Home                                                                                          UPDATE 16 SEPTEMBER

I stayed at Kununurra for a couple of nights to have a break and catch up on some admin. The town came into being in 1961 when the Lake Argylle/Ord River scheme was established. While I was at Kununurra I drove out to Wyndham to have a look. On the way was a stop off point called the Grotto. This is a large pool at the base of a huge gorge/escarpment and must be really spectacular in the wet with water flowing over it.

                            The picture gives an idea of the rock formation but it doesn't show that it goes up another 100 feet or so.

                                                                                                   This one is a bit better.

I visited Lake Argylle as I continued across the top end towards Katherine. This is all completely man made and has a water capacity of 9x the capacity of the Sydney Harbour.

Coming into Timber Creek a van pulled out from the right straight at me. Luckily I was going reasonably slowly as I took to the dirt. Lots of unkind thoughts on the drivers parentage etc. He must have been blind or asleep! I spent the night at Victoria River that is just a combination roadhouse/tavern/caravan park/motel. Had a very hot night and then continued on to Katherine. I found out that the average September temperature for Kununurra is 36.8 degrees. You can imagine that driving 500km in a car with no roof, wearing long trousers, a long sleeved shirt, a face mask and cloth helmet in 38 degree heat is pretty tiring.

At Katherine I decide to eat out for dinner instead of cooking my own for a change. I was the only one in the cafe when I went in at 7.30pm. This was indicative of the quality of the food. It was xxxx!

After leaving Katherine I headed for Adelaide River. I stopped there and visited the War Cemetery.

It was well maintained and a very quiet and peaceful place. My Dad was here when it was bombed in WW2.

Continuing on I turned off to Batchelor to visit Litchfield National Park. I saw the magnetic Termite Mounds.

I went for a swim at Buley Rockholes and saw several other spectacular waterfalls.

I stayed at a fairly primitive campground at the far end of the National Park and tried booking a wildlife cruise for the next day. However it was booked out. Typical me. Try booking at 5 the night before. Will make up for it when I get to Darwin by  booking some Kakadu trips early enough to get on.

Had a good drive the next morning out of the Park and up to Darwin. Temperature seems to be going down by a degree or two thank goodness. I checked into the YMCA for the weekend as I was sick of tenting for a while. Spent the afternoon checking out eateries and internet cafes and caught up with an ex South Australian friend.