Here we come....!

It felt good to drive out of Katherine towards the West, the starting point of our other major focus of the trip this time.  We really wanted to explore Cape York, and spend a bit of time around that area, but it was always a conundrum as how we would fit all that in as well as the Kimberley, especially given how far apart they are.  We figured it was worth all the effort to shoot over though, given how much we loved the Kimberley last time.

On leaving Katherine, we had a little over a month to spend in the Kimberley.  It will be a very different trip to our last one, but we will prioritize what we want to see, and enjoy every last minute of it.  We both keep noting just how extremely lucky we are to be doing such an amazing trip, thankful that we have the opportunity, and excited that we are giving the girls this gift.  The gift of getting this type of travel into their blood, exposing them to the world that surrounds them, and teaching them day to day life lessons.  The luxury of spending so much time with them is also not forgotten, especially for Glenn, who often finds it so difficult to have quality time with them when at home given work and jobs etc.  So far, it has been extremely enjoyable seeing them grow, learn, and bond with both of us, and more impressively, each other.

We enjoyed seeing our favoured ranges starting to appear on the horizon, and loved the scenery though the Victoria River region, with rock escarpments, cliffs and gullies.  We made it to a camping area just past Timber Creek, back from the Victoria River.  It was effectively a roadside stop, but was very well laid out, with room so that everyone was not on top of each other. 

Savannah loved the books we found!

A lovely overnight stop at Big Horse Camp ground

Jess and her bucket of red rocks

 

During the trip, when there is something that we don’t want the girls expecting regularly, we say to them, “That is only for special times”.  Things like a campfire, or an icypole, or bacon and eggs in the morning.  You can’t have it all the time, only on special occasions.  We had to laugh that night over dinner when Savannah asked if we were having a shower that night.  “Are showers only for special times??”  Geez, we thought we were showering them pretty regularly, but apparently not!!!

The next morning, after packing up, and getting ready to hook up the camper, we experienced our next little challenge - Slim wouldn’t start.  After a whirr, groan and a click, it all went dead.  Turning the ignition on from that point only resulted in some weird flashing dash lights and clicking under the bonnet.  Not quite what you want!!  A bit of investigation, a small amount of stopping to think, and a few diagnostics revealed it to be a starter battery that had dropped it’s load.  Glenn had seen signs of this potentially coming, so wasn’t overly surprised.  A swap over with the auxiliary battery saw us underway again, with new plans to replace the batteries in Kununurra.

One of the ‘must do’ places we had to visit on the trip was Keep River National Park.  This sits on the NT side of the border to WA, and on our last visit we loved the whole place.  A short day’s drive saw us come into the campsite around lunchtime, after a roadside stop to collect firewood.  We headed to the second campsite this time, not being able to see it last time due to its temporary closure.  At the campsite, we met a lovely couple with 3 kids who had an earlier version of our camper, a Camprite.  We had not seen another Camprite on our trip, and spent a long time comparing notes, and looking over the campers.  We also then sat around before dinner over a few drinks, and discussing our travel plans.

They live in Far North Qld, and were 5 months into a 2 year trip.  It was enjoyable talking to like minded travellers, and they were a lovely family.  It was good to see our kids fall into gear playing with their 3 kids instantly.  It was a stark difference to an interesting experience in Katherine with our first ‘Caravan park baby sitters’ event.  That time, the girls were playing with their toys on our mat, and this girl turned up and just sat down to play.  She had a right royal attitude, and a sense of the world revolves around her.  We assumed she’d come from a site just up the road, and had heard prior the family all howling at each other.  There was no appearance of the parents, just this snotty kid.  Our girls did not warm to her one bit, and really didn’t want to play with her, which we didn’t blame them.  We tried our best to be polite, but had to put a slightly sturn voice on at times.  Eventually (some time later) the mother came over, and we then understood why she was how she was.  Needless to say, we couldn’t get away from them fast enough.