Back Home (sigh) by Toby

Finally we headed for home (sigh), taking the long route (yay!).We went to Haddon corner, Dig tree, Cameron corner, Tibooburra and broken hill. By then the car was a mess and some rain on the final car trip home wasn't unwelcome. I missed home but I'm definitely going to miss the holiday more.

Age of Dinosaurs and Lark Quarry By Toby

One of the must do things, which we of course did, is visit the Winton age of dinosaurs museum and  the lark quarry dinosaur stampede.

The dinosaur museum consists of many fossils including the famous 'Banjo' and 'Matilda'. Our first tour was through the lab, a shed where fossils are cleansed of rock and pieced together, and to work there you had to be at least 12 but to work in digs you had to be 18.

The Lark Quarry dinosaur stampede was caused by a large theropod ambushing 86 small coelurosaurs and 70 small ornithopods. No bones were found, only the footprints of the dinosaurs. 

All the tiny divits you can see are dinosaur footprints 

well preserved in mud.

Great Barrier Reef snorkelling by Toby

Had a fantastic day out on the Great Barrier Reef. The snorkeling was great, we saw heaps of fish! Snorkelled on 3 sites but the last was my favourite.

Wallaman falls + rock slides by Toby

Recently we visited the longest single-drop waterfall in Australia, Wallaman falls. It was long enough that most of the water turned to mist before it hit the pool below! Another awesome place we went to was the rock slides, naturally formed rock water slides. They were heaps of fun, perfectly smooth and even mum and dad had a go.

 Wallaman falls

rock slides

The Tip by Toby

On the 17th of June we drove up to the tip, the most northern point of the Australian continent. We brought cake and fishing rods with us but mum was disappointed because she forgot the champagne. I was the only one to catch a fish, landing a small tuskfish. But the tip was not the most northern point of our trip because on the 15 of June we went on a ferry to Thursday island. 

The OTT by Toby

On the 11th of June we started our trek along the OTT at Bramwell Junction. Well... it wasn't really a trek since at the second creek crossing (palm creek) we chickened out and skipped the bottom half of the OTT (for good reasons) to the famous Gunshot creek. From there the rest of the track was still difficult but we managed it ok (mostly because we had joined a convoy of 3 4x4's with winches and because one of their drivers somehow managed to convince mum to come) and we made it all the way up to the Jardine without using the winches or wrecking a car. Dad was happy because now he is an expert driving off-road.

start of OTT

 people trying to wreck their car

 conquering Gunshot

crossing Nolans Brook 

(if you want to see this crossing, search for it on youtube)

Cooktown by Toby

Probably the most historically famous place we've been to this trip was Cooktown. There we climbed mt Cook for a magnificent view over the sea, went to the Cooktown museum, and saw the Cook memorial near where Captain  cook came ashore on the 17th June 1770. At the caravan park we were staying at, the staff were all dressed up for a re-enactment of Cook's landing.