Day 26

---

A very holiday type day today. An easy morning. Rob was up and off early, taking the Kia in for her 15000km service and a well earned clean. Now we are a convoy of one clean and one filthy black vehicle. The rest of us read the paper, did the washing, ate a leisurely breakfast. Ro fiddled around with the camper trailer.
Just before lunch we took off to Berry Springs which is just outside of Darwin and apparently a fave with the locals. Beautiful parkland around the springs which are quite large. They have a gentle current that takes you from one large pool to another, and then another. Palm trees lean over the water to make a tunnel accross the water. Right at the start is a small waterfall and the kids (and the adults) had great fun diving under it and peering out from the other side. There are lots of little fish swimming with us and we even saw a crab. The noodles that Ro and Rob bought in Alice at Clark Rubber have been invaluable....priceless as the ad says. It was a bit pongy in parts today at Berry Springs. There is a large bat colony there and loads of 'locals' enjoying loads of beer and other beverages add to the ambience. We giggled at the many Japanese tourists who either couldn't swim or were pretending they couldn't and I loved the cowboy who swam and went under the waterfall with his cowboy hat, sunnies and can of Jim Beam, all whilst still wearing his black jeans. We enjoyed lunch in the parkland and a snooze and an icecream and another swim. Then home to Howard Springs Caravan Park.

Hi all, Bron here. Hey Ken thanks for keeping the comments coming. Can't wait to tell the kids about your dad, jac and i were thrilled to kind of know someone involved, it makes it so much more interesting. Stopped on the way home today at the Strauss Airstrip which runs parallel with the Stuart Highway. It was one of many that were set up during WW2. It showed the spitfires and other planes which were used by both Australian and US Airmen, really fascinating. As promised on an earlier blog, we stopped at the Cane Toad Detention Centre at the Berry Springs Primary School. It is a corrigated iron box with vents on the top. It has an opening to slide them in requesting that only toads and not plastic bags are added, environmentally friendly heh? Had a close look inside, the smell was horrific and the sight was not much better. Cane Toad skeletons - nice. The kids made the appropriate comments such as "yuk, grose and oooh" and then we headed back to camp. Kunyung collects milk bottle tops and Berry Springs Cane Toads, i know which i prefer but which is the most environmentally conscious? A great day all around. Kids played hide and seek with the cb's again, chilli prawns for dinner and Rob, Jack, Ro and Mima are booked on a fishing cruise for 6 am tomorrow. I wonder what's for dinner tomorrow night?? The hols are nearly over, it seems like we've been away for such a long time. i want it to keep going but am looking forward to home too, and sharing all of our adventures with you all.

---