9^th June, Monday

Today, we crossed the border into the Northern Territory.  The speed limit went from 110 to 130. I can’t understand why we don’t have the same road rules throughout Australia, the max speed in WA is  110. The landscape has really changed and it is beautiful. More hilly, more trees, different trees, even the road seems different.  We are now officially ‘foreigners’ :-).  We came across the odd dingo or two, some roos and the ever present cattle in this part of the world.  We stopped at Timber creek for stretch legs, food and toilet. There’s a lot to see and do here, gorges, stock routes, crocodile spotting just to mention a few.  They have a very nice caravan park but we wanted to push through so we can be in Darwin by Wednesday…… don’t know why the rush and we are still trying to slow ourselves down. We are getting there. We stopped at Sullivans camping spot, which is just an overnighter really. It’s in the Gregory National park and this park is absolutely gorgeous.  The Victoria river runs right through it, can’t go near it though because it’s full of crocs.  The Victoria river is the longest river in the territory. This stop only has 6 vans tonight which is quite unusual.  Perhaps because it’s so close to Katherine or there’s a big secret not to stop here (sort of like Wolfe creek) and no-one is telling us :-). There is a billabong here and we believe that it is full of Barra. Ralph is dying to throw a rod in but as I said “We, are only here overnight”.  They say that the Barra is not that good in a Billabong anyway because the water is still. The wet wasn’t that long ago, so it could make a difference. Tomorrow we head off for another overnighter called ‘pussy cat flats’ – interesting, we shall see what’s on offer there. A man just got taken off his fishing boat in Kakadu.  I won’t let Ralph go out on a boat now.  He wanted to hire one………No WAY.

10^th June, Tuesday

We set off at about 8. The is very bumpy and very narrow.  It’s scary when the road trains come past because they are towing 4 dogs (tankers, most of them here) and there is not enough space on the side to pull over. We have had the rear view mirror blown in a few times. There are so many creek crossings (all dry now) and flood ways. Way, way more than the north of WA.  The scenery has changed dramatically, so many trees and bush and so thick that you can’t see into it. It’s quite different to the openness of the Pilbara and the Kimberleys and my boabs are no longer L. We drove through Katherine, it’s a very pretty town. From there we turned off to Darwin.  We will come back this way.  The road from Katherine to Darwin starts getting better, wider and less bumps. Pussy cat flats camp site very country.  Friendly no nonsense people. The real Oz. The campsite has a pub (This is the territory, after all).  Happy hour, we were told is at 4. There is an avon lady here…….nabbed me in about an hour of being here, will give her little caravan come shop a miss as I’m not a big fan of avon. One lady does haircuts and colour from her van, love it.  There are some musos here today and they will give us a chindig tonight and it’s just a pass the hat around donation.  We are looking forward to that.  There are showers here (cold water) but all clean. They have a strange little golf course, can’t see where it begins or where it ends, can’t see the tee off spots or the greens. They also have a little race course here, we are not sure when it is ever used, it all seems unused. It’s a funny place full of character. We went for the happy hour. Some musos lost in the 60’s, they were ok and we put some money in the hat. We didn’t stick around for the dinner as most people seemed to be in groups and me and Ralphie are not groupies.  Came back to the van and cooked dinner and we will head off for Darwin in the morning.