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25th May, We left the "Devils Marbles" immediately after breakfast and drove 454 klms to a roadhouse called "Dunmarra". We had planned to spend three days getting to Katherine but today's effort means we'll get there tomorrow night - and spend an extra day or two in Katherine.
At the Renner Springs Roadhouse I was fascinated by this little Daihatsu Charade (lower left). Apparently it has been EVERYWHERE you can think of. It even has a TV (the old heavy CRT type) in the middle of all that luggage on the roof.
At the same stop, I was amused by the sign on the toilet door - surely it would be just as quick to fix the door rather than print the sign.
The Renner Springs roadhouse is apparently surrounded by 17 springs and one of them is under this "lagoon" ... nah! "pond" ... nah! call it a muddy puddle (lower left)..
The Jeep (lower right) may be the beginning of another murder mystery - it appears to be abandoned on the side of the road but it is 150 klms from the nearest town. It is full of camping and tourist stuff, and some of the windows are open, but nobody anywhere about. The police have stuck a yellow tape on it so it becomes impossible to steal anything from it ... huh ... :-) ... there wont be much left when we come back in a month or so (the yellow tape will probably still be there).
At Dunmarra roadhouse I put up a great antenna - it was maybe 200 feet long and produced lots of loud stations. The problem was that every single one of them was speaking an asian language that I could not recognize. I could not hear a single station speaking English!
Total kilometers 3830, Total fuel cost to last fill $1463, Average price of diesel $1.75, Average diesel cost per 1000 klms = $399, Average litres per 100 klms = 23.
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26th May, It was 327 klms from Dumarra roadhouse to Katherine. We had a fairly fast run because a tail wind that pushed our speed up to an average of 105 klms/hour (sometimes 120). The road was in good condition and as straight as a die in long stretches. This picture (below left) is what 6.2 klms of road looks like. From where we took the photo, to the top of that rise... 6.2 klms !
If you ever travel this road, be SURE to visit Daly Waters. The MacDonalds shop is different - to say the least (lower right).
Drunks have a habit of leaving their clothes at the Daly Waters pub (lower right) and apparently they have mostly women customers. The dogs are also most obliging, we didn't see any drinking in the bar.
We had lunch in Mataranka where there were more aboriginals than white people. The Mataranka Pub was quite a sensation, ask Connie, she had difficulty parking outside the next one..
We were greeted at Mataranka by the N.T. Police doing RBT - (Random Breath Testing). I passed the breath test but failed the next question. He looked at my licence and asked "How do you intend to renew your licence, in three weeks time, from N.T. ?" I said "er .. umm .. dunno officer!".
I'VE DONE IT AGAIN!!! .. I've headed off on a four month trip with only three weeks left on my driving licence. Ugh!
27th May, The first day in Katherine was spent trying to convince the New South Wales Roads and Transport bureaucracy that I was not a criminal and that I was not trying to avoid them. I simply wanted to renew my licence from the Northern Territory. I finally won, I had to get passport photos, witnesses, and several documents to prove my identity. I sent them all back to Parkes in New South Wales for approval and renewal - which will take another week. Why do they have to be so difficult - when, with just a little more effort, they could have been bloody impossible.
I'm sure that it would be easier to get a Libyan passport.
Day two in Katherine and the kids and the aboriginals were my main interest. Compare a white kid (lower left) and an aboriginal kid (lower right). (a) Neither of them have a care in the world (b) either one could be running this country one day (c) either one of them will certainly have more common sense than the whole of the Labor Party put together.
The locals however, back in 1942 would have been pretty worried at the time. This plaque (right) is set into the footpath in the shopping centre.
We went to the historic "Springvale Homestead" (lower left) and I was amazed at the fortitude of the people from days gone by (manually building that, stone by stone, cutting the timber by hand saws, etc). Today's generation wouldn't wash the windows!!
From the homestead we were taken on a dinner cruise and walked a short distance along the river to the BBQ camp area. I am not ashamed to say I nearly s#@t myself when I peered down into the water and saw this (lower left). When I turned the light his way he came closer and tried to say something (lower right) .... either I went deaf or he went dumb ... I heard nothing but my heart pounding ....
Our guide simply said ...
"Hey everybody, meet BoofHead, he has grown accustomed to our tucker. We think he's the gator that got into Woolworths during the last flood. He made a hell of a mess of the butchery section when we tried to get him out"
I said "Would you mind calling him Sir Boofhead please".
The next day we went to the chemist and purchased some suitable medication for mosquito bites. After the medication was applied, we found a much safer way to pass the time at the hot springs (lower left) and then at the "rare rocks" display (lower right).
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