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Published: October 28th 2010
I just love these Boabs So Much!!!
They looked like they were upseide down trees!From Broome we traveled east with the The Willies and another family we called the MP’s. Traveling together with other families was a new concept for us, and it worked out really well. All the children had playmates, the adults had company, and the adventures were great!
Our first stop was a place called ‘Telegraph Pole’ - a fitting name for a riverside camp with a telegraph pole if the middle of nowhere!
Even though we had seen a big saltwater croc in Broome, this was the first time (and may be the last) we’d come across crocs in numbers so large. At night the kids and I would shine the torches into the river and count how many crocs we could see. The numbers were always 15+, many times more!!! Mostly ‘freshies’ (not non human eating kind), so we were told - I wasn’t taking any chances with them though!
We did a drive by in Derby and on to a camp near Tunnel Creek, where I met some people who went to school with my Mum!!! What a small world!
Tunnel Creek was such good fun. Basically its a long cave (about 700m) with a
Telegraph Pole
Our camp here was serene, and quite literally metres away from countless crocs!!! creek running through it. Apparently there were freshwater crocs there but we didn’t actually see any, which was a relief because you have to walk through the water a number of times!
Windjana Gorge was full of crocs - too many to keep count of! We could walk right up close to them sunbathing on the river’s edge. Again, only freshies, although still scarey!
Leaving the fantastic camp near tunnel creek we had to stop off at Fitzroy Crossing for fuel and washing. Dakota had a cut on his knee - it was only small, but it had become infected and his knee had become really swollen and painful in just a day or two. So I took him to the hospital there thinking that they’d give him a script for oral antibiotics and send us on our way.
When the doc saw him he strongly suggested that he stay for 24-48 hours to have IV antibiotics. That wasn’t really part of the plan but had to be done. So while Dakota got settled into a hospital bed the other two were considering trying anything to get a hospital bed too!
Hospital bed = toilet, shower
Victoria River
The kids were spelling out AUSTRALIA! AND TV!!! What more could they want!
We ended up saying goodbye to our traveling buddies for a while and booking into a caravan park for a few nights - Fitzroy crossing isn’t the place to be camped on the side of the road by yourself!
A WEEK later the docs let Dakota out of hospital and we were well and truly ready to be on the move again. We headed across to Mary Pool which was a beautiful little free camp, then through Halls Creek and on to the another free camp outside Purnululu National Park.
Purnululu is home to our famous Bungle Bungles, and for good reason - they really are something special! Majestic may even be a better word to describe them! Cathedral Gorge was absolutely beautiful, and all the walks were different and interesting.
The road in on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired. Fifty or so kms of road that takes a good 1 ½-3 hour to travel. On the return trip the middle of my steering wheel popped out, along with my rear vision mirror. We had 2 backpackers in with us also at the time and
it really was pretty funny - me driving with bits of the steering wheel sitting in my lap!
From there we headed up toward Kunnunarra, hoping to catch the Willies and MP’s somewhere up that way. Little did we know that they’d hooked up with another family we all met in Broome also. It was great when we found them - like one big extended family consisting of 7 adults and 9 children!
Kununarra was fun! Ivanhoe Crossing is there - it featured in the movie Australia. There were crocs everywhere which makes everything more exciting. The surrounding area is home to the only known ‘zebra rock’ in the world, and this rock has to be seen to be believed - truly amazing!
From Kununarra to Katherine we stopped a few times along the way, one of the camps in particular being very memorable. We had an outdoor movie night on the side of the road with our traveling family - pretty special!
Around this time I started to feel really sick. A week or so back while Dakota was in hospital I had the beginnings of something but brushed it off. I woke up one
Our Tunnel Creek Camp
The kids climbed these rocks for hours! morning with what felt like an insect bite on my bum (luckily it was toward my hip!), as the days turned into weeks it turned into an abscess and was extremely painful, and now giving me fevers. On arrival in Katherine we set up camp and I took myself down to the hospital to get the docs opinion. Even though he assured me that these kinds of infections are extremely common in the tropics, he was quite surprised at the depth of this abscess and put me into theatre to cut out. That all went well and I felt better as soon as I woke up. What he didn’t tell me was that I would need to have the 6.8cm hole REPACKED every day for up to 8 weeks!!! OUCH!!!
Luckily we were camped with friends and the kids played happily with the other kids and they barely missed me while I was gone. My daily appointment with the nurses to re-pack my wound was traumatic and just awful! What was worse was the fact that unless I wanted another abscess to grow I just couldn’t take the chance of getting my wound wet - which meant that all
Windjana Gorge
A drink stop on our walk the beautiful waterholes and National parks we visited were ‘look but don’t touch’ scenarios - PAINFULL!!!
Katherine wasn’t anything to write home about (or maybe my memory was a little jaded). The kids did have lots of fun at Katherine hot springs though - the tarzan rope kept them occupied for hours!
For a bit of fun we arrange for everyone to share a skill they have with the rest of the group each afternoon this kept us busy for a while and turned out to be wonderful fun! Matt taught us how to tie some pretty cool knots. Andy taught us Tae Kwon Do Defense. Troy and Jo taught us how to swing dance (although the demonstration was far better!!!). Aleisha played the violin, Mikayla played the flute, Kalahni played harmonica. Dakota taught some soccer moves. Tracey taught us how to bake choc chip bikkies. Tani sang. Shay, Nick and Brodie all read poetry. The most meaningful presentation however was Clint with his gorgeous song, complete with guitar, about our traveling convoy and all the fun we’d had together - it brought tears to my eyes, and I had I stuck in my head for weeks!
Our travelling family
At times I felt we were the odd ones out! LOL. Heading North towards Darwin, we stopped for our last camp as a convoy near Edith Falls. The falls itself was fantastic fun (aside from me not being able to swim) - the kids all had a ball! The great big pool was crisp and clear and clean.
Saying goodbye to some great friends was really difficult, but we were headed North to Darwin and they had already seen Darwin and planned to head East to QLD.
The MP’s headed South, The Smith’s headed North toward Darwin but were doing Kakadu first while the Willies and ourselves convoyed to Darwin where we had a deadline waiting - fancy that hey, the first deadline I’ve had to deal with for quite some time! The Willies were of overseas and we were minding their 4 legged family member Diesel. After they returned they headed off again for QLD and to catch up with the MP’s again. It really was great fun while it lasted.
Darwin was different to anything I expected - too big to be called a town but seemingly too small to be called a city. You can drive from one end of the city to the other
Tunnel Creek
Eerie and soooo much fun! in about 20 minutes! The war history was great, and we had fun checking out the memorablia.
But it really is hot! More than hot it’s humid, and the nights are almost as bad as the days! I think I was the only idiot in the NT without airconditioning!!! Luckily for us we were almost across the road from the amazing and FREE water park which had a lovely pool, a little kids play area and 3 really cool waterslides … Yes I said Free!!! The bad news was that due to my great big HOLE, I wasn’t allowed in the water for fear of reinfection!
The first place I had to aquaint myself with was the hospital dressing nurses because I would need to see them everyday for an indefinite period of time … YUKKY!! It also meant that my surprise (surprise for the kids) trip to Bali had to be postponed indefinitely also.
I picked up work house cleaning within a week of us being there. It was great to be working considering we still had Bali in our sights, and we settled in to local life as a Darwinite ☺
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Tim
non-member comment
Been a while
Missing you all, trip read is great. I am glad that Trudy you can still sit down, despite that abscess! And Dakota is growing (in particular). Pity about Shay with the croc - who is having her rubber shoes! and Kalahini- better than school - just a weeny bit? Glad that you will be here for Camporee. Great adventure with Great photos Trudy.