Kununurra to Darwin

I arrived in Darwin at about 5.00pm (can you believe it I am in a part of the world where I can legally go really fast and I kept getting stuck behind caravaners, road trains and worst of all I had a cop sit on my back side for about 50 k's). Entering the Northern Territory was pretty uneventful. WA has a quarantine station coming the other way however NT just has a sign (or a series of signs really). The first one welcomes you, the second one tells you that maximum speed in the state is 110kph (unless otherwise signposted), then 50 metres up the road is a signpost saying that the speed in 130kph. I set the cruise control to the aforementioned number and watched the world fly by. I had been in the territory for less than a minute and I was already liking it.

There isn't a lot to see between Kununurra and Katherine. There is almost a town called Timber Creek and a couple of roadhouses but little else. It looked there might be a nice National Park in the Gregory but it was real 4WD material and I left it well alone. The Victoria River also ran along much of the way and I'm sure it would have been a pleasant place to stop but I had Katherine in my mind and Katherine it was. I had to stop really (I didn't have any of those astronaut nappies). 

I will be back in the Katherine Gorge in a few days so I didn't really look around but a few things struck me. Firstly I encountered traffic lights for the first times since I think Perth. Fortunately they were green so I didn't really have to think about them. Secondly was the cheap petrol. When I had left Kununurra I had paid $ 1.81.9 a litre. It was the only price available in town, the same at the three outlets I could find. Katherine however had it at $ 1.55.5 a litre, I nearly wept with joy. I pulled in and filled up on the spot. It was one cent a litre cheaper up the road but who cares it was 26 cents a litre cheaper than Kununurra. Thirdly you can still buy fireworks in the NT. They are available one day of the year (1st July) so the places that have them are advertising madly. The press is full of danger and warning stories about them, with picture of people who have had fingers blown off. 

When I get back to Katherine I am hoping to not only cruise the Gorge but check out the Royal Flying Doctors Museum and the School of the Air Museum. Both of these are almost mystical places from my childhood that seemed so impossible, remote and just different to really comprehend. I'm sure the internet has changed the way remote education is delivered enormously but you have to assume that no matter how much further advanced medicine gets, you still have to get it to the patient or the patient to it. Hopefully I will be able to see them both.

The other shock at Katherine was the time difference. I had lost 90 minutes. So 11.30am turned into 1.00pm, an hour for lunch and still another 285 k's to go and all those bloody ignorant caravaners hogging the road. Well it was a nasty shock to have to slow down to 110 kph 30 kilometres out of Darwin (I mean what were they thinking?). I got into my room just after 5.00pm. I am staying in the newly developed wharf district, next to the Darwin CBD, and as you can see the view is pretty good. Sunset was around 6.30pm so I was able to go out exploring. And yes it was 26 degrees (a fairly mild day for Darwin) and I am still wearing shorts and a polo shirt. 

View from the Hotel - Day

View from the Hotel - Night

I was going to tell you all about Darwin in this post but it's getting too long already. I checked out much of Darwin's World War II history and saw some of the remnants of Cyclone Tracy. Both sombre and sobering in their own ways.