20 February 2000
Left Katherine about 7:30 a.m. en route for Darwin. Although only 320-something kilometres away the trip took most of the day as there were a number of places we called into on the way. First was Edith Falls. These are about 40 kms north west of Katherine and about 20 kms off the main road (the Stuart Highway). Although the water doesn't fall from much of a height, the sheer volume of it (at this time of year, at least) was impressive. It drops into a large pool (several times the size of Bent's Basin, for example) which then eventually feeds into the Edith River. You can swim, snorkel and scuba dive in the pool but at the moment the water is very murky and the currents strong from wet season waters. There is a very nice picnic and camping area there with plenty of grass, trees, barbecues and tables and chairs. Unfortunately you need to be there in the afternoon for photography as the morning light comes from the wrong direction. So when we go back to Katherine we will call in there in the afternoon.
Next stop was Pine Creek, another former gold-mining town (you can still fossick). We stopped here and had some breakfast - coffee and toast with cumquat marmalade. Another beautiful, quiet little place.
Moving on from Pine Creek towards Adelaide River we saw a turn-off signposted "Scenic Route". As the distance was not much greater than going straight up the highway we decided to go that way. It was hardly worth it except for two things: a marvellous vista we came across unexpectedly where the scrubby vegetation gave way to a large grassy plain overlooked on its far side by imposing ranges, and Robin Falls - which were only a kilometre out of our way. We drove the ute into Robin Falls expecting to see, well, falls. Again the NT propensity for overstatement caught us out (unless we didn't look hard enough) and all we found were small cascades. But what cascades! Although they only ran for a short distance, the water was so crystal clear it must have been coming from a spring somewhere. You could easily see the bottom over which the water was flowing. And again all surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. Actually the clarity of the water was a bit of a trap because it made it difficult to gauge its depth. I found this out the hard way when I went to turn the ute around and drove it into a pool of water beside the track. The water looked reasonably shallow, but the ute just kept on going down, finishing up almost on its nose. Fortunately it didn't seem to mind too much and just found the bottom and drove on out of it. It did drop onto the tow bar, however, and partially dislodged the trailer plug (which I will get re-fastened when it goes in for its next service). But apart from that it apparently suffered no other ill-effects.
And so onto Adelaide River. The home (so it's claimed) of Crocodile Dundee - the real one, whose name was not Crocodile Dundee at all (surprised?). It was also home to 30,000 Australian and American troops during WW2 and has the most beautiful war cemetery with the graves of over 400 service personnel who died in the area (including those who died in the WW2 bombing raids on Darwin.)
From there it was a straight run into Darwin, which we reached around 3:00 p.m. Again, plenty of WW2 sites on the run in and as we got closer, WW2 airfields, 4 or 5 of them, all one after the other by the side of the highway. Must have been very confusing for the pilots of the time. After finding "digs", set out to explore the city. Drove down to Port Darwin and walked around the wharves for a while. Saw what appeared to be a confiscated Malaysian fishing boat tied up there, also a couple of foreign naval vessels - I think they were Portuguese, but I'm not sure. Then drove around the bay exploring the foreshores and watching all the weirdos jogging, powerwalking, cycling, etc. in their fitness frenzies. Then back to motel.
Will ring up local Mazda dealer first thing in the morning to book ute in for service, then go exploring in town.