Kununurra to Alice Springs

Hi again we left Kununurra early and headed across to Katherine  in the NT after we did a lap up the main drag we decided to head out to Katherine Gorge and stay the night there it was really hot so we spent all afternoon swimming in the pool.

The next day we headed to Mataranka where we were meeting the Ferraris. We had a look at Mataranka Springs while we waited, they arrived later in the afternoon and we were so excited to see them and catch up on everything.
The next morning we had a look at Bitter springs. The water was really warm and Oliver, Sam and I went snorkelling. After the others had a swim we started the drive to Tennant Creek.

We stayed the night and the next morning headed for Alice Springs it was a long drive. We took turns and travelling in the Maui with Ross and Amanda it is pretty cool you can watch movies on the telly and lie on the bed while you are travelling.
Our first stop was the Devils Marbles.

Here we are on the marbles!

Here is the Oliver, Amy and Annabel next to the Maui

Here we all are at the Devils Marbles

We arrived in Alice Springs in the afternoon after a stop at Daly Waters for lunch. It is very cool there are lots of hats and caps and even bras that people have left behind!

Mum stopped to take a picture at Newcastle Waters where she used to work.

We really liked the caravan park at Alice Springs there was a jumping pillow, a BMX track and little billy carts that we hired to ride around it was great fun.

On Saturday it was Ross' Birthday so we thought we would go out for dinner to celebrate. During the day Mum, Amanda and the girls had a look around the Art galleries and Alice Springs. Dad, me, Ross, Ollie, Angus and Sam went for a drive and then had a look at the Kenworth truck museum. We had a really nice dinner at Bo Jangles in Alice Springs and then headed off for the long drive the next morning to Kings Canyon.

When we got there we set up camp and Mum and Amanda did the 6km Rim walk they said the views were amazing.

There was a really steep climb up!

When they got back Ross, Dad, Annabel and Sam had a go. Here they are setting off.

They made it...

We stayed at the campground for the night and were lucky to meet up again with some friends we made at Alice Springs Jay and Kyle and their Mum and Dad, Mandy and Bart.
We had to be careful we didn't leave any food or shoes outside our camp beacause the Dingoes come in and take them. We saw heaps!

We headed off again for Uluru.

It was pretty amazing as we were driving in to see the rock for the first time. We didn't realise it was so big!

What a rock!

Amanda, Mum, Amy and Annabel walked the 10kms around the rock

and Dad, Sam and I climbed...

All the boys did a tour with an Aborginal guide he told us all about the sacred sites.

We had a great couple of days at Uluru and after having a really nice dinner at the Bough Restaurant with the Emerton family we left early on Wednesday morning to start the 700km drive to Coober Pedy. We arrived at the same time as a dust storm....

It was too hard to set up camp so we stayed at the Desert View Motel which is underground it was fantastic the wind was howling outside and inside you couldn't hear anything... we slept in real beds and got to watch Telly... the next morning we visited the Opal Musuem and learnt how Opal was formed and how people live in Coober Pedy it was really interesting all of the kids were given a little piece of Opal.

At lunch time we headed for Port Augusta for the night. We have had a great time but have to say goodbye to the Ferraris today they are off to Adelaide and we will start heading for home, our next stop is Mildura Dad is pretty excited, he has heard there has been lots of rain at home and is keen to get back to start planting Mum says she would like to head around Australia again...

See you soon

Broome to Kununurra

Hi Again
Well we have had a great week since we left Broome and have covered some serious miles. We saw the Staircase to the moon the night before we left Broome which was pretty cool though Dad reckons it wasn't as good as the one you see in the photos but Mum liked it. We headed off the next morning and our first stop was the prison Boab tree near Derby. They used to keep prisoners in here on the way to Broome.

We then headed to Derby to have a quick look and then headed on to Fitzroy crossing across the Gibb River we stopped at Windjana and Tunnel creek which was excellent especially Tunnel creek you have to walk through a tunnel in the darkness in heaps of water we only had one torch so Dad said jump on the back of the tour group in front and follow their torches. The water was really cold! We saw heaps of Freshies at Windjana as well.

Here is Tunnel Creek

We stayed the night in Fitzroy Crossing which was pretty wild there was a big party going on somewhere and the dogs were making a huge racket! We headed the next day to the Bungle Bungle and drove on a really rough road for 2 hours to get to Catherdral Gorge me and the boys were starting to feel a bit car sick on the way in!! The Bungle domes are very cool to look at they look like upside down beehives!

We drove to Kununurra the next day and stayed with Kent, Susan, Millie and Belle and Phillip it lots of fun we went fishing had a helicopter ride and went in a boat up the Ord River and did heaps of fishing though when you are fishing you have keep an eye out for the Crocs!!. We saw El Questro Zeebedee Falls and Emma Gorge.

Sam, Angus and I put on our goggles and went snorkelling in the gorges. Here is Angus!

Zeebedee Falls are hot thermal springs they are so warm just like a bath!

Here is Emma Gorge!

Today we are heading to Katherine for the night and then tomorrow we are meeting up with the Ferraris, we can't wait to see them.
Bye for now

Broome

Hi everyone well we have travelled over 8000kms and we are now in Broome! Mum is very excited she has been looking forward to coming to Broome we are all having a great time. We are staying at a really great caravan park near Cable Beach and it has a pool and lots of kids to play with! We were very excited because when we got to Broome we saw that Red Dog the movie was on at the open air cinema so we went and saw it it was pretty cool sitting outside watching a movie, we all loved the movie as much as the book. Here we are at the cinema!

Here is a picture of Sam and Angus on Cable beach it is very nice!

We went to the Pearl Lugger Museum to hear about how the pearl divers used to collect the shells it was very hard work for them and really interesting to hear about. Here is a Pearl lugger.

We saw some of the gear the old divers had to wear!

Sam was lucky he got to hold a Pearl they had found at the Willie Creek pearl farm they said it was worth $100 000 pretty amazing!

That afternoon we went for a ride on the camels it was lots of fun!

We went on the sunset ride!

 

Here is a video we made on the camels!

We went to the Crocodile farm and heard how the make crocodiles into handbags!! We got to hold a baby croc and I got to throw a fish for a big croc! I am very glad i didn't have to get in the cage with it!

The Shinju Matsuri which is the pearl festival is on at the moment it is a week long festival with heaps of stuff on we went to a street parade and saw the chinese dragon

There are heaps of Boab Trees here as well we have bought a little on and are going to see if we can plant it at "Maroondah"



Here is a random shot Mum took of a chair between the flags on cable beach she thought it was good! Not sure why?

We are hoping to see the Staircase to the moon tonight! Will let you know how we go and then tomorrow we are heading to Kununurra.

Talk to you soon.

Bye

Ningaloo to Tom Price

Hi Again

Here is a couple of photos of us free camping in Cape Range National park before we left Exmouth.

You can see our camp in the background there were heaps of Kangaroos that came through our camp in the afternoon.

And here is Mum and Dad watching the sunset it is pretty cool free camping because we don't have to have showers! We played Pontoon at night!



When we left Exmouth Mum bought the Red Dog audio book so we listened to that as we drove through the Pilbara to Tom Price it was pretty cool because all the places we went through were where Red Dog had been and we even saw Parabudoo where he was born! We all loved the story!

We stayed the night in Tom Price and then drove out to Karijini National Park and did some more free camping for a couple of nights!

It was great fun we did lots of walks in the Gorges some were a bit difficult you had to squeeze through little gaps and walk through lots of water so Dad Sam and I did those while Mum and Angus explored the water holes.

We even managed to do some school while we were camping Mum said make sure you take note of the blank pages!!

 

Sam was good at spotting the Lizards!!

After a great time at Karijini we headed for Broome!! We stopped for a look at Port Hedland and saw a big Ore ship coming into the port!

We stayed the night at 80 mile beach between Port Hedland and Broome which was very cool because we could drive our car down onto the beach we couldn't swim though because there were sharks!!

Then we headed off the next morning for Broome, Mum couldn't wait to get there!
See you soon