Mum's turn!!

Crikey ...... I've succumbed!!  It's all hers. Sorry!! .... prepare to be bored to tears!!  Some of you actually asked to hear about it.  Fair dinkum ..... what sort of nut cases are you???????  Oh well ...... here you go Ma ..... take it away .....

Thanks Charlie ... I think!!    I'll try not to bore you to tears but will tell you just a little and then let the pictures tell the story.  There are a lot. I forgot to pack my good camera.  Who does things like that?? Me obviously!  It drove me crazy too as we were in a birdlife wonderland and if I had my good camera ... oh the bird photos I could have taken.  Have you ever heard a barking owl??  OMD!!  Do they ever sound like a dog barking?  We had a wonderful encounter with a pair of them when returning to our room from dinner one night.  We could hear them and all of a sudden one flew onto the ground right at our feet and was immediately joined by his mate.  They didn't stay long and flew into the tree directly in front of us but we did have a torch and managed to get a really good look at them.  Oh to have had my camera then.  But back to the beginning ..... We decided a bit of a holiday was in order. Between working, health problems and family commitments we were both feeling slightly jaded. We had 10 days with nothing much planned so arranged a trip to Darwin in the Northern Territory.  We hadn't been there for about 30 years so thought it was time to check it out again. Now I'm not one for cities, if you can call Darwin a city, so we only spent a few days there and then headed down to Litchfield National park and Berry springs for the day and our last five days we spent on a humungous cattle and buffalo station (Swim Creek station) right at the very top of Australia. Swim creek homestead is in fact the northernmost homestead in all of Australia and it is big ...  303 sq kms.  Not the homestead. That's the size of the station.  The accommodation was great. Not grand by any stretch of the imagination but all you needed. The rooms were big tents with flyscreening on 3 walls so you could see out at all the animal and birdlife right from the comfort of your king sized bed and completely private from other guests.  Oh .... its ALWAYS hot at the top of Australia so it was good to have all that fresh air.  No internet, phones or television.  Five days of absolute bliss.  Spent each day going out on the massive flood plains in an air boat in search of birdlife etc.  Didn't have to go far. There were birds EVERYWHERE.  Magpie geese in their hundreds.  We saw eagles, whistling kites, jabiru, brolgas, swamp hens, herons of all shapes and sizes, egrets ... oh way too many to name them all and tiny wee little kingfishers and bee catchers. Such pretty colours. We saw crocs too.  Real big ones but we didn't get any good photos of them.  They kinda take off when you get close and remember I left my camera at home. There were big salties and little freshies too. On land there were huge flocks of corellas and cockatoos. They kept us amused on the days we didn't go on the boat.  There were also the most adorable wallabies hopping around everywhere. Between them, the birds and the buffalo we had plenty to look at and although I tried to read a book I found I was too busy watching the antics of the animal and birdlife around me.  So relaxing.  Our meals were all served in a communal dining room and we enjoyed the company of our fellow guests over some very well prepared and delicious meals. Such interesting people some of them.  One couple we really got on well with were from South Australia. They were both Vets but he was an Ophthalmologist Vet. They were bird watchers and taught us ever so much about bird watching.  There was a couple  and their sons from Michigan. She was a track and field star and a Rhodes scholar. A Rhodes scholar??  Crikey ..... Charlie would say!!! If we had been there a week earlier we would have been dining with Pippa Middleton and her new husband.  Apparently they spent several nights and loved every minute of their stay.  No special treatment for them.  They stayed in the same accommodation we did and ate the same food around the same table. Only the guests were different but they weren't hand picked. Just whoever happened to be there at the time.

Hey Mum .......  you said you wouldn't bore my friends to tears!!!  For how much longer are you going to go on?  You said you'd let the pictures tell the story so how about it, aye??  I'll even let you show the pics over two days if it will shut you up NOW.  I saw how many you picked out.  Fair dinkum.  The things up with which I have to put!!!

Florence falls in Litchfield National park. 

There were a million steps down to the falls but we had to do it.  This was a creek crossing on the way to the falls. 

Wow ... the water was crystal clear and not even cold. It runs all year round as it is spring fed.  So beautiful and clean. You could see the fish swimming around.  There are fresh water crocs but you leave them alone and they leave you alone.  Salties not so much ..... but they are only there in the wet season.  The park is closed in the wet season. Way too dangerous and too much water, anyway.   

These next photos are at Berry springs.  So, so beautiful but quite close to Darwin so a lot more people there.  

The colour of the water is amazing.  Such a pretty place.  

Ok Charlie is getting impatient so I'll quickly show you this one of Swim Creek station and I'll show you the rest tomorrow or the next day.  This is one of the guest rooms.  Looks like walls in the pic but it is flyscreen of a sorts.  You can see out but not in during the day. At night with lights on, however you can see in.  Mmmmmm!  I didn't take this photo. I stole it from the station site.  Hope they don't mind.  

Wanna run away from this VERY boring post .... Love, Charlie.