The first 9 weeks…

Here is a bit of a summary of our first 9weeks on the road… I figure this might help others that are planning to do the same thing get an idea of how much it really costs to travel. We are doing this with a budget! But we have a balance of not sacrificing important things but also not wasting money. So we are doing the activities that are important to us but not splurging. We don’t eat out of a night and we have generally packed sandwiches for lunches except on those days when eating somewhere nice was part of the local experience for us. Because of the ages of our kids we have generally not had to pay for accommodation or entry fees for them so families with older children will need to all a bit extra.

We have traveled x kms over 63days at an approximately total cost of $6250.

Fuel- $2,100
Accommodation- $1,225 (An easy mix of van parks, cheap camps, and free camps)
Shopping- $1,415 (groceries, regular daily purchases)
Snacks- $400 (things like coke, eating out for lunch, cake & coffee etc)
Laundry- $120 (I also used our own little washing machine as a supplement, but keep in mind we are using cloth nappies so a regular family without nappies would wash a heck of a lot less)
Alcohol- $295 (mostly cartons of beer rather than pub prices)
Activities- $440 (entry fees, helicopter flight etc)
Other- $180 (clothes, rechargeable torch etc)
Gas- $75 (for the weber and running the fridge, I think the bottle is mostly still full)

There are probably some things that I am missing… I don’t think I have the $75 for the waeco fridge cover in there for example but that’s not a typical traveling cost so I think it’s all near enough for the purpose.

So essentially we have had to allow about $700 a week to do this. I think for most families that have allowed themselves, say, a year to travel Australia then we would be moving at about the right kind of pace, but for our future travels (when we don’t have an existing work commitment to make) we intend to do it much, much slower. Which would reduce our overall fuel costs and drop our weekly expenditure to about $500. But for a family with two kids between 5 and 15 I think you need to allow an extra overall cost for accommodation of between $500-$700 plus activities etc so on average another $100 a week.

Essential travel bits, and things we wasted our money on!

Big winners-
The waeco- so handy having the fridge in the truck with us. An absolute lifesaver with keeping sandwiches and snacks on hand for the kids when we need to push through that extra half hour and also in the heat to keep our drinks cold. Worth every cent!
Tinting on the truck windows.
Our Camps 4 book.
My 4 thin plastic Tupperware chopping boards.
The in-car DVD player (again for the kids)
300w inverter which converts the trucks 24v system into 240v power which has been bloody handy.
Weber BBQ
My menstrual cup (sorry blokes if it‘s too much information! but the women might appreciate the tip)
The inner-spring mattresses.
The internet gateway thing so we can both have wireless internet connection on our own laptops,
Not sure if it was worth it-
The washing machine. I think if you got into the habit of setting it up, or stayed somewhere for more than just a few nights then it would be different. We used it anywhere we camped for more than a few days but it was more effort than it was worth to get it out and set it up. If it was plumbed in inside the van then that would make a huge difference to using it.
The annexe walls. I love them and I love the extra room it gives us when we are stopped for a period of time but for the vast majority of short-stop traveling I think the shade cloth surrounds are much handier simply because they are soooo much quicker to set up.
The TV. We really never turned it on. Maybe if we had a better easier antenna it would get used more.

Total waste of space or money.
The boat.
The tools we bought along we really don’t need. Regular tools are ok but we also bought working tools like the which I think are just taking up a heap of space and dragging down our fuel economy and are not going to make any difference to us finding work at all.
My red wine. I am not drinking anywhere near as much as I had hoped! LOL! It’s been so hot I have not felt like a red wine. I think I have drank three bottles! So another 53 bottles to go.

half hearted super quick update

no time to do it right but here is a quick thingy i typed up earlier

The last few days in Darwin were spent getting things organized for work. Getting gum boots for the kids (for snakes and other bitey things), a good hot-weather work shirt for Tim, and bits and pieces like that.

Mum and Dad looked after Jordy one night so that Tim and I could head in to town and see the city by night. We took Darcy and walked up and down the streets full of cafes and bars, and along past the old town hall that was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy. We stopped for a mezze plate at one restaurant and then wandered some more and then stopped at another café for coffee and dessert.

The next day we headed into Lake Alexander for a picnic lunch and the boys played in the massive playground.

We also hit the Mindil Markets. The very first market of the year for the start of the Dry. I imagine it is always incredibly busy but I was amazed at the number of people there. And the food!! Yum! There was an amazing variety of food and a heap of stalls. We had a few big fruit smoothies and then some Indian and then a banana and nutella crepeJ and browsed the arts, crafts, clothes, and souvenirs on offer.

We watched the sun set over the sea (along with about a thousand other people) and enjoyed some live music, fire dancing, and a reptile show. Later in the night we moved down to the beach to watch a fireworks show. The kids were covered in sand and we knew they would fall asleep in the truck on the way home so we walked all the way back to the truck and grabbed a towel and change of clothes and then fought the crowd to get back to the toilet block to shower the kids. It was a cold shower! So lucky it was a warm night.

The prices all rise to stupid tourist season rates on the 1st May so we decided to leave even though we did not technically start work until the Monday. We had intended to camp out at the rockpools in the NP but we were told we could set up our camp out at work and have a look around the place so we did that instead.
The café is about 90min from Darwin and we got out there at lunchtime. It took us the rest of the day to set up our camp seeing as we are going to be here for a while (fingers crossed). We put the full awning up and unloaded all our gear and set ourselves up to stay put for a while. Looking forward to a change of pace.

Heading to Litchfield...
We spent the next few days easing into work. Just getting a feel for what we need to do and where everything is and how it all works. In between that we went for a few drives through the park (covers a decent area) to see the local attractions.

Wangi Falls is impressive. There is a huge clear swimming hole (all safe from crocs) but it is still closed for swimming at the moment. It should open up within the month the ranger thinks. When the water level gets too high there is a whirlpool effect under the falls that can suck you in and there have been a few deaths over the years so the coroner has put a limit on the height at which it can open.

We also went to Buley Rockholes. Amazing! A series of probably a dozen or more cascading waterfalls with rock pools and spas and little rapids. The season is really just starting and I’d say that the water would have been considered far from crowded but there were still a lot of people there. I’d guess another hundred or so. The tour buses come through and spend an hour and leave again so we’ll have to check out their timetables for future visits. But everyone spreads themselves out amongst the pools so you get plenty of space to splash around.

I also took the kids for a drive to see Tolmer Falls- you can’t swim there even though there is another incredible waterhole. There are a couple of endangered bat species there that they are trying to protect. But it’s a great view from the lookout and there are a few walks around the area for those not carrying a toddler and pushing a pram!

We checked out Greenant Creek… just a little creek and nothing all that exciting but I am looking forward to doing the walk from there to another good waterfall and swimming hole that you can only access by foot so it would have fewer people.
And we called past Tabletop Swamp but it’s just a swamp! And unless you are into bird watching then there is not a whole lot there.

Settling in...
Work has been really good. Just learning the ropes and getting the feel of the place. It’s really laid back and everyone is amazingly friendly and great to work with. There is a bit of variety in the stuff that we are doing which makes things even more enjoyable and we can already see that once the peak tourist season hits it will get really flat out here over lunch! I only do a couple of hours each day which I can fit in around the kids but Tim generally has full days. They have some big projects planned here which will keep the blokes really busy.

Our camp is pretty basic in some ways but also really good in others. The area around our camp is mostly sand with a viney sort of semi-grass cover which is not a lot of fun. I sweep out the van three or four times a day! But we are under a big tree so have a good amount of shade and a place to hang the kids’ swing and put their cubby house. We have the full annexe up so there is room for their toys and for them to play.

We’ve found a great creek not too far from here that is perfect for us to go for a swim in. It’s not on the main tourist trail so has generally been quiet when we’ve been there. It’s a small, croc-free, sandy bottomed creek with lovely clear water and is nice and shallow for the kids so I imagine we will spend a bit of time there.

Not having any phone or internet or tv is both good and bad. Good cos it means we do other stuff but bad cos, seriously, sometimes it’s just nice to sit down and watch some telly or surf the net! LOL! We have hardly watched tv at all since we have been traveling but we all miss the footy. And it’s surprising how much you rely on the internet to check things or look things up or find something out. And of course we all miss the connection with friends and family. But on the plus side this is the first chance we have all had to catch our breath and slow down and relax. Which is surprising to say cos we are back working! LOL! Once we finish out the season we will certainly travel more slowly. We look forward to spending a week in each place, even when there is not all that much to do in a little town we just want to hang out and meet the locals and get a feel for a place, even spend a month in a town if we can start doing WOOFER type work or get involved in a community in some way.

But for now things are looking good here.

off line for a bit

i know i am behind in my updates! Sorry! i will get to them soon but i just wanted to warn everyone that we might be offline for a few weeks cos we don't think we will have internet access at Litchfield. We will bring the computer in to town with us when we come so will get emails eventually but we might be slow in replying.

hugs to all!!!

Day 59- Darwin

Stinky hot night. I think the low overnight was 25'. Crazy. And it's heading into winter. ?!?!? Another slow morning... did some washing and mopped the floors and had a bit of a tidy up. The kids played outside with Jordy dragging his tonka truck around the park and being a robot (in his beer carton box) and Darcy finding sticks and throwing big seed pod balls up and down the streets. I think we were still in the truck on the way into the city again before 10.

We are going to save most of the touristy things in here until our weekends off from work. But we'd head around and check out the cheap or free things to do. First stop was the WWII oil storage tunnels. They were dug by hand by over 400 retired men using only chisels and picks and shovels and just two pneumatic drills. It took them 16months and they were finished just as the war came to an end. I would imagine that even though they would have been glad the war was over i think that after putting so much of their time and heart into the tunnels they would have been sad to not have them used. After that we were going to stop at Survivors Lookout and Parliament House but we drove past the parking area and figured we'd just keep going someplace else instead. Plus Jordy wanted food. LOL! So we went to the Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.... actually, we went to the cafe out the back first. :) We got a table and sat down before we looked at the menu and, once again, ouch. A burger was $16 and a main was $25... Not to worry, and Jordy would have rioted if we tried to leave, so we had a nice lunch. And, for the first time since chistmas i had a yummy yummy iced coffee. I have to say that the hunt for decent coffee had been futile throughout the Territory but there are nice coffee joints all over the place in Darwin. And i have come to the conclusion that hot coffee is just not the way to go up here.

While we waited for lunch i went for a wander towards the beach to find a quick geocache. Task completed before the meals arrived. :)

Then off into the museum. And it was a fantastic setup. There was a room just for young kids with heaps of displays and bones they could feel and real stuffed animals and a couple of microscopes and fishtank displays and books and colouring in and jars of snakes and big turtles and building blocks and dress ups and if was pretty much adventure-central! Jordy was enthralled by the microscope and looked at the bugs and lizards for ages. It was a real fight to get him away from it. Darcy loved the animal puppets and crocodile tub.
After we finally convinced Jordy that we would come back again to the Discovery Room we got to head into the main museum. Lots and lots to see. The whole set up is great. Everything was really accessible and well set out and just really easy to get involved with. Even Darcy ran around and loved it squealing "dook" at everything and pushing buttons and getting really excited. We did not squeal so much but all the adults were impressed too. The section about Cyclone Tracy was especially good. We spent quite a bit of time in there (and called into the Discovery Room again as promised) and it was about 4pm before we got home. The kids fell asleep in the truck on the way back (i hate that!) so we waited for them to wake up before a swim to cool off again, although with some cloud cover it was not as hot today. Had a good chat with a few other couples travelling around or working in town for a few months.

Tim cooked meatloaf for dinner in the weber. After dinner the kids drew pictures for ages and we made a birthday card for Grandpa for tomorrow. Neither of them were tired and were happy to play until after 9pm when Tim and i had had enough and we put them to bed. I think i am now all caught up on the blog! and now i am off to bed as well.

Day 58- Darwin

Took us a while to get moving this morning but we headed into town to have a look around. Headed straight towards the esplanade and the coast. Our first glimpse of the Arafura Sea (well, my first glimpse! Tim has been here before) was a beautiful blue-green bay. No surf up here, the ocean is all calm. Another hot and muggy day. Even though it is only about 34' it is all clammy and we were shiny and sweaty within minutes. There is a big park that runs the length of the foreshore area and we walked along that and into town. The town centre has a nice feel to it. It's kinda cool to be in a capital city where most everything is closed on a Sunday! LOL! The cafes and stuff were open but all the general businesses and shops were shut. We wandered around for a bit and then decided to grab some lunch. We had walked past a pretty authentic looking chinese restaurant a few times that smelt great and they had a Sunday Yum Cha special so we decided to head in for that. I have to admit i had no clue what i was grabbing from the chef... little spiky balls of meaty rice and some kind of white speckled folded up pancake thing. It was all ok but with no menu and no prices it ended up a scary $39 for a not so big lunch. Ouch!

The kids played in the playground in the mall for a bit and then we went for a drive out to Fannie Bay past a great recreational lake and the wharf area and all around the place. Called back in through town for a take home bucket of icecream and then back to the caravan. We all went for a swim in the pool to cool off and then Tim stayed at the pool bar and watched the footy and the kids and i came back to the van and played puzzles and did some photo and blog updates.

Lazy dinner of soy and pineapple chicken in the microwave with the left over risotto. Darcy went to bed at a reasonable time but Jordy was out walking around the park with Grandpa till all hours. He wanted to sleep in their caravan so we sent him off to bed over there and carried him home after he'd fallen asleep.

Adelaide River Showground cheap camp review

Really good set up! And good value at $20 a night ($10 for no power). It's pretty much got everything you would want from a caravan park. All nice grassy areas with good shade etc. They have even put up shadecloth covers in a heap of spots to give extra shade over the sites.

There is a pool. The bathrooms are a bit old but they obviously put work into keeping them nice with shower caddies and curtains etc.

There is a couple of washing machines and a laundry tub. And a book exchange in the laundry area.

And from Thursday to Sunday they even have meals out there! There is an open sided pub sort of set up that is really nice (which is where they had the ANZAC day breakfast). Beers are a good price.

Day 57- Adelaide River to Darwin

Darcy was awake all night. I am sure it was nothing to do with food intolerances, just him wanting to feed all night. Little bugger. And it was a lovely cool night so it was not the heat keeping him awake.??? I think it was around 4:30 when i fed him (again) and he fell asleep but with the beginnings of movement and chatter outside i could not get back to sleep. Tim was up at 5 to get ready for dawn service. I debated about waking Jordy and was really torn about trying to go but there was no way he would be quiet for the service so we let him sleep. Still, i got dressed properly just in case he did wake and i had that extra bit of a reason to go, but no, he slept! Both kids even slept through the noisy departure of a dozen bikies!

Tim, Mum, and Dad said it was a nice service with a really big turnout but there were too many politicians speaking. I had thought there might be a flyover with the airforce base being just 5min jetflight away but there wasn't. But there were a heap of airforce personnel there.

At the end of the service there was a free breakfast back at the showground! We had a stroke of luck there! $10 for a site AND breakfast! And it was a really big deal too. More people than we have seen in a long time and it was a huge full cooked breakfast. And for those that did not have a big drive ahead of them the alcohol was also flowing for free. One bloke was wandering around with this huge bottle of bundy rum and filling up glasses around the place. I was talking to another family at breaky and it;s not just local station families and the outlying communities but apparently a lot of people come from Darwin (all the scouts were from Darwin) but i would have to guess that there were over 1,000 people there which is pretty good for a town with a population of well under half that!

Two-up was on later in at the pub but we wanted to call out to Litchfield and that would make our drive over 300km today so back to the van to pack up. We were still out of there around 9am even after such a busy morning.

The nearest town to Litchfield is Batchelor and we wanted to drive through and see what it was like and what was there. It's only small (pop of about 350) but we all thought it was a really nice, tidy looking little community. There is a pool and school, and lots of tree'd park areas and a little grocery store and petrol station and a new looking pub etc. We parked the vans near the pool and left them there while we drove the 70km into the national park to the cafe.

The park is the same odd mix of tropical and dry plants that we had around Mataranka. It's interesting to see and not what i expected. I'm used to national parks being full of tall trees and dense undergrowth but all the bush out here is low trees and dry grasslands. Lots of little creeks though. We saw all the massive magnetic termite mounds but we drove straight past this time.

Got out to Litchfield Cafe and i had my fingers crossed that it would be ok but was prepared for it if it was really rough. But yay!!!! one of the first things i noticed when we parked was the grassy areas and big shade trees around the cafe so that was a plus. We went in and met our future boss and his family and they were great to chat with. But hot! bleaugh. Apparently it was a good 5' cooler today than it has been so i am glad we were not here yesterday. And i really hope it cools down even more over the next week.

The area where our van will go is a bit sandier and the shower/toilets are really rough! LOL! But we knew that. We are not sure what kind of internet reception we'll get out there and the guys are talking about getting a little satellite dish so we can pick up some tv. Looks like they get super busy for lunches, especially with the bus tours. But we are all looking forward to getting in and working for a bit. It's mostly all family working out there and there are three other kids, 5weeks, nearly 2 and nearly 4. So add in our 1yr old and our nearly 3yr old and we'll have a great little mob.

We spent a good hour or more out there talking and having a look around the place. I did not get any photos (sorry!) but as soon as we head out there next week i'll get lots. Drove back and and picked up the vans again and then continued in to Darwin.

Most of the van parks are all 10-15min out of the centre of Darwin so we did not get a chance to see the city. It was after 4pm when we got to the park so just set up and then a sit around. Jordy rode his trike around the park. Just had risotto for dinner in the rice cooker. Bloody hot and muggy! We thought it might have been cooling down cos we've had some nicer nights recently but i guess those extra hundred km north to the coast has not helped. Went to bed with the air con on all night.

Day 56- Katherine to Adelaide River

I'm a couple of days late with this entry so let's see if i can remember what we did!

While we were in Katherine we had a look at the map to see where we might want to stop next. It's not far from Katherine to Darwin but there was no reason to make it in one day when we could stop and have a look around. Plus we thought it would be good to call into Litchfield on the way past. There were a couple of options halfway between Katherine and Darwin, like the Douglas Hot Springs (although we were probably all hot-springed out), or Edith Falls (seen a few waterfalls) or the Douglas Daly region, or Adelaide River. So we had a look at what was in the area and where might have some kind of village so it might be possible to attend a dawn service and you would not believe it but we discovered that not only was Adelaide River the largest town in the area (population 350) it also has one of Australia's largest war cemetaries. Decision made.

On the way out of Katherine Tim had to fuel up and there was a geocache just down the road that we could not find when we both tried a few days earlier so Tim dropped me off and the time it took him to fuel up was the time i had to find it! LOL! I looked and looked and looked and sweated and looked some more but still could not find the darn thing. It's a micro so only the size of a 5c piece and buggered if i could figure out where it was hiding. Gave up and climbed in the truck for the shortish drive to Adelaide River.

The highway was road-kill central! You'd just get past the stink of one rotting carcase and there would be another. Lovely.

But Adelaide River looked nice. We had decided to stay at the showground and opted for an unpowered site cos it was just $10 a night and there was a breeze blowing and a bit of shade so the air con was not a big deal. There were quite a few other vans and tents there and we were told it would get busy cos the scouts were coming through later in the day. Set up camp nice and quick, had a snack and a drink and then jumped on our bikes to go for a ride around town (Mum and Dad drove!)

We headed over to the historic railway precinct (train museum) for a look around. Lots of old carriages and photos and stuff... and co-incidently another cache for us to find. They really area everywhere! We searched like crazy for this one and when we gave up and went back to the bikes we realised we had read the clues wrong so all four of us went back full of enthusiasm thinking it would be easy now with the clue and spent another half hour and still could not find it. But the kids got to see a huge train go past RIGHT in front of us and it blew its whistle so Jordy thought that was special.
On the bikes and down the highway with a brief stop to look for another cache. Once again we could not find a damn thing! Mugs game, this thing! Gave up and headed to the War Cemetary. Bit of a ride but worth it. Lovely park areas along the river and a really beautiful cemetary area. I was really glad that we went cos it would be impossible for me to attend the service in the morning cos of the kids and i wanted to pay my respects.

So much of the area up here has a lot of wartime history that i was just not aware of. There are several sites that were bombed by the Japanese in WWII (i had no idea just how much bombing they did in Australia!) and there are just heaps and heaps of monuments and buildings and airfields and bunkers and hospitals and EVERYTHING up here that have a huge wartime history. Actually, a lot of the small towns owe their existance solely to the war. But the post office at Adelaide River was bombed and nine civilians were killed and there are well over 400 military graves. We had a good wander through the cemetary and read the plaques for most of the graves. Then we went across to the park for the kids to have a wander. There were a heap of peacocks that were very accustomed to people and Darcy chased them all over. There was a tour bus that arrived while we were there full of backpackers doing a stop at the cemetary and one of the girls filmed Darcy chasing them (he did look funny pointing and 'dook'ing as he tried to run). We finally found a cache for the day- one for four is not great odds! Called into the pub on the way back. Busy little town. I think everyone is here for ANZAC day. Either that or the stuffed buffalo from Crocodile Dundee that's hanging in the bar. Quick beer cos the kids were getting hungry and we were all hot. Actually, the pub is a pretty decent van park too and really cheap.

Back to the showground and into the pool for a cool off. Jordy is swimming really well but i wish we were still doing lessons. He has started to swim nice and flat with his eyes down so we'll get him some goggles soon.

The day cooled off nicely and we cooked a simple dinner of sliced potato, sweet potato, and sausages and mushrooms on the weber. And they were right! It did get busy with the scouts. It was a nice atmosphere with lots of laughing kids and tents going up as the sun went down.

Katherine Low Level van park review

Katherine Low Level Caravan Park. Katherine. Stayed four nights, $27 a night (less 10% for Big4). Really sprawling big caravan park! Had good new-feeling amenities.
Overall- 4 stars.

Location- 7/10. On the outskirts of town but right on the edge of Low Level Nature Park with the river and park etc.

Sites- 7/10. Good prickle-free grass and good shady areas. Sites average sized.

Bathrooms- 7/10. We used the toilets/showers at the pool cos they were closer. They were pretty good, but the main ones were even better. Had a little baby bath tub as well.

Laundry- 7/10. Big laundry area with plenty of machines, good tubs and an iron etc. $3 a load.

Shop- 5/10. Had a bit of touristy stuff.... i can't remember if they had basic convenience items or not!

Pool- 7/10. Good big pool, had a spa too.

BBQ area- 7/10. Full camp kitchen with fridge, microwave, toaster etc. And a couple of separate little BBQ areas around the place.

Playground- Surprisingly enough they did not have one.

Other- During tourist season (i guess June to Novemeber ish) they have a full kiosk with meals at the pool.

Day 55- Katherine

Another day in Katherine! Lots to see around the area and we are enjoying a few slow days. A couple of loads of washing to start the day! and then...

Mum and Dad headed into the Katherine Museum for a look around (and said it was worth a visit and great to see the movie and photos relating to the massive floods they have had here).

Tim headed into town to get some light bulbs and bits and pieces for the van. I stuck the kids in front of the DVD player, made myself a coffee and wrote yesterdays blog entry and went through the photos i took of the gorge.

When Tim got back he and Jordy put our stickers on the truck. Finally! We have been trying to by a sticker from each town we visit (sometimes we forget!) but so far we have not gotten around to putting them anywhere. Handy! Well they are not on the truck. I'll get a photo in the morning cos i actually forgot that they even did it so have not even seen it myself.

After that he updated our map of Australia and coloured in the roads we have travelled since Mount Isa. I'll get a photo of that tomorrow too.

After lunch Mum, Dad, me and the kids went out to Springvale Homestead. Actually not much to see out there really. It's a nice looking old homestead and there are good information boards around the place but the building has been turned into a dodgy cafe, and the cafe was not even open?? Not sure what the go is with it but it really ruins the feel of the place.

Called out to the hot springs on the way back. The ones here are really lovely. There is a paved area alongside a section of the spring with a few different entry points and for a section about 100m long they have paved the sides up to a small waterfall. You can get in the top end and float down to the waterfall and then climb out and go again.
Dad went for a walk around when we got there and mum and i got the boys into their swimmers. Then Jordy was straight in the river and wanting to go floating off downstream. Mum had Darcy and i was still getting ready to get in and Jordy is off! Little bugger. I was a bit worried about him going over the edge of the waterfall but i met him down the end and he kicked over to me. Not that it was a big waterfall! He would not have been hurt if he went over but he might have scared himself.

We floated downstream together a couple of times. I preferred these ones to either of the ones at Mataranka (even though they were nice too). The water even smelt refreshing and citrusy for some reason!?!?! And it was just a couple of degrees cooler so more refreshing. We all played around in the bottom pool near the waterfall for a while. Took some photos of the german geocoin we found (cos the owner wants photos of his geocoin travelling the world) and then the fight to get the kids out of the water began :) A quick stop to get fruit and vege on the way home. Actually, that was kinda funny cos Tim was out near there this morning at the hardware store and one of the staff came in with a coffee for the bloke serving Tim. And he said something like "Oh, thank god, coffee!" The woman handed him one of those big decorative thick paper take-away coffee mugs. Tim asked if he was a coffee fiend and the bloke said yeah, he liked his coffee and that this was the best coffee in town. Tim knows that i have been seriously missing a good coffee so asked where it was from and the bloke said the fruit and vege shop across the road had great coffee. So when we called in this afternoon i kept it in mind to check out.... But, no. Once again it is one of those milk bar machines where you stick your cup in and push a button and the milk and coffee just flow out the spout [shudder].

I am not surprised that no one out here has a decent coffee machine. It's too bloody hot anyway. I have to either have one first, first thing in the morning or sit inside and bump the air con up for half an hour to get cold enough to make it bearable to have something hot.

While we were out and about Tim drove into the Country Club in town. A bloke he met up here some 15years ago used to work at the club and Tim was hoping to track him down. No luck though. Apparently he left town a few years ago and someone heard he might since have moved to Darwin.

Home in time for a web chat with family at home. Darcy thought it was pretty good and kept trying to eat the microphone. Bath and dinner time (roast chook and vegies) and then an early night for the kids.

Day 54- Katherine

Jordy was up crazy early this morning. Lucky we all had to be up for our tour anyway cos he was knocking on Grandma and Grandpa's door before the sun was even up. We had our picnic packed and were all in the truck at 8 and on our way out to the gorge.

When we got to the helipad area Tim stayed back a little so that Jordy would not see the helicopter. Tim had already flown over the gorge before so he decided he would wait with the kids in at the park while Mum, Dad, and i did the tour, and we did not want Jordy to see what we were doing because he just loves planes and helicopters and would be upset if he saw us. BIG MISTAKE. I have to say that i am so, so, so disappointed that we did that cos we found out afterwards that he could have come and sat on my lap for free. I am still so disappointed now when i think about it because he would have loved it.

Anyway, no point having regrets and i think one of us will do another flight at Kakadu or somewhere just so he can have a turn as well.

The pilot was great and they were really generous with the flight. We were there early and were their first tour of the day so it was supposed to start at 9:00 but we were in the helicopter at about quarter to nine while he did his pre-flights and then in the air well before 9. We had paid for an eight gorge (12min) flight and added an 8minute extension to do a landing. But we did not get back until about 9:30.
The divisions between each of the gorges are not what i expected. I thought they might be divided by narrower openings in the rock or maybe by a waterfall or something but it is often just a shallow section of rapids or not much at all. From the air we could see little pools off to the sides and get a good appreciation for how high the water gets in flood time.

We landed on a little rocky outcrop at the tenth gorge and from there we could see the last three gorges. We had heaps of time to wander around and take lots of photos. I was absolutely busting to go to the toilet! LOL! And, unbelievably, the National Parks have not seen fit to build an amenities block up there amongst the rocks so i had to hold on for forever!
I tried to spot the truck parked down at the tour centre on the way back but could not see it. After we landed we headed into the visitors centre and had a look around (and went to the toilet!!). They have a nice display about the land around the gorge and it's history.

We had thought about doing a boat cruise as well but there is a 7am breakfast cruise where you can see the sun rise over the gorge and i think the colour in the rock and the stillness of the water would be amazing in the morning so we decided to leave it and see if we can get back this way and camp overnight at the gorge on one of our weekends off further in the season. The gorge is still closed to swimmers and canoes cos they have not finished their croc surveys and have found two salties in the gorge this year and i would love to go canoeing as well so even more of a reason to come back.

We had our picnic lunch down in the park and had a look at the gorge from ground level. Then we went for a bit of a wander to see if we could hunt down a geocache in the area. No luck! Too well hidden for us. But we managed to track one down closer to town on our way home.

We grabbed a couple of water li-lo things on the way through town and were home just after lunchtime. Sat around for a bit and then packed the kids in the bike caboose and rode over to the Low Level Nature park at the river. There is quite a flow to the river and it goes over a few small rapids. We have driven over it a few times and have been keen to get in there for a swim. The water was super nice and warmed just enough from the hotsprings upriver that it was beautiful to swim in. Lots of kids fishing up near the bridge too catching black bream and even the odd barra using cast nets.

Tim blew up the massive li-lo! and we took the kids floating down the river. Splashed around for quite a while riding down the current and walking back up to the bridge again.

Then we rode back to the park for a drink and some chips. Would have been lovely to have a beer but Katherine is a dry town and you can't have open bottles of alcohol away from home.
We saw a few FA-18s flying overhead and Jordy wanted to see more so we rode home and got changed and headed out to the airport. We managed to totally luck out and two fighter jets landed just as we arrived. Then one sat on the runway and blasted his engines for about a minute. It was crazy loud!! Incredible! Then it took off and was out of sight before you knew it.
Took the opportunity to hunt down another cache! LOL! Jordy found a gnome inside that he quite liked. Then we drove over to the other side of town to see the Ghan which was due to depart this afternoon. I was hoping to have a look inside the train but when we got there i think people were boarding so it must have been not far off leaving. Plus i will admit from the outside it did not look all that impressive. Not sure what i was expecting. Tim said "it's a train!? What did you think it would look like!?" I thought maybe flashier! ?? It did look nice though- as opposed to your regular Sydney commuter train. Nabbed ourselves another cache out near the station and then home for a quick dinner.

Tim made some great fritters. We had left over corned beef and he chopped up heaps of vegies and we told Jordy they were Dinner Pancakes. We made some dairy-free ones for Darcy and he just hoed in! And Jordy usually eats two mouthfuls for dinner and that's it (seriously) but he kept saying "How good are these!" and ate half nearly a full pancake. Miracle. We will be having Dinner Pancakes again in the near future.

I totally crashed at 8pm putting Darcy to bed. Tim fell asleep too putting Jordy to bed but he woke up later and then web-cam chatted to some friends from home and ended up staying up past midnight.

Day 53- Katherine

The van park here is in a nice location. It's just a little way out of the town centre but it's right near the Low Level Nature park and the river. There are more hot springs just up from here as well. It's a cruel joke really in my opinion. I mean, how nice would a 34'C tropical hot spring in Port Macquarie be!!! It'd be lovely of an evening or at this time of year just sitting back and relaxing. But instead there are these lovely hot springs out here where it's high 30ies all day and half the night and you can jump in and enjoy the water but then 5minutes later you need to go find some shade to stand in (or a cold shower) to cool off. But they have sprinklers going all the time at this van park too so we all just wander from sprinkler to sprinkler.

Did the washing nice and early, and the kids played outside for a bit. They took turns on the trike and collecting sticks. When Jordy is too lazy to peddle (which is most of the time) Tim pushes him on the trike with a 'poker' and so Jordy grabbed himself a poker and pushed Darcy all around the place. Darcy just sits and steers and somehow manages to balance with the wild pushing from behind.

Then went back into town this morning for a look around. We finally posted some postcards that we bought in Charters Towers! LOL! Bit slow (can we blame Australia Post?). Jordy worked his charm again and the lady mailed them for free?!?!

There are so many geocaches hidden in Katherine we had to try out luck at a few. Didn't do too badly and found 2 of the 3 we went hunting for. Jordy likes it and gets excited looking at the 'treasure'! hehehe

Spent the afternoon lazing around camp and swimming in the pool back at the van park. Met a lovely family that are travelling up to Darwin from QLD and we chatted to them for ages. I ended up having to get Darcy out of the pool cos he'd had enough. Jordy was too busy playing with the kids so he stayed with Mum and Dad and turned into a prune. An hour later they all wandered back to our van. Turns out the bloke is a marine mechanic! LOL! He had a look at the hole in the motor and apparently if you are going to have a hole in your motor then we picked the best spot for it and it should not be too much of an issue to fix. Corned silverside with white sauce again for dinner cos we loved it so much last time. I decided it was too hot to want to have the potatos boiling away in the van so i microwaved them, which i have done before when having sliced potatoes, but this time we mashed them afterwards. Big mistake. You can't mash microwave potatoes. Next time i'll just bump up the air con and boil the darn things.

Kids crashed at 7:30 tonight! Yay! Made sandwiches for tomorrow and we'll get an early night too. We have helicopter flights booked out at Katherine Gorge early tomorrow so i'm really looking forward to that.