darwin conference and drive down the gibb

it was very hard to leave indonesia.  i hope we get to go back someday and see even more of the islands.  i could definitely live there.  hmmm.  anyway got back into darwin at 4am...got the car...and drove to get a campsite. well they weren't open very early so we napped in the car as the sun came up and got a site once the office opened. slept most of the day and then checked into our posh hotel that we had for my national conference.  i attended that for three days and got to shmooze with lots of aussie speechies :)  jose got to explore more of darwin and we had some nice dinners out there.  then we headed out to kununurra.  visited the beautiful emma gorge and amalia gorge, zebedee springs, and then camped at el questro station.  it was heavenly.  the next day we were going to try to get home to see miski but had terrible terrible luck and got three flats all at once and only through the kindness and preparedness of strangers were we able to limp 75 miles to the nearest tire repair center - where we got to buy two very very expensive all terrain tires. but they got us home the next day after camping at mount barnett...well sleeping in the car. it wasn't my favorite part of the trip and has rather put me off driving around the gibb.  we had to start work the next day so now i think we both feel like we need a holiday after our holiday. oh well!  and now my big 3 oh birthday is coming up soon. yikes!  more photos in this album

drive to darwin - june holiday

we're finally back after 5 wonderful weeks away!  i've broken up the trip into 6 sections.  the first part of the trip saw us driving from derby, along the great northern highway, to darwin over three days.  what an incredible drive. the first day we left at 6am and it took us 9 hours to get to kununurra where we camped at discovery park along the lake.  the drive was so beautiful. we saw all kinds of wildlife along the way like wallabies, cows, birds, snakes, goana's, lizards, etc. next day we explored kununurra for a bit and then drove to katherine where we stayed with friends of a friend. next day we explored katherine gorge which was fantastic and then drove up to darwin.  on the way we stopped to hike into edith falls - a really beautiful oasis. on the way from kununurra to darwin we saw wedge tailed eagles, wild pigs, wild horses, and lots more of the typical wildlife.  we also saw many beautiful mountains (hills really) and incredible sweeping vistas. left for bali at 2am...which was a bit rough. see more photos of our drive through the kimberley and into the nothern territory (to the top end!) in this album