Finally we have arrived in the Northern Territory. This will be Linda’s first visit to the NT, plus also the place where she’ll be celebrating her 40th birthday.
This was always the halfway point of the trip, to spend her birthday in Darwin. But first, we had a four night visit in Katherine before heading to Darwin.
Saturday, Jul 29th – (Day 114)
Time to hit the road! Today was a 5h30m drive, but with the timezone change we lose 1.5 hours, so it’s effectively a 7 hour trip in total.
Before heading off we hit a rather large snag with Linda’s laptop failing to charge. She was planning on doing some work in the car, so this was a large problem. But it was time to head off, so that was a problem for later.
We ended up leaving around 10am or so and fueled up before setting off on the long drive. About half way we stopped in Timber Creek for more fuel.
Timber Creek was a tiny little town which was basically just a roadhouse and a few houses. No idea why anyone would choose to live here to be honest.
Like our last stop, we arrived after reception had closed. But I think they’d be used to that as the towns are so far away from each other.
Our park was a nice little spot with more green than we’d seen for a while. We quickly set up, then it was off to have tea with Ned and Peta at Barrel & Cruise Bistro.
The restaurant was pretty average, but the company was good. It was great catching up and we were together for a few hours. Then we ended up heading back to the park and conked out after a long day.
Sunday, Jul 30th – (Day 115)
After a rough nights sleep (it’s super hot here!) we didn’t get out of bed until around 9:30am. It was like a sauna in the caravan with the sun shining in.
This morning Adam had a piano lesson, the first for a while given we actually have decent reception for once.
We were both pretty tired from yesterday and couldn’t be stuffed exploring the town today. Plus it was Sunday so not much would have been opened. We’ll do our exploring on Monday and Tuesday.
The afternoon was spent listening to the three footy games; Saints-Hawks, Dees-Tigers and Eagles-Roos. Then we played some online games with Rach and Varun, who joined us for the first time.
We had a break for tea, then played some more games afterwards with Jamie joining us this time.
It was still super hot even when the sun went down and the only way to cool down was to go and have cold showers. We also watched the season finale of The Bear which was a cracker.
Monday, Jul 30th – (Day 116)
Finally it was time to do a day trip. Ned and Peta recommended we check out Edith Falls which was about a 25 minutes drive away, so that was our plan for the day!
Before heading off for our drive, we thought we’d go check out the main street. It was a lot busier than Kununarra, but I wouldn’t say it was better. You could tell there is a bit of crime here as many shops had bars on them and cameras everywhere and people loitering around.
We got ourselves a picnic lunch from Pieface, filled up with some fuel and then hit the road. Turns out it was 50 minutes away, not 25 minutes! These highways are good as you can drive 130km per hour unlike back home.
Edith Falls was incredible. At the bottom is a large big lake area by a waterfall, surrounded by a large rocky mountain. It was that mountain we would spend the next 30-45 minutes climbing 30+ degree weather.
It was certainly warm and a tough workout, but the reward was worth it. The upper lake was like a little magical area with beautiful water and another waterfall. We spent the next few hours here swimming and enjoying the sun and some food.
Then it was time to hike back down. Adam went for another swim in the lower lake, then we hit the road again. On the way back we went through what looked like a huge bushfire. I assume it was controlled burns, but we got pretty damn close to it!
We got some stuff for tea from the Woolworths and then settled back at the park for the night. Adam watched episode 8 of Righteous Gemstones and we caught up on some work, then passed out after a tiring day.
Tuesday, Jul 31st – (Day 117)
Our last day in Katherine before we head off to Darwin. Another quiet day was planned, with our only plans being a visit to the Hot Springs.
We spent the morning at the park doing our usual thing, plus did a load of washing as things were getting dire, before having a bit of lunch.
Then after lunch we headed off to the Hot Springs! Turns out this was a great idea as it was super fun. The water temp is 32 degrees all year round, even in winter.
We spent a good 2+ hours in there swimming around. You can even head up to the upper pools and float all the way down to the bottom, it was great fun. Too bad we weren’t here longer as we probably would have come back.
After that we headed in to Woolworths again to grab some stuff for tea. It was real busy with people everywhere, which felt odd for a Tuesday afternoon. We later learnt that the bottle shops are only open for 6 hours per day and this is the period every man and his dog are rushing to get their grog for the day.
We then went back to the park and noticed it had filled up a bit. Unfortunately all the people around us were, a) really loud, and b) smokers. Pretty annoying.
Between having multiple cold showers to cool down and watching the Righteous Gemstones season finale, it was a reasonably quiet afternoon and night.