So the caravan park we stayed in last night was a bit of a revelation as to how other people live – it is easy to think that everyone is like us, but actually, the sad truth is that they are not. The park we stayed in was a ‘by accident’ occurrence and not necessarily serendipitous but definitely revelationary – as I said in my attempt at poetry yesterday, we had an ‘interesting’ day on the road – after traveling over 10 000 km we had the first encounter with flying stones hitting our windscreen, kindly doled out by a passing road train, and it wasn’t just one chip that it delivered, but three, the chips of which went right through – this unfortunate event precipitated a series of difficulties (which I won’t go into) that revolved around trying to get the chips sealed with a special sealant before they turned into cracks – bottom line is that we lost a lot of time on the road, and ended up coming into Katherine quite late, which mean no nice spots at reputable caravan parks, hence us staying in a less than reputable one. In the end staying in a less than savoury place is not a catastrophe because we can close the door of our van on the world and be safe inside our own environment, but nonetheless it was an eye opener. It seems there are quite a few people who permanently live in caravan parks – which was a bit of a revelation to me. Whole families with young children live in old buses, single men and women live in vans that they fix up sometimes successfully, sometimes not with gazebos, pot plants, fenced areas, vicious dogs on chains etc. When I re-read the previous sentence it sounds like it is an idyllic existence – but the truth of the matter is that these places are usually run down, sad, messy and hopeless. Often the occupants seem to just sit in a chair under a covering and stare into space – one can’t help wondering what their story is, where are their loved ones and why they are living at the back of a caravan park? It is a bit of a wakeup call for me – my happy and secure middle class existence is not really the norm at all!
Wasn’t the moon eclipse lovely – we got to see it really clearly given that there were no city lights where we were camped – what a privilege!
So this morning we hightailed it out of ‘Camp Sad’ and were very blessed to find a Coffee Club in Katherine and we enjoyed the first decent coffee for over a week! It was bliss! We also were able to get some reasonably priced diesel for the first time in a long time – have I mentioned our highest price so far is $1.80? From there it was on to Edith Falls for another injection of beauty – and heat – I was not joking when I said 33 degrees – any movement more than the occasional eye blink brings on a perspiration bath! Edith Falls is a series of waterfalls into huge deep pools just outside of Katherine. Rich donned his wetsuit and snorkeling gear and pottered around one of the big pools, seeing turtles, barramundi, archer fish, black bream, catfish and a variety of other fish. I lay on the grass and read a book! (What a life this LSL!) Then he and I headed for the ‘short’ 1.6 km walk to the upper pool – but forgot to factor in the fact that the walk was at the UPPER pool, which meant serious hill climbing at midday – well, needless to say I didn’t cope very well at all, and was feeling positively nauseous by the time we got there – 1.6 km has never felt so far – I often wonder on those nightmarish kinds of walks if they were first measured and set out by fit and strong young male ranger types. The kind who would think it a huge joke to pretend the trail was easy and short, but in reality deliberately made it long and hard. It is as if they knew that the old, fat and unfit are going to be walking the trails and this is some kind of sick joke to make us pay for our sins and so they deliberately have the signs printed to say that the walk is easy and is only 1.6 km when ACTUALLY THE TRAIL IS SIXTEEN KILOMETERS with vertical hill climbs with massive boulders that you have to slither over on your stomach on the way up, and slide down on your bum on the way down.
Having said all that, it WAS worth the walk (well Rich might not agree having to put up with my whingeing the whole way) – and the upper pool was just lovely, and yes, I swam and it was wonderful – it certainly made the walk back a lot easier! I now have another thing to add to Rich’s list of ‘favourite must dos’ at EVERY opportunity – in addition to checking out big trees and walking on long jetties, we must now add, get under waterfalls – note …. UNDER them!
From there it was back into our boiling hot car for the drive towards Darwin. We were going to stop overnight in a National Park, but decided instead for a cheaper option, Mount Bundy Station and wow, are we glad we did. It is a working station so there are plenty of horses, water Buffalo and Brahman cows around. The campsite is on the banks of the Adelaide River, beautiful shady trees, relaxed approach to everything, and cheap as chips! It is just lovely. I got to pat a baby Brahman which I have been hoping to do for quite some time – they have a frill of flesh down their front (I think it is for cooling purposes) and a big hump on their back – I am happy to report that the hump is squishy and the frill is, well, frilly!
The only confronting thing tonight was the caretaker stomping around the grounds – when you looked closer you saw he was actually stomping cane toads! They need stomping, I agree – it is all just a bit violent in this otherwise serene and pastoral setting!
Tomorrow we head to Darwin where will pick up Cassie for 2.5 weeks! Looking forward to it!
1 comment:
Yay, picking up Cassie! Keep the news coming - I loved the poetry and all the doings. It does seem like you lurch from pool to pool in between arid areas. Is that a correct assumption? It kinda reminds me of Namibia / Botswana when you drove for days to get to - aaaaahhhhhhh - a pool! There you regained your strength before again launching out at a furious pace for the next bit of water. Funny how that water drives our lives. Still so envious at what you are doing - DON'T GO HOME EARLY!!!!!!
And why do cane toads need to be stomped on?
Much love,
Wendz
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