KALEIDOSCOPIC KATHERINE

Serenity at the Cycad Gardens

The Manifold Colours of the Gorge

A Perfect Place for the Mother Freshwater Crocodile to Lay Her Eggs

What Lies Around the Corner?

Who Lives in the Cave?

Hi there everyone, I know you must all be heartily sick of hearing from me, so I will keep this one short. As we are travelling pretty quickly at the moment, you are getting inundated with these blogs I know. It is probably not going to get any better in the short term as we have 3 stops to make within the next 11 days – so hold on to your hats.
Well what can I tell you about Katherine, it is of course lovely. There is not a huge amount to see here, it is really all about the Gorges. There are numerous boat trips to choose from if you wish to see the gorges that way. We did, and we chose a Breakfast Cruise. Great choice! The only real downside is that you have to make your own way to the mooring at around 6.15 in the morning. This means dodging wallabies all the way along the 30 min drive. It was a little nerve-wracking. When we arrived at the park, we were greeted by the early morning shrieking of the colony of fruit bats that were ‘just hanging around’ the place. It was my first fruit bat encounter – they are cute looking critters, but boy, what a racket – I can see why people get upset when they decide to make themselves at home. They do say that they stink, I have to say I couldn’t really pick up any unpleasant odour, but they may have only just arrived at that place.
Without much ado, we boarded the boat that was to take us up the Gorge. As we were seated large hot platters of food appeared before us. Chipolatas, scrambled eggs, baked eggplant and tomato sliced, baked stuffed capsicums, grilled tomatoes, bacon, mushrooms and baked beans. We were invited to help ourselves to fruit juice, tea, coffee and hot croissants. It was quite nippy, so the food didn’t stay particularly warm, but all in all, it was quite good. The view from the breakfast table was incomparable as we floated slowly into the gorge against the rising sun. Perhaps later in the day the colours on the walls of the gorge would have been more startling, but for us they were muted and beautiful. There is not a lot I can tell you about the cruise, instead I will let the photos do the talking for me. I think I have just about run out of superlatives to describe this country. The cruise took 2 hours and involved some moderate walking as we left one boat and the first gorge behind and moved into the second boat and gorge.
The only jarring note during the trip down the Gorge was the company we kept. A very nice and fit looking older couple shared our table. They had been working at one of the caravan parks in Mataranka for some 12 months. That was fine and admirable, until he mentioned how he used to catch and kill the little wallabies to stop them from eating the grass at the camp. They were not wasted he assured us, as he gave them to the local indigenous people for food. Very wonderful I am sure, for the people who ate the wallabies, but for us, as we had been encouraged to befriend them in one of the opposition parks, it was somewhat devastating. Many of the wallabies at the Homestead where we had stayed had been hand reared and I now fear for them. I know of course, that they are a normal and natural food for the locals, but I didn’t really need to hear that particular story over the breakfast table. I don’t mean to ‘cast nasturtiums’ all over our fellow diners, as they were only doing what they were paid to do, but...................................!
Later that same day, I left TBBITW to have a little lay down and I headed off to explore the beautiful Cycad Gardens just down the road from where we are staying. A unique garden, displaying a myriad of different cycads and succulents, all planted amongst huge boulders on a five acre property. The place was very maze-like and I managed to get myself lost a couple of times. I was encouraged by one of the people who work there “To take advantage of some of the seats provided and sit quietly and absorb the peace and tranquillity of the place” I did just this, and was rewarded by a family of local warblers coming down to investigate me as I rested in a shady little nook. The experience was delightful.
I arrived back in camp just in time to receive a phone call from some very old friends who wanted to catch up for lunch. Just what we needed after a big brekky! Needless to say, we were keen to catch up, so we went back to Cycad Gardens where they have an excellent eatery, and consumed Barra and Chips over an animated ‘catch up’. We agreed to meet again the next night for dinner and went back to the caravan to collapse in a very very full state indeed.
We caught up on our grocery shopping at the local Woollies and were super impressed by the locals. The indigenous population here is wonderful – well dressed, healthy looking and happy. It was lovely to see family groups at the check-out laughing and joking amongst themselves, particularly the dads. They really seem a happy mob up here. As a matter of fact, that pretty much applies to most of the Territorians we have encountered so far – this does seem to be a happy place in which to live. Perhaps it is the apparently relatively stress-less lifestyle here.
We probably didn’t do enough sight-seeing in Katherine, we have reached a stage where we are a little ‘gorged and rocked out’. It sounds very spoilt of us, but we have spoken to many other travellers who also get this way from time to time. On the coast it was the same, after a while, it is the “Not another Bay” syndrome instead.
We did have a BBQ with our old mates the following night, and it was really good to have a catch up like that on the road. It is interesting to note that so many of our fellow retirees are now travelling the country. We have at least another 4 couples who we plan to meet up with in various different spots. The number of vans travelling the roads completely staggers us – we are quite sure that Darwin must be absolutely chock-a-block as that is the intended destination of so many of our ‘silver’ mates.
Well guys, I guess that is not so short after all – I am sorry, but I don’t want to short change any of these wonderful destinations.
Caravan Park – we are staying at the Shady Lane Caravan Park, a member of the Top Tourist Group. We chose it because it was slightly (6ks) out of town and on the way to the Gorge. The park is full of enormous trees, has large grassed sites with concrete pads and the amenities are excellent. Sadly it is not dog friendly tho’. All in all an excellent park, if not a little sterile, and well recommended by the two of us. Steph.

Alice to Mataranka

Pink Panther enjoying an ale!

Great Property For Sale Coplete with Heli-pad

Devil' Marbles

Is he Lost?

An Alien Place!! Ivy's Water Hole.

Hi again, just had to do a little backtracking, as I had not yet told you about the trip from Alice to Mataranka. The trip was eventful and picturesque. I still cannot get over the often encountered attitude that the centre of this country is boring – I am still in awe of the beauty and majesty.
The first stop we made was a brief one to check out the Devil’s Marbles – this is an area just covered in large roundish boulders, most of which seem to be perched precariously on top of each other. There is a very good ‘free-camp’ at the Marbles and as we arrived there early in the morning we could see that many people had taken advantage of the overnight stop. The marbles are spectacular and I have included a photo for you to have a gander at.
That night we stopped at Wycliffe Wells – this place is well known for its UFO interest. The previous owner was fascinated with all things alien and has an alien theme running through the whole camp, from ‘Green Hulk’ replicas to space-craft complete with aliens. Unless you are particularly interested in the subject, TBBITW tells me it is not a good idea to get involved in a discussion on the subject with the ladies there, unless you are prepared to spend quite some time talking!! Due to the theme, the roadhouse is quite an interesting place to stop. In addition to the theme, there are expansive green grassed areas, lots of benches with seats on which to spend a pleasant hour or so, two really large water holes, lots of birds (including some rather sorry looking characters in cages), a small train/railway line and a large separate restaurant. We took a fairly extensive walk around the place and could see that the new owners have quite a lot of hard work to do in order to bring the place up to its full potential – needless to say, in the meantime it is a good spot to stay the night.
We did have a really nice meal there, albeit with some unexpected entertainment thrown in. As we had seated ourselves at the table, we heard a slight commotion at the front door of the licensed premises. Lots of high pitched giggling and chortling. “Ah!” the owner cried, “Every publican’s favourite customer!” – the favourite customer then sidled into view with a very wobbly gait, an aboriginal lady by the name of Ivy. It appeared that mine host was in the habit of providing Ivy with a nightly tinny and Ivy had appeared to claim her daily prize. Brandishing a plastic card she offered to leave the card for surety with the landlord. He obviously knew that the card was of little value and declined her gracious offer. She was however, hell-bent on giving him the card and was assuring him, that it would be good, come Tuesday. Understandably the host was sceptical on this point as it actually was Tuesday night! Ivy was not to be deterred however and I think I may have seen that card finally disappear across the counter at some stage. Having acquired her Tinny, Ivy became incredibly grateful and rushed up to mine host and threw her skinny arms around him in blissful embrace – this was obviously not a new experience to our erstwhile host. He braced himself for the onslaught and took it all in quite good grace, Ivy all the while professing her love for our mate. The good humour did falter just a little as Ivy seemed intent on placing a very amorous kiss on his very, by now, elusive lips – “Ivy, please, please don’t kiss me!” he begged plaintively. Ivy by now had become a little distracted and proclaimed in very positive tones that it was her birthday. “Ivy, it is not your birthday” he responded, “Yes, yes, yes it is!” was the adamant reply – Ivy obviously pushing for a better birthday pressie than just one tinny. We were very impressed by the wonderful attitude of both parties who obviously did hold each other in some warm regard. At this time, a couple wandered into the cafe to order a meal. They were Silver Nomads and I think the Silver was spelled with a capital S in this instance. The lady, a diminutive little soul, was saucer-eyed at the carrying on in the bar and to make her feel a little more comfortable TBBITW invited them to join us for a meal. They accepted with alacrity. I must make a confession here, my wonderful and considerate fellow, does quite frequently invite people to join us for a meal – I have to say I am not always thrilled. My darling man doesn’t wait to find out what sort of people they are and is I have to say, not always a good judge. It’s not that these people are in any way disreputable, it is me that is disreputable, and these ladies, most of whom never seem to have seen the workplace and who have stayed at home on the farm baking and raising wonderful children are just so prim and proper. The end result is as the old saying goes “they wouldn’t say shit for sugar” and I am uncomfortable feeling very gauche indeed in front of our new-found friends. On the up side tho, we do meet some wonderful people this way and certainly, this particular evening would not have been nearly so entertaining, had we not had their company.
This particular lady was indeed one of the aforesaid prim types and as such, I could see, quite shocked by the carrying on of Ivy, who really was a lovely if somewhat inebriated lady. Our dinner guests took a seat at the table and the husband asked his wife if she would like a drink, she decided (with some eagerness I thought) that she would have a glass of Chardonnay. Hubby duly went off to fetch her drink and came back at some length with a bottle – it appeared they didn’t sell wine by the glass. I must say, she didn’t look too upset at this news. All was not well however, as when hubby went to pour the wine, it was discovered that the bottle still held a cork. Hubby did the obvious and took the bottle back to the bar to be opened – problem!! They did not have a good corkscrew. Yes, really – no decent corkscrew – they did attempt to open the bottle and managed to push the cork down into the bottle a little, but not far enough to enable the wine to flow. I did not at any time hear any offer to refund the money, and come to think of it, the diminutive lady opposite me, did not at any time suggest that they return the bottle – I think she may have been thirsty!! Hubby was by now re-seated at the table with the problem bottle, still trying to dislodge the stubborn cork, when from the kitchen rushed the ‘Chinese Cook’ – yes, there really was a Chinese Cook – a very large muscular fellow he was as well. He moved purposefully towards the table brandishing in his hand a plastic chop-stick, before anyone really realised what he had in mind, he very manfully grabbed the offending bottle from hubby’s hand and plunged the chop-stick down into the bottle with all his considerable might..................Well, the resultant spout of wine that shot upwards with equal might was spectacular indeed – much of the wine in the bottle had ended up all over, the up until now, patient hubby! Needless to say, his patience did seem to be in danger of running out at this stage. Not happy at all chaps. Never the less, once the steam stopped coming from the top of his head, he and his wife settled down to enjoy what was left of their bottle and their meal. I must say too, in defence of that Chinese Cook, the meal was indeed excellent. We both had Barra and Chips, the meal that has replaced the Schnitzels of SA. It seems that Barra and Chips is the dish of the NT. We are not complaining!
During the night, we did hear Ivy and her mates celebrating around the most distance water hole, but the noise was distant and we did not feel threatened in any way. All in all, we would recommend Wycliffe Wells as a good place to break over night. There is only one caravan park there and it offers both power and water.
From Wycliffe Wells we took a really long drive (for us) and headed on to Daly Waters. We did intend to stay at the famous Daly Waters pub, but we just didn’t have the stamina to reach quite that far that night. We had been told that to obtain a powered site you need to be there by around lunch time, we would have arrived at 4.30 so we just didn’t bother. We were both very tired that night too, and felt that the place would have been wasted on us. Instead we stayed at Highway One at Daly Waters. This was a nice quiet little camp, behind the motel there. The owner is obviously trying to increase his quota of travellers and offers a free beer and wine on arrival. It says something about how tired we were that night as we didn’t even bother to ‘cash in’ our vouchers, preferring instead to drape ourselves heavily over our outdoor chairs and listlessly watch the cow in the paddock opposite. We didn’t waste the vouchers however, and passed them on to another fella who was staying a little longer. As we watched the cow, we had our first glimpse of the pretty little wallabies who live in this region. They all came in at sundown to share the grass with the bovine creature who grazes there. The place also boasted a couple of horses and some pigs (who could be smelled from time to time as the wind wafted from their sty). Loads of Apostle Birds flitted around in the trees which were plentiful in the park. The park offered good powered sites with water and is, once again, a good overnight stop.
We only had a short distance to travel the next day so we took our time packing up in the morning. We headed on to Daly Waters Pub, planning to stop there for the day and enjoy the night’s entertainment, but Mataranka beckoned and we just couldn’t see what we would do with ourselves there for a whole day. We did have a good look around tho’ and could easily see what a great night it would be there. The place is character plus, and incorporates a huge semi outdoor area where they have the “beef and barra” BBQ and nightly entertainment. The entertainment consists of “The Chook Man” a constant resident, and any passing performers, of which we are told, there are many and varied. The Chook Man is a comedian who runs his banter and singing with his faithful hen on his head! When we were there, he was out the front of his humpy selling ‘stuff’. His home really was just a humpy, and on its roof was an ancient helicopter. Next to the humpy was an equally ancient bus. He had a “For Sale” sign up and claimed that the place had its own Helipad and was close to both hotel and transport. Obviously a real character.
We ruefully left Daly Waters Pub and moved on to Larrimah where they have the Pink Panther Pub – very similar establishment again and chocker block full of character (and characters). The Pink Panther boasts a free Zoo. We took time out to have a good wander around and the cages there held mainly birds, all in very good health and in huge enclosures. They also had a couple of wallabies and some rather large looking pythons. Down the back was a crock and a large cage of rats. I was advised not to become attached to the rats as their sole purpose in life was to sustain the snakes! Hmm. I stopped to ask a pretty Rainbow Lorikeet in a smaller cage right next to the saloon why he was so special to have his cage there, I was overheard by a lady with a weathered, leather face, inevitable ciggie dangling from thin lips and was shortly advised that he was there “cause he was bloody special, that’s why” ...........I accepted this very gracious advice and moved right along.
From Larrimah we took a very leisurely drive into Mataranka and you already know what a fantastic place we found that to be. Steph.

Sorry! That just proves I should never do these things from memory, Wycliffe Wells is actually before the Devil's Marbles - oops!!