In this blog we head up through the centre of the Northern Territory along the Stuart Highway with stops at two iconic locations and five nights in Darwin before heading to Jabiru.

Although we were heading for Bitter Springs we decided to check out Mataranka Thermal Springs and caravan park on the way.  It looked ok but we prefer the springs at Bitter Springs.

We had three nights booked in the caravan park next to Bitter Springs thermal pool and we thought it would be  three days of relaxation.  We made a few visits to the thermal pools and again enjoyed floating along the pool  on our noodles but somehow we managed to find lots of jobs to do when we were there.  These included washing clothes, repairing the van and washing the van in their free car wash bay.  Couldn’t resist doing a free van wash, as it was covered with red dust.  Also a lot of time was spent stressing when we completely lost our total blog from the web.  Fortunately our friend, Kevin, managed to retrieve it for us.

After leaving Bitter Springs we visited the town of Katherine to fill with water and stock up at Woolworths, our favorite grocery store,  Its then only a 30 km drive out to Nitmiluk Gorge (aka Katherine Gorge) which is owned by the Jawoyn people.  The Nitmiluk National Park is managed under a 99 year lease by the Northern Territory Parks & Wildlife Commission in association with Jawoyn people, culture and traditions.  The words ‘Sharing Our Country’ feature on the Jawoyn Association logo and sum up their attitude to Nitmiluk.

Two years ago we did a helicopter flight over the 13 gorges in the park.  This time we wanted to explore the park on foot and on the water.  We settled into the campground, not our favorite as it was very crowded, and planned our stay as there were lots of walks along the gorges to chose from (ranging from 1.8 km to 39 km).

Our first walk was the 5km lookout walk at sunset and it gave us (and lots of others) beautiful views of the gorge and the sunset colors.

To start our big day of walking we did the 8 km walk to Pat’s Lookout (we had to really).  Lucky my name wasn’t Lily, as that was a 20 km walk!  A beautiful sunny 32C day, so it was a pleasant outing and we met nice people to chat to along the way.

We gave ourselves a couple of relaxing hours out of the sun before doing a late afternoon two hour, two gorge cruise.  This seemed a good way to get the most out of our Nitmiluk experience, and it gave us another view and appreciation of the gorges and their aboriginal history (our guide was aboriginal).  We finished off our day listening to live music while sitting with our feet in the pool.  After over 21,000 steps in the heat, my feet enjoyed that.

Next stop for us was Darwin and our target for the day was the Sunday Sunset Mindel Markets, so we made an early start (leaving anywhere before 8am is an early start for us).  Darwin was a good place to stock up and get ready for our three week tour in Arnhem Land.  We have a favorite caravan park and quite enjoy spending time in Darwin.  The markets were good, lots of clothes etc and impressive food options. We also enjoy catching up with Lyn and Graham when we are there.

Our five days in Darwin passed very quickly and without trying too hard we managed to support the local community with multiple purchases including a computer, a camera and swimmers as well as fun purchases like tyres, shovel, air filter and a $100 machine to deter insects.  Not to forget the endless washing, filling with water and dumping, so all was ready for 20 days in Arnhem Land. We drove to Jabiru, the one town in Kakadu National Park. As we’d been there before we gave ourselves a relaxing afternoon before officially starting our Arnhem Land tour that evening.