On the way to Darwin

Okay, I have decided to skip over most of the Alice Springs to Darwin portion of the trip because I have so much to catch up on as it is. That bit of the trip was great. We did our second bout on a dirt road when we drove the Savannah way from Boroloola up to Roper Bar and out to Mataranka. It was so great! We got to do some great creek crossings and enjoyed being jostled for the few days we were battling the corrugations.

When we got to Mataranka we chilled out for several days, reading books and catching up on our journals. Phil found a huge, fat tree frog that we named Leopold seen here - he was so great.

We also took in Katherine Gorge on the way up to Darwin and spent a horribly afternoon paddling up the river. The winds were blowing a gale and the stupid kayak we got had no steering ability so after 30 mins of paddling with the world's heaviest paddle, we could still see the boat ramp. Anyway, I perked up a bit after we spent 45 mins portaging our heavy plastic boat around two little sets of rapids (with no trail marked!) and got to the second gorge which was beautiful. We paddled around there for a few mins and turned back (manging the portage in 20 mins on the way back) and arrived home in record time, though the winds had died down so we got no boost from nature.