We first went to the bureau of meteorology in Mt Isa. It was quite interesting learning about the how they find out the weather. It works like this: At 8.45am the meteorologist goes out and checks the evaporation level, where the clouds are, the wind speed, the maximum and minimum temperature and many other things. At 9.00am he goes inside and enters the readings into the computer. At 9.15am a machine automatically lets out a big white balloon that has enough hydrogen gas in it to carry one kilogram. The balloon is carrying a electronic device that sends signals back to the computer in the office, this signal brings up a graph that lets them know about a lot of things in the atmosphere, as well as which direction the wind is going. We saw the balloon go up, there is a parachute inside it so that it doesn’t hit someone or something too hard. He even let us into the room with the balloon robot.

Afterwards we drove to Winton, to stop the night. When we got to the caravan park we found that someone’s car wheel had fallen off and their car was in the site we were supposed to be in, but that didn’t matter we just drove, with the caravan, around. We first drove out to the music fence. The music fence is a wire fence that, in different spots, when you hit it with a stick, makes different noises. There were also other musical things like old tubs and scrap metal. There was one bit that was set up like a drum kit! It was really fun!

Banjo Paterson wrote ‘Waltzing Matilda’ near Winton and the first public performance was in a pub in Winton.

We came back, set up then went and had some dinner that the caravan park put on. Gee, it was good tucker! Roast beef! While we were eating dinner a 44 foot caravan came into the park! It had about 10 wheels, I’m sure they wouldn’t miss a wheel if one came off! We couldn’t believe how big it was! Apparently its the only one in Australia! After we had finished our tucker there was a show on. It was done by two woman and it was bush poetry. For one part of it they needed two men from the audience to go up to act out The Man from Iron Bark. One of the men that acted was 6 foot 9, so tall that his track suit pants were above his ankles! Their show was quite funny!

Tara

This is the balloon that they put up at 9.15am.

This is the crystal ball that the meteorologists use to predict the weather! Nah, just kidding, it’s to measure the sunlight hours and when the sun is out. When it’s sunny it burns the card that’s underneath the ball, they can then count how many hours of sunlight in the day. When it’s cloudy the card does not burn.

This is what they use to check the evaporation that happens in one day. We found it quite interesting that this is the same method they used one hundred years ago, we saw one at the old Alice Springs Telegraph Station!

Today we had a look at the underground hospital. It isn’t still running. It was used in WWll after the bombing of Darwin because they were worried that the Japanese would bomb Mt Isa as well. They had it underground mostly because it would camouflage better than an above ground one. It still had some of the beds and other things in it. Next we went to a underground mine and had a tour. They mine copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold. We went down to the underground mine in this lift cage. It gave me a fright. The miner that was the guide let Tara press the buttons to make the lift go. In the mine there was a rail way. We saw some of the machines. They were big. There was one very big one that could do nearly everything like drilling holes. We learnt that most of the truck drivers are female because they are safer drivers. Most of the geologists are females too. They told us how they set up the explosives. The explosives are used to explode parts of the walls to get more minerals. Mum had a go at using a compressed air drill. Next we went to the city look out. We could see most of the town. There was a pole with lots of towns and country’s with arrows pointing towards them. Then we came back .
Tess

We crossed the border into Queensland today! I have noticed that there are now more fences rather than cattle crossings. In the Northern Territory the farms are too big to put fences around every paddock, so they just have cattle crossings and few fences.
We drove to Mount Isa on what is supposed to be the longest main street in the world! The main street is 188 kilometres long. The roads are very long and straight! On the way we saw a very big wind mill.
When we got to Mount Isa, we went to the information centre to book a tour of the mines for the next day. Then we looked for a caravan park, all the caravan parks were booked put for powered sites, but that didn’t matter much, I don’t think. We found an unpowered, site set up, and had some lunch. After lunch we walked around the street for a bit then came back to the van.
For dinner we had left overs, yum!
Tara

After lunch we drove to Edith Falls. We went in the water for a bit. There was an island in the middle, which we walked out to. The water was quite cold! From there we went to Katherine Thermal Pools. It was warm water, not quite as warm as Mataranka, and definitely not as hot as some of the parts of Douglas Hot springs! It was fun swimming there! After that we went to the Springvale Homestead. It is the oldest pastoral homestead in the Northern Territory. We then came back to the caravan and packed up ready to go early the next morning. We had dinner at the caravan park, barramundi, it was very nice!
Tara

Today we went to the Katherine farmers market. We had breaky there. There were stalls like jams and relishes, Veggies and craft (but no pudding stalls!). After breaky we did some shopping then went back home to have lunch. Next we went on a cruise through the Nitmiluk Gorges(Katherine Gorges). We saw a few fresh water crocodiles. Freshwater crocs are not as dangerous as the salt water ones so they dont mind them in the gorges, they are safe to swim and canoe with. They check the river for saltwater crocs all the time by having a little red ball tied to a tree with string and floating on the water. The salties are attracted to the red colour so they go and bite the ball to see if it is tasty. If there are big bite marks they know that there is a saltie to catch. They catch them with crocodile traps that are a big long cage that they put a wallaby leg or wild pig in for bait. The crocs go in and the door automatically closes. The saltie gets relocated. If a freshwater croc gets in they just let go again! In-between the Gorges we had to walk to the next George. There were a few little water fall things on the cliffs. One the way back we had a swim in the second gorge and a snack. The water was very cold! After that we came home and had dinner.
Tess

After breakfast we left Douglas Hot Springs and drove to Katherine. It wasn’t a very long drive, we drove straight there. There are lots of road trains on the road, we saw a few on the way. Road trains are very big trucks, sometimes four trailers long! When we got there and set up we got ready to go for a drive into town. We all got into the car and Dad said, ‘where’s the keys?’
They were in the locked caravan. When we went to try and unlock it we couldn’t! The key just wouldn’t go in far enough, therefore could not turn! Tess and I climbed in through the tunnel boot below Mum and Dad’s bed to get into the caravan and try to unlock it from the inside, but we couldn’t. Dad tried to spray some stuff into the key hole but that was no use either. We ended up having to call a locksmith! He came and fixed it for us, by putting some graphite powder into the lock, and using a mallet to tap the key further into the lock, thankfully. We think it was due to all the dust from the dirt roads we’ve been on. Once it was fixed we went into town and looked in some shops, then planned what we would do tomorrow. When we got back we had a little rest and read.
For dinner we had Kelly pasta, yum!
Tara

Today we had short drive. We had to backtrack a little bit because we wanted to go to Douglas Hot Springs. We got a nice bush camp site with a camp fire place. After we set up we went to Fenton WWll air field. In the war USA airforces and RAAF used it for flying to attack Japanese forces In the islands. Some of the planes crashed at the air field and the Japanese also bombed it. We saw some parts of the old crashed planes. On the way to the Hot Springs we saw some Brahman cattle. They have humps one their back. When we got to the Hot Springs we couldn’t believe that it can be so hot that you can hardly stand there then if you take a step it can be freezing cold. It was only deep enough to sit and stand not swim. The water can get up to 60 degrees. We went home and had chicken roast in the camp oven that Mum made and I made some damper to go with it.
Tess

Today we left Jabiru and drove to Gunlom, still in Kakadu. The last 37kms were very bumpy, and we were a bit nervous because of our previous wheel mishap! But it was all fine and we got to a nice campsite, with a view of the Gunlom waterfall and shady trees. We had the soup that Mum made yesterday from left over roast for lunch. It was very nice!
After lunch we walked to the Gunlom Falls. It was only a bit more than a kilometre, but it was very steep and rocky! At the top we had a swim. We could swim there because crocodiles can’t get up that high! The pool was at the top of the waterfall and it was an amazing view! It was really nice swimming in the cool water! We swam there for a bit then walked back down to the caravan park. We had sausages cooked on the camp fire for tea, they were very nice!
Tara