Northern territory
After Alice we decided a shorter day on the road would be in order. James was especially sick of being in the car and had to be coaxed in, so our next planned overnight was at Devils Marbles only 400k up the Stuart.
We passed through Barrow Creek, the area where Peter Falconio was supposedly murdered. That felt a bit spooky. A few km before the Marbles we called into the Wycliffe Well Roadhouse which is painted up (not very well) with an alien theme. Their claim to fame is that they have seen more UFO's than anywhere else in the world. Very strange! We sat in the beer garden and for beer and wine ...... mmm.... nice.
Mid afternoon we arrived at the Devils Marbles. What a beautiful spot. A stark and harsh landscape, predominantly flat with amazing geographical rock formations.It has a free camp area with toilets and fire pits about one km off the highway with stunning views, walks and photo opportunities.
We used the last of the fire wood that we had collected back on the Murray and had a fire even though it was high 20's and blowing an absolute gale which intensified through the wee hours. There were times we thought the van would have been airborne if it hadn't been attached to the Beast.
The following morning (Good Friday) we were up early and on the road by 7.45 heading to Mataranka almost 700k up the Stuart. I was keen to check out the hot springs.
Our first stop was Tennant Creek for fuel and surprisingly we got a great cappy there. A much milder day, the wind dropped as we move north but an ominous darkening sky loomed closer. Our lunch stop at Dunmarra was when we hit the rain. At $1.95/ltr for fuel there we got just enough to get us through to Katherine and we got a couple of very yummy chunky beef pies too.
It was obvoius as we got closer to Mataranka that there had been a lot of rain and our concerns started to rise about accessibility to the Mataranka Homestead campground as there was a bridge that needed to be crossed. Once in phone range we called and sure enough it wasn't passable - so no hot spring dip tonight! We ended up at Territory Manor caravan park just on the north side of Mataranka, quite a nice treed park with a great al-fresco restaurant so we enjoyed a bit of a night out before settling into our vans for a very rainy, humid and restless night.
On Saturday, with only 100k to get to Katherine we decided to take is easy. It was still raining but James really needed a good walk and so did we so headed off down the road toward Bitter Springs. We got soaked but it was still and warm so not uncomfortable. We turned around before the springs as we knew they were flooded and went back to the caravan park to watch the Barra Feeding which was cool. The barra are quite tame and can be petted and hand fed.
We left around 10.30 for the very wet trip to Katherine. There were lots of small wallabies on the way - both dead and alive - and we even saw two dingoes cavorting in the middle of the highway.
Katherine was wet, wet, wet and sooo busy in the shopping area. We opted for the Riverview Caravan Park for our two-night stay before the last stage of our trip to the Daly River on Monday. Nice park - tropical and very quiet and backing onto the Katherine River and hot springs (which, disappointingly, were flooded). We set up camp in the pouring rain, had lunch and then went shopping for food, grog and fuel to get us through our fortnight at Daly. $721 and two hours later we had it all sorted and I spent the next hour fitting our provisions in the fridge and cupboards.
It is still absolutely pouring down as I write this sitting in the van Sunday afternoon. Brian just checked the river level at the Daly and it has gone from 8 meters yesterday to 14 metres today. The BOM says Katherine has had 244mm of rain in 24 hours and it is just getting heavier and heavier. The Katherine River right behind our park has risen to 11 metres. We've just been to the local museum looking at photos of the last time Katherine flooded.....mmm.
Hope we can get into Daly tomorrow!
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