Saturday 12th June - Litchfield national park - Darwin 172KM (95 miles)
Awakened by the sounds of silence no less - today was our exercise day . So off we went to Wongi waterfall. Took the advice of the park rangers to not swim in the pool there due to there being crocodiles in the area. Went for a brisk walk following a trail over the top of the falls. Similarly when we went to Tombi falls we walked again around the laid out path. Rock pools were next but we decided it was too cold for a dip so we had lunch instead. On our way out we passed the termite mounds which do make the area look like 'a bush graveyard' as the brochures say. On the outskirts of Darwin we saw a 'Crocodile Farm' so decided to head in for a look. The further we walked the bigger the crocs seemed to get. One called 'Errol' was particularly menacing looking! Finally we've gotten to see some big ones up close! Twice today we had our credit card (and debit card) refused which was odd especially as we can still draw cash out of our account - further investigation required on our part. Hit the bar this evening for a complimentary glass of wine and had to listen to a country and western singer who looked like the Scottish golger Colin Montgomerie - knew his game had gone downhill but didn't know he'd resorted to this! Talked to Marilyn and Andy and Claire on the phone before a bedtime snack of fruit cake (we love it!) and tea .

Time for some more of Derek's cuisinary observations

Best scrambled eggs were in Malaysia
The best fried breakfast was in Perth, WA
The best chocolate biscuits are Tim Tams
The best Chinese we had was in Kuala Lumpur
and the best fruit cake is the 'light' variety from Cole's supermarket!

Sunday 13th June - Darwin
We made the final last 20KM or so to central Darwin today - over the last 3 weeks we've covered about 3,330 miles - quite a bit of ground but we've made it with 2 days to spare. Today was a day of consolidation - a day where we do little and catch up. So this morning when we got to our camp site we washed clothes. After lunch we continued in the same vein by heading to the internet cafe in town for about 3 hours. Back to base camp for dinner and for the first time in 3 weeks we used the 'barbie' to cook ourselves some 'hotdogs' (or sausages in bread rolls with onions and tomato sauce to some people! Imagine if we'd left Oz without doing that! Tried to phone lots of people but they were either all in bed or ignoring us or both!

Monday 14th June - Darwin
A leisurely breakfast in the gorgeous morning sunshine . Jumped in the van for our final trip to East Point, about 8km outside the city centre. Spent the morning strolling along the beach front enjoying the the views and the weather. In he 'avo' we hit the military musesum located closeby to discover the details of how Darwin became the first Australian casualty of World War II when it was bombed by the Japanese in February 1942. Back to base camp for an early evening dip in the swimming pool. Not too many mosquitoes so far here and the weather has been great with a cooling breeze in the daytime which disappears when we sit down outside at night. Our last night in the campervan tonight and we've enjoyed our time on the road with only a cracked windscreen as a blot on the journey.

Tuesday 15th June - Darwin
Awoke early to a warm shower shared with many flies - or at least Derek did! Breakfast was a case of 'clearing' as much as we could and we did so with all 4(!) cereal boxes that we had though there was some 'real' butter and marmalade still to burn! Dropped the van back down the road with no problems and jumped in a taxi to our hotel in the city centre. An afternoon stroll around town confirmed to us that we're right to be leaving for Alice Springs tomorrow. Phoned Sue's Mum and Dad for chat and hit the cinema to see 'Monster' with Charlie Theron and Christina Ricci - good film but very depressing. To cheer ourselves up we spent the evening at 'Shennanigans' pub drinking 4X and wine and ate a couple of bar snacks.