Katherine the Never Never

 

Katherine 

We made it to Katherine today easy drive. First stop Caravan fix it place. The leaf springs are done!!! There are vans parked everywhere out the front and all down the street in various states of disrepair. The guy inside (Chris) knows his stuff and can have the parts by Monday, however it is Friday so we have to sit out the weekend. Super detective Adam has noticed amongst the red dirt covering the van that there is a mist of oil sprayed over the back of car and front of Van…….. Bloody Hell what next? There is a Isuzu dealer in Katherine so we head there. We become very familiar with the industrial estate. The dealer tells us it would be 3 weeks!!!! Our car is still under warranty.  I make a call to head office low and behold we can take the car in Monday.

We set up camp down at Katherine Gorge nice spot in the national park. The park is leased to the NT government from the Jawoyn People. The park is known as Nitimiluk. We do a gorge boat cruise the best way to see the gorge. It is beautiful. Mother Nature she soothes my soul.

The trees are full and I mean full of Bats. There are flying foxes and the little red bats in the trees. They hang like Christmas decorations. Nash describes their movements along the branches like Ninja Warrior on the obstacle course. They take flight on dusk and wow what a privilege to watch. Maya describes it as a BATNADO!!!!! They fill the sky. Some can been seen with their babies underneath as they fly by. It is advisable to take a hat as where there are bats there is bat poo!

                                      We walked the escarpment at sunset for an incredible view.

We spent Sunday at Edith falls. It is still part of the park just few kms up the rd. There is a walk up to the top pools which in my opinion is a better spot to swim than down below. It’s an easy walk up with a bit of rock hopping at the end. We swam under the falls and looked for fish great day.

However Monday not so good dropped van at place to be fixed and yet more caravans out the front!!!! The car was dropped at the dealer early morning also.  Off we go no home no car, so on foot to the hot springs in Kathrine they are lovely fresh clean water at about 30 degrees. After about 4 hours we were suitably wrinkly so thought we would walk into town. It’s about a 40 minute walk in the sun hooray. Lunch at the finch café, yum waffles for kids and rice paper rolls for me. (Here is a tip if in Kathrine just about everything closes at 2pm.) The phone call from dealer is don’t have the parts to fix your car!!!!!!!! I wonder why they would have it all day to tell us that. Not happy Jan. We will have to back track to Kathrine in a few days so they can fix it. The van is fixed but not until 6.00pm but they were great not leaving us without a home big shout out to Chris and Jess thanks. And Jess don’t give up on the PHD you have a great insight xo

                                            Jess and Chris from  Caravan's In Katherine

                                                    

We spend the day at Cutta Cutta caves. Cutta Cutta is the Jawoyn Peoples word for many stars. Was a interesting tour with local guide. The caves have a lot of history. One storey was that during war time the soldiers would go inside and let off 303 rifles. The point of this was so they went deaf and would be discharged from service. It also did a lot of damage to the cave system. The aboriginal people did not use the caves as they believed that bad spirits lived inside. When they did enter the caves with scientists later they named it place of many stars ( Cutta Cutta) as the stone inside sparkles.

                                                     

                                                     

We met some great Neighbours at our camp site that had offered to pick us up and drop us off when necessary from the caravan and dealer place thanks Brett and Carolyn see you in SA!!

Feature Creature 

Kermie The frog

And Steve the The red winged Parrot 

Daly Waters over night stop

 Daly waters Pub and caravan park 1/7/2021

This place was packed. Caravans filled the town. $20 unpowered site unfortunately the toilet block on our side of the Rd was not working so a bit of long haul over the road for a wee! You must have dinner at the pub. It is full of memorabilia, there are bras, licenses, business cards, snap shots, all sorts of stuff lining the walls. The high light for me was the guy behind the bar calling out peoples names when their Beef and Barra meal was ready. Classic he had me laughing out loud. It is on some peoples bucket list to do. For us it was a necessary stop on the way to Katherine. There are plenty of free camps up the road which I would probably do next time. However the cold beer was nice after a long drive. 

                                            This is the guy who calls the names and the chef

Feature Creature Skippy the Kangaroo ( well part of him)

Travel Tunes Rd to Lorella

 Hey there, after about 7 hrs on the dirt we cut lose to some tunes. I also forgot to post Igor 

(see below) so cute!

Feature Creature Limmen National Park  

Igor the Bittern  

Lorella Springs NT

 Lorella Springs 25/6/2021 to 1/7/2021

Lorella Springs is a privately owned property that is a mere 1 million acres!!!!! I think it is the biggest land holding in Australia ( but don’t quote me on that).

You are free to travel anywhere on the property and camp where ever you like as long as you sign the register and say when you are going and when you will be back. There is a large campground at homestead site and there are toilets and showers (you have to light a fire to heat the water). There is a bar that serves cold drinks and meals (if book in before 2’oclock )(they have to thaw out produce). There is limited Wi Fi (if you pay) the staff are great and will give you an itinerary if you let them know what you would like to see and do. Because we are a family of 4 the campsite was not that cheap $60 per night, (7 night is free) but if you are on your own it only $20.

The first day we slipped into Territorian lifestyle. We swam at Magical Springs which is a hot spring just in front of the homestead and drank some cold beer and sat round the fire. I found that the guy I sang with at Adel’s Grove. He was playing his guitar at happy hour so I joined him for a few songs. Big shout out to Dave. 

Over the next few days we went to Indiana falls which is a natural water slide. Checked out Musterers Cave that had some lovely rock art and a fantastic view over the property. We had a dip at wild fire gorge ( which we found eventually.) They give you a map which is not to scale and the signage on the property isn’t always where you need it. We had a lazy afternoon at the stockman’s cattleyard waterhole where we saw a Martins water monitor ( big Lizard or Goanna) swim ,catch and eat a red claw crayfish. We spent a day at Nannies retreat which is lovely deep gorge with beautiful clear water to swim in and checked out the swamp on the way home. There are lots of hot and cold springs on the property we spent an afternoon at Nudie hot springs the temp of the water is around 38 degrees don't panic you can wear bathers if you want. There is a nudist camp at Lorella so I told the kids not to go too far on the bikes incase they saw some things they cant unsee😲  Adam and the kids did a couple of sunrise walks. I was happy to stay in bed and look at the photos. The place got busy as Darwin went into a lockdown (Bloody Covid) so everyone who was going there came out bush instead.

We have decided to head for Katherine as we have to get the van fixed properly. There was no internet or phone out there so we are just hoping for the best. Next stop Daly waters for dinner then Katherine

Feature creature: We have missed a few so will play catch up.

Feature  Creatures 
                                                                  Missy the Dingo

                                                           

                                                                      Mr B the Brolga

                                                                     

                                                                     

                                                                     Claudio the spider 

(check out my eyeballs)

Hells Gate to Lorella Springs 'NT here we come'

 Hells Gate to Lorella Springs 25th 6 2021

We left Hells Gate but had a quick detour to see the rock formation that is the original Land mark for Hells gate. Back in the day people would get a police escort to Hells gate and from then on they were on their own to Katherine!!!! Not sure of the significance to the indig people if any. Maya and I got a touch of the sillies and can be seen doing the bus stop on the Savanah Way ( HWY 1). 

Got some info about Rd conditions be careful of the huge bull dust pit just over the border and slow down for the two sharp corners before the river crossing which had matching Prado roll overs at each end. We crossed the border to NT Woo Hoo! Adam and I had a bit of moment as we had put a lot of hard years in at work and building our home to achieve some time off. It is a strange and different time to be travelling as there is a feeling of unrest around the country due to the Covid19 pandemic so border crossings are a little more exciting than usual perhaps.  The landscape changed as we crossed the border, more trees and hills.

I laugh to myself as we travel the National Hwy I wonder if travellers from overseas have been caught out and surprised that it is in fact a dirt rd with river crossings and pits of bull dust. What a shock if you were in the front wheel drive Barina (I am sure someone has done it and been successful). We stopped at Borroloola for some fuel and a $2.50 dim sim. I brought a T-shirt as I left home in such a hurry I forgot to pack one. We reached the turn off for Lorella Springs 30km to go. The shocker plate had snapped again so take it easy was the order of the day. The Rd in was lots of corrugations but not too bad. The sign says “welcome to paradise” and it is a welcome oasis after a hot dusty trail. We set up camp on the banks of a hot spring creek ahhhhhhh.