Darwin to WA Border 01.07.2016 – 07.07.2016

We left Darwin and travelled approximately 30 minutes to a caravan park called Tumbling Waters that we had passed by when we were in Darwin and visited Litchfield. The park is close to Berry Springs and had three attractions that we were quite keen on. The first being Berry Springs itself, the second being the wreck of a WW2 B24 Bomber that had crashed as well as the beach not too far from Berry Springs itself.

Berry Springs was amazing and had three pools that were very refreshing and we wound up spending most of the morning there, we left the dogs with a lady at the caravan park and had the day to ourselves.  See below map of Berry Springs Nature Park.

 

The photos below are of the main pool, we have tried to do a panoramic photo of the pool.

The photos below are of the middle part of the springs with the narrow stream connecting to the main pool above.

The next lot of photos are of the lower springs that actually is the main water source to these beautiful springs.

After bobbing around in these springs and slowly turning into well soaked prunes we left feeling well relaxed but rather hungry so made our way to the Litchfield tavern for lunch, then back to the caravan park to pick up the dogs, with a much needed afternoon sleep required.

Next day we drove for another 50km to visit the site where a B24 Bomber went down in World War 2 and I must say that I was a little disappointed as most of the artifacts had been removed leaving very little in the way of wreckage.

 

 

 

 

 

Below is what is left of the landing gear

There was so little left of the aircraft which should have been preserved for prosperity that we left a little disappointed. We then explored the area going to Mandorah beach where the plane had crashed to exercise the dogs.

 

 

We came across this jetty at Mandorah beach with a view of Darwin in the distance.

 

View to the left of the jetty

After our action packed day, we returned to the caravan park to watch the crocodile feeding at the crocodile enclosure at the caravan park, and the bird life that visited during feeding.  After sunset we went to the Berry Springs community sports field to watch a fireworks display that was arranged by the city council to celebrate Northern Territory day.

Below is a photo of a bird that we saw in the crocodile enclosure at the caravan park. 

  

I think this bird is a Grey Morph Heron but could be mistaken.  I also think that by now we are all over photos of crocodiles basking in the sun so I did not include any.

The following day we left the camp and made our way back down to Katherine via Pine Creek where we booked in at Pussy Cat Flats Caravan Park.

As we were driving down to Pine Creek, we had an encounter with a B double road train that we had to overtake, Shirley was a little nervous, but thank goodness this road train showed signs of engine problems and he indicated to us when it was safe to overtake him. This road train is a small one compared to the road trains in Australian outback that measure 53.5 meters from nose to tail. That however will have to wait.

                          

We settled in at Pussy Cat Flats Caravan Park near Pine Creek NT and went to visit the old town with its deep mining history.

 

 

Here is what we saw at the Railway and mining museum

The Old mind shaft

A photo of the caravan park at Pussy Cat Caravan Park panoramic view (what a dump) we decided to do some much needed washing off of the car and caravan.

We made our way down to Katherine to do some shopping and then made our way to a free camp called Mathison Rest Area roughly 100km west of Katherine.  As you can see there is not much there, it is only meant as a fatigue relief area and you are only meant to stop there overnight.

 

We left the following morning, making our way to Timber Creek situated 230km east of Kununurra and the WA border, and it was here we had to precook all fresh veges and dispose of honey due to the quarantine regulations when entering Western Australia.   

However our drive to Timber Creek did not disappoint either as the scenery kept changing so much.  Here are some photos of a place called Victoria river that had beautiful mountain ranges.

 

Shirley was a little relieved that we were going to cross the border as we had received bad publicity about NT, however I thought that it was highly exaggerated. Obviously the bad publicity had come from people who had never been to Africa that would have opened their eyes.

Next time meet us in Western Australia Kununurra.

 

Map of our trip this time.