Darwin is the only Australian State Capital City seriously affected by WW II with a Pearl Harbour type raid by the Japanese aircraft. So it is quite appropriate to have excellent WWII relics and history preserved. There are many sites around the area from military camps, air strips, gun placements and the Aviation Heritage Museum on the south side of Darwin, not far from the airport. David and Mary recommended we have a look at this display as they had great memories of a visit here and a guided tour. Unfortunately for us, there was no guided tour on the day we visited, so we got to just look around and read material on display. There is a great montage, a collection of WWII aircraft images that brings the reality home of the horror of war. ... read more

Litchfield National Park This is a very significant park, both in size and proximity to Darwin. In fact, we were surprised at the number of coach tours we ran into within the park, despite this now being the off season. We drove north from Katherine and stopped at a free camp for lunch, but since the day was running well we pushed on to Bachelor. The helpful lady at the info centre provided us with some local info and suggested that we would find a camp spot at Wangi Falls as there had been little traffic. So we pushed on, and sure enough, there were several camp spaces available, and we chose the longest so we didn't have to take off the trailer when we parked. Wangi falls is about 50ks into the park, in fact ... read more

Lake Argyle, a man made lake on the Ord River is a must see place to visit, close to the border of Western Australia and The Northern territory. The region is famous for two thing, both very beautiful; Large Pink Diamonds and The Natural Beauty of the lake. We couldn't afford the former but thoroughly enjoyed the latter. The journey from Kununurra is easy driving with good roads winding between hills and rocky outcrops. The turnoff to the lake is around 35 ks from Kununurra and Marg is driving - all going well. We turn up the Lake Argyle Road by a couple of ks when about 100 meters in front of the MH a smouldering grass fire suddenly bursts into a wild fire about 50 meters long adjacent to the right side of the road. ... read more

Wyndham, our last look at the coastline of WA, as our journey from here will turn east through Kununurra and onwards eventually through Katherine to Darwin - weather permitting. The journey from Warmun to Wyndham continued through rolling country with many areras suffering from bushfires. The area is generally at high risk away from the coast, and as Marg drove north we had to cross one particularly smoky zone. Fortunately, the fire was well subsided so for a few minutes we drove through the haze. It was not until we got to Wyndham and climbed to the hill top lookout that the extent of the fires could be assessed. In almost 360 degrees of view, there was smoke. None of the fires were threatening, but certainly wide spread. As Marg drove, we passed every 10 minutes ... read more

Warmun isn't easy to find on a map, but you may know it by the name Turkey Creek. Warmun is of course the Gija Aboriginal Community, north east of Halls Creek. The journey north from Fitzroy crossing was most interesting. The landscape changed continuously, moving from the vast plains to rugged rolling rocky hills and ranges. There are also many reminders of the hazards of the outback with evidence of floods ripping up flood ways, bush/grass fires, and in fact we drove past some that were still burning, fortunately some distance from the road. Its years since we have driven a main highway with so many one way bridges, and most crossed dry sandy river beds. However, in the wet season these same rivers can carry huge water flows. We noted a lot of work has ... read more