Day 22 – Saturday 21st July – El Questro The grown-ups tried another night under the stars last night under our repaired mosquito net and we woke just after 5am to gentle pre-dawn light and various birds twitchering (is that a word?), tweeting and squawking. We had booked a 3 hour self drive electric boat trip along the Chamberlain River Gorge starting at 7am this morning, so had a quick cup of tea and slice of bread with nutella for breakfast and headed off to the main store to collect the motor, battery, oars and lifejackets for the boat. With all the gear in the car we drove to the boat ramp at the Chamberlain River, reading the safety instructions on the life jackets as we went: Do not enter the water – crocs ... read more

Day 20 – Thursday 19th July – Purnululu National Park We had left the safari tent window flaps half open to catch the magical early morning pre-dawn light. The birds were all squawking and chattering and we managed to persuade our delightful children to go to the camp kitchen to make us a cup of tea. We all slept like babies for most of the night, apart from when the local dingoes started howling like wolves (or should that be dingoes?), which was pretty eerie. Luckily the kids didn’t get scared and want to be rescued from their own tent (we didn’t know how close the dingoes were and how aggressive they would be in their own territory in the dark). Breakfast was at 7.15m, after the main tour group had left for the ... read more

Day 18 – Tuesday 17th July – somewhere outside of Timber Creek to Mabel Downs Caravan Park,near the Bungles We started the day with a very quick cuppa and the promise of a proper breakfast in Timber Creek, 60kms along the road from our dusty overnight stop at the side of the road. Timber Creek proved to be a few buildings, each multi-function. Tourist office-cum-café (where we bought some freshly baked scones), a hotel-pub-cum-fuel station and some council offices. The residential area seemed to be situated some distance from the main road, away from the noise of the road trains and trucks. We were directed to the Policeman’s Point Lookout for a breakfast picnic, which is a beautiful little spot overlooking the Victoria River. The Victoria River is an excellent place to fish and ... read more

Day 16 – Sunday 15th July – Darwin Once again we were treated to a peach of a sunrise and Mark got some great shots of the early morning sky, complete with mist on the horizon. For Ros, Dave, Meg and Em it was time to pack up all their camping gear and fly back to winter in Melbourne L. At 11am we headed off in convoy to Darwin airport. Dave unloaded all 13 bags of gear from the roof and packed them onto 4 airport trolleys and we waved them off….We had the afternoon to explore Darwin and started out with the World War 2 museum at East Reserve Point. It explained the role of Darwin in WW2 and graphically showed the effect of the Japanese attacks in February 1942. Very interesting for ... read more

Day 14 – Friday July 13th – Kakadu National Park Got up in the dark and drove the 10 mins to the Yellow Waters boat ramp ready for our sunrise cruise. There were a total of three boats going out on the water this morning. There was a fine layer of atmospheric fog on the water as we boarded the boat and the sky was starting to turn all shades of blue-pinks and dull orange as the sun rose out of the water. Mark and Dave were very active walking around the boat taking loads of photos... Within the first few minutes we had spotted our first croc of the cruise. A saltie. Minding her own business, returning home after a night’s hunting. The guide was at pains to point out that this cruise ... read more