{"id":400,"date":"2015-08-26T20:21:18","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T10:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/?p=400"},"modified":"2015-08-26T20:21:18","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T10:21:18","slug":"handel-holiday-part-2-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/?p=400","title":{"rendered":"Handel Holiday (part 2 of ?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sara and I love to leave you wanting more, so here you go, part 2 of …<\/p>\n

After a smooth ID-less flight, we arrived in Darwin.\u00a0 Since they limit your carry on bag weight to 7kg (15lbs) we both had to check bags.\u00a0 The bags were quick to get to the carousel, and Avis gave us the keys to our car and we were on our way.<\/p>\n

The next few towns we were going to didn’t have much in the way of services, so on the way out of town we stopped at a grocery store to get supplies for a few days.\u00a0 We got lunch at Subway and Sara was shocked they didn’t have vinegar as a topping.\u00a0 I was sad there was no yellow mustard.<\/p>\n

Our destination was Batchelor, NT – only about 100km away.\u00a0 We were quickly out of Darwin and in a rural area.\u00a0 Then we began to see the “Road Trains<\/a>” on the 2 lane highway. These are as terrifying in person as they would seem to be.\u00a0 Just a normal 18 wheeler with up to 3 EXTRA trailers.\u00a0\u00a0 Additionally, the speed limit once we got out of town was 130KPH (80.78 mph!).<\/p>\n

We checked into the Rum Jungle Bungalows<\/a> and got some advice from the owner regarding what our plan should be for the afternoon.\u00a0 She suggested checking out the magnetic termite mounds and Florence Falls.\u00a0 So off we went.<\/p>\n

First stop, magnetic termite mounds.\u00a0 These are very interesting because the termites align them with the magnetic field in order to minimize the amount of sun it receives every day.\u00a0 Some mean scientists once altered the magnetic field around one and the termites duly built their mound in the “wrong” direction.\u00a0 Jerks.<\/p>\n

\"Magnetic<\/a>
Magnetic termite mound<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other type of termite mound is made by the cathedral termite.\u00a0 These mounds are all over the Northern Territories and come in all sorts of sizes.<\/p>\n

\"Jon<\/a>
Jon for scale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sara<\/a>
Sara size mound<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After investigating the mounds, we headed towards the Florence falls, with the promise of a refreshing croc-free dip. It did not disappoint, the hardest part was figuring out how to get in a rock pool without concussing ourselves.<\/p>\n

\"No<\/a>
No Crocs!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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We then headed back to the bungalow.\u00a0 We had a few drinks and then headed out for the short walk to the local tavern.\u00a0 We were told to bring a torch (flashlight) because cane toads and snakes are nocturnal.\u00a0 Luckily we saw neither.\u00a0 We did stop a bit to look up at the absurd number of stars we could see.\u00a0 Amazing.\u00a0 We could even see that “star dust” you only normally see in long exposure photos.<\/p>\n

We woke up early (Happy Anniversary!) the next morning to beat the Darwin day-tripping “crowds” to some of the Litchfield attractions.\u00a0 First, we went to Walker Creek, which is a creek with a series of 7 pools.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>
Our Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Trail\"<\/a>
Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Don't<\/a>
Don’t mess with him and he won’t mess with you.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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We saw <10 people on this hike.\u00a0 3 were leaving their campground and 4 were still at their campground.\u00a0\u00a0 Sara was pretty excited that I only rolled my ankle 3 times and never bad enough to need to be carried.<\/p>\n

Next we headed to Wangi falls, did a quick loop hike and took a dip in the croc-free* (*may include freshwater crocs) pool.\u00a0 We had some burgers at the cafe there and headed off to the Tabletop Swamp.\u00a0 It was swamp like.<\/p>\n

It was nearing 2pm, which was our get out of town time.\u00a0 In the outback, car insurance doesn’t cover single vehicle accidents at night, because that is when the ‘roos come out and jump into your car.\u00a0 We had a 4 hour drive ahead of us, so we had to get a move on.\u00a0 Luckily we had brought my iPod to musically entertain us (I have 7 Bon Jovi albums!).\u00a0 Unfortunately, for some reason, the car stereo would only play albums in alphabetical order, which is shockingly maddening.<\/p>\n

We arrived in Cooinda and had a few beers by the pool.\u00a0 Then we sampled the local cuisine for dinner – me: Kangaroo, Sara: Barramundi.<\/p>\n

We then retired to our room for the night.\u00a0 How many lucky ladies get to sleep in a partitioned shipping container the night of their 12th anniversary?<\/p>\n

\"Luxury\"<\/a>
Luxury<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That’s it for me, you’ve all been great<\/a>, I’m outta here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sara and I love to leave you wanting more, so here you go, part 2 of … After a smooth ID-less flight, we arrived in Darwin.\u00a0 Since they limit your carry on bag weight to 7kg (15lbs) we both had to check bags.\u00a0 The bags were quick to get to the carousel, and Avis gave … Continue reading Handel Holiday (part 2 of ?)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}