Settling in at Caz's

Hey there everyone, here we are in beautiful Darwin, relaxing and enjoying the mozzie bites! Actually I think they are sandfly bites, but either way they are very itchy and driving me nuts!! Still waiting to see my mate Caz, who is down in Brissy at the moment, but hopefully she won't be too far away. Despite that we have moved into her back yard, with just inches to spare, as you can see from the photo. Stevo had to pull off some pretty impressive driving skills but we are in and poor Caz will have trouble getting us out now!

The weather is as we expected...unbelieveably bloomin' hot and muggy (the humidity is about 70-80%), but so far we are surviving, just! It takes about 2-3 showers a day, a few dips in the backyard bathtub, and at LEAST 3 changes of clothes to maintain some semblance of cleanliness. Thank goodness we aren't on water restrictions! Caz gave the kids a present that will probably save us all...a pool, so tonight we started setting it up and tomorrow we will try it out. Can't wait. Chris and I have been doing a little gardening for Caz to help her out, despite her protests that we would be sorry, and I hate to say it, she was right. Just walking out to the letter box is a job that makes you sweat so piling up dead palm fronds, moving rocks and pulling weeds is almost beyond us. Still, the yard looks better already so it is worth it! Last night we got our first rains of the wet season since we've arrived and it was wonderful to hear heavy rain on the roof for a change and see the flashes of lightening. Unfortunately I was the only one awake to enjoy it (tho' Will says he was awake the whole time too. Yeah, sure!)

Today we went to see one of the 2 local schools we are looking at for the kids next year. It was great and I don't think we'll have too much trouble getting them to start, they may even do a few weeks before the end of the school year. We have not done any serious school work since we left Mackay and the kids are keen to get back into it. What the?!

There are lots of animals here at Caz's and the cute and cuddly kittens are probably getting the most love and attention, closely followed by the dogs, chooks and fish. We are expecting baby chickens in the next day or so, that will be interesting. I've almost forgotten what it's like to be a new mother, the stress is terrible! Hope the family are all still safe and well when Caz returns.

Alright, almost time for bed so I'm out of here. Cheers to you all and take care, love Deb and Co. xxx

The beautiful Northern Territory

We made it to the border on Wednesday the 18th and I was so excited to get to the NT. As you can see from the photo, Laura was less excited as she had had a small disagreement with her brother and didn't want to be in the photo. We made her anyway!

This is one of the open cut mines at Mt Isa.

We stayed at the Barkly Homestead for our first stop in the Northern Territory. Met a nice couple and his teenage daughter who were on their way to Karanda (Qld). They had found a joey in it's dead mother's pouch on the side of the road that day and were trying to keep it alive. They bought it over to show our kids. Will and Laura enjoyed having another new friend to play with in the pool and we had a few drinks together that night and shared travel stories. It was great. Next morning we were off to Dunmarra.

Major Blow Out!

We had our first blow out on the bus a couple of days ago. An inside back tyre, couldn't have been a worse one. Meant we had to take off and replace 2 tyres instead of just 1. But the good news is WE DID IT! Had me worried a few times that the heat would beat us, but no, we got thru'. It happened at 12 noon, just half an hour short of our stop for the night. We had just finished all the cold water in the bottle, thinking we would be there soon enough and were looking forward to lunch at a reasonable time, having had a few late lunches over the previous few days. In reality tho' it took us just over 2 hours of struggling in the sun and the dirt to get it all done, and boy we looked a sight when we'd finished. I was sunburnt and our faces were all red and the sweat was just running off us. Chris had dropped the tyre on my foot (accidentally, he says!) so that was aching, and the kids had given up playing nicely after the first hour and were at the point of murdering each other. It was fun all round! Anyway, with the job done and a quick jump thru' the shower (which was too warm, even with just the cold tap on), I unearthed a couple of icypoles from the freezer and we hit the road again. Boy, we were exhausted! Got to our stop at Dunmarra at 3pm and almost fell into the pool. Brought an enormous bottle of cold water and that went in no time flat, phew! Guess that's the price we pay for the otherwise very cruisey time we spend touring around the country. Can't be relaxing all the time. Can it?

Gulf of Carpentaria

Wow, we sure are making tracks now. I can't keep up with the news at the stops any more! What a dilemma to be in...to type up these posts or to stop and have a bourbon...aw, heck you made me feel bad. OK, I'll have a drink WHILE I type the blog! Now we can all be happy. :)

Here are some photos from our time in the Daintree. We went on a river cruise and saw "Fat Albert", a regular on the river.

Then we headed over to Atherton and spent 3 days at Innot Hot Springs, touring the area to see the many beautiful waterfalls (this is Zillie waterfalls) and this very impressive "Curtain Fig Tree".

Stayed a couple of nights in Normanton, up at the Gulf of Carpentaria. Two days here so we can have a day trip to Karumba. The park itself is very dry, no grass to be seen and notices everywhere to lock up all your belongings so we are super vigilant.

Went to Karumba and it was OK, but that's all I'm saying. Chris says it would have been better to see it when the tide was in. Beaches were layers of compacted shells, that were good to see but lousy to walk on, and covered in mud.

I was a little scared of crocs near the crab pots that were on the beach, but Chris said it was silly to worry. Then back in Normanton (an hour inland) we saw an exact, TO SIZE, replica of an 8.5 metre croc that was shot in the river at Normanton 50 years ago. The jaws of the replica were wide enough for both our kids to climb into for a photo...silly to worry??? I think not!

From there we went to Mt Isa for 2 nights. Went out for tea at the Buffalo Club which was lovely, great kids club. The Argylla caravan park had a BIG pool, which was even lovlier!! Temperature is around 35-40 degrees in the shade I would say. In the bus when our air con. freezes and won't blow any cold air it is even hotter!!!!! But we are hanging in there and using any mean possible to survive...wet tea towels, icy poles, swimming 3 times a day...what ever it takes. Mmmm, loving this warm weather.

Went on an underground mine tour which was very informative, and by that I mean great for Chris and I, but too much info for the kids. (Plus it was very hot in all the safety gear and with the battery pack for the lights etc.) Having said that, they did still enjoy most of it, especially the bit where they got to drive the train and detonate a charge to blow up Kmart Plaza (well that's the story our guide gave us!) Cheers for now.

Movin' on

Hi friends and family, we are on the move again and at the moment we are near Cairns at a place called Fishery Falls. The caravan park is lovely and the whole area is surrounded by mountains with a cute little stony bottomed river running thru' the back of the property. Ah, the serenity!

The trip up here was pretty cool too, we met some great people and the kids had a ball making friends. We stayed at Bluewater caravan park (just north of Townsville) the first few nights and met Steph and his wife Fi and their 3 kids, all about our kids ages. They are doing the trip around OZ, just like us, but they are going clockwise, so had lots of tips about the places we are yet to go. We chatted for ages and Chris and Steph had lots in common...fishing, shooting, comparing buses, catching crocs...OK, just Steph on the last bit...the photos were fantastic! A lady named Ann who lives at the caravan park came to ask if our kids would like to go around the camp on Halloween with her trick or treating. I think there's a saying about a bear in the woods that would be useful at this point, suffice to say...they went! They got so many lollies I don't know how they will ever get them eaten (I can hear Shas and Tanya saying "just let them eat them", but believe me, it's not worth the stress later in the day!) Our buddies were moving on the next day to a free camp just up the road at Toomulla, so we decided to hold off on our move to Cairns and spend a little longer with them. Glad we did, we got to meet another great couple, Mick and Michelle and their 5 daughters. So all in all we had 10 kids between us and barely a disagreement to be heard for the 2 days we were together. Amazing! Will and Laura had so much fun at the playground, on the beach, riding bikes and just generally playing around with the other kids they didn't want to leave. But of course we had to get a move on, Caz is waiting for us!

Here we all are on top of the lookout at Townsville.

Here are our little "trick or treaters". Laura is the ghost, then Elly, Lacey, Jay, Keira and Will (the pirate).

The camp site at Toomulla with our big blue bus in the background.Steph in his boat with Will and Laura and some of the other 10 kids!

We found these little bird "nests" all along the beach at the high tide mark. Think they were tern's eggs and they were just plopped in the sand in groups of 1-3 amongst the shells. They were really well camoflauged so the kids ran around marking them with sticks so noone would stand on them. When we checked them the next day a few had hatched out. Very cute, hey?

Got to Fishery Falls on Wednesday the 4th. Caught up with Sandy and Trevor, had a few drinks (of course) at happy hour and met some of the locals. The next day we went into Cairns and spent the day on the Esplanade at the lagoon and the snazzy little playground called "Muddies".

Green Island

Yesterday we spent the day snorkelling out at Green Island. It was great fun, once we all got the hang of it, and found a spot that wasn't too wavy. The trip over on the "Big Cat" was a little bumpy but we quite enjoyed the rockin' and rollin' and didn't get sick at all, unlike some people! Although the water was a little murky in places we still found lots of flora and fauna to spy on. Chris got some super photos with an underwater camera we hired, as you can see by these shots.

The kids are here giving their tired little legs a rest from the flippers. In the background at the end of the pier is our boat, the "Big Cat".

We are so lucky to have such amazing things to see and do here in Australia. No wonder so many tourists come here every year. Each time we stop at a lovely new spot or visit a new sight I'm amazed at how little of Australia I have actually seen. What a special thing we are doing, not only for our children, but for ourselves. Come on all you people and get out there...before it's too late!