I booked us in for another night at Darwin (last Sunday night), as I wasn’t ready to leave, so we ended up staying 7 nights in Darwin. We had a fun afternoon at the wave pool last Friday and vegged out at the caravan park in the pool on Saturday (second grand final day) keeping and eye on the footy scores on the big telly they had there. There were heaps and heaps of kids at the park and the girls had lots of fun. On Sunday night we finally got the Mindil Beach Market and really enjoyed it.
Darwin wave pool
On Monday we dragged ourselves away from Darwin and headed down to Katherine. We set up, had a late lunch and headed into town to have a look around and visited the Katherine Hot Springs. Not as nice as Mataranka thermal pool but fun nonetheless. We got back to the caravan park to find some people camped behind us that we had seen (but not spoken to) opposite us at Alice Springs. They had a daughter Leah’s age and a 9 year old daughter Amy and Heidi started playing with. They are from Castlemaine and are away for 2 years, picking up work here and there as they travel. They had spent 5 months at Alice Springs working in the caravan park. I’m starting to meet a few people now who are traveling and working. The people camped next to us at Darwin were the same. They had worked for five months over “the season” in Kununurra and were now holidaying.
Katherine Hot Springs 2
Katherine Hot Springs 3
On Tuesday we did the Katherine 3 gorge boat cruise which we all enjoyed and got to have a swim in one of the gorges towards the end of the cruise. Actually Leah didn’t enjoy it too much. She was very hot and bothered, so I kept trying to get her to drink water. When we had a swim she picked up though and was very happy from then on.
The girls on the boat on the Katherine Gorge cruise.
Katherine Gorge
The four of us with the third gorge we visited in the background.
Katherine Gorge area has 13 gorges (we cruised on 3 and climbed up the rocks to look at the 4th). I think this one was called Butterfly Gorge.
Butterfly gorge.
On the way back we swam in the second gorge.
On Wednesday we packed up, the kids said goodbye to their new friends (something they are now getting very used too) and we headed off for the long drive (approx 500km) to Lake Argyle (Ord dam). We had a rest stop at the Victoria River Roadhouse on the way which I thought was really spectacular. It was surrounded (at a distance) but towering rock escarpments. We are in the Kimberley region now and the landscape is lovely.
At Victoria River Roadhouse. This photo doesn't really to the scene justice but popped it in anyway.
We passed through the quarantine station at the border of WA where a rude quarantine office searched the caravan and car for fruit , veggies and honey. I didn’t really like this rude guy searching through my fridge and cupboards but I guess it had to be done. We continued on then to Lake Argyle which was really spectacular. The caravan park has a new infinity pool so we quickly set up and headed to the pool where we stayed until sunset. We had to change our clocks back 1 1/2 hours but given we were only 20km into WA the sun sets very early (5.30pm). I new I would be tired after the long drive so I decided leave the changing of our clocks till the next day as by 9pm NT time I was ready for bed but that was 7.30pm WA time and I knew the kids would not want to go to bed at 7.30pm!! It felt cooler at Lake Argyle and we all slept in till 8.30am (NT time) the next day and had a leisurely breakfast of bacon and eggs to celebrate the shortest drive we will probably be doing on this trip (about 85km) to Kununurra. We packed up, had another swim in the gorgeous pool and headed off at 10am (WA time).
Leah in the spa
The beautiful infinity pool at Lake Argyle caravan park with Lake Argyle in the background.
Lake Argyle (beyond the pool).
We are now in Kununurra and haven’t actually done much here yet (except stock up on fruit and veggies) but will keep you posted.
