Edith Falls (Nitmiluk National Park) - - Big Horse Creek (Gregory National Park) Leaving Darwin our first overnighter is at Edith Falls in the Nitmiluk National Park. This is one of our favourite places in NT. There is a 'bottom' pool and a 'top' pool. This time we only went into the bottom pool because we arrived after lunch and it was way too hot to walk the 1km up to the top pool and another 1.6km back. It would be better to stay two nights and do the top walk in the morning, but we are only staying one night this time. The pool was so nice - very cold at first, but it didn't take long to get used to it. I wanted to swim out to the waterfall but the thought of crocodiles ... read more

King Ash Bay - (Caranbirini Conservation Reserve) - Lorella Springs - (Southern Lost City, Butterfly Spring, Town River) - Tomato Island We left King Ash Bay early to arrive at Caranbirini Reserve and finish the walk before it got too hot (it has been averaging 33 degrees most days). It is a short 2km walk around the Lost City, which are sandstone formations, and another short walk to the 'birdwatcher's' waterhole. The rock formations are stunning and the morning light brought out the colours spectacularly. It was well worth the 40km detour to see. From Caranbirini we headed towards Lorella Springs Wildlife Park planning to spend a couple of days. The road went from bad to worse and from the turnoff to Lorella Springs to the homestead (about 30km) our speed didn't go over 40km/hr. It ... read more

Savannah Way (Alternate Route): Adel's Grove - Hells Gate Advice from Adel's Grove was that it is a 4hr drive from there to Hells Gate so we planned on a late start, which gave us time to do another of the Lawn Hill Walks before packing up and heading out. The early morning walk was beautiful, with the sun lighting up the gorge. Leaving Adel's Grove we took the Alternate Route to Doomadgee then onto Hells Gate. Kevin had a lot of fun on the dirt roads. Travelling through private properties, there were some rocky patches, a couple of creek crossings and a few gates, but overall the road was mostly not too bad. The poor Navi (GPS) in the car didn't know where we were most of the time, but we have the trusty maps ... read more

Porcupine Gorge - Bang Bang Rest area - Karumba We left Porcupine Gorge at about 8am and headed towards Julia Creek, stopping at Richmond for breakfast. We arrived at Julia Creek too early to stop, and decided to continue on along the road between Julia Creek and Bourke and Wills Junction - we could stop at Bourke and Wills roadhouse overnight. When we arrived there though we decided to have an ice-cream and continue to the next rest area which was 90km closer to Karumba. This was actually not a bad rest area, but the noisy caravan near us kept me awake most of the night - some people have no respect for fellow travellers. The best thing about the long drive that day was the short drive into Karumba the following day. We stopped at ... read more

Bloody hell it's cold! Camping in winter is not such a good idea. Travelling up the coast from Grafton was cool at night-time until we got a fair way north, but inland is freezing at night. Finch Hatton is only 70km inland but the difference it made was unbelievable! And (of course) it is colder the further south we go. We are heading back towards the Gold Coast, but on inland roads, to attend Andrew's University Graduation on Monday. Travelling south from Finch Hatton we stayed at an overnight rest area at Duaringa (Mackenzie Park) and then another at Gayndah (Zonhoven Park). Rest areas are great for free-camping but can be very noisy, and we had two noisy sites in a row. Mackenzie Park was a large rest area with excellent facilities and a tourist information ... read more