Ahhh - home sweet home at Berry Springs (and adventures in Darwin and Litchfield NP)

We arrived at Berry Springs and as soon as we had backed the van into its spot, we were immediately greeted by an old neighbour, Glenn, glass of bourbon and coke in hand and assisting us by telling us that everything we were doing was wrong! (Rich was able to charm Glenn, but this meant that Glenn came over to visit fairly often during the stay to provide his assistance and wisdom).

The campsite was pretty cool with its own crocodile park, tropical setting and various nightly activities, so we decided to base ourselves in Berry Springs and visit Darwin from here. After setting up the van we had a quick swim and then a meal in the park's restaurant.

Hot hot hot!  Woke up to steamy Darwin...hello 36 degrees by 9am and thanks for the bonus 70% humidity!!!  Went straight into the city on our first day.  We were surprised at how small and quiet it was for a capital city.  The views over the torquoise water were beautiful though. 

Loving Darwin's assortment of water parks.  The city has a wave pool which was surprisingly intense (and surfable!).

Kel slipped out of the wavepool adventure in search of shops selling shorter sleeves and shorter hems!

So this is where the penny dropped that NT has banned free plastic shopping bags.  Go rogue state, always leading the way on contentious issues!  As a result we were desperate for garbage bags... and had to buy some (which apparently is OK).

Spontaneously dropped into Palmerston markets for a bite to eat and a look around. Ariel enjoyed getting up and doing the conga at the free entertainment courtesy of Healthy Harold. Dylan enjoyed eating as many different types of food on offer as possible.

Next day we chilled out in the park in the morning and then headed back to Palmerston in search of the massive free waterslides and water park we had spied the day before. Kel was asked by a couple of twenty-something lads whether she was too old to be enjoying the tipping water-bucket. Sad :( - to make herself feel better she decided that they must have thought she was their age.  Later, back at the caravan park - Rich watched the Sea Eagles get beaten in the lead up to the finals series, before escorting Kel and the kids (and some popcorn) to the movies under the stars put on by the caravan park (hmmm, is 'National Treasure' acceptable for 6 year olds?).  The kids were parked next to the park owner, who decided to give them a musical education, who put on music videos with explanations of who and when - an eclectic selection including Cliff Richard, The Eagles and Taylor Swift.  Rich and Kel decided we wanted to be that guy when we grow up - he was possibly the most chilled out guy we have ever met.  The kids decided this was a nice place to lose some teeth.  One of Dylan's popped out during movie night and Ari followed suit the very next night.

The following day in the pool, Dylan and Ari made good friends with some other camper kids, Alan, Jasmine, Lily and Ruby (who live at Gosford!).

We took off in search of a trip on the 'Aquaduck' part bus, part boat - but there were not enough other interested tourists around so had to disappoint the kids on that one (but did sneak aboard briefly for a quick snapshot ;)

Headed back to the wave pool while Rich went out to the Military Museum to soak up the history of the WWII Darwin attack, and check out the other great displays there. Completed the day at the Mindil Beach Markets and watching the big red sun go down over Darwin from East Point.

We awoke early to the knocking of small fingers on our door - Alan asking if Dylan could come out to play. After some riding around in the caravan park (the kids had now formed quite a posse and pretty much owned the place), we headed out in search of more tourist stuff to do.

Rich and Dylan went to the Aviation museum to check out amongst others, a B52, Huey Cobra gunship, F111, and Spitfire whilst Kel and Ariel went shoe shopping!

The following day we got up early and headed off to Litchfield National Park - first stop an old Tin Mine (geez they did it tough back in the old days!)

Next stop at the lovely Wangi Falls and a walk up into the rainforest canopy.

Brave enough to swim here???

We continued on to an old remote and abandoned homestead. The story goes that the father of the family left his four kids there to tend to the Tin Mine out the back, popping in every couple of weeks or so to see how things were going (not so well we gathered - the highlight appeared to be that one of the kids had a pet crocodile!) and drop in some food.

We then headed out along a long and bumpy 4WD track to the 'Lost City', a collection of strange rock formations that Rich and the kids enjoyed climbing and Kel enjoyed photographing. 

It was bloody hot, so after heading back up the long and bumpy 4WD track, we headed to the Buley Rockholes, which we all thoroughly enjoyed cooling off in for a couple of hours. 

We headed to Florence Falls, but Kel and Dylan had had enough and wanted to stay in the comfort of the air conditioned car, so Rich and Ari went exploring, found the falls and watched some kids jumping off the rocks into the pool below. After getting back in the car, the heavens started to open and we copped a pretty big rain storm on the way past the magnetic termite mounds (hence no pics of that!) and back home to the van.

Our last day at Berry Springs was an errands / chill out day. We let the kids play around the park and swim in the pool. Had a nice afternoon in the pool chatting to the parents of the kids Ariel and Dylan had made friends with, and ended the day inviting the other family over for a few drinks while the kids watched a movie.

The next morning we packed up and the kids said a sad goodbye to their friends. Rich even said goodbye to his old mate Glenn who was also heading off, after some further bonding helping him to hook up his caravan.

We felt that we couldn't stay at Berry Springs and not actually go to the Berry Springs, so on the way out of town we went for dip in the refreshing (but warmish) waterfall there.

We enjoyed our home away from home at Berry Springs and Darwin, but it was now time to head off to Kakadu.