Darwin to Bamurru Plains

June 6-9-

The Ghan trip was both exciting and a nice rest from our fast paced travels of the previous couple of weeks.  We all would have loved another night on the train but we did not realize what our next adventure had in store! We spent one night in Darwin and headed to Bamurru Plains, the floodplains of the Mary River just on the western border of Kakadu National Park.  This remote outback camp was our home for the next 4 glorious nights, including my birthday:).
WARNING: There are 25+ photos with this post- (and many more I want to share!)

Darwin-
No swimming on any beaches in this town- CROCODILES!

Frontier Air flew us to the dirt landing strip of Bamurru

The boys cabin-
the 3 front walls are netted for a 270 degree view!!

Wild brumbies-
horses "never touched by a human hand"

Water Buffalo and her calf of about 3 days old

Buffalo cooling in the river

View of the morning-water buffalo, wallabies, egrets,  magpie geese, termite mounds

Our first air boat safari

Bird fishing

Ross on the didgeridoo

Kingfisher

3 meter long croc sunning

Magpie geese in flight-
Bamurru is the aboriginal name for this bird

Playing "footie" on the plains

Climbing the termite mounds

"Sundowner" on the plains after an afternoon safari drive-
Logan taught the boys how to crack a whip like a true drover

I would like to say the crocs were far from camp...
but they were close by...
this one was such a regular the camp staff named him Brad

Grove of Paperbark (Melaleuca) trees

Air boat fun!

Cooling off in the pool

The graceful Jabiru bird at rest

And in flight - it takes a bit to get going

Rainbow beeeater on the prowl.  You can hear it's beak snap

My birthday night

The chef and the boys surprised me with a firecracker cake!

Time to go...

I just THOUGHT the seaplane was small-
this was the tiniest plane I have even been on in my life...just a tiny bit unnerving.

Alice Springs and The Ghan

June 3-5-

From Uluru we travelled further north to the well known rugged outback town of Alice Springs.  We learned that this town at the near geographical center of Australia began as an Overland Telegraph Station in the late 1800s and has survived (with a sorted history) since that time. We actually saw a lot in our short 1.5 days here... the Telegraph Station, The School of Air and the Royal Flying Doctors Museum along with art galleries full of beautiful Aboriginal art.

The Todd River-
completely dry now but in January this river flooded & 4 lives were lost

These doctors serve a huge community of people that are spread throughout the Australian outback- AMAZING!

The Overland Telegraph-
truly fascinating how a pole and some wire transformed the communication  of an entire country

A mother and her joey spotted along the road we were walking back to town

The school house where no children attend...
Founded in 1951 as a radio transmitted educational system for children of the outback, it still continues today.
We were able to watch a studio lesson and see how teachers and kids interact over the internet-
the boys asked if the school could broadcast to the US "outback" of Memphis!! 

We left Alice Springs by The Great Southern Rail, an historic overnight train known as The Ghan. This train line runs all the way up the middle of Australia on a 3 day trip from Adelaide. We hopped on for the last leg to Darwin.  The boys were very much looking forward to this part of the trip because we split up over the 24 hours into separate train cars- Dad & Nash, Mom & Ross. There was also a stop the next morning with your choice of day trips nearby the town of Katherine.

Named for the cameleers that helped explore the Australian desert 150 years ago

Nash's very first overnight train ride

Ross & Mom's cabin (after dinner the couch was folded out into a bed!)

The Katherine River Gorge

The Red Center

June 1-2-

We left Victoria and headed for the "Red Center" of the Northern Territory to visit the aboriginal sacred sites of Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (aka The Olgas).  We spent 2 days here learning more  about the aboriginal  culture and their stories, some geology and taking in the vastness of the flat desert.

Yes, the earth is really red

"Sounds of Silence" Dinner-
a buffet of bush tucker with an Aboriginal dance exhibition

Kata Tjuta just after sunrise

Walpa Gorge (translated means "windy")
**Note that it is also chilly in the desert in the mornings**

Uluru- the largest monolith (single rock) in the world

We walked around the base of the rock and stopped at special sites used by the indigenous peoples-
this site was a "classroom" for the young boys, full of drawings/paintings that were preparing them to hunt for food

A closer look at landmarks on the rock that tell part of a story 

Getting ready to watch the sun set