though it was overcast it was still quite humid and about 30 degrees.

We had a swim in each of the pools which we were not hot but not really cool either but still very refreshing and relaxing. We had a nice little picnic before heading back to the city just after lunch - the crowds had arrived and we were all ready for an afternoon nap :-)

First week down

2008-11-22T00:07:00.002+11:00

Well we we have been here 5 days now (well technically 4 and a bit but everyone knows my maths suxs). I have started work, been on a road trip with work and Tash has found work so its been a pretty productive week.

Wednesday i had a nice easy day at the office, a couple of customers, couple of intrays and getting to know Kate and Nicole a little better. They are really easy going and quite funny so i think it should be a fun few months - which is good. Tash had a few responses to the emails we had sent on Tuesday and even had an interview. We had lunch together which is quite a novelty for us and rather nice. We decided to hit the pavement when i got from work and headed towards the harbour to the esplanade and along the parks and walking trails/tracks. Its a really nice walk along the water through the park, and is obviously very popular with a few lunatics running but most of walking and yes for those wondering (and who know me pretty well) i had my own little natural springs happening - not really that pleasant and not a good sign seeing how it really wasn't that not.

Thursday saw me back in the office with a few intrays and preparing for our road trip to Palmerston today (Friday). 26 interviews booked, 14 for me - its going to be a busy day, if they turn up that is. Tash had three interviews and was going blind with paperwork but had pretty much lined up a job with possibly two to choose from. We had lunch together (again) at a lovely little Vietnamese Cafe. We hit the pavement again this time walking to Stokes Wharf, which is an old/current wharf - its still a working wharf but the older sheds have been turned into a little food arcade with ocean views and some of the best storm viewing possies in the city. A storm was brewing so we set off not knowing if we were going to be drowned or not. Its hard to know if the storms are actually going to turn into something here or just make a bit of noise and then fizzle. This one spitted, cracked alittle and then fizzled so we got home wet but not from the rain and having made a mental note of some spots to return at a later stage with the camera for some storm watching.

Friday i headed off with Kate and Nicole to Palmerston for a reasonably busy day, out of 26 we had 8 no-shows which is a pretty good hit-rate i think. Tash spent the day relaxing (sleeping and watching cricket) and got the good news phone call that she starts work on Monday, 5 days a week 40 hrs for possibly the full 3 months - so that's GREAT news.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Berry Springs with Kate and Nicole about 60km south of Darwin, to take a dip in the springs and hopefully catch a few good pics along the way and there, so it should be a good day.

A free day in Darwin

2008-11-18T23:04:00.004+11:00

Today we woke early - through no choice of our own - seems that the early starts have effected our ability to sleep in :-( .. though possibly the fact that our bedroom window faces due east and the curtains not being all that thick may have also have something to do with it!

We wandered up the street to find the office and i met Kate - who is also on temp transfer and staying in the same block.

We then headed to Woolworths where we single handily improved their profit line - lets say that it was a significant figure. So we then lugged them upstairs - i am starting to think that being on the second floor is not so great.

We then wandered back into town to grab some lunch and have a look around.

We spent the afternoon signing Tash up to recruitment agencies and battling with the stupid Optus pre-paid broadband - that is slower then dialup grrrrrrrrrrr.

The Final Stage - to Darwin

2008-11-18T21:29:00.010+11:00

Well, we got off to an early start again, as we have a big day ahead of us, nearly 1000kms!

we started the day off with some hearty bacon and eggs sandwiches - and i say eggs because i swear these sandwiches had 3 eggs and 6/7 rashes of bacon, i really didn't think it was possible to fit that much on one sandwich, so needless to say we hit the road with extremely full bellies.

The trip was pretty uneventful, the scenery changed alittle in that the grasses became green not yellow, the trees were more plentiful and we could start to see out in the distant the flat wide expanse of Arnhem Land spreading out to the horizon. We passed through a few smouldering areas that had been burnt over what we imagine is the past few days, which timing wise for us is very lucky.

We had a welcome shower on the outskirts of Darwin and arrived at the hotel in the afternoon.

The hotel is good, a little weird but okay, the floor is all tiles and the bedroom/bathroom - literally there is no wall separating the bedroom from bathroom - is separated from the lounge room by a 3/4 wall to allow the AC to flow over the top into the lounge area :-) .. i guess its smart use of the space and AC but alittle strange. We are on the second floor with a little balcony - not much of a view, a carpark - but the lounge window faces the west and we are reasonably close to the water so the sunsets are amazing.

After lugging our gear from the car - thank g_d for the lift - and much sweating (its pretty gross!) we had our little apartment looking a little like a home - a mess !

Leaving the boxes and bags we headed into town to get some food and checkout exactly where we were. Turns out we are on one of the three main streets (to one end) and within walking distance to the office, woolies, coles, main eating strip and also the esplanade - so all good.

We had a lovely dinner at a Thai place and were sitting there thinking goodness for a Monday night and 8/9pm that it was rather busy .... well there is a funny story behind that one ... see we have been moving through timezones and battling with daylight savings and the lack thereof in QLD. So as it happens by the time we got to Tennant Creek we really weren't sure what time it was, but to our luck the phones (all but mine of course :-) auto updated so all was good ... well sort of turns out that the phones had updated to SA time and not NT because NT does not have daylight savings, so here we are thinking we are like half an hour behind NSW when in fact we are an hour and half. so what did this mean, well the poor bugger at Tennant creek reception had an exceptionally early morning (which possibly explains why it wasn't open when we were trying to hand the keys back), it might also explain why it was kinda darkish when we woke up and why it appeared so "busy" in town - it was actually only about 7pm. In the end we actually had to call reception and ask what time it was !!! and then check the receipts from the day and confirmed yep we are morons !!!! yep cracked us up too.

For more pics of the apartment: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=84427&l=c5894&id=645435069

Stage 4 - Tennant Creek

2008-11-16T21:31:00.005+11:00

We headed off today not so early as it wasn't too long a trip from Mt Isa to Tennant Creek. We went to the town lookout to check out the view. A mine on the other side of the river, and the endless plains that we had come through yesterday and an insight into the endless plains we were going to be following today.

We then hit the highway with Jessica advising us 630km to the next turn !!

So as you can guess the scenery and animals were pretty much the same as what it has been. We did the border crossing sign pictures got ripped off major at Barkly Homestead fuel stop - fuel $1.99 when in Mt Isa it had been $1.37 and in Tennant its $1.53 .. hmmmmm

Temperature looked like it was going to be a hot one first up as it reached 30 deg by 9am but again some lovely cloud cover kept it below 40 and as we were in the final stretch to Tennant we even had 8 drops of rain. The clouds are still gathering and the breeze has picked up so its actually quite balmy outside

We arrived in Tennant a bit before dinner so we checked out the local lookouts, cruised the main street and headed to hotel to rest. Tennant Creek is the only sizeable town on the Stuart Hwy between Alice and Darwin and is also Australia's last gold-rush town. Unusually, most of the gold deposits weren't found in quartz but in jet-black ironstone

Being Sunday there wasn't alot open for dinner and when the receptionist advises not to eat at places you know to take heed, so it was red rooter ah i mean rooster for us. Tomorrow is the long day into Darwin and the final leg of this road trip ... for now

For more road trip pics - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=84061&l=61e01&id=645435069

Stage 3 - Mt Isa

2008-11-16T20:41:00.004+11:00

Today we had a later start, as we had some sightseeing to do – The Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame. Not alot of time unfortunately and quite alot to see, all very interesting however, i do note that its the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame and there was pretty much only QLD stockman, stories and memorabilia – what’s with that, NSW had stockman and i’m sure the other states did too !! A little disappointing considering my family are from farming background but otherwise it was quite good.

So after the Hall, we headed on our way to Mount Isa. The temperature today – about 30 by 10am, just lovely but thankfully it didn’t go above 38 for the day thanks to some lovely cloud cover – phew!

Our route Longreach to Mt Isa has us heading along the Landsborough Hwy and Barkly Hwy via Kynuna, McKinley - a settlement doomed for extinction if not for being used a location on the movie Crocodile Dundee; Winton - a cattle and sheep-raising centre, and also the rail head for transporting cattle brought from the Channel Country by road train and two major claims to fame - inspiring Banjo Paterson and the founding of Qantas airlines in 1920 and Cloncurry - the centre for a copper boom in the 19th century, the Curry was the largest copper producer in the British Empire. Today it’s a pastoral centre, and the town’s major claim to fame is as the birthplace of the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS). It has also recorded Australia’s highest temperature in the shade 53.1 degrees in 1889!

Once again lunch proved to be problematic, all the towns are small and due to our later start the 'eateries' were few and far between – unless Smith’s and Cadbury were going to make the lunch menu - so we starved till Mt Isa when we yes we are sad to say partook in McDonalds, for no real reason then we knew what we were going to get (unlike the last few lunches), that it would be open and it was quick and we were starving !! Mind you this is the first Macca’s we have come across since leaving Roma which is rather refreshing.

Our scenery – well it really did change we went from wide open plains, to grasslands that reminded me of the Savannah, to a lunar like landscape, termite hills reminding us of the Nevada/Utah landscape to parched sunburnt land – Banjo really did know how to describe this country.

Our animals for the day, not really that different though happy to report far far less road kill, which may have something to do with us moving away from the stock routes and into very dry creek bed territory. The usual bird sightings – crows, pee wee’s and what we think are wedge tail eagles, a few Emu’s and two or three little mini Emu’s – we don’t think they are baby Emu’s but don’t know what they are so stay tuned for that one.

Of all the creeks/rivers we passed/drove over (which there really were quite alot) there were maybe five that actually had water in them. One in particular stood out, Cloncurry. It must have been the same size as the Hunter river at Hexham – so not small by any shape or size – but it was bone dry for as far as the eye could follow it – it was just unfortunate that we were on a bridge with other traffic (seriously how rude), no real place to turn around and go back but more pressing was getting to Mt Isa before nightfall – we did not plan on adding to the road kill tally! It really was a sight to behold particularly given the sign when we entered the city limits –“water is a precious resource in Cloncurry, please use it wisely” – they ain't kiddin !

Mt Isa is a town of stark red ridges and olive-green clumps of Spinifex that owes it’s prosperity to to rich underground lead, zinc silver and copper ore bodies west of the city and is home to Australia’s largest Rodeo and our home for the night is another hut slightly bigger and possibly slightly better where we crashed in front of pay TV – love the travel channel :-)

Stage 2 - Longreach

2008-11-16T20:13:00.006+11:00

Another early start – what is going on ? well motels on highways, road trains that never sleep and fellow travellers that work in mines make for an uneasy sleep and early morning!

Today we headed from Roma to Longreach via Morven, Augathella, Blackall – which claims to be the site of the mythical black stump and is also famous as the site of the first artesian well to be drilled in Queensland and where we could have picked up a beautiful little fluffy border collie, for only $200, bargain, pity we had no room in the back seat – and then Barcaldine, the town that gained a place in Australian history in 1891 when it became the headquarters of a major shearers' strike. The confrontation led to the formation of the Australian Workers' Party, now the Australian Labor Party!

We are slowly but quickly being acclimatised to the weather up here with the temperature reaching 25 by the time we hit the road at 8am. It’s possible that we should have sensed the day was not going to be exciting (well yes we realised it wasn’t going to be the French Alps) when Jessica (the GPS lady) advised 530km then turn left ... hmmmm.

The scenery was a little different today we left the wheat belt behind and entered droving country – endless plains with clumps of trees followed by endless plains. We came across a couple of very large caravans’ droving their stock along the stock route – a very impressive sight indeed. We saw some emu’s and we are afraid to say hundreds of dead kangaroos – road kill – far more then we were even expecting to see, it’s very sad. So other than our coat of arms, cattle, birds, road trains and very few vehicles our day was very uneventful.

Longreach is a prosperous outback town that was home to Qantas early last century and is now also famous for the Stockman's Hall of Fame. The human population is vastly outnumbered by more than million sheep and quite a few head of cattle.

We arrived in Longreach mid afternoon and decided to do some sightseeing – the QANTAS museum um let’s just say unfortunately very overrated for the very steep entry price – a decent collection but not for the money. The Boeing 747 and 707 were not open (and were a separate entry fee) so we really bummed out on that one. We are going to head over to the Hall of Fame tomorrow morning before we head off for Mt Isa.

Our home for the night is a tiny, well not shoe box but still smallish little hut in a caravan park that was like a sweatbox – thank g_d for AC !!!! we had an ok dinner at the rissole and then back to the hut (which thanks to leaving the AC on was actually quite pleasant) to crash. It seems we are not doing as well with food on this trip as we did overseas – yesterday we had pretty simple but easy beef and pickle sandwich which was more like pickles with some beef and wrapped in a little bread, for lunch today we had chicken and gravy roll at the truck stop, which was more like gray with chicken and wrapped in a little bread, tonight for dinner we had lemon chicken (think coated frozen Steggles kind) which probably wasn’t too bad and some ribs, which when they took 15mins to bring them out we were that hopeful – not bad but in the middle of beef country you’d think you could get some decent ribs !!

Petrol has been surprisingly cheap approx. $1.30/L ... so long as you drive past the first station (now so named tourist trap) as they are pretty much always 20 cents more – ha we are smarter than the average Joe ... we drive through town first then go back to the cheapest !!!

Whilst our home may be a bit of a hut it did have kangaroo’s – alive – hanging around when we arrived, one even had a little joey in its pouch – aw sooo cute !!! They have funny little front paws they are very like hands – it’s very cute.

Stage One of tour de Darwin - Roma

2008-11-16T19:56:00.003+11:00

Well our day started early (ok early for me) with breaky with a thick fog, possibly an ominous sign - i hope not and watching the ferals – yes Kaz and Iss that’s you !!!! go a little troppo before us beautiful people were on our way ... well ok we were really laughing at Iss and Kaz cause the kids were being funny just for us - Jas and Rosie you crack us up !

So after a few technical problems – stupid GPS and phone – just as well we had that map hey dad !!! we were on our way. Our day took us through Murrurundi, Bogabri (go Shanno), Narrabri - the cotton growing centre and the regions biggest cash crop, Gunnedah and Moree, a larger town on the Gwydir river which has therapeutic artesian spa baths, although we were struggling to see a motel that was actually operating that was advertising these therapeutic baths - where we replenished all our tanks. For those who like facts and figures one standard bale of cotton ( approx 225kg) can be made into 3085 nappies

After taking our free harbour tour at the maritime festival and learning that there was zero wheat exported from Newcastle last year – which doesn’t mean that there wasn’t any export at all but i guess its an indication of just how hard the farmers have been doing it, It was really nice to see good wheat crops growing for as far as the eye can see and even better to see harvesters working and a hive of activity at the silos – fingers crossed for a good harvest.

From the wheat belt we then headed onto the border town of Mugindi – which i might add has no border sign, ordinary effort cockroaches, how else are those tourists going to get cheesy holiday snaps??? From here it was red dust and road trains through to St George, and on to Surat with a roadside pitt stop required, then an early evening arrival into Roma (well QLD time anyway)

We took a tour of the town of Roma, an early Queensland settlement, and now the centre of a sheep and cattle-raising district. There is also enough oil in the area to support a small refinery, but the gas deposits are larger and it contributes to Brisbane's major supply through a 450km pipeline. So driving around town means we drove around the 4 blocks found 4 pubs (even an Irish one) and got some dinner then headed to the hotel for some relaxation.

Road Trippin' here we come ..

2008-11-16T19:54:00.001+11:00

Well our road trippin adventure has started ... well almost i am not sure that a drive to Scone counts as a road trip although it was the start of ours. We were headed for Iss and Kaz’s for dinna – which as usual was yummy and very very filling.

We managed to get most of the things we wanted to get done at house done – sorry Sal for any mess or surprises :-) ... oh that list we were going to leave - we didn’t get to it but we will send an email !

More importantly we fitted everything into Noddy! See mum we packed the washing powder, milk and our pillows - its all good.

Well almost no problems for our first leg except a small truck fire about 8km east of Scone – doh!

for more pics of our road trip - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=84061&l=61e01&id=645435069

get this started huh

2008-11-04T00:03:00.005+11:00

well, i set this blog up quite some time ago and frankly forgot all about it ! then i think something called facebook came along and i seem to have had my attention diverted. but now there are adventures on the horizon and i am going to try and get back to blogging. i really did quite enjoy it whilst we were travelling o/s.

what adventure you ask ... well for some reason i have decided to take a temporary transfer with my work to Darwin for approx 3 months.

i guess those that followed our RTW blog (if you havent seen or want to re-live our adventures here is the link: http://tashemtravellin.blogspot.com/ probably wondering if (and maybe even why i stopped) i will ever finish it .. well i have returned to the blog and have added some pics to what is already there, and thinking about this blog made me realise i cant really leave the other one as it is .. so yes i will be finishing it but it may take some time, obviously almost 2 years have past since i stopped writing and there are probably many reasons for that, which i imagine i will delve into when i return to writing.

so stay with us whilst we write our current adventures (and hopefully not too many misadventures) as well as finishing some uncompleted works

Emm & Tash.