Thursday

A day packed with stress! 

Leaving Edith Falls this morning a lot later than we have been leaving (yes it was 20 minutes) but 20 minutes could mean the difference between a spot close to the toilets or even a camping spot at all!

As my bike has another flat, (I don't think it likes the back of the car) and as I could not be bothered fixing it yesterday, I missed out on a ride this morning with mum. We had breakfast and packed up and at the stage where almost all was done mum hopped on her bike and rode off into the distance. Edith Falls is 20km from the highway, so dad and I were to meet her at the highway. So we finished the packing up sat looking at each other blankly for five minutes and decided the car was the better place to be due to the increasing number of flies. 

Yesterday mum said "we are not in a hurry tomorrow so we can have a lazy morning and not rush" but it seems we are getting too good at the pack up stuff and our lazy morning only delayed us by 20 minutes. 

We picked mum up as planned. 

We did not have a long drive today 100km or so. So we where set up and having lunch by midday. We are at Douglas Hot Springs. Mum and I found this place three years ago when driving to Darwin, so we knew it was a must to bring dad back. 

This is about where the stress started. 

It's really really hard to decide where to sit in the creek! We had a small walk to find a nice spot but as we walked further up the creek the water got hotter and hotter. Like almost boiling. 

Douglas Hot Springs as the name suggest is a natural hot spring. The creek it split in two, down one side comes cold water and down the other hot. Its really is like a hot and cold tap in your bathroom, but in the most amazing and beautiful spot. So the stress of how hot or cold you want to be and if you want your top in the hot and feet in the cold or your feet in the hot and top in the cold, and then there might be the spot where it's just warm or you might want to brave the hot for a bit and get up and have a dip in the cold.... See the stressful day I have had. Are you feeling sorry for me yet? (I'd think not) 

Needless to say I spent the afternoon chatting to a nice girl in the creek (getting far too much sun!) yes I've already started to turn beetroot in colour! Mums not too happy about that. I will have to remember to cover up tomorrow! 

We are here for two nights. We will head into Darwin on Saturday. 

Dad even had a long swim today but mainly in the cold due to high blood pressure. Mum brought me down a peeled  mandarin and a cool drink at one stage and then headed off for a walk. Then I decided it might be time to get out. The long (50meter) walk back to the van and I find out its only 4.15pm... Heaps of time. Mum and I start a Quiddler marathon only to be interrupted at hand 3 by the nice girl I had been chatting to in the creek. We invited her to watch and learn the game and then we had a game with her. This was really nice, I think she was sick of hanging out with her brother and his girlfriend. But is was also nice for mum and I to have someone else to play with. I don't know what mum will do next week when it's just her and dad on the road, she won't have anyone to play with. 

So with dinner done and a bit of laziness tonight, we are all in bed (separate ones). 

Tomorrow we are heading a bit down the road to Butterfly Gorge, this was closed the last two times I've been down this way so it will be nice to see what it's like tomorrow. It's only 17km down the road so dad seems to think we will be back at camp by lunch time. Just enough time for me to sit in the creek and become a prune again. 

It's getting quite real now that my holiday is almost over. I spoke to one of the guys from work today and he said he couldn't wait until Monday as they where out of milk... I said have you been out of milk for 5 weeks and his answer was yes! Guess ill have to remember to get milk on my way to work on Monday! 

btw - not even a hope of reception here, this will be posted on Saturday from the road.