I would like to say we awoke this morning to the sound of a lovely bird chorus, instead it was to the sound of cockatoo's and corella's screeching loudly in the trees above us. It sounded like someone was strangling them, so we were all then up at the crack of dawn. After some eggs and beans on toast, we hit the road for the 200km's into Katherine.
The most eventful thing on the journey (other than the spectacular scenery) was a huge wedge tailed eagle feasting on some road kill; he was so big and graceful when he took off. Shane is excited to see how much Katherine has changed, as he lived her 11 years ago while posted at RAAF Base Tindal. He was surprised, and we were excited to see a McDonalds, and I know the food is crap, but when you can't ever get it, it's exciting!
We grabbed a million phamplets from the information centre, and worked out where we were going to stay. Originally it was supposed to be at the Katherine Gorge Campground, but after finding out how much they wanted to charge we decided to stay in town. We booked into one of the local caravan parks, with Scarlett heading straight for the pool. It was freezing, so we put on our swimmers and headed out the back gate of the caravan park, and walked down to the 'Katherine Hot Springs'.
There were so many people down there enjoying the springs, so we jumped straight in and joined them. The water was so warm and the atmosphere was so tropical, it was not something I expected up here. There were heaps of young aboriginal kids who immediately took a liking to Scarlett. Withing minutes they had her holding their hands, and all jumping off the mini-weir together. They played for hours, while Shane and I just floated around in the warm water enjoying everyones company.
This afternoon after talking to my best mate Yvonne, we were off in the car to get her some photo's of the Katherine River. It turns out Sara Storer (one of her all time favourite country singers) lived here teaching in an aboriginal community before she became the huge hit she is today. Sara sings a lot about this part of the country and even songs about the Katherine River. Well Yvonne honey, these one are for you. I miss you so much and can't wait to get home and see and the girls again in August.
We called into the grog shop this evening, as we needed to stock up before we head into Kakadu. It's not easy getting grog here as you can't buy it till after 5:00pm, and not at all on Sundays. On the way back into the park I got Shane to cut a lap around the caravan park as I thought earlier while on the phone I saw some friends walk by. It turns out it was Pam and John, and we have been running into each other ever since first meeting them back at '80 Mile Beach'. I was fishing with John at 'Barn Hill Station' when I caught my spotted mackerel. It was so good to see them, I was really disappointed after the last time we ran into each other in Broome that we hadn't swapped numbers; and now tonight with another chance we finally did so. We are planning to catch up again in Broome.
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