We are on holiday!

Friday 29th July 2022

Time to pack up and say goodbye to our beautiful riverside campsite on the Douglas River! We were off by 10, with the plan to stop in at Umbrawarra Gorge first, just past Pine Creek. We started on the dirt track to get there, but the road had some serious corrugations and with 18km to go we decided pretty quickly it would take us ages to drive out there and back, and we still needed to get to Kakadu. We left Andrew and Tegan to battle the road with their Hilux, and instead went back to Pine Creek for fuel and supplies.

Pine Creek is a tiny town but has an awesome pub! It was tempting to stay for a drink and pitch the tent there! Instead we admired their snake collection, bought some pretty expensive fresh fruit and veg at the adjoining shop to see us through the next few days, got the kids a sausage roll and chips and us a coffee, and sat in the park.

We headed on into Kakadu NP, stopping briefly at the info centre to buy a parks pass and admire an old ute – certainly Otis’ highlight! We turned off onto another heavily corrugated dirt track, and bounced on to get to our campsite – Kambolgie Creek. We arrived at 2pm, so everything was feeling very hot, dry and dusty! We picked the site that offered the most shade (and was also completely overrun with ants, but the shade won!), and set up camp. We did very little for a while after that, just trying to keep out of the sun! Richie went for a walk along the creek to check out fishing potential, while the kids did some drawing.

Andrew and Tegan arrived sometime later, with stories of a ‘gorgeous gorge’, and a lovely swim! Feeling a bit jealous!! Richie headed off for a fish, and I went for a quick walk to check out the creek, which is another beautiful NT waterway. Definitely feeling a bit more nervous about crocs though, I kept my distance!

We had dinner during the sunset – spag Bol, inspired by Andrew and Tegan’s dinner last night! Richie and Tegan did bedtime duty and Andrew and I went spotlighting at the creek. From the bridge we saw a freshwater crocodile and lots of fish, including what Andrew thinks are Tarpon, which have amazing orange Lazer eyes under the spotlight!

It is definitely hotter in Kakadu, even the breeze is hot! Hard to believe the cold wet weather we left behind!