Nitmiluk – Saturday

At the risk of making South Australians a little jealous, I have to say last night was far too hot for a quilt so it’s now been put away for a few weeks.

We went into Katherine for some shopping and it took far longer than we expected. There were a few surprises eg walking into the shop with the big roof top advertisement, “Home Timber and Hardware” only to find it was a Pool Supply shop. At the Information Centre we bought passes for Kakadu and Alex picked up a brochure or two. It’s a long weekend so we’ll stay here until Tuesday to avoid the extra, extra traffic on the roads.

No subtleties here … we had fish tonight!

Fordson adapted to use steering wheel with tracks.

Flying Foxes, Katherine

Last night we had a lovely surprise when a Kookaburra flew into the Camp Kitchen, it was catching bugs drawn to the lights. This morning there was also a Kookaburra in front of our camper, just chillin’.

Kookaburra in the Camp Kitchen

Kookaburra near our Camper

Green Ant on a fence wire near the Camper

Coming back from a walk down to the river we saw a frantic bird darting about in the leaf litter. When we were able to focus on it we saw it was a Bower Bird at its bower. As we watched, it collected stones and a big round seed to impress its potential mate, a bright pink patch also appeared on its head. I consider it a special once in a lifetime, “David Attenborough moment”.

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When we arrived back from our walk we were so hot we had to go for a swim in the “refreshing” pool. It calls for a deep breath and plunge in to overcome the thermal shock.

When we were here 16 years ago we hired a canoe ( a LEAKY canoe) and paddled up the gorge, disparaging of the people who opted to sit in a boat and be squired up instead. Tomorrow we’re going on a boat trip up the three gorges!