Enjoyed being in Katherine; did everything there was to do and found it very interesting, if depressing at times to observe the indigenous community ‘living’ in a small but modern town.
Another leisurely day today so after a lazy breakfast we headed North again and stopped in at Edith Falls. A popular visitor spot with a camping ground. We had thought of staying there but were glad we changed our mind as there was not a lot of shade around. I heard reports of 2 snakes in the water so did not swim out to the waterfall, despite it looking very inviting!
Then on to Pine Creek. At dusk another large colony of bats flew past and roosted in nearby trees.. Pine Creek is a very old town created around 1850 since gold was discovered when digging in posts for the Overland Telegraph. Other minerals were also discovered and the town became quite prosperous. The museum and library were housed in the oldest standing building in town. They weren’t doing a lot of business – we were the third visitors in the past four days. There used to be over 1000 folk living there but the mines gradually closed and now there are only about 150. However it has got three very large pubs to make sure nobody goes thirsty. There is an indigenous community just out of town and about 30 kids go to the local school. Apparently usually only half of them actually go there. The whiteys all go to school in Katherine – 100 ks in the bus each way.
We stayed at The Lazy Lizard Park – I described it as ‘rustic’- the shower was actually a corrugated iron box! The park had a large eating/drinking area and did good business with tourist bus loads. Unfortunately we had to do without any phone connection as the only available phone box was not in use (see photo).
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