Humpty Doo, jumping crocs

After Litchfield, got to Humpty Doo. Stayed at the  Humpty Doo Hotel, listened to a one man band. We stocked up on a lot of stuff, as per the photo on the left. The drawers hold a LOT of food. Plus we've got a new ice box, which works ok for 3 days in the heat.

Sadly the chocolate will melt together in this weather.

The only reason we stopped in Humpty Doo was to catch the croc cruise the next morning. Jumping Crocodiles, or Adelaide River Cruises, tempts them with chunks of chicken on the end of a string.

We saw the Dominator, who loves to fight every single croc that comes close, and Brutus, the big one. The guy was up the front of the boat, waving around a stick with a chunk of chicken, while the boat was casually parked on the mud banks. If a croc wanted to, they could have leapt onboard without jumping any higher than they did for the chicken. I guess it hasn't happened yet so may not?

As you can see, the crocs get close. Do not put your arms or hands outside the boat!

He shows us the life vests at the start of the cruise, and everyone has a good laugh. You don't want to waste time with a vest, just swim as fast as you can, or try to go camo slow in the water. There are literally hundreds on any stretch around here, ready for any handy meal (or leggy for that matter).

We all enjoyed the crocs a lot.

Litchfield National Park

Left Darwin Wednesday. Rolled down to Litchfield. Went to heaps of waterholes, swam a lot, did a lot of jumping off rocks. Apparently this is not allowed - oops!

Left: the Cascades, very nice.

Right: Florence Falls, very nice.

Above: the Lost City, not bad.

Right: Buley Rockhole, a real highlight of the place.

Buley Rockhole; a maximum of jumping here. We honestly didn't see the signs not to.

Buley Rockhole; a natural spa. I think we spent more time in this place swimming than anywhere else. We camped at Wangi Falls, which is also great, and has a little spa pool up on the wall.

Ollie dives head first into the rock hole; strictly a no-no, but it was pretty deep and clear here.

More jumping at Buley Rockhole

The magnetic termite mounds. Termite mounds are made of wee, spew and poo of termites. These things can be about 3m high. They are aligned with the sun to minimise the heat input. Parts of the mount will have the correct temperature all year round, so termites can find the perfect temperature in different places depending on the sun and the season.

They have to be above ground due to the monsoon rains. Other termites are 2/3 of their homes are under ground.

Scientists got some strong magnets to realign the pull. The termites responded building in line with these strong magnets instead.

Darwin

We spent a fair few days down at the Harbour foreshore on JB's Big Buoy jumping castle on the water. Me and Marie did one session and needed two days to recover; mainly stomach and neck muscles from climbing up, landing on the pillow, playing chasings with Jamie, his son and buddy plus the boys.

On Sunday night we went to Mindil Markets; a long line of food tents from Asia, Greek, Italian cuisines, then a bunch of craft, clothes, paintings etc. Nice sunset over the beach, that's for sure.

Went to the deckchair cinema; saw Fighting with my Family, about a girl from England who makes it into pro wrestling in America. V funny.

Went to the War Museum; mostly it's about WW2 and the bombing of Darwin. This was about as big as Pearl Harbour, so really should be up there in people's minds as a time war was kind of fought in Australia.

Went to Tiwi Islands on Monday to wander around the museums, meeting the people, learning some history and facts about skin types. From adolescence, brothers can no longer talk to or see their sisters.

Screen printed some t-shirts. Good fun.

Louis held court with a couple of ladies who lapped up his stories all about our family, our travels, their school etc.

Had to go to Palmerston to get the car serviced. Went to the Air Museum, saw a B52, F1-11.

Left: a home made plane capable of 200km/h and something like10 hours of flight; impressive!

We caught a sunset out at Lee Point (I think) on the way home, just beautiful. No swimming due to all year round stingers, crocs, sharks etc.

What a nice place to live: Darwin is very tempting if you go the right location.

The beach here is just lovely.

Bitter Springs to Darwin

Left: Ollie watches "We of the Never Never". The movie was released when I was a little kid. We couldn't hardly hear the dialog. They couldn't wait to escape it, so we didn't insist they see the whole thing.

It's nice to be in Darwin, but we do sleep better in a tent, weirdly enough. Not sure if it's the fresh air, the noise of the breeze and the birds.

Breakfast is crazy with donuts, cakes, fruit, cereal, bacon, eggs, potatoes, veggies etc. We load up!

More breakfast action:

Left: Louis's new Cat game. He guessed bar tender correctly for this drawing.

Darwin is being "rejuvenated" at the moment. It is in danger of being rejuvenated beyond all recognition.

The view from the balcony over Darwin.

The view from the roof is excellent, especially at sunset.

Larrimah to Bitter Springs

The little zoo at Larrimah caravan park had a wallaby, some crocs, peacocks, that kind of thing. This guy is searching for a snack, but sadly they get aggressive if fed by tourists, so we didn't.

Bitter Springs: really excellent, quite warm, but ok for swimming. You float downstream for a 100m on a noodle, then run back up to the start again! A hit with the boys.

The campground near Bitter Springs - v good. Lots of coverage from the heat.

If you're travelling, be sure to travel Crocwise.


We also stopped at Mataranka, which was likewise very magic, more stone and concrete to hold the pool ,surrounds of huge palm trees. Had lunch and watched We of the Never Never film about halfway through, but couldn't quite hear what was going on.

Lorella Springs to Larrimah

Lorella Springs - we've been told not to bother driving out to any waterholes as they're all dry. Oh well.

Day one - Boys had massively good time in Lorella Springs. Gave the car a rest. There was a palm branch that was hanging down, but not broken off. Every little kid in the place was swinging it around like Tarzan, then landing in the pool. Nice. There was an emu called Beep, and 3 peacocks called Phil, Liz and not sure. There were a few chickens. When you call "Gloo gluck gluck" they would come to you.

Left, all piled into the tent.

Right: everyone was lined up reading (we do that more often than not before sleep), so I got a snap, then tried to get everyone (above). It was still fairly cool at night in Lorella.

Lorella Day two - see day one.

Drove long day today back to Cape Crawford for lunch, then on to the Pink Panther pub at Larrimah. Met a Pommie traveller called Chris who works on interiors of airplanes, people working there: a frog lady, her chef boyfriend from the Gold Coast and a guy from Baulkham Hills. It was a communal fire in a half barrel/ fire pit. They were all nice people.

Breakfast before spending the day swimming in the nearby springs.

On the deck at Lorella Springs reception area.

From Alice Springs to Lorella Springs

Left: the centre of UFO sightings is hosted at Wycliffe Roadhouse. That's to say there's very little to house.


Note: naming Alice Springs was a mistake: it was just a hole retaining rainwater. Lorella Springs has actual hot springs.



We left Yuendumu sadly. Said good bye to everyone, but I think we were the saddest to leave. They must say goodbye to volunteers all the time.

Got to Alice Springs, played hunt the hotel, Hilton was cheapest, and the nicest place we've been in for a long time. The book shop was open Sunday morning, yee ha. Got the Dog Ear Cafe on petrol sniffing in Yuendumu, but Lou still could not get What If again. The lady now knows him well in the shop.

Rolled north. Met up with John, another traveller we'd met in Kings Canyon and his 3 kids at Alice, before rolling north.

Stopped at Wycliff to see the UFO centre. What the hell? Nothing to see here. The murals outside were pretty cool though.

 ET phone home. Although the out of area charges must be horrendous.

Karlu Karlu (Devils Marbles) is pretty.

 Karlu Karlu

 Karlu Karlu







Could not find a hotel in Tenant Creek at all, except for one with rooms for $210. The El Dorado said they had no rooms.  Marie booked the El Dorado online for $160 via Bookings.com. Too bad for them, they had to put us into two rooms, and lost a fat commission to the website. We did eat at the restaurant. This is the most I've eaten for two weeks by far.


Today was a long long drive to Lorella Springs. The highway rolling north is sealed, but mostly one lane. Each time a truck comes, or road train, you have to get right off the road as they don't. I suppose that's because they'd kick up an storm of stones and dirt. Second point: you want to be travelling at zero to reduce the speed of a stone hitting your windscreen.

Sad to see some farms here have completely wiped out their trees, making it look like a slightly grassy desert. The dead cows are dotted along the roadside, along with dead tyres. When the greenery is allowed, it is lush, thick and not at all like a desert.

The tablelands Highway (image above) is like a roller coaster in places. Feels like it should be getting nearly airborne in spots. At the top of the highway, we arrived at the Heartbreak Hotel just before the dirt. They forgot my order for a long while. Then they said they didn't have what I ordered. Then the manager came out and gave me my money back. The fish and chips was excellent and free. We also stopped here for lunch on the way out again. I told the same guy to be sure not to forget us, and grinned. The lunch was again very nice, can recommend the place.