25 – August 2016 - 24/8/16
Once again it was a weekend and we propped at Pine Creek for
a couple of nights at the Pine Creek Railway Resort where we enjoyed a very nice
evening meal. Our priority was to replace our damaged tyre and it was unknown
if we needed to travel north to Darwin or was able to obtain one from the
closer Katherine, south.
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| Dining room |
There were 3 pubs at Pine Creek all with some form of a
caravan park attached. We walked around exploring the township in less than an
hour. The walk was helpful as we scrutinised each pubs meal offers. We located
a Liberty Fuel Station up one of the side streets with fuel 10 cents a litre
cheaper than the fuel bowsers at one of the caravan parks come pub come food
store. And the fuel was 41 cents a litre cheaper than the fuel at the Mary
River Road House about 50 kilometres away at the exit / entry to Kakadu when
our low fuel warning light started flashing. Luckily at the time we decided to only
add 20 litres to our fuel tank when we thought the fuel price seemed a bit exorbitant.
A saving of about $50 when we filled our fuel tank at Pine Creek.
We drove to the nearby Umbrawarra Gorge national park where
we walked or more correctly rock hopped along the gorge viewing some lovely
scenery. The town lookout was more of a lookout where you could view some
disused mine holes and water in one of the large open cut excavated mines. The
view of town was obscured by the tree canopy and didn’t exist.
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| Umbrawarra Gorge |
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| Umbrawarra Gorge |
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| Umbrawarra Gorge |
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| Umbrawarra Gorge |
There was even a Sunday morning market where we watched from
the caravan 5 small stalls setting up in the park opposite around mid-morning and
we spent about 5 to 10 minutes to accomplish scrutinizing the offerings.
Monday Morning we rang the Katherine tyre business and they
were able to accommodate us in a couple of hours. We were promptly on our way
to Katherine where our tyre was replaced. We sourced advise about a warning
light on our tow tugs dash at the Toyota dealer which just happened to be alongside
the tyre business, booked the tow tug in for a service in a couple of weeks’
time, restocked the caravans pantry and were travelling north again all in the
same day. It was a very busy day without time to ponder, where everything fell
into place.
The only thinking time we had during the day was whilst
driving when we discussed our future travel strategies as our day was
unravelling. We had previously been deliberating over our likes, our needs and
we had decided to stay around this area of Australia whilst the ambient air
temperature was to our liking. On an impulse of the moment we decided to return
to Douglas Hot Springs for a few days then possibly back to Edith Falls for a
few more days before revisiting Katherine for the tow tugs service.
Douglas Hot Springs was about 50 odd kilometres north of
Pine Creek but first we had to travel about 90 kilometres south to Katherine
before travelling north again. It was a long day for us arriving at Douglas Hot
Springs about 5.45 p.m. We found a spot to park, had some tea and collapsed into
bed for a sound night’s sleep.
It was so nice to be back at Douglas Hot Springs, (reference
entry 17) remarkably more enjoyable with less people around from our previous
visit. It was wonderful not having to jockey with other people for space in the
water resulting with nearly half each day spent in the waters leaving our
bodies in a wrinkly clean state.
The below picture shows the campground on our visit back in June.
The below picture shows the campground now
The happiness created by the environment of the Douglas Hot
Springs was infectious with all its visitors. Whenever we were soaking in the
warm waters we seemed to strike up some form of conversation with whoever was
in the area. One couple were evidently all packed and having a final dip before
resuming their travels when Steve & Paul struck up a conversation. 4 hours
later his wife said, “It looks like I’ll have to unpack!” The next morning when
they said their farewells, Robyn directed both boys not to start any
conversations and they both sheepishly complied.
It was just “so delightful,” at Douglas Hot Springs we
decided to stay as long as possible where we ended up driving directly to
Katherine for the tow tugs service needs, leaving our planned stay at Edith
Falls for another day.
We stayed at Douglas Hot Springs for 9 nights, where the
daily conversations with fellow travellers tallied around 3-6 hours each day.
It seemed we were now at the tail end of the peak period for this area of
Australia and there was a significant drop in the volume of people around, in
turn creating a far more relaxed atmosphere which was very appreciated by our
health and welfare.
Another bonus with the decline of human activity at Douglas
Hot Springs was the marked increase in the presence of bird life. We were
regularly woken very early by the onslaught of loud bird chatter announcing the
arrival of another day.
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| Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo |
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| Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo |
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| Double Barred Finches |
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| Shiny Monarch Shinning Flycatcher |
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| Monarch Shinning Flycatcher |
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| Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos having a drink |
This pair of Rainbow Bee-Eaters was our daily locals keeping
the insect population at bay.
Once the sun set it seemed like hundreds of other
Rainbow Bee-Eaters came to visit in their tree. This was an amazing sight, a
first time experience seeing so many Rainbow Bee-Eaters together.
Wow!!!!
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