On Thursday we went on a daytrip to Litchfield NP. The pity with Darwin is that the sea is just five minutes walking time from the city - but you cannot go for a swim because of the saltwater crocodiles. :-( So we went to Litchfield for a relaxed day of swimming at different waterfalls and a picnic in a park with Jörn und Heike. Wonderful. Refreshing after the heat and noise and the crowds in Darwin.



On the way back, Brit and I got lost for the first time. The signs there are a bit strange, so we chose the wrong direction, of course (Murphy...). Both directions lead to Darwin in the end, but one of them is only suitable for 4WD cars. "We did not come that way, did we?" Haha. You realize that after 25 kilometers when the sealed road ends... What a laugh. :-)



Well, I would love to show you a few more pictures of that day, but on Friday something else, even more annoying than being a little lost, happend: Some idiots broke into Freddy (on a big supermarket carpark!) and stole everything valuable that was in there. Which means, Brit's camera (with the pictures on), her passport, her ticket etc. - all gone. So is Dyana's camera. My luck was that I was still living in the hostel and not in Freddy again– otherwise everything would have been gone. Laptop, camera, etc. Nightmare. But no-one got hurt, they still have their money, mobiles and credit cards because they had them with them in the Shopping Center.

Our tour from Alice to Darwin was mainly one thing: Sitting in the bus, driving up north, 1500 kilometers in three days. But we stopped at interesting points to have a little bit of sightseeing. Not that there is much in between Alice and Darwin... ;-) First interesting stop after Alice was at the „Devils Marbles“ (400 kilometers north of Alice) for Lunch and a short walk trough the marbles.



Later on that first day we stopped at the „Mary Ann Dam“. To say it with tourguide Brad's words: „A lake with no water. We go there because it says so on our tour plan...“ That guy was really funny. He did not say much but if he did we couldn't stop laughing about his wry comments. Example? We arrived at our camp for the first night. Brad's words: „This is the communication center of the town. The telephone box.“ And so on. He was kind of lovely in his way...



After a long long drive on day two we had a few glorious minutes of spare time to relax in the hot thermal springs of Mataranka. Sounds odd to go into 34 degrees warm water when the temperature of the air is nearly the same – but it was quite refreshing.



The third day was a bit more relaxed with less driving. We had the whole morning for free to do what we want at „Katherine Gorge“. Tanja and I decided just to swim and relax instead of spending money on kayaking or a cruise or a helicopter flight.



After a short visit at Edith Falls (a little paradise – looks like in that movie „Blue Lagoon“) we headed directly into Darwin with a short stop in Adelaide River.



Adelaide River is famous because of „Charlie, the Buffalo“. This Buffalo starred in „Crocodile Dundee“, some of you may remember the scene with the buffalo in the middle of the road... He is dead by now, of course, but they stuffed him. So you can visit Charlie at the Pub in Adelaide River. Aussies are crazy, did I mention that before ...? ;-)



Tanja tried „Milo“ for the first time on that trip. For my german friends: „Milo“ is pretty much the same as „Ovomaltine“ and therefore very yummy. Juliette, Tanja and Claudia have a new job: Advertisement for „Milo“ :-)

Yesterday we arrived in Darwin after our three-days-tour. I'll load some pictures up tomorrow. Bloody hell, is that hot over here in the north of Australia! I know, I know, I'm never ever satisfied. Too hot, too cold, too wet, too... ;-) But it is absolutely brillant to wear shorts, t-shirts and flipflops the whole day instead of jeans and fleece-jumerps like I had to the last four or maybe five months.

Here in Darwin is "silly time" at the moment. Highseason. Dry season. Which means everyone, absolutely everyone, is here. Busy. Busy. Busy. Let's see what comes up next for me. Look forward to meet Brit and Dyana (and Freddy) again who already arrived in Darwin a few days ago. :-)