For all those who have been enquiring about how to make a comment
Just click on the "comments" section at the bottom of the page entry. IE it says "0 Comments" or "1 Comments". It will come up with a box that says "Post a Comment". Type what you want in it. Then leave comment as Google Account. This might require you to have a gmail account, I don't know.
Tennant creek show did not live up to expectations, the only bronco to be seen barked, had painted toe nails and wore a designer label jacket. No bull riding, no horse riding, no wood chopping as we had promised the kids but there was a dog show, so they got to pat a couple of dogs, but that was a trip into the bizarre, only one owner had any social skills and talked to us, others just looked right through you, though the fact that Gordon and I were obviously holding back hysterical laughter may have contributed. A full size poodle, very obviously male – would have challenged some of the bulls, but clipped to have several pompoms up his legs, bare bottom and then several more pompoms along his body, and the woman was most proud of it.
The excess on the show bags was so extreme that even the kids commented on it. The volume of showbag purchases seemed inversely proportional to the frequency of washing and deodorant use. There was so much trash on the ground that Jack repeatedly commented, describing it like walking through the garbage tip.
Had been a bit worried about the accommodation as all the comments on all the motels in Tennant creek were negative, the place was a bit old and basically bessa brick squares but clean and the guy could not have been more helpful even when he thought the kids were very crazy for wanting to go for a swim.
Packed up early the next morning and headed for Katherine. More gun barrel and at a potential 130 km hour ate up the kms very quickly other than trying to pass some of the massive rigs, the biggest yet has been a bus with a trailer set up behind it carrying a small 4x4 plus boat plus outboard, with the cross winds they get a bit of a sway up and are almost as difficult as the road trains.
Katherine was surprisingly large even had a Golden Arches, much to the children’s delight. Stocked up on some essentials after paying $5.00 for a packet of Salada, staying in a really nice van park, they have enough water to have the hose going all the time on the grass. Much to Jack’s delight got some washing done, he has grown since leaving home and some of his pants no longer fit, feeling a bit squashed in with some of his pants. Off to Katherine Gorge with the intention of a walk but managed to get from the car park to the visitors centre, then to the picnic area and decided that the water was the only place we were going it was over 30 degrees which came as a bit of a shock considering a couple of days before we had ski gear on – best of intentions, booked in for a boat trip up the Gorge the next day to make up for our slackness. The rangers assured us and about 20 others that there were no crocs near the swimming area that all the salties had been trapped and all the paddlers would have driven the freshwater crocs away, just to reassure ourselves we sent Jack in first, this was after spotting the croc trap which was bigger than our car across the river. All managed to swim without incident for about an hour before bunking out for a relaxing evening around the park pool and watching the line up of Saturn, Mars & Jupiter (I think). Kids so exhausted from the heat and swimming that they were asleep before their head hit the pillow and we weren’t far behind.
Provided light entertainment for some of the long term vanners packing up the next morning and got the updates on all points north (no-one is shy about telling you where you should go and what to see). Slight delay in getting away in searching for Jack’s football – (so exhausted he had washed it and set it out to dry but forgotten to take it to bed with him). There had been a bit of a party going on in one of the tents and it would seem one of the boys had spied it and given it a boot across the park, thankfully it wasn’t our van it landed on at 2 am.
Back out to the Gorge for the boat trip which was spectacular, so immense it is very hard to capture it. Managed to see 2 fresh water crocs much to Jack’s delight. Didn’t through Jack in again to see if we could tempt some more out, there were people mumbling things about irresponsible parents when we made the suggestion.
New day, new van park – Jabiru (have managed to maneuver into several sites without wiping out any mailboxes), again lush with own ensuite which is very nice. . Actually managed a couple of walks here. Mamukala, a hide in the wetlands where you can look out over a vast wet plain to view birdlife – not a lot there actually, but being evil parents we also dragged the kids around a circuit track along a peninsula near the hide (about an hour) that gave us a feel for the vastness of the floodplain when the wet is on. The other walkers almost got used to hearing I’m hot!, how long now?, do we have do this? On the way back went to the Visitor Centre (Bowali) which is again really well done & terrifically informative across a wide range of subject matter, Jack really got into it especially the stuffed crocodile hanging from the roof but the highlight for Morgie was the slushy from the coffee shop. Jack’s main focus after this was to make himself a spear, so did a midnight raid on the field in the back of the van park to find a suitable branch. Saw a very skinny dingo which Gordon flashed with the torch, and Morgan howled at – he decided it was all too much and took off smartly.
Made ourselves very familiar with the local pool – too cold for the locals to swim so surprising few people, the local bakery – brilliant bread and cakes to almost rival Crescent Head cake shop which we have voted the best in the world. Ate out at the competition van park for dinner, with us sipping beer by the pool side whilst the kids wore themselves out swimming. Jack managed to work up enough of an appetite to do damage to most of a family size pizza by himself.
Got up early for a walk at Ubirr the next morning – managed to drag the kids out with the promise of a late breakfast at the bakery. Morgie had some snacks but Jack knocked back even a lolly at the thought of having free choice at the bakery. Got there just before the gates opened, so checked out the local river while we waited. Saw someone standing on the weir fishing! in croc country. Temporary Australian I think. Went into the site to find a ranger talk at the place we were viewing. Stayed for the talk, which was great, interpretive of the place were standing on that gave us much better insights into what we were seeing. Went on a circuit walk of about 1k which took us to a variety of painting sites. Also went up onto a lookout which gave us a great view over the wetland, again giving us some sense of the vastness of the wetland below the escarpment. Kids swear they saw some rock wallabies that no-one else managed to spot. Cruised by the entrance to Ranger Mine just cause we could, almost drove on the Jabiru air strip in turning around! Easy to do no barriers or warnings just bitumen and a windsock.
Went on then to Nourlangie Rock, yet another walk, much to Morgie’s disgust with hills to boot. Somewhat confusing as well, as on arriving the signage calls everything contrary names to the road signs. From here we went on the Yellow River cruise. It was spectacular, heaps of bird life and crocs, Jack so excited, the first one we saw was over 5 m long Jack swung from being anxious to increadibly excited, the poor woman sitting next us took it all very well. Got to watch the sun set over the fields of water lilies before all the kids on board got to cruise the boat home. Off to Darwin tomorrow.
Just click on the "comments" section at the bottom of the page entry. IE it says "0 Comments" or "1 Comments". It will come up with a box that says "Post a Comment". Type what you want in it. Then leave comment as Google Account. This might require you to have a gmail account, I don't know.
Tennant creek show did not live up to expectations, the only bronco to be seen barked, had painted toe nails and wore a designer label jacket. No bull riding, no horse riding, no wood chopping as we had promised the kids but there was a dog show, so they got to pat a couple of dogs, but that was a trip into the bizarre, only one owner had any social skills and talked to us, others just looked right through you, though the fact that Gordon and I were obviously holding back hysterical laughter may have contributed. A full size poodle, very obviously male – would have challenged some of the bulls, but clipped to have several pompoms up his legs, bare bottom and then several more pompoms along his body, and the woman was most proud of it.
The excess on the show bags was so extreme that even the kids commented on it. The volume of showbag purchases seemed inversely proportional to the frequency of washing and deodorant use. There was so much trash on the ground that Jack repeatedly commented, describing it like walking through the garbage tip.
Had been a bit worried about the accommodation as all the comments on all the motels in Tennant creek were negative, the place was a bit old and basically bessa brick squares but clean and the guy could not have been more helpful even when he thought the kids were very crazy for wanting to go for a swim.
Packed up early the next morning and headed for Katherine. More gun barrel and at a potential 130 km hour ate up the kms very quickly other than trying to pass some of the massive rigs, the biggest yet has been a bus with a trailer set up behind it carrying a small 4x4 plus boat plus outboard, with the cross winds they get a bit of a sway up and are almost as difficult as the road trains.
Katherine was surprisingly large even had a Golden Arches, much to the children’s delight. Stocked up on some essentials after paying $5.00 for a packet of Salada, staying in a really nice van park, they have enough water to have the hose going all the time on the grass. Much to Jack’s delight got some washing done, he has grown since leaving home and some of his pants no longer fit, feeling a bit squashed in with some of his pants. Off to Katherine Gorge with the intention of a walk but managed to get from the car park to the visitors centre, then to the picnic area and decided that the water was the only place we were going it was over 30 degrees which came as a bit of a shock considering a couple of days before we had ski gear on – best of intentions, booked in for a boat trip up the Gorge the next day to make up for our slackness. The rangers assured us and about 20 others that there were no crocs near the swimming area that all the salties had been trapped and all the paddlers would have driven the freshwater crocs away, just to reassure ourselves we sent Jack in first, this was after spotting the croc trap which was bigger than our car across the river. All managed to swim without incident for about an hour before bunking out for a relaxing evening around the park pool and watching the line up of Saturn, Mars & Jupiter (I think). Kids so exhausted from the heat and swimming that they were asleep before their head hit the pillow and we weren’t far behind.
Provided light entertainment for some of the long term vanners packing up the next morning and got the updates on all points north (no-one is shy about telling you where you should go and what to see). Slight delay in getting away in searching for Jack’s football – (so exhausted he had washed it and set it out to dry but forgotten to take it to bed with him). There had been a bit of a party going on in one of the tents and it would seem one of the boys had spied it and given it a boot across the park, thankfully it wasn’t our van it landed on at 2 am.
Back out to the Gorge for the boat trip which was spectacular, so immense it is very hard to capture it. Managed to see 2 fresh water crocs much to Jack’s delight. Didn’t through Jack in again to see if we could tempt some more out, there were people mumbling things about irresponsible parents when we made the suggestion.
New day, new van park – Jabiru (have managed to maneuver into several sites without wiping out any mailboxes), again lush with own ensuite which is very nice. . Actually managed a couple of walks here. Mamukala, a hide in the wetlands where you can look out over a vast wet plain to view birdlife – not a lot there actually, but being evil parents we also dragged the kids around a circuit track along a peninsula near the hide (about an hour) that gave us a feel for the vastness of the floodplain when the wet is on. The other walkers almost got used to hearing I’m hot!, how long now?, do we have do this? On the way back went to the Visitor Centre (Bowali) which is again really well done & terrifically informative across a wide range of subject matter, Jack really got into it especially the stuffed crocodile hanging from the roof but the highlight for Morgie was the slushy from the coffee shop. Jack’s main focus after this was to make himself a spear, so did a midnight raid on the field in the back of the van park to find a suitable branch. Saw a very skinny dingo which Gordon flashed with the torch, and Morgan howled at – he decided it was all too much and took off smartly.
Made ourselves very familiar with the local pool – too cold for the locals to swim so surprising few people, the local bakery – brilliant bread and cakes to almost rival Crescent Head cake shop which we have voted the best in the world. Ate out at the competition van park for dinner, with us sipping beer by the pool side whilst the kids wore themselves out swimming. Jack managed to work up enough of an appetite to do damage to most of a family size pizza by himself.
Got up early for a walk at Ubirr the next morning – managed to drag the kids out with the promise of a late breakfast at the bakery. Morgie had some snacks but Jack knocked back even a lolly at the thought of having free choice at the bakery. Got there just before the gates opened, so checked out the local river while we waited. Saw someone standing on the weir fishing! in croc country. Temporary Australian I think. Went into the site to find a ranger talk at the place we were viewing. Stayed for the talk, which was great, interpretive of the place were standing on that gave us much better insights into what we were seeing. Went on a circuit walk of about 1k which took us to a variety of painting sites. Also went up onto a lookout which gave us a great view over the wetland, again giving us some sense of the vastness of the wetland below the escarpment. Kids swear they saw some rock wallabies that no-one else managed to spot. Cruised by the entrance to Ranger Mine just cause we could, almost drove on the Jabiru air strip in turning around! Easy to do no barriers or warnings just bitumen and a windsock.
Went on then to Nourlangie Rock, yet another walk, much to Morgie’s disgust with hills to boot. Somewhat confusing as well, as on arriving the signage calls everything contrary names to the road signs. From here we went on the Yellow River cruise. It was spectacular, heaps of bird life and crocs, Jack so excited, the first one we saw was over 5 m long Jack swung from being anxious to increadibly excited, the poor woman sitting next us took it all very well. Got to watch the sun set over the fields of water lilies before all the kids on board got to cruise the boat home. Off to Darwin tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment