Darwin to Katherine - Jatbula Trip

 

Pre Day 1 – Friday 16 August

Darwin to Katherine

We woke about 6:30am and had showers and breakfast.  Once reception opened, we checked out and headed to BCF Yarrawonga (to be there when the opened at 8:30am) to purchase our gas and insect repellent for the hike.

https://www.bcf.com.au/stores/details/bcf-palmerston

South down the Stuart Highway to Katherine.  There is something special about the bush in the Top End.  The Kapok trees were in bloom with very few leaves left on the trees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Highway

https://www.visitkatherine.com.au/

https://northernterritory.com/katherine-and-surrounds

Things we saw on the road that remind us we are in the Top End: 

• 130km/h speed signs
• Road trains with 4 trailers. We saw one road train that was transporting three demountable houses at once
• Metal power poles – the termites are too active for anything else to last

We arrived in Katherine in time for lunch, which we enjoyed at the local Coffee Club. We then headed to Riverview Tourist Park and set up our tent in an unpowered site.  We filled the water bladders in our packs and organised the food needed to the first day of our walk to be accessible. 

We filled the car with petrol, which proved a little tricky as the instructions provided on how to open the cap for the petrol tank turned out to be for a different vehicle.   

Then off to Nitmiluk Visitor Centre for our 3pm Safety Briefing and to have our permits signed to be able to board the ferry in the morning.  We met some of our fellow hikers, who would all be going on the 7am ferry the next morning.  Two young men in their early 20’s, and three brothers in their mid to late 20’s.  After the briefing we walked over to where the ferry would go the next morning to be sure we knew exactly where we would be going as we knew we would be pushed for time in the morning.

https://www.nitmiluktours.com.au/about/visitor-centre/

https://nt.gov.au/parks/find-a-park/nitmiluk-national-park/nitmiluk-national-park-jatbula-trail#:~:text=Safety%20briefings%20take%20place%20at,you%20can%20attend%20either%20session.

We then drove back to Katherine and had a relax in the crystal-clear Katherine Hot Springs before dinner and an early night.  The Katherine Hot Springs are a short walk via a gate at the back of the caravan park.

https://northernterritory.com/katherine-and-surrounds/see-and-do/katherine-hot-springs

30 July - School Day

30 July 2016 – 181 094

School Day

This morning I slept in until 7:30am, I finally got a decent block of sleep, with much less coughing overnight – I think everyone in our vicinity will be grateful.  Today Hayden had a school work day, Maths, History – more research on John McDouall Stuart, and Christian Studies – research on Rev. John Flynn.  After school was finished for the day we went to Katherine Springs for a swim again – relaxing!

29 July - Drew’s Birthday, Top Didj, FA18’s and Thermal Springs

29 July 2016 – 180 947

Drew’s Birthday, Top Didj, FA18’s and Thermal Springs

First up this morning was Top Didj Aboriginal Cultural Experience.
 https://topdidj.com/
This was run by a man named Manuel who grew up in East Arnhem Land living a traditional life.  He talked first about his life, the pluses and minuses of the changes taking place in aboriginal culture, both for himself personally and also for aboriginal people in general.  Sadly, I think he is correct in saying that the aboriginal culture and law he grew up with is dying. Manuel then performed on the didgeridoo and the clap sticks. Then we were taught about the Dalabon method of painting – looking at the technique it is possible to tell where each method comes from, eg dot painting is from the desert, the number of white lines in each group of cross hatching is determined by the tribe the artist belongs to.  The paintings we did were done with acrylic paint on canvas, we did use a small paint brush for the first part in black, but after this we used brushes that were made from the centre of a particular reed.  These were used more by laying on the canvas and pushing and dragging at the same time rather than stroking as with a regular brush. Next up was fire starting using two pieces of softwood and some kindling, Hayden gave it everything he had, but just did not have the muscle power yet. 

The last item on the agenda was spear throwing using a woomera – Hayden was quite good!  From here, we rushed back to the van for Hayden’s appointment to Skype with his class – both he, the class, and the teacher all seemed pretty excited and enjoyed it immensely.  The next Skype session will be a mystery Skype, where the class has to work out where we are.  After lunch we headed to Cutta Cutta Parks, but decided against a tour as from the information available it appeared very similar to the one we did in Tasmania, just warmer.  So, instead we drove to the Katherine Airport and were lucky enough to have a FA-18 Superhornet come in, bank around a full circle and then land, passing about 30m above our heads – it was very very loud and very fast.  We relaxed in the afternoon at Katherine Springs, which originate in the Cutta Cutta Cave system and come out near the Katherine River at 32 degrees Celcius. http://www.ourterritory.com/katherine_nt/hot_springs.htm I cooked up Beef Parmigiana with vegetables for Drew’s birthday dinner, I hope he enjoyed it!  Happy birthday my love!

Mum