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| 6:00am |
The alarm clock went off. Dang. But our bus is arriving in 10 minutes,
so there's little time to spare. |
| 6:05am |
A distinct sound of a bus pulling to a stop hinted that they were
earlier than the advertised arrival time. Great. |
| 6:06am |
Tubby and I loaded up onto the coach driven by Wayne, our driver/guide
for the day. And we managed to stir him to hang up from his call to
the hostel, where he was apparently trying to roust us from our room. |
| 6:54am |
We stopped for the last couple, bringing our happy little group
to 21 people total, and one duck. (Everyone else was at or near retirement
age, minus one spinster who was escorting her aged mother, although
she, too, is nearing the autumn of her life as well.) |
| 7:07am |
Strangely enough, neither Tubby nor I jumped into conversations
about grandkids, medical benefits, or how lovely South Australia is
this time of year. (The latter, of course, is what we'll find out
tomorrow, actually.) |
| 7:09am |
We got onto the Stewart Highway and headed south, and immediately
saw our first road train. Road trains are huge trucks towing three
trailers, usually with 62 tyres (yes, tyres), and
truck cabs with 600 horsepower. (I don't know how much that is, but
it sounds like a lot.) (A picture of one is in with the Adelaide River
photos, below.) |
| 7:54am |
On a cycle of about every three years, most of the Northern Territory
is burned, on purpose. The
grasses grow as much as 3 meters (about 10 feet) a year, and winds
at the end of the rainy season knock them down (the so-called "knock-em-down
winds"). By doing the burns, they prevent hotter fires from burning,
and the trees are able to tolerate the controlled burns. Interesting. |
| 8:10am |
We stopped in Adelaide
River for breakfast. Whilst the balance of the crowd rushed to
purchase wheat toast and oatmeal, I opted to head into the bar, which
opens at 7am. Despite this fortuitous event, I'm still too short to
be served. |
| 8:12am |
As the elders of our tour (read, everyone) was snacking on their
jam and toast, we looked into the bar a bit further, and met Charlie.
Charlie is a stuffed buffalo sort of chap, whom you may remember from
the Crocodile Dundee film (1986); he's the guy that Mick Dundee put
to sleep with the sleepy-finger-trick thing. (Charlie was sedated
in reality.) |
| 8:36am |
We loaded up (finally!) and made the 7 minute drive (by coach, and
probably only 3 by car) over to the Adelaide
River War Cemetery. |
| 8:48am |
The grounds are the final resting place of many of the Darwin residents
and military personnel who were killed during the Japanese air raids
in Darwin and other battles in nearby areas between the first air
raid on 19 February 1942 through 1943, including the nine civilian
postal employees killed whilst working in the post office. |
| 9:17am |
One of the five points where Stewart Highway crosses
over the Darwin-Alice Springs railway. (This AU$1.2 billion project
span about 1,500 km of line, 2 million railroad ties, and was all
in all a big project.) |
| 11:36am |
We arrive at the Nitimuk
National Park Visitors Centre for a pre-arranged lunch. Given
the inherent fussiness of both Tubby, and to a much lesser extent
of mine, we opted to nibble on snacky foods we brought, then wandered
about. |
| 12:09pm |
The patio area, haven to smokers galore, offered some spectacular
views of the park, that despite all efforts, couldn't be done justice
on film. But I still tried.
Oh, how I tried. |
| 12:31pm |
With lunch done and commentary from the others about the ham and
turkey ("oh, it's all right, I suppose. The ham was a little
too tender/the turkey was a little dry..." etc.), we were coached
by, well, coach, down to the water. |
| 12:32pm |
This should be fun, watching Ma and Pa Kettle paddle
up and down the river. |
| 12:33pm |
False alarm; we're getting shoved into a
proper boat instead, skippered by Brandon. |
| 12:35pm |
In just under two minutes, Brandon explained what to do if the boat
sinks. Put on a life jacket ("Put your head through the hole,
arms through the strap. If in doubt, look at the pictures printed
on the jacket.") then showed us the countless emergency
exits -- over the side. |
| 12:36pm |
If you were concerned, it's only a two hour cruise, and no one here
is named Ginger. And rather than make today's update nearly as long
as the King James bible, I've put all the pretty Katherine
Gorge photos on separate pages. |
| 2:23pm |
By taking that convenient detour, we're again approaching our starting
point -- the dock. Brandon points out the saltwater crocodile
trap on the left side of the river, and the "safe
swim area" on the right. He also said it's a good thing saltwater
crocs only swim on the left side of rivers. (And, there hasn't been
such a croc here since the floods in 1998, when the water level in
this area rose a solid 20 meters (60 feet). |
| 2:25pm |
We disembarked at the dock, and I couldn't help but note we were
jipped out of about 10 minutes of tour time. I thought about complaining
immediately verbally, and then again in a strongly-worded letter,
but finally chose to do neither. |
| 3:01pm |
On account of being in a vehicle I couldn't order Tubby to stop
(bloody group trips), we did pass through Katherine,
but were limited to having a very finite number of photos I could
take while confined in this tin lizzy. |
| 3:06pm |
After basically taking a big loop of Katherine, we were back on
the highway, bound for Edith Falls. |
| 3:47pm |
We arrived in Edith
Falls, still within Nitimuk National Park, but on the other end
of it, essentially. Here, folks were offered the chance to go for
a swim. What with the lack of preparation, and the Preparation H crowd,
only two took up the opportunity. I just made Tubby carry me about
(it was a touch warm and humid) and snap some photos. |
| 4:13pm |
With everyone loaded up and accounted for (whew, close one), we
headed again down the road, with a promise of a stop in Pine Creek,
where gold was first discovered in Northern Territory in 1888, by
accident, as some chaps were building a bridge. |
| 5:11pm |
The coach arrived in Pine
Creek, but it seems our tour of the place was going to be a bit
like Katherine -- all based out of the coach. (Despite exiting from
the highway, this was a teaser; since it wasn't on the brochure, it's
not on the itinerary.) |
| 5:18pm |
We passed the local fire brigade and a grass fire along the railway
tracks, then back onto the Stewart Highway north again toward Darwin. |
| 5:00pm |
Well, I tried. Despite it still being mostly daylight, the setting
sun and the bus hauling along at 100 km/h (62 mph), the photos turned
out to be more blurry than not, so I'll spare you from the brunt of
clicking. |
| 6:19pm |
With the sun setting just to the other side of the coach, we didn't
get much of a photo of it, although I did settle for this
one of the trees. |
| 6:45pm |
We arrived in Adelaide River again, for dinner at the Adelaide River
Inn. Neither of us were keen on Barras and chips (barras is fish,
I guess), we opted to grab a soda from the BP gas station/market and
sit out and look around. |
| 6:47pm |
Sitting alongside the
highway with virtually no traffic on it this far from town, and
this hour, left me (and Tubby too, I think) with an odd longing for
a road trip into the outback. Which leads me to the notion that a
return tour is probably going to be hitting the calendar of events
in a year or two. |
| 6:59pm |
By turning around a bit, we got to see the full
moon (or at least nearly so), rising in the west through the clouds.
A bit capture at night, but with the aperture held open longer, it
seemed to work. (And in looking at the results, it seems we caught
a few stars in it, too.) |
| 7:18pm |
We got underway for the final push home, some 110 km (just shy of
70 miles) away. |
| 8:20pm |
After losing one couple in Palmerston (a suburb of Darwin, wherein
many of the families of the military personnel live), we were dropped
off at the hostel. Fortunately, Wayne was dropping people off in the
same order they were picked up (Palmerston folks excepted), so we
were first off the bus. |
| 8:25pm |
Back in the room, and ready to crash. With something like 250 pictures
taken, though, the update looked daunting. I figured on a bath and
went to bed. (Since we can't post tonight anyway given the lack of
a phone line situation, plus, I've got a nearly five-hour plane ride
from Darwin to Adelaide to kill tomorrow.) So, tootle-ooo. |
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