The largest Crocodile skull in the world is carefully stored in a Russian museum. Probably temperature controlled. Guarded by some enormous Babushka with arms bigger, and hairier, than my wee Scottish legs.

As lovely as Edith Falls was, I was excited to hit the road as we were heading to Kakadu. Probably one of the most famous National Parks in Australia. Kakadu is about half the size of Switzerland, and has a reputation of being a true wilderness, full of danger, beauty, and some of the finest examples of Aboriginal rock art in the world.

So Captain Cook has disappeared. And the story is now that of the explorers, and the Aborigines – who have been here a fair bit longer than us white fellas, so fair enough. It’s all their story really. We’re just the bad ending that nobody expected. A Directors’ Cut that made it to general release. And for all you can say about the Northern Territory folks, they seem to have embraced Aboriginal Culture more than anywhere else I’ve been so far.

There were only two options to get to the Northern Territory from Mount Isa. Go back up past Lawn Hill, hit the Savannah Way after eight hours and the head West on the dirt. Or, take the highway West for a couple of days and turn right at Three Ways.

It was four hours from Karumba to Lawn Hill, and on the dirt towards the end of the journey, about 20 minutes from our destination a loud POP came from the back of the car. Shit. The rear windscreen had shattered. I covered it with a tarp and gaffer tape, and we finished the track to Adel’s Grove.

The road to Undarra was long, straight, and quite unlike anything we’d seen so far. We’d definitely left the rainforests behind, tropical or sub-tropical, all of that was gone. It was a barren, dry, and lonely landscape. Although one good thing about leaving the rainforests behind, was that we seemed to have left the rain behind too!

The next week flew by. We stayed at Mount Carbine for a couple of nights to rest and clean up. It took about two hours to clean the car. The girls helped, which probably added 30 minutes or so, but it was a lot more fun with them involved. Another hour took us back to Palm Cove, where we picked up our bikes and Katie’s school work, then we stayed in Cairns for a couple of days.

Frank Jardine was able to buy Somerset from the British authorities, as the administrative centre had moved to Thursday Island, where there was a better port. It’s now the main island of the Torres Straits, and only an hour and a half from Seisa by ferry. I would have loved to have visited, but it would have been $600 for the whole family to get there :/

After our long, and mildly traumatic, drive to Punsand Bay we decided to have a day of doing nothing. Well, Erin decided we should have a day of doing nothing. I was desperate to complete the journey to the tip, but she was right, we needed a day of rest.