On from Cairns to Darwin, we arrived in Darwin early evening and found a lovely room at the Holiday Inn, which had a fantastic 30m pool - perfect for the children to practice their new swimming skills. Darwin is fairly swanky in places but decidedly dodgy at night.  Sadly had to leave the comfort of the Holiday Inn and head off on our expedition into the outback and Kakadu. Unfortunately, as it is the rainy season, the main highway to Kakadu has been washed ...

Our trip the reef has really been the Piece de la Resistance of the holiday and we were really pleased that all three children went snorkelling with us. We thought they were particularly brave considering the water was about 30 feet deep and more in some places. Luca was very reluctant at first but when he put his head down and saw Wally, the huge Maori Wrasse, he really wanted to have a go. Wally, who had a wife - Sarah, was like a kind of marine labrador puppy,...

Had a lovely drive into the Atherton Tablelands. Stopped for coffee in Kuranda and I was at last able to do a spot of shopping. We decided to grant Amelia her dream of going horseriding so found the 'Blazing Saddles' stables where they agreed to take the children around the paddock a few times. So off Matthew, Luca and Amelia went on horses Jeffrey, Yoyo and Basil, respectively. As usual, Luca said he didn't want to go but then loved every minute of i...

Drove up from Cairns to Daintree national park so we could explore the rainforest. The hotel consisted of small cabins on stilts right in the middle of the rainforest, i.e in the middle of nowhere, just electricity from a generator and no TV. Sat down to lunch at the hotel, only to find we were at the 'Real wild' restaurant, which had a choice of kangaroo, crocodile and emu on the menu. Thank goodness for the salad option. The hotel had its own creek...