Ever heading northwards...
...to a shady/steamy park to enjoy/endure tropical Darwin...
(eeeww!! but Issy loved it!)
...spending a week with friends (Mr and Mrs Pitt) who we met at the very beginning of our journey - one baby later to make a total of seven (only one a boy) - makes for fun and friendship for young and also those a little older...
...a local church family night (complete with slip-and-slide and guest African band) combined with the large Ethiopian component of the church makes for much dancing and laughter...
(Morgan Freeman - who would have thought?)
...and appreciating the air conditioning and exhibits in the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory...
Nick and his fishing trophies so far (in his dreams)
...the kids' room being particularly utilized by our
homeschooled children...
I call it a self-portrait...
...then relief from the humid heat at the truly awesome and surprisingly free Leanyer Water Park complete with three thrilling water slides, lagoon pool, playground, and water park...
I know I don't need this many pairs of thongs - three had nearly perished and were tossed in Darwin,
one is for 'good' and two new pairs to survive the rest of the northern winter...
...no surprise in this Mrs Woodley spending a day walking around Darwin and appreciating the tropical colonial architecture (at least that which has survived cyclones and world wars)...
...and not to be missed, Mindil Beach Markets, complete with street performers from Adelaide(!) and the much photographed famous sunset (Silver Sands definitely has the edge here!)...
...and in any spare time; much imagination,
creation, and levitation took place...
...so leaving Darwin and Lee Point Resort, the travelling Woodleys start heading south again passing a [genuine?!] 'free-range' and 'organic' wild-life stall - purchasing some croc steaks and bananas for under five dollars a kilogram...
...then breaking our drive at World War II town Batchelor and enjoying the peace [and random Batavian fairy castles]...
...before arriving at stunning Wangi Falls in
Litchfield National Park...
...where we escaped the heat by again dipping into the
natural hot spring pools...
...and explored the tropical rainforest pocket in the middle of
sub-tropical dry wood lands...
...completely different yet somehow reminiscent of our explorations on the other end of this great country...
...let me tell you, world wide web; sometimes the travelling Woodleys cannot believe that here we are in the north of this sun-baked land discovering much of our God's mighty creation...
...sampling the delights of Litchfield...
...seeing God's beauty written in the sky yet again [while the quiet of the night was disturbed by a massive wild pig sauntering two metres away from our set-up!!]...
...and in the most beautiful of babies (no, we're not biased)...
...making fun wherever and with whatever is the way of these Woodley children...
...testing the 'free-range' croc and finding it rather interesting!...
...on the road yet again passing hillocks, scrub, and cliffs typical to this truly outback area...
...heading for our last stop in the Territory: Timber Creek, and the van protests the heat of the day and roads by blowing a new(ish) light truck tyre installed at Burrum Heads ready for the conditions of the north! therefore putting us two hours later than expected...
...and finding the need to set up in the dark unbeknownst amoungst the iconic boab trees (and red dirt) of the Kimberley...
...only just surviving the heat of thirty-seven degrees in the shade and yet again making friends with fellow travellers...
...marvelling at the mighty northern Victoria River
(which despite the warning of salt-water croc signs; Nick ventured out on in the tinny for a spot of fishing with a friend!)...
...so farewell, Northern Territory, as we head to the coast and Broome along the bottom of the Kimberley; covering one thousand kilometres in two days to escape the relentless and overwhelming heat...
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