Middle Lagoon

20130821-202412.jpgFrom Broome we headed north to the top of the Western Australian coastline and spent a glorious week relaxing and ‘taking a break from our holiday’ at Middle Lagoon.

Our week went a little something like this ……………………………………

Swimming

Swimming

Kayaking

Kayaking

The mission to build the biggest and best sandcastle we have ever made!

The mission to build the biggest and best sandcastle we have ever made!

Hard Work!

Hard Work!

Getting There

Getting There

Family effort with the help of some ringins!

Family effort with the help of some ringins!

The finished product - not a bad effort!

The finished product – not a bad effort!

Sunsets

Sunsets

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And lots of campfires!

And lots of campfires!

What it is all about!

What it is all about!

Middle Lagoon is a two and a half hour drive from Broome along a pretty rough, red sand and dirt, corrugated road, but it is worth the drive.  We did get a bit of a surprise when we reached the Middle Lagoon turn off the Cape Leveque Road and then realised we still had just over 30kms still to go!  And the road in to Middle Lagoon was rougher than what we had already travelled on the Cape Leveque Road so it was a very long drive!

The road in to Middle Lagoon

The road in to Middle Lagoon

Red sand and corrugations all the way

Red sand and corrugations all the way

We stayed at Nature’s Hideaway Campground at Middle Lagoon on an excellent site called site 5 on the Terraces (or Snob Hill as Trice and Geoff called it hehehe!).  Although it wasn’t directly overlooking the water like you can see in this picture (and those sites were spectacular!)

Beautiful ocean front sites!

Beautiful ocean front sites!

we really liked our site because we could still see the water but we had lots of shade too which the ocean front ones didn’t.  The shade was really nice to have in the afternoon when it was too hot at the beach and we just wanted to be chilling out around camp.

Our lovely shady spot - still with water views - the kids had lots of friends come to visit and play lego with them!

Our lovely shady spot – still with water views – the kids had lots of friends come to visit and play lego with them!

Relaxing watching a movie in the camper one afternoon.

Relaxing watching a movie in the camper one afternoon.

We did lots of relaxing at Middle Lagoon but we also had lots of fun as it just worked out that also here at the same time were the family we had meet at Lake Argyle (Geoff & Trice and the kids), plus the Rollason family we met at Cable Beach and another family we had met in the caravan park in Broome!  The kids had a ball having lots of friends to play with and Matt and I enjoyed some friends to talk to as well!  We were lucky enough to be given one night, a dinner’s worth of freshly caught spanish mackeral from a lovely couple at a neighbouring campsite.  This fish came to us filleted and all so all we had to do was cook it over the fire – it was so delicious!!!

Getting our hot plate ready to cook our fish

Getting our hot plate ready to cook our fish

Fish and Chips Middle Lagoon Style

Fish and Chips Middle Lagoon Style

Our delicious dinner - best fish we have ever tasted!

Our delicious dinner – best fish we have ever tasted!

The next day Matt and the boys were lucky enough to go out with Geoff in his tinnie and try a bit of fishing themselves!  Even though they came home empty handed they were so lucky having got to see whales, dolphins, a big sea turtle and lots of different types of fish!  The boys had a great time and Geoff we are so grateful to you for taking them all out!

Off fishing in Geoff's boat!

Off fishing in Geoff’s boat!

We really didn’t do much at Middle Lagoon – we spent a big day trip out exploring Cape Leveque and surrounds but other than that we just ‘stopped’ and although it was a little hard to make ourselves do it when there is so much to do and see – we’re really glad we did as it was a great rest.

An easy place to slow down for a week!

An easy place to slow down for a week!

Campfires every night.

Campfires every night.

On our last night at Middle Lagoon we decided to head off and explore some of the 4wd tracks around the lagoon – we ended up on our own private little beach to watch the sun set – it was beautiful!

Our own little beach all to ourselves!

Our own little beach all to ourselves!

Come and see .........

Come and see ………

A sunset picnic

A sunset picnic

Seen enough photos of this ugly mob yet???

Seen enough photos of this ugly mob yet???

Sunset

Sunset

20130821-203249.jpg 20130821-202859.jpg 20130821-203324.jpgMiddle Lagoon was probably my favourite place of the whole trip – it was worth leaving Broome for!

 

 

Categories: Camping, Travel, WA Camping | Tags: , | 6 Comments

Broome

20130819-220911.jpgWe know you have already seen lots of photos from Broome from our little video but we wanted to include a post about what we got up to in Broome for the five days we were there.  The short answer is not a lot!  Lots of swimming and hanging out at the beach watching sunsets mostly!  We loved Broome!

From Lake Argyle we had a big day in the car and pushed three quarters of the way along the just over 1,000 kilometres to Broome along the Great Northern Highway.  Unfortunately as we were now running on a time schedule we had to bypass the Bungle Bungles on this trip – definitely something we would like to visit next time though!!  We camped at a rest area just west of Fitzroy Crossing for the night and managed to get up and away early the next morning (second rig out of the campsite that day – a record for us – it is very difficult to beat the Grey Nomads onto the road in the mornings!!!) and we arrived in Broome just after 10.30am in the morning.  We managed to get a great site close to the amenities and pool at the Cable Beach Caravan Park.  The caravan park was huge and filled to the brim but it was lovely and shady with very clean and modern amenities.  The swimming pool was fantastic and the kids loved it even though it was freezing cold while we were there.  It was expensive at about $70 per night for our family of five but all of the accommodation in Broome is expensive so we thought it was pretty good value for money!  There were aqua aerobics classes happening in the pool and craft circles and a muscian performed one night we were there too so definitely heaps to do at the caravan park and the staff were lovely!

Kids built a cubby house on our great site at Cable Beach Caravan Park

Kids built a cubby house on our great site at Cable Beach Caravan Park

Kids cubby house

Kids cubby house

Awesome swimming pool at Cable Beach Caravan Park

Awesome swimming pool at Cable Beach Caravan Park

Even though we really liked the Cable Beach Caravan Park, I think next time we would stay at the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park  which is closer to town and located right on the beach at Roebuck Bay.  It is also right beside a great kids playground and small water park and has a nice little cafe right on site.  I don’t know what the amenities etc are like at the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park but we spent a lovely morning at Roebuck Bay exploring the rock pools and playing in the playground and water park – it would have been great to be camped right there I think – definitely with small kids like ours who dig all that stuff!

Exploring the rock pools at Roebuck Bay

Exploring the rock pools at Roebuck Bay

Water park at Roebuck Bay

Water park at Roebuck Bay

Lex not wanting her photo taken at Roebuck Bay - I was trying to capture the beautiful colour of the water!!

Lex not wanting her photo taken at Roebuck Bay – I was trying to capture the beautiful colour of the water!!

We spent a couple of afternoons watching the sun set over cable beach which was just spectacular and a real treat to watch the sun set over the water for us East Coasters!!  Matt got sooooooo many great photos down there it was hard to choose just a couple for the blog!

It was soooooo exciting to arrive in Broome after so long in the cold and dirt and dust - we were all in heaven!!

It was soooooo exciting to arrive in Broome after so long in the cold and dirt and dust – we were all in heaven!!

First swim at Cable Beach

First swim at Cable Beach

Peter Prado on the beach - so different to the dirt & dust!

Peter Prado on the beach – so different to the dirt & dust!

The camels on the beach at sunset really are beautiful

The camels on the beach at sunset really are beautiful

The photographer!

The photographer!

Sunset

Sunset

We caught up with Matt’s Dad and Rema again in Broome and finally cracked open our bottle of champagne (a gift from Hans & Ang when we left Brissbane – thank you guys!!!) on the beach for an evening picnic!  We also met another lovely family that afternoon (big hello to the Rollason family – their blog is Rollinroundoz – check it out for some great photos!) and the kids had a great time playing with their new friend ‘Sam’ (sorry James – they just kept calling you that – I think you will always be Sam in our house!).  We got to meet up with the Rollason’s again at Middle Lagoon which was great!

Sunset picnic to finally open our bottle of champagne from Ang & Hans!

Sunset picnic to finally open our bottle of champagne from Ang & Hans!

Just your ordinary day for Peter Prado - on the beach with camels walking past!

Just your ordinary day for Peter Prado – on the beach with camels walking past!

The car park that is Cable Beach at sunset!

The car park that is Cable Beach at sunset!

The kids playing with their friend James

The kids playing with their friend James

And we did of course do a camel ride which was fantastic!  Pretty reasonably priced at I think $140 for our whole family for a pre-sunset ride of 45minutes.  We choose the pre-sunset ride because it was the cheapest and shortest.  We thought that would be long enough for the kids and we wanted to be able to watch the camels go past at sunset – not be riding them – we were pretty happy with our decision.

Poppy & Rema came down to watch us do our camel ride

Poppy & Rema came down to watch us do our camel ride

We choose the Blue Camel tour - run by Broome's original camel lady Alison Bird - and I got a few pair of tiny pearl earrings!

We choose the Blue Camel tour – run by Broome’s original camel lady Alison Bird – and I got a pair of tiny pearl earrings!

Tobes was a little bit frightened!

Tobes was a little bit frightened!

Lots of fun - definitely worth the $$$$

Lots of fun – definitely worth the $$$$

We also spent a lovely afternoon at Gantheaume Point.  We had a wonder around the rocks up at the Lighthouse where at certain times of the month with very low tides you can spot dinosaur footprints – unfortunately the tide was too high when we were there.  We ended up bumping into our next door neighbour from the campground (hello Marika and the boys!) at the point and they were very kind letting our kids have a turn on their surfboard and skim boards in exchange for a go on the green kayak. Lex and I had a good paddle around on the kayaks.  It was another beautiful afternoon!

Gantheaume Point

Gantheaume Point

Gantheaume Point

Gantheaume Point

Kayakers in the water at Gantheaume Point

Kayakers in the water at Gantheaume Point

Kayaking

Kayaking

Fun in the surf!

Fun in the surf!

Toby's first go at surfing and he managed to stand up first go - it was a fantastic surfboard for kids - thanks Marika!!

Toby’s first go at surfing and he managed to stand up first go – it was a fantastic surfboard for kids – thanks Marika!!

Jacko's first turn too - they made it look easy!

Jacko’s first turn too – they made it look easy!

Beautiful sunset Gantheaume Point

Beautiful sunset Gantheaume Point

On our last day in Broome we spent the morning at Riddell Beach.  It was rockier and redder than Cable Beach but we loved it as we had it to ourselves – it was very quiet!  On the way home we picked up some fresh prawns from the fish co-op and had yummy prawn sandwiches for lunch – so good!

Lex having a go in the kayak at Riddell Beach

Lex having a go in the kayak at Riddell Beach

Oh – nearly forgot – we also squeezed in a lunch at Matso’s Brewery which overlooks Roebuck Bay – reasonably priced and delicious!  We had a voucher for a free tasting paddle with lunch so Matt was happy!

Lunch at Matso's Brewery

Lunch at Matso’s Brewery

Mmmmmmm ....... Beer!

Mmmmmmm ……. Beer!

While we were in Broome I also managed a morning out by myself which was bliss!  I got some essential waxing done, checked out the shops and bought a new pair of togs – awesome!  Matt got his turn too and headed to the physio for a massage to try and sort his sore back out (lots of time in the drivers seat the problem we think!) – it didn’t really help but any time out on your own is a bonus!

I wish we had more time in Broome, it is a place that weeks could easily be spent in the blink of an eye!!  Loved it, loved it!

Sooooo hard to drag the kids away from the beach at sunset!

Sooooo hard to drag the kids away from the beach at sunset!

Categories: Camping, WA Camping | Tags: , | 9 Comments

Lake Argyle

20130816-214949.jpgLake Argyle was spectacular.  When we left Brisbane we hadn’t even really heard of Lake Argyle and did not have any plans to stop in there.  However, nearly every person we spoke to along the way on the trip said we had to go in and see it and we are so glad we did – it is really difficult to explain how beautiful it was.  So, some photos first.

The drive in to Lake Argyle was really pretty

The drive in to Lake Argyle was really pretty

Our campsite at Lake Argyle

Our campsite at Lake Argyle

The amazing infinity pool

The amazing infinity pool – it was freezing though!!!

The pool was an attraction in its own right!

The pool was an attraction in its own right!

The Dam wall

The Dam wall

At the lookout over the dam wall

At the lookout over the dam wall

The Ord River & release valves

The Ord River & release valves

Nice picnic spot at the bottom of the dam wall

Nice picnic spot at the bottom of the dam wall

The Lake is massive!  It is Australia’s largest fresh water lake and covers an area of more than 900 square kilometres!  We camped for two nights at the campground there and one of the perks of having our trip shortened was that we have been able to splash out on a few things we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford to do and one of those was a sunset cruise on the Lake.  We all really enjoyed the cruise which was good as it was very expensive!!!  The cruise started at 1pm in the reception area with a history on the building of the lake and we then spent the rest of the afternoon until about 6pm cruising around on the lake.  The photos give you a bit of an idea of what we got to see …………………

Cruising

Cruising

The boys got to have a go at driving the boat

The boys got to have a go at driving the boat

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We all loved looking out the back of the boat

We all loved looking out the back of the boat

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We got to spot our first freshwater crocodile

We got to spot our first freshwater crocodile

Fish feeding time

Fish feeding time

Euros on one of the islands on the lake

Euros on one of the islands on the lake

Just beautiful

Just beautiful

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Matt jumping off the roof of the boat for a swim in the lake

Matt jumping off the roof of the boat for a swim in the lake

Jack got in too but he was very nervous about swimming with freshwater crocodiles

Jack got in too but he was very nervous about swimming with freshwater crocodiles – beers were thrown out to all those swimming

Sunset

Sunset

Just beautiful

Just beautiful

The cruise was extravagant but we all loved it!  The other great thing about Lake Argyle was that we met a lovely family from Townsville here and spent a great night chatting to them around the campfire – we then got to meet up with them again at Middle Lagoon and it has been a real highlight of the trip for us to meet some great new friends!  Big shout out to Geoff, Trice and the kids – we’ll catch up with you again back in Far North Qld!!!

Lake Argyle is a definite must see in our book!!!

Cool guy performing some good music at the pub at the campground - he plays regularly at the Newfarm bowls club for any Brisbaneites!

Cool guy performing some good music at the pub at the campground – he plays regularly at the Newfarm bowls club for any Brisbaneites!

Great campfire at Lake Argyle

Great campfire at Lake Argyle

Categories: WA Camping | Tags: , | 6 Comments

Our Trip Playlist for the Car

We thought it would be interesting to record our favourite songs from the trip that have been on high rotation in our car. These are the songs that have us all bopping and singing along at the top of our voices!

1. Day That I Die
2. Toes
3. Free
4. Knee Deep
5. Goodbye in her Eyes
(All Zac Brown Band above! Of course!)
6. Sand on the beach – Cheap Fakes
7. Down on the farm
8. Next 30 years
9. Don’t take the girl
(Those 3 were Tim McGraw)
10. Hurricane – Bob Dylan
11. Blowing in the Wind – Bob Dylan
12. Who’s that girl?
13. Battle scars
14. Get along
(Those were Guy Sebastian – we blame Aunty Kate for those ones!)
15. Country Roads – John Denver
16. Leaving on a Jet Plane – John Denver
17. Rip Rip Wood Chip
18. True Blue
19. Australia calling
20. Crocodile Roll
21. Boogey with me Baby
(John Williamson – Grammy & Grunda’s influence there!)
22. Crocmen – Bindi
23. You are my sunshine
24. Stoink – Cheap Fakes
25. Lygon st Meltdown
(Melbourne Ska Ochestra)
26.Revolution
27. One Way Road
(John Butler)
27. Feather – Nick & Leisal
28. Flyswatter – Eels
29. Ray Ray – Fat Freddy’s Drop
30. Waltzing Matilda
31. Home among the gum trees

Then fill out the rest of the playlist with the Zac Brown Band albums!
In particular
No hurry
Martin
Highway 20 drive
Island Song
Chicken Fried
Could go on forever – just download them all!

Our Audio Books (these have been fantastic!)
Len beadell story (thanks Grandma – this was really interesting & funny!)
BFG
Famous Five (numerous stories – we love these – thanks Aunty Beth!!)
Matilda
The magic faraway tree
The enchanted wood
The folk of the faraway tree
Winnie the Pooh
Wind in the willows

Okay – we’ve got the whole trip back now with some very long days in the car so we need some new material – let us know some favourite in car songs that we should be listening to please!!! C’mon help a family out here!!

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Katherine to Kununurra

Loved seeing all the Boab trees as we came into WA - there may just be a few photos of them to come!

Loved seeing all the Boab trees as we came into WA – there may just be a few photos of them to come!

Once we had decided that we were going to head back north to Mareeba in a month’s time to be Mango farmers – we decided that we would push over to Western Australia as quickly as possible to at least get a couple of weeks on the beach there before our trip was over.  So we headed out of Katherine and aimed for Kununurra where we had managed to phone ahead and book the car in for a service and new tyres which it needed in order to do the many kilometres we had ahead of us!  The service and tyres were much cheaper in Kununurra then in Katherine and we could not get the car serviced in Katherine until the end of August – that was how far ahead they were booked out!!  So on our last night at Katherine Gorge – I cooked up as much of our veges as I could in a pre-cooked dinner for the next night, made a banana bread with our bananas and shoved as much apples, carrots and celery into the kids as I could manage in preparation for our crossing over the border into WA where you are not allowed to bring any fruit or veges in with you.

On the way out of Katherine we had a quick dip in the hot springs which were just lovely – we thought they were as good as Mataranka!20130815-200321.jpg 20130815-200332.jpg 20130815-200451.jpg 20130815-200413.jpg

The drive from Katherine to Kununurra is just over 500km’s and is quite a scenic drive.  We stopped for lunch at the Victoria River Roadhouse and we showed the kids how to eat tomatoes like apples here (with plenty of salt) to finish off the bag of tomatoes I was still carting – I had offloaded a bag of carrots at the campground that morning but forgot about the tomatoes.

Nice scenary on the way to Kununurra

Nice scenary on the way to Kununurra

Lunch stop Victoria River Roadhouse

Lunch stop Victoria River Roadhouse

Lunchtime

Lunchtime

We were very excited to cross the border and the quarantine point in to Western Australia – madly eating the last of our apples as we approached the checkpoint!20130815-200950.jpgWe arrived in to Kununurra just before dark and found a site at the Kimberleyland Caravan Park on the recommendation of the ‘Families Travelling Australia’ Facebook group.  It was a lovely caravan park but very busy!  The caravan park is on the banks of the lake and has lots of shady sites (still dusty though!).  We arrived just in time to hear a pretty good musician performing in the park on the banks of the lake so we quickly set up camp and went down to watch.

We were all pretty excited to see green grass!

We were all pretty excited to see green grass!

Kids happy to be able to roll around and play without being covered in dust!

Kids happy to be able to roll around and play without being covered in dust!

Sunset at the campground

Sunset at the campground

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Peter Brandy performing at Kimberleyland Caravan Park

Peter Brandy performing at Kimberleyland Caravan Park

The 1.5hour change in timezone (back) messed with our body clocks a little as we were super tired by 8pm but we were all then up at 5am the next morning!  The early morning was ok though as we had to be checked out of the campground – dropped the camper off across the road at the park, and have the car dropped off at the mechanic all by 7am so for once we were happy to all be awake early.

We then spent most of the day having a nice breakfast at a lovely cafe called the ‘Wild Mango Cafe’ where we decided to do some ‘research’ in preparation for our mango farming journey ahead and try the pancakes with mango syrup as well as the mango smoothies – delicious!!

A treat breakfast out!

A treat breakfast out!

We then wandered around town and checked out all the shops before spending a couple of hours relaxing at the library where Toby and Lexi got to sit in with a local kindy class’s library session and Jack read another ‘Diary of the Wimpy Kid’ book.  Matt and I had a chance to research what we wanted to do with our time in WA and book our sites at Middle Lagoon and Cable Beach Caravan Park.  The Kununurra library was awesome – the best we have come across so far!

We made ourselves at home at the library!

We made ourselves at home at the library!

We finally picked Peter Prado up all spiffy looking with his new shoes and a morning at the ‘day spa’ and headed out to Lake Argyle at about 2pm.  A short but sweet stay in Kununurra.

Peter Prado with his spunky new BFG tyres!

Peter Prado with his spunky new BFG tyres!

 

Categories: NT Camping, WA Camping | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

So much to tell you!

I am madly trying to get this post out while we have reception here in Kununurra – we have sooooooo much we want to share with you all and after two weeks without any phone or internet reception – we have heaps to say!!!  We have just finished a very quick week on the Gibb River Road and are in Kununurra to refuel and restock on food before we spend our final week on the road heading back to Far North Qld.  I am sitting in the park ‘watching’ the kids in the playground and Matt is on the phone trying to get a few things organised for our arrival in Mareeba in ten days time.  From here – we are just going to drive each day until we decide to stop – lots of long days on the road coming up.  We are all feeling a bit sad that we did our last gorge hike at Emma Gorge this morning.  The last few weeks on the road have been amazing – so, so, so good!  Fingers crossed we get a bit of internet reception over the next few nights so I can pump a few posts out!

But, in the meantime, I thought I would give you a quick update on what we have been doing since I last did a proper blog entry about our time in Katherine Gorge.

From Katherine we headed over the border into new territory for all of us – Western Australia – very exciting!  We spent the first two days in Kununurra (yep – we have come full circle as that is where we are today!) getting Peter Prado serviced and new tyres.

Boab Tree in Kunnunurra

Boab Tree in Kunnunurra

Then we headed out to Lake Argyle which was spectacular!

Sunset boat cruise on Lake Argyle

Sunset boat cruise on Lake Argyle

From Lake Argyle we pushed over to Broome (you saw our little video of our time there – so good!).

My photographer boy in Broome!

My photographer boy in Broome!

We then spent a week camping at Middle Lagoon and exploring Cape Leveque which was just so beautiful and relaxing!

Quality time at Middle Lagoon

Quality time at Middle Lagoon

Epic sandcastle Matt & the kids built at Middle Lagoon

Epic sandcastle Matt & the kids built at Middle Lagoon

One Arm Point - beautiful!

One Arm Point – beautiful!

Cape Leveque

Cape Leveque

We dragged ourselves away from Middle Lagoon and after talking to lots of other families while we were staying there – we decided to do a quick one week trip along the Gibb River Road to commence our journey back to the East Coast.  The Gibb River Road was not quite the ‘highway’ everybody said it was – saying it was in very good condition – it was still pretty rough but we have had a great time!

Freshwater Crododiles at Windjiana Gorge

Freshwater Crododiles at Windjiana Gorge

Tunnell Creek was definitely a highlight of the trip - amazing!

Tunnell Creek was definitely a highlight of the trip – amazing!

Bell Gorge

Bell Gorge

Manning Gorge

Manning Gorge

Branco's Lookout - El Questro Station

Branco’s Lookout – El Questro Station

And now it is time to hit the road home.  More detailed blog posts on all the fun we have had very soon – fingers crossed for reception tonight!

 

 

 

Categories: Camping, WA Camping | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

We’re still alive!

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Just letting everybody know we are still alive! We have spent a wonderful week at Middle Lagoon and checking out Cape Leveque. Now we are about to do a very abridged trip along the Gibb River Road for the next seven days so unfortunately no phone reception again!

Heaps of blog posts to come next week! Hope you are all well!!

We are just leaving Derby now – fingers crossed for no mishaps on the Gibb!

Categories: Camping, WA Camping | 2 Comments

‘Toes in the Water’ in Broome

We’re jumping ahead a little with the blog posts, but we just wanted to share the fun we have been having here in Broome over the last few days, before we head out of reception tomorrow. We have loved, loved, loved our time in Broome. We will write a proper blog post about where we went, where we stayed, what we did etc when we are back in reception.

Enjoy Broome – Fealy Family style to the sounds of Zac Brown Band ‘Toes’.

Categories: Travel, WA Camping, Zac Brown Band | Tags: , | 15 Comments

Katherine Gorge

20130801-203656.jpgWe moved in to the national park campground at Katherine Gorge on Toby’s Birthday and spent the day eating birthday treats and hanging out by the nicest swimming pool we have come across so far!  The unpowered sites in the campground are lovely and shady and it is nice to be able to drive around and just choose a spot, and the big bonus is the free washing machines which we had been told about by some other travellers so I had saved up our washing to do here and put three loads on as soon as we arrived!  It did get very busy in the campground though.  We had two nights camping here and in that time we took a 4 hr, 3 gorges cruise and Matt and Jack did a walk up to the lookout at sunset.  We were a little disappointed as we had planned to spend a day kayaking and canoeing the gorge but when we went to organise our permits and canoe hire we were told that under 5’s were not allowed on the water at all (so that ruled Lexi out) and under 12’s were not allowed to paddle their own kayak/canoe so they boys weren’t able to paddle the little green kayak.  Such a bummer as I really think the best way to see the gorge would be from a canoe.  So that left us with really the only option of seeing the gorge via one of the fairly expensive for a family, boat cruise options.

We decided on the longer 3 gorge cruise as that included a swim at a waterfall.  Unfortunately the waterfall wasn’t flowing so our swim was just in one of the natural pools along the gorge, which was absolutely freezing and we were a little disappointed again!  The cruise was great – very informative and we had a very funny tour guide who made our time on the boat enjoyable.  On the morning of our cruise Katherine Gorge had a sudden cold snap and we were absolutely freezing on the boat in the shadows – fine when we were in the sun.  We enjoyed the cruise and even got to spot a few freshwater crocodiles!  The gorge is very beautiful, some of the longer walks around the area would be spectacular as would seeing the gorge in the wet season with all of the waterfalls flowing.  I had high expectations of Katherine Gorge as it was one of the sights I was most looking forward to seeing and although we felt like it fell a little short of our expectations – the gorge was quite spectacular and the campground was fantastic so still worth the visit!!

Cheeky wallabies at the campground who kept trying to get in to our rubbish!

Cheeky wallabies at the campground who kept trying to get in to our rubbish!

Our boat tour - it was quite tricky trying to get good photos on the cruise with heads and bars in the way a lot of the time!

Our boat tour – it was quite tricky trying to get good photos on the cruise with heads and bars in the way a lot of the time!

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We had to change boats 3 times - this was the first changeover point

We had to change boats 3 times – this was the first changeover point

Aboriginal Rock Art

Aboriginal Rock Art

'The Cathedrals' Katherine Gorge

‘The Cathedrals’ Katherine Gorge

Just cruising

Just cruising

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Our stop for a swim

Our stop for a swim

Swimming spot

Swimming spot

Matt and Jack braved the cold water in the gorge for a quick swim

Matt and Jack braved the cold water in the gorge for a quick swim

Family Shot - Katherine Gorge

Family Shot – Katherine Gorge

View from the lookout - Katherine Gorge

View from the lookout – Katherine Gorge

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Matt & Jack did the 2km return (fairly steep) climb to the lookout to watch the sunset over Katherine Gorge

Matt & Jack did the 2km return (fairly steep) climb to the lookout to watch the sunset over Katherine Gorge

Sunset

Sunset

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Categories: Camping, NT Camping | Tags: , | 4 Comments

Toby’s 6th Birthday

DSC_0018Okay – so I’m cheating a little here with this second post for the night – this is just a very quick one to record Toby’s 6th Birthday  which as I mentioned in an earlier post – we celebrated in Katherine – Katherine Gorge.

The morning started early as all birthdays do in our house – with a wake up and present opening!  Toby was very happy with his new Lightening McQueen Cars, Snorkel set (thanks Ma & Pa for the birthday money which bought the snorkel), Army Men, new audio books from Aunty Beth & Uncle Rod and a long awaited underwater camera of his own (just like big brother Jack!) from Grammy & Grunda – very spoilt!

My creative wrapping using the plastic birthday tablecloth!

My creative wrapping using the plastic birthday tablecloth!

Presents!

Presents!

After a breakfast of pancakes as requested by the birthday boy, we packed down and moved camp into the Katherine Gorge campground which just happened to have the most beautiful resort style swimming pool and free wi-fi and FREE washing machines – awesome campground.   So after a quick swim in the pool (it was freezing!) we had a small family birthday lunch.

Birthday Lunch with wrapping paper turned tablecloth!!

Birthday Lunch with wrapping paper turned tablecloth!!

Sometimes they love each other!

Sometimes they love each other!

DSC_0020After lunch Poppy & Rema joined us again after they had spent a few days in Darwin, so we filled in the afternoon with a game of soccer and an early pizza tea and birthday cake – Tobes deemed it the best birthday ever so we did ok for a birthday on the road!

A game of soccer!

A game of soccer!

The birthday boy and his new cap from Poppy & Rema

The birthday boy and his new cap from Poppy & Rema

Birthday Dinner

Birthday Dinner

Cake - the best I could do in the camper oven!

Cake – the best I could do in the camper oven!

Happy 6th Birthday to Toby!

Happy 6th Birthday to Toby!

 

 

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