Getting to where the jumpers don't come out

Hello followers - before I start the update just a quick note to say we love that you read this, and that you log in comments - we love hearing all the news from home. Hunter also says a special hello to the kids from his class that are logging in - Annie and Erin - he loves to hear all the news from school.
Well, since we last logged on we have gone past the Tropic of Capricorn, and headed up to where we can swim. We left Alice, and spent the most of the day in the car and got to Wycliffe Wells - the UFO centre of Australia. We stayed here for the night - great location, and enjoyed a warmer evening, and no dew on the tent in the morning!! The next day we crawled around the devils marbles and got to Tennant Ck for what was a fabulous coffee - amazing what you can find. We called in to the Telegraph station, and then bundled back into the car for another long haul. We stayed the night at Dunmarra -a roadhouse on the highway - they had a fabulous improvised 'big screen' outside - a large white tarp strung between two poles, and we got to sit up and watch "Australia" for the evening. Then had the worst nights sleep for the tour - roadtrains all night, and then those that stayed, starting up from 3.30am to get their day underway. We made it to Mataranka Springs for a lunch time plunge in the thermal pools. However, before this we stopped in Larrimah for a Devonshire Tea at Frans - this is something you have to experience. It would not matter what you actually wanted to order, because some people tried - she gave you scones and coffee - because it was easier for her, and therefore easier for us!! She wore no shoes, and swore like a trooper - but the funniest cuppa on tour - the Lonely Planet guide to Australia has her coffee house as a most stop place in the NT - and we are pleased we did.
The thermal springs were blistful. We moved on then to setup in Katherine for a couple of days. Today we went to the Katherine Hot water springs - a pattern appearing here - and then spent the afternoon at Katherine Gorge. Delsia did the 4 hour boat tour, too expensive for us, and Dek and I had already done this before, so we took the kids on another walk - up to the escarpment and lookout and then back through a side gorge - just under 6kms in total. I note from some of the comments that you expect us all to return skinny and slim from all this walking - I will bust that myth now, because although we walk every chance we get, we also sit down to bikkies and dip and wine every night - so unfortunately it is all balancing out. After the walk we were very hot, so we ducked into the resort pool at the gorge for an hour before we went down and picked up Delsia - amazing how you can fit in anywhere if you have to when you haven't paid for the opportunity!! We came back into our caravan park and the kids all went for another swim. I am still sitting here at 8.30pm in shorts and t-shirt - loving it!!!
We expect to be out of service for the next week - rough plans are as follows - bush camps at Edith falls, and then a bush camp at the UDP in Kakadu, then up to Jabaru for a couple of nights, then onto Shady Camp - expect to be in darwin next sunday mid afternoon. Very much looking forward to the resort accomodation there with Anya - a bed is going to make a fabulous change - not sure how the kids will cope, actually, Oscar is the one who has declared he is not a 'camper' and everywhere we pull up he is checking out everyones vans for what he is going to upgrade to at the very next opportunity.
We are all well - coping with all being together 24/7 - meeting interesting people along the way, hope this blog finds you all well.