0041 Cooinda to Daly Waters 31st July

Up, breakfasted and packed up after a good shower.  (We seem to be rating this trip on the condition of the showers in each campsite !!! Cleanliness, hooks to hang things on, water pressure, water temp, etc !!)  Drove for a couple of hours with nothing major to see as Cooinda was really the last major attraction in Kakadu – There were a couple more walks to Aboriginal Rock Paintings but we felt we had kind of “done them” by now !   Got to leave something for next time, right ??   When it was about time for a coffee break we arrived in Pine Creek so stopped at the Lazy Lizard Tavern.  As usual, fascinating inside features, complete with wooden hand basins in the loo carved from a solid tree trunk !!  And also as usual, a European back packer behind the bar – This time French !!  I think the only Australian who has served us on our whole trip was in William Creek several weeks ago, and he was the only Aussie amongst 3 Euro backpackers in the bar !!  Anyway, as usual I digress.   They offered scones and jam and cream, so how could we refuse ?  They were delicious – A bit more like corn bread than scones, but delicious just the same.

After our rest we carried on along the most boring road you can imagine until it was lunch time, and we found a nice shady layby to make up our sandwiches.  We had travelled along beside the ‘Ghan Railway Line from Darwin to Adelaide for some time, but we never did see the elusive 'Ghan train !   Never saw any of their bloody camels either, despite there supposedly being more wild camels in Australia than in the Middle East !!  Anyway, stopped for lunch, and Janet went off and chatted to 3 lots of people who had dogs – One being a ridiculously small Chihuahua that wasn’t big enough to have even made a good golf ball, let alone a decent football !

This road obviously wasn’t only boring for us – Previous travellers have dressed up termite mounds in clothes for something to do, and over the miles it is fun to see mounds dressed up as Father Christmas, or workers in hard hats and T shirts, or girls with skirts, blouses and bonnets !!  Certainly a bit of fun along the way.

Also relieving the boredom were the road trains – Up here they have 4 trailers instead of the more usual 3, so they are immense – Up to 53.5 meters long according to the signs.  And if each trailer carries the normal 20 MT, that means a payload of 80 tons, or with the weight of the cab and the trailers included, probably close to 100 tons rolling down the road !!  And let me tell you, those rearmost trailers are swaying from side to side as they travel – Quite scary stuff when one is passing you – The speed limit in the NT is 130 kmh, and as I normally sit on about 100 – 110 kmh to conserve fuel, they usually do the passing !  On one occasion I overtook one, and I took some photos to show you how long it is.  It’s a good job the roads are long and straight because you would never have the space to overtake one of these in Europe !!!

 We really wanted to reach Daly Waters to camp because we had stopped here in the middle of the day on the way north and it really was the most amazing place and is renowned for its night time entertainment and food in the amazing pub. So we were pleased to make it just before dark, and were led to our parking bay by a chubby little stockman on his motorbike who shot off through the campsite after shouting “Follow me” !!  I was laughing so hard I could hardly drive !!

Anyway, set up quickly, and went straight over to the pub where the entertainment had already started.  Had a great evening – The camp site was packed and so was the pub – People stop here just to go to the pub because the campsite is not all that flash ! A guy called Chillie entertained everyone, and he was good – Yarns, poetry, comedy, and some great music and ballads.  Meanwhile we drank beer and ate delicious barramundi – Very pleasant evening all round.  After which we wandered through the dark to the van and turned in and slept like logs !! 

 

Pics here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0041CooindaToDalyWaters?authkey=Gv1sRgCIDE0dizw5-QvQE#