Day 31 - Katherine - Adelaide River

Good morning Katherine!

A very pretty pink sky this morning before the sun peeked over the trees.  We had packed up last night outside so it was an easy morning really although given we'd almost run out of drinking water we opted to stop off at the local Woolies and pick up another 10 litre supply before heading off.  Although we've had a water supply at many of the places we've camped over night and for extended periods, we prefer to drink the bottled water and most definitely give Kitty bottled.  Some of the water isn't great, some is bore water and not ideal for drinking.  We use it for showers, washing up etc but not for drinking.

On the way out of town, Shane snapped a photo of the top of the railway bridge we had been beneath a couple of days ago.

The road to Adelaide River is probably one of the roughest we've encountered on the highway and certainly more hills and curves than we've had for some time.  Thankfully there are also more passing lanes as well but the idiots passing on double lines were plentiful making sections of the road a little scary.

We broke the trip at Pine Creek which is something of a legendary spot at our house.  On our last trip we stopped here for lunch at Mayse's Cafe and had a roast pork roll including gravy and pork crackle.  I have to say it was pretty amazing.  Shane has talked to people for the past 3 years about those pork rolls and was almost salivating as we turned off the highway into the township.  On arriving at the cafe we were informed that there was no pork roast today (you should have been here yesterday she says!!!!) but there was roast beef.  I thought Shane was going to cry!  I might have joined him but I'm happy to report that the roast beef rolls with a nice thick rich gravy were not a huge disappointment.  After telling the lady at the cafe the story and saying I might need to call ahead to see which day was roast pork day - as we ate the rolls outside she came out and dropped a business card on the table.  No excuse now I guess.

Back onto the highway with a mixture of beautiful and somewhat unusual scenery saw us arrive at Adelaide River Showground a little after lunch.  It's such a treat to have nice green grass and not have to worry about more red dirt for a little while.

We've had some pretty warm days recently and I think it takes it's toll on you for driving in particular, but also setting everything up.  It is one of the reasons we decide to stay at Adelaide River before getting to Darwin.  It makes for a short trip (92km) into Darwin which means you aren't arriving and setting up at lunch time in the worst heat of the day.  We enjoyed an evening chatting until the sun went down and the mosquitoes came out then it was time to pack up the outside gear and retreat to the van.

205 km

Total - 5,253 km

Top today 33°c - expecting overnight 13°c

Day 30 - Katherine

Good morning Katherine!

In a strange "only me" way I was really looking forward to today.  The boys were keen to head out to Katherine Gorge amongst other locations and given no dogs are allowed, I opted to stay at the van with Kitty.  I was looking forward to a day where I could sit and read and relax.  Mostly that happened, but it's amazing how much time it can take to do the daily chores in our little home.

Shane and Alan headed off around 11.00am and by the time I washed the dishes and put them away, cleaned the stove, mopped out the bathroom, made the bed, swept and mopped the floor, made chocolate mousse and whipped some cream for dessert for tonight's dinner and generally tidied up inside and out it was almost 1.00pm.  After making lunch and taking Miss Kitty for a walk, I finally got to sit down to read my book at about 2.00pm.  Not quite the relaxing day I had in mind.....

Meanwhile the tourists had a good day covering about 140kms in and around Katherine and the Gorge area (in the process cracking the 5,000km mark of our trip) returning back to camp a little after 4.00pm.  I opted to cook dinner for everyone, including meatloaf, baked hasselback potatoes, steamed vegetables and gravy.  We've had some lovely evenings, the three of us chatting about all matter of things from dog showing to travel and to the people we've met and know.  We couldn't let this evening go by without sharing with Alan the Rules of Life and Travel according to Shane & Maree:

• Rule 1 - People are Stupid!  

         I highly doubt this needs any explanation and we've seen some pretty bloody stupid people on this trip for sure..

• Rule 2 - Don't Burn the Pancakes!

          Occasionally Shane cooks Pancakes for breakfast at home.  If I am sitting at the computer with my back to the kitchen when he does, I'll often hear that the electric frypan is up too high and the chant comes "don't burn the Pancakes!"  We haven't had pancakes on this trip yet - but when we do.......

• Rule 3 - Don't Take Scenic Drives

          On our last long trip away we spotted a scenic drive on the way to Adelaide River and decided to turn down there as a bit of a scenic detour.  What a disaster that was.  It was miles longer, a terrible narrow one lane road full of grumpy locals very unhappy about a Victorian tourist towing a 19ft caravan down their local road (at least that was the impression we got) and frankly the road was no more scenic than the highway.  We've never taken one since with the van on - lesson learned.

• Rule 4 - Don't Be a Water Buffalo

          We've all seen that video of the Water Buffalo that come down to the river to drink and next thing whammo!!!!  A giant crocodile jumps out of the water, grabs the buffalo by the nose and drags him in.  Enough said!

• Rule 5 - Photo - no parking / Parking - no photo

          It never ceases to amaze me - there'll be an amazing thing/scene to take a photo of and not a place within cooee to park (look that one up my American friends.....).  And you can guarantee if there is a place to park there's not a damn thing to take a photo of.  Mark my words!

• Rule 6 - Beware of Vanpires

          We've already covered Vanpires earlier in the blog....... they live amongst us people!

• Rule 7 - Always strive for Serenery

          It's that moment when you come up over a hill and the beauty in front of you just takes your breath away and at that moment it is absolutely all you think of.  If only every moment in life could be so full of joy.

In the meantime, here are a few photos courtesy of Shane from the outing.

And then our "bedtime alarm" went off.  It starts with someone sitting at the foot of the bed, continues to her standing at the end of the bed and finally there is the glare when it takes too long to deliver the nightime cookie.  Who's Queen?

141 km

Total - 5,048 km

Top today 33°c - expecting overnight 13°c

Day 29 - Katherine

Good morning Katherine!

Apparently I missed the real colour of this morning's sunrise, but it was still pretty as it peeked up over the trees.  No rush this morning as we have to wait for Princess Kitty to wake up before she has her bath.  Well that was the excuse anyway to have an easy morning, a nice hot cup of tea and try to catch up on the blog.  I'm still not over losing a whole day to the computer gremlins having written a whole blog post which didn't save and having to completely re-do it!

After a big sleep in - that was Kitty of course not us - it was into the bath for Miss K.  The new system is working pretty well and a vast improvement on the first bath which almost killed me, my knees and my back.  Shane snapped the first photo through the bathroom window (thankfully no police ended up being called out for a strange man photographing people through their bathroom window) and the other photo over my shoulder.  We have a clean dog and the rest of the caravan didn't end up covered in water in the process - win win!

After lunch we invited Alan along and took a drive around Katherine and surrounds.  One of the art galleries specialising in aboriginal art, on the outskirts of Katherine, was interesting for a look but the prices of the art were very high and as much as I love aboriginal art, I am always uncomfortable about where most of the money goes from some of these types of establishments.  I am almost certain it's not to the artist where it should be.  Here are a few of the sights we took in along the way.  I've always loved this sign - to me it's one of the more creative "fire friendly" signs in the Northern Territory.

 

These photos are from an area around a boat ramp at the river just on the edge of town.

I just can't imagine flooding to this level but I imagine there is a reason why the markers are there.

There was entertainment at the camp kitchen tonight but we opted to stay at the van, listen to the music at a distance and relax.  Another beautiful night to sit outside and enjoy the peaceful surroundings.

71 km

Total - 4,907 km

Top today 33°c - expecting overnight 13°c

Day 28 - Mataranka Homestead - Katherine

Good morning Mataranka Homestead!

Once again the peacock procession went by.  Obviously a morning ritual.

After a fairly relaxed morning organising everything we were soon back on the road and heading toward Katherine with Winnie leading the charge.

Our arrival in Katherine there was a mountain of washing to do which kept me busy well into the afternoon.  Still washing red dirt out of the sheets and doona covers I use for under the awning in an effort to try to keep as much red dirt out of Kitty as possible - this is what the bathroom floor looked like by the time I had finished as the dirty water drained out of Teresa Twintub.

Shane and Alan headed into Katherine to top up on supplies while I continued to work my way though washing - our bed sheets, doona cover, 3 loads of clothes, a dog bed, 3 floor coverings and some towels amounted to a grand total of 11 loads.  The good thing was with 31 degrees and a good strong breeze they were all dry in no time.

The important thing for the evening was to get Shane set up to watch his Melbourne Storm NRL match, which we both watched and then spent yet another gorgeous evening watching the world go by from our little patch of paradise.

125 km

Total - 4,836 km

Top today 31°c - expecting overnight 13°c

Day 27 - Mataranka Homestead

Good morning Mataranka Homestead!

An early morning inquisitive visitor popped in to say hello this morning, and as I came out of the van to take a photo I could see there were actually about 5 of them wandering around the park to see what they could pick up from the campers leftovers. After yesterday's scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie - I didn't trust my luck at having more of these at my doorstep.

Shane is very happy now - we finally have Crocodile warning signs.  He says it now officially feels like we are in the Northern Territory!

We popped in to visit Alan at his site across the other side of the camp and look over his lovely "Winnie" the Winnebago.  I could definitely live in her!  It was a similar design to one we had liked at Jayco in Geelong when we took "Isabella" to be serviced before we left.  I guess, money permitting, should we ever be in a position to not physically be able to do caravanning at some point then a "Winnie" would be perfect to continue to travel.  Having had caravans all my life I find the convenience of having a car when you reach your destination works better for us as we are always going off taking photos but I can also see the advantages to not having to connect and disconnect every day.

The three of us then went for a 1.2km walk down one of the local tracks to "Stevie's Hole" a waterhole connected to the river through a vast plantation of giant palm trees and bushland.

After lunch and picking up a few basic supplies from Mataranka township, we took another shorter track to the river.  I was amazed to find that someone had lit a campfire down by the river that was still smouldering when we got there, obviously having not been put out properly from the night before.  That coupled with various items of rubbish including drink bottles and chip packets just really continues to reinforce my opinion of how stupid and disrespectful some people are.  The last time we were at this location we came across a crocodile trap - we were less than keen to continue exploring that part of the area at the time.  The trap this year was no longer set up so we ventured along the river bank a little to take some photos.

Shane and I wandered back over to the restaurant to take some photos.  I'm having a chuckle here as I said to Shane I wonder how long it will be before the photos get used to promote the band.  Sure enough less than 12 hours later they were up on Facebook with absolutely no credit to the photographer....... for the second time in 3 years.  We headed back to camp and sat outside until about 9.00pm as it was such a beautiful night yet again, and it was then time to start packing up outside ready for our next leg of the journey tomorrow.

14 km

Total - 4,725 km

Top today 31°c - expecting overnight 12°c