Swimming at Edith Falls Steve swimming

Not even a croc warning could stop them

4th and 5th August, 2009
Aaahh, we love the smell of roadkill on our highways! Traveling north-east now as we travel to Edith Falls in Kakadu. How exciting. No chance of starving on this highway as the roadkill includes: kangaroos, wallabies, wild boar, cows all accompanied by a wretched stench. The upside of this is that the wedgetail eagles were having a feast.

We pulled in to the Old Victoria River crossing where the old causeway was visible but severely eroded. This might be a morning tea challenge on the way back from Darwin.

Now we have crossed the NT border AGAIN! We have crossed into NT so many times from either WA, QLD, SA we have no idea of what time it is. The boys no longer have a bed time, we just go to sleep when we’re tired and wake up when we’re not. It appears to be working well for us for the time being.

Edith Falls is a neat little campground with lots of green grass. I mention this, because we haven’t seen green grass for a long time. Even the boys get excited about it. Luckily we got one of the last 3 camp sites in the park.

After our first problem of locating our site (I read the map wrong and guided Steve to site #26. There was a Britz van (of all things) parked there. Steve got out and told the fellow he was in the wrong site, to which a map was promptly produced to prove otherwise. Oops, I should have taken us to site #16. I don’t know why I consistently give Steve these reasons to shake his head at me.

Our neighbours on the first night were caravaners who brought their LCD TV screen outside for their nights viewing. God! we thought, out in the middle of nowhere and we’re going to have to listen to mind-dumbing American Sit-coms all night. Fortunately, they turned it off around 6:30 and went inside.

The swimming holes are fantastic if not a bit too cold for me. Steve and the boys went in for swims, even after reading the signs about crocodiles! Suppose that’s one thing we’re going to have to get used to for a while. Cam, who has been so gung-ho about finding crocs and what he’d do if the event ever happened, did have a second think about swimming but soon got over it.

The weather temperature is perfect. Within two days our nightly apparel has gone from:
Alice Springs – socks, boots, track pants, singlet, t-shirt, long sleeved t-shirt, hoodie jacket, scarf and a fleece over the top (yes – all worn at once) to
Edith Falls – thongs, board shorts, singlet.
We sit outside under the shade of a tree, and at night it is beautiful to sit outdoors – no mossies, moths or flies. Bloody fantastic we think! Now that we’re warm, we just have to get rid of the red dust. We are even sleeping with all the windows open to let in some fresh air.

Tomorrow we pack up again and head up to Darwin. Mostly, we’re looking forward to being in a city which has such an Asian influence in their food. Look out markets – here we come…