Room with a View

Fannie Bay

Well, it is Thursday evening, and we have had a very busy few weeks. We have loaded the boat with food, drink, spares, gifts and a thousand other things that need stowing SOMEWHERE! We have been sightseeing with Mum, out to lunch and dinner with friends and family, shared sundowners with fellow yachties and generally had a thoroughly good time.

Darwin Skyline

The photos were taken from our boat, this is the view we have every day. We have better waterfront views than the mansions on the shore, as there is nothing obstructing our view. And in another couple of days the view will change again when we head off to Indonesia. Not sure what day that will be, as it looks like the seas are going to be rough out there for a few days, so we might just avoid that if we can. The First Mate has been known to get seasick under those conditions, which makes the Skipper,s job (he of the cast iron stomach) much harder. So this is to be avoided if at all possible.

Sunset

Tomorrow our duty free grog arrives, it actually gets delivered to Fannie Bay by the company, so that makes life easy. Then we clear Customs tomorrow, also easy as they come down to Fannie bay at the Yacht Club and process it on site. There is definately something to be said for joining a rally. When there are more than 100 boats involved things become very streamlined.

Mum, brother Fred and sister-in-law Annika will come to the club as well to spend some time with us and to say goodbye. It has been great having Mum here to spend time with and be able to farewell in person instead of on the phone. Mum has been knitting madly while she was here and has managed to knit a couple more baby jackets for us to take with us.

The next blog should come to you from somewhere in Indonesia, after a very CALM passage.

Play, play, play

How's this for an ant hill?

We took time out to play the tourist, and spent a day at Litchfield Park. The weather was glorious, not a cloud in the sky and just a light wind blowing. Absolutely perfect for a day in the bush. These termite mounds are found everywhere up here, although these seem to be bigger than most. They are called Cathedral mounds for obvious reasons. There are also Magnetic termite mounds, the termites align their mounds on a north-south axis. This is done for temperature control of their nests.

Tolmer falls

Then on to Walker Creek, very aptly named as it took us at least an hour to walk to camp no. 7 where there is a beautiful swimming hole. The water was just delightfull, just what was needed after a hot and sweaty walk. Only problem is that it was an hour back to the car, so we got back just as hot and sweaty. From there we went to Tolmer Falls, which as you can see is very pretty. From there onto Florence Falls where some very brave (or foolish) young men jumped off the top of the falls into the pool below. Not sure how high it is, but certainly VERY high!! The rocks below are typical of the area, truly amazing rock formations are scattered throughout the area.

After stopping in Batchelor for fuel and an ice-cream we headed off for the 120 km trip back to the boat. A wonderful if tiring day.