June 16-26: Darwin (Berry Springs)

We travelled towards Darwin in search of a place to stay. Couldn't find the place that we were aiming for. Found out later from a report on the radio that the owner had given up and closed down. In desperation, we checked the RACV caravan park guide and found this park at Berry Springs that allowed dogs - Tumbling Waters. We initially booked for 2 nights and have extended twice. Maybe we'll leave on July 2, or maybe we won't.

The caravan park is a good one. Lots of lovely palm trees to give lots of shade. They have outdoor cinema twice a week and you can take your dog along. They also have didgeridoo making, crocodile feeding (12 crocodiles on site) and karaoke once a week. Even the karaoke was OK, although it's really just one guy singing his songs to a group of people drinking around the outside bar. And all for free! We've also made some new friends with crazy german folks from Adelaide - Wolfgang and Monika.

Karaoke entertainment

Didgeridoo making

Croc feeding at the caravan park

A once-off performance by a couple of guys who happened to be staying at the park on the day we arrived. They were drummers/percussionists and performed for about an hour showing off all of their percussion instrments.
Great free entertainment!

Judith & Princess enjoying the karaoke

Our new best friends Wolfgang and Monika.
The car is called "Pom Bomb" because it's a Land Rover made in England.

The best thing about Darwin at this time of year is the weather. Every day is around 30 degrees. And it is virtually guaranteed not to rain for the next 3 months. Which explains why there are so many southerners up here. It is a very nice climate to which you can escape from the winters of the south.

On Thursday 16 June, we spent the day in Darwin with my brother Neil and sister-in-law Kerry. Good timing as this was Neil's birthday! They are holidaying in Darwin, before catching the Ghan down to Alice. We checked out a few sights around town, went to the museum and art gallery and then on to the Mindil Markets. Together with about 5000 other people we watched the sunset over the beach. Lovely beach, but the sad thing is that it is unsafe for swimming. We've been back again to Darwin and the beaches around East Point and it is weird to see these beautiful beaches on hot sunny days without anyone on them.

Neil & Kerry at the Mindil Beach markets

Waiting for sunset on Mindil Beach with 5000 other people

Kerry, Neil and Judith enjoying the sunset at Mindil beach

Worth waiting for - a lovely sunset over the water,
- helped a little by all the smoke in the air from the burning off during the day

Near where we are staying is the Berry Springs Nature Park. Natural fresh water springs supply a large warm water swimming area. We've been a few times now. Only issue is that dogs are not allowed so unfortunately Princess stays in the car while we have our swim.

Also close by is the Territory Wildlife Park. This is one of the best tourist attractions in the NT. It is really well done, with several different areas of the park set up with different native environments and animals.

Pelicans at the lagoon

Buzzards and other birds of prey performing at the Wildlife Park

Turtle on log

Pretty birds all in a row

Snake climbing a tree trunk

Duckling above and below water

Another turtle

Magnetic ternite mounds. They are built especially to survive in low lying wetlands.

The magnetic termite mound in the foreground is wide but not deep; quite different to the cathedral termite mound shown in the background.



At the "Oolloo Crossing" area of the Territory Park, they have whiprays. They are like stingrays but live in fresh water. The ranger explains how they feed and then lets a small group of vounteers feed them. I was lucky enough to be one of the chosen few.

A short drive from our caravan park is the road into Litchfield National Park - the dirt road that is. We had a pleasant day driving through the national park and checking out some of the scenic spots. Some really lovely water falls and crystal clear creeks. One of the highlioghts was Wangi Falls, but no swimming allowed there due to crocodiles. Pity, maybe next time.

Judith at Wangi Falls

Crossing the creek at the Cascades in Lichfield

The Berry Springs market happens on the last Sunday of the month. And fortuitously this month they coincided with the Feral Ladies Festival. We checked it out and bought some good local produce. The Feral Ladies Festival was a bit of fun - and no, Judith didn't win any prizes.



June 20: Vale Spike

Our beloved dog Spike passed away around 5pm on Monday June 20.

We miss him terribly. He was 16 years old. He has been a part of our family for over 7 years. He has been there as our girls Emily & Ruby have grown up. And he has been our constant travel companion for the past couple of months. Everything we do (or don't do) on our trip revolves around the dogs. And now we are finding out that it was actually mostly around Spike.

He was the one who would always wake first in the morning. He was the one who would become restless around 4pm every day as a show of impatience as he waited for his dinner. Spike was the one who would climb over the back of the car and find the olive bread that we had just bought and he would eat it from both ends. Spike was the one who would rip open the rubbish bag in the caravan because he could smell scraps from our previous meal.

How different it is now without him. We won’t have to help him up the steps to the caravan because his little back legs don’t work well enough. We won’t have to be so careful about where we put our food. We can sleep in. Princess won’t get pushed out of her bed by her bossy brother. Life is now a bit simpler for us, but a part of us is missing, gone; and it’s so sad.

June 10-15: Back to Katherine

After leaving Broome, it's the same way back from whence we came - back to Katherine in the Northern Territory. We didn't have to worry about a boring road trip for long. We stopped for lunch after we'd travelled a couple of hundred kms and I noticed a funny noise coming from the car after it was switched off. The sound of boiling water. Not quite embarrassing as steam billowing out from under the bonnet, but enough to tell me that the engine was too hot and not too happy. We let things cool down, topped the water back up and then drove on, but the over-heating soon returned - bugger! Next town was Fitzroy Crossing (home of the crooked cops). We asked at the 2 mechanics in town whether they could help. "Sorry mate, can't fit you in until at least next week some time." We decided that we'd keep driving - slowly, with a few stops along the way whenever the car looked like getting too hot.

We spent the night at a freecamp that we checked out on the way over - Ngumban Cliff.

Sunset at Ngumban Cliff

More slow driving and lots of stops and we made it to Halls Creek. We put on our sad faces and checked out another couple of mechanics. Same story. "We're flat out mate; couldn't possible fit you in til next week. Try Kununurra." This was Friday, so we had the weekend to limp along to Kununurra. But this time we phoned ahead to a mechanic and made sure that he could help us out first thing on Monday morning.

We thought we would camp the night just outside of Halls Creek - only 3km down a dirt road. We made about 30 metres before we turned around because of the mountainous corrugations in the road. Good decision, we found a great little site along side a river - Little Panton River. Everything was going well here until a huge bull that was grazing near by, turned towards our van and started bellowing in painful, primal tones. The dogs were quickly shuffled into the van followed closely by us humans. Not sure what his problem was, but fortunately the grass across the road was greener and within a half-hour we released ourselves from our self-imposed captivity.

Our camp site on the Little Panton River

Plenty of free water here so we caught up on a bit of washing

The bull before his rampage.
Sorry that I didn't take any photos as he was coming for the van.

Some majestic birds of prey checking us out as well

Another day of slow driving and lots of stops. After a couple of hundred kms, we spent the night at one of our favourite spots. The road sign just says "Scenic Lookout". The views are spectacular and its so quiet.

The spectacular view all to ourselves

The dogs posing for a photo.
OK, we had to bribe them with food.

Finally got them to look up together

The view at dusk



View from the caravan next morning

 We made it to Kununurra on Sunday night, found a gravel pit about 10km out of town. Early the next morning, we went to the mechanic and explained our car overheating problem. "It'll be your head gasket." No, it can't be. That sounds expensive. I tried to talk him out of his diagnosis - the engine gets hot before we lose any water. He has a look under the bonnet and almost immediately determines that its the fan. No resistance, oil has leaked out of it. I learn more about fans than I need to ever know, but our hero mechanic fixes the car in a couple of hours and best of all, only charges us $130. Huge sigh of relief...

The car makes a different sound now - the sound of a fan going around and actually moving air towards the radiator now. That's good! But we did get really good fuel economy while we were driving at only 60-70km/hr. (Apologies to all the frustrated drivers who got stuck behind us.)

Celebrity Park at Kununurra.
Toilets, water and power available - who needs a caravan park?

With a renewed confidence in our car, we drove on and included a 70km detour to see Lake Argyle. Very glad we did - some of the best scenery of the trip. A nice caravan park on the lake where we were tempted to stay, but my brother Neil is holidaying in Darwin and we plan to meet him and Kerry on June 16, only a couple of days away.

First glimpse of Lake Argyle

What a beautiful view from the pool?

The Spillway from the dam - that's a lot of water flowing out

A natural terrace on the mountains by the roadside

Our dog Spike

We drove on to another of our favourite camp spots at a lookout near Timber Creek. We arrived after sunset, so no photos this time.

The next day we made it back to Katherine. We had our swim at the natural hot springs - just love it. Bought a few supplies in Katherine and then found a gravel pit about 30km north of Katherine on the way to Darwin.

Roughing it overnight in a gravel pit on the side of the highway

Our dog Princess