Dream Job

Today we celebrate 50 days on the road!  It's been great, but I'm off to join the circus.

 

 

Just got to sort out that little bit about the kids...happy to bus them home.  Who's keen?  Aunty Barb?  Aunty 'Narte'?  Jac?

Mataranka & Bitter Springs

There is no greatness without simplicity.

Tribute to Don Bradman by Mrs Aeneus Gunn, author of We Of The Never Never.

We've spent the last two nights at Mataranka Homestead. The Homestead borders Elsey National Park and is situated between two rivers,  the Waterhouse river and the Little Roper river which abound with Barramundi and other fish species.  (not that we've caught any!!)

The movie "We of the Never Never" was filmed here, and the replica of the original homestead is still part of the attractions.

We all enjoyed watching this classic Australian movie set at Elsey Station in the early 1900s.  It is played in the Mataranka bar each day.

Mataranka Thermal Pool was dedicated as a reserve in 1967 to ensure the presentation of the thermal spring and surrounding palm forest.  The pool is at a constant 34 degrees and flows from Rainbow Springs at an amazing 30.5 million litres a day.  Jack and Jarrah played a new 'drinking' game they learned from some AJs at Berry Springs...

Bitter Springs is another tropical spring fed pool just two kms from Mataranka.  Set among palms and tropical forest, it was the perfect way to relax.  Such a shame Bruce couldn't join us as he's still healing...



To top off a great stay here, we got to enjoy world class whip cracker Nathan Griggs and his impressive whip cracking show.  Fletch and I got to be part of the show by lying on the ground (very still!!) while Nathan cracked his whips at high speed all around us.  Of course we couldn't leave without one of his hand made inner tube whips...might put the next regional hospital on standby!

 

Now it's common knowledge that Mataranka Homestead is home to some very tame wallabies and peacocks!  This evening we discovered that the spiders are quite tame, too.  One wanted to live with us in the caravan, deciding to give Bruce a cuddle at bedtime...

 

 

Oh, and OMG I can't believe how chilly it has become all of a sudden, and only a few hundred kilometres from Darwin!  Had to get the winter PJs out and put the heater on in the van tonight!  Brrrrrrrrrrrrr 

Adelaide River

We just had to drop in to the Adelaide River Inn to see Charlie the Buffalo.  Charlie was made famous by Mick Dundee (Paul Hogan) whilst being hypnotised to the ground on the movie Crocodile Dundee.  He passed away in 2000 and now stands proudly on the bar.

Quote of the day today was by Jack - "What's a grey gonad?"

Litchfield National Park

We have spent the past two days exploring this beautiful NT National Park.  The 1500 sq km park was designated a National Park in 1986.  It boasts stunning waterfalls, monsoon rainforest, magnetic termite mounds, historical sites and crystal clear swimming holes.

We set up camp at the picturesque Wangi Falls.  Although the locals seem confident that any salt water crocodiles found in this swimming hole are swiftly removed, I still wasn't entirely comfortable swimming here, beautiful as it is!



Buley Rockholes had a completely different feel about it.  A series of small waterfalls and rockholes provided the perfect place to relax and cool off.

  And to do a few bombies...

We then moved on to Florence Falls - a spectacular double waterfall set amidst monsoon rainforest.

The boys had a ball trying to catch fish with some bread and a plastic bag.  Their new friend had better luck with his hat!



Fletcher chucked a major plonker but unfortunately we didn't get a photo of that!  Later he was looking rather reflective about it all...

Darwin - Haircuts & Harleys

So all good things must come to an end and with a tear in our eyes we said our goodbyes to Darwin.

During our time here, we discovered that Deb is a woman of many talents - she cooks BBQs better than the blokes, she's good at first aid, she has a green thumb, she can iron clothes without an iron, she drivers trucks, she rides a Harley, the kids love her AND she's great at haircuts!  What a woman!!



 Before we left, Fletch was keen to take a ride with the big boys...

...but they all had to go to work, so he decided to just hang with his bros!

 

Thanks so much to Deb and Steve (and Barry & Buck) for opening up your place to us for the past 12 days.  We have had the best fun staying in Noonamah!  We will always remember your wonderful hospitality, Burt Dunstall and the Humpty Doo GP!  (Arghhhhh!!!)

Darwin - Too Good To Leave

Our last two days in Darwin have been pretty laid back, in the hope that Bruce's foot heals well enough for us to leave on Wednesday.

 

We've enjoyed a couple more visits to the Palmerston Water Park...



 

 

...and spent some fun times just hanging out with our Darwin buddies.



We had a fantastic night on Monday night at Dave & Theresa's place in Virginia.  Bruce and Sarah played guitar, Jack played piano, Fletcher played harmonica and the frog, and we all had a jam on the djembe drums.  We played and sang into the wee small hours!  Thanks Dave, Theresa, Cameron, James & Sarah for your great NT hospitality!  We had a ball!

 

 

Royal Darwin Hospital

Sunday turned out to be not such a good day for us.  Bruce trod on a broken bottle and was rewarded with a nasty cut on his foot.  Jack found him sitting on the driveway and did a great job of 'going to get an adult to help'.  He then proceeded to fall apart.  Poor kid - seeing his Dad in pain and covered in a lot of blood was just too much for him.

 



 

 

So it was off to the Humpty Doo GP, which turned out to be a total disaster.  We realised we were in trouble soon enough when the Doctor couldn't work out how to get the bandage off.  Once we'd helped him out with that, we realised he was planning on stitching the wound without checking or cleaning it...

Next it was off to Royal Darwin Hospital where the service we had was nothing short of brilliant!  The staff were all warm, friendly and efficient and Doctor Don Hannan was competent, funny and a little bit cute!  A little more groaning from Bruce, a few corny jokes, a lot of anaesthetic ("enough to sedate an elephant" I think the Dr said),  and four stitches and we're on our way home.

Thanks to Barry for chauffeuring us around Darwin and also for supplying the chocolate to boost those glucose levels.  I figure low glucose levels must have been why I found myself lying on the floor in a cold sweat in the treatment room....

Things started to look up in the afternoon with Fletch enjoying time spent with his mates Steve Gardener and Burt Dunstall.

The boys enjoyed an afternoon spa, and we all had a scrumptious dinner of BBQ crocodile.  We lit the 'bomb' fire, had fun with some mystic fire and giant sparklers, and even got to see How Ridiculous break a new world record!

 

But that was the end of the fun for me.  After getting the poor patient settled in bed with his foot elevated I spent what was left of the night patting Jack's back as he emptied the contents of his stomach!  Repeatedly!  Blahh!!  But I am happy to report Jack's aim was true!  Every drop in the bucket!  Good on you Jack!