Day 28 – Daly Waters to Katherine

We were up fairly early, had showers, dressed, had breakfast and broke camp by 8:10. We visited the Stuart Tree and the old Daly Waters airfield – it had a current light plane there. We then went back to the Stuart Highway and made our way north – we called into Gorrie Airfield, rather like the one Michael Caton called into in “Last Cab to Darwin”. Then we stopped in to the hotel at Larrimah – no stubby holders there, but Lynn ordered one. I had a pie and ice cream for morning tea. As we proceeded to Mataranka, I ran across an eagle – or rather, it flew into my grille, then bonnet, then windscreen. Eventually, within a few seconds, he fell to the left side of the road, off the road surface, and well into the gravel. I hope he survived! At around 11:30 we arrived at Mataranka and went through to the hot springs at Bitter Springs. We walked around and then Lynn went in for a swim. Two turtles were seen – one small (about 8 cm), the other larger (15 – 20 cm across). By 1 Lynn had had her fill and we moved on. Cutta Cutta caves was the next point we visited before arriving at Katherine. We called into the Visitor Information Centre at Katherine and got some brochures – the caravan park recommended to us didn’t come up on the SatNav, but neither did the address I found. It was back to paper maps. We found the park and booked in for three nights. Then I went down to the Toyota dealer – the parts were in, but they couldn’t fit them until next Tuesday! However I found a smash repairer willing to do a deal and they will be fitted on Wednesday morning. Then it was down to some shopping at Woolworths, set up camp and then prepare a late tea from new supplies. We spoke to those around us and I spoke to some German tourists who were on a Rotel tour. Lynn went to bed and I did some puzzles from the new magazines (old ones were posted to Kerry this afternoon) and went to bed around 9. The first part of sleep was punctuated by military jets flying over. After that, things settled down.