Renner Springs in our rear vision mirror, we are off to Daly Waters Pub. I have been looking forward to this visit for a long time, I have seen so much about the Pub and I was not disappointed. The Pub is absolutely a must see, it is very well organised for the visitors. We booked in at the Pub for Beef and Barra Dinner and a Powered Campsite for $75 for both of us. By nightfall the camp-sights were full and non powered were also full, the Pub coped with the crowd really well. The bar is full of curio's and historic objects and the news paper cuttings displayed relate the interesting history of the place. The ceiling is covered in bras, undies and other relics of peoples visits, which makes for a colourful display.
Happy hour is also a colourful event, you order a beer and the barmaid tosses you heads or tails and if you win you get your beers free. We did quite well at this, when we realised that Heads were dominating. We were joined for the evening meal by Linda and Pierre from Perth (also having sold their home) and Cheryl and Steve from Geelong Area. The food was excellent, with prime steak and barramundi cooked on the Barbie and quality salads, once again well organised with the steaks cooked to your liking and your name called when ready. Entertainment provided by two different singers, the first singing front label hits from the 60/70 ies and the second is an interesting man called "The Chook Man" who is a quirky chap who performs with a rooster either on a perch beside him or with him on his head. He refers to the rooster as a trainee eagle and remarkably the "eagle" enjoys his performance. Chookman sings a lot of his own songs, relates some bush poetry and humour. In this setting I do not think you could get anyone more appropiate to entertain, all in all we had a great night that we will remember for a long time.
Sadly we packed and after a brief visit to a world war Hanger, with the history of WW2 activities, we headed to Mataranka Springs Homestead a journey of 180 K,s. We met up with Cheryl and Steve at the springs, and after a good soak in the warm water, we enjoyed a happy hour together. We suspected that we would have an interesting night when 5 bus loads of teenagers arrived to camp and there was also live music at the bar and yes they did party, but were not too bad.
I think that the Springs were probably worth another night's stay, but we moved on to Katherine early the next day because we did not have a booking and needed to be there at 10 o'clock to give us a chance of getting a sight. Katherine has quite a few caravan parks but all are full every night and with school holidays in N.T the situation is quite tight.
We were extremely lucky to get a sight at Low Level Big 4 and settled in for a four night stay. The first thing we did was head to a Telstra shop and signed up for a wireless Big Pond connection and get back on the net (really missed the communication and research value of the internet). While shopping we ran across Linda and Pierre and Cheryl and Steve, so we all visited a camping shop and had a little spend up. We all met up at Happy Hour by the pool and enjoyed each others company and the free music, decided as our sight was beside the bar/pool area, we would all meet at our caravan the next night.
Katherine is a community with some problems which became obvious when we visited the local supermarket. Alcohol is available from 2 pm till 4 pm and licence and photo I.D are required to purchase. A limit is placed on how much alcohol is purchased per day and there is a line up waiting to be served. There is a police station in the complex and officers patrol the shopping center constantly. There appear to be many people just hanging around, some obviously affected by alcohol, others just appear "lost". There is a community patrol that operates of an afternoon (aboriginal police) We noticed two paddy wagon type vehicles patrolling the streets. They collect people that are under the influence and take them to a dry out center to be released the next day. I think this is a positive move as it lessens the crime rate and keeps them safe. The week before we arrived a man was murdered for his "IPAD" and a woman killed in a domestic dispute.
I think when in Katherine it would be a good idea to be off the streets after dark and not to camp by yourself.
Thursday the 1st of July we went on a tour of the Katherine Gorge, our guide was a Spanish guy who came to Aus loved the place and stayed. He knew heaps about the Gorge and aboriginal culture and dreamtime legends. The tour involved changing boats at each Gorge, after a short walk, the tour culminated in a walk to a waterfall and croc free pool for a swim at the third Gorge. The waterfall fell in a line of fine droplets in the pool below and looked quite spectacular. We found out later that they closed the pool after our visit because of the green tint that we noticed. There was not enough water flowing to keep the pool fresh. The Gorge was worth a look but we felt that the organisation was very poor and a lot could be done to not keep the customers waiting so long. The freshwater Croc's were huge but very shy and quite happy to take off when approached.
Next night we booked on a tour of the lower Katherine River which left late afternoon from the Homestead Caravan Park down the road. The tour involved spotlighting Croc's from the tour boat, the boat eventually pulling into the bank beside a large Croc where we alighted to have dinner. The large freshwater Croc beside the boat was called "Mouse" and has been part of this tour for many years, the guide rattled a tin bucket and Mouse came up the bank to within 3 feet of the guide and us, she fed the Croc and he wandered back to the water and watched as we enjoyed a steak washed down with red wine. It was a very enjoyable night where we met up with people that we camped with at Daly Pub.
Next morning we packed to head toward Edith Falls..........More soon
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