Douglas Hot Springs and Litchfield

The road itself from Katherine towards Darwin is quite boring, but has some amazing places to stop. We had heard that Douglas Hot Springs (a couple of hundred klms south of Darwin) was nice, and it certainly was. The quiet bush camp was located right at the springs. The springs themselves were very hot in places, but flowed into a cool creek, so you could really choose your water temperature according to where you swam. And, of course, the water was crystal clear. The whole experience was topped off nicely by us meeting a really nice family from the Mornington Peninsula while we were there, making a gang of kids to drift with the currents together.

Next stop was at a favourite from our previous visit to the NT, Litchfield National Park. Buley Rock Holes lived up to the kids' expectations. Amazing rock pools, one after another down the hill. Plenty of jumping, bombing and swimming. That evening we stayed at Wangi Falls. I'm running out of adjectives here, but another fantastic swimming place where you can swim across a large pool and dive under the falls. After working up the courage, we took it in turns to swim across under the heavy cascade of water and be washed across the pool - great fun.

From Litchfield it was a few hours to our next stop - to see Lisa's dad and Ruth at Corroboree Billabong.
Photos below are-
1-3: Douglas Hot Springs
4-7: Buley Rock Holes at Litchfield NP
8-10: Wangi Falls at Litchfield
11: Bower Bird nest at Litchfield

Lake Argyle and into Northern Territory

We stopped a few days in Kununurra to recharge our batteries and stock up on supplies. Nothing too much to report, beyond it being a nice rest stop. We enjoyed the grass and bought our first take away meal in months - Chinese (options were limited).

It was then a small drive on to Lake Argyle, which is the massive dam fed by the Ord River, only about 70km from Kununurra. It is apparently Australia's second largest reservoir, and does look to be an awesome size. There is a tiny village on its edge, with a nice caravan park that has amazing views across the water. The contrast of the red rock with so much water is really amazing, but a real highlight is the legendary "infinity" pool which sits on the cliff's edge. The kids were fortunate to quickly make friends with a nice family from Melbourne and had a great time catching cane toads and fishing (while being watched closely by a big freshwater crocodile).
Photos below are-
1: the infinity pool at Lake Argyle
2: the view from the camp park
3: making friends
4: Pia fallen asleep in the car while blowing up a balloon

Katherine

After only a short drive into the NT, we reached Katherine. Rather than staying in town (which is a pretty awful town), we headed straight out to Katherine Gorge (30km out of Katherine itself) to camp there. The camp ground was quite nice, with a pool and plenty of shade. It was also a bonus being so close to the beautiful Gorge (yes, another Gorge!!!).

The highlight of our stay here was catching the tour boat down the main Gorge to a beautiful swimming hole, and then hiking back to the camp park. While we left this until late in the afternoon, the walk was still harder and hotter than expected despite being spectacular. As you'll see below, the swimming hole was amazing.

Also memorable here were the snakes. We saw tree snakes up in the trees, and a really huge (non venomous) python that slowly made its way around the camp park.
Photos below are -
1: crossing the border into NT
2-5: on the boat through Katherine Gorge
6: the beautiful swimming hole
7: the hot walk back
8: looking down on the Gorge at dusk
9: the friendly python at the Katherine campground

Purnululu National Park (The Bungle Bungles)

After stopping overnight at Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek (heavily indigenous towns in the North West, with no real highlights), we headed off the highway for about 50km to get into The Bungle Bungles (now officially called Purnululu National Park). The road in was very rough, with about half a dozen creek crossings. We weren't game to get out of the car to check the depth of the water before driving across (crocs!), so we just crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. Apart from some of the trailer wiring catching fire, we made it in one piece. By this stage we were about 500-600km east of Broome.

While Lisa and Justin had flown over The Bungles before, we were really looking forward to getting up close to the beautifully colored dome-shaped rocks, and we weren't disappointed. It was hot and dusty at the campground, but once we got up close to the domes it was cool and quite lush. We did several walks to different areas of the park and really enjoyed it despite having to keep a keen eye out for snakes - we only saw one. Highlights were Cathedral Gorge and Echidna Chasm. After an hour walking in 40 deg heat these quiet, cool gorges were a really nice place to hang out for awhile. It's probably not worth wasting more adjectives trying to describe this part of our trip, so please have a look at our pictures below.
Photos below are all through The Bungle Bungles. The last photo shows the road in/out.

Derby, Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek

Next stop was Derby, on the coast north east of Broome. Not too much to report about Derby really, but worth noting that it had improved a lot since we visited there nearly 15 years ago. The same can be said for most of the towns we have passed through in the Kimberley - while a high percentage of the population is indigenous, there seems to be more money around and less obvious social problems (maybe they are just better hidden now?).

Leaving Derby, we headed further into the Kimberley on dirt roads to Winjana Gorge. It's hard to describe another amazing gorge, but it surely was beautiful. We arrived late in the day and took a walk through the gorge as the sun was setting. As you'll see below, amazing colors in the rocky cliffs, and plenty of fresh water crocodiles. We really enjoyed the National Park campsite there, as it was the only one we've found to have showers. A real bonus out in the middle of nowhere.

The next day we drove on more dirt roads to Tunnel Creek. We donned our swimmers and grabbed our torches and headed into the tunnel (cave). It seemed a little creepy at first, but we really loved wading through the tunnel in waist deep water with frogs and fish. After about half an hour of walking we finally emerged into the light at a billabong where we all had a swim. We then turned around and headed back through the tunnel, and noticed a few big (freshwater) crocodile prints as we finally reached the end.

Another great day.
Photos below are-
1: the Prison Boab Tree near Derby (yes, it was used as a prison cell)
2: the cliffs at Windjana Gorge at dusk
3: walking through Windjana Gorge
4: freshies sunning themselves in Windjana Gorge
5: the entrance to Tunnel Creek
6: ready to head off through the Tunnel

Broome!

After a few months living in the camper, we were all looking forward to our stay in Lisa's dad's apartment in Broome. While it was one bedroom, it felt palatial to us after living in a 16 ft trailer for so long. The apartment and resort were absolutely wonderful - we enjoyed the airconditioning while the girls took thee opportunity to catch up on their lost months of ABC3.
Besides enjoying the apartment, we did spend time enjoying a lot of what Broome has to offer:
- We enjoyed walking down to Cable Beach most days for a morning swim, and again at sunset to watch the sunset.
- We also enjoyed the Saturday market, held in the grounds of the old court house. Isla was really pleased to find the pair of sunglasses she had been looking for (see below).
- While possible a little cliched (?), we all really enjoyed our afternoon camel ride along Cable Beach. The older girls loved every second of it, while Pia cried a little when the camel rose to his feet and then settled in nicely for the walk up the beach. We felt like we were so high up in the air, and the afternoon sea breeze was just beautiful as we loped along.
- On Lisa's birthday we made a special breakfast and then ate a birthday pavlova for lunch (and felt sick for awhile afterwards). In the evening we went out to the Mangrove Hotel to watch the "staircase to the moon" - a natural phenomenon where the moon rises over the water and produces a staircase of light reflecting off the sea. We were lucky to have be in Broome for it, and to have a clear night.
- Our final excursion was to the Bureau of Meteorology's Broome observatory. We spent an hour or so there with the staff, learning about how they monitor the weather. A highlight was watching the huge weather ballon being launched, and also being given one to take home.

Brooms was a really welcome break from the road, we loved it.
Photos below are-
1: Ice blocks to cool us down at Broome market
2: Isla's new sunglasses
3: Lisa and her birthday pavlova
4: "Staircase to the moon" (best I could do with a little camera!)
5-9: The camel ride on Cable Beach
10: Learning about observing the weather
11: Getting the weather balloon ready to go
12-13: Kids playing at Cable Beach at dusk