Step 84 Manbulloo Station – Edith Falls via Katherine - 72 km's

Sunday 3^rd July

OK, we may have been wrong about how well we had adjusted to NT time. Di woke me at 8:40 from a very deep sleep.

Eventually got ourselves going and cruised the short distance into Katherine and headed for Woolies.

I continue to be fascinated by what these areas must be like in the wet season
The flood water markings on the bridge go up to 18 metres

First surprise for the day – traffic lights. I'm pretty sure the first since we left Perth over 3,000 km's ago. Predictably we caught them on red. All three times we went through the intersection. Some things never change. Luckily the lights did.

Second surprise for the day was seeing a family of mum, dad and two kids travelling through town on a motorcycle trike (towing a trailer). Someone told us later that they have appeared on Today Tonight or Getaway, they are travelling around Australia visiting all the “Big” things. They are probably on their way to the Big Crocodile at Wyndham. It's a long way to go with mum and the kids on the bench seat behind dad.

After our big shop some friendly locals even volunteered to take our shopping trolley back for us. I think they were just doing their civic duty and they weren't just after the two dollars deposit in the trolley.

After all that we still managed to arrive at Edith Falls by lunchtime. Edith Falls has been recommended by quite a few of our travel advisors so it was nice to find that it was as nice as they all said. Even nicer to find it was only $10 per person per night with all facilities except power (flushing toilets, hot water showers and swimming pool). Mind you the swimming pool is the freshwater pool at the base of the falls. The sign assured us there were no “salties” in there but advised not to swim between 7:00pm and 7:00am because that's when the “freshies” feed. Now there's a sign I'm going to pay attention to.

Being the brave little adventurers that we are we wandered down to the lower pool after lunch. Well after waiting an hour after eating of course.

Is this shot artistic or what?

This is definitely another little oasis that will hit the highlights package and in fact we will probably stop here again on our way back from Kakadu.

David Leary you will need to find yourself a quiet spot and sit down before reading this next bit.

Are you settled?

OK, while wandering around the park checking the place out, I started chatting with a German guy

and

he actually knew the Aldi brothers!

Yep, remembers them when they were just getting started. They were buying up old, disused cinemas in Germany and converting them into supermarkets. He reckons the first cinemas/stores they didn't even take the steps out, they just took out the seats and set up the shelves. He says they both had their whole extended families working in them, serving and re-stocking the shelves. He also reckons that even when they got successful he never saw them smile. Now that's disappointing after all the joy they have bought to so many of our extended family.

Editors note:

My favourite item from this week's Aldi online catalogue:

18V Ni-Cd Cordless Power Tool Set - $ 79 *

• 1 x 18V Cordless Drill: No Load Speed: 0-550rpm, forward and reverse function, Clutch: 16 torque settings, Max Torque: 10 Nm, Chuck: 0.8 - 10mm
• 1 x 18V Cordless Delta Sander: No load speed: 600rpm, sanding sheet size: 90mm
• 18V Cordless Jigsaw: No load speed: 2300rpm
• 1 x 18V Cordless Lamp: Twistable 0-90 degrees. 2 x 1300mAh batteries and 1 x 1 hour quick charger
• 2 interchangeable batteries included

Proof readers note: Drill, sander, Jigsaw and lamp. I don't want to be harsh but, you might be able to work the lamp, but even that you would have to work out how to put the battery in.

Monday 4^th July – Happy Birthday America

Ever the adventurer Steve leapt out of bed this morning and headed off on the walk to the top pool.

Editors note: Again, if something is described as “top” it's more likely to be uphill than down!

It doesn't look steep in the photo,
but my calves can vouch for the fact that it was

Worth the walk though, Di really enjoyed the pictures I showed her of the view.

After all that exercise Di suggested I should have a nice cooling swim before we set off in MM. Well actually I think she said something about “you smell” go and have a swim or a shower.

That's a big bath

Wish I had read this sign before the swim:
Management practise "reduces the risk of estuarine crocodiles"
What happened to "Management guarantees that there are NO crocodiles in this pool"