27th September - to Litchfield National Park

Well, we're really getting around! We've been up to the top of Oz, and now we're heading back down. Tonight's Litchfield (for a night of two). We've got less than two weeks to get across to Broome - we have to be there by ninth October so I can catch my plane home! (I have to go home for school next term)

Anyway, it was quite a job packing up this morning. We got up before 7:00 (a record at the moment), and ended up leaving after 9:00!!! Makes me feel like a reptile - slow to warm up!

We also hosed down the caravan today. You would not believe how much red dust was caked on it! And it doesn't even hose off - you have to scrub every square inch to get it off! It was much easier than scrubbing off fish oil, but I wasn't happy about getting soaking wet again!

We've been getting chips in the back windscreen from rocks bouncing off the caravan front and onto the windscreen. Dad's alternative was to tape a huge piece of carpet (yes, we do carry carpet around!) to the windscreen! I think it's a great alternative, but… Mum just discovered a chip in the front windscreen too! It was tiny, only a few millimetres across, but it's grown now - it's now about a centimetre long.  Mum and dad spent ages on the side of the road ringing people to fix it. Pity carpet couldn't help!

We drove to a repair place, and they had a look at it, and, can you believe it!?!

It had already been repaired! The repair guys said it was a crack, but that someone had already fixed it, and it was okay!

Some may say that the people who owned it before us probably fixed the old crack, and that mum was mistaken in thinking it had grown, but I think God probably fixed it on the way! How cool is that!?!

We also drove through Batchelor today. There's a huge model castle there, made out of concrete, that's a replica of a castle in Bohemia. The guy who made it actually died with the waterwheel for the castle under his bed! I found that weird…

We arrived in Litchfield for lunch. We were going to camp where we had lunch, but it was for tents only. :( There was also a plunge pool nearby, about a kilometre away - our third in about a week! We went swimming there, which was heaps of fun! Dad and I went under the waterfall. It felt like hail, and behind the waterfall was like a snowstorm! :)

I wasn't game enough to wear my glasses under the waterfall (I usually wear them while swimming, otherwise I can't see!), so I had to leave them with mum. I couldn't believe how many rocks I crashed into without my glasses! And I couldn't see a thing half the time. I'll have to get another eye appointment when I get home next month…

By far the funniest thing at the plunge pool today was to do with the fish.

At the plunge pool there were masses (and masses!) of HUGE black fish! There were a few about 10cm long, and HEAPS about 30cm long!! We couldn't believe the number and size of them! Not only that, but although there were a lot of people there, they were still flocking to a particular shallow place near the edge (must be where all the food is…). We'd stand still in the water for a bit, and before you knew it, there'd be a huge school of big black fish around you! Oskar was a bit freaked out, I think…

Anyway, Dini had her goggles with her, and she said it was very cool to see the fish underwater. I took my glasses off and put on her goggles, and had a look. It was very cool! :P But unfortunately, without my glasses, I couldn't see so well… Then Mum suggested I put my glasses on top. And would you believe it!?! it WORKED! I could now not only see underwater, but I could see WELL!!! It was unattractive (and amusing for some), but very practical. :) Almost beats contact lenses and goggles. Almost, but not quite…

Cooper is very demanding at the moment - he'll say, 'turn the tape on!' or, when we got in the car after swimming, demand, 'turn the air-con on!' He gets the lingo from us, adds his own little accent to it, and blasts it back at us with the force of a train. It sounds funny written down, but something like that coming from a three-year-old is a bit disturbing…  :)

We arrived at the campground this afternoon - it's called Wangi Falls (whoever named this place should be shot - what kind of a name is that!?!)

After setting up (which involved the usual, as well as Dad setting up a very long clothesline that is half in the bushes, and unuseable, and also spraying the big green mat with ant-rid to try and reduce the massive number of ants that flocked here the moment we arrived), we headed off to the water hole. I love these things! They're so much better than a swimming pool, because there's so many different nooks and crannies. Also, every day, we're off to a different one!

This one was very much commercialised (is that the right word?)- there were handrails and steps into the water!

We all (except Cooper. :) ) swam over to the other side, which had two waterfalls. There was a small but very deep pool in the side of the rock - it was like a Jacuzzi! The rock there was freakishly weird and amazing - it was like gold! It's hard to describe, but it was REALLY shiny, and silvery-gold, and looked almost like it was made from metal. From the other side, the rock just looked like normal red rock, but up close, it looked like something from a sci-fi film! (Help Grandad! - any idea what it is???)

I was just climbing down the last time to swim back, when I stuck my hand near a crevice, and…

ALMOST TOUCHED A SNAKE!!! I think I actually screamed. It was silvery green on top, with a thin black diamond patter, and light brown on the bottom. I think it was actually very long (no idea how long), but it was all coiled up. Its head was about the size of a marble, and its body was, at thickest, as thick as your fourth finger. Any ideas, anyone???

I wasn't risking it though, even if it looked harmless. Although it wasn't in the water, it looked like there was no other way to where it was but through the water! I stood there a while, then worked my way a-rooouuund it, sloooowwwly…

:)

Cooper stripped off for the walk back to the caravan. All he was wearing was his little rubber Bob the Builder sandals. :) And he's not a walker, he's a runner. He runs EVERYWHERE! And he can run FOREVER too! You can imagine what it was like walking past the massive school camp with him too… (there's a school camp of about 50 people here in Wangi Falls too)

We cam eup with many names for him on the way back:

• Nude Dude (from mum)

• Forest Streaker (dad)
• The Raw Bushwalker (mum and dad) - my fave! :)

We also thought of a few tales to tell:

• He has leeches in the unmentionables (the boys)

• The Forest Streaker strikes again (dad)

• Return of the original Greek Olympics - except for the rubber shoes… (mum)

• Man with the plan ad the big butt span (Joseph)

• The Call of Nude-ture (me)

Then he decided to take off his shoes, so he was starkers!

I thought of making a movie, but I didn't have my camera. It was such a disappointment!

Cooper really is the comic relief for us!!! :)