House sitter Available - on behalf of....

We are posting this on behalf of a friend Mark...

HOUSE SITTING JOB WANTED

Hi, my name is Mark and I am a 51 yr old, single, retired male. I am honest and reliable. I have been travelling in my van from Victoria to Darwin for the last 5 months to visit my daughter and have fallen in love with the Darwin region. I would like to experience all Darwin has to offer and want to stay for around 12 months. I have owned houses for 27 years so I am competent in pool, garden and house maintenance . I love animals so caring for your pets would be fine.

For further information you can contact me on : 0439408033

Kakadu V Litchfield National Park

People say Litchfield is far more interesting, better value than Kakadu National Park.

Personally, we feel you cannot compare the two parks-they are entirely different.

Litchfield offers walks and waterfalls, termite mounds that only be viewed from a roped off area-these are the same mounds that we saw at Dundee Beach. We were hoping to find more information about these at Litchfield, but alas there were no information boards or brochures, or a visitors centre.

Murray swam in the Wangi Falls, along with approximately 200 people-where did these people come from?

 The camping grounds – well the National Park ones were full – and most did not accommodate caravans longer than 15 feet-so coming from Berry Springs end-which we had done, our option for the night was the Litchfield Safari Park.

This is the biggest rip off we have experienced on our whole trip. $38.00 per nite for a powered site, with ‘boil first’ trickle water.  Very dirty showers with trickle water and signs everywhere warning you ;

“Do not plug your appliances into our power sockets unless you have paid for a powered site”

“your appliances will be removed and held by the office, you can claim upon payment for a powered site”

There were only 4 toilets and 4 showers. The camping fees in the National park were $6.50 each.

You would be better off staying at the Batchelor end and doing day trips into Litchfield National Park. We spent 1 night in Litchfield and have no desire to return. There are no cruises, just buses full of tourists…..

Leaving Batchelor we stopped at Adelaide River for fuel and a look at the markets? A few stalls-I met a man that made ‘french knitting’ spools and left a flower with him-he was looking for ideas for the finished product. Hopefully my flower will help sell it.

We are making our way across to Cairns via the Savannah Way.

Mossie/insect bites repellants/remedies

Since posting the last entry re seeking a remedy, we have received many responses so felt I would share some with you, as I lie here in the hammock, trying not to itch my 57^th bite!  The following are recipes for repellants. So far the spray on repellants are not working for me, but are effective on Murray. I have resorted to taking one Telfast tablet per day, and taking vitamin B1-which apparently you cannot OD on.

1.       Mix equal quantities of Dettol, meths and add a few drops of baby oil-put into a spray bottle.

2.       Mix equal quantities of Dettol, tee tree oil, vicks vaporub add a few drops of baby oil – put into spray bottle.

3.       Spray Bug Off-non deet product.

4.       Wrap yourself in several layers of clothing from head to toe – and sweat!!!

5.       Take one Telfast tablet each day

6.       Take vitamin B1 each day-double up if the bites become too bad.

A word of warning – don’t buy the Dettol from the lodge of Dundee store-a 125ml bottle will set you back $12.90!!

Equal quantities of Dettol, bleach and water is a killer for cane toads-they mummify and do not smell if left alone.

Dundee Flower

The Lodge of Dundee - Dundee Beach

Heading out of Darwin, we headed for a bush camp at Dundee Beach, thinking it may be on a river-the icon in the camp 6 book had a boat ramp advertised at this camp. However that icon referred to a boat ramp nearby...

We paid up for 2 nites, went for a drive to Dundee Beach, (200kms swest of Darwin), and WOW, discovered the lodge was offering free unpowered sites for the school holidays. Also free access to the abultion block, use of the pool and a paid laundry.

Back to the bush camp-did the oil change - we had previously tried to get this done in Darwin but the next appointment was the 16th July.

Forfeited our 2nd nights camp fee - $21 per nite, and headed to Dundee Beach. What a great offer and an amazing 'resort'.

Dundee Beach

Not exactly resort style-as you would imagine a resort in Bali or the Pacific Islands. The Lodge of Dundee is the Darwin Fishing club's headquarters and from Friday evening it is packed with boats-we counted 50 trailers one Saturday. It costs $25 to launch and retrieve your boat-they are taken down the short ramp to the water by a tractor.

We tried fishing from the beach and the rocks but no luck, although people did catch salmon, red fin, queenie, barri and mud crabs.

A mud crab we caught in a pot

Each night the lodge had entertainment. Wednesday night we attended the pizza/trivia night. Joining up with some locals-'No Hopers'-who had been trying to win for 6 months, we beat 10 other teams and secured a slab of 4X, a bottle of bubbles, and a meal voucher.

The locals took us out in their 'pope mobile' to see the cemetry and a drive around the beaches.

A Suburu/Leone body

Mark, Cindy and Stretch (driver/owner) pope mobile

'Headstone'



Cemetry



We are defending our title this Wednesday night, into Palmerston for a shop Thursday and will leave the area Friday.

Remedy Sought

Hi Everyone everywhere
Since February we have been bitten, eaten alive, scratched ourselves until we have bled, kept awake most nights, tried all sorts of products - both preventative and itch resistent claims from bugg off, stop itch, bushmans-red and green, areoguard, rid, the blue stuff from aldies, tee tree oil, mossie coils - both green and brown, sandlewood sticks, swallowed antihistamines, wraped our legs and arms in wet towels... calamine lotion, bethadie cream... deet products, we cover up-as can be seen I am wearing my ugg boots in 30degs!
February we had the march flies and mozzies, we then moved onto mozzies-huge black and white ones and now we have the very tiny black things that look like ash on our bodies but leave a pin prick that itches and when u squash these they distintergarte into nothing.
We are at our wits end - does anyone have a solution??? it seems that the only solution maybe to return to the colder climates-we are reluctant to do this..... perhaps this is the trade off....
From all of us at beautiful Dundee Beach, where we are sweltering in the sun and gazing at the beautiful green flat sea that is riddled with box sting jellyfish and a local crocodile!!!!
O! for that cold one to ease the itch....

Where's Julia?

Darwin

Darwin – we love you – such a vibrant city – a city that is self-reliant, a survivor, a city that is resilient, having survived the invasion and the bombing in 1942 by the Japs and again 30 years later by Cyclone Tracy – Darwainese residents must be a resilient race.

We loved

·         the weather, the warm temps-30degs,

·          the water, the access to the city-easy to drive-to navigate,

·          the free weekend parking-anywhere,

·          the waterfront,

·          the restaurants,

·          the galleries,

·         the exhibits at the museum/art galleries-in particular-Cyclone Tracy, the history of fishing which included the lures, the reels, the rods, the fishing methods, we loved the displays of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers who wove a lifesize Toyota Landcrusier, the history of dot painting, the interactive didgerdoo.

·         We enjoyed a sombre moment at the WWII museum at East Point-opened in February 2012 at a cost of $10 million-the technology makes a worthwhile investment-a theatrette reliving the bombing of Darwin in 3d, the interactive display allowing the viewer to ‘touch’, to listen and see the bombing, and the listening posts with the old telephones as ear pieces and the outdoor exhibits, and not forgetting the digital story place ‘collects’ digital stories from anyone who cares to record or leave one.

·         The deckchair cinema – a unique cinema on the banks of the esplanade, sitting in the deckchairs watching the films, listening to the opossums screeching in the trees-they seem to do this during the ‘sex’ scenes.

·         We caught a ferry from Cullen Bay to Mandorah and enjoyed a ‘few’ at the local pub. We fished from the wharf and watched mackerel being caught, while at the same time watching the local police taking part in the manhunt. Fortunately the fugitive has been caught – in the area we intend to go camping tomorrow.

Murray’s senior card was accepted everywhere-allowing him to travel free on public transport and giving us both access to concession prices – we put it down to my white/grey hair!

Box stingers and crocodiles prevent anyone from swimming, however Darwin has several wave pools and a fenced ‘beach pool’ at the waterfront.

The city is safe to walk in at night-not once did we feel threatened-accepting the locals-avoiding their begging pleas.

We camped at Shady Glen – the nearest camping ground to the city-approximately 10 minute drive, but a very noisy park – next to the RAAF base and  the international/domestic airport. Expensive at $39 per nite, but, still everyday caravans lined up outside seeking a site-we counted 8 one day.

Sunday 1^st July – Territory Day – Fireworks – you could only  buy and let off on this one day, but that didn’t stop people letting off all week. The fireworks were extremely loud, sounded like bombs going off and I have never heard a fireworks display go for so long – we were next to the showgrounds and for 3 hrs we were subjected to a  continuous display of noise.

We are now leaving Darwin and heading out to Dundee Beach for a few days of fishing, then Litchfield National Park, down to Daly Waters and across the Barkly Highway to ........

Yarn Bombing

Mrs Australasia Postie Bike Pageant-Superman writes...

Guess what! I had my photo taken with Mr Drag and his co-rider.

 We saw these 2 'drag queens' on the side of the road with their postie bike, raising funds for Project Dovetail and Women in Need.

You can read more about this worthwhile project at http://www.postiebikepageant.com/

Superman writes about the fire

We had an exciting time at Mt Beatrice Campspot-the last free camp before Darwin on the Central Arnhem Road.

Murray had just finished jacking down the legs and the NT fireman arrived to tell us that in 30 minutes the savannah grass surrounding us would be burnt. He suggested that we move from our shaded spot and park in the middle-in the blazing sun-and that he would have a fire truck on standby in case the wind changed.

Burnoffs are common here at this time of the year-with much of Kakadu smelling of smoke and Darwin also has not had clear skies for the previous week as the smoke lingers-it smells like a rubbish fire.

We moved along with 2 other vans.

 A man on a quad bike came along with a fire torch and lit the edges of the campsite and POOSH up went the flames. Crackle and pop – just like cocoa pops….

Wild birds-eagles, hawks and kites hovered above us, hoping to catch an escapee-a snake, or a mouse or lizards.

It was thirsty work, so I shared a coke with the fireman.