Mataranka to Darwin

What a busy few days we have had since our last post! We have been out of range since Mataranka so now we are in Darwin we can fill you in on all that we have been up to.

Our next stop after leaving our idyllic spot at Bitter Springs was Edith Falls, a national park not far north of Katherine. We had arranged to meet up with our good friends from Sydney, the Catteralls, who are 4 months into their 6 months trip. We hadn't heard of Edith Falls so didn't know what to expect - the campground in the national park was fairly unremarkable - so we were keen to explore the nearby falls the next day. We laced up our walking shoes and headed off in the morning for a hike, joined by the Catteralls and our new Mataranka made friends, Michael, Kate, Will and Eleanor Wheatley (also from Sydney) . The walk was quite strenuous, or at least it seemed so in 34 degree heat, 4 year old in tow and a swimming noodle under each arm. We soon discovered that the walk (and the noodles) were well worth the effort, as the falls were beyond anything we could have imagined. Absolute paradise. We spent a blissful few hours alternately swimming in the crystal clear waters and basking on the warm rocks. Definitely a 'champagne day'. Georgie even managed to walk back home again ON HER OWN!

The March of the Noodles

First glimpse of Edith Falls

We made it! Will, Hugo,Tom, Eleanor, Sienna, Teya, James

Beautiful Edith Falls (Ali in blue with Georgie)

 That night we were treated to a concert by the kids. They had great fun rehearsing and performing their individual "acts", including singing, trumpet, guitar, harmonica and flute solos, didgeridoo and tapping sticks, Irish dancing, and a play! - James did a sterling job as M.C. This was followed by a singalong courtesy of Michael and his guitar (accompanied by us struggling to remember past the first verse of American Pie). A great end to a great day.



Georgie learning to play Hugo's "didge"



Curtain call

 

Altogether now - "Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car"



After saying goodbye to the Catteralls (enjoy your last 6 weeks guys!) we headed on to Litchfield National Park, where we had our first 4 wheel drive experience (including creek crossings - unfortunately {fortunately?} we didn't see any crocs!) and swam in more impossibly beautiful waterfalls and waterholes. The pictures speak for themselves...



Ahh...this is the life! Tom, Will and Eleanor.



Buley Waterhole - John and James



Water Boy

Another day, another waterfall. Litchfield N.P.

"Tom, Toyotas and Termites". One of the many termite mounds in N.T. This one particularly impressive!

We said goodbye to Litchfield and headed up the highway to Darwin where we settled in for a few days at the Big 4, comfortably cool under a massive Banyan Tree. We have been here 5 days now while we have a few niggling problems with the car and van sorted, and explore Australia's northern most and smallest (population 127,000) city. Highlights have included (in no particular order):

Hand feeding the mullet in Darwin harbour at high tide...

A trip to Crocosaurus Cove where we got friendly with some reptiles...

Swimming in a glass pool next to (whilst pretending to be) crocodiles...

 

Crocosaurus Cove's most dangerous exhibit. The Rapp Children.




Fed the juvenile crocodiles...

And patted a crocodile..

Oh, alright then...

A trip to Mindil Beach sunset markets was also a must do, being one of the experiences written about it in Alison Lester's "Are We There Yet?", a favourite children's book about a family's caravan trip around Australia. We are conducting a poll to see how many family's we meet have been inspired by this book - and so far it has been all of them!

The markets are a mix of art and craft and food stalls. Shopping, eating, and taking in the sunset on the beach is what it is all about. Sounds good doesn't it? And it was (except for John who hates shopping and had a raw chicken curry).

John, James and Tom taking in the sunset.

...the Sunset.

We are only 2 weeks into our trip now and seen so much already. Can't imagine what we will see and experience over 4 months.  We feel quite ashamed of how little we previously knew of our country and how we have underestimated and under appreciated her. Australia, forgive us, for we adore thee! 

We have settled into day to day life in the van and are finding it very comfortable. Preparing meals has been surprisingly easy, now that it is warmer and we can cook and eat outdoors. The fridge stores a good week's worth of food, so that we are not having to shop too often. We are very grateful for a shower and toilet (especially in the middle of the night)! James is finding the sleeping quarters too cramped for his taste, as he often hits his head first thing in the morning, before he remembers where he is! Granted, the beds are more like catacombs, but we had to save space somewhere!  Our pack up times could still do with improvement, at 2 hours it is the same time as it takes our friends with camper trailers, but we are hopeful that we will get better with practice. We are finding time most days to do an hour or so of school work - any reluctance is met with a quick "imagine what you'd be otherwise be doing!" Car trips have become the best time for maths mentals and spelling, and the boys are creating wonderful journals - when they can sit still for more than 5 minutes and are in the right mood!  (yes Tom, that would be you!)

 We are planning to leave Darwin tomorrow and head to Kakadu - so we will post  an update next time we have coverage. Thanks for reading if you have made it this far!



Alice Springs to Mataranka Springs

We stayed in Alice Springs a little longer than planned due to some unforeseen circumstances. The car needed a service, and as it turned out so did the family, with three trips to three different doctors in 2 days! John's head needed attention (the outside, not yet the inside), James developed an ear infection and Thomas a high fever. And we were doing so well for a couple of days! So we stayed put in the luxurious caravan park and I'm happy to say a three days on, everyone is on the mend.

We braced ourselves for a couple of days of serious driving as we headed up the Stuart Highway toward our destination of Mataranka Springs (a town 200km south of Katherine). The first night we stopped in a teeny town called Whitecliff Well - famed as the "UFO capital of Australia". Apparently the aliens find something interesting about it...hmmm. It did add some fun to the stop over as the kids went spotlighting with some new found friends in search of crashed flying saucers.

The next day was a marathon 8 hour drive as we pushed on to Mataranka - a town know for its thermal springs. Most of the drive was fairly monotonous - one very long straight road with endless low scrub either side, but there were a few highlights. The first was a stop at the Devil's Marbles - an amazing geological marvel, where erosion over millions of years has left boulders seemingly perched on top of each other, in the middle of the otherwise flat landscape. Georgie thought they should be called the Devil's Potatoes, as they, quite rightly, looked more like spuds than marbles. Thomas was delighted to have the opportunity to finally climb something!

Our afternoon stop was at the famous Daly Waters Hotel - a watering hole for travellers for 100 years. It is a very colourful place, smack bang in the middle of nowhere (as indeed, everything feels like it is in NT). It is decorated with underwear, money, t-shirts etc. from visitors from around the world.

With only 2 hours to go (already thinking like seasoned travellers) we aimed to stop at the next town for fuel, only to discover that the petrol station had burned down years before! We were 70kms south of Mataranka and on reserve! Luckily the pub had a can of diesel out the back for emergencies, which we were able to convince them ours was. Fingers crossed it was clean. And diesel.



Daly Waters Pub



At last we arrived at Mataranka at 7pm that night. Parking the van in the dark was rather challenging - thank goodness for a full moon! The caravan park is situated just out of Mataranka in a place called Bitter Springs. We were planning to stay for one night and have now been here for 3 - it is such a special spot. A short walk from the park are the thermal springs, where you can swim in the bath like, crystal clear waters. Swimming there is almost like a Northern Territory themed ride at Disneyland. You climb down a ladder at the starting point and the current carries you gently downstream for a few hundred metres, bobbing on your noodle, taking in the beautiful scenery, spotting turtles (dodging submerged logs) and having a grand old time. You then climb out, walk back to the start, and do it all again! And again. And again. All day. For two days! We have also had the good fortune of meeting 3 other families with young children, at various stages of "the Lap", who have been great company. Thomas and Georgie have barely been seen for two days - other than short periods when we have 8 children in our van sharing 2 ipads!

Bitter Springs, Mataranka NT

We are heading off tomorrow to Edith Falls - a picturesque spot not far from Katherine, where we are meeting up with friends of ours (Juz and Tim Catterall), who have been doing the same trip as ours in reverse, having left in April. We are looking forward to hearing and learning from their experiences! 

Uluru to Alice Springs

At last - the family was reunited as we began our adventure proper! Ali, James, Tom and Georgie flew to Uluru to meet John, who had spent 4 very long, boring and lonely days driving  half-way accross Australia. We had a small insight into his long trek from 3 1/2 hours in the plane looking down at, well, pretty much - nothing! Georgie amused us when she excitedly looked out the window and exclaimed "I can see the outback! It looks like meat!". Our first glimpses of Uluru from the air were very exciting - a quite different and unexpected shape from above, compared to the iconic side view.

After some lunch and a swim for the kids in the freezing cold pool, we drove out to see the rock at sunset. What an awe-inspiring sight - so much more than any photo could do justice to. There is such a sense of majesty and mystisicm that we found unexpectedly moving. The kids sat on the roof of the car to watch the view -  a great novelty!



Uluru at sunset



The next day we were up early so decided to drive out and catch the sunrise from a different vantage point - just as special. This was followed by a 2 hour tour around the base of the rock by a local aboriginal guide "Ezechial" which was a very interesting insight into aboriginal cultural history. Tom, as you can imagine, was desperate to climb the rock, and although it is allowed, the aboriginal people discourage you from doing so (it is a sacred site for them) and apart from which - it looks bloody dangerous! He was mollified with a walk of about 20 metres up the foot of it - so he can lay claim to having walked up Uluru.




Sunrise at Uluru. Notice The Olgas in the distance?



In the afternoon we went to explore Kata Tjuta (otherwise known as The Olgas). There was quite a long walk to the first vantage point, which the kids did very well in managing (Georgie was only carried a small portion - just enough to put John's back out). We were again greeted with another spectacular view - not to mention a view of Georgie's bottom as she "cheekily" revealed to one and all that she had forgotten to put on undies!

We had to make a lunchtime appoinment the next day in Alice Springs to have the caravan fridge fixed, so we packed up and headed off in the early evening to get some kms under our belt. In the process John managed to bang his head on the caravan boot and give himself a nasty split in the forehead. D'oh!
He bravely soldiered on with a panadol and a packet of butterfly clips.

We have arrived in Alice today to a fabulous caravan park in the foothills of the Macdonnell Ranges (pools! playgrounds! puttputt! portapotty dumping point!!). We look forward to exploring more of it all tomorrow.

Very early days yet, but so far so very good. John and I are so excited to be doing this - such an amazing opportunity for us as a family. We feel very happy and blessed. Despite head wounds. And bad backs.

xox

The adventure begins...sort of.

Welcome to the inaugural post of the Rapp family's blog! We aim to keep in touch with our family and friends through the wonders of the blogosphere, as we travel across and around this great country of ours over the next 5 months (here's hoping we can last that long!).

It has been a very busy few weeks preparing to embark on our adventure. I think if we understood how much preparation a trip like this required we may never have undertaken it! Surely it was just a matter of buying a caravan, hooking it up and heading off? HA! Many, many late nights of research (yes, of course by John) and many trips to car shops, caravan shops, camping shops, mechanics, GPS shops, phone shops, shoe shops, tyre shops, adventure shops and we were FINALLY... nearly ready to leave. We then had the not insignificant task of moving out of our house, and putting everything into storage. All except our gorgeous Henry, who is being fostered by his long suffering Grandma and Grandpa. (Don't fret, he's the dog).

So at last on Thursday this week (only two days behind schedule) John was ready to head off. Our plan is for him to drive the van and meet me and the kids in Uluru this Monday. A sage decision methinks. We are racing to beat the wet season in the top end, and knew that driving to Uluru with the kids would otherwise take weeks, not days (those wee stops really add up).


 So here we are next to the rig prior to John's eventual departure. Note the shiny, pristine condition of the new Land Cruiser? Let see how she looks in a month or two....

See you in Uluru!

xoxo