Heading East

Darwin

The Crack Up Sisters Darwin Show

         Well our stay in Darwin is almost over and we have really enjoyed it here, the weather is perfect in the dry season plus we have managed to improve our financial situation which will allow us to enjoy some more tourist attractions on our way back east. We have seen some varied sights in Darwin ,visited the markets, went to the V8 super cars and the Darwin show also joined the casino (free) and had a couple of small wins on the pokies, Marion has been very busy sewing, doing lots of different jobs for other travellers, we have spent a lot of time in "Spotlight" here and I must say that it is the worst organised spotlight store we have been in, we waited a month for some supplies which were meant to be ordered for us but had not been done then when we finally got the order it was the wrong item.

         I have been able to get some serious cycling in on the excellent cycle tracks around Darwin and managed a few runs as well. We also did the jumping croc tour before we left and it is incredible to see a 6m croc jumping over half his body length out of the water.

Our New Pet

         Tues 7^th Aug. And after saying our goodbyes to all the people we have met while in Darwin we were on our way to Litchfield NP to stay at the Banyon Tree caravan park a huge distance of 70k. We did a tour of the termite mounds and the three waterfalls where I had a swim in 2 of the waterholes under the falls, then we had lunch with some people we had met who were staying at the same park as us and while eating I noticed a large huntsman spider on the rafter above  us but all was ok till the spider decided to jump down on our friends back, after some excitement I managed to get the spider out in the open hoping  that a whistling kite bird watching the proceedings in the tree above would enjoy some lunch as well but he wasn’t interested so the spider lived to see another day. We went back to camp and readied ourselves for a free sausage sizzle which is provided by the park owners but we realised it wasn’t free because we were not able to bring our own drinks and they were charging $6 for a can of beer but we had a good time catching up with other travellers who were all heading in different directions the next morning.

          The next day we were on our way back to Katherine and after some scary moments on the road( some caravaner’s seem to have a death wish) we settled in to the Shady Lane tourist park ready for our Katherine Gorge tour the next day.

     We have now completed our tour which was very beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere and commentary from our guide. We met up with some friends we made in Darwin and went out for dinner at the Katherine RSL, the meal was excellent but we had to compete with the pa system selling the obligatory meat raffles. We had a rest day before making our way down to Mataranka a distance of 169k where the hot springs were on our itinery, there are two different springs so the first ones we went to were a natural water course  where you can float down on the current for about 300m then swim back or get out and walk back, we had a great time and they were only 3k from our park so I decided to run back to camp afterwards.

Marion in Bitter Springs

          The next day we did a 8k return walk to the Mataranka Falls then went for a dip in the other springs which are also in a water course but have been set up like a swimming pool, still great though ( average temp in them is 32deg) ,we left Mataranka today 14^th with no idea where we were going to stay for the night but we had to go in to the famous Daly Waters Pub which it seems is the most popular tourist attraction in the area, we had some lunch there then moved on further until it was time to pull over and we are now in a free camp called attack creek ? 500k further on.

        After a comfortable night  we had another 500k day to Camoweal Qld, and stayed in the carvan park behind the local pub which is usually a no no but all was ok, then we had a short and more relaxing day reaching Mount Isa comfortably, we did a couple of touristy things (not a lot here though) .The  car troubles caught up with us again with the ignition switch jamming, I managed to get it out myself but could not fix it so a local locksmith was kind enough to look at it for me (Sat. Morning)  it is working again after another $100 out of pocket but that included 2 new keys, I do recommend this chap (Shaine Hunter Locksmiths), we are now resting today before we move a little further on to Cloncurry tomorrow.