We are on holiday!

Saturday 23rd July

I woke up feeling remarkably refreshed, and realised that my campground reign of terror – the insistent night cough – might finally be over! 😃 Bonnie wanted to try out her new found binocular skills, and headed out with Richie to a bird watching event someone from Charles Darwin University was running. Otis and I hung out at camp, mostly searching for a good dirt patch for his cars, that wasn’t overrun with ants. The bird thing was apparently ok, though probably would have been nicer not to do it in a large group, especially since Richie is a birdo himself. Bonnie carefully and beautifully documented each bird she saw though, the highlight being a rainbow pita.

We headed out to Berry Springs Waterhole, initially with the idea of having a quick swim before meeting Andrew and Tegan at the campground at 12, but thought they should definitely come for a swim first, so asked them to meet us there. Berry Springs is just beautiful – a natural waterway surrounded by cooling forest and picnic grounds, the swimming area is much more extensive than Mataranka springs, the water is the perfect temperature, there is a little waterfall and so many fish. The kids were so excited to swim in a real waterfall -Litchfield is going to blow their minds! Though Otis just wanted to go tumbling down it, which I didn’t let him do! Bonnie had the best time snorkeling around the area, and saw all sorts of different fish.

Andrew, Tegan, Rufus and Genevieve arrived at lunch time, then joined in the swimming and snorkeling – which meant we had someone on hand to identify all the fish as well! One of my excellent memories of our Fiji trip six years ago was going for a snorkel with Andrew, and getting a running commentary of what species we were looking at!

After hours of swimming, the kids were showing signs of exhaustion….or maybe the parents were, again following kids around whilst treading water constantly! We decided to head back to camp for some quiet time, while Andrew and Tegan explored the rest of the waterhole. We had a snack and rest at camp, then went for a swim in the pool with all the kids while Andrew set up their campsite.

The campground was hosting the Arafura Wind Ensemble this evening, so we grabbed some snacks and settled on the lawn to listen, which was fantastic! The kids and I left briefly for the crocodile feeding at 5pm, which was actually turtle and night heron feeding, because the crocodiles apparently refuse to come out for the show! Bonnie and Otis quickly decided they preferred the concert so we headed back to the lawns! We persistently refused the kids request for buying dinner at the food van, until the people next to us bought burgers and Bahn mi, and we suffered some serious food envy. So the kids and I got a burger and a hot dog, and poor Richie suffered through watching us eat them! They were excellent though!

We said goodnight to the Kahn family after the concert, then went for a sunset walk to a nearby billabong before heading to bed.