In all honesty I've lost count of what number day it all. All I know is that we are heading south and it is growing colder by the minute.
It's about three nights since we left Darwin and we've had some great times along the way as well as some more Plan B deviations. We were nearly going to have to give Litchfield NP a miss as the southern area had been closed due to heavy rainfall. But as luck would have it Lisa and her husband from the fishing charter had just come from that area and said that all the tracks were open. Unfortunately when we got there we found that all the camp sites were taken at both campgrounds so we weren't not able to stay the night. However, we had a wonderful swim at Surprise Falls, and some ledge jumping into a really deep waterhole, before moving off.
There were some fantastic creek crossings on the way out which were still full of water. A couple of them we just had to go back through and then drive through again to get photos of the vehicles. ...just can't help ourselves. After leaving Litchfield behind we drove a bit further down the road and found a nice little space off the side of the road where we stopped for the night. Tim & Mimi organised a ceremonial cooking (Master Chef style) of our beautiful jew fish in garlic butter with chips which we all shared. It was delicious and both kids cleaned their plates. Looks like we'll be trying more fish meals when we get home.
It pretty much poured all night and we spent ages trying to get enough pegs into the rocky ground to make sure the tent wouldn't blow away or fill up with water. I don't think anyone slept well that night.
The next day was pretty uneventful and after driving another 400-500 km we found another place to camp away from the road. This time it was our turn to play Master Chef. We'd all tried some fried Camembert Cheese one night in Katherine and really enjoyed it so we thought we'd give it a go bush style. We took a wheel of Camembert Cheese and cut it into triangles then dipped it in egg (thanks Tim & Mimi) then dipped it in Kelleogs Cornflake crumbs (bought from the shop). The coating didn't look thick enough so we redipped them in the egg and crumbs again then deep fried them in hot oil in a saucepan. YUM!!!!!!! They were a big hit with everyone, even the kids, but went too quickly. Need to buy two wheels of cheese next time.
The next day was again pretty uneventful and would be our last night before hitting Alice. We had decided to given the Davenport Ranges a miss, get to Alice a day early and then try our luck going home via Mt Dare which we missed on the way up. We did however stop in at a famous pub - famous for its collections of things donated by its patrons. The walls and ceiling were decked out with name badges, id cards, business cards, signed t-shirts, stubby holders and bras as well as money of every currency you can image. Best of all we arrived just in time for Happy Hour where you could win a pot 0f Coopers by correctly guessing 'heads or tails'. Chris was lucky enough to win two!
Our final roadside stop before Alice was in a fairly open area and all night we we're buffeted by some fairly strong winds, although it didn't rain too much and we had a fire so life was good. Of course since we hadn't had a fire in such a long time, it was decided that it was again time to put a can in the fire, although this time they created a separate fire for the can well away from the campsite and anything flammable. Three extra shovel loads of coals and an hour later I couldn't be bothered waiting any longer for it to explode so I went to bed and in the morning found out that it never went off. Not sure why - but that was soon rectified and we were again on or way - one can of tinned tomatoes lighter.
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