Big4 Howard Springs Holiday Park Darwin

... open. Oh my gosh. The zipper has broken - sort of. Turns out it is a "self healing" zipper and when I took the locks and moved them back around to the other side, the zipper closed. My suitcase stayed closed for the ride to the hotel but it is now damaged goods and untrustworthy. The zipper started coming apart once already tonight in the hotel.
Dang, going to have to spend some time today chasing ...

... than the one I had in New Zealand but smaller and easier to manouevre. It was cheaper than comparable sized vans from other companies but not sure that it was much cheaper than my last so value for money wise – the Kiwis have it! Didn’t go too far out of Darwin on day one, taking time to sort out van and if any problems I could easily get back to base. The fact that it was so old and with almost 490,000 km on the clock and that I would be heading out into the ...

... there mate. Too many of them things will give you the spritzes." That's ok...so far so good. Besides, didn't we learn today that eating termite mounds cures all that anyway?

I love Australia. This place is amazing.

Tomorrow I head to Alice Springs via a 24 hour journey on a train called the Ghan. I will put some pics of the journey on here as soon as I can when I get to Alice Springs right there in the heart of Australia.

... All started smoothly as we drove in through the entrance, making sure that there was clearance for our vehicle's 2.5 meter height. After completing the shopping and loading up the 4WD, we found that all exits were 2.2 meters high - there was not enough room to drive the vehicle out without losing our on roof storage box. Amusingly even though we had successfully navigated ourselves through the back roads of central and northern Australia ...

... and I bundled on the bus for the first part of my Oz Experience pass. Our first stop today was at an Aborginal Culture Camp. Here we were greeted by an aboriginal elder by having water from the billabong spat on our heads to protect us on their land then we were led into the camp to learn about Aboriginal life. We were taught about which plants were used for food, tools and medicines, how to make and play a didgeridoo, how to make rope from leaves to make into ...

August 4th: Today was my second last day in Australia, and it was one of the best and hottest. We swam in Edith Falls and Florence Falls - each one was more refreshing than the last and greatly needed! It's about 35 degrees up here, enough to make you dizzy. I also got to hold a baby orphaned wallabee, whose mama was hit by a car. It was ...

... and cleaned the last of my room. I left without the wines and beers I had intended to bring for friends that I was going to see around australia, because it was early and I was tired and disorganised and that is hardly the time of day to be aware of anything.
I got on the bus and slipped straight back into one of my travel modes. There are three last count - Gaz, who is curious and attentive but not really organised though organised enough to get by ...

... and balloons and frisbees. And it was all courtesy of Darwin Council! Needless to say, the kids were in heaven.

Unfortunately though, we missed the Regatta itself! Scott was misinformed early in the day that it was on at 10am (before we arrived) so we assumed we had missed it. In the arvo Scott was riding his bike back to camp and just as he took off they announced the start of the regatta! Even though I could see him riding off in ...

It was a great moment when Crash turned up at the apartment with the Surf on the back of a truck! We really need to thank the two Steves at Cargoclear and Cargo-online for their efforts in getting the truck cleared and to save so much time by delivering it straight to us, instead of to the depot. It really saved the day, so thanks very very much. We could not have made it otherwise. Crash got a big hug from Susie for waiting at the AQIS queue for ages whilst the ...