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Published: July 16th 2011
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It has been a long time since we have written anything here. We are now in a different state (Northern Territory) & have done a lot of different things since we last wrote about Mareeba.
After Mareeba we went to a place called Georgetown. It was a big drive but it was worth it because we got to go to a rodeo. Cowboys were trying to stay on the back of bucking broncos & bulls; there were barrel races & even an event where the cowboys had to catch a calf! It was great fun. We had a look at all of the animals. Amy’s favourite animals were the calves. Nath’s favourite part was a lolly drop. The cowboys stood on a truck & threw lollies all over the arena for us kids to pick up. We got heaps.
After Georgetown we went to a town called Karumba. It is on the south western tip of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The caravan park we stayed in had a pool that we swam in lots & lots. Dad took us on a tour of the town that had bits & pieces about World War II as Karumba was a staging
port & a place where some boats were put together. Dad & his friends went on a fishing charter & they came home with some mackerel that were very tasty. Dad didn’t catch any good ones though – poor Dad!
Next stop was Lawn Hill National Park. It is a beautiful place. On the first night we were there, a scientist told us he was about to release some endangered turtles & invited us to come & watch. He told us all about the Gulf Snapping Turtle that people thought was a prehistoric animal that had been extinct for hundreds of years until some bloke said he’d seen some in Lawn Hill – he was right. We got to hold them & let them go. They have leathery skin. We did a few walks & looked at some old Aboriginal paintings & sacred places. We went on a canoe ride up the gorge & saw lots of fish, birds & even a turtle on a branch. I wonder if it was one of the ones that we let go. We went swimming in a river & fished there too. Dad caught a Sleepy Cod & Uncle Phil caught a
Sooty Grunter. Both tasted good. Dad also got some Archer fish that we let go as they were too little. On one of the walks Uncle Phil showed Nathan that if you hold a piece of food just above the water, the Archer Fish spit water at it to try to knock it down so they can eat it. That was fun.
Our last night in Queensland was spent at Adel’s Grove which is next to Lawn Hill. We had to say goodbye to Uncle Phil’s Mum & Dad as they had to go back to Emerald for work. It was sad as they are very nice people who did lots of fun things with us like swimming, cooking & looking for birds.
The first night in the Northern Territory was spent at a free camp called Robinson River Crossing. It was pretty bare & we had been driving all day so there was nothing exciting there. The next day we arrived at Lorella Springs. This place was great. It is a working cattle station with over one million acres. We met up with some other kids that we have been seeing at various other camps & met
some new kids to play with. Right next to the camp was a thermal spring that was as warm as a bath. We spent lots of time in there splashing about. There were peacocks & wallabies running around wild, as well as lots of other birds. We needed Di’s bird book to identify them. We spent some time looking around the property & found a cave with bats in it, a waterslide made from the rocks & a pool called the Emerald Pool. We saw wild pigs & horses too. The cave that we found used to be used by some cattle thieves – it was scary. While we were at the waterslide the workmen were burning off some of the grass. We nearly got stuck at the pools as the fire was coming across the track. It even reached down to the pool that Dad was swimming in!
After those two nights we had a big drive to Mataranka Homestead. It was like a resort with pools, a restaurant & a band that we listened & danced too for ages. It was great fun. Dad & Mum knew lots of the old songs & sang them out loud
with some other people.
Finally we have arrived at Katherine. Dutch & Ang have been nice enough to let us stay with them for a while. Their house is at Tindal Air Force Base. Dutch is going to take us to the control tower so we can watch the F-18 Hornet jets take off & land. We don’t quite know what we will get up to next. We’ll go to some National Parks near here & will probably go to Darwin too.
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