Katherine

Having slept for close to ten hours to deal with the previous day's hangover I woke up feeling like a new woman, sadly one wasn't available so I had breakfast instead. I jumped in the car after the delightful Aline had served me my meal and started my trip to Katherine, a mere 247 kilometres away. I mean you can do that in about an hour here. Suffice it to say I was doing a little over the speed limit (130 kph) and as I slowed to enter Katherine I was greeted by the Northern Territory Police. They wear khaki uniforms here which are somewhat reminiscent of the army and the four officers that searched my car had two shotguns and two assault rifles at the ready. It seemed a little over the top for a traffic infringement. It was a little surreal seeing a quasi military force patrolling in Australia. I mean its not like the Chaser boys were here trying to get in to APEC.

This was all to do with the suspected felon Jonathon Andrew Stenberg who is only wanted for questioning (yeah right!) for decapitating his neighbour in NSW. Click here if you would like to read the whole story. I apologised for exceeding the speed limit and promised not to do it again. I also pointed out that unless the guy fits the description of mini me he wouldn't be hidden in my vehicle. I had to pop the boot, not something I can do remotely from my car, the officer called a colleague over and I had two of them watch me (weapons ready) as I got out of car, opened the boot and revealed the mess that is my life at the moment. The officer was clearly scared (not of me but of the entire situation) and there was no levity to be had at the time. Frankly I hope they catch the bastard, if he really did behead somebody he deserves everything he gets.

I think I may have mentioned that Katherine had been a little bit hard to get along with. So it was with some trepidation that I arrived for my three gorge cruise. Everything went well so I don't really have much to complain about. I think I would just do the two gorges if I had my time over again. I got to see lots of fresh water crocodiles (apparently a massive proportion of their population has been wiped out by cane toads) and there are only 900 left. The guy who was driving the boats (you have a different boat for each gorge) was clearly in automaton mode. The place was packed with people and it did take away a little from the experience. Plus, while it's not cool to compare, after the beauty of Kakadu this was like a one trick pony. Sure come and check it out but it's ok if you miss it.

I'm regretfully giving the School of the Air and the Royal Flying Doctor Service a miss. I'm sorry but Katherine doesn't get an extra nights accommodation out of me, I just won't reward such bad behaviour. I'm sure they won't even notice it. Having said that I ate at the Golf Club, I got picked up in their courtesy bus, the meal was excellent, and the staff were great. I have just the 672 kilometres to do tomorrow so hopefully I can do that on one tank of cheap NT petrol (it's $ 1.51.9 here at the moment). Then it's only a little over 500 kilometres to Alice Springs the day after that. That's only a little over 4 hours driving at 130 kph. I can't wait.