Day 84 (Daly Waters)

There was another group staying at the same camp area as us in Katherine and one of the passengers needed one of us to sign up for a helicopter ride over the Katherine Gorge in order for her to be able to fly. It was $75 AUS for 10 minutes which would allow you to see 3 of the gorges. I was booked onto the two gorge cruise but thought this might be a nice way to see the place too so signed up along with Annie, Todd and Kim. The 4 of us headed off to the launchpad at 6.45am and met the pilot who had been dubbed Hottie McHot by the girls who wanted lots of pictures of him to drool over when I got back to the bus. The helicopter was teeny tiny, a four seater meaning there would be two trips to get us all up there. I'd forgotten about the standing on the scales part of helicoptering but was pleasantly surprised that though I thought I'd put all my parasite weight loss back on, I'm still hanging in there at my slightly lighter weight. Annie went up first with Patti the Canadian from the other group, leaving Kim, Todd and I for the 2nd flight. True to his word he had them back in 10 minutes and then took us up – I got the front seat which was pretty cool because of the way the glass curves into the floor so looking down it looked like my seat was floating on air. It was pretty cool to see the gorge that way but I'm not convinced it was worth the money, still it gives me another mode of transport to add to my list for the trip :)

After we'd finished there we headed to the Katherine Gorge information centre to meet up with the rest of the gang in time for the cruise. A big contingent of the passengers had hired out two person canoes to paddle their way up the first gorge. As cool as the cruise was (two boats with a bit of a walk in between to move between gorges) I instantly regretted not taking a canoe out when I saw how cool it looked and how still the water was. I expected something like the white water rapids river (naïve) so thought I'd struggle with it having no real canoe experience, but I would definitely have been able for it. You live, you learn!

When everyone was back from the boat or canoe we took to the road to go for an art lesson with an Aboriginal artist who's work was on display at a local gallery. We sat with him as he explained how he had learned to paint in the traditional way and how he loved the skills that he had learned and enjoyed it as his profession and his hobby. He was darn impressive on the didgeridoo too! When he'd finished giving us a talk about painting he encouraged us to paint our own little masterpieces. Mine didn't turn out the best, but it's not too shabby either. When we'd finished our painting we headed toward the bus where Wombat had BBQ'd a feast for us – so incredibly tasty!!

Within a minute or two of leaving the gallery we pulled over to see some camels at the roadside that Wombat called Cam and Mel..I'm not too sure if that was his sense of humour or the actual names of the camels – either way they were a nice distraction. I fed them some bread and had my photo taken with them narrowly avoiding having my hair eaten when I was found to have run out of bread. They looked a whole lot happier and healthier than the ones we'd seen in Pakistan which was a good thing.

The next stop was Mataranka Thermal Pool where pretty much everyone went for a dip. The water was incredibly clear and a wonderfully warm temperature. Again the camera came out for some water shots (I've since found out that the camera shouldn't be used in natural springs...all seems to be functioning ok but it's a big oops on my part!)

When we finally reached our destination for the night we saw just how empty the outback communities are. We were staying in Daly Waters that had a pub as it's centrepiece and not a whole lot more to be honest. The pub had a whole lot of character which totally made up for the lack of other facilities. They had underwear strewn from the rafters, graffiti'd money from all over the world, id's from workplaces/colleges/schools etc all stapled to the walls, a collection of Irish GAA jerseys (none from Wexford [I reckon that needs to be remedied when I get back]), shirts, flipflops and pretty much everything else you would imagine!! The flipflops had their own section called the Thong Tree, I've never seen such a weird area in a pub (and I've been in some pretty weird pubs). I had their Beef & Barra dinner, the house speciality and the finest meal I've had in a while and washed it down with a few mugs of local brew. I added some Indonesian Rupiah's with our blog address posted to the pillar at the end of the bar and signed my name to the bottom of the Irish flag. Since we were missing a yella belly jersey I went with my backup county and signed the Dublin jersey...roots are still yella but after 10 years in Dublin, I've got a blue tinge ;)

Todd produced a brand-spanking new, whiter than white t-shirt that he's been carrying from Ireland for the group to sign and hang. April as the artiste responsible for our official OzBUS 9 t-shirts direct from Kathmandu (Una's seam ripped the first time she wore it, my arm stitching has a whole since my first time) was recruited to recreate the design on plain white for everyone else to then sign. My inscription reads 'Living the Dream. Loving Life.' Una's reads 'Hey Dudes! Oz Rocks! Thank you. Go raibh mile maith agat o Eire :)'. If you make it to Daly Waters have a look for it..pride of place when you walk into the bar from the outside seating area beside the BBQ.

After a few too many beers my accommodation for the night was an oversized sleeping bag called a swag. I chose this over a tent or paying for an upgrade to get me a room in the pub for the night. Una, Jacinta, Emily & Ana also elected to sleep under the stars. After the initial panic of 'oh my god what about the poisonous snakes/spiders/god knows what else!' we relaxed into it and enjoyed the view for the night, waking up the next morning to a kick from Wombat telling us it was crazy o'clock and time to get up to make a move and wiping the dew off our faces.

Daly Waters verdict, nice to have seen, but I wouldn't be tempted by the bar jobs they had on offer..it's way too Bally-Go-Backward for me!!