Alice Springs to Katherine Gorge

Reading at Mataranka Library

Benn's Barra
Thermal Pool

Devil's Marbles

John Flynn Memorial


Dominic in van

Go-carts at Alice

Hello! Well we have gone from winter to summer in 3 weeks. I am writing today from Katherine Gorge, very hot day - certainly back into summer for a few days now. Last night was very hot, first night we have had the a/c on most of the night! Rather a change from the cold weather of Alice, were it was sooooo cold at night. Apparently, the weather has been unseasonably cold there, the day we arrived at Uluru was the coldest day on record (11c max at Uluru, 6c max at Alice).

We spent a good week in Alice after Uluru and Kings Canyon, visiting the Desert Park, School of the Air (brilliant), Museum for Pioneer Women (which I found amazing, some of the stories I read about the conditions for women, the isolation etc very interesting) and the old goal. Once again we met many families while in Alice either travelling for a few months or a couple of years. I am really enjoying the social aspect lately, maybe too much drinking and chocolate!! Nah, never! We were pretty lucky and saw the Todd River with water in it. It rained for a few days when we arrived, so for about 3 days the river flowed, apparently a very rare occurrence.

After leaving The Alice, we spent one night back at Wycliff Well, then Renner Springs (which had geese that honked all night, not impressed). Next day we arrive at Mataranka (We of the Never Never country), could have stayed for ages.... so stayed for 5 nights (was only planning for 2). It was wonderful, the natural thermal pools were beautiful, we enjoyed swimming in them everyday. Dinner at the Homestead Bistro was great as was the entertainment. They had a singer/guitarist play each night, great music. It was very busy caravan park, many a backpacker working there. Again great meeting other people travelling! Benn went to go fishing on the Roper River and caught a nice Barramundi, very nice eating! I loved the old Museum, which had some material from 'We of the Never Never' days, the Australian classic novel set in 1902. They had the homestead replica just next to the Caravan Park.

We arrrived at Katherine Gorge yesterday, extremely busy place so many tourists/travellers. I guess it is the time to be at the top end before the wet season starts. Already it is getting very hot and humid, can't imagine what it must be like in summer. We have had school this morning, then art lessons with Benn, painting water colours. Benn and kids in the pool at the moment, so I am off to join them.

Love to hear from friends and family if you get a chance,

Bianca xx

Undara to Uluru

Morning tea on side of Stuarts H/way

Lava Tube

Hi everyone!

Well, the last three weeks have flown..... we finally crossed the boarder into the NT week before last! After Atherton we went west to Undara, went on a tour of the Lava Tubes - they are the longest in the world, 160 kms formed 190,000 years ago, just amazing! We all enjoyed the real bush, campfires and meeting lots of people travelling. We have even got into the bush poetry!

We then decided to go north west, one of our biggest drives at that time, to Kuramba, on the Gulf, north of Normanton. A real fishing holiday place where most people stay 3 months or longer to fish, barramundi, salmon, prawns, etc in abundance here. We went out on a fishing charter (just our family with the skipper), Jacinta and Dominic both caught fish, and saw a crocodile sunning on the bank. It was only 2.5 metres long, apparently an 8 metre was spotted at Weipa a few weeks before, scary scary. We learned another huge croc almost 9 metres was caught back in 1957, where a woman caught it on the Norman River, a replica in Normanton shows the real size, extremely hard to believe one could be that big. The same size replica was at Australia Zoo, just amazing.

Our next stopover was Cloncurry for 2 nights, then Mount Isa. We all went on a bus tour of the working mine there, just over the railway line from the city. Since Cloncurry we have seen many road trains, we all find interesting. After Mount Isa, with commenced the first of a few one nighters..... very tiring for Benn and I packing up and setting up in the same day, day after day but great to cover the distances we did. In four days we travelled to Uluru, found Barkly Homestead, Wycliff Well (UFO centre!) rather interesting places. Uluru was indeed fantastic, much steeper than I remember as a 15 year old, back then I had no problems going up and down the Rock. This time on the day we left, just as we were leaving it opened for 2 hours, Benn and kids climbed it while I watched and chatted to others waiting! It seems now that most days it is closed, we did have rain and very cold weather while we were there - max of 11 on our second day!! We also had two nights at Kings Creek Station which was definitely worth doing, the kids rode a camel and we went for a lovely walk at Kings Canyon.

We returned to Alice Springs on Friday in time for the Camel races on Saturday, a great day. The kids all participated in camel kapers, races for the kids, Luke came second! All came away with ribbons and treats. Glad to be here at Alice to take some time to catch up with washing, cleaning, and school work (what's that?!) this week. We plan to stay here for 10 days before making our way up to Kakadu and Darwin. The kids have made many friends here, we have once again met many families travelling for many weeks or months.