MATT'S BEST AND WORST

Best Campground: Winter Sun in Alice Springs - great campsites and met lots of people hearing all their stories.
Worst Campground: Katherine Gorge - no pool, heaps of toads and stinking hot
Best Road: Road to Dundee - lots of water crossings
Worst Road: Plenty Highway - broke my back windscreen
Yummiest Breakfast: Same as Mel
Worst Breakfast: Weet Bix - still good but not the yummiest
Yummiest Lunch/Dinner: Barra Bits and chips @ Daly Waters Pub
Worst Dinner: Macaroni and Cheese - not good for a lactose intolerant
Best Walk: Walking to the top of Ayers Rock twice
Worst Walk: 2km loop for obvious reasons if you read about that day
Best Waterhole/Swimming: Southern Rockhole - wasn't ever crowded and very refreshing
Worst Waterhole/Swimming: Buley Rockhole - I lost my wedding ring
Best Attraction (paid): Kakadu Flight
Best Attraction (free): Litchfield Park
Worst Attraction (paid): Standley Chasm - $7.50 each just to walk on Aboriginal land
Worst Attraction (free): Serpentine Gorge - boring and not much to see
Best Animal: The cool crocodile
Worst Animal: Barramundi - wouldn't eat my lure
Best Day: 1st trip to Litchfield Park
Worst Day: Day after cyclone - hangover
Biggest Surprise: Walker Creek - had it all to ourselves
Biggest Disappointment: Findng out a Wooly Butt was a tree not an animal
Best Picture: See above

MELISSA'S BEST AND WORST

MEL'S PICK OF THE HOLIDAY

Best Campground: Mt Isa Caravan Park- The lady was very friendly, walked us to our spot and we had our own toilet and shower.
Worst Campground: Barkly Homestead - Large light out the front of tent and a generator humming all night. Not much sleep had. Oh and stinking hot
Cheapest Caravan Park: Larrimah Pub - $10 powered; Devil's Marbles - $6.60 unpowered
Dearest Caravan Park: Uluru Caravan Park - $31
Best Road: Any of the roads other than the Plenty
Worst Road: 900km of a rocky bumpy road - sore boobs
Cheapest Fuel: $120.3 - Katherine
Dearest Fuel: $165.9 - Gemtree
Best Dinner: T-bones and Pumpkin and Tortillini Soup cooked to perfection by chef Matt on our butane stove
Worst Dinner: Didn't have one
Best Breakfast: Sitting eating baked bean w/bubble n' squeak watching sunrise at Uluru
Worst Breakfast: Not being able to eat bacon eggs and cheese toasted sandwiches most mornings
Best Walk: Making it to the top of Ayers Rock although the walk down was much easier.
Worst Walk: Walking t the toilet in the middle of the night in freezing cold conditions in Alice Springs and Uluru for the 3rd time.
Best Waterhole/Swimming: Southern Rockhole - the rest are in 2nd place. All are beautiful and cool to have a quck dip.
Worst Waterhole/Swimming: There wasn't any - if I had to chose one it would be the ones we couldn't swim in.
Best Attraction (paid): Flight over Kakadu and Crocodylus (I got to hold a crocodile)
Best Attraction (free): Litchfield Park
Worst Attraction (paid): Territory Wildlife Park - we arrived late in the afternoon, went around the wrong way and missed the feeding times.
Worst Attraction (free): Palm Valley - went in the wrong season
Best Animal: Alien looking creatures living in rockholes on Ayers Rock
Worst Animal: The amount of flies and seeing the mangy dogs following the Aboriginals around. Very sad.
Best Day: Having Buley Rockholes to ourselves during Cyclone Monica and making it to the top of the summit finally on my second attempt.
Worst Day: Knowing our holiday is ending and we only have the drive home left.
Biggest Surprise: The whole trip turned out better than I could have ever expected and the Easter Bunny still found me in Darwin.
Biggest Disappointment: Not being able to go to Mindil Markets and have a mangoo puree smoothie.
Best Picture: See above picture

DAY THIRTY THREE & THIRTY FOUR- Alice to home

Set off early in the morning aiming to cross the bumpy Plenty HIghway. 900km of dirt rocky road. Wasn't very fun. We shattered the back windscreen with a rock that flew up and a truck smashed the front. Thankfully it only has a small crack unlike the back.
Made it to Winton late at night with the trailer attachment lost for the lights, just enough fuel and cracked windscreens.
Slept in the car for the night, going to try to make it home for tomorrow.
Starting to get a bit sad that our holiday is ending.
Woke up refreshed and ready for a long trip ahead of us. Packed with lollies and red bulls we were set. I think we have now played every game you could possibly play in the car.
Made it home at 3:00am very tried and ready for some sleep.
HAD THE HOLIDAY OF A LIETIME.
There are plenty of photos to show everyone. Hope we will see you all this Friday for Matt's birthday so we can tell you all about it.
Can't wait to catch up with everyone. We now finally have mobile coverage so you can ring whenever you like.

See you soon

DAY THIRTY TWO - Uluru/Olgas (9 May 2006)

Got up at about 6 to catch sunrise at the rock - it was freezing but defintely worth it.

The place was crouded with hundreds of people. We took our table and chairs and cooked breaky right there - baked beans and 'bubble n squeak'. The best breaky of the whole trip.

Mel decided she was going to conquer that rock. We started at 9.20am, and one hour, one panic attack and several rest stops later we were at the peak sharing a Vegemite sandwich.

In the afternoon we visited the Olgas (Kata-Tjuta) and then hit the road bound for Alice Springs again. We'll leave in the morning for the long trip home. We've armed ourselves with Minties, Snakes, and Red Bull for the road. We'll probably make it home a bit earlier than first expected.

This will probably be our last blog from the road but we'll post some more stuff when we get home, so keep checking it out. Hopefully we'll see a lot of you at home in 10 days for my birthday anyway.

Happy Birthday to Megan for tomorrow. We'll see you on the weekend.

Matt and Melissa xoxox

DAY THIRTY ONE - Kings Canyon to Uluru

Walked the Canyon in the morning. Again - not the greatest attraction, but at least we can say we've done it. Hit the road after a great bacon and egg breaky bound for Uluru.

Decided to climb the rock at about 4pm. Matt made it to the summit (without the camera) and Melissa stopped about half way up (didn't realise she'd done ALL the hard work and the rest was MUCH easier).

After climbing down (whch is easier but still tricky) we watched sunset and got some great pics. It was early to bed for us - we want to catch sunrise too.

DAY THIRTY - Alice Springs to Kings Canyon

Left Alice bound for Kings Canyon (the long way - 4wd only). We travelled West to Hermannsburg, checked out Palm Valley (not that great but had a very tricky 4wd track - Matt loved it and Melissa was almost sick.

Travelled the 200 and something km track to the Kings Canyon campgroung. Will check out the Canyon in the morning.

DAY TWENTY NINE - Alice Springs

We opted for a rest day in Alice today. All the driving recently and the sudden weather change has really taken it out of us. A day around town checking up on the web, shopping and looking around will be a nice little break.

Tonight we'll be taking a sunset camel ride. We'll post the pictures the next chance we get.

Tomorrow morning we'll be leaving Alice Springs for Kings Canyon and Uluru, which should be the highligt of our red-centre journey.

edit:

Here are the camel pics we prmoised.

DAY TWENTY EIGHT - West MacDonnell NP

We decided we'd do a day trip out to the West MacDonnell Ranges. It's basically a 130km stretch where you stop or turn off every 20km or so to check out a Gorge.

We visited Simpson's Gap, Standley Chasm, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Serpentine Gorge, the Ochre Pits and Ormiston Gorge. The highlights were difintely the frst 3, but we were lucky enough to see some rock wallabies at Ormiston Gorge.

MATT'S BIRTHDAY BASH

If you are reading this then you are invited to come along to the Eagleby Mansion to celebrate Matt's 28th birthday, hear some travel yarns and check out all our piccies.

Friday 19th May, 7pm at the Eagleby Chatteau d'amore for beers and a BBQ

BYO drinks

See you then.

DAY TWENTY SEVEN - Devil's Marbles to Alice Springs

After a freezing cold night we woke up early to catch the sunrise at the Devil's Marbles ; we were camped smack-bang in the middle of the whole thing. After getting snap-happy with the camera we packed up our kit and kaboodle and headed for The Alice, arriving in the early afternoon. We'll relax this afternoon and tonight and head on a road trip to some of the closer attractions (West MacDonnells for those in the know) tomorrow.

We're saving up our Uluru trip for early next week.

We are missing everyone and think of you all. Hope you're all coping without us.

Love you all. We'll blog again soon.

Matt and Melissa xo

DAY TWENTY SIX - Katherine to Devil's Marbles

Woke up way to early for a holiday, packed up camp and headed to Mataranka Hot Springs for our morning bath. It was warm but not too hot – freezing when we got out.

On the road again, stopping for lunch at Daly Waters Outback Pub. Is this place interesting or what. There’s undies, t-shirts, bras, drivers licenses, stubby coolers, photos and flags from people all over the world hanging on every wall in the place. Great atmosphere. I taped up a picture of us up on the wall.

Maybe we’ll get to see it sometime if we go back through there. Camping at Devil’s Marbles for the night.

DAY TWENTY FIVE - Kakadu (2 May 2006)

To the Maude Creek airstrip we headed all excited about our day. The sky was a perfect blue with no clouds. The airstrip only gets graded once a year and that’s not till next month. It wasn’t in the best condition, but we were confident. Take off was great, headphones on and our day had begun.

It’s surprising how quickly the landscape changes from deep gorges to flat lots of nothing onto mountain ranges and wetlands. We got to see all 13 gorges of Nitmiluk and Kakadu's Twin Falls. A stop off at Cooinda for a lovely cruise down Yellow Waters (we saw a salty baking in the sun) and some yummy lunch and back on the plane. This time flying over Jim Jim Falls and Edith Falls, having to go through RAAF airspace and getting permission – ooh how exciting.

By the end of the flight we were glad we decided to see Kakadu by air. There definitely is very long stretches of nothing before you get anywhere interesting. But then again I guess that’s the Northern Territory.

DAY TWENTY FOUR - Nitmiluk Southern Rockhole

Woke up this morning, the first day of May to quite cool weather – we needed the doona finally. I guess this is the Dry Season now. Also we found out from the local paper that we have come up on our holiday during Darwins highest rainfall and Australias highest fuel prices in history. We did well didn’t we?

Matt had a wonderful idea – we could go back to Katherine Gorge and do an 8km walk to one of the rockholes. I psyched myself up and we were off. It was hot hot hot, rocky terrain and over the top of the escarpment for most of the way. Came to a sign that said 2.6km to the Southern Rockhole. Yeah I say. Not Matt, let’s go in the other direction for another 2km loop that didn’t bring us back to the sign but to the start of the walk. His ears started hurting after that.

After 6km not 4km of walking we finally made the decent to the most amazing hidden treasure of Nitmiluk. It was crystal clear, very deep and freezing. The walk back was a breeze.

DAY TWENTY THREE - Edith Falls

Found out that we could still see Kakadu but in a different way. We are going on a plane over Nitmiluk and Kakadu. Can’t do this till Tuesday (day 25) so we are hanging around seeing the sights (might buy some goon and sit in the park – it seems this is what some of the locals like to do ALL DAY).

Heading back to Edith Falls to have another quick dip in the little rockpool off to the side. This time we found other little pools you could swim in after a bit of rock hopping. It has been great, we hardly see anyone anywhere we go.

DAY TWENTY TWO - Katherine Gorge

Woke up at Springvale Homestead where weeks before we would have been 3-4 metres under water - that’s nothing – the river bed next to us was another 10 metres below. The river actually came up about 18metres. You could still see all the debris hanging up high in the trees where the water had been.

Later in the day after bumming around in town and finding a different camping ground where the bugs don’t pick you up and carry you away, we went on a leisurely cruise down Nitmiluk, better known as Katherine Gorge. We were able to get out and walk along the gorge to a second boat waiting for us to go into the 2nd gorge. The views were spectacular and I can see why everyone comes here. We were surprised to find that Matt’s parents' friends were sitting right behind us. They flew up to see the NT for the long weekend. After that we were off home to have an early night.

DAY TWENTY ONE - Darwin to Katherine

Didn’t get to go to the markets last night. They cancelled it last week because they didn’t know what Cyclone Monica would bring. Have decided to leave for Alice Springs tomorrow; we have found out that the Kakadu attractions won’t be open for a while. We're a bit sad but we have to move on and continue our adventure.

Heading to Katherine first and we will probably stay for a few days. Decided to stop at Litchfield Park again because we just love it so much. It was running so much quicker and with much more force that silly Melissa lost her balance where she was sitting near the top of one of the smaller waterfalls at Buley Rockhole and tumbled arse over tit down the falls. She has a lovely big purple bruise on the side of her leg and knee.

On the road again - heard that the roads to Umbrawarra Gorge were open. NO they were not. We drove on kilometres of dirt road crossing lots of water and washed out roads thinking that its got to be soon. We came to a much deeper water crossing in the middle of no where and decided we didn’t want to be stuck out here. Turned around and headed for the main road. CLUNK CLUNK. We could hear something dragging under the car after we went over a pothole. The plastic sump guard had come loose and was flapping on the ground. A few zip ties later and my very capable handyman husband had it fixed and we were off again, heading straight for Katherine, no more detours allowed.

DAY TWENTY - Darwin (27 April 2006)

Half way in to the trip. - time for the Suzuki to get a service; we'll spend the day in town, update the blog and check out the mall again. The weather was perfect this morning but it's been raining for the last couple of hours. We might even see another movie.

The reason we're back in Darwin is for the famous Mindil Beach Markets, which are on tonight. Hundreds of stores, foodstalls, entertainers and so on. This is the first time this year for the markets. We'll post some pics on our next update.

We'll be leaving Darwin (for good) in the next few days on our way through Kakadu and down to Alice Springs.

Take care and we'll see everyone in 3 more weeks.

DAY NINETEEN - Batchelor to Darwin

Back to Darwin. The cyclone has caused more flooding on the roads; we had to cross water just out of Batchelor and there was flooded sections of the Stuart Highway.

The afternoon was spent food shopping, cooking and re-packing the car. We also went to the movies to see "Inside Man". Tomorrow willbe another rest day.

DAY EIGHTEEN (ANZAC DAY) - Batchelor

Cyclone Monica is now only a category 3 but has changed direction and is headed pretty much to where we are. We had a quick swim on the way past Buley Rockholes and then checked in to a nice dry hotel room in Batchelor for the night.

The ANZAC Day dawn service and march in Darwin were both cancelled.

It rained all night and in to the morning but by now Monica had passed our area and headed west. By the afternoon it had been classified as an ex-tropicl cyclone.

DAY SEVENTEEN (#3) - Litchfield National Park

The last stop at Litchfiled was Walker Creek. A 2km bushwalk took us to a nice little rockhole which was had all to ourselves (almost - we did have to share it with a Goanna but he didn't seem to mind). We would have loves to come back here the next day but the weather wasn't friendly to us.

We ended the day by camping near Wangi Falls.

By now, Cyclone Monica is Category 5 (the highest possible) with 350km/h winds and is crossing the coast at Maningreda, an Aboriginal town about 300-400 km NW of Darwin. This means we should miss the worst of it but will get some wnd and rain.