Week 3 photo roundup

Hi all,
We are lounging around in Darwin in the warmth.  We are in a campsite with power this week so it is fairly luxurious. The weekly round up this week comes as a series of photo shots.  Hope you enjoy it!
We continue to have a good time.  There have been a few hassles this week but nothing we couldn't sort out.  On Monday, the girls both got stung almost simultaneously as they passed by a bush at the Douglas Hot Springs.  Both cried lustily as it must have really hurt.  Mal did a Bear Grylls impersonation and bush bashed a track back to the car off the trail to get them some help.  We poured cold water on the sting sites and then administered Claratyne to both and we watched as the biggest weals I have ever seen appeared on their skin - Rachel's arm and Eloise's neck.  We put them both in the car, turned on the Air con and administered icy cold water by mouth (the fridge really came to the fore on this day- thanks to all my colleagues at school who have been sick which has allowed me to get work and to then purchase the fridge in the first place!) A 30 minute drive back to camp and a cool shower all helped and by the next morning things were back to normal.  Eloise kept saying she had fire on her neck so it must have been a nasty stinger thing.  The other casualties this week are a broken fog light from a stray stone off a roadtrain and a loose rear wheel flange (pulled off the car in Katherine in the Woolies carpark after we declined to help the local indigenous folk buy a slab of beer).  Mal has gaff taped it and it has done some pretty rough roads this week on the way here so gaff tape gets the prize this week for the most useful thing in the rig.  We will see a Toyota dealer here on Monday to get that sorted before we hit the Gibb River Road.  We also woke to a hot fridge and a rank smell a couple of days ago to find that our trailer battery died overnight.  I drew the short straw to clean it out and certainly earned my bottle of Bundaberg that night!  We have had the mobile battery man to the trailer this morning and he is returning with a heavy duty monster battery which will see us right for a while. Thanks to all who have texted, phoned or even tried to without success!  We are very often not in a place with signal which makes contact with us hard.  It has been great to chat with those of you who have managed to call at just the right time.  Thanks for the texts and emails. 

Katherine Gorge at Nitmiluk National Park. This photo is from the second gorge for those who have been here.

Swimming at the Lily Ponds Rockhole at Katherine Gorge.  We swam in the waterfall and in the waterhole in front of it.  Someone had to get out to take the photo and today, it was me!

River crossing in Litchfield National Park.  The crossing was up over the running boards and we fitted the water bra to the car before attempting this one.  Lots of fun and the Blyth Homestead at the end of the track was very humbling.  How anyone lived out here in the 1920's in complete isolation with no power or running water, far less the lady who lived here and had 14 children over 27 years makes my mind boggle.  Tough people to survive this lifestyle.

Me and the girls swimming in the Buley Rockholes in Litchfield National Park.  This time it was Mal's time to get out and take the picture.  For those of you who know my aversion to cold water, it may surprise you to see me in this waterfall - it was so hot and the water was just so refreshing and clean and clear and so lovely compared to swimming in a pool back home.  Bit of a water theme happening this week - watch out for next week's installment with Mal's big barra catch - which I am confident he will bag this week coming!!

Good, bad and ugly - The good thing this week was the free bush camp in Litchfield and the swimming in Buley rockholes and the 4WD tracks we did and the awesome capability of the car to get us to these places.  The bad was the deep cycle coming to an abrupt halt in the trailer, and the ugly would have to be cleaning the fridge out the next day.  Give me a vomiting student any day!!

Dream Stealer award this week goes to the girl in the Tourist Info Centre here in Darwin who advised that accomodation and camping spots in Kakadu were impossible to come by without a week's booking in front.  I rang one of the camp sites in Jabiru to be sure we had somewhere to pull up if we missed out next week on free sites in Kakadu - the lady there has owned the joint for 20 years and has NEVER had to turn someone away from lack of spaces.  So, Dream Stealers nil, Crawford's 3.

Love and kisses - Eloise is making us lunch today so time to go and sink my teeth into my bread roll.
Mal,Jane, Rachel and Eloise