Lake Argyle WA

We left Timber Creek, stopping at Saddle Creek for morning tea - there were many caravans parked there, some had stayed overnight.
We arrived in Lake Argyle and immediately lost an hour and a half - Western Australia time. It was a lovely grassy van park and everyone there was very friendly - we used the camp kitchen most breakfasts and dinners and had lots of conversations with other campers around the washing up sink.
Kununurra was about 70 kms and we drove in to get supplies, fuel and phone and internet connection.  We stayed in Lake Argyle for 5 nights, booking a sunset cruise on the "Kimberley Durack" for nearly 4 hours around the Lake being told all about the size, etc.  It was originally the Ord River which was dammed and holds so much water- the largest fresh water man made lake in the Southern Hemisphere.  The sunset was magic as we came back to the ferry wharf and everyone was taking photos - we were served drinks and nibbles on board as well.
The guys went fishing, and Rick managed to catch 21 fish ( 3 jumped off the line as he brought them in) in less that an hour - he was quite excited, although they had to be thrown back in as they were under size. We had a fish and chips lunch by the dam wall in the picnic area to compensate the lack of catching the fish.

There is a beautiful pool at the caravan park which has an edge that looks over the lake - the huge mountains behind - quite spectacular...and we all went for a swim.

                                                  Dam Wall

                                                   Sunset from cruise boat

Rick'sfirst fish

                                          Rick at Lake Argyle Horizon Pool

Kimberley Durack - sunset cruise boat

We left Lake Argyle early next morning to ensure a place in the vanpark in Kununurra.

Timber Creek

After leaving Katherine, we stopped at Mathison for morning tea and then stopped at Victoria River.  There was a helicopter ride there which  rode over the escarpment and into the interesting scenery.

We stayed at theTimber Creek Tourist park which was very green and inviting.  The guys went off fishing, so we went into the cafe for a Devonshire Tea.

                                                  Victoria River Escarpment

We stayed at Timber Creek for 2 nights.

Katherine NT

                                               The Ghan at Katherine Station

Katherine Railway Station

We left Adelaide River and arrived in Pine Creek in time for morning tea and arrived in Katherine around 1pm. We shopped at Woolworths and then on the way back to the Manbulloo Homestead Caravan Park drove out to the Hot Springs and then to Katherine Railway Station where the Ghan train was waiting for it's passengers to arrive back from a coach tour of the area.

Adelaide River NT

We had called in at Adelaide River on our way to Darwin, and decided to have a couple of days there.  Firstly we had planned on doing the Adelaide River Jumping Crocodile Cruise, but found that we should have done that from Darwin, so missed out on that one.   Also there is a moving War Cemetery in Adelaide River, so we visited it.  The area is very well looked after - the gardens and lawns all looked very well watered and healthy.  We also visited the Rail Museum where a couple were looking after the items there.

                                              War Cemetery - Adelaide River

                                              Rail Museum - Adelaide River

Daly River Crossing

Next day we drove to Daly River, but were unable to cross the river, as the road was still closed from the "Big Wet", we had taken a picnic lunch, so sat by the river in a shady spot to enjoy it.

Litchfield Park

Buley Waterhole

                                                         Dundee Beach, Darwin

                                                     Termite Mounds Litchfield Park

                                           Batchelor - Castle

Wangi Falls

We stayed in Litchfield Park after calling in at Batchelor for morning tea and some grocery shopping. After setting up the caravans we drove out to Buley Waterhole where Rick and Dick went swimming, then down to Florence Falls. As it was Bank Holiday weekend, there were lots of people splashing around in the falls.  We enjoyed our visit there and stayed for 5 nights, seeing the Cascade Falls,Wangi Falls, Tolmer Falls and Walker Creek.
We met some fellow ACC members from Perth, who were attending the Muster in Bingara in October, we had them over for Happy Hour and exchanged addresses, promising to meet up in Bingara.
We went back to Batchelor for more shopping and to make phone calls and check Internet, as there was no service in the Park.
We had another visit to Buley Waterhole and took a picnic lunch there and enjoyed the sunshine.

There were many huge Termite Mounds in the Park

Dundee Beach NT

Dundee Beach is about 150 kms from Darwin. We drove there via the Finnis River ( where the crocoldile "Sweetheart" was caught)  The guys wanted to try their hand at fishing, so put their lines in, but no luck.

The beach was quite pretty and we sat under the palm trees eating fish and chips from the beach store.

Darwin/Dawn Princess/Aviation Heritage Centre/Sunseton Mindil Beach/Parliament House/WW2 Quilt

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Darwin NT

Our first outing in Darwin was to drive into the CBD and find the Information Centre to gather some information on what were the best tourist sites to see.
We drove out to Fanny Bay, where the water was a gorgeous tourquise colour, and had a visit to the Gaol - which was closed down a few years ago and is just a museum. After that we cruised around looking for a tyre place - Dick needed new tyres for his truck, Rick had a few running repairs to do to the caravan and truck, then  we stopped at the local supermarket for supplies

Next day we drove into the CBD again and walked around the Esplanade from where we could see the"Dawn Princess" in the dock - it was only there for the day,and we saw lots of passengers doing a short visit to Darwin before the ship sailed at 5 p.m. for Singapore - some said they were onboard for 103 days,going "right around".  We then drove along the beaches and had a visit to the WW2 Memorial museum and after that had lunch at "Casuarina Mall" which is Darwin's biggest shopping Mall - it was huge !!!

It was our Wedding anniversary the next day,unfortunately I wasn't well,so we just stayed around the caravan all day, reading and relaxing.

We had been watching a group of F18 Hornets zooming through the air on a couple of mornings, so we went to the Heritage Airplane Museum and had a guided tour of the huge hanger which housed a B52 Bomber as well as many other airplanes,which was very interesting.  Whilst we were there the F18s flew over and the guys all ran outside to watch them.  We went back to the caravans for lunch and in the afternoon went into town again and drove to the Mindil Markets which had been suggested to us.  There were many stalls with food of all kinds, plus many jewellery stalls and other "stuff".  We had decided to split up and meet at a designated place at 6pm to have dinner and go onto the beach to watch the sunset,which was gorgeous - the sun sinking into the sea with it's reflection on the water.

The F18s had been flying overhead around 10.30 am each day, so we decided to go to the airport to see them on the runway - we waited for some time in the departure lounge and were disappointed that the planes were not flying again until next week.We drove down to the East Point wharf in Darwin and walked along until we found a coffee shop and sat over looking the water to enjoy it.. After that we went through the WW2 Oil Storage tunnels under the city before going into Smith Street Mall for some lunch. We then walked to Parliament House and looked around in there- a huge celing, outside a lovely water feature and it all looked over the bay. Almost next door was the Library,so we looked through there,there was a huge quilt  on the wall with yellowish coloured bricks with the names of the people killed in the WW2 bombing of Darwin.. We sat in on a Court session of the Supreme Court for about half an hour, where the guilty man was lucky to be given a very light sentence - no gaol, but a fine for using Cannabis ( growing it himself for his own use).