Jumping Crocodiles!

Wednesday, 30th June

Last night we managed to complete a 15 end game of bowls in hot and humid conditions. We were amazed at how slow the greens actually were, having expected our bowls to zoom off the green into the ditch! One of us won well, and the other did his best. By the end of the night, the insects were so thick under the lights that they almost looked like fog. There were all sorts of bugs, big and little, wandering around the green, as well as biting someone on his bum! He even brought this one back to the caravan for a sleep in our bed – but only for a VERY brief sleep.

I don’t think we have ever been so clean – we shower frequently and create heaps of laundry. A local lady told us last night that the climate at the moment is the same as the wet season, except it doesn’t rain. Very unseasonal evidently, with only five actual days of dry season since the beginning of June. Let’s hope the dry returns for July!

We both saw the sunrise this morning, so that we could arrive at Fogg Dam while it was still early, before the birds had all dispersed and it became too hot. After seeing them, I don’t think the birds ever disperse. We were not allowed out of our cars on the dam wall as a large crocodile is living in the area. However, there were a number of places to pull over, look at the birds, lower the window very, very briefly for a photo and read the signs. There are an estimated 800 water pythons for square kilometre in these particular wetlands – another good reason for not getting out of the car. We did alight at the visitors’ lookout (obviously above crocodile line) and immediately became breakfast for every bitey in the region. The Bushmans worked hard, today. We spent some time here watching the different birds and the tarpon (fish) blowing bubbles and tailing. Cat was very twitchy with all the crimson finches and large birds, but very cautious of the pythons.

After Fogg Dam, we called into the Windows on the Wetlands visitors’ centre for a look at the surrounding wetlands from the top of the only hill in sight. Then it was on to the Spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruise (as opposed to the other four jumping crocodile cruises operating on the Adelaide River) for a look, hopefully, at crocodiles in the wild. Before sailing, we were given the opportunity of having a live snake draped around our necks – we both declined and Cat refused to leave the car. The boat had no sooner left the jetty than we spotted crocodiles just cruising down the river, most of them over three metres in length. The boat would stop while Cissie attempted to feed the crocodiles and make them jump vertically out of the water. One crocodile had lost both front legs, possibly during two different bouts of mating! A couple of large males, about 5 metres, followed the boat in a stalking pattern. People who go any where near the water (fresh or salt) in the north of Australia have to be completely mad. It was incredible the number of crocodiles we actually saw in such a short distance – one can only wonder at the number we didn’t see. A very memorable experience, which should be compulsory for all German tourists!

The Mall - and Ben

Tuesday, 29 June

Last night we received free entertainment from the couple in the caravan opposite. He likes to sing country and western whilst playing theguitar and his wife plays rhythm on an electric keyboard. They set up in an area behind their caravan and very quickly had a reasonable audience listening to their enthusiastic music. One of us only managed to stay for 30 minutes before the midges worked their way through the Bushmans.

The overnight temperature was a bit higher than usual, only dropping to 23 degrees, before climbing quickly to the same boring 33. Friday is supposed to be cooler, only 31 – the locals will be looking for their jumpers and coats!

This morning we decided to check out the Smith Street Mall – and the numerous souvenir shops doing a very brisk trade this week – as well as getting a look, albeit from a distance, of the US Navy warships. The large number of sailors in the mall were very easy to spot – the military haircuts are a bit of a giveaway, as well as the accents. Although we didn’t enter, the Christchurch Anglican Cathedral was a lovely modern structure half hidden by large lawn mounds. Opposite was a sculpture depicting an Aboriginal spirit which manifests itself as a tawny frogmouth.

Our quiet, peaceful lunch outside the caravan was interrupted by Ben Darke driving slowly past – he popped his head out the window and said “Gidday!” If it wasn’t Ben, it was his identical twin brother.

Tonight we are going to have a game of bowls, starting at 6.30pm. Don’t know how well we’ll play in the heat, considering the midge meal will need to wear long pants and socks!

Monday

Monday, 28 June

Another restful day to recuperate from yesterday’s restful day! We had a cooler start to the day with some cloud and the temperature remaining about 24 until late morning. The cloud had cleared by then and the temperature soared.

It was a day to catch up on some pampering at the hairdressers this morning, with a pleasing result from a totally strange salon. When travelling, one has to just cross the fingers and hope for the best!

Due to the early appointment this morning, the laundry was left until after lunch – two hours on the clothes line was probably an hour too long!

That has been about all the excitement for today, not even any photos, so I have attached one of a crocodile nesting site at the Katherine Gorge.

More Markets

Sunday, 27th June

A cooler night, with the temperature dropping to 21 degrees, however today was the usual 33 with thick smoke blanketing the sky this afternoon.

The man of the caravan decided to be the envy of all the residents within smelling distance this morning and cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast on the “patio.” The Sunday paper was a fairly quick read, being much smaller than the Saturday edition, so we decided to check out the Nightcliffe Market. This was much smaller, and not as crowded thank goodness, as the Mindal Market, although a large number of the stalls did seem rather familiar! Today, there were also a number of fresh fruit/vegetables stalls, as well as some books. We spent a very enjoyable hour or so in the shade, poking about the different stalls.

This afternoon we worked out our itinerary for the next ten nights after we leave Darwin and made some telephone calls to make sure we could get a site. Kakadu wasn’t a problem, we even booked a Yellow Waters cruise at the same time (and don’t have to pay for it until we get there!) and Katherine, also wasn’t a problem. I could book Kununurra over the internet (and pay in full now), but the Ivanhoe Caravan Park refused to take a booking over the phone – turn up and hope there is a site available, was the comment. Not much else we can do!

Cat made the acquaintance today of Norman Gnome, who happens to reside in the next door caravan and comes from Adelaide. They hit it off straight away!!!

Saturday in Darwin

Saturday, 26th June

Another hot day in paradise, only the wind has changed direction (as have the planes) and the humidity has lessened, thank goodness.

A quiet, lazy Saturday and most of the morning was spent reading the weekend newspaper and socialising, before heading to the shopping centre for a few necessities. As there weren’t very many people waiting, we took the opportunity to talk to a consultant at our very favourite business – Telstra! My mobile contract is about to conclude, which means talking about new phones and prices. It didn’t prove all that difficult, yet, to settle on a new phone and retain my current contract. However, it meant I would actually have to buy the phone, either add the cost to the monthly account of pay in full immediately. Of course, they didn’t have the model I wanted in stock! The nice man will ring me IMMEDIATELY my order arrives. I think I will check myself every time we are in the shopping centre.

The afternoon was just as peaceful, with the main entertainment being able to watch all the new arrivals reversing onto their sites – quite interesting at times. The only other little excitement was when I started typing and discovered the Y key thought it was a Z, and vice versa. A restart seemed to solve this little problem.

Three ants have committed suicide today!!!

Markets

Friday, 25th June

Last night we visited the Mindal Night Markets, which are held every Thursday and Sunday evenings and are rather an institution here in Darwin. As parking in Darwin is a very major problem, we decided to take the bus organised by the caravan park - $8 each sounded pretty reasonable to us. Along with 57 other tourists, we were picked up at 5.00 pm, after a little drama (see the next paragraph) and taken to the markets. I think every tourist in the region was there, along with half the population of Darwin! The best way to describe the market is to take all the people and stalls at the opening night of the Taste of Tasmania and combine them with Salamanca Market on the busiest day of the year – and squash it all into Salamanca Market! There were people, bugs, food smells, bugs, people and more bugs. The idea is to take a chair, buy from the many food stalls, then sit and watch the sun set over Mindal Beach – along with everyone else. The sunset was very nice. The photo is just a very small section of the crowd, before the sunset rush. Apart from the large variety of food stalls, mainly Asian, there were the usual jewellery, bags, massages, handmade soaps and sarongs that are normally seen at markets. We have now been and never have to go again.

The little drama was discovering (about five minutes before we were due to leave) that the bathroom overhead cupboard and the bench was absolutely crawling with ants! When we removed the towels (no ants in them, thank goodness), we discovered ant eggs in the corner of the overhead cupboard. Half a tin of Peau Beau was quickly emptied, we crossed our fingers and left. On returning, the thousands of dead ants were vacuumed and the eggs were sent to ant heaven as well. We bought some ant traps this morning and placed in the overhead cupboard. Half an hour later, ants were having a lovely time exploring the walls of the bedroom – the remainder of the Peau Beau was used! Further checking revealed large numbers of eggs and ants in the first crease of the accordion door on the bathroom. Thank goodness we had purchased another tin of that wonderful insect poison. Now we wait and see!!!

This morning I made the discovery that the nice, new front loading washing machines in the laundry are extremely small and didn’t hold a normal wash load. At $4 a load and with the amount of washing generated in this heat, laundry could be a tad expensive. We do get free detergent though.

Grocery shopping, and ant hunting, filled in the morning and this afternoon we checked out the Casuarina Shopping Centre, which is much larger, and busier, than Palmerston. As we were in the region of the Casuarina Nature Reserve, we decided to have a quick look and discovered there is a nudist beach in this area. Unfortunately, we would have had to walk 500 metres and didn’t have our bathers with us. We did get out of the car and walk to the beach near the surf club and nearly expired with the reflected heat from the sand – probably explained why no one was sunbaking. As we returned to the car, we passed an outdoor beach shower – complete with male nudist!

Thursday, 24th June

We solved the sewage problem last night – it wasn’t a sewage problem at all, it was a problem with , possibly, the people in the motor home (definitely NOT caravan people!) diagonally behind us disposing of their unwrapped crab shells in the garbage bin. Everyone in a 250 metre radius was nearly gassed by the odour, which did intensify remarkably during the day with the increase in temperature. A word to reception and a maintenance man quickly appeared and completely removed the bins from the area. Let’s hope in the future they show a little more thoughtfulness about the correct manner of disposal of shellfish remains!

The weather has become very humid, as well as hot. Definitely not two blankets as far as we are concerned – the air conditioner has been earning its keep this week.

This morning, after waiting for the historic announcement of a new prime minister, we set out for the WWII Oil Storage Tanks. These were six large tunnels excavated under the city centre, with plans to fill them with oil during the war. However, they were never used and two of them were opened up to the public about 20 years ago. It was quite fascinating to walk through these tunnels (and also much cooler) and look at more wartime photographs on display. The same fleet that bombed Pearl Harbour also bombed Darwin, with more planes and more bombs than Pearl Harbour.

After inspecting the tunnels, we walked to Government House and then turned left instead of right, and walked all the way around the block to Parliament House’s entrance. This is a modern building with a beautiful marble mosaic of the Territory’s symbol, the desert rose, in the foyer, as well as a marble staircase. A library leads off the Great Hall and we spent some time in air conditioned comfort catching on the news from The Mercury. Parliament wasn’t sitting, so we had a quick look at the chamber before checking at the customary gift shop at the exit.

The answer to the mystery object question – an automated potato peeler, of course!

Mystery Object

Wednesday, 23rd June

We didn’t even pull the blanket over our feet early this morning – then a local told us it had been a TWO blanket night! They should visit Tasmania at this time of the year.

This morning we decided to have a drive around, do a recce and get our bearings for future excursions into Darwin city proper (we are about 15 kms from the centre). We had a drive along the wharf, couldn’t see the wave lagoon behind the large rock wall, waved to the Governor in Government House (very colonial), couldn’t see any parliamentarians, the outdoor cinema was closed, decided not to make a fortune today at the casino and stopped to check out the Darwin Bowls Club. A Tasmanian couple from Hobart, who we have met at least three different times, were walking past at the same time – they are staying in the same caravan park as us! Will catch up with them late this afternoon.

We ended up at the Military Museum on East Point, which was an artillery base during WWII and a couple of the gun emplacements are still in existence. The museum office and some displays are houses in the original command post. We spent a very interesting couple of hours here, looking at the exhibits and movie. A wooden mock-up of the original gun is placed in one of the gun emplacements, which gives a very good idea of the size of these weapons. One of the large searchlights still had its lens intact – gave a rather inverted view of ourselves!

Back to the caravan for lunch before attempting to locate the bowling club at Palmerston, which would be much closer than the Darwin Bowling Club. It was well signposted and we discovered the Northern Territory Junior Championships in progress – poor kids playing in the middle of the day in this heat. I have to say that they weren’t too bad, either.

We have noticed a couple of small drawbacks with this caravan park – there is a very bright yellow street light right behind the caravan and a sewage works somewhere behind the caravan park. Southerly winds would be most welcome!!!

What is the purpose of the machine being examined by Leslie? Answer tomorrow, if I remember.

Darwin

Tuesday, 22nd June

We deliberately took our time packing up this morning as we only had 80 kms to drive and couldn’t book into the Darwin caravan park before noon. However, we were still on the road by 9.00 am, so decided to make the short detour of 20 kms back to Adelaide River. Somehow, we had missed the Australian War Cemetery on our way north and considered it was important enough to back track a little. For some reason, the Australian War Cemeteries are very emotional places, always beautifully maintained. It was quite moving to wander among the graves, reading the inscriptions and noting how young some of these men wear when they died serving our country.

As we continued north to Darwin, it became very obvious that the highway was virtually a continuous airstrip during WWII. We stopped for a short break at Strauss Air Field, where Cat had a lovely time “flying” the cut out planes.

Onwards to Darwin, arriving at the given hour of noon and joining the long queue of caravans waiting to be checked into the Freespirit Resort, just south of the Darwin Airport’s runway! We get to see all the big jets as they land and take off!!! This is a lovely big park, very professionally run, large grassy site with a slab and plenty of shade. Unfortunately, shade also means trees on the site. Today, I earned my caravanner’s badge – I directed Himself to reverse onto the site, with only a couple of centimetres to spare between the slab and the palm tree. No arguments, either. After setting up, it was a visit to Palmerston Shopping Centre to stock up on some very necessary fresh food.

The Lost City

Monday, 21st June

The shortest day!

Caravan parks are always full of excitement – such as the driver of a brand new Toyota Prado who decided to see if palm trees bend when backed into. Palm trees don’t, but Prados do! Then there was the rather generously proportioned young lady running wildly through the park, waving her arms madly. Dashed up to us, “Give me your mobile phone, quick.” Refusal – what is the emergency? “I need your phone to make an urgent call.” What is the emergency? “Quick, give it to me.” What is the emergency? “My husband has driven out, I have changed my mind and want to go with him now.” Go to reception and use the public phone!!!

Yesterday evening we decided, along with a couple next to us, to take advantage of the free cocktail each, so headed for the Deaf Adder Bar before cooking dinner. The free cocktail was very heavy on an aniseed liquor (yuck!) and highly desirable to every fly in a 100 metre radius. After chasing flies continually off the straw and out of the inside of the glass, I left it on the table. The men had beers, quite sensibly.

This morning it was out of bed early for ALL of us so we could drive to the Lost City before it became too hot. We called into the Rum Jungle Lake on the way – quite a nice area with a number of people camped in the “Camping Prohibited” area. No one waved to us.

We had only just started down the 4WD track to the Lost City when we came upon a young couple walking. They were Americans, so we offered them a lift (10.5 kms to the Lost City), the young man refused but his female companion nearly fell into the car! They were a couple of final year medical students from Florida in Australia for a fortnight and very quickly realised what a long walk 10.5 kms is – each way. The Lost City had been burnt out recently (no doubt deliberately to reduce growth), which did detract somewhat from the rock formations. However, we were glad we went and the Americans were also glad we went; we gave them a lift back to the turn off and their car.

Monday night is bowls night in Batchelor, so we decided to check out the club as a game might be a pleasant way to fill in the evening (too hot during the day). After seeing the green, we have decided to watch “Desperate Housewives” instead. The green was probably more dirt than grass, what grass there was included long, seedy weeds and the rabbits had been having a lovely time.

During a long chat with the caravan park’s groundsman this afternoon, he was more than happy to tell us that it is definitely snake season – a large brown snake was killed in the park just last week!

The final photo is an example of the elephant (or gamma) grass that grows as a weed in the area - anothe reason for controlled burnoffs.

Sunday, 20th June

We did try the bistro last night – although we decided to bring the food back to the caravan – and had some very nice barramundi with chips and salad.

Another hot day, although there was rather a strong breeze early in the day. We decided to have a quiet day, with a load of washing first up – the hot weather seems to create laundry! Then we set off for a walk around the town before it became too hot. Batchelor was the town for the now abandoned Rum Jungle Uranium Mine, as well as being an important defence post during the Second World War. Some of the old buildings still exist, such as the Sidney Williams Hut (style of WWII army barracks hut), the foundations of the single men’s quarters (mining) and the Virgins’ Villas (aka The Nunnery). Not really sure of the purpose of the last one!

Like yesterday afternoon, we were again entertained by a small plane taking off frequently from the airstrip (WWII leftover, I think), climbing very high directly above us and tossing out parachutists on a regular basis. Les happily laid back in his chair with binoculars to eyes for ages.

Some more photos from Litchfield National Park – the magnetic termite mounds and Tabletop Swamp – as well as some of the birds being fed behind our caravan.

Litchfield National Park

Saturday, 19th June

An early start this morning to Litchfield National Park, in the hope of beating the worst of the heat – and tourists. Tourists are such a pain, at times!

Our first stop was at the magnetic termite mounds – the mounds are built with the narrow sides pointing north/south and the wide sides facing east/west. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of burning off done in Litchfield National Park and the termite mounds are like a moonscape. In fact, the extent of the burn offs made the whole appearance of the park a little disappointing as most of the trees were blackened and the vegetation either burnt or attempting to recover. (The same arguments exist in Tasmania!!!)

Our next stop was at the Buley Rockhole, a very pleasant cascade suitable for plunging, evidenced by the bikini-clad sweet young backpackers! Cat wasn’t the only one quite taken with this stream. Round the corner were the Florence Falls – definitely big waterfalls with a large pool at the base, open for swimmers. There was a climb of 143 steps down (and back up) to the pool, so again, we decided to give a miss to a refreshing dip.

We pulled into the Tabletop Swamp, which was quite pretty but it didn’t take much imagination to picture the hordes of bities flying around here later in the day! We walked into the observation deck of the Tolmer Falls – very spectacular falls, with the water flowing under a rock bridge before falling to the valley floor. Tourists are not allowed walk to the base of the falls as the area contains some threatened bat species.

Wangi Falls was our last stop this morning – truly beautiful falls with a large plunge pool at the base, which was unfortunately closed to swimming! Both freshwater and saltwater crocodiles inhabit this pool at the moment. We did decide to take the 300 metre walk to the treetops lookout – big mistake. It certainly wasn’t worth the effort of walking through snake infested and insect infested tropical jungle, then to climb forever to the lookout where only tree tops could be seen (from underneath!). It was soooo hot, and soooo humid. When we returned to the car park, there was a large cane toad sitting in the middle of the footpath.

Back to Batchelor and the caravan park, where we decided to check out the menu of the resort’s bistro. The manager informed us that meals would be very basic for a while as the chef decided at 10.00 am today that he was leaving, immediately. I guess we all have problems, some bigger than others.

The bushfire of yesterday had disappeared this morning, but some more have sprung up during the day – obviously more burning off. It certainly didn’t affect the bird feeding last night, with plenty of red collared lorikeets (bit like rainbow lorikeets), blue faced honeyeaters, galahs, white cockatoos and noisy miners joining in.

Bushfires & Earaches

Friday, 18th June

Left Katherine about 8.30 this morning for the 250 km drive to Batchelor, which is on the edge of the Litchfield National Park. There was a fair bit of traffic on the road, mainly caravans, of course, but we did meet quite a few mining road trains. The road surface was very good although it was a bit windy and hilly. We made a detour through the little town of Pine Creek (that was about it!) and stopped at Adelaide River for a short while. The town was holding an outside market under the lovely shady trees, so we thought it might be interesting to have browse the three stalls. The Devonshire teas were doing a roaring trade with their “calorie free” scones!

We arrived at the small town (population 600) of Batchelor just on noon and were directed onto our site by a very nice man. The Big 4 Resort is a gorgeous park – green, tropical, decent amenities, pool, restaurant, a big slab next to the caravan – and the daily bird feeding will take place next to our caravan. Don’t know whether that will be a good thing or not!!!

After hanging the washing out at 1.30 pm and retrieving it (bone dry) at 2.30 pm, Leslie decided that his aching ear needed medical attention, more than the drops recommended by the chemist. (Someone had to show off at Bitter Springs and swim underwater – 34 degrees is a lovely temperature for bugs to breed!) So it was off to the local medical centre to be seen almost immediately by a lovely nurse practitioner, who declared the ear was chock full of wax and would need syringing. After all the revolting material was washed out (you don’t need to know what it looked like), she decided his ear was inflamed and infected and required some antibiotic drops, which were promptly supplied, along with all the necessaries.

Left the medical clinic to find the sky was covered in dense smoke from a bushfire, with ash falling on us. The man who came around selling dried and frozen mangoes wasn’t sure whether it would be a worry or not as it wasn’t a controlled burn-off. I’m sure someone will tell us if we need to leave in a hurry.

Nearly forgot – it is even hotter than yesterday. Caravan parks are very sleepy places during the afternoon.

Thursday, 17th June

Our final day in Katherine for a few weeks was just as hot as the previous days. A very pleasant 20 degrees at 8.30 am quickly became a bit unpleasant 30 degrees by noon. No one’s complaining, though.

This morning we left early (before it became too hot) for Edith Falls, about 60 kms to the north of Katherine. We commenced the 2.6 km hike at 9.15 am and very soon discovered the most beautiful waterway complete with pandanus and gorgeous reflections. It was after this that the walking poles very quickly came into their own as we started to climb the track to the top of the escarpment. These poles are better than sliced bread – not as good as chocolate, though – provide leverage going up big steps, support going down and stability over rough and uneven ground.

This was definitely serious snake country (and weather!) so a democratic vote of one was held and himself was given point duty (the walking poles would also be good for chasing snakes). At the top of the first big climb we came to a lookout, overlooking the two waterfalls – just beautiful. We were well into our water by this stage, and the flies were well into us! Down the big, rocky hill to the top waterfall pool, passing barefoot European backpackers on the way (obviously unaware of our snake population, let alone the ants) and across the bridge to have another rest beside a pretty blue waterlily. More water and dried mango before tackling the BIG climb up the other side – this was fairly hard going, with the rock steps being rather high. More wonderful views before the track levelled out and then descended back to the car park.

We were very proud (well, one of us, anyway) that we had completed the walk in the recommended time of 2 hours!

Smelling somewhat, we decided to stop at Woolworths on the way back to the caravan – having nothing to eat for lunch probably was a deciding factor, too. The afternoon was spent doing absolutely nothing except reading, and sleeping by some. It was very pleasant sitting in the shade, watching the butterflies and birds and listening to the sprinklers.

Wednesday, 16th June

It is one month since we sailed from Devonport.

Today we visited the Katherine Gorge and did a four hour boat and hiking tour through the first three gorges. Thank goodness we decided on the 9.00 am tour, as with the afternoon temperature in Katherine hovering around 35 degrees, we probably wouldn’t have lasted the distance. The tour group (nearly 60 people) occupied a large flat bottomed punt with a couple of outboard motors and when we went faster than walking pace, the bow wave came over the front and we sloshed about with wet feet. Between the gorges we were forced to walk around the rapids – not exactly hard work as the sandstone rocks seem to have evolved over the years into a substance resembling concrete, which made walking very easy. Our guide pointed out some Aboriginal rock paintings between the first two gorges. The second gorge is the one most photographed and contains the cliff used for the last scene in the film “Jedda.” After transferring to our last boat in the third gorge, we virtually floated across the gorge and landed on a small sandy beach. This is when the 4WD shoes really were needed, as we climbed the small cliff and followed a creek inland to a large pool at the base of a waterfall. Some members of the group had a swim here while the rest of us ate our provided morning tea and watched. A large, dead cane toad was also floating about in the pool.

We returned the same way, passing the sandy beaches used by the freshwater crocodiles for nesting, even being lucky enough to come close to a couple of freshwater crocodiles. There is a large trap in the first gorge for saltwater crocodiles – four have been trapped in the last two years. As the wet season only finished officially two weeks ago (very late this year), the water level is too high for canoes to use the gorges and swimming is not allowed yet, not only because of the water level but because Parks & Wildlife aren’t sure there are no salties.

Lunch was a very expensive, very thin sandwich each at the visitors’ centre – we decided to give the $5.50 Cornettos a miss.

Returning from Katherine Gorge, we stopped at the Katherine Museum for a look and spent nearly half an hour watching a video about the 1998 floods in Katherine. They had quite an interesting display on World War II in the area, as well as the obligatory old farm machinery, etc. The two little grey Fergies had definitely seen better days. Cat was very interested in the seed cleaning machine, first patented in 1972.

Then is was refuel ($131.1 with Woolworths’ discount) and back to the caravan to find the “fongs” and have a rest.

Tuesday, 15th June

Last night we went hunting for cane toads! Only one of us wanted to go and the other had to be "encouraged," and we only stayed out for a couple of minutes until we spotted a baby toad.

This morning we tried extremely hard to go slow with hooking up and leaving, as we only had a 100 km drive to Katherine and couldn't get onto our site until 11.00 am. We arrived at 10.30 and the nice lady allowed us to set up, even though we were early. We are staying at the Big 4 Low Level Caravan Park and it is very nice! Green grass, shady, nice amenities, big sites, pools and a bistro all help, as does the very friendly and helpful reception staff. Surprise, surprise - we are on a site next to David and Lorraine, first met at Wycliffe Well then at Mataranka.

This afternoon we checked out Stockdale Homestead and were lucky enough to arrive just as the daily free tour was starting! A very interesting tour with lots of different trees, including a raintree and a boab, and a couple of tawny frogmouths sitting in a tree. Cat refused to leave the car - he just sat there and shedded!!! It is HOT at Katherine.

A very pleasant happy hour today with Dave and Lorraine, plus another couple who followed us from Mataranka. I have also switched perfumes - Christian Dior has now been replaced by Eau de Aerogard!

Never Never Land

Monday, 14th June

Another glorious day, we even removed one of the blankets from our bed this morning and put it into storage. This morning we lined up with the other tourists to watch the barramundi being fed in the caravan park’s billabong, which was covered in gorgeous pink water lilies. The owner of the park actually got into the water (on a ramp) and explained how the barramundi have to be trained to eat bait fish. He even hand fed them, but was unable to actually catch one in his hands today so we could have a closer look. We were also shown a cane toad, one of the 120+ caught in the park last night. We were encouraged to collect them at night and place in the disposal bin – they are not to be squished and left on the ground!

We then drove to the Mataranka Homestead, the site of the replica homestead of Mrs Aeneous Gunn (or Jeannie), the author of “We of the Never Never.” The original homestead was only a short distance away, but no longer exists. The current structure is an exact replica and was built for the movie. What a tough life the pioneer women lived.

Not far away were the Mataranka Thermal Springs, which flow into the Roper River. These particular springs are very popular and have been tiled to make access easier. Unfortunately, they are also very popular with the local flying foxes. We also drove to the Bitter Thermal Springs, which are quite close to the caravan park, very natural and not as many people.

This afternoon we returned to the Bitter Springs, with our bathers and a couple of noodles hired from the caravan park reception. A very pleasant afternoon was spent floating in the springs (only 34 degrees), under a clear, blue sky, with palm trees and gums overhanging the water, listening to the birds and watching the butterflies and birds flitting about. Also of interest were the ENORMOUS golden orb spiders in their webs strung right across the water. A tough life, but someone has to do it!!! The 30 degree air temperature did feel a bit cold, though, when we left the water.

Daly Waters

Sunday, 13th June

Being Sunday, and the weather actually being warm, we had a little sleep in this morning until 6.45. Even though we left Renner Springs at 8.15 am, we were one of the last to leave.

There was quite a strong tail wind this morning, although the temperature quickly climbed to a very pleasant 27 degrees. Our first stop was at Elliott, and how glad we were that we had changed our plans to stay at this little town. Bought some bread (frozen), changed drivers and continued to Daly Waters.

The road was long and straight, although we still seemed to be going uphill (obviously, as we are going from the bottom of the map to the top!) and the traffic didn’t seem to be as heavy as yesterday. We were at Daly Waters about 11.30 am and decided to continue to Mataranka for our overnight stop. We did stop at Daly Waters for lunch and to inspect the pub – well worth the detour from the highway. It is quite difficult to describe – old, very busy and contains anything and everything. Hundreds of brassieres, underpants, shirts, caps, paper money, old stuff and bits and pieces decorated the bar area and there was a large barbecue area for the famous beef and barra meals each night. There were a number of bower birds sitting on the tables inside the pub (just like seagulls outside Mures) and the nice man showed us a bower that one of them was making under a house verandah over the road.

The Chookman had his “office” opposite the pub – complete with helicopter on the roof, his country and western music being played VERY loudly and all the personally made plaques for sale. Cat found a couple he was rather taken with but not allowed to keep!

We left the large number of tourists at Daly Waters and continued to Mataranka and the Territory Manor Caravan Park. A very pleasant place and we are looking forward to the barramundi feeding tomorrow morning and a soak in the hot springs. We have been requested not to feed the peacocks though.

Today is the first day that we actually feel we have arrived in the tropics - and the amazing thing is that we are actually further north than Cooktown!

Don't forget to read Saturday's blog.