Days 16-19. Alice Springs-Katherine

We've had a biiiig drive up the middle- around 1300km over 4 days, which for those of you without kids is like 3000km in one day. The kids continue to travel pretty well. We are usually the last to leave a camping ground (and the last to arrive at night), although all three boys are now very helpful with setting up water hoses etc when we arrive somewhere.
The first 40 minutes-ish in the car the three boys spend doing schoolwork- mostly spelling, mental maths and grammar. These things they can do without help. Jessamy has colouring in if she wants, or sometimes she plays with toys. After schoolwork is marked the boys usually read for a bit- Isaac and Darcy are reading the "Tomorrow" series by John Marsden. Arch and Jess will listen to Wiggles or Playschool. When everyone (except Arch and Jess) is sick of Wiggles we listen to Colin Buchanan- we all love his songs- or German songs (my attempt to bilingualise the family) or Adventures in Odyssey CDs- absolutely brilliant 'radio theatre' type CDs. If we are having a particularly long day of driving the kids sometimes take turns on the laptop- we try to keep it educational and haven't yet put on a DVD for them, but we are less than 3 weeks in so who knows!
After leaving Alice Springs we camped next to the Devils Marbles.
For the first time since leaving home it was warm, and light, enough to eat dinner outside. An Aboriginal ranger gave a campfire talk in the evening and explained about the significance of the area to the local Aboriginal people. He also told us some amazing stories of his experiences as a ranger in different NT parks, including a story of how 70 English school kids had to be helicoptered out of Nitmiluk Gorge after being attacked by a wild buffalo. In the morning we took the kids outside to watch the sun rise. The light made the the large boulders look so amazing.
In Tennant Creek, while waiting for fish and chips, Jess and a gorgeous little Aboriginal girl of the same age approached each other. They stared at each other for a while before the Aboriginal girl stroked Jessie's cheek, and then Jess patted her hand. Once they had established that the other was actually just another little girl, they had a lovely game of peek-a-boo. It is so nice to see so many beautiful Aboriginal children around, speaking their own language (and in the case of this little girl, not speaking English).
After Tennant Creek we camped in a rest area, then on to Mataranka Springs- home of the Never Never. By now I am feeling a bit Jeannie Gunn (despite being on an obviously well worn tourist trail) so I bought the book to really get into the outback mood, and am one step away from buying an akubra and a small block of land just so I can recapture this feeling should the need arise in the future. Having said that, the absolute best thing about Mataranka was that we stayed in a real caravan park with hot showers, flushing and relatively unstinky toilets, and washing machines. I was also able to pack away all the winter clothes- yay! This morning we had a swim in the thermal pools, a constant 34 degrees, said goodbye to the friendly wallabies and peacocks, and headed into Katherine to stock up on food. We also tried to buy sandals(there weren't in the shops when we left Newcastle) but couldn't find a shoe shop. Not many people wear shoes here so we might have to turn the children slightly more feral than they already are and let them go barefoot for a bit longer.