Katherine Gorge - Douglas Daly - Adelaide River
Northern Territory

At Katherine Gorge we had full network coverage so I did a blog (the last one) and Brian worked before we packed up to go into Katherine to shop. James had not been out of the van since his walk the night before and he and I rode in the van till well out of the camping area. He was not at all happy with the movement of the van. We stopped once completely outside Katherine Gorge National Park and James got a much needed walk, wee and poo.

Katherine was packed as everything closed at midday for Anzac Day. The supermarket was a bit of a nightmare but we topped up on supplies before heading to Douglas Daly around 12.30. On the way we listened to another hour of Pi. We have now done just over 9 hours of the story with almost 2 and a half hours to go. It is quite engrossing and the time passes virtually unnoticed when it is playing.

The road into DD was fairly narrow bitumen with thick grass to car window height growing right to the edge of the road, so there was no verge at all. I had this feeling of being Dorothy going down the yellow grass road. Set back off the road were plantations of trees at various stages of maturity that we couldn't identify. We later discovered they were mahogany plantations.

Douglas Daly Resort was delightful. The setting is a huge grassy bushland environment right beside the Douglas River with fishing and swimming holes interspersed with rapids over several kilometres of riverfront. The owners, Kathy & Brett, were really down to earth and friendly, and with only a few campers in we were able to pick a private, shady site down near the river. We set up camp and by 3.30 we were relaxing outside in the comfortably warm shade and loving the space. James did too, especially after Katherine Gorge. Brian rigged up a cherubin pot and we put it in the river in front of us (for bait), then we explored along the river for a km or two on foot before heading over to the bar and pool area for happy hour drinks.

The cherubin pot needed to be checked at first light next morning (otherwise the little captives apparently escape). That was, I was informed, my job. There were two big ones (the size of a very large prawn), a baby one and a little fish. The largest cherubin managed to escape and given the size of his nippers I wasn't about to grab him before he made his way back to water.

After breaky we unloaded the bikes for the first time since Easter. Man - were they covered in bulldust! Our cover might keep out the rain but it seems to suck up the red dust. We cleaned them up and headed off to explore the property. The tracks follow the river for miles so we checked out all the accessible waterholes and rockpools for fishing suitability. There were some very pretty spots. We rode for a couple of hours even though it was well into the mid 30's.

Before lunch we hopped in the Beast and took a drive to where Oolloo Road hits the Daly River. This is quite a distance upstream from where we planned to go and stay with Blackie. Because the area had been under metres of water the access was pretty rough and we couldn't find a suitable spot to throw our lines in, though we did stop at a deep creek on the way back for a quick, yet unproductive fish. After a late lunch, a read and a bath for James we took our live cherubin and lures to one of the spots we had discovered on our ride. It was very relaxing and we had a good hit on one of the live bait but the session yielded zilch.

I emptied the nets and collected half a dozen cherubin first thing Saturday. We didn't really get mobile till after 9 then did a couple of loads of washing, gave the van a good clean and I did all my banking online. There is intermittent network reception at DD and I found that if I put Brian's mobile up through the skylight onto the roof of the van and hot-spotted it I had enough signal strength to get online with reasonable speed. My Optus coverage is non-existent in the outback.

About 10.30 we headed down to the deep waterhole  past "The Arches" rapids a couple of km along the Douglas (still in the caravan park). We got a few bites on the cherubin and I had my favourite poppa going on a second line. Sadly one of my casts went awry and my poppa now hangs in a tree above the river for ever. Bugger! Suddenly I had a good hit on a cherubin and managed to pull in a 1 kg sooty grunter. That was a good size fish. Brian cleaned and filleted it and we had it pan fried as an entree for dinner. It was delicious. My first keeper! After dinner we headed over to the bar and spent an hour or so chatting with the locals. That was fun.

On Sunday we decided to meet Blackie at Adelaide River. He had given up fishing the Daly and was moving on. It was a bit sad to leave DD as we loved it, but given Butterfly Gorge and Douglas Hot Springs were closed due to the flood, we will go back before we leave NT. 

It was only a one hour run to Adelaide River which is situated on the Stuart Highway only 100km south of Darwin. It is a pretty little town with a nice feel about it. We camped beside Blackie in the caravan park behind the pub which is behind the BP service station, so a very short stroll to the bar. That was pretty dangerous! After introducing ourselves to Charlie, the stuffed waterbuffalo star of Crocodile Dundee, (he died a few years back and now stands stuffed atop the end of the bar), we enjoyed a few lunchtime drinks in the beer garden.

Our nights at Adelaide River were rather noisy with huge freight trains going through several times during the night. The railway line was only 100 metres away and we could hear them miles before they arrived, a low rumble developing into a full-blown roar, then receding back to a low rumble. James and I counted 50 container carriages on one train when we were on our morning walk.

Yesterday after bidding farewell to Blackie (who was heading some 900km to Lorella Springs) we jumped on the bikes. AR is probably most famous for its War Cemetery so we headed there first. The impeccably maintained cemetery marks the final resting place of 434 Australian, British and Canadian service men & women who lost their lives in the Top End during WW11. There is also a central memorial dedicated to another 287 service personnel who were never found. Most of those buried were aged in their 20's, though we did find one grave of a 17 year old boy. Sad. It is a simple but beautiful place.

We rode all through town and checked out the Railway heritage Precinct, Showgrounds and local market, where we picked up some second-hand books. The rest of the day Brian worked while I swam in the pool, caught up with some other travellers and generally mooched.

                                               Our camp at Adelaide River - a pretty spot

It seems we have a problem with the big fridge in the van now as well as the small fridge. It's not keeping stuff cold on AC so we've swapped it over to gas. Hopefully that will work.

After speaking with Blackie we have put Daly River on hold. He reckons all the barra got washed out to sea in the flood. Today we'll head toward Darwin and stay either at Berri Springs or in the Palmerston area which are the only places we can get James into. The Beast is booked in for it's 10,000k service on Thursday and hopefully we'll get the small fridge fixed and, if the big fridge is still playing up, it too. On Friday we'll kennel James for a week or so (sorry little mate) to do Kakadu, Edith Falls, Katherine Gorge and Litchfield Park.