To 19-Jun-06 (Mataranka NT to Darwin NT)

KATHERINE NT (Shady Lane Tourist Park)
What a place . . . . and it had a supermarket . . . . wooohhoooo! We dropped in to the visitor centre and the supermarket and saw quite a few people we’d met on the track previously (everyone seems to do the same thing on arriving in Katherine). We also saw Cutta Cutta Caves (much warmer & drier caves than Jenolan) and the Ghan (which stopped at Katherine railway station for almost 5 hours. It’s nearly 1k long & a passenger proudly showed us his cabin – most salubrious).



We enjoyed an awesome Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge cruise – it is an amazing place. Rhonda also made friends with a family of blue-faced honeyeaters and some apostle birds as we ate lunch beside the river.

We stopped in at Edith Falls on the way to Kakadu, another beautiful spot. Some hardy people were swimming in the big lake there – we managed to resist the urge (the freezing water helped us here!).


KAKADU NT (Mardugal Campsite, Cooinda)
A good campsite where wallabies scampered away as we drove onto our spot (no 240v power so very economical). Spencer even managed to wet a line and scored 2 good barramundi strikes – sadly, they spat the hook out once they tasted it (only single hook lures are permitted in Kakadu). He enjoyed it though. We also discovered that solar hot water at night becomes solar cold water by morning (bbbrrrrrrr) when there is no power for a booster.



We managed to get up in time to join the 6:45am Yellow Water cruise at Cooinda – it was spectacular and very special to be out there on the water amongst the birds and crocs at dawn as they were waking up. We took this photo as we drifted amongst flooded paper bark trees. What an amazing (am running out of superlatives) array of birdlife lives here.







The road to Jim Jim Falls and Twin Falls was closed and so we lashed out and took a small fixed-wing flight over them. The pilot was very skilful although he looked too young to be flying a plane all by himself. He maneuvered the plane so each passenger had a good view of the falls and a smooth ride too. The waterfall drop is higher than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This Kakadu sure is a big, beautiful place!




On the way to Bowali Visitor Centre near Jabiru, we visited Mirrai Lookout (very steep climb) and Nourlangie Rock (great rock art and views). We thoroughly enjoyed the visitor centre too – it has been very well done and the video presentation is excellent.


KAKADU NT (Merl Campsite, Ubirr)
Another economical campsite. Evidence of Cyclone Monica’s visit was everywhere with many naked or horizontal trees and plenty of debris around.

Ubirr is a fascinating place with aboriginal rock paintings and a spectacular vantage point looking out over the Kakadu wetlands. We climbed up onto the huge rock lookout where we joined hundreds of other people to take in the amazing sunset. It was very beautiful and we now have lots more sunset photos (this is one of them).





ANNABURROO NT (Bark Hut Inn)
An overnight stop here on the way back to Darwin. Spencer even managed to find an hour or so to chase barramundi (again without success).

The park provided some late evening entertainment with a grass burn-off just after 9:30pm. The fire was right beside the van park with the wind blowing away from us. There were some very worried European tourists next to us until the flames died down. In the NT, they follow a ‘patchwork back-burning’ approach during the cooler months (May-July) which encourages new growth and animals to come and feed on the new grass. It also helps to prevent bad fires during the hotter months.


We’ll tell you about our Darwin stay in the next fortnightly update and, in the meantime, take care of yourselves and each other.


God bless,




Spencer & Rhonda


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