The locals at Adelaide River were busy this morning getting cattle into
the yard in the middle of the racecourse in preparation for a Rodeo that is
coming to town. Even down to
broadcasting Country music over the antique sound system. It was a little bit like going back to Alice
Springs where the music started very early in the morning but the music choices
were much the same. As Shane says – up
here there are only two types of music – Country – and Western.
There wasn’t a rush to get to Darwin given it is only an hour away and
the van park doesn’t accept new arrivals before 11.00am so it was an easy
morning. As camping spots go, ARSS
wasn’t too bad. You step out of your
caravan onto soft green grass which has been one of the few sites offering this
luxury. Although I have to say the
toilets were character building given the door opened up against the seat and
if you were anything bigger than a rug rat – actually getting into the toilet
offered opportunities for personal growth (or de-growth). I’d personally recommend your own toilet and
shower for this one – still $27 for power and water was fine.
Even in Adelaide River – fuel is pretty cheap, actually cheaper than
we’ve been paying at home. I have been
surprised that the prices have generally been pretty reasonable with the
exception of a few places that clearly take advantage of the high tourist turnover
– like Erlunda at the turnoff to Uluru at $1.75, Yulara at $1.80 and Daly
Waters at $1.80. The rest of the remote
areas have been down around the $1.30 - $1.50 and the major towns around $1.20
average although we’ve seen it as low as $1.13.
Thankfully when we were planning the trip we averaged the fuel out to
$1.50/litre to work out how much we needed for fuel.
One thing that both of us have been amazed by is the huge number of
hawks that circle in the air seeking prey.
We’ve watched these beautiful birds all the way through the centre and have
seen a few Wedge Tailed Eagles as well. They
are a spectacular sight against the blue skies as they seemingly float through
the air. And as we get closer to Darwin the more we see Palms and Ferns amongst the trees along side the road. I did think at times these Palms reminded me of strange dancing beings with grass skirts.
Roadworks dominated this short leg of the trip along with those automated
traffic lights that allow traffic to flow through one lane without the need for
a poor bugger standing out in the heat to hold a stop sign. They obviously catered for very slow
traffic………. They took forever!!!!
I found myself highly anticipating our arrival in Darwin which was
completely different to my attitude towards the past 29 days when I was really
focused on the journey between stops. I
guess it’s because Darwin is our most northern destination and is yet another
milestone in the trip, but oddly that hour was one of the longest I’ve spent so
far. We managed to tick over 6,000 km of our trip so far today.
When we finally did arrive at the outskirts of the city I was amazed by
how much I realised the bigger cities impact you. Far greater infrastructure and the good old
“17km to McDonalds” signs and you realise you are back in civilisation
again. It was a funny feeling, after
having spent a good deal of the past 4 weeks in very remote locations, to be
back in the massive sprawl of a major city again. Can you believe it – on the way in – a Notbat
sighting and still nowhere to pull over!!!!!
Our van park in Howard Springs is only about 20 odd kms out of
Darwin. It’s a lovely park and we scored
a super site on a corner which has a garden of palm and other trees right
beside it offering us complete afternoon shade.
We were also blessed with beautiful weather at 28 degrees, clear skies
and no humidity to speak of (read complain about as I don’t do humidity well –
at all). I am very grateful however that
we have a corner site as looking at some of the other sites I don’t know how
people manage to get in or out of them given the narrow “streets” and number of
random trees throughout the park. We
have watched a number of large vans navigate in and out of these sites and seen
the worried looks on drivers and navigators faces. The joys of caravanning! Our own experience wasn’t without difficulty
but we finally managed to get in, get set up and get settled. Three loads of washing later - it was
definitely Wine O’clock by the time we were done.
The “streets” in the caravan park all have names so our current address
is 72 Flinders Street. Evidently the
street names are all taken from major cities including Pitt, George, Elizabeth,
Bourke…… Sadly for Shane, the wonderful lush nature of
the grounds doesn’t go well for satellite dishes as he and another nearby
traveller exchanged their disappointment at not having satellite TV for yet
another location.
As night fell we could hear the bats moving around in the trees above
us and saw a few take flight and return.
They looked amazing against the night sky.
Is this a happy Scheppi face or what?
Miss Kitty - overseeing
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