Photobucket problem

Some of the archived photos from previous posts have been deleted by Photobucket. They can be retrieved but this will take a few days and a little bit of work. Hopefully, we will get this done before we leave Oz

Darwin, Oz

We are back at Tipperary Waters Marina after our week long walkabout in the Northern Territories and Western Australia. We had a very good time and the flight over the Bungle Bungle was the high point. We spent the last few days in the Kakadu National Park and we saw the famous wetlands and the Aboriginal rock art for which the area is famous. The landscape in the park was not nearly as exciting as the Katherine Gorge and Kunamurra, mostly gum trees and scrub but the billabongs and the Aboriginal stuff was worth the visit.
We go the rally Bar B Q tonight and now it's on to the home stretch before we depart for Indonesia.

More Walkabout photos

the 5 star camp ground at Lake Argyle. view from the infinity pool

Wetlands at Yellow Water near Cooinda

aboriginal art in Kakadu, at Nourlangie

Mamukala wetlands, Kakadu  a very peaceful spot

goanna on the march

another billabong at dusk at Aurora . lots of creatures about,some  of which can bite you

Walkabout photos

the land yacht a fairlycrappy Ford Transit

a magnetic ant hill oriented in a north-south direction

lots of magnetic ant hills

a cathedral termite mound. This one was 5 metres tall and over 50 years old

Waterfalls at the Litchfield National Park

The Cascades

wanghi falls

The Katherine Gorge in Nitmiluk National Park

Victoria River

only in Australia, the camp ground at Victoria River

Gregory's Baob tree

geologic formations pushed up by tectonic plate activity

Lake Argyle, partly man made with a hydro electric plant at the dam

the unique bungle bungle formations discovered in 1983

beehive shaped domes of sandstone eroded bu wind and water

the Argyle diamond mine where pink diamonds come from

the airship a Cessna 210

Kakadu National Park, NT, Oz

Much has happened since my last post. We are now more than halfway through our top end walkabout in the land yacht. Ron finally got his tickets and left last Wednesday and we picked up a Ford Transit motor home and off we went. The motor home is a bit spartan and the house battery is about worthless but everything works if the motor is running or if we are plugged in to shore power. It's been very warm so I'm glad we have air conditioning. Our first stop was Litchfield National Park where we saw the famous magnetic ant hills and giant Cathedral termite mounds, some of which were six meters tall. Magnetic ants are not in fact, magnetic. They get their name from the way they orientate their ant hills in a north-south orientation, in order to minimize heat build up. We also saw many waterfalls and swimming holes in the park. Next day we went on to the Nitimuk National Park, home of the Katherine Gorge. We took a nice walk into the gorge and had lunch overlooking the river. We tried to find a camp site there but they were all full so went on to Victoria Crossing on the Victoria River. A very scenic spot with deep escarpments and very red rock formations. Next day we went on through the Gregory National park named for Augustus Gregory who led an expedition through there in 1885. A land of deep valleys and gorges, with towering sandstone landforms and the amazing and ancient Baob trees that look like upside down carrots. We went on to Kununurra on the next day and crossed the state line into Western Australia. The quarantine boys again took all of our fresh fruit and veggies but we did gain an hour and a half as the time zones are different. The next morning we were picked at 0530H for our two hour flight over Lake Argyle and to the Bungle Bungle rock formations in the Purnulu National park. These are truly amazing beehive domes of layers of sandstone that were formed 60 million years ago and are being slowly eroded by wind and rain to give them their unique appearance. We also overflew the Argyle Diamond Mine, the largest producer of pink diamonds in the world. We spent the rest of the day at Lake Argyle, where there is a large hydro electic dam. We went back to Katherine the next day and now we are in the Kakadu National Park exploring the wetlands of Yellow Waters. More information and photos to follow

Tipperary Waters Marina, Darwin, Oz

We arrived at Tipperary Waters Marina on July 1st after leaving the Cullen Bay Pontoon. It took about 45 minutes to motor around the bay up the river to the marina, which took a little bit of  finding. In fact we ran right past it into some very skinny water until we got some direction from Rodney, the lockmaster. We finally found the lock entrance which was about a foot wider than Callisto's beam. We entered the lock and almost completely filled it. Up we went, and we backed into our berth without problem. The marina is very cosy with no surge or swell. Lots of rally boats are here and more are due over the next two weeks.
As a very nice welcome, there was a massive fireworks display over Fannie Bay for the Northern Territories day which became a self governing state in 1978. We went to an outdoor market on Mindil Beach and then sat on the beach to enjoy the show, which exceeded all our expectations. The Aussies really know how to do fireworks.
We have been busy over the past few days wandering around Darwin, collecting the package of rally information,  getting our Indonesian travel visas and the usual boat maintenence.
We  also did a partial customs clearance and obtained a form to get some duty free fuel. We will have to lock out of the marina next week to get our fuel as we could not get an appointment to refuel closer to our departure date.

 empty lock prior to our arrival

 the admiral securing the bow line

 in the lock

up we go

Fireworks on Territory Day July 1st

on the beach before the fireworks with Ron and Gordon and Sherry from Serenity