The Pebbles to Katherine

We left the Pebbles and headed for our next destination – Daly Waters. It is an amazing place – 4 kms off the highway, but everyone heads in there for a feed of Barra or Beef, happy hour and a bit of musical entertainment.. There is also a small swimming pool, which we used a few times.

We were put up the back on a dust bowl, and fairly close to our neighbour. We set up our toilet tent out the back, as usual, and got the generator out to charge up a few things and run the washing machine.

Another van was put in behind us, and as they put up their awning and put their chairs out, they were facing our dunny and listening to our generator noise, and, to top it all off, the washing machine spewing its water onto the ground!! (Generators were permitted there, so we weren’t actually breaking any rules)

They weren’t all that friendly to start with; anyway, they didn’t like us, so they moved camp!

We stayed 3 nights and really enjoyed it. We had drinks with our back neighbours on the first night. They were enjoying life on the road and travelling with their sick dog. We got talking and heard that the woman was battling cancer along with her dog. After we left we thought it might be a toss up who was going to go first!  She was vey positive though.

We also enjoyed happy hour with our Tasmanian friends, Mary and Grady from up the road from us at home the next night. For a person who doesn’t drink beer much, I really enjoyed the ones I had at the Pub there.

 They had upgraded the floor since we were there last. It was blue metal chips last time, now it had tiles. They weren't very good though - probably sitting on top of the old chips as I kept tripping on them! (I know what people would be thinking, but I hadn't had too many beers!) Occupational Health and Safety wouldn't have approved!

The musical entertainment wasn’t as good as it was last time we were there, but we had a bit of fun just the same.

Our next stop was to be Mataranka, which is the setting of We of The Never Never by Jeannie Gunn. We drove in to a place called Bitter Springs first and went for a walk around the area. We got changed into our bathers and went for a dip. The water was crystal clear and warm! It was magic.

We then drove into the Mataranka springs and had a walk around there, and decided to keep going towards Katherine. We had one overnight road stop with heaps of other caravans.

We arrived quite early into Katherine. They cater quite well for caravans and there is a huge shady parking area for us, so we set up for the day and caught up with emails and stuff, and headed out of town for a free camp spot for the night.

We caught up with people we met at our previous spot, and all had a drink together sitting around a big picnic table. There were some other Tasmanians there, 2 from Queenstown and 2 from near Oatlands, as well as a Pommie from Sydney and a young girl from Holland.

 Randall pulled out the pipes and had a play, which was much appreciated by all.

 The next day we headed into the Katherine Gorge for another look. We didn’t do the cruise as we had done it last time, but we did do the walk up the gorge a bit then in a circuit back to the Information Centre.

We took some photos at the Lookout, and then turned to head off down the track.

 It was hot and a clear blue sky, but I had a drink before we left. A guide called out to us to ask us if we had water, as it was very hot. Randall brushed her off –“Don’t worry ducks, I ‘m a 59-year-old camel – I don’t need water!” And he is!! He can go all day without water – not me though; I just fuel up before we go as I know there’ll be no stopping with Randall!

We decided that we needed to stop at one place for a while, so we checked into a caravan park at Katherine for a few days, and had a really good relax – swimming in the pool and at the warm springs at the back of the park and reading.

There must be some Army happenings around here at the moment, as we can hear the roar of aircraft overhead and a lot of movement of army vehicles.