Northern Territory

G'day Mates!!

Well, that took a while didn't it?? Sorry.

In the mean time our son and girlfriend are back to Holland and we are continuing our travelling. But, I left you on the border of the Northern Territory so I am going back in time a bit to catch up with the story, and take you further;


After we left this paradise (I mean Lake Argyle) we came over the border from Western Australia into Northern Territory very quickly.

Roadwork with a traffic light haha

 Before Katherine there was nothing so a few free camps again which actually was not much fun, it was too hot.

but these sort of things is a great advantage of free camps, that has to be said too....

The fridge and freezer could hardly cope and so we decided when we get to Katherine we will take a caravan park for a few days to recover. It was a decent thing to do as Fred saw a problem again with the car so we had to let it fix. Again $ 185.00 pfff, when does it stop. I'm trying to save for tickets to holland next year and this doesn't really help.

Katherine has hot spring which was near the mechanic where our car was being repaired so this was a nice time spending. In the caravan the aircon was running all day, what a relieve!

Hey! you people there in Dutchland, you might detest the much rain you always get but no rain at all can also be annoying! Can you remember our gold field adventure in the beginning, the rain we got and that horrible trip after Credo Station?? That the only and last rain we had for months. It's not that we long for rain but it's the dust which occurs after so much draught. It gets everywhere and then you get there willy nillies and you eat dust, taste dust, see dust, feel dusty etc etc.....and there is no hiding from it.
So all we want is: "een buitje voor het stof" as they say in Dutch, which means a little shower for the dust.

Katherine has a very high population of aboriginal people which means very strict alcohol policy. I wanted to buy a bottle of sherry, the two litre bottles I usually buy we haven't seen since Perth. Anyhow, the liquor shop opens at 2 o'clock, there are two policemen in front and you have to show some identity. Then they ask where you are going to drink the purchased liquor and then they want to know, in our case in which caravan park you are. Then finally inside the shop, finding your bottle and because it is sherry which is more heavy, you can only buy it between 2 and 6 o'clock, you get to the counter and they ask your identity again. They put your, in my case drivers licence, into a machine and then finally you can pay and leave. What a hassle! Hope it's a bit easier in Darwin, can't remember.

We stopped in Pine Creek for a night, also to see if that caravan park I chose (railway resort) is nice to go with Danny and Patricia and YES it was;

A second stop of two nights somewhere between Pine Creek and Darwin, was quite nice; Coomalie,

Just $ 20.00 but with power and, for the women, new amenities, for the gents it was a bit old but clean.
On this park I learnt that picking Mango's is very dangerous, did you know that??!!

There were a lot of Mango trees, full with Mango's but not ripe yet. A men said to me that they will ripen after picking but you had to be careful while picking because the stem contains acid. So I put my glasses on and armed with a scissor I went to the Mango tree and chose a nice big one, still green.

I cut the stem and suddenly I thought I was stung by bees, all over my arms I got terrible stings so I dropped the mango and run all the way cursing over the field till the stings stopped. Crikey what a disaster. Luckily I was warned so afterwards I new that it had to be the acid and soooo lucky I had my glasses on. What a terrible thing could happen with your eyes so people you are warned!!
The Mango did ripen after all and was lovely!!


We arrived in Darwin, actually a bit before Darwin; Virginia. We are on a nice caravan park and it looks very tropical. Guess what!! We had rain last night, after so many months of draught and dust!
Finely that "buitje voor het stof" ........

You know in the mean time our son and girlfriend are coming and that will be the 29 th of September. ...

We came a bit earlier to Darwin to arrange some things again like an appointment to the Dentist. I have a bridge and that has to come out and then I get a temporary denture. You remember our power steering wheel was leaking? Well we went to the Toyota to let it check and to get a quote; we have a Toyota Surf which is imported from Japan and when you get trouble with such a car, you better pray because the Toyota let us know, they are not allowed to work on an imported Toyota !

So they sent us somewhere else and they didn't either. After 4 addresses we came to someone in Palmerston who did the job for us.  It had been dangerous to drive that long with a leaking steering wheel, even when you top the oil up every time.
Anyhow, my teeth and that major repair has costed us a fortune! Luckily I always have a panic account with some money on it but the bottom is in sight.

But we won't let that spoil our "holiday" with Danny and Patricia, we are really looking forward to it.



You know now that we had that "holiday" together so that will be the next story. In the mean time, keep safe and look forward to my next story!

Cheers!

Another odd place; Pine Creek

G'day Mates, did you enjoy the Aussie song in my previous blog? OK lets go on then......

Along the way from Daly Waters to Katherine, just a few funny photo's;

Ant Mounds dressed with t-shirts, hats, dresses etc... 

pffff I'm getting tired only by the look of it...

And we were going over..........

Before we're coming to that odd place, we had a 3 days stop in Katherine. We could have gone to Katherine Gorge but we have done that before and the park there was very expensive, but what we can remember, very nice and worth going there if you never been there before.

Instead we stayed in Katherine and did a bike ride along the Katherine River to the Hot Springs;

Here is the hot spring, the warm water just comes out of the ground

I saw this bike at a shopping centre, the owner was an Irish bloke who was biking from Darwin to Adelaide, well he still had a long way to go;

And now; Pine Creek, another odd place to be;

Pine Creek is a small town between Katherine and Darwin, it's bloody hot here and of course, again in the middle of nowhere. What are we doing here?? Haha looking for gold again. Today (9th of September) we have been detecting somewhere in the bush, started at half past 8 till about 12 o'clock.

Actually that's not interesting for you because we don't find anything anyhow but this camp thing is again very special. It’s called Pussycat Flat and it's on a horse racing ground on which the last race was in 2010.

Its located about 2 k's out of the little village Pine Creek on the road to Kakadu National Park. 

The high season here is over so there are not many caravans.
Because we want to know we're to go to find some gold, we thought the first night lets go to the bar, have a drink and fish and ships and talk to some who can know. Well, it happens what I already thought; no one tells you anything!! But we did had a marvelous dinner for just $ 10,- each and a bottle of wine for just $ 18,-. We had two large pieces of fish each, much salad, potato salad and chips and that was much too much. The cook already knew and when she came to collect the plates, she brought a container where we could put the fish in and take it with us. So, the next day we had a nice dinner with left over’s.

The showers are unique too but it's heaven after a few hours digging in the heat.

Every morning about 6 o'clock we were wakened by a bird with a very special sound.

I asked other people who are already for a long time at Pussycat Flat, if they knew its name but no one did so if you know, please tell me by putting a comment to this blog;

At first I couldn't find him but later I saw him, listen to this;

Because there are no horse races anymore I decided to walk the track myself, it's nearly one kilometre all around, but djee guys, it was hot so it stayed with just once. Fortunately we had discovered a nice spot to cool down and have a picnic.....

Although there were no races anymore, there were still horses; Brumbies which are wild horses;

Again a very special place and I hope someone can help me out with the birds name.

sorry Mates, you most probably have to wait a while for a new story as we're going to a National Park soon were we won't have reception, till then; Cheers!!