The Busy Mum Hub - Half Lap of Aus

Day Sixteen -  Kakadu, NT Campsite - $38.00 per night at 2 nights Fuel - $71.60 at Pine Creek service station  90km   Tour - $366.00 - Croc tour at Cooinda We take our time packing up from Mataranka, washing is up to date (we had a wet bed the night before we left) so I was up washing and using the dryer at 6am (before the oldies needed it) we head back to Katherine and then to Kakadu. If you haven't been here before this National Park is massive and you need a pass to stay. This was $100 for the five of us for 7 days. We wanted to book into Cooinda (but was booked out) so we head back down the road about 10km to Mardugal. This is a no power or water campsite but it has rangers so there is a charge, $38 per night. They do have showers and flushing toilets. You can park your caravan where ever you like. We pick a nice spot to stay near the river, we could hear the baby crocs at night singing out to there mums and dingos crying. Once it gets dark you stay inside (...

Day Twelve - Leaving the BIG4 Macdonnell Range was Fuel - $111.34 (the night before) Fuel stop - Telegraph Station Barrow Creek    $100.67 289km Now we left The Big 4 knowing that we were going to have a really long trip today. We charged the IPads and had snacks and water on hand ready for the kids. We stopped here and made lunch (hot dogs (kids) salad wraps (us)) Then hit the road again...   Marnie Jane This little run down servo in the middle of no here was a little surprising! as I walked in to pay for the diesel there was not an inch on the walls that didn't have a pic, business card or a small bit of writing in texta. Fuel stop - Bp Station - Tennent Creek $88.89 225km COFFEE BREAK (kids are being so good today with the traveling) Banka Banka Outstation, NT Population - How ever many they have turned up! $20 per night (kids stayed free) 100km Kids received an ice Block on arrival...  Now we have our WikiCamps maps out and we...

Dinner whilst we watch the sun set.. Ghan Day eight -  Marla - Fuel stop Road house Fuel - $84.68 The Old Gravy Pit Population is 0 Free Camping - under the stars 452km The Old Gravy Pit - Stuart Hwy, Ghan We went past a few free camping sites but they didn't have a good view of the sunset, This site wasn't a free camping site on Wikicamps. It was an old gravel pit that was just off the road. No one in sight... We just got set up and another family were pulling in. After dinner we headed down to share their campfire (after being invited) They were a lovely family from Canberra and they are heading to uluru.. followed by Western Australia on a three-month family trip with their three beautiful kids.  Uluru.... Now some people are going to say that we are crazy! But we really didn't want to be on a time frame with this trip. If we love somewhere, we wanted to be able to stay. If we didn't like somewhere, we can pack up and keep going....

Day six -  Coober Pedy Population is 1762 Big 4 Caravan Park - (Powered site) 2 nights - $99 with $11 discount Fuel - $178.35 542km This was the most interesting drive so far, nothing to see but so much to look at! It was a hard day with the kidlets (they weren't in the mood to travel this far and be nice to each other) which was fine, we just made more stops along the way. Finally, the sun was shining and I felt at ease as I just sat and looked out the window soaking up the sun rays, I kept looking at Adam with a smile on my face. One thing that really scared me was the Triple Trailer Road Trains. Holy Dooley!!! I put my foot on the brakes a few times (I was the passenger 😂) Those thing cruise along at a nice speed and the back end just swings around.. As we cruised into Coober Pedy you could tell that we were getting close, Piles of dirt as far as the eye can see (and dust) the Big 4 was the first turn off as we came into town, a nice 18 degrees. We get sorted and...