Finally in the Northern Territory!

Very excited today to hit the NT! It was a pretty long drive from Coober Pedy (approx 488k!) but the kids did amazingly well. We had a couple of stops for fuel mainly, at Marla (where we took this picture of one of the many road trains we've seen along the highway) and Kulgera.

Along the way we saw a pretty incredible sight. Two advance cars with lights flashing, advertising a wide load. Then this monstrosity - two trucks towing a huge piece of machinery, it was the biggest thing we've ever seen! (Excuse the picture quality, it was taken through our very dirty windscreen!) We actually had to pull over off the road to allow it to pass.

Once we crossed over into the Northern Territory, Leon was very excited to see the speed sign! Yikes. I can't count the caravans we have overtaken thus far, Leon scoffing at the thought of 'cruising along'.

Not sure if you're able to make out the price on this bowser, but yes, we paid $1.92 for diesel! Also, they obviously experience a lot of drive offs in this part of the country. Most petrol stations ask you to take credit card or ID into the shop before filling up!

We arrived at Desert Oaks Erldunda at about 3pm and were very impressed to see our first patch of grass! It's the first caravan park that we've stayed in so far with grassed sites. It's actually a really nice place - it helps that it was about 24 degrees and blue skies when we got there. We were hooked up to water for the first time in two nights - you forget what a privilege it is to have running water in the caravan!

After a lovely afternoon relaxing in the sun, we headed over to the Tavern for tea. Delicious meals, but the highlight for the kids was chasing mice around the restaurant! Yes, apparently they're in the midst of a mice plague and our kids were the lucky benefactors. There are mice all over the caravan park and we actually noticed quite a few of them running across the highway between Marla and Erldunda.

Tomorrow, we will hit Uluru! We anticipate about 4 hours of driving, so a fairly reasonable day. (How our thoughts have changed on what is reasonable and what is not!)