Darwin...

Day Twenty-one - Darwin, NT

Population 101,709

Big4 Howard springs - $78 per night @ 2 nights

Supplies - $91.00

91km Howard Spring

Fuel - $63.76

As we roll out of Mary River Wilderness Retreat we get closer to Darwin.

Now you can’t swim anywhere in Darwin unless its signposted (this is best for your health) even if there is a sign there is always a risk that there may be a croc somewhere. At the end of every wet season, the park rangers do set traps to remove any crocs, do surveys and put extra traps in to prevent crocs coming into these swimming holes.

We arrive at Howard Springs early and they were really nice and allowed us to check in, so we get unpacked and head into Darwin. We need food, haircuts a few new pairs of thongs, fuel, and beer, this takes us a few hours then head back to the caravan park for dinner and bedtime.

Day Twenty-two – Darwin City…

26km

We all head into Darwin and really want to check out the Darwin Military Museum, it will cost you a small fee to enter (family of 5 = $37) I reckon we spent about 3 hours looking around. The kids really liked it.

We then jump in the car and go for a cruise around and see what we can find. In the center of Darwin, there is the waterfront, much like Darling Harbour in Sydney. There is heaps of accommodation, restaurants, bars, but with the addition of a wave pool (family of 5 = $17), another 3 hours well spent.

Dinner was Pizza with fish and chips on the wharf a few beers than to the Mindil Beach sunset markets, a must do! Kids got Henna tattoo’s and we just wondered. Parking was a little hard to get so if you want to go, maybe be a little earlier than 7.30pm. We should have skipped dinner and eaten there and watched the sunset... This is the first day out of our whole trip that we get home after dark (living on the edge!!)

Day Twenty-three – Acacia Hills NT

60km

3 nights – NO charge

We pack up and head out to Brooke and Stu’s place. They own 25 acres with a horse, buffalo, dogs, chooks, pigs and a buggy. Oh, did I mention a big pool! Afternoon tea with a cold one while the kids play in the pool and chillax. This was nice, cause we’ve just been going, going, going for a few weeks and we all really appreciated the downtime to just sit and chill.

Day Twenty-four – Pancakes for breakfast with our little guest (Angus) then we head out to the Territory Wildlife Park (which Marnie has been hanging for) Brooke was kind enough to give us a discount slip for the park so we got 25% off our park entry $65.25 – Normally $85 big bucks, but this National park was so good, Heaps of different sections and its broken up nicely so you could spend the whole day checking things out.

We head straight to Berry Springs, but it was packed so we keep going and end up back at the homestead for some afternoon nibbles while the kids swam the afternoon away... Steak and salad for dinner.

Day Twenty-five – We head to Litchfield National Park. No entry fee required and heaps of natural springs to swim in that are Croc free (hopefully). The first one we get to is called Florence Falls – if you don’t like stairs then I suggest you skip these ones. I think Matilda counted 135 steps each way! But Emmett who is 5 did them with no problem, well worth the climb. At the bottom was this most amazing swimming pool full of people with their noddles floating around (cold springs) it took your breath away, but it was very refreshing after you get used to it. This was the highlight for me, I’ve never swum under a waterfall before (absolutely amazing) Then once we make it back up again we head to Wangi Falls. They are all as good as each other, you can spend the whole day doing these and they are kid-friendly.

We then head back to Brooks for some scrumptious homemade pizza and an early night cause tomorrow head off.

TB  💋