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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Katherine
July 24th 2021
Published: November 8th 2021
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Today we head south along “The Track” to Katherine... well they called it "The Track" when I was here in 1980. I haven’t heard that term used this time, so maybe it’s improved. That wouldn’t be hard. It was, and still is, the only road into and out of Darwin, and in those days you took your life in your hands using it. If you happened to come across a road train on one of its hundreds of sharp narrow bends, well good luck, and no car I drove would have been a match for any of the many water buffalo that seemed to like taking up positions in the middle of the bitumen. I wonder if we’ll survive the day.

First stop is the Adelaide River War Cemetery. This was established in the immediate aftermath of the first Japanese air raid on Darwin in February 1942. The larger section contains the graves of 434 service personnel who lost their lives in and around the Top End in World War 2, as well as a memorial to a further 293 whose remains were never recovered. The adjacent section contains the graves of 64 civilians who lost their lives in non-military war service, including the eight Darwin Post Office staff and the Post Master's daughter who died as a result of a direct hit on the Post Office in the first raid. It's set in beautiful and immaculately maintained lawns and gardens. The relative youth of most of those buried here makes it especially sad.

We parked our car under a tree, and we get back to find a thick coating of leaves on the windscreen. This initiates a discussion about when deciduous trees lose their leaves up here, in this the land where the seasons are seemingly in reverse. Issy says there are no deciduous trees here, and that the leaves just fall off and regenerate continuously. She says it’s just like hair. Hmmm. That’s OK for her to say, but I haven‘t noticed a lot of mine growing back recently. Maybe there’s hope yet.

We stop for a quick bite of lunch at Pine Creek. We’re definitely in the back of beyond - everything’s in the open air and there are crocodile skeletons on prominent display above the corrugated iron bar. There's even a piano. We wonder how often that gets played. The bar tender’s thumb is heavily bandaged and he's struggling to handle the money. He tells us that he had a bit of an accident with a knife in the kitchen yesterday. He says he didn't quite cut the thumb completely off, so he was back at work again first thing this morning. They breed 'em tough out here….

The road does indeed seem be a lot better than I remember it from 1980. There are overtaking lanes, and relatively few bends. We might yet survive. No sooner has this thought left my brain when we see a dead water buffalo on the side of the road. It’s massive. The only explanation I can come up with for there not also being dead car occupants next to it is that the massive beast's assailant must have been even bigger. Maybe it was a road train. There seem to be plenty of those on The Track - massive trucks charging along at breakneck speed towing two or three gigantic wagons.

First impressions of Katherine are that it doesn’t look particularly prosperous, and that it’s much hotter here than it was in Darwin. The hostess of our slightly run-down looking motel warns us not to leave anything valuable in the car. Hmmm. A large laminated sheet in our room lists the costs we'll be up for if we break anything. We might be able to cope with eight dollars for a glass, but $85 for a blanket and $500 for a TV might stretch us. I hope we don’t get hit up for damaging the curtain - we couldn't get it to slide open, so we had to take half of it off its track to get some light into the room. We also note that if we “remove make-up with any linen” we’ll be up for $40 to replace it ... and “don’t drink to (sic) many margerita’s (sic), you might end up in hospital”. Katherine’s starting to feel like a dangerous place.

We go for a quick drive around town and find our way to the local hot springs. It looks like a very popular spot, with a large collection of locals taking a cool (might be warm?) dip to finish off the day. And they really are springs - we can see water bubbling up out of the ground, and then heading off downstream through the bathing pools, which are separated by small waterfalls. It looks very pleasant.

We've both got cravings for pizza so we wander into the local Italian eatery. It’s decked out in World Cup posters, vesper motorbikes and other typically Italian paraphernalia, and Dean Martin’s booming from the speakers. The chef/proprietor, who introduces himself as Gino, serves us our desserts and we get chatting to him. Well it’s more he gets chatting to us ... he puts the desserts down and then promptly pulls up a chair at our table. He sounds about as Italian as Winston Churchill, but quickly explains that whilst his family is Italian he was brought up in Luton before moving to Oz. In common with what we’re hearing everywhere up here, he tells us that he can’t find staff. His wife is doing the waiting tonight, but her day job is principal at the local Catholic school. He says he wouldn't have been able to open if she didn't come in, as their only regular waitress rang in sick.

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12th November 2021
Local Katherine art work

Street art
We are always impressed with the quality of street art around the world. This is a nice one.
16th November 2021
Local Katherine art work

Street art
It is good isn't it. Our home town of Melbourne is renowned for it, if you've ever been here. We also love silo art - it's everywhere in rural areas here; not sure if that's a 'thing' in the States?

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