Day Thirteen - Leliyn to Douglas Hot Springs

There was something of a post-apocalyptic feel to edith falls the following morning, as strange winds buffeted the camp ground, carrying off unsecured items of clothing and toppling the occasional small child. it calmed down enough for a breakfast of champions.

at pine creek, you turn off onto the kakadu highway and travel about 50km before you get into the wonderful kakadu national park itself. at the entry point is a board showing which parts of the park are open (not much when we were there because of the recent rains), and which parts are closed (all the good bits, including jim jim falls, twin falls and gunlom!) readers: what is the consensus here? is it or is it not illogical to have a closed sign at the park entry when you could have it at the turn off 50km back? i ask you again: is it not just plain fucking rude? we were scandalised by this unaustralian behaviour, and the fact that we had driven 100km unnecessarily. i was also quite miffed at not being able to show g all the places that i had come to know and love in kakadu, but in fact it was a blessing in disguise, as we were able to discover together lots of other little unknown gorges and hotspots in the area (and it gives g and i yet another reason to move to darwin later on!!!). the first discovery was umbrawarra gorge, arguably created by the rainbow serpent explicitly for future gayboy FKK frolicking.

the second, our camping spot for the night, was the wonderful douglas hot springs, in which hot water bubbled up through rocks and sand to fill what was essentially a billabong separated from the main river by a sandbank. further downstream the cold river and the hot billabong joined together, with a mixing of currents, temperatures and tourists. it was awesome!

at this stage in the holiday we were in slow motion, so afternoons consisted of lying around spooning, reading, spooning, eating, and then spooning some more.

and: check out this tiny grasshopper reading chinese!!!