Day 28 – Thursday 14 July 2016 – Mataranka - Katherine

WOW – 4 weeks have gone by!  We keep losing track of the days and often have to refer to the phone to double check what day it is.  Yep – we’re losing it!  But in a totally good way though as we are trying to make sure we make the most of each and every day and see as much as we can without overdoing it and being too tired to travel.  Sometimes that is a fine line.  Tonight I feel totally tired and looking forward to getting to Darwin tomorrow as we will be staying almost a week and it will be nice to put our feet up for a little while and not have to drive.

Mataranka to Katherine is only just over 100kms so there was no rush this morning at all.  We’ve enjoyed looking around Mataranka and will most probably stay here again on the way back down before we turn left for Queensland.  This morning the camp looked like a scene from The Birds with dozens of these interesting little fellows checking for leftovers.   

The trip to Katherine turned out to be Galah City.  Shane snapped this photo out the window as we passed by a mass of Galahs on the side of the road and a little further down the road there were probably in the vicinity 300 - 400 Galahs feeding just off the roadside.  I don’t think I have ever seen so many in one spot before.  

A little further along we ran across another Galah – but this one was of the two legged – non-feathered variety.  The dark coloured sedan you can see in the background had driven off the road and into the bush and there were numerous marked and unmarked police cars surrounding it with police officers walking through the bush.  Tonight I didn’t have too much trouble finding this via Google………..   http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/man-flees-into-bushland-near-katherine/news-story/4bc43d2e5889773df395b234c907310e 

We arrived in Katherine and managed to take the last spot at one of the pet friendly caravan parks.  I was initially worried that being by a major road would be a worry, but the noise was minimal and the convenience of green grass far outweighed any impact.  

We were set up by around 11.30am which gave us plenty of time to grab a bite to eat and head out for a look around Katherine.  We checked out the times and locations for tours, visited the local machinery museum and then drove out towards Katherine Gorge, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to get through to the National Park with the dogs.  We still managed to spot some lovely locations to take photos before heading back into Katherine for a top up of groceries (and the chaos that is shopping at Woolworths Katherine) and back to camp again. 

Love old 'stuff'

Knotts Crossing

Spotted this handsome dude in a paddock.

This Dude came over to say "HI" so I said "Hey - Why the long face?"

Judging by the look on his face - I'd say he's heard the joke before.....

I kept walking on very hard dark roundish “balls” on the ground at the caravan park and wondered what the heck they were.  Shane suggested maybe they were Notbat Droppings!  I think however they were just the seeds from the large tree that is shading us.  

Sadly – Notbat Sightings = 0.

After a few concerns about accommodation in Darwin, we managed to secure a site.  One caravan park which didn’t have a great rating on TripAdvisor said “Come on up – we’ve got plenty of sites”.  The one park we were wanting to book into was full and the second one we tried had to juggle other bookings around to accommodate us.  We figured “come on up” might be one to miss!