Katherine 29/08/08

KatherineCar Kilometres: 174,001

Distance Travelled: 574km

Total Distance Travelled: 5750km

This time a slightly longer run of around 550km's with the same low scrub bush interspersed with some areas of tall thin trees and Boab Trees (wide trunk with small spindly branches on top - if you had drawn trees like this at school you would have been told it was wrong!), and craggy rock mounds. We also passed into the Northern Territories (our3rd Australian State) and past the Western Australia quarantine point. Apparently you are not allowed to take any fresh fruit or vegetables in to WA as they are fruit fly and cane toad free, they also have a max speed limit of 130kph which is new as until recently there was no speed limit at all on most of the outback Northern Territory roads.

It was a nice drive and the air con was working hard but keeping us to a reasonable temperature outside.We realised how hot it had got outside when we stopped for some lunch at Timber Creek on the way. Timber creek was essentially a road with a petrol station, souvenir shop and 'supermarket' (!). The lonely Planet states that there are 300 people living in Timber Creek, most of them appeared to be sitting on the grass outside the 'supermarket'.

Jemma went in to the supermarket to pick up some bread and after returning with a fully frozen loaf (which took about 50km's to defrost enough to eat) and stories of locals liberally stealing packets of Hubba Bubba in the queue, we set off again.

About 50 or so km's from Katherine we encountered our first car issue. Jemma was driving at the time and I wound the window down to get a photo and then discovered that it wouldn't go back up. We did the rest of the journey (and the first night in Katherine) with the passenger window fully down and in doing this really realised the benefit of air conditioning and tinted windows!

We arrived at Katherine and stopped at the (not Lonely Planet listed, aren't we brave!) Red Gum Holiday Park. This consisted of a patch of land next to the road with a toilet and shower block. Not the usual palm tree lines spots we were used to but after some initial pitch issues (we got a concrete caravan site so had to pith on the grass next to it, a bit too close to the toilets) we set up ok. We did get a slight shock when we went to plug in the electric cable. Not an electric shock thankfully but when we lifted the lid covering the power point we found that it was already inhabited by a rather large (and a bit angry) spider closely nestled up with a small frog. Now we shared the braveness on this one as I managed to knock the spider out and then Jemma cajoled him onto the end of a tent pole and took him to pastures new. By this I mean the hose pipe about 50m away. We figured that although he was a very big (and very angry by this point) spider he would probably take a while to get back to us from there. We managed to hassle the frog into his relocation plans but didn't see the need to take him very far so left him hanging on the side of the socket pole. He seemed relatively happy there so we left him to it and he was gone by the morning.

The next day we had an early appointment with a Hobbit. Hobbit Auto Electricians that is. He managed to get the window back up but told us that we needed a new switch and that would be easier to sort out in Darwin. It took him about half an hour and cost $38, which I felt was reasonable. So by this point we have a non working window but because of the air con and tint this was far more manageable than a window that was open. Half sorted but OK for now.

After checking out the thermal pools (but not going in), the School of the air (closed), the Railway Museum (closed), the Outback Museum (also closed, apparently Katherine closes at weekends) & checking emails at a gallery with a stroppy live crocodile (actually open)! We had pretty much cleared the 'sights and activities' section of Katherine and were heading back towards the camp site when we saw a bus with 'The Ghan' as the destination.

The Ghan is the name of the railway that runs from Darwin to Adelaide via Alice Springs (taking about 3 days to do it) and after further consultation of the lonely planet we realised that it stopped in Katherine on Saturdays between 12:00 and 4:00. We decided to go to the station and have a look but unfortunately it was parked just outside the station. The bus that we had seen, we decided, must have been taking people on tours or into town, a bit like the cruise ships I suppose only no sea sickness!. Sad as we are, we decided to go back and sit in the shade for a while and come back later to see it leave, which we did.

After the unexpected train based fun, there really wasn't anything left to do in Katherine so we finished off the day talking to random people on the camp site and eating some dinner.One bonus of this washing up socialising was that we mentioned that we were heading up to Darwin in the morning to a couple of families travelling together. When they heard we were heading north and not back into WA they disappeared and came back 2 minutes later with a complete stash of Fruit and vegetables. The explanation being that 'we would only have to throw them away'!

Maybe in Darwin the Noodles will be left alone for a few days?