Aussie Roadtrip part 2

Daly Waters is a neat old historic pub set back a couple of k's off the Stuart highway. At night they have some great entertainment, like the bloke with the rooster , and others that made for a memorable night. I had my 1st taste of Baramundi there and would love to go back and try and catch one.

From there it was a short days driving up to Katherine. We stayed there for 3 nights to have a bit of a break from driving every day. While there we checked out Edith falls where we did a long bush walk then spent the day swimming in the pools. A lot of swimming was in the pool pictured, and if you look closely you will spot the snake on the rock in the middle. Spotted him just as we were leaving.

We did the boat trip through Katherine Gorge with the necessary swim under a waterfall at the end. Saw our 1st croc's  as well.

Kakadu National park was our next destination . We stayed at the Aurora Lodge that's just passed Jaberu in the middle of the park. We had another 3 nights here and saw plenty of croc's , birds, rock paintings and scenery.

On the the way to Darwin we did the amazing jumping croc's cruise on the Adelaide river. It was amazing to see them get themselves so far out of the water trying to get the meat dangled above them. We also did the other tourist thing on the way and stopped at the Humpty Doo hotel and had a beer and bought the T shirt.

Darwin surprised us as we really enjoyed the city and our time there. We were lucky as the wet season had lasted a lot longer than normal and had cleared off about a week before we got there. This wave pool is just out of the city centre and we had a fun 2 or 3 hours there. The Sunday evening market on the beach was a highlight with plenty of different food, stalls and entertainment all made better with some BYO.

Geoff and me went out of Darwin harbour on a fishing trip and caught Jew fish (never heard of them before). They put up a really good fight and taste good as well. The next day it was back to reality, 21degrees at 6am Darwin to 5 degrees in Ch Ch.

Aussie Roadtrip

In May, Bev and 3 other girlfriends chartered a yacht

from Hamilton Is and sailed around the Whitsunday

Islands for 5 days. They sailed through the day

exploring the many waterways and landing on some

of the islands and then tying up to a mooring for the night.

They had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the experience.

And yes in case you were wondering I was really pissed off

it was a girls only trip.

I flew to Airlie beach with a mate ( his wife was sailing with Bev) and we met up with the girls when they finished their charter. Our planned trip was to drive across and up to Darwin over about 2 weeks. Loved Airlie beach and would like to go back some time. From there we got a bus to Townsville that's about 4 hours drive up the coast. The next day we picked up our hire car and began our road trip.  We enjoyed Townsville too and one night there wasn't enough. Richmond was our 1st  destination where as you can see I took the opportunity to practice my A.I skills.  Dinosaur fossils are about the only interesting thing there. 

Our next night was at Julia Creek where there's not much but we had an interesting night at the pub. I thought my local , the Trout, at Canvastown  was "unique" but the Creek pub was a really unique experience.

The next day was on to Cloncurry where we went to the flying doctor museum. On to Mt Isa and did a tour of the mines which is a massive operation . The next day was our biggest drive of 660kms but we found driving really easy compared to NZ. Just put the car into cruise control and once into the Northern Territory set it at 130kph . Long straight flat roads mean bugger all for the driver to do.

Passing a road train needed plenty of free road . We were surprised at how few cars there were on the road. Quite a few grey nomads though. We spent the night at a truck stop at 3 ways where you meet the road coming up from Alice to Darwin. We tuned left here and shot down to Tennant Creek to have a look but again there is not much there. From there we turned around and headed north for our next stop at Daly Waters.

End part 1