Katherine to Darwin with stops in Kakadu and Lichfield National Parks

Katherine will always be remembered by us both with a great deal of emotion.
It was the day I proposed to the woman who changed my life and gave me something more! to live for.

We were looking up at a million stars from the bed of our Luxury Camper, after a great day watching Collingwood win  he grand-final and swimming in the local hot springs which are 25degrees, when I popped the question (Saturday the second of October).
Naturally she said yes! Katherine has no airport and it's a long, long, long way to walk home and anyway that's been stolen hasn't it??!!


The Wedding will be a small affair at the Swedish Church In Toorak on the 26th of January .


We stayed 8 nights in Katherine and really got a feel for the town.


We went on to Cooinda (50km from Kakadu) where we stayed at a place  where Marie-Louise had issues with the Gardener who insisted on running the sprinklers 24 hours a day for 3 whole days. She kept turning them off and he kept turning them on.
There were lots of storms late in the afternoon and we had to sit one out for 4 hours at Kakadu lodge but we enjoyed our $55 a head buffet and ate our fair share .
The days are muggy  but we can sleep at night. I think we may be getting used to this heat. Either that, or we are just exhausted from having so much fun.

Highlights were Marie-Louises' hand made bread baked in our turbo oven and the unbelievable  Yellow Waters wet land cruise.  The 6.30 am cruise is the only way to go and seeing mother nature wake up God's creations was something we will never forget,

We saw hundreds of birds including my favourite large bird the Brolga and also the Jabiru.There were countless crocodiles  and thousands of Magpie Geese. Another highlight  of our stay was the 4 wheel drive all day trip to Jim Jim Falls. It was hard work to walk the last 900 mtrs and they say its the hardest  900 mtrs you will ever walk  and many give up half way. The effort  was well worth it. We also loved Twin Falls and I think we have got the 4 wheel drive bug now!
Low points were the flooding of our little camper.  Poor Marie-Louise put everything we owned in garbage bags, yet they still got soaked. She was almost in tears as she had just done the washing.
I could see the funny side, sitting on our Island bed with water poring in all-around us. It sure can rain up here and we should be harvesting the stuff and sending it south.

Onto Lichfield National Park, we stayed at the Lichfield Tourist and Van Park (thanks Rachel from Kosmos for recommending this). Some say this is better than Kakadu as it has easier access to the many falls but it has very little bird life and hardly a crocodile . We loved the Butterfly farm and recommend staying there. There was wonderful food, people and the place has got such character, but I wish they would get rid of all the new age crap on the walls.

http://www.butterflyfarm.net/litchfield-national-park/relax.html.

From here we moved to Darwin for 12 nights were we have splashed out on a backpacker type hotel, 15 min walk from the centre of town. It is nice to not have to pack up or worry about the clothes / camper getting wet and Marie-Louise has a grin from ear to ear mainly because we picked up her stunning ring here.
Darwin seems great, full of life and not too large with only 90,000 people. There is green and parks everywhere and not a grey nomad in sight but lots of happy young people having fun. 
There are so many Irish backpackers here, as there is in every town we go to. I doubt there is anyone left back in Ireland to dig the potatoes.