Mataranka to Darwin

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Thursday 14 June 2007

Aaaaah to fall asleep to the sweet sounds of a feral donkey - now that’s something I never would have thought I would say!! Last day at Elsey National Park. We went for a gorgeous swim at Bitter Springs thermal pool (where there weren’t 100 old people from a bus tour as was the case at Mataranka Springs the previous day). We had a snorkel so we could look around and it was crystal clear. The kids seem to like it, especially Lily as she had her floaty swimmers and her goggles as well. Ethan liked to sit by the edge in his life jacket with his Nanny.

Ethan is having more and more fun getting down and dirty with it. His most prized possession is his red tractor - I couldn’t tell you the amount of laps he has done with it. He is also a big fan of his bike so that’s the best $100 we spent.

We arrived in Katherine yesterday to be able to watch the state of origin (much to matt and nev’s delight). Bron (older Bron) made a delicious curry and we caught up on emails, washing, grocery shopping, post cards etc. Its always a little scary when your grog bill comes to $200 + (???????) Seems Matt and I have new names - Harry and Sadie (the cleaning lady).

Lily met a little friend (Monique) at Elsey NP who she also caught up with at Katherine - she is definitely the little social butterfly. She is also meeting people from all over the world, within 24hrs she had made friends with people from Italy, The Nederland’s, and Germany, its amazing to watch her she really is so inquisitive and I’m sure she would run off with the first family who would take her!!!

Lily had a sleep over and Nanny and Poppy’s last night and Ethan only woke once - hooray. This morning all the Pikes ventured off to a cruise up through Katherine Gorge at 8.30am. The cruise went for 2 hours and toured 2 of the 13 gorges. A very peaceful and scenic two hours,

We arrived at Edith Falls at about 12.30pm and we have settled in nice and quickly. Bron and Nev are staying in Katherine for a few more days and we will catch up with them along the road somewhere else in 7-10 days. Ethan is currently working on his all over tan and Matt is wishing he could too. We have a nice little grassy area out the front of our van and of course Ethan just loves going into the bush and playing with kangaroo poo - oh the delights of having little boys. We are going for a walk to the falls after this beer…………or maybe the next (I just realized how dangerous that sounds???)

We can’t believe we’ve been on the road not quite 4 weeks - sometimes it feels like ages and then we think we’ve only got 3 weeks left until we reach Karratha!!! Reality is going to be hard to get used to.

Nanny’s knowledge: Did you know that ants never ever sleep?

Animals sighted so far (dead and/or alive):

Kangaroos
Brahman cows (very strange looking, their skin seems quite saggy around the neck (a little like what I might look like in my older years if I don’t keep up the skin care regime)
Buffalo
Camels
Lots of birds including peacocks, cockatoos, and kookaburras and of course heaps of others I have no idea what they are called
Fresh water crocodile
Horses
Feral pigs
Lizards
Cane toads
Tree frogs
Turtles
Fish
Snake

Ailments to add:

Bron - infected piercing (yes I got something pierced and its called a Tragus (I think) and I’m not telling anyone what part of the body that is you have to figure it out, sorry Mum)

Matt - weird little bites on back (not from Bron)

Lily - still tripping over incidents too many to mention

Ethan - see Lily’s notes above


Saturday 16 June 2007

Happy Anniversary to us for yesterday……….they said we’d never make it but we finally gave in ha ha ha ha

We celebrated by having Jen’s curry (thanks it was delicious and well worth saving for our anniversary), a few wines - Matt even picked me flowers (from the ground not from the bushes of course) and then we went and socialised with Marion and Syd (I hear you Jason and no it wasn’t ma and pa Flood but they could have been). They are a lovely couple originally from Brisbane who are 7 months into a 2 year trip (hi guys if you are reading this). We talked way past our usual bed time (stayed up until 11.30pm woo hoo) the time just flew right by.

So a little bit dusty this morning. We are staying at Litchfield National Park for a couple of nights and we are camped in the 4WD campground of Florence Falls. There is an easy 10 minute walk to the magnificent waterfalls where we can go to cool off after having the kids in the backpacks. So after a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs (Chef Matt) we are going for a drive to discover more water holes and waterfalls.

The temperature gauge already says 27.4 degrees and its only 10.30am! It was a gorgeous evening and we are definitely out of the winter pj’s. We did go exploring and found an even better waterfall called surprise creek. There are 2 waterfalls that you can jump in from into crystal clear plunge pools (and no we didn’t see any crocodiles thank goodness Ethan would be a tasty little treat for them wouldn’t he?)

We spent about an hour there and then traveled on to visit Blyth Hut where we read about a family who had 13 children and the eldest children were put to work in the mines. There family cattle station was 25 miles away from the mine and the kids father would come and check on them every few weeks and bring them supplies!! Otherwise they were left to fend for themselves while their mother stayed on the cattle station (having more children obviously to work in the mine???) looking after the younger children and other things around the cattle station (how she had any time I do not know I vaguely remember reading that she started having children in 1908 and finished around 1935 what the??)

It was 4WD only track to Surprise Creek so Matt had lots of fun crossing a few rivers (one reached the 600ml water level mark). He even had to drive up a river for a few metres and not just straight across so he was In his element. It was quite amazing really it felt like you could have been on safari in Africa. The road at times didn’t even look like there was much of a road there and then all of a sudden you would see the track. There was an abundance of animals, we saw wild cows, Kangaroos, Frill Neck Lizard and the landscape was incredible. The Northern Territory really is a place that where the landscape keeps changing (a little like Madonna who keeps reinventing herself ???)

We then toughed it out and went and swam at another waterfall this time it was Wangi waterfalls and again they were refreshing and delightful. We topped the afternnon off with an ice cream at the Kiosk. Lots of photo’s we could bore you all with but we have just added a few.

Sunday 17 June 2007

We woke up and decided to go to Darwin today to see taste the delights of the seafood festival yummy (Bron’s idea of course) and to visit the Madil Beach Sunset Markets. I have a confession to make………I can’t remember how long it has been since I had a shower and washed my hair!!!! I have been swimming a few times a day though (so that does count for something). Matt suggests I just grow dreadies but I don’t think I can do it. Lily made a lovely friend at Litchfield NP her name is Skye and she is also 3 years old. Her father is a Ranger and they are doing a 4 month transfer to Kakadu National Park.

We are also going to Darwin to get our Cruiser’s hand brake checked out and the van brakes (not working as good as they should) so we will see what happens there.

But before we left Litchfield we went for one last dip in……..you guessed it a plunge pool and some waterfalls!!! This time we went to Buleys Rockholes and again we weren’t disappointed - this really is a great way to start the day you guys would absolutely love it. I can just see all the kids spending their days at the waterfalls and discovering different animals and freaking out at all the insects too!!!

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Photos

Litchfield NP
The road is there somewhere

Litchfield NP
Suprise Creek

Comments

[Marian and Syd]

Thanks for sending the blog
Hi Folks, we are now learning all about blogs now thanks to you two. It's raining and we are nicely set up in Wyndham CP -rural, but better than the schemozle in Kununurra as everyone waits around for roads to open! I'm currently baking a cake -good grief-and we're now off to the Croc farm to feed the inhabitants. We'll keep in touch via our blog site once Syd gets it set up. Cheers!