Advertisement
We had a relatively uneventful night in the National Park near Roper Bar, although at about 6am the local fishos (which was pretty much everyone except Adam and I) started heading down to the boat ramp. I’m not sure if they were being considerate or dickheads (to get the New South Welshmen) but they drove their boats past our tent at about 5kph. I’d never realised how much stuff there is on a boat to rattle.
We were making great time on the Capricornia Highway to Mataranka. Throughout this trip there have been road works, or should I say lack of roadworks. Basically you are speeding along at 110kph, then there’s a sign for 100, then 80 then 60 and picture of guy digging and then there’s nothing. No sign of any road work, road workers or even freshly turned earth. Personally think it’s a road safety initiative just like the overturned cars by the side of the road (although Adam thinks they’ve got something to do with the local aboriginal youth). The locals seem to continue on at 110, but let’s face it you don’t want to be pulled over by the local cops they might just
taser you for the hell of it. Oh yeh. There were actually roadworks on this road with real workers and operating machinery.
We got to Mataranka and there is a real WWWD moment as Wilko had told us to have a dip in the thermal springs. Now Adam has been very concerned about crocodiles since we went past Newcastle. It probably wasn’t helped by camping at Alligator Creek. The signs at Mataranka warning about crocodiles weren’t helpful either. The thermal springs were lovely. Adam was finally coaxed in by the sight of some pommy backpacker in a bikini and I had to call the life guard to get him out.
We decided to have lunch at the café at the springs, which seemed to be run by a crazy French backpacker in black tights (NB she was skinny so not sure what she was doing!). I ordered a ham toastie. The guy said ”do you want tomato and cheese”. I said “ it says it comes with tomato and cheese”. He goes “well how do I know you want tomato and cheese”. Adam felt I was being unreasonable whereas I just thought the guy
was a complete pillock. Adam ordered a wrap and got a toastie. He obviously wasn’t clear enough.
We headed up to Katherine and the gorge. As we were walking along the path beside the gorge Adam was looking around cautiously for crocodiles. I probably didn’t help by telling him that the last time I was here I spotted one basking on a rock. Now I have to confess that I stuffed up the mileage to Litchfield. I told Adam that we had plenty of tile to see Katherine Gorge and then I realised that I’d missed a mileage indicator on the map. Generally I don’t like arriving at a camp site in the dark, for obvious reasons and the last 20ks always seem like an eternity. We cruise in at dusk and find a site. For some reason NT national park campsites are very solid. Unfortunately we hadn’t brought a piledriver to get the tent pegs in. Lovely night, lovely dinner.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0551s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Ledlin
non-member comment
New passenger
Ledlin has hopped on board today 19/5/18. Just got your debriefing from the previous days and your travels from Roper bar to Darwin and all the encounters with crocodiles and waywood greys. I have joined your expedition at the Bungle Bungles am confronted with an image of someone stuck in between a couple of big rocks. Is that Whittle I ask, I would hazard a guess that there would not be many of his friends that could fit through that one. Well done if he got out. I am presuming that you are up on the plateau. That is one of the most spectacular and remote areas and it is saved for those of us that drive a Toyota. I know that we might share it with the occasional Nissan owner. It is also one of those areas where the effort, the planning and the risk of breakdown and running behind schedule is ever present. I look forward to hearing your stories of your time up there. .