Bye Bye WA - Hello NT!

Our last stop in Western Australia, after 10 weeks of lovely touring, was Lake Argyle. We came here for one reason only: around Perth, the kids saw a brochure for a 'resort' at Lake Argyle that had an infinity pool. The advertisement worked, because they hadn't forgotten about it over many thousands of kilometres, and so we found ourselves pulling up at reception hoping that the pool was as good as the pictures.

And this was one of those times when even the brochure doesn't do justice to the reality. How's this for a pool?

Yes this is real - it's not off the internet - I took this
photo at sunset!

And here's a middle of the day
look at the same magnificent view!

We pretty much did nothing but swim in it and admire the view for two days.

The big boys had fun playing with their underwater camera and Evie and Max just loved looking over the edge to figureout where the water went!

The best part was that the 'resort' included a caravan park and so we only had to pay $40 per night to stay there.

I'm pretty sure it's the only time we'll get away with such an amazing pool for that price.

Add this one to your must-do list people!

Thank goodness there was the lure of something pretty exciting just down the road, otherwise there may have been rebellion when it was time to leave.

We had one last early morning swim, packed up Suzy Q and drove the very short distance to the Northern Territory border - yay!

After two-and-a-half months in WA, it was time to say goodbye and embrace another state (or territory in this case) on our adventurous quest.

Lukas on the border trying to wobble out
his loose tooth before NT. Dylan lost
two teeth at Lake Argyle and Lukas wanted
to do the same after losing his first right
at the beginning of WA.

It was pretty well agreed that WA rated high on the 'awesomeness' scale and that NT has a lot to live up to.

We pondered aloud the possibilities as we passed through a couple of 'blink and you'll miss them' towns with not a lot going on and three very ordinary memorials (a concrete lump, a replica of a wooden fence and a big stone) that made Lukas wonder if maybe they don't put effort into memorials in the NT because no-one comes to see them!

The biggest excitement of the first couple of hours was to find out that the speed limit is higher in the NT and we can (legally) go faster than we ever have before!

Being the adventurers that we are, we decided NT was a good place to have our first ever camp at a roadhouse. These have been fairly deliberately avoided along the way as they generally seem to be run down, dusty and not targeting the young travelling family market.

But the Victoria River Roadhouse in the NT gave us a lovely first experience so maybe there will be more roadhouse camping to come. There was a not-rough-at-all bar (I even had a XXXX Gold like the locals and they lent me a stubbie holder!), there were kangaroos, there were helicopters taking off, there was a beautiful river where Dylan, Lukas and I saw a wild hog, a turtle and fish, and there was a family of frogs that climbed out the hot water tap when Lukas and Max had their shower which pretty much made Max's day. 

Victoria River at dusk.

Our second night in the NT is at Nitmiluk National Park where we've stopped over to have a look at Katherine Gorge in the morning. Watch out Top End, here we come!

PS - An update on Lukas' tooth: no luck on the border and it's still in place. Tooth fairy...watch this space.