Day 83 (Katherine)

On the road again today to make our way from Kakadu to Katherine for overnight camping in another pre-erected campsite on a Cattle Station, how very Australian! Today Mel left us to head back to Darwin to wait for a few days to get a road train down from the Top End, through the Red Centre where she'll catch up with us in Coober Pedy. Half thought about going with her, but as I've not seen any of the sites and it seems like we're going to see a LOT I thought better of it and stuck with the bus.

We got up early to go for a walk around Mamukala Wetlands to see some landscape and wildlife. The place had lots of birds to be seen and we spotted a few wild wallabies too. It was pretty hot on the walk and I've never been quite so swarmed by flies in my life..they were crawling all over me even with my bug spray on (note I think Aussie flies might not respond to European spray so I need to invest in some new stuff).

From the wetlands we headed to Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre where we had a half hour or so to explore the exhibitions and learn a bit more history and culture. I managed to get through the whole centre by speed reading most of the signs, but a few of the others didn't manage to get everything read before we were ushered out again. It's a case a lot of the time, tight schedules and short stops all the way to make sure we're maximising distance travelled each day during daylight hours.

We had another stop before we got to the campsite and that was at Edith Falls. This place was beautiful, we strolled from the bus to the lakeside and took in the scenery while pondering if we were willing to risk swimming given the 'swim at your own risk, there may be crocodiles in there' warning signs around the place. The signs did say that it was freshwater so the crocodiles to be expected in there would be the ones that we didn't need to be too scared of, but they couldn't guarantee there were no salties in there...so....we went swimming of course :) I got to test out my new camera's underwater shoot mode and ability to withstand being submersed in water (not up to 10metres..I didn't go that deep into the water). A good number of the gang swam over to the waterfall and frolicked about there, of course mermaid Una was one of the first to start the swim over, water baby if ever I've seen one! I wanted to but am not that strong a swimmer and having almost drowned myself twice already on the trip (White Water Rafting in Nepal and swimming in the Green Canyon in Indonesia) I wasn't brave enough to try it. The waterfall was a good distance away with nothing to cling to if I got into trouble so I mucked about in the shallower water. Everyone survived the swim with a 0% crocodile incident rate to be reported :)

We got to the cattle station and Wombat and James got a bonfire started (first one of the trip) and the cooks for the night got started on our bolagnese. After dinner the campfire became the place to be with quality tuneage on the speakers and beers in hand while admiring the night sky. Wombat pointed out the Southern Cross and the Emu that was perched on it meaning it's time to eat Emu. My super cool laser purchased in Bangkok came in useful to point out the stars to people who were having trouble seeing them. I had my first glance at the Milky Way..and it was magic. Looking forward to having a constellation tutorial from Conor when he gets here...hurry up!!

There was a casualty from the day..Alex lost his little fingernail on his left hand after a log from the fireside fell on/crushed it..not a pretty sight at all. He was really calm about the whole thing, as I said, if it had been me thread have been a call to the Flying Doctors ;) It was the first time that I've heard a swearword from him on the whole trip...and that was because I provoked him by filming as Libby was patching him up. No amputation required, but he does deserve an 'I've been brave at the campfire' badge or something!