Katherine, and more importantly sunshine and warmth!

I haven’t written a story about our time in Glen Helen (West MacDonnell Ranges) or Alice Springs. Mainly because I spent most of it sick, but also because it was so bitterly cold and wet that we really didn’t do a lot of note. I believe Jim has written something about all this, so I’ll leave it up to him to tell the story.

After Alice Springs, we had a couple of big driving days ahead of us. Despite being on a driving holiday, we try not to do too many big days in the car. Mainly because they’re boring, but also because if you’re driving a long way, chances are you are missing something that you should be stopping to see. But we needed to get further north to do a few things before meeting up with our Darwin visitor, so the plan was to knock of 1,200km in two days, to get to Katherine.

I think I’ve mentioned before that we listen to audiobooks in the car to pass the time. On these two trips we were listening to The Magician by Raymond Feist and with “just” 10 hours to go in the story we were getting to the pointy end of it which really did help the hours go by.

On the first leg, we stopped at Devils Marbles for lunch, but really just drove non-stop to our overnight stay at Banka Banka. This is an old cattle station (currently only has 70 head) which is attracting a full house of campers each night in the campground and bar. There was a food truck on site doing Indian curries so of course we couldn’t turn that down. Unfortunately Jim agreed to spicy and it was “Indian spicy” rather than “bearable spicy” so I did my best, but didn’t really get to enjoy it as much as I’d hoped.

We barely saw the kids in the few hours that we were there as they ran into a couple of mates from a previous spot and hung out with them all evening. Which was great because it meant it was warm enough to be outside. The first time in a very long time that we’d sat outside in the evening just in a t-shirt and shorts – so nice to be warmer.

We were up early the next morning and packed up for part two of the drive. Again, we just pushed on through with a quick refuelling stop in Tennant Creek on the way. In Katherine we had booked to stay on a farm stay, about 15 minutes out of town so we turned up there and got settled in. They do a feeding each day and it’s pretty popular – I would guess around 40-50 people feeding the cows, goats, donkeys and water buffalo, then holding the rabbits, chickens, snakes and baby crocodiles too.

The main attraction in Katherine is of course Katherine Gorge. We’d managed to find a dog sitter for a couple of days so we could go out and do the national park together. On the first trip out we went to Edith Falls. Because I was still a bit sick, we took it easy and just did the short walk (about 2-3km) up to the top falls, had a swim there, then came down to the bottom falls for another swim. We’re still getting used to the idea of crocodiles. At the bottom pool it said “low risk”. Jim said “well they can’t say “no risk” can they?” which didn’t really help me decide in my head what the actual level of risk was. The top ones seemed pretty good to me – sheer cliffs which would make it trick for a croc to get in and out I would think. The bottom one, I’m not so sure…but we hoped in at the spot where it seemed like it would be really hard for a croc to get in and out. No idea if that’s the way we should be assessing it or not!

After that we did a quick spin past Katherine Hot Springs. We all had a swim, but it was a bit crowded for my liking, and even though it was “warm” rather than “hot” I didn’t really see the point in visiting hot springs when it was 33 degrees in the outside world.

The next day we went the other direction in the national park to Katherine Gorge. We had tried to get on a boat cruise, but they were fully booked. Jim suggested kayaks but I vetoed that (definitely stretching my level of comfort in croc infested waters there). So walking it was, and Jim had spoken to someone in the information centre who’d suggested a particular walk that was about 6km to a swimming area then 6km back. The gorge itself is spectacular, but a lot of the walk tracks inland from it so you only get to see it in spots. The first swimming spot we were aiming for turned out to be a lookout, and the second was on the water but there was a big “no swimming, crocs here” sign so that was a no go. So it ended up being quite a long walk in the heat without the promise of a cooling swim. We all managed it though, even though I was still a bit sick and the kids were a bit under the weather too.

Another reason for visiting Katherine was to catch up with an old soccer friend Selena, and to meet her husband Corey and little girl Rae Rae. Selena is doing some great things in her work as a minister in the Northern Territory government and it was great to see her after far too many years (neither of us could actually remember how many).

But the best part was that we were finally warm and dry after so long of being cold and wet. While we were there Jim packed up the 0 degree-rated sleeping bags the kids were using, our coats, beanies, gloves and thermals, and the 12v electric blanket. I really hope we don’t need any of them again on this trip!

Next stop is just up the road 3.5 hours to Bark Hut Inn, which is just outside Kakadu National Park. Now that I’m almost back to full health I’m really looking forward to this next little bit of the adventure around Kakadu and Darwin. More on that to come!