http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Oceania , Australia , Northern Territory , Darwin en-us Mon, 20 May 2013 17:19:38 +0000 Mon, 20 May 2013 17:19:38 +0000 Heading north from Katherine we have stopped the night in Litchfield National Park in the camping ground at Wangi Falls. There is a short track from here that leads to the swimming hole at the base of the falls and it is just magical and justifiably very popular with locals and tourists alike. The water was so refreshing given that recently it has been well over 32 degrees most days. The spot ha http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-786775.html Just a very quick update on Singapore before I get onto Darwin... Apologies for the delayed contact by the way its been a busy few days. I got up early again on my final day in Singapore to begin the tour... Unfortunately it was pretty disappointing and definitely not worth the money. My own fault I suppose we spent the whole day seeing all the places I39d already been to myself on the pre http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-786173.html 16113We landed in Darwin at around 3.20am and went through immigration and customs hoping to be delayed as long as possible seeing as we had no hotel to go to until later on. We were through to arrivals by 4am and found a table near the only cafe in the arrivals area. We got a caffeine based drink to try and keep us going and a managed to sign on to the wifi at the airport which kept us oc http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/City-of-Darwin/blog-784760.html We had set up at Hidden Valley a caravan park outside of Darwin with nice grounds and a nice pool and decided to give it 5 days before lowering the price on the car. Since we were very low on money and had no idea of a when we would sell the car or b how much we could get for it our days consisted of devising ways of evading the extremely sticky heat while spending as little money as possi http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/City-of-Darwin/blog-784554.html Landing in Darwin it was hard to believe I was in the same country. It was midnight but still 27 degrees and steamy with it. Of course more sensible people than I would have looked at a map before getting on the plane. It turns out that Sydney is over 3000 kms away. I might as well have landed in Indonesia.Day one was a trip to Litchfield National Park only around 130kms from Darwin. I seemed http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/City-of-Darwin/blog-782662.html Leaving the western part of Australia behind me I flew to the North Part of Australia Darwin in the state Northern Teritory. Since my tour started in 3 days I had a bit of time to relax and explore Darwin which is a tropical city with 98 humidity. Especially during wet season. And we had wet season So after the first sunny day the rest of the time we were trapped in the hostel as it rained li http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/City-of-Darwin/blog-772421.html We left Darwin yesterday after seeing Melissa James and Thomas arrive at the airport from London. So I have now met all my great nephews and niece. Thomas is another very happy and content baby. He is just beautiful.We travelled to Mataranka and arrived at about 11.00 pm. We decide to stay in a motel and got going very early this morning. We travelled about 1050 km to get to Alice Springs. As the http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-761651.html Today we went to the Parap markets. We then went back to the Siva39s and caught up with Noel who had flown in early this morning. We had a Laksa from the market Peter had Red Rooster. We had a relaxing afternoon and then Peter and Noel went to play golf Polat went to the gym and Amanda and I fed the babies and watched a movie. Polat39s parents and sister came over for a BBQ dinner. W http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-761299.html We had another great day in Darwin. We started off by going to the Howard Springs park which is near by our caravan park. It was very impressive there. We must tell Amanda and Polat to take the kids there in about 4 years time. They will have a ball. We did a bit of shopping. We also went and had a look at Parliament House. There is quite a bit of history there about the 1942 bombings which w http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-761176.html Leo and Ruby had a big day today receiving their first immunisations. Aunty Lou went with Amanda and saw for herself the logistics operation of getting 2 babies into a clinic for their immunisation. They were both really good but were a bit grizzly most of the day afterwards.Peter and I went to Stokes Wharf for dinner and watched an amazing sunset. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-761028.html We had a bit of a sleep in this morning which set the scene for a relatively lazy day. We went for a walk down to the local shops and captured the Howard Springs Post Office photo. We headed into town for a massage which we found out later from Amanda was one of the places that got raided for being an illegal brothel. I can tell you that Peter and I only had a massage and nothing else and were http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-760831.html Let me tell you first about the killer frogs. We stayed at Mataranka last night and as usual I had to get up for my nightly wee. I took the torch and as I came around the corner of the ladies toilet there they were about 20 cane toads in a semi circle standing around the door sunning themselves on the outside light. I can39t stand them and as I had a very pressing engagement I was in a bit http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-760670.html 17th November 2012.Had a nice sleep in as it was a cool morning. As the temperature rose we jumped into the pool. After lunch we went to Leanyer Recreation Park which is a free public pool with big slides. We had a great time and as the day got cooler we did some more sightseeing before venturing back to the campsite to refresh. For dinner we decided to treat ourselves to a nice seafood res http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-757219.html 16th November 2012Woke up and had a morning swim which was refreshing. Got dressed and went into Darwin town centre. Enjoyed some retail therapy with the girls whilst poor Daniel wished he didn39t have 3 girls in his life. Had scrumptious Indonesion food for lunch. Darwin is very multicultural and interesting has a very good vibe about the place. Returned to the caravan and relaxed by the poo http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-756021.html 15th November 2012Arrived in Darwin and checked into a caravan park. Yeah finally some cooler weather. Spent the morning relaxing in the pool and lounging under the beautiful trees. Setup camp and caught up on Xfactor the girls were dying to find out who was eliminated from Xfactor. They were pleased that Jason and Samantha are going to be in the final. We had an early dinner of pasta and g http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-755916.html http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-754087.html ltp alignjustifygtI saw Darwin as an ideal starting point for my trip around Australia bearing in mind that May until October is the dry season when there is little or no rain and temperatures peak at 32C. From November to April temperatures average 33C with high relative humidity and heavy rainfall 406mm of rainfall in January. This makes access to many of the territories natural wonde http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-750012.html So it came time to finally leave Perth. It is strange how time can fly you put your feet up for a couple of weeks and seven months have flown by We were glad to have visited Western Australia when so many other travellers pass it by. We were particularly glad to have met some great people. In particular Leeann our Aussie Mum and Georgia Peter who welcomed us into their homeslives and made http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/City-of-Darwin/blog-749952.html Tuesday morning saw us head to Walker Creek and hike alongside the Creek where there were individual campsites available close to the water39s edge. Another stunning trek that culminated with a refreshing midmorning swim.From there we arrived at The Cascades and set off on a reasonably testing 3 km hike. It continues to be the case that the harder it is to get somewhere the better the destinat http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-746795.html Mindil Beach Sunset Markets photos http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-742368.html