Enough is enough..........

So another early start for those that are not of antipodean descent
but for the locals, G'day, How ya going is the normal way to greet each other at 06.30hrs in the ablutions block........  We are off with the rush hour traffic which is very similar to your local high street traffic in the early hours of the morning, we turn off from going into the city and head to Lee Point, hoping to see Dolphins, Ospreys and Sea Eagles, except we get the family fortunes buzzer, uhh err, tides on its way out. Onto beach talk to local getting bait for his days fishing, he saw two Dolphins playing an hour ago....... No such luck for yours truly after clambering over shell encrusted rocks for an hour..... On way back over said rocks bumped into young family we had met at Lake Argyle, recognised the Bikini she was wearing....... They showed us how to gather, corral and direct, thousands of spider crabs, which to be honest, great fun for kids but once mastered, it was let's take photos of that white thing flying over there.....  Off we go, tele lens at the ready, click.  Quick magnify the image and see what it is, it was at this point we could suddenly hear a buzzing, when the kids had quietened down, it's a bloody remote controlled plane....
Off for some retail therepy to the largest shopping center in Darwin, only where to park, our van is 3.3m high, the car park is 2.2m tall........
TV Ariel, T shirts and shorts purchased whilst downloading Adele's new album, off to Crocodylus Park for Croc feeding and all things Croc, half way there and the van is pulling to the left, fight it as I may, it wants to go, then I realise just gone past Doggin Jungle Park and its Julie pulling on the steering wheel.......
After Crocodylus, we have just about had enough of Crocodile's so head to Nightcliff in hope of seeing anything other than with a bumpy back and loads of teeth but the afternoon storm is approaching.  Out at sea it is dark, except every 10-20 seconds or so, when it is lit up by tremendous fork lightening, we stop at the Beachfront Hotel and ask for a Latte and Orange Juice, sorry Sophia the barmaid says, we don't do coffee....... We do have a free coffee dispenser in the Pokies........ We settle for Coke and a wander about, this hotel is no more than a licensed betting office with six tv screens showing live horse racing, a small room set aside with gaming machines and one arm bandits and another sleazy bar leading to another room with pool tables for the more intellectual......... Come on let's head back, we can watch TV tonight and it's my mothers birthday and no doubt she is all excited and up early awaiting my phone call.........

    Happy Birthday to you

    Happy Birthday dear mother

    Happy Birthday to you

    Sea Eagle

We enter Darwin........

Should any of you be expecting to see some fairy Xmas lights draped over a winnebago this evening, I'm sorry to have to advise you that albeit we had made a coat out of dead palm fronds, set up a hide under the van, the occupants of said winnebago went out for the night.  Thus No illuminations......

After our day off we are ready for entry into Darwin but en-route I decide I will give her a surprise and take her to Holmes Jungle Nature Park, where she may be able to see the red backed fairy wren........ Now bear in mind the expression 'First Impressions are most lasting' as when we arrive at this park, it's early Sunday morning so our expectations are high for basically being alone in the park with nature out and about before it gets too hot.  

We arrive in the car park, where only one other van is parked, it has its front driver door open and the side slide door open so as to reveal a fat male in his underpants sprawled over the floor of the van, we pass by and venture into the forest.  After 3/4 hour we return to the car park and find a 4x4 parked up with just some naked female legs with the feet touching the roof on display.  We get into our van, start up and turn around and drive past the 4x4 to now see a male in the drivers seat, a female in the passenger seat, looking at us with the female waving at us, so we thought......... We then drive off to the picnic car park and stop when her next to me wants to photograph some small Crimson finches.  Before long there is another vehicle approaching from behind, I think it wants to pass so start up the van and move it slightly, the vehicle is then driven into a small recess....... 

I then use my phone to look up my suspicions regarding our location......... 

As I am reading the Google search result, the vehicle drives out draws up alongside me with the woman smiling invitingly at me, they then see I have my phone out and Julie standing outside under a tree looking up through a camera lens, at which they drive off......
I then shut down the  'Darwin Doggin sites - Holmes Jungle Nature Park'. screen on my phone..........
We then head off for East Point for lunch before checking in at a Camp Site.  After an hour or two we catch a bus into Darwin Harbour, where according to trip advisor, Lonely Planet and Rough Guides one of the highlights is to head to Stokes Hill Wharf, where a Darwin tradition is to sit there and have fish and chips whilst watching the sun set, so off we go with high expectations of having a really chilled relaxed night.  That of course would mean things going to plan, however we arrive and find a series of down market tacky fast food, whilst I would like to say establishments, I can't, they were no more than a coloured fluorescent light food court with grubby plastic tables and chairs for all to use.  We looked at a customers plate of fish and chips and thought 'No way'! it all looked as if it was possibly re-heated or over cooked in oil that had been used too much, I think the customer thought along similar lines as he returned most of it and walked off, not looking a happy man.
Taxi! 
We are off to Cullen Bay to watch the sunset over the sea, we get there and lo and behold, there is a Fish and Chip restaurant right on the edge, overlooking the bay, the sea and with the dying Suns ray's filtering over our table, I say "Now I'm happy".

    This Crimson finch is blushing at the antics of the humans in his park

    Cullen Bay Dining Table view

Saturday, a day of rest......

The plan today is to take it easy but as usual I am being driven by a inner force that cannot be argued with, otherwise I'll cry....... So washing, cleaning, tidying all done and now one of us is bored listening to Radio Obscurity Darwin, whose listeners are getting really worked up and excited about the possibility of rain in the near future, even though in between news and weather reports, they give advice on having a cyclone kit with you so as to see to your needs during the first 72 hours after a cyclone, they even give the kits away as prizes.  They contain things such as water, soup, tins of tuna, tinned vegetables, baked beans and Tabasco sauce........... Mine has been created with slightly less thought, new case of VB Bitter and two bottles of Pinot Noir......... 

Heard our first Xmas song on the radio this morning and was surprised that it's only a month away, we have not given it much thought.  That said, having passed through some of the towns that we have, that are not even as big as the parade of local shops where my parents live, I'm not surprised they have not put up decorations and a Xmas tree, although if they were to put a bit of tinsel around the 'No Swimming - Crocodiles' signs, with the amount of signs they have, it will twinkle like Oxford Street........
Our day off becomes a trip to the local shops, where we upset the guy who follows us in because we take up two parking spaces, leaving possibly 40 more for him to choose from but not directly outside the Post Office, "Hi" I say, nothing in reply, possibly the first person in Oz to ignore the obligatory, How ya doing, Good Day, Howzit going and the one I liked best was in the local off licence (Bottle Shop) which is double the size and twice as busy as the local IGA (Tesco Express) store, I was standing in front of the VB Bitter chiller when a workman with a 4wd and a hi viz top came in and said, "You okay, Big Man'.  I was the only one there honest.......... Then he bought one can of bitter and went off to continue his days duties...... You may think in some alcoholic haze but having never been called Big before, I think the can was for his dear ol mum.........
So there we are taking it easy, when some wildlife come to us, I quickly learn that Peacocks like cranberries and raisins and are rather territorial when it comes to said food products being shared with two Ibis........
Newsflash, check this page tomorrow because we are expecting a major holiday scoop.
All morning, the guy across the site path to us has been washing, cleaning and re-proofing the canvas awning to his Winnebago and as I compose these words for the crazy campers journal, he is putting Christmas Lights up around his awning........
Plans are now being made to obtain some photos surreptitiously so you to can all share in the joy and wonderment of being a 'Christmas Camper'.........

    My new P cock........

    This is my neighbourhood!

No rain but a bit of a wet Friday

Once again on the road bright and early as have to be 35 kms away for a guided ranger talk on rock art and aborigine culture at 9am, but before hand we want to try and capture the elusive black cockatoo on a sd card......
So cruising towards rangers talk when at 7.55hrs we see three black Cockatoo's on the road side by a T junction.  A quick emergency stop and U turn completed entirely safely due to no other traffic on the road, we alight and stealthily approach said Cockatoo's from the opposite side of junction, all the time focusing on them when all of a sudden, a convoy of five cars turn into the road junction and the elusive mummy, daddy and baby cockatoo are off into the tree tops never to be seen again.  The 8am start staff for the visitor center however got to work on time......
Another U turn and we arrive at the meeting point for our guided talk, hit it off straight away with a couple, who begin to talk disparagingly about warm British beer....... Within two minutes of the talk everyone soon finds out he is one of those people who constantly mutters in agreement with the speaker, try's and second guess his final word, so as to sound as if he also knows the subject and not only agrees but laughs at the speakers non-funny attempts at humour...... So much so even his wife spent most of the tour apart from  him....  One of us drops out of the tour having decided that Ranger Christian Uphimself is about to become the most boring, self indulgent jobsworth in Kakadu, the other perseveres, unlike two others who follow our drop out in the middle of his talk, but after an hour and half even our patient bite your lip hero, gives up as the temptation to strangle Ranger Christian and ask why he could not see he was boring everyone to death with his statistics, his condescending attitude, his dysfunctional manner of speaking, mostly in English but constantly broken up with aborigine that only he understood, became so overwhelming the sole UK representative returned to find drop out number 1, sat swatting flies....
We leave Kakadu and head for the Window of the Wetlands, a million dollar purpose built elevated glass viewing observatory with free to use tele-binoculars so as to view the bird and animal life of the flood plains and wet lands...... After twenty minutes we had left, thinking it should just be called The Window.  
There were no wet lands they are awaiting some rain and the subsequent accompanying bird life......
Next stop Fogg Dam Nature Reserve, the dam, which the Dutch would call a Dyke, was not holding any water back as there was none, so apart from the 4ft Goanna that decided he would test and see how good the Motorhomes brakes were, all we saw were the same old Magpie Geese we have seen all over NT, the water pythons this area is renowned for were obviously not available for viewing due to the lack of their pre-requisite, water........
And so we find ourselves 27kms outside of Darwin, beaten by the lack of the wet stuff, parked up for two nights in a campsite, so as to complete domestic chores before reaching the top of the top end and our turn around point.  However whilst I have been writing this sat in the shade drinking a cold but almost tasteless Aussie beer, I have been visited by a peacock, a ibis, half a dozen corella's and a pair of lorikeets, who needs to travel.........

    The 8am Cockatoo Airways flight to tree tops, leaves on time

    Daddy Cockatoo banking from on coming traffic

    Rock art to adorn the family home.

    That little rock in top left corner can keep Ranger Christian going on and on, and it cannot be 

    described as stone or boulder, it is a rock......... 

 

    So your brakes do work, Goanna on you!

Crocs and Culture

Breakfast with the Cockatoo's and off for a day of culture &  croc's but as usual plans go astray once we consult the so called experts in the visitor centre, she states high tide is an hour earlier than the actual time so we end up rushing and breaking the 5000 kms barrier, to do croc's and then culture....... Having rushed and got to Cahill Crossing, where the croc's line up waiting for the fish to arrive with the high tide and get washed over the concrete river crossing, we now have an hour an half to wait.  Eventually tide and fish arrive and we witness just how easy it is for the croc's to catch fish, the fish basically come and swim into there mouths, no wonder there are  at least 10 croc's lined up waiting.  Some of the croc's even cross the crossing themselves so as to have there supermarket dash........
Next off to get a coffee in the shop we rushed pass en route, get there to find notice on the door, 'Closed until June 2016', some people have such a good business sense..........
Off to Ubirr to see Centuries old  Rock art paintings and climb to the top of the rock art site to see the magnificent and majestic view of the Kakadu flood plains. Get there and the one of us with the sensitive nose says, "I can smell fire"  the other one goes yeah yeah yeah.  "I can see smoke" says the concerned one, yeah yeah yeah says the 'Oh get a grip one'.  We then see where the rain has made some of the 5000yr old paint run on the rocks and climb to the top of the rock to see the view.......
"I can't see sod all" says the flippant one, " No that's because of the smoke from the bush fire" says the ever so correct one ( if she had been a cockatoo her head feathers would have been well and truly up) "Bugger, might as well go to Jabiru, have a shower and wash the smell of smoke away"  The smoke follows us, don't worry says campsite receptionist, it will rain in an hour which will clear it all away.  Lo and behold, as we look out the window, it's started to rain, welcome to the Northern Territory Wet Season..........

   Give us more of your nuts, Steve!

   

     Croc crossing Cahills Crossing

     Bush fire, What! Bush fire........

Going Native

Leaving civilisation today, some would say we did that at Gatwick and heading for Kakadu, so first job of the day is to get a hair cut, start off at 6.45am sitting outside in camping chair and utilising reflection in Windows of van, job done!  Head off for provisions for a week and ask the checkout girl, who was possibly 20yrs, " Is there anywhere in town, we could buy Adele's new album" She looked up, studied us carefully and smiled, the smile developed into a giggle and before the last item was scanned all three of us were laughing out loud at my stupid question........
Off we set to Edith Falls, the first water fall visit of this holiday, God it's hot and guess who is there to accompany us, the F#*~ing Flies, we climb to the top pool but decide that it although it may be fresh water it looks yuk, so down to the bottom pool, where we see the notice from the local government advising us that they'd do their best to keep out salt water crocodiles and that you should not swim in the bottom pool after 7pm, because estuarine crocodiles only feed at night....... It's so hot! So let's take the chance that my sweaty feet will deter whatever.......... Splash! This fresh running river water is warmer than my swimming pool at home ever gets, how am I going to cool down? No idea but I suddenly notice, no flies, they are all off looking for some other sweaty body to irritate..........
Next stop Pine Creek for coffee before Kakadu, on the approach to pine creek we see loads of signs advertising refreshments etc, we turn in and find three really dumpy places, two of which looked closed, so we continue to the plush looking 'Pine Creek Railway Resort' it takes ages to find a legal parking spot as its on the town cross roads, but we eventually enter and find a notice, 'Back in 5 mins' no customers, the restaurant in darkness and chairs on top of tables........ Now those of you that know me, know of my low tolerance and patience level with incompetence, so you alone can now imagine the scene in side this so called 'resort'...........
An hour later we pull into the Mary River Roadhouse, where we are served by a young good looking guy from Suffolk, working his way around Australia but has to return in March, but does not want to.  Get talking to him about Kakadu and what to do and his boss comes out and spends at least 20mins talking and advising us of the best places etc some of these roadhouses are so desolate but the staff, amazing!
Off we drive through termite country and notice the mounds are getting taller and taller, so much so that we later find out that some birds actually hollow out a nest in them...... We eventually pull into Cooinda and immediately book the sunset crocodile cruise, after the roadhouse recommendation. Wow what a result, two hours of going up and down 'Alligator River' (it was named by some explorer that did not know the difference between croc's and alligators)
Breathtaking, amazing and fascinating, we even see a buffalo impersonating me losing the flies by dunking himself in the river....... the guide was an aborigine who had so much personality, knowledge and river water skill, we are thinking of doing the early morning cruise at 6.45am with him...... Okay one of us is......... One of us takes over 400 photographs whilst the other uses up her camera battery, both on a high when we get back so only thing to do is hit the bar, in a proper resort, that we are staying in tonight.

    No flies on me........

    Termite Towers

    You crocky devil....... Come on in this bit of water.......

    Hey Steve, have your flies back!

    Your blog is such a yawn........

From Gorges to Caverns

"What time is it" she utters, feeling the van sway from side to side, half six I reply, "but it's still dark" that's because your eyes are closed....... At which point I scurry off to the shower block and hope in vain, that tea will be made upon my return.......
The morning is spent in Katherine Gorge, where it is already 40 degrees, be careful, take lots of water, mind the temperature, it's hotter in the gorge than up here are all helpful comments we are told before the same people try to sell us half a day canoeing, WHAT! are we not likely to fry in a canoe for 4 hours, We ask..........  Err, No comeback and so we do our own thing, being ever mind full of my Mum's advice, "Be careful and don't come back without her" 
Later in the Visitors Centre restaurant, I ask the man behind the counter, who was a happy, smiley aborigine for a iced coffee.  Two things happen, one he looks at me blankly and two, his jumped up Australian female boss charges over, almost pushing him out of the way, whilst saying in her Australian high pitched whiney voice, "Sorry sir, we can't do that we don't have any ice cream or cream" "Good, I reply, because I don't want any, I want a white coffee over ice the European white coffee method, which this gentleman was going to do for me"  She then leaves and I tell the guy how to make a coffee and then tip it over ice in a glass, which he did, problem being the cup of coffee he made was almost twice the size of glass he had, so he threw the rest away but charged me the same.  However when he handed it to me, the smile on his face made it all worthwhile and after sipping it and complementing him on it, I had made a friend......
The afternoon was spent down Cutta Cutta caves, got to get out of the heat somehow, our guide is possibly 25yrs going on 75yrs and as there was only two of us and one was a girlie, he was being very prim and proper but really boring........ Half way through the tour, I asked what Cutta Cutta means, he asked if he could turn off the torch and lights, I said yes and it was so Dark, you could not see the proverbial hand in front of your face, you could see your watch face glowing but that just appeared to be suspended.  He then flashed his torch and the whole place twinkled from the crystal deposits, Cutta Cutta means, the place of many stars...... Once Julie had told him she was not a girlie girlie, he then managed to find frogs, snakes and spiders all of whom live full time in the caves.
Then back to town where we suddenly get a Police escort home after doing a u turn in front of them, they thought we were trying to avoid them, when in fact I had just gone past the turning I wanted to take to Katherine hot springs...........
Now as we sit outside the van waiting for the wallabies to turn up, drinking tea with 'Chocolate Hobnobs' we have inadvertently saved the life of a peaceful dove, two are wandering around us picking at the apparent never endless supply of titbits, when suddenly without a sound there is a mini whirlwind next to us, both doves scatter and the eagle who had just dropped in and then aborted his dive by when he realised we were there, flew off high and away............. A Doves life or a brilliant wildlife action photo, don't ask which way I'll vote.........

    Katherine Gorge

   Cave dwelling brown snake

    Cutta Cutta Twinkles

 

   Hoping he does not keep us awake tonight

Northern Territory

First thing in the morning, before a cup of tea, one is not at ones best shall we say, what with the grey matter being slight dulled by its over night rest, so now imagine how can it be made to function at its normal operating speed without that dose of caffeine, the answer is staring you in the face in the first picture........
It was when we were both eye balling each other, the Park Rangers words of advice, that I have adhered to ever since, came rushing back "Don't park your van up so it is touching the leaves" the reason being all sorts of things can then easily access your van.......  This mornings tree snake being just one of the sorts of things.....?
After the adrenalin rush and two dozen photographs we head off and within half hour it is two hours later, we have crossed into the Northern Territory which is 1.5hrs in front of Western Australia, hooray, it means we should have some sort of an evening, with sunset being closer to 8pm instead of 6pm, it also means one of us is ecstatic due to it being darker in the morning........
So 500 kms soon fly past, with just the usual half dozen or so emergency stops due to eagles feeding off the road kill and another half dozen due to cattle in the road, a huge bull (that was a first) in the road, Bush Fires, Lizards sunbathing and a lady sitting in a chair beside the road with a large pole in her hand....... Unlike the N322 ladies, this ladies pole had a sign on it saying 'Slow' but did she move, we were possibly her first vehicle for half hour and she wanted to make her presence felt so as to safe guard the hi vis work force, half a mile ahead of her......
And so we make it to Katherine, where we will stay a few days and do the Gorge etc whilst possibly taking the visitors centres advice and do Kakadu before Darwin rather than after as all roads are open at the moment but in two weeks time who knows what roads will be open but there is a chance the main roads will stand a better chance of staying open, providing they don't get washed away.............

    Good Morning

Crocodile Sunday

,Day two of being without a phone signal or the Internet and I am up the earliest all holiday, not connected to consuming the most wine the night before of course...... 4.30am and one of us commences the Bluff Cliff walk, the sun is just peaking over the hills surrounding Lake Argyle, when I get company....... Flies.  For the next hour and half,  I improve on my Australian Wave, they are relentless giving me no more than 5-10 seconds reprieve until bombarding any open orifice I possess. The view from the Bluff not worth the effort and aggravation but the shower immediately upon my return, so welcoming and satisfying.  Next stop, 10.30am standing on the Dam Wall taking less than inspiring photographs whilst acknowledging, there may be 30,000 Crocodiles in this lake but we cannot see anything other than two ducks........
Highlight of day, 2.30pm, Sunset cruise, 6 of us on a boat capable of carrying between 60-70 persons, the benefits of coming on holiday in the low season. It turns into a good afternoons entertainment, see huge fresh water fish, loads of wading type birds, whistling kites, wallaroos, Crocodiles and even a bit of baby Crocodile wrestling thrown in by the female of this holidaying duo......... It eventually gave in and she returned it to the water where hopefully it survived, not being eaten by the Daddy Croc, nearby. Now did I mention there are 30,000 Crocodiles in this lake, so just before sunset we stop in the middle of it and to get a free beer, the skipper throws the beer into the air, whilst a stupid, climbs onto the roof of the boat, jumps up, catches the beer and has a swim whilst drinking said free beer.  So now can you think of anyone stupid enough to do this, Oi! Don't be rude, that's not a nice thing to think about Julie that way....... guess again, yep! yours truly, Stupid with honours....... But not only did I do it first, I was the only stupid to do it properly, catching the can with ease before swimming with the crocodiles........ Stupid two, lost his balance and fell off......... whilst I pretended the beer bubbles went up my nose when he surfaced and saw me smirking............
Now before you all think 'What a Doughnut' These croc's are Australian freshwater Crocodiles and 80% of their diet is insects, the other 20% being fish so they do not bother humans, besides their snouts are a lot thinner than a Saltwater Croc and should they bite you and do the roll, it is believed their snouts would break, as yet this theory has to be tested..........
Sunset at 5.37pm but very little cloud to give any life to a photo, so two more beers and we head home, to delete most of the photos we have taken, due to Bar, Restaurant, Shop, Reception all being closed, it's Sunday up North, even the couple we talk to on the boat from New South Wales, cannot get their head around It being dark so early, because, what does dark mean, dark means bed, in Western Australia........

   Daddy Croc

   Crocodile Wrestling

   Stupid having a beer!

Not a Roo in sight

It's Saturday which means we have been on the road for two weeks and have covered 4150kms so far and still not seen a Kangaroo, alive and hoping along the roadside beside us.  Our feeling is that as its 33 degrees at 7am, by the time we are on the road, the wildlife has sought shade and as there is not a lot of that, they are well inland.  One thing I can testify to working is the Australian firebreak, we have driven hundreds of kilometres, where one side of the road is lush and green whilst the other is just charcoal meaning even less shade in places.....
So we stop for diesel, me on one side of the pump and an Australian Hulk Hogan look a like the other side, we stare into each other's eyes, the intimidation being unbearable before he cracks, giving in saying, "where ya go in"  I reply in my deepest gruffest manliest voice possible, "Lake Argyle"  We then spend at least 5 minutes talking campsite/route/towns/places stories over the diesel pump, until his partner comes out of shop, from what he said, my feeling is they got caught having an affair, sold up everything in the North, bought a new car and caravan and are heading down South to start their new life together.......
Have you ever noticed when you drive long boring journeys where the journey drags on for hour after hour, the terrain is just the same kilometre after kilometre, that your mind starts to wander.......
Today's journey involved the 'Outback Outlaws' trying to kidnap us and on the approach to Lake Argyle, we were so totally outnumbered by the Comanche Indians looking down on us from the hill tops that someone with slightly less imagination is really happy we have at last arrived at the most voted for best campsite of 2015, Lake Argyle Resort, she is hoping to at last have some sort of reasonable conversation.......
There is a problem however, in about 3 weeks, we are going to do the same journey in reverse, it could be that Mad Max and and Will Smith in Independence day gets a mention...........

    View from back of van

    Lake Argyle

A campin we shall go

Across the Desert

Leave Broome early as possibly another long drive ahead of us, should we not like accommodation choices in Fitzroy Crossing, which is described as a Aborigine Welfare Town.....  Get to FC around lunch time, stop at roadhouse for petrol, go in to pay and it's like being in a Easyjet plane that has just landed with a load of hen/stag party customers, who of course all stand up with nowhere to go and either get out their phones to tell people they have arrived or shout at their mates at the back of the plane, who are trying to ignore them.......
The security man on the door looked at me suspiciously as 1. I was on my own, 2. I was quiet, 3. I looked almost normal, whereas the other customers definitely would have been out of place had they been on the London Underground, which is the only other place I can think of that would have been as crowded....... 
This roadhouse was the Bank, The Shop, The Cafe, The Petrol Station, The Community Centre and if you could get away with it, the free grab a gift shop......... I saw one family walk in, the mum goes in one direction, the dad in the opposite whilst little 3/4 yr old Johnny, climbs up the sweet display in front of the till, Security shouts at Johnny, the cashier shouts at Johnny, Dad shouts at Johnny, Johnny ignores them all and the displays start to bend, sweets start to fall, all that is except what is in little Johnny's hand and all this time mum is busy 'shopping' out of site behind the aisles at the back........
We drive out of FC after checking we still had some wheels and head for Halls Creek another Welfare Town but at least there, the only bad reviews I've read is to make sure your van is locked and about the drunken fights on a Saturday night, thank God it's Friday.......

Night time bathroom trips.....No more......

So off she goes at 19.00 to wash up dinner plates, saving water for inland trip, and comes back having seen a tree frog, off we go to photograph said frog, when we walk off to see if anymore frogs or ladies with eight legs are around, I walk past a fence panel at which I suddenly hear, "Steve, Snake! " where I ask, "down by your feet" she replies...... GULP......... Now how to photograph it without upsetting it and getting too close and a horrible smell emanating from somewhere....... 

We take four photos with long distance lens and get the hell out of there........

Ha! I say,  I don't think I'll have anything else to drink tonight, saves disturbing you should I have to get up and go to the bathroom.......... I think I've fooled her........

If they are crouching........

Out at 5.30am but beach walk/limp totally uneventful compared with Crocodile Wednesday, walk from beach to camp site, just the odd eagle or two, the limp into camp site, nothing other than the normal green parrots, the walk up to the van or should I say, Motorhome, I see a local resident crouching, what you looking at I say, as all I can see is what appears to be a branch on the ground......... His wife whispers, it's Tawny Frogmouth Owl, it's baby has fallen out of the nest and the mother is Guarding it from the Magpie Larks....... I approach in a semi crouch and the branch transforms itself into a once in a life time moment when you can see both mother and baby Tawny Frogmouth Owls without being up a tree, according to Clive, the local naturalist...... So what do I do, I burst into the van, excitedly grab my, now dry camera and whilst reassembling it, utter some form of gibberish, which from the tone makes someone who has just been rudely woken up, get out of bed, grab her camera and start clicking away outside in her night attire......... After the photo session, I stand guard, attempting to fend off the magpie larks, failed miserably on three occasions, when the MPL flew in and clouted the mother owl on the head with their feet, whilst Clive goes to contact Animal Rescue. Mother owl was the ultimate defender, she did not shrink from her protection instincts until Rescue came in the form of a bronzed Adonis, with a ladder, plastic tray and blanket......... Baby owl taken up a tree in the tray and left until mummy flew over. 
So now when ever we are out and looking for hidden wildlife, we are just going to look for the Crouching Aussie..........
The rest of the day spent site seeing, but that was quickly over and then spent around the pool which is somewhere in the region of 36 degrees........ Funny when we get into the air con van and 32 degrees feels cool.......... Off into deep outback tomorrow with no internet, just aborigine settlements, (Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek) so possibly no more updates until Lake Argyle.
One good bit of news though, we saw, approached and spoke with German couple who were robbed, they found all their stuff in the back pack that was stolen, hidden / thrown away in a tree on the camp site. Police say thief just wanted cash as Passports, Credit and Debit cards all found intact.  As we left them it was smiles and Thank you's all round..........

18.35hrs, Even more Good News, sunset was 20 minutes ago and Baby Frogmouth out of tray and bouncing about on a branch next to Mummy Frogmouth.

    A Osprey

Just Chillin

Is it me or does anyone else find it hard to do nothing? I am advised that today is a rest day, we will do nothing but chill, hard to do, when it 37 degrees....... So upon waking at 5am, I put my Burglar skills to use and stealthily creep out of bed, get dressed, get heart monitor and phone so as to track distance and route etc all without disturbing someone, ahh I hear you say, he is so considerate...... Then I get out of the Motorhome and slam the door........ Which whilst someone may feel the need to chastise me, I believe I did her a good turn as she then got up to use the bathroom........ 
Next stop Cable Beach, the tide is out so a huge expanse of sand awaits my footprints, I start my so called power walk and head towards Gantheaume Point, when I am waved to by two female athletic beauties, who are definitely beckoning me over to them and their two dogs, it must be me as its only 5.40am and there is now other stupid bugger on the beach...... So over I go and one of them asks if I have a phone, I say yes and produce my iPhone 6, and she runs off with it.......
Not really, only joking, she takes it and asks do I have email, I again says yes at which point she crouches down and then says where is the camera, I indicate the camera app, she crouches down again and moves here dogs out of the way to reveal a small baby Crocodile, stranded but fiercely protecting its piece of Cable Beach territory, snapping at anything that gets within 4in of it.  Having taken a picture she tries to email it to herself but alas my Spanish Phone has data roaming turned off, talk about take liberties, I mean she could have taken advantage of me, no problem, but liberties...........
Back at base after a dip in the pool and sending pictures via wifi, we head off to town to see what Broome has to offer, we step off the Bus and are greeted by Australia's version of the looki looki man, only selling carved palm tree seed pods, we unfortunately decline his offer, I say unfortunate because later as we walk around town, it becomes apparent that the majority of the indigenous people sit around doing nothing but talk and drink which later becomes shout and drink, whereas at least looki looki was trying to fend for himself.......... If we see him tomorrow we may just end up buying a palm tree seed pod with some strange markings and pattern on, now I wonder who we could give that to as a present...........?
The Sunset photo completion is drawing to a conclusion with both participants down on the beach wanting to include some wet rocks in the foreground so as to capture the setting Suns reflection.  Unfortunately today's completion came to a sudden end when one of the competitors  who was using all of his mountain goat skills to clamber over the wet rocks suddenly fell A over T, and after cleaning the algae from the offending rock with the seat of his pants, soaking his camera, attracting every shark within a radius of 20 miles with the fresh sent of blood from the cut on his ankle, ended up sitting in a rock pool....... As he walked home, dishevelled and covered in a green slimy coating, he wonder just how many of those people behind him taking sunset photos, managed to capture the action shot of his fall from grace............

    Oh so snappy

    Prior to being upended with the glistening rock pool beckoning.........

Sweeping along the Coast

So there we are at 5am, when thump thump outside the van, I'm already awake but someone else wakes up thinking someone is trying to break in, no I say, it's a bit of bark falling off a tree hitting the roof, but now your awake, I was thinking.........

And so it's decided that after a cup of tea, we make an early start and do two days driving in one......

5.30am and I'm in the camp showers all lathered up and singing 'my ding a ling' when suddenly I turn and confront this female with no clothes on, staring up at me, with her arms outstretched in my cubicle, I mutter a deep manly gruff moan that possibly sounded like 'Eeeek' before I notice the sparkle of desire and wanting in her eyes, she moves closer so as to embrace my sublime toned naked body, I notice that she is now standing up on tip toes as if to grasp me and never let go of me in this passionate moment and then I notice her other set of legs and arms waving about at me before I spray our 6inch friend with the shower head and she scurries away under the cubicle door.......

We drive, well when I say we I mean, one of us drove for 9.20hrs and one of us sat in the passenger seat looking longing at the bed in the back thinking, will he mind if I just have a little doze...... The journey is without incident, except for the bush fires we have to drive through and the 4foot lace monitor lizard we almost collide with, but we arrive in Broome and settle for Cable Beach Caravan Park.

Now after 9 odd hours of driving in temps that not once went below 35 degrees, all I want to do is check in, connect up and relax with a cup of tea under the fronds of the palm trees surrounding our site, but hey whilst talking to the receptionist, the phone rings, it's Nina, God knows where she is but she wants to cut a deal where she pays when she decides to leave and not beforehand like very one else...... 5mins later the receptionist returns to us, saying sorry admittedly but can sense I am not best pleased, possibly because I mentioned the fact, that I was thinking of phoning her so as to get checked in quicker....... I am not a happy bunny....... So whilst we are discussing what would be the best site for us with a site map in front of us, the door opens and a German couple walk in, they approach the desk where all three of us are discussing our site location and interrupt by saying, " Just a quick question" and suddenly start talking to the receptionist about changing their site and what other sites do they have available, HE then turns and points and uses our site map to discuss his problem with the receptionist.  Nuclear Explosion time, and without a diplomatic statement, suggestion, hint or reference, he gets told unequivocally to wait his turn and get off my map.......... "Of course" he replies and whilst feeling slightly embarrassed for my outburst to a fellow European, we park up and live the dream....... Out for dinner, she has had such a hard day, I feel someone else should cook for us and so go to restaurant above cable beach for the continuation of the sunset picture competition....... Even I have to admit to one to the pictures below having a certain mystical, magical and dynamic feel to it, where the colour in the sky makes the subject stand out and makes you wish you could be him!

And so we return to camp, only to see the Police driving in 4 minutes before us, but more importantly, we see a man, walking towards us away from the site putting on another top looking furtively around him as we would say in the trade...... Upon entering camp we find out someone has been broken into, we mention our suspicious man and within minutes we are talking to the local constabulary who are taking the details of what has been stolen from our 'Only a quick question' German couple........

We advise where we saw him, that he was not carrying a swag bag but suggest it could be wise to search the said area in daylight or now with serious torches, but that we will check early in the morning for them, providing they don't interrupt us that is.......

And now to sleep with the thought on my mind, do I tell her it was me banging on the side of the van........

'T' Day

Up before the sun and return to shark nursery in hope to get better/underwater photo but Stupid Steve did not think and 'Mr Know it all' did not mention, at 5.30am it's low tide and there is not a drop of water in the nursery.........
Therefore only thing to do is get someone else out of bed and hit the road, one of us was not altogether impressed with that idea........
We hit the road before 9am with a 535kms drive ahead of us, we have now mastered driving Oz style, get up to 100kph put it in cruise and keeping going straight ahead, we Travel 535kms and only do 1 x right Turn and 2 x left Turns all day, and that was in the first 13kms........
As we drive the first 200kms  awaiting the landscape to change, I say "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with T".  Possibly 20 minutes/30kms later, She actually sees one of what I had seen and shouts out "Tree" and so that game came to an end with me losing once again.........
I then get to play with or rather they get to play with me....... 
They being mini Twisters......  As we drive along you can see them forming on the flat barren landscape, picking up the red earth / dust and spinning towards us, most missed but some caught us and if they came from the front it was like hitting a giant wet sponge but if they came from the rear you felt yourself suddenly being accelerated and forced forward at a greater speed than you were doing.........
We pass hundreds of Termite mounds, all of which must be between 5-6ft tall and 3-4ft wide but do not see another living thing for the whole journey, well non human thing, now that brings me onto our final T, it stands for 'Terror'.........
Can you imagine someone aged late 20's wanting to work in a Cafe/Petrol station that is 270kms from the next living sole........ Well we break the journey up to get diesel and a coffee, so stop and enter a roadhouse as they call it, having filled up with diesel prior to entering.  As we step through the door, we immediately notice there are no other customers, in fact where are the staff........ When from under the counter up pops a guy in his late 20's who as soon as I saw him, I thought of Jack Nicholson, in 'The Shining'  after paying for my coffee we sat down, when he approached from behind and said "Here's Coffee" at which my incontinence problem was immediately cured..........

We have now made it to Karratha in the North West where hopefully someone will allow me to put my feet up whilst she makes a nice cup of T.

Coral Bay

So an early morning stroll along the deserted beach reveals nothing other than I'm on my own, so I think back to last nights conversations whilst sat around the Billabong campfire where we are told about the Reef Shark nursery/sanctuary on the other side of the bay we have been swimming in.   So naturally we take a 20 minute walk along the beach and come across 28 Reef Sharks and numerous Rays swimming in the shallows at times only 6-8 feet away from my little piggies being lapped by the gentle swish swish swoosh of the incoming tide. Photos are taken and later deleted and we walk back before the incoming tide cuts us off and forces us into the water, without my waterproof action camera to capture the result of the meeting between woman and beast..........
The afternoon is spent snorkelling and one of us exuding so much wasteful energy diving down to capture and immortalise some of the fish forever in film but failing miserably as they dart off and leave him swimming through a cloud of fish poo.........
After a quick rendezvous with 'Mr I have been everywhere, got everything (even a Land Cruiser) and know it all' we embark on a cross town walk, 5 minutes later having reached the start of the Bush, we think, 'We are coming back here for Christmas' .......... And then think, Bliss, probably, just what we will need after galloping around the Northern Territories for several weeks, as even he is not stupid enough to go swimming much further north of here, well except for New Years Day when we are staying in Shark Bay, now I wonder why they call it that?