4000kms later...

...we're writing one of our last blogentries for you!

It's only been a few weeks, but they were hectic, stressful and nervewrecking. Those weeks were full of driving, as we had to drive the huge distance from Townsville to Tennant Creek to Darwin - more than 4000kms - in just two weeks to still have time to sell our car!

But anyway, after the Daintree Rainforest we went straight to Cairns. We only spent half a day in the city, as it wasn't that appealing to us. Apart from strolling through some bookshops, there was pretty much nothing to do for us. So the same day we started the long drive from Townsville into the heart of Outback/Remote-Australia. Around that time we also started advertising our car online,because we were a little bit worried that we would end up giving our car to the wreckers if no one would buy it in Darwin...

Well, on the way to Tennant Creek we stayed in places like Richmond (with a beautifully equipped campkitchen!) or Mt. Isa. We decided to stay in Mt. Isa for 2 nights. We took our time to surf through some shops, hang by the pool and just relax. We also went to see "Get Smart!" in the local cinema.

Our next "bigger" stop was Tennant Creek, but once again only for one night as we had a strict schedule. Our only photostop on that way was the sign which said we had just passed the Queensland - Northern Territory border. But as you can see on the photo, there was not much around to see...

Two fellowcampers advised us to stop at Daly Waters, the local pub to be precise. And so we did, and it didn't look like your average pub! Photos say more than words, so have a look at it yourself.


For the next two nights we stayed in Elsey National Park, near Mataranka. The day in the National Park there was filled with swimming in a +34degrees thermal pool - heaven - and walking along Roper River to a series of cascades and lots of swimming opportunities in the river itself (see Paul enjoying the thermal pool on the left). We were a bit scared to dive into the water though, as dozens of signs warned us for the freshwater and salt crocodiles inhabiting the water. But, brave as we are (or at least pretend to be), we dared to step into the water, even though it was only for 20 second-periods. It was absolutely beautiful and we even found our own little private whirlpool (see Berrie enjoying that below)! We really enjoyed that day being completely back in nature.

The next day we went on to drive to Nitmiluk National Park near the town Katherine. Our caravan park was situated near the Park, and in the evening we had several little visitors hopping next to our tent and even trying to nick our food (we're talking about Wallabies)!
An 8kms return-walk took us to beautiful spots like the Katherine Gorge. We had stunning views over the Gorge (see picture below). A different steeps route over rocks took us to a waterfall, which was almost dry though due to the dry season in the Northern Territory. It wasn't quite deep so Paul took the opportunity to have a little swim (see picture on the right).

After exhausting 4 hours we came back to the campsite, took a shower and went to visit Katherine itself. We had an overnight stay in a campsite which was close to the Katherine Thermal Pools - you can just guess how happy we were about that! Even though the water wasn't as warm as in the other pool, we sure enjoyed our one-hour-swim in the clear water.

Our next stop was - surprise, surprise - another National Park! The worldfamous Kakadu NP was the centre of our attention for the next two days. It was a little bit disappointing though, as a lot of the sights such as Jim Jim Falls were only accessible with a 4WD. We stopped at a lookout point before we drove to our bushcamp called Muriela Campground. It ended up being one of our favourite overnight stays, as we had a campfire which gave us enough power to cook a whole meal with it (it also warmed water for tea and for washing the dishes!).


Our second day in the National Park was a bit more exciting, as we visited sights like the Nourlangie Rockpaintings. It is believed that aboriginal people lived in that particular Kakadu area over a thousand years ago! A spectacular lookout point (below) was also part of Nourlangie. After the rockpaintings we stopped at a billabong, the town of Jabiru and a part of wetlands.


On the way to Darwin we also had a very exciting moment! Just as we drove over a bridge, Berrie spotted a crocodile laying in the sun on a shore in the river! We immediately turned, stopped with the car on the bridge (despite the signs warning us "DONT PARK ON BRIDGE") and took a photo of it.


Well, that was pretty much all that we saw and did in the Kakadu. Later that day we arrived in Darwin and had a nervewrecking search for a caravan park with available tent sites. Only after we called 5 parks we finally booked a spot in a caravan park close to the beach!

The first day in Darwin was under the motto: Advertising the car. As you know from our previous blogentries, Darwin is our last stop with our own car! We were busy putting together a leaflet with all the important informations about the car, printing several copies of it, making it look all fancy with textmarkers and putting it on note boards all over Darwin such as internet cafes and youth hostels. We were totally knackered and our nerves were strained like never before as we were really nervous about selling our car.

And - yippie - we had our first call the next day already! Two girls called Hannah and Kelly were particularly interested in purchasing our car, and so two hours after the call they had a look at the car, went for a little test drive and also decided to buy it from us! YIPPIE! You can just imagine how big the stone was that fell off our chests.


The following week was a matter of organizing and packing - we had to reduce the contents of a fully loaded station wagon to the 2x20kg we can take on the airplane. Time rushed by last week but in mean time we did see a few attractions in Darwin. We've tried to get a lastminute tan and found some nice shells on Lee Point Beach, strolled through Darwins botanic garden (even though we never considered ourselves diehard garden fans, we've seen all the gardens in the major cities we visited...), locked Paul up in the very interesting Fannie Bay Gaol Museum (see picture above) and had a look at all the handmade craftwares on offer at Mindil Beachs Sunset Markets.

And yesterday Hannah and Kelly drove our car away, the poor car has to go back to Townsville within 3 days! So we are living like real backpackers again, staying in a hostel in central Darwin. Last night we went to see Mamma Mia: The Movie, which was fun! Tomorrow we'll get on the first of the 4 planes we'll board the coming 2 weeks, so next time you'll hear from us we'll report what we've seen in "the Red Centre", probably from Perth!


In mean time we'll visit a few coffeeshops and cafes, because we're good at that! Yesterday we had a spicy pumpkinsoup for lunch, but, and we're absolutely honest, Jenni: we loved your pumpkin soup much more!

Final distance travelled (in our car): 24471km