Heading South
Trip Start
Mar 09, 2008
1
37
43
Trip End
Dec 10, 2008
Katherine,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Sunday, July 27, 2008
60 km's north of Tennant Creek
(yes, the same spot as when we wrote the previous blog)
Well, we have been 2500kms and are back to the same spot. We left this little road side stop called Attack Creek, eleven days ago, and headed north. It was a long day driving to Elsey National Park. But when we got there, there was a "swimmable" river to jump into, so worth the long day. The National Park takes out the Salt water croc's after the wet season from that part of the river and they even had a few pontoons you could swim out to and get a sun tan! Yes, there were fresh water croc's in the river though!! CRAZY!!! No bites though!
On our way up to Darwin we stopped at a few places. I'm not sure if we mentioned this before but we bought a book when we got to Australia, called Camps 4. It is full of free or budget places to stay. Most of the spots are free rest stops on the side of the hwy but some of them are actually really nice places. Perhaps set back from the hwy, with toilets, maybe water, maybe even a lake or river and best of all 98% of them are FREE!
After Elsey NP we stayed at a place called Copperfield Dam, it was about 5 kms off the hwy, along a dirt road, and when we get there and get parked, we have the best view of the lake . We followed our schedule by unpacking and having a beer, then made a B line to the water and jumped in, again at least 2 freshy's (fresh water croc) lived there! Unfortunatley we had to leave the next day, to Litchfeild NP. BEAUTIFUL!! We stayed at Florence Falls. It was 2 waterfalls side by side and a great swimming hole beneath it. Crowded when the tour buses where there but otherwise awesome and refreshing. We stayed 2 nights and took advantage of showers and swimming. The day we left we saw some termite mounds that were up to 2 meters high!!! It actually looked like a huge cemetary with headstones, there were so many. Pretty cool. then off to Darwin.
We stayed at an overpriced caravan park about 20 kms from downtown. All we cared about was that we could take a bus into town. It proved to be successful. We went to a market that night. It was like we had just been transported back to SE Asia. Food stalls, trinkets, live music, and busy busy. Not to mention a heck of alot more pricey than SE Asia and everyone was taller!!! We pretty much walked around the city during the day and explored. We were just happy we made it that far!!! This counrty is huge!!
Then headed back south...to where we are now. We will be continuing on to Alice Springs tomorrow, straight through the center.
More when we can get cell service again...
Kylie & Keir
