NT Australia: Our First Campervan Trip Experience

Our FIRST EVER campervan experience was in a 4-berth campervan (no toilet) trip to Northern Territory Australia and it was a new challenge for us all. It’s scary yet exciting to have 4 friends living within extremely close proximity with no personal space whatsoever. I’m would think I’m the one having the easiest task as the photographer? Hehe!

DAY 1: Darwin → Katherine

NT Australia - Elsey National Park - Palm Trees

We reach Darwin International Airport and headed straight to pick up our campervan from Apollo. If you’re thinking of going on a campervan trip, the wait for the pick up of our van can take quite awhile so be sure to grab yourselves some food before that. And not to plan your itinerary too tight. So after picking up our van, the most important thing we had to do was to drive to Coles Palmerston and stock up 3 weeks worth of food.

Because we did our research and things get really expensive nearer to our destination, Uluru. So we try to stock up as much as we can. We had our lunch at a nearby fast food chain, KFC. But… you’ve got to be kidding us. We realised how KFC was soOoo good back home. You got to step it up man. We tasted the overly used oil… our chicken were soaked in oil, it wasn’t crispy at all. It was so dreadful. Bummer.

NT Australia - Katherine Holiday Park

After 3 hours on the road, we finally reached our first caravan park, Katherine Holiday Park. We booked powered sites for most of the night stay because we had planned to cook almost every day and we’ll be documenting our first van trip with videos and photos. It’s slightly costly but still decently priced imo.

We were worried about the toilet situations but we were very impressed by how clean the bathroom in the park was! Even the stopovers along the highway was much cleaner than expected. Our first night sleeping in the van was really chilly in the wee morning like around 2-4 am. Thick socks and sleeping bags were just the best! Honestly, nobody wants to wake up in the middle of the night to pee. That would be way too much commotion.

Ending our first night with a short vlog of how day 1 ended. PS: In case you’re wondering how I edited the videos? It was done entirely with just the VSCO & InShot app on my phone. 💖 So here’s a big shoutout to the team!

DAY 2: Katherine → Daly Waters

NT Australia - Mataranka - Eagles

It’s always lovely to be greeted by blue skies and it’s great for cameras. We had some time to spare so we looked up the map and decided to visit Elsey National Park. We fuel up petrol in a small town, Mataranka before making our way over to the national park.

NT Australia - Mataranka - Elsey National Park entrance
NT Australia - Mataranka - Elsey National Park swimming area
NT Australia - Mataranka - Elsey National Park swimming area 2
NT Australia - Mataranka - Elsey National Park thermal pool

Unfortunately, we only had about 2 hrs to spare. The waterfall would take 3 hours one way to hike. So we only had time to visit the Thermal Pool and Rainbow Springs. The Thermal Pool reminds me of the Blue Pool in Krabi except much smaller and nobody will try to get in for a dip.

Ghost Gum 🌳

Amongst the orange hills and sandy ground, we spotted trees with really smooth and creamy white tree bark. We were wondering why and the reason I could think of was that the smooth white exterior blocks out the harsh sunlight and keep the moisture in? Kinda makes sense no? Heheh…  

NT Australia - Mataranka - Elsey National Park toilet

Run for your lyfe!

My action pack friend posing as if she was running away from the innocent looking crocodile. Nice acting there haha.

Typically, google says termites mounds take about 4-5 years to build so can you imagine how long it took to build these huge ass mounds! That’s a whole load of termite saliva, faeces and clay. Eeps! It was everywhere along the highway drive varying in sizes and shapes. Some visitors take it to the next level by dressing up the mounds with clothes which was quite an amusing sight. 

Daly Waters

NT Australia - Daly Waters entrance

Daly Waters Pub is well known as the quirky town and we now know why. The pub area was heavily decorated with many 2nd hand items seemingly from past travellers. While Korea and Paris, there’s the love lock bridge, Daly Waters hung used flip flops, tees, hats and even bras with their names and date of visit written. Whuttt~

NT Australia - Daly Waters pub
NT Australia - Daly Waters - Pikachu event

This is a giveaway as to when we were campervan-ing around Northern Territory. When Pokemon Go was having One Piece X Pikachu collaboration event. Isn’t it soOo cute with the straw hat?

The shadow in the picture below was such a pleasant surprise! I didn’t notice this when I was taking the photo at that moment. It was only when I was editing the photos, the kangaroo shadow was spotted. #Mindblown 🦘🤯

NT Australia - Daly Waters campervan park
NT Australia - Daly Waters shaded spot
NT Australia - Daly Waters -mask and beer

Before the night falls, a photo of  E with a face mask and her stout from the pub by the van…lol. M.U.S.T #roughitout glamorously. 

YasSs... Milky Way

We’re SO not adventurous people evidently shown in the video below. But it was still fun in our own ways. Watch us be scaredy cats below. 😆 

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