Do Crocodiles Have Human Shaped Lilo’s?

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DAY 263

It was still quite dark, there was absolute silence outside the air circulating the tent was nice and cool, very refreshing after a lot of the humidity we have recently had. Suddenly the sound of the silence is broken, the Kookaburra’s have woken up and are all chatting to each other, soon they go quiet and the gentle twittering of other birds can be heard, if you listen hard you can pick out the individual tweets, but I could not tell you which birds they belong to.

Dawn has well and truly broken, light is now flooding across the Low Level Reserve and breaking through our mosquito nets. Andy is soon out of bed, it is just after 7.00, the kettle is on and I get a cup of tea in bed.

By 8.00 I have surfaced, Andy is tippy tappying on the laptop outside, it is a beautiful morning, and we can see that a number of caravans have pulled out already leaving lots of vacant sites. We should be moving to one of the powered sites today, but we discuss it and decide to stay put. There is no difficulty moving it is purely that once we are all set up there is no point in moving to a different spot for just one night. We can manage for a while without having power. We have been speaking to a chap this morning who has a caravan, he is moving to a powered site, I do think it is easier as they have nothing to pack away and they did not unhitch when they pulled in last night.

We had great hopes of a productive day today, but neither of us is brimming with energy this morning, we were planning on either a boat trip in Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk National Park) or perhaps hiring a canoe to paddle up to the gorges. We decided to drive up and have a look; we have been warned that if you don’t book anything before you go up there that there may be no availability, and you cannot see much but the river, we said we would take our chances.

I cooked up pancakes and the last of the bacon for breakfast and we were soon out and about driving through Katherine and the 30k’s up to the National Park Information Centre. It is another hot day, we are chatting on the way up, and wonder if crocodiles have human shaped lilo’s, as humans sometimes have crocodile shaped lilo’s we figure out that they probably do but sometimes (hopefully very rare) they are real.

by the time we get there I don’t really feel like doing much, we have a look around the display in the centre then wander out to the balcony at the back, we can see a Blue Winged Kookaburra, this Kookaburra is posing for a lady taking its picture, but it is also keeping a keen eye on the ground looking for potential food.

We chat to this lady for a while, she is from Melbourne visiting a friend, she tells us how much she loves Darwin and wished she had visited sooner, she would like to live up here in the Northern Territory but does not want to leave her grown up children down in Melbourne.

Wandering around Andy suddenly spies a snake it is a greyish colour, sadly I did not see it but tried very hard to spy it in the direction that it went, we think we must have disturbed it basking so it shot off into the bush for cover.


We buy ourselves an ice lolly and find that the girl behind the counter is in fact Welsh, she comes from Cardiff and is out backpacking for a year, but she is trying to extend her visa for another years working holiday.

We wander down to the rivers edge to investigate the canoes, but we did not quite make it when we got chatting to a couple from Sydney, Lorraine & Terry, they are both retired and have decided to hook up the caravan for a 6 month journey. Terry was telling us about a pop top caravan that he bought to do up, making sure that it was capable of taking off road etc. He explained how they went everywhere with this caravan, they had both enjoyed their travels with it, but one day he looked in his rear view mirror to see the caravan heading into the bush in the opposite direction to their Landcruiser. Pulling over they find that the caravan had separated itself from the A frame which was still attached to the Landcruiser.

They had no choice but leave it where it landed and someone picked up the pieces on the back of a Ute.

We chatted for ages to this couple, in the meantime we were also watching a Bower Bird do its love thing wooing the Ladies to his Love Shack that he has built nicely in the bush.

By now the time had escaped us and so did the opportunity for a canoe trip on the gorge, so we went back to the truck ate our lunch and headed back to camp.

We did not really have long to sit around as things needed to be done, we wanted to get some things prepared for leaving early in the morning. As Bill and Janet are cooking us tea tonight we could pack away most things giving us less to do in the morning before departure.

Andy took one of the hoses out of the sprinklers and washed the truck, he does like to keep on top of these things.

We also had to repair one of the poles inside the tent, a nut and bolt had come loose causing the pole to come away from its position so the tent was a little lopsided. Unfortunately we are also having trouble with the zipper on the door, it comes apart when you zip it up, it is fast becoming a problem now as without the ability to zip the door up we may not be unable to keep unwanted guests out that is to say those that have wings and bite and the things that don’t have legs and also can deliver a nasty bite. We had been managing in the last few days with a bit of fiddling however now I think that the zipper needs replacing. I wonder if it is worn out with use.

Andy was looking out of the mosquito net this morning and said to me there is a Ford F100 driving past that is in the most beautiful condition and I must go and get some photographs of it. This evening Andy noticed they were packing up so he grabbed the camera and went over to speak to them asking if he could take some photos of the car.

Of course Andy engages in further conversation with Bob and June Stephenson, from Victoria, he finds out that the car is 31 years old, 5.8 litre V8, it still has the original 351 engine that has only covered 250,000 Kilometres, it even has the original AM radio in it. This beautiful car is in absolutely mint condition. Bob explained that he bought it in Victoria in 1978, the original dealership is no longer in existence, and he went on to explain that he met a chap who told him a little bit more history behind the car. It is only 1 of 150 that were exported from Ontaria, Canada into Australia, and also that it was in fact 1 of 5 in the colour of yellow. He found out that the chap that told him this extra detail used to be the Production Line Manager at the plant that made them in Ontario. He says that about 50 people on this trip have asked him for photographs while on this trip.
He chats to Bob for ages, and we are astonished when Bob tells us he is 83 Young he looks so well.


We are both showered and ready to go out, I pick up some things from reception on the way out, we stop at the bottle shop for a bottle of wine to take to dinner, this one in the high street does not do clean skins so I just pick up a Lindemans Shiraz. The guy behind the counter asks me for photo ID, I ask if it is because I have to prove that I am over 18, he laughs. That was not the response I was expecting, so Andy quips in with his usual charm that just adds insult to injury.

He had just refused to serve an aboriginal woman, Andy asked why, he explained that he knew she was part of a group sat out around the corner in the street drinking, she was intoxicated and therefore he was not entitled by law to sell her alcohol, otherwise he himself is liable for a $10,000 fine and the bottle shop would have to close for 3 days! Harsh penalties, but it seems to be very necessary.

Up at Shady Lane we find Bill and Janet, we smell a fabulous chicken curry in the pot, Janet has burning the usual mosquito deterrents. We have a great evening catching up, discussing when we first met, the stars in the sky and our journey since.

The evening was finished on a piece of cheesecake and some coffee, perfect ending to a perfect evening.

Just after 10.00 we bid them goodnight and farewell, as we have done with so many people on this journey, and we drive off into the night back to Katherine Low Level Reserve.

On the way back we make a Skype call to our letting agent in England to discuss a few things, decisions will have to be made soon about continuing with letting the house or we may need to get back to England.

When we turn into the caravan park, we see ghostly looking figures of kangaroos scatter across the reserve as the headlights catch them. They are quick and as soon as we spotted them, they are gone.

By 11.00 we are tucked up in bed on another lovely refreshingly cool night.

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Photos

1978 Ford F100
This is an exceptional Ford F100, 5.8 Litre V8 31 years old

How about this
Theu letme sit in their truck

Kooki Concentrating
Kooki was studying the ground

Katherine Gorge
Swiming Hole

Curry With the Kelly's
Janet and Bill Cooked us an excellent Curry

Comments

[nugget]

This F100 gets around Australia, I'm SURE it's the Same one ????????????
I'm sure this F100 was towing a caravan around the NT several years ago, and stayed at the Ti-Tree roadhouse. And I think I saw this same F100 yesterday, driving over the Kempsey Bridge NSW. As there aren't many bright Yellow Longbody F100 I've seen, Im certain that this is the same vehicle. And She's 100% Awesome. Nice looking Rig.