As Jason says on the PA - "Allrightie Guys"

Sunday 31st August - We were up brightish and early (5am) to get the taxi to the pick up for our long trip to Broome. Some minor excitement when we discovered that there were two tours departing at the same time, a nine day, and ours, which takes ten. All was sorted satisfactorily and we were picked up by Jason, to join 4 other passengers in a large 21 seat 4WD truck with just one more to pick up - so plenty of room to move around. We set off fine, but as we were leaving Darwin Jason managed to miss a turn and get lost. It turned out this was only the third time he'd been to Darwin! However, he has been a guide in the Kimberley for 7 years, and that is where we are spending 8 of the 10 days.

After asking a local garage for directions we got on the right road (the Stuart Highway which goes all the way across the centre of Australia to Adelaide) and had our first break at Adelaide River about 110km from Darwin to visit the war graves cemetery. It's a typical immaculately maintained place, which also commemorates the medical personnel killed when the Darwin hospital was bombed. The local paper in Darwin reported that a Vietnamese fisherman was killed by a croc here two weeks ago when he went in the river to unsnag his lure. Lunch was at Edith Falls and in the afternoon we travelled on to our overnight stop at Katherine Gorge. The places were named after the daughters of the sponsor of the expedition which discovered them, led by John McDouall Stuart, who got the road named after him. In this case "discovered" has the colonial meaning - found by a white man looking for places and people to exploit - the non-white locals have known all about their country for thousands of years.

At the end of the afternoon we went on a boat trip through the first two Katherine Gorges with a very interesting and skilled indigenous guide - one part of the trip required him to thread a large boat through a shallow section with rocks only inches away on both sides. Spectacular scenery, fascinating facts and great wildlife - an osprey, several freshies, lots of flying foxes including one being hunted by a bird of prey. In the evening we had dinner provided by the campsite, sitting by the pool with a couple of cold tinnies getting to know the other members of the party. There's Paul and Kathy from Queensland (a farmer and a teacher), Joachim and Sonya from Munich and Nick from Adelaide - Nick's in his 30s but everyone else is of a similar age.

Today was a long 600km trek to Kununurra, the eastern gateway to the Kimberley, which is one of the most remote parts of Australia and where we are due to spend the remainder of the trip. Due to an administrative glitch the tour company was not able to book enough cabins at the campsite, so offered us the chance to stay for the next two nights in the nearby luxury hotel. We agreed to take one for the team, so I'm now sitting in our huge room taking advantage of the free internet and following the Eagles progress against Featherstone on Twitter.

And Eagles win 28-40 at Featherstone ... time for bed!

 Adelaide River war cemetery:

The Adelaide River is not part of the management zone, but it only reduces the risk, it doesn't eliminate it, so we will be careful:

On the way down to gorge cruise everyone said this Kookaburra at the side of the path must be a model, until it moved its head:

Katherine Gorge:

There were hundreds of flying foxes all along the river bank:

Another freshie:

Plenty of wallabies around the camp site, you can walk within a couple of feet of some of them:

A view through the front of the truck, the head to the left is Joachim, he and Sonya bagged the front seats again today:

Lunch overlooking the Victoria River:

The border crossing into Western Australia means something, all the remaining fresh produce on the truck, and us, had to be discarded:

Unofficial Aussie signs tend to be fairly direct: