Wednesday 9th July

We left the bush camp site at Merl returning to the Arnhem Highway, near Jabiru. As it was Malcolm’s 31^st Birthday today, we decided we would try to call him when we noticed we had mobile phone signal. No luck then but we had a lovely chat to our daughter in law, Carrie, who filled us in on details of Isaac and his first 2 teeth. Later in the day we did catch up with Mal and heard Isaac chuckling away in the background.

After speaking with Carrie, we drove on until we crossed over the Alligator River. Noticing others stopped, we did the same. In the river and on the bank as well were some crocodiles trying to warm themselves up after the cool night. Many photos again. Eventually, we moved onto the highway again.

A little later, we came to a Roadhouse and stopped for a coffee as it was the first cappuccino for the day. A little further on, I decided it was well and truly time to refuel as the gauge was well below empty. When I filled the 125 litre tank up it took 124.18 litres! My confidence was always there as I had another 20 litres in a fuel container on the Karavan. The low gear work at Jim Jim Falls used up more fuel than normal. Something I will need to be aware of as we get into rougher conditions.

After refuelling, we drove onto Fogg Dam in the Humpty Doo area. This was trialled as a rice growing area in the late 1950/1960s but due to the impact of the bird life it became uneconomical to continue with it all ceasing around 1964. The Dam has silted up, apparently, and this has now been turned into a magnificent area to view a lot of waterbirds and I think the occasional crocodile.

We then travelled to the Stuart Highway and again followed it, after having left it back at Pine Creek some days ago. Without too much trouble, we found Prue’s brothers home. With some manoeuvring of the Karavan we have it on his front lawn all set up. Soon after, Prue’s sister in law, Rita, arrived home. Much catching up for a few hours.

At 1830 we went with Richard and Rita to the Darwin Botanical Gardens for the launch of the Darwin Festival which will start in middle of August. There were displays by a group of Indonesian ex-pats, including Rita, with a musical introduction with traditional Indonesian instruments. That was most interesting not only hearing the music but also watching the players perform. Following that was the formal welcome to the Aboriginal land on which Darwin sits and this included a very pleasant welcome from one of the elders of the tribe. The words that were spoken were in a much better tone than I have heard on the North Coast of NSW from similar elders. This was followed by a dance performance by a group of aboriginal men. They appeared to really enjoy doing the performance.

At the conclusion of the launch, we were given nice finger food and while doing this we were formally introduced to the Indonesian Consul, and his wife, in Darwin. He is a personal friend of Richard and Rita. He has been in many parts of the world as a member of the Indonesian Embassy.