The Kowsas' Big Lap: We made it to the Northern Territory

Well we are out of our home state and truly in red dirt country!

Since my last post we have had some great adventures. From North Queensland we climbed our way up to the Atherton Tablelands and then on to Undara, which is where the lava tubes are. The day's drive saw many changes in the landscape, from the tropics, to beautiful rolling hills in the tablelands and then onto the Savannah land. Our stay at Undara Lava Tubes was fantastic, with the tour being the highlight. Although, the girls might argue that the highlight was having a little rock wallaby visit us at dinner and forage for food!

Next stop was the tiny outback town of Croydon. After a late arvo arrival, we quickly headed to the visitor's info centre to view the movie about the town's history and take a walk through the historical buildings. Now this town would have less people in it than in my street and the info centre was one block from the caravan park, but when I went back to the van to grab my camera I managed to meet a lovely police woman, who issued me a gift of a $100 fine for not wearing my bike helmet. Lesson learnt! So I quickly headed back to the van to grab my and Paddy's helmets and catch up with the
family and join in on the history tour...and calm my fuming head.

Next, we were off to Normanton and then further on to Kuramba. Kuramba is the only place that you can access the Golf of Carpentaria via a sealed road and it was worth the drive up, just to sit at the pub and enjoy a meal and watch the sunset over the water. The numerous games of cards the four of us played was enjoyable too! Nothing like Snap and Crazy Eights at the pub with a view!

We then headed south and after a stop over at Mount Isa, we crossed the boarder and camped at Barkley Homestead for the night. Devils Marbles was the next destination and what an amazing place it was. We arrived at exactly the same time as the Rossies did (friends that were heading back up from Alice) and then enjoyed two great days together. The girls spent every second they could climbing the rocks and enjoyed having some friends around. The camp fires were a real hit too, as was the food supplied!

Today we took off for Alice Springs and we are thinking tomorrow we will head to Uluru. The girls can't wait! I will admit, the "Red Centre" that I have heard people speak of fondly has never truly interested me and even on the drives here the landscape didn't stir emotions in me like the beautiful rolling hills of the dairy country, or maybe following an ocean road. BUT, now I am out of the car and have spent time walking this part of the country, I will say it does stir something in you and the beauty of this place is endless. The colour of the red dirt is sooooo rich against the wheaten shades of the grasses. And the Devils Marbles...well I just couldn't stop with the camera!