Wow, Longreach seems so long ago. So much has happened since then.
Longreach was our first big town since Broken Hill and it was nice to wander around this lovely country town looking at the shops. We stayed at the Top Tourist Park which was huge! Pretty dusty but clean amenities and a great pool which the kids loved!! Being such a big park also meant that despite there being hundreds of sites, we were jammed in like sardines and had to listen to the neighbours each side snoring in unison.
The park has a great Thai restaurant/bar on site which has well priced meals, and even has a kids menu. There is also entertainment, which happened to be an Elvis impersonator called ‘Steve’ when we were there. Elvis was a hit with the kids, and Jas has her own autographed Elvis/Steve postcard which has gone straight to the treasure box!
Whilst in Longreach we visited the Qantas Museum. We only visited the museum, and did not pay extra to go into the planes as it is quite expensive, but had a great afternoon regardless. We spent a good two hours in the museum and the kids loved the flight simulator and sitting in the old planes.
Lize and I also visited the LSODE Longreach School of Distance Education, which was well worth the visit. It gives you a great appreciation for how easy our kids have it at school. I also have a new found appreciation for all teachers. Home schooling is HARD WORK!!
Winton was next, and what a kid’s wonderland this place is!! Dinosaur bones are still being discovered all around central Queensland’s Channel Country, and Winton is leading the race as it is home to the largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils. The best place to view the most famous of these fossils is at The Australian Age of Dinosaurs ($65 family pass). You can jump on a guided tour every hour.
There are lots of things to see and do around Winton that cost nothing more than your time. We enjoyed visiting Arno’s Wall, just behind The North Gregory Hotel right in town. Arno Grotjahn has spent the past 30 years constructing this two metre high wall made from household items, lawnmower parts, sewing machines and anything else you could possibly think of.
The Musical Fence was a personal favourite. It is a wire fence designed by percussionist and composer Graeme Leak, and can be played as a musical instrument. There are also various instruments scattered around the place made from all sorts of recycled materials, and they sure do make some noise!!
The roads slowly improve as we make our way to Townsville, in the dry tropics region of Queensland. We are all looking forward to seeing the coastline after so long inland. We stayed at Rowes Bay Caravan Park ($56 p/n 2ad 2ch), which is opposite the beach…and very close to the airport as we discovered early the next morning! The park is big and green, with the sprinklers on 24/7. There are a lot of permanent residents living here. Not really sure how they afford to…..possibly their rate is subsidised by us travellers!!
Townsville is a pretty city which has a magnificent seaside foreshore called The Strand. It has a big adventure water park, with various playgrounds and paths to stroll along the beach.
From Townsville we stored our caravan (Monty’s Caravan, Boat & Car Storage 07 - 4775 4200 $8 per day) for five days and headed over to Magnetic Island on the car ferry, Fantasea. Normally a return trip on the car ferry is $178, however, we found a 30% discount voucher in one of the tourism booklets we picked up from the Information Centre….bonus!! We were fortunate to be able to stay with my high school friend Melissa and her partner Grant. It was great to see Mel after so long, and we sat up night after night catching up on old times. The girls thought it was great to spend time in a normal bed, swim in the pool and play with their dog Bonnie.
Apart from all the high rise accommodation, Magnetic Island hasn’t changed much in the 20 years since I last visited. The beaches are still pristine, but if you visit between November and May, it is stinger season, so swimming is limited to the swimming nets around the beaches. Most of the middle and North West of the island is National Park, but there are 23 beaches to explore around the island. Our favourite was Horseshoe Bay, and we spent a couple of days there kayaking and swimming. Mel and her business partner own Café Nourish in Horseshoe Bay, and we had a magnificent brekky there on our last day on the island. Do yourself a favour and stop in for the best coffee, juices and gourmet food on the island!!
Leaving the beautiful Magnetic Island behind, we headed into the wet tropics to Mission Beach. From the time we hit the Great Dividing Range it didn’t stop raining. It was windy and raining for the two nights we stayed at Mission Beach. The beaches were full of debris and palm fronds and the waves were so big that there was very little beach to walk along. It certainly wasn’t the Mission Beach I was expecting.
On to Atherton for two nights. Still raining. We visited both the Curtain and Cathedral Fig trees and stopped at the Cheese and Chocolate Mill for a look. We stayed at the Big4 which was a lovely park with friendly staff. We met the Newbold family here, who were traveling for six months. The kids played really well together and it turned out that we were both traveling in the same direction for a while.
Still raining, we headed to Big4 Cairns Coconut Resort for a week while we waited to get our car fridge fixed. It is a fantastic park with everything imaginable to keep the kids amused. Cairns is the gateway to a myriad of things to see and do, and during our time here we travelled the train to Kuranda, snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef on Moore Reef, swam at the Cairns waterfront lagoon and did some shopping. Lize loved the nightly movies at the caravan park and of course, the four pools at the park.
Moving an hour up the coast we stayed at the Pandanus Tourist Park in Port Douglas for three nights. (pay 2, stay 3 for $108, 2ad & 2ch) It is a small park close not too far from the main street. Clean and tidy with a great camp kitchen. The resident bats are a bit smelly but tolerable. It was still raining and quite windy, but we headed into town for a look around. The shopping strip has everything you need for a small town. The Court House Hotel puts on a great meal, and if you take advantage of their daily meal specials you will get a great feed at a great price.
From our Port Douglas base we visited Mossman Gorge. There is a shuttle bus which takes you from the Mossman Gorge Centre ($21.25 for a family pass return trip). I recommend this short trip, as the road to the Gorge is narrow and windy, and pedestrians share it with the buses. The Gorge is an oasis, with its beautiful rainforest walks, stunning scenery and crystal clear water. It is a trip not to miss.
Cooktown was the next pit-stop, and our last stop before we hit Cape York. We stayed at the Big4 Cooktown Holiday Park. This is a lovely green park with great facilities and lovely management. It was great to see the beautiful and clean unisex, family friendly bathrooms, and plenty of them! The camp kitchen was enormous and the pool was great!
Yes, it was still raining, but not as much so we set up and took a look around town. We drove out to Finch Bay, just 2kms from town. It is Cooktown’s swimming beach, however, with the huge croc warning signs about, we weren’t about to test the water! The beach itself was beautiful. It was low tide when we visited so there was a huge sandy flat with Alligator Creek running through the middle.
The Captain Cook Museum was our next stop, and the girls had a great time completing the questionnaire that the museum provides to the kids on entry. We all actually learnt a lot about our Australian history!
Cooktown was our base for the preparation of our trip up to Cape York. We kept an eye on fellow travellers to get ideas for our itinerary and a sense of road conditions, because it’s difficult to get current information, and the road conditions can change overnight with rain. We organised storage for our caravan in Cooktown for $5 per day and packed the car ready for the journey.
Our first day of travel into Cape York was easy going as the roads in the south were being graded. It is important to time your trip just right. Too early and you hit the corrugations made during the wet season. Too late and you hit the corrugations made from the traffic in the dry season. As we were setting off in late May we would be a couple of months ahead of most of the traffic. This made it easier to plan as we did not have to stick to set accommodation bookings.
We would be leaving our caravan in Cooktown and using the awning tent on the car. This meant we had less storage and had to pack carefully. We also had to plan our meals so that we had enough food to last us four or five nights until we got to Weipa. So we piled everything on to the roof rack and set off.
Our first day’s travel was trouble free, with a pit stop at both Hann River and Musgrave Roadhouses. It was a slow 385 kms to Coen and we made it there early afternoon, giving up plenty of time to set up camp and start dinner. We avoided camping in town as we had heard that the sites behind the pub was noisy from both the patrons and the bat colony in the trees above. We checked the Wiki Camps app which said that there was a free camp on the river a couple of kms out of town, so we went to investigate. There were a number of vans and camper trailers set up on the grassy spot above the river, but we spied a road leading down to the river’s edge so we drove down and found a perfect spot this side of the river just big enough for us. The girls put on their bathers and cooled down in the Coen River while we set up beds, lit the fire and started dinner. Much to our surprise we even had phone and internet service so after posting a few photos and updates on Facebook, it wasn’t long before we were all tucked up in bed.
Day two in the Cape took us into Iron Range National Park, which was just over 200 kms away on a narrow and rough dirt track. We stopped off at the ranger’s station to check out booking arrangements for Chilli Beach. He suggested camping the night at Cooks Hut as Chilli Beach was being buffeted by strong winds. We arrived at Cooks Hut camping area to set up just on dusk, but as we were surrounded by a treetop forest it was dark in no time. The bugs were out in force and the ground wet, so we went to bed as the cold air set in. Off early next morning we arrived at Chilli Beach to an almost deserted camp ground. We started talking to a family camped there, and after a walk along the beach and a couple of beers with the ‘Beer’ family we decided to stay. Michelle and Jason are traveling around Australia for 18 months with their three boys, Ash, Lochie and Nathan. The kids all got along really well, and this was to be the first of many nights spent with our new found friends.
Chilli beach is rugged looking but incredibly beautiful, with the shoreline bordered by coconut palms and pumice stone. It is also the landing place for all sorts of rubbish that washes up from the islands and cruise ships. The wind pushes the high tide close to the shore, but low tide uncovers many little wading pools for the kids to paddle safely without too much fear from crocs. Even the ranger’s story of a big salty spotted just a short stroll down the beach near the creek mouth didn’t discourage us.
The next morning we headed to Weipa and stayed in the unpowered spots right on the beach. As Weipa is on the east coast of Cape York, there was no strong winds like we experienced on the west coast. The Weipa Camping Ground ($30 p/n unpowered) has one large amenities block with laundry, as well as a large saltwater pool. The kids spent most of the day swimming and probably scared most of the grey nomads out of the water with their shenanigans! That night we had dinner out at the Weipa Bowls Club, which was a great feed.
Heading North to Bramwell Station, we chose the quicker route out to Batavia Downs. The road was in great condition and we made good time, even with a short stop at Moreton Telegraph Station en route. We arrived at Bramwell Station ($25 per unpowered site, $20pp for dinner) with time to set up camp before we headed over to the communal dining area for a station meal with the other forty or so visitors to the station. The station facilities were pretty basic, but we appreciated the hot shower in a portable amenities block all the same.
The generic meal for the night was rissoles, and although we were a little disappointed with the quality of the meal, it was still cooked by someone else!! Unfortunately the cost far outweighed the value in my opinion.
Over the dry season the station has music/entertainment every night. We were entertained by twin country singers, who did a fabulous job! The kids were entertained by the frog population. Please note: massive cane toads a plenty out here…YUK!!
It was at Bramwell Station that I learned of my father’s passing after a long illness. Being in such a remote and isolated part of the country at this time was incredibly challenging, and I was thankful for the generosity of the management and staff at Bramwell, who couldn’t have been more helpful.
After a brief conversation with my brother Steve, Dave and I decided that we would continue on to the tip of Cape York. It was what dad would have wanted us to do, and I still put this down as one of the most amazing experiences of my life, albeit a bitter-sweet one.
It was decided that I would fly back home for dad’s funeral on my own, and Dave would continue the journey to Darwin with the girls. Although I hated missing this huge chunk of our long-planned journey, I knew that this would not impact on the holiday too much. We worked out that we could travel from Bramwell to Punsand Bay in one day; get up early the next morning, get to the tip first thing and start making our way back down to Cairns. We made it to Coen River late afternoon after a long day’s driving, and set up camp in the exact same spot as on the way up. Being back in mobile service allowed me to book flights for my trip south.
Another long day on the road saw us in Cooktown to collect the van from storage and set up at the Big4 for the night. We had planned to spend some more time in Cooktown, however we headed straight to Cairns the next day. The following day I was on a plane flying back to Melbourne. It was a surreal feeling. One that I will not forget.
I spent 2 ½ weeks at dad’s place making arrangements, catching up with family and friends and reminiscing about dad’s life, I headed for Darwin to meet up with my traveling family. Thanks to the support I had from my wonderful friends, I managed to sort through and pack up dad’s house before I left. It was a challenging and confronting time for me, packing up my childhood home and saying goodbye to the familiar sights and sounds that I had known all of my life. My beautiful friends made this momentous task somewhat easier.
So now we are all back together in Darwin. We have been staying with past neighbours and friends, Bec and Greg for the past five weeks, and have seen and experienced so much of what’s on offer in the Northern Territory.
Having the luxury of time on our hands meant that there have been many highlights of Darwin. We spent four days in Kakadu where we visited Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls, complete with a deep river crossing at Jim Jim River; did the sunset tour on the Yellow River; rock climbing at Nourlangie Rock and Ubirr Rock Art and stunning sunset viewing from the Ubirr cliff top.
We spent four days at the remote Aboriginal Community of Peppimenarti, where we spent a day on the boat fishing the Moyle River and visited the stunning Mulvien Waterfall, with a stop each way at the Daly River pub.
The must see’s of Darwin are many, but our favourites are;
- Jumping crocs at Adelaide River
- Crocosaurus Cove, where we watched our friend brave the croc cage!
- Darwin Waterfront Wave Pool ($18 per family)
- Litchfield National Park
- Berry Springs
- Howard Springs
- PBR Bullriders Rodeo
- WW2 Museum and Oil Tunnels
- Museum and Art Gallery
And so the list goes on…..
So now we plan the journey West. So much to see, and almost half of our time away is already gone. I have learned to soak up every experience, good or bad, as it is all the little steps along the way that really make life what it is.
Longreach was our first big town since Broken Hill and it was nice to wander around this lovely country town looking at the shops. We stayed at the Top Tourist Park which was huge! Pretty dusty but clean amenities and a great pool which the kids loved!! Being such a big park also meant that despite there being hundreds of sites, we were jammed in like sardines and had to listen to the neighbours each side snoring in unison.
The park has a great Thai restaurant/bar on site which has well priced meals, and even has a kids menu. There is also entertainment, which happened to be an Elvis impersonator called ‘Steve’ when we were there. Elvis was a hit with the kids, and Jas has her own autographed Elvis/Steve postcard which has gone straight to the treasure box!
Whilst in Longreach we visited the Qantas Museum. We only visited the museum, and did not pay extra to go into the planes as it is quite expensive, but had a great afternoon regardless. We spent a good two hours in the museum and the kids loved the flight simulator and sitting in the old planes.
Lize and I also visited the LSODE Longreach School of Distance Education, which was well worth the visit. It gives you a great appreciation for how easy our kids have it at school. I also have a new found appreciation for all teachers. Home schooling is HARD WORK!!
Winton was next, and what a kid’s wonderland this place is!! Dinosaur bones are still being discovered all around central Queensland’s Channel Country, and Winton is leading the race as it is home to the largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils. The best place to view the most famous of these fossils is at The Australian Age of Dinosaurs ($65 family pass). You can jump on a guided tour every hour.
There are lots of things to see and do around Winton that cost nothing more than your time. We enjoyed visiting Arno’s Wall, just behind The North Gregory Hotel right in town. Arno Grotjahn has spent the past 30 years constructing this two metre high wall made from household items, lawnmower parts, sewing machines and anything else you could possibly think of.
The Musical Fence was a personal favourite. It is a wire fence designed by percussionist and composer Graeme Leak, and can be played as a musical instrument. There are also various instruments scattered around the place made from all sorts of recycled materials, and they sure do make some noise!!
The roads slowly improve as we make our way to Townsville, in the dry tropics region of Queensland. We are all looking forward to seeing the coastline after so long inland. We stayed at Rowes Bay Caravan Park ($56 p/n 2ad 2ch), which is opposite the beach…and very close to the airport as we discovered early the next morning! The park is big and green, with the sprinklers on 24/7. There are a lot of permanent residents living here. Not really sure how they afford to…..possibly their rate is subsidised by us travellers!!
Townsville is a pretty city which has a magnificent seaside foreshore called The Strand. It has a big adventure water park, with various playgrounds and paths to stroll along the beach.
From Townsville we stored our caravan (Monty’s Caravan, Boat & Car Storage 07 - 4775 4200 $8 per day) for five days and headed over to Magnetic Island on the car ferry, Fantasea. Normally a return trip on the car ferry is $178, however, we found a 30% discount voucher in one of the tourism booklets we picked up from the Information Centre….bonus!! We were fortunate to be able to stay with my high school friend Melissa and her partner Grant. It was great to see Mel after so long, and we sat up night after night catching up on old times. The girls thought it was great to spend time in a normal bed, swim in the pool and play with their dog Bonnie.
Apart from all the high rise accommodation, Magnetic Island hasn’t changed much in the 20 years since I last visited. The beaches are still pristine, but if you visit between November and May, it is stinger season, so swimming is limited to the swimming nets around the beaches. Most of the middle and North West of the island is National Park, but there are 23 beaches to explore around the island. Our favourite was Horseshoe Bay, and we spent a couple of days there kayaking and swimming. Mel and her business partner own Café Nourish in Horseshoe Bay, and we had a magnificent brekky there on our last day on the island. Do yourself a favour and stop in for the best coffee, juices and gourmet food on the island!!
Leaving the beautiful Magnetic Island behind, we headed into the wet tropics to Mission Beach. From the time we hit the Great Dividing Range it didn’t stop raining. It was windy and raining for the two nights we stayed at Mission Beach. The beaches were full of debris and palm fronds and the waves were so big that there was very little beach to walk along. It certainly wasn’t the Mission Beach I was expecting.
On to Atherton for two nights. Still raining. We visited both the Curtain and Cathedral Fig trees and stopped at the Cheese and Chocolate Mill for a look. We stayed at the Big4 which was a lovely park with friendly staff. We met the Newbold family here, who were traveling for six months. The kids played really well together and it turned out that we were both traveling in the same direction for a while.
Still raining, we headed to Big4 Cairns Coconut Resort for a week while we waited to get our car fridge fixed. It is a fantastic park with everything imaginable to keep the kids amused. Cairns is the gateway to a myriad of things to see and do, and during our time here we travelled the train to Kuranda, snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef on Moore Reef, swam at the Cairns waterfront lagoon and did some shopping. Lize loved the nightly movies at the caravan park and of course, the four pools at the park.
Moving an hour up the coast we stayed at the Pandanus Tourist Park in Port Douglas for three nights. (pay 2, stay 3 for $108, 2ad & 2ch) It is a small park close not too far from the main street. Clean and tidy with a great camp kitchen. The resident bats are a bit smelly but tolerable. It was still raining and quite windy, but we headed into town for a look around. The shopping strip has everything you need for a small town. The Court House Hotel puts on a great meal, and if you take advantage of their daily meal specials you will get a great feed at a great price.
From our Port Douglas base we visited Mossman Gorge. There is a shuttle bus which takes you from the Mossman Gorge Centre ($21.25 for a family pass return trip). I recommend this short trip, as the road to the Gorge is narrow and windy, and pedestrians share it with the buses. The Gorge is an oasis, with its beautiful rainforest walks, stunning scenery and crystal clear water. It is a trip not to miss.
Cooktown was the next pit-stop, and our last stop before we hit Cape York. We stayed at the Big4 Cooktown Holiday Park. This is a lovely green park with great facilities and lovely management. It was great to see the beautiful and clean unisex, family friendly bathrooms, and plenty of them! The camp kitchen was enormous and the pool was great!
Yes, it was still raining, but not as much so we set up and took a look around town. We drove out to Finch Bay, just 2kms from town. It is Cooktown’s swimming beach, however, with the huge croc warning signs about, we weren’t about to test the water! The beach itself was beautiful. It was low tide when we visited so there was a huge sandy flat with Alligator Creek running through the middle.
The Captain Cook Museum was our next stop, and the girls had a great time completing the questionnaire that the museum provides to the kids on entry. We all actually learnt a lot about our Australian history!
Cooktown was our base for the preparation of our trip up to Cape York. We kept an eye on fellow travellers to get ideas for our itinerary and a sense of road conditions, because it’s difficult to get current information, and the road conditions can change overnight with rain. We organised storage for our caravan in Cooktown for $5 per day and packed the car ready for the journey.
Our first day of travel into Cape York was easy going as the roads in the south were being graded. It is important to time your trip just right. Too early and you hit the corrugations made during the wet season. Too late and you hit the corrugations made from the traffic in the dry season. As we were setting off in late May we would be a couple of months ahead of most of the traffic. This made it easier to plan as we did not have to stick to set accommodation bookings.
We would be leaving our caravan in Cooktown and using the awning tent on the car. This meant we had less storage and had to pack carefully. We also had to plan our meals so that we had enough food to last us four or five nights until we got to Weipa. So we piled everything on to the roof rack and set off.
Our first day’s travel was trouble free, with a pit stop at both Hann River and Musgrave Roadhouses. It was a slow 385 kms to Coen and we made it there early afternoon, giving up plenty of time to set up camp and start dinner. We avoided camping in town as we had heard that the sites behind the pub was noisy from both the patrons and the bat colony in the trees above. We checked the Wiki Camps app which said that there was a free camp on the river a couple of kms out of town, so we went to investigate. There were a number of vans and camper trailers set up on the grassy spot above the river, but we spied a road leading down to the river’s edge so we drove down and found a perfect spot this side of the river just big enough for us. The girls put on their bathers and cooled down in the Coen River while we set up beds, lit the fire and started dinner. Much to our surprise we even had phone and internet service so after posting a few photos and updates on Facebook, it wasn’t long before we were all tucked up in bed.
Day two in the Cape took us into Iron Range National Park, which was just over 200 kms away on a narrow and rough dirt track. We stopped off at the ranger’s station to check out booking arrangements for Chilli Beach. He suggested camping the night at Cooks Hut as Chilli Beach was being buffeted by strong winds. We arrived at Cooks Hut camping area to set up just on dusk, but as we were surrounded by a treetop forest it was dark in no time. The bugs were out in force and the ground wet, so we went to bed as the cold air set in. Off early next morning we arrived at Chilli Beach to an almost deserted camp ground. We started talking to a family camped there, and after a walk along the beach and a couple of beers with the ‘Beer’ family we decided to stay. Michelle and Jason are traveling around Australia for 18 months with their three boys, Ash, Lochie and Nathan. The kids all got along really well, and this was to be the first of many nights spent with our new found friends.
Chilli beach is rugged looking but incredibly beautiful, with the shoreline bordered by coconut palms and pumice stone. It is also the landing place for all sorts of rubbish that washes up from the islands and cruise ships. The wind pushes the high tide close to the shore, but low tide uncovers many little wading pools for the kids to paddle safely without too much fear from crocs. Even the ranger’s story of a big salty spotted just a short stroll down the beach near the creek mouth didn’t discourage us.
The next morning we headed to Weipa and stayed in the unpowered spots right on the beach. As Weipa is on the east coast of Cape York, there was no strong winds like we experienced on the west coast. The Weipa Camping Ground ($30 p/n unpowered) has one large amenities block with laundry, as well as a large saltwater pool. The kids spent most of the day swimming and probably scared most of the grey nomads out of the water with their shenanigans! That night we had dinner out at the Weipa Bowls Club, which was a great feed.
Heading North to Bramwell Station, we chose the quicker route out to Batavia Downs. The road was in great condition and we made good time, even with a short stop at Moreton Telegraph Station en route. We arrived at Bramwell Station ($25 per unpowered site, $20pp for dinner) with time to set up camp before we headed over to the communal dining area for a station meal with the other forty or so visitors to the station. The station facilities were pretty basic, but we appreciated the hot shower in a portable amenities block all the same.
The generic meal for the night was rissoles, and although we were a little disappointed with the quality of the meal, it was still cooked by someone else!! Unfortunately the cost far outweighed the value in my opinion.
Over the dry season the station has music/entertainment every night. We were entertained by twin country singers, who did a fabulous job! The kids were entertained by the frog population. Please note: massive cane toads a plenty out here…YUK!!
It was at Bramwell Station that I learned of my father’s passing after a long illness. Being in such a remote and isolated part of the country at this time was incredibly challenging, and I was thankful for the generosity of the management and staff at Bramwell, who couldn’t have been more helpful.
After a brief conversation with my brother Steve, Dave and I decided that we would continue on to the tip of Cape York. It was what dad would have wanted us to do, and I still put this down as one of the most amazing experiences of my life, albeit a bitter-sweet one.
It was decided that I would fly back home for dad’s funeral on my own, and Dave would continue the journey to Darwin with the girls. Although I hated missing this huge chunk of our long-planned journey, I knew that this would not impact on the holiday too much. We worked out that we could travel from Bramwell to Punsand Bay in one day; get up early the next morning, get to the tip first thing and start making our way back down to Cairns. We made it to Coen River late afternoon after a long day’s driving, and set up camp in the exact same spot as on the way up. Being back in mobile service allowed me to book flights for my trip south.
Another long day on the road saw us in Cooktown to collect the van from storage and set up at the Big4 for the night. We had planned to spend some more time in Cooktown, however we headed straight to Cairns the next day. The following day I was on a plane flying back to Melbourne. It was a surreal feeling. One that I will not forget.
I spent 2 ½ weeks at dad’s place making arrangements, catching up with family and friends and reminiscing about dad’s life, I headed for Darwin to meet up with my traveling family. Thanks to the support I had from my wonderful friends, I managed to sort through and pack up dad’s house before I left. It was a challenging and confronting time for me, packing up my childhood home and saying goodbye to the familiar sights and sounds that I had known all of my life. My beautiful friends made this momentous task somewhat easier.
So now we are all back together in Darwin. We have been staying with past neighbours and friends, Bec and Greg for the past five weeks, and have seen and experienced so much of what’s on offer in the Northern Territory.
Having the luxury of time on our hands meant that there have been many highlights of Darwin. We spent four days in Kakadu where we visited Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls, complete with a deep river crossing at Jim Jim River; did the sunset tour on the Yellow River; rock climbing at Nourlangie Rock and Ubirr Rock Art and stunning sunset viewing from the Ubirr cliff top.
We spent four days at the remote Aboriginal Community of Peppimenarti, where we spent a day on the boat fishing the Moyle River and visited the stunning Mulvien Waterfall, with a stop each way at the Daly River pub.
The must see’s of Darwin are many, but our favourites are;
- Jumping crocs at Adelaide River
- Crocosaurus Cove, where we watched our friend brave the croc cage!
- Darwin Waterfront Wave Pool ($18 per family)
- Litchfield National Park
- Berry Springs
- Howard Springs
- PBR Bullriders Rodeo
- WW2 Museum and Oil Tunnels
- Museum and Art Gallery
And so the list goes on…..
So now we plan the journey West. So much to see, and almost half of our time away is already gone. I have learned to soak up every experience, good or bad, as it is all the little steps along the way that really make life what it is.