Darwin – Barkly Roadhouse

After Nhulunbuy (Gove) we flew back to Darwin on the same flight as the other 4 tourists that were there. To say we were shell-shocked by Nhulunbuy would be an understatement. The plane was almost empty on the way back, I guess not many workers fly out Saturday night. Nhulunbuy was such a different experience, we know it will leave us with lasting memories and it’s made a big impression on us. Will we go back? No. If we knew what we know now would we have gone in the 1^st place, most definitely. And seeing it’s over 600 kms each way of rough dirt road to drive there I’m really glad we didn’t do that to get there.

We had two nights in Darwin before Justin and Mel arrived at midnight. It was really great to see them both so after picking them up in the morning it was off to the Sailing Club for lunch overlooking the bay.

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We went into Litchfield National Park and enjoyed a swim in there.

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We drove to Kakadu for two nights at the Crocodile Hotel. We did the jumping crocodile cruise at Adelaide River on the way there and despite my fears that this wouldn’t be that good turned out to be a really good cruise, not that commercial and we saw many jumping crocs. They are such lazy creatures it’s a wonder anyone ever gets taken by them when swimming.

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Justin and Mel did the helicopter flight over Kakadu which they raved about afterwards.

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We went to Ubirr Rock for the sunset with snacks and drinks but you’re not allowed to have alcohol there so it was just snacks.

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Jayne had the full Margarita kit with us for drinks either before or after our climb on the rock but by the time we finished we had to race back to the Sports Club for dinner, so it was Margaritas after dinner drinks back at the hotel.

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The kids flew out on Sunday night which left us wondering just how quick we can get back to Sydney from Darwin.

We had to wash the van before we left Darwin as it was parked under a tree for 19 nights and the birds made sure they never missed our van everytime they did what birds do. It was an absolute mess and it would have stained if we didn’t clean it off. So after much hard work in 35⁰ heat it was clean.

We high-tailed it to Cape Crawford where we had stayed with the kids 25 years ago, the place hadn’t changed at all. Then we pushed onto the Barkly Roadhouse.

Today it’s off to Mt Isa and from there we still don’t know which way we’ll be using to go home. We’ll have to wait to see if the car turns left, right or goes straight there!