Jabiru, Ubirr, Cahills Crossing

We rolled on to the ghost town of Jabiru. They are no longer mining, but may process the stockpiles already mined at some future time? Celeste the ranger was not sure exactly if or when the activity would stop. The caravan park had an excellent pool here.

Next day, we went to Cahills Crossing and Ubirr. 3pm at the crossing, the water was up at 0.8m. The crocs were swimming over the causeway, mouths wide open, sensing to snap fish.

It's tidal, so when it's down, it is easy for cars to cross. There was a queue there waiting for it to go down. Wouldn't want to try out the 3pm torrent.

At Ubirr, there is loads of petroglyphs, paintings from thousands of years ago, such as the thylacine image here at the right, up until recent times, for example ship images recording first contact. So the images are a continuous change of news, laws, how to live, reinforcing songlines. Songlines are like a map, showing how to get places, where to find water and food, where to avoid eg sickness country (uranium rich areas).

The images are quite clear, telling stories of dreamtime. One guide in Alice told us he does not like this label, as they believe it really happened. In my current opinion, they're like bible stories, giving reasons and ways to live correctly.

The lookout at Ubirr is spectacular.

The sunset was magic.

Caught Lou without him knowing...

Marie.

Sunset at Ubirr, as featured in the movie: Crocodile Dundee.

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.