Bungle Bungles, Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing (Geike Gorge) WA (Aug - 4 days)

After much deliberation about whether to take the family on the long bumpy track out to the Bungle Bungles we decided against doing it by car. We were unable to take the van on that route and it was not possible to really do in a day. We made a last minute call for Kate and Annabelle to enjoy a scenic flight over the area on the day we left Kununurra. The two hour scenic flight was fabulous taking us over the picturesque Kimberly’s, massive Lake Argyle, impressive open cut Argyle Diamond Mine and the incredibly unique Bungle Bungles. We enjoyed every minute on our 8 seater light aircraft (only minimally distracted by two vomiting tourists in the front!).

Our later departure that day meant that we arrived in Halls Creek as night fell. We were keen to avoid this town as an overnight stop, but we had little choice. (Night driving is just too risky with excited wildlife in these remote parts). We pulled in to the ‘pick’ of the caravan parks in town and were kindly told by another traveller not to park around the perimeter of the park as the local Aboriginals throw their rubbish and bottles over the park fence and had been known to smash caravan windows etc. We kept everything locked up in the van that night and headed off on our earliest start for the trip the next morning, at 7.30am. We all cheered as we were the third van to pull out of the park. Much better than third last…. our more common trend!

The following two nights were spent at a refreshingly nice grassy caravan park at Fitzroy Crossing. We felt much more secure in this lovely park and we spent some great time with some new travelling friends from Melbourne (on their way to relocate to Perth). The highlight of Fitzroy was a cruise we took down nearby Geike Gorge. This limestone formation was very different to other gorges we have seen with its striking white rock formations, caves and a very good number of freshwater crocs (some sunning themselves on the rocky ledges).

We have discovered the mileage that we can get with cheese spread, crackers and pack of sultanas for Georgia making these cruises and kilometers pass more easily.

Kakadu, Katherine NT & Kununurra WA (July - 7 days)

We left Darwin and made our way to Kakadu National Park where we spent two nights. We explored the plant and animal life at two beautiful wetlands, did some croc spotting, walked through some amazing Aboriginal shelters and art sites at Nourlangie Rock and looked through the Warradjan Cultural Centre. The Bushmans repellent got a good workout and we may have been tempted to stay on another night, but for the mosquitos.
On route to Katherine we had a very brief and chilly dip at Edith Falls. We enjoyed more thermal springs in town and spent an afternoon at one of Katherine Gorge’s thirteen gorges.

Out trip from Katherine to Kununurra was spectacular as we wound our way through the rugged Gregory National Park and along the scenic Victoria River. Upon crossing the border into WA we lost all the fruit, veggies and honey that we were unable to squeeze into our tummies at morning tea. We were so relieved that we did not do a big food shop that morning (we very nearly did!). The remarkably unique Boab tree made it’s first appearance in NT but grew in numbers as we approached the WA border, by which time we were all in chorus with “look at that one!!”

We are now in Kununurra for two nights on our way across to Broome. It has been our hottest stop on the trip (and probably will be), peaking at a baking 35 degrees on both days. What a contrast to chilly NSW! Kununurra has a strangely appealing landscape with its Boab trees and the rocky wonders of the Hidden Valley.

We are gob smacked at our impeccable timing on our trip…we have managed to coincide with big crowd events in a many of the towns we have visited, making accommodation and sightseeing very frustrating at times! We were followed by the Crusty Demons and Stardust Circus up the east coast (or did we follow them?....). Then there was the annual show at Mount Isa, the show and Camel Cup in Alice, the Darwin show, the Kununurra Rodeo and now we cannot get accommodation in Broome thanks to Ladies Day and The Broome Cup!! We are talking about arriving in these towns the very day/s that these events are on. We’re not sure that we could have even arranged this if we wanted to!

Please note, long blog-free periods can be attributed to patchy 3G network coverage across the more remote parts of the country.

Darwin NT (July - 5 days)

Fearing sandflies up around the northern coastline we actually based ourselves just out of Darwin (approx. 50km south) at Berry Springs. It turned out to be a very small town with just one little food/petrol shop, but it did boast some amazing thermal springs. We are just loving swimming in the natural springs we are encountering across the top of Australia. These ones were largish and you could float down a series of waterways in to a broader river section. The clarity of the water wasn’t as good due mostly to the water depth and there were salt and freshwater croc warning signs. However many people were in swimming, so we all enjoyed it for quite some time. The big kids have really enjoyed using their snorkelling gear to observe the life underwater in these various swimming spots. They are getting quite good at diving to look at things then clearing their snorkels on surfacing.

We spent two days having a look around Darwin city. The three big kids and Kate had fun feeding and patting fish at the Aquascene attraction in Darwin harbour. Harrison was sure he received a bite from one of these fish as he hand fed it some bread. (He did have a little mark on his finger!). The Smead kids managed to create a fish frenzy at times, throwing in biggish pieces of bread simultaneously! Harrison relished in a good spot of fishing with Tim on a half day fishing charter in the harbour. He caught five fish (the most out of the 12 people on board). Two were keepers. One we all shared back at the van, and one we just threw out yesterday as a nasty smell was brewing! I will never forget his little face full of anticipation and excitement as the boat ferried away from the jetty and the four Smead girls waved the boys off enthusiastically! We all got a good buzz out of our night at the Mindil Beach markets. We attended on the eve of the Darwin show so we worked out that we had probably visited the markets on one of their busiest nights in the year. It was packed! (We have been so without crowds for the most part, so it was quite an experience to be walking shoulder to shoulder with a sea of other tourists. As the sun got lower everyone took their food stall dinner purchases to the beach to watch the sun set over the water. It was a magical sight….(only rivalled by seeing the sunset like this in seclusion!)….one of those ‘firsts’ for us that we won’t forget!

We were actually all geared up for really hot weather in Darwin, but to our surprise we had very pleasant day time temperatures and even some quite nippy nights! The mossies were still around in the evenings though…as you would expect in the Top End.

Devils Marbles, Mataranka Springs & Litchfield NP NT (July - 6 days)

The last six days have seen the Smeads travel 1,700 kms north to some incredible places on the map. Our first stop off was the famous Devils Marbles. We were all in awe of these incredible boulders so called ‘cottage cheese’ and ‘cheese rounds’ (?or rings) because of their stacked formations. The boys scaled these rock towers with ease, while Kate found it hard to keep up with even the girls. The colours were amazing at sunset and we climbed until it grew dark. We watched the dingoes come and go over dinner outside. We were all in a state of climate shock as after the mild days and nippy nights in Alice we were all feeling rather hot at the marbles, shedding our layers at night. The flies in the mouth and nose were the only drawback, thank goodness for fly nets – thanks Garnie and Poppy!!

The next day we drove north to the unremarkable road stop of Daly Waters where the only one of two remaining powered sites we could get was along side the trucks and road trains! We were grateful for the power and water to cool our warmish fridge and top up our water tanks after ‘roughing it’ at the marbles. Tim celebrated his birthday morning at this roadhouse stop off, but we soon hit the road to get to Mataranka Springs to enjoy more of his birthday. After trying one dodgy van park in Mataranka, we found probably the friendliest and one of the best parks we have stayed at on the trip. A sprawling grassy van park with a lily covered dam where we watched barramundi being hand fed and caught…..peacocks that wandered freely and congregated outside the Smeads van to be fed by 3 very enthusiastic children hoping for ‘the prized feather’….a great country bistro on site where we enjoyed dinner. From here we visited the two local thermal springs – Bitter and Mataranka Thermal Springs. We had such fun here – snorkelling and floating down the former and just relaxing in the Mataranka Springs. The constant 34deg water was initially a little disappointing when we felt quite hot, but was delightful in the morning and late afternoon.

From Mataranka we drove to Berry Springs (approx 50kms out of Darwin). This has been our base for exploring Litchfield National Park today. We all loved the waterfalls and swimming holes where we swam and snorkelled with the fish, and tried our best to balance in the water on slippery rocks. We saw amazing fields of magnetic termite mounds and ‘The Lost City’ rock formations. It was a great day! Tomorrow we will move a little closer into Darwin to explore the city.

All travelling very well again. The kids are champions coping with these repeatedly long distances!

Alice & The Red Centre NT (June & July - 21 days!!)

We have all really loved our time in the ‘Red Centre’. We have found Alice Springs to be quite captivating and certainly very unique. The landscape has been spectacular…gorges, water holes, breathtaking escarpments and canyons across the east and west Macdonnell ranges. Uluru and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) were definitely a highlight. We admired the ‘rock’ from the ground, refraining from the climb out of respect for the Anangu peoples wishes (and not to mention our mutual fear of heights). We were awed by the magnitude of Kata Tjuta and walked in marvelling at the towering rock walls. Kings Canyon wasn’t quite what we were expecting, but we didn’t get the view from the top, being only able to do the base walk with the kids. We did have a great night there though celebrating Harrison’s 7th birthday out for dinner, which was fun.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Garnie and Poppy (Tim’s parents) and were all quite teary (Hannah howling actually) at the airport farewelling them. We have since enjoyed some great catch-ups with Kate’s sister Jane holidaying with a friend who lives in Alice.

We have been in the new van for 10 days now and all is going well. It’s virtually the same, so it’s hard to believe when we sit in here at night recording these thoughts that we ever had that horrible couple of weeks at all! We feel so grateful to be back on the road again, able to continue this amazing journey around oz!

Georgie is finally starting to take off with her walking, and can now take around 5-6 steps at a time before joining us in squeals of delight at her achievement! She continues to entertain us every day and has even learnt to do somersaults on the ‘jumping pillow’ at the caravan park, care of the big kids coaching.

We leave Alice tomorrow and begin our journey towards Darwin (also Kakadu, Litchfield N.P., Katherine etc.).

Mt Isa QLD, Tennant Creek to Alice NT (June - 4 days)

From Lawn Hill we were headed for Mt Isa when our most unfortunate turn of events occurred….You know the details…. Everybody fine in body, shaken in spirit, but overwhelmed by God’s goodness in sparing us from injury or worse. Van totalled and beyond repair. Car damaged, but driveable. With the help of some extremely kind fellow travellers Tim got the van to a towable state and we limped it through a slow 250kms to Mt Isa, collecting an obscene amount of red dirt along the way (through our now unsealed van walls etc).

We saw very little of Mt Isa sadly, as we were in recovery mode, staying in a motel and doing our best to resurrect our goods from the van, have it assessed, planning the way forward etc. The children were fantastic through this whole ordeal, helping out when asked and for the remainder occupying themselves beautifully with what they had. They really pulled together for one another at this time. Reflecting on it they squabbled very little through these first few days after the accident, probably sensing their need to keep the sibling peace.

With the purchase of a trailer and the news that we would be paid out for our poor van, the journey continued across the outback, south to Tennant Creek and now we are here in Alice Springs (a massive 1,200km’s across 2 days!!). The landscape was pretty monotonus on these days and petrol hit a $2.10/lt high at the Barkly Roadhouse. Here we are all delighting in our reunion with Tim’s parents, are still dusting ourselves and everything off and are now awaiting the arrival of our new van from Sydney… Kate’s parents have very generously assisted in helping to get the van to us, with next to no notice. (Towing the new van hundreds of kms!).

We have been still staying in motels (shifting our gear from one to the next). The last few days we have been very fortunate to be staying in a two bedroom unit that Tim’s company has in Alice for its out-of-town workers. The space has been so welcome (and the Jason recliners, washing machine, bath etc haven’t been bad either!).

So far the red centre of the country has been very unique. Extremely dry, red, rocky and rather interesting. None of us have lived alongside so many Aboriginals before, and are quite fascinated by their culture and communities. We attended the annual ‘Beanie Festival’ with displays of a vast array of beanies of all sorts, handmade by locals and from around the world. Live music and community celebration gave us a bit more of a feel of this town. It was really quite fun! We have visited the Olive Pink Botanical Gardens and enjoyed great coffees there. The kids have handled snakes and lizards at the reptile centre. It has been wonderful catching up with some old friends from Sydney days who now live in Alice with their three little children. We enjoyed a fabulous barbeque dinner at Rainbow Valley (1hr, 15min) south of Alice, watching an incredible sunset on the rainbow escarpment. The star gazing was the best yet….with the Milky Way clearly evident.

Tonight we have just finally got the kids into bed (9.15pm) after much excitement watching fireworks from every window. It is Territory Day in N.T. and residents are free to buy and set off their own fireworks. We were treated to a fabulous spectacle with huge fireworks very close. At one point we had to hurry the kids under cover as firework shrapnel was falling onto the patio. The event bought back childhood memories for Tim and I and it was certainly a real highlight for the kids.

Off To Uluru in the new van in a couple of days….Yippee!!

Normanton and Lawn Hill National Park QLD (June - 4 days)

After a night in small-town Georgetown and a visit to ‘Terrestrial’ (an amazing gem and crystal display from around the world) we headed to Normanton for two nights. Here we felt truly outnumbered, being the only young family at the caravan park (or so it appeared!). We were put next to a very grumpy and intolerant older couple who looked quite distressed when we pulled up with four young children. We tried to be polite and smile etc…but they were stony faced. The only communication came when the husband very gruffly informed me that our mobile phone had been ringing while we were cooling off at the pool. We then went to the small local library to escape the heat and do some schoolwork, but were clearly not completely welcome here either! At night the frogs and toads were out and the kids had loads of fun spotting them with torches. It was a different story when the kids wanted to use the porta-potti at night and could hear the frogs rustling through the dried leaves at the back of the van!

We thought we would bypass Kurumba as we couldn’t tee up any accommodation and didn’t want to face the midges again so soon. So we headed further west to Adel’s Grove, our base camp for visiting Lawn Hill National Park. Here at the Grove the man at the check-in desk laughed at Tim’s genuine request for a grassy site. The whole campground was just dirt and leaf litter, but there was good shade and it was really quite peaceful. Harrison delighted in the camp fire we had next to our site, collecting wood for it, lighting it and stoking it endlessly. We all enjoyed charred marshmallows and the warm glow of the fire at night.

We spent a day and a half walking through Lawn Hill National Park, canoeing down it’s breathtaking gorge and swimming in a lovely billabong (where we kept one eye out for freshwater crocs). The colours of the red escarpment, yellow savannah grasses, smooth white gums and splashes of green were a stark and amazing combination. We visited ‘Wild Dog Dreaming’ a sacred Aboriginal site (that we were not permitted to photograph) where we looked at remnants of Aboriginal camps and very old artworks on the rock formations. The kids found it hard to appreciate the significance of this site at first, a little disappointed that the ‘artwork’ did not resemble in any way the precise and brightly coloured dot paintings they were familiar with. Canoeing the gorge was eerily quiet, especially for Kate (as the children opted for Daddy to escort them on their ‘turn’). It was magical being dwarfed by the sheer red walls of the gorge and hearing only the native birds and the gentle lap of water under the paddle.