18th May 2012 - 21st May 2012 Left Darwin and headed 670km back down to Katherine. We visited the famous Nitmiluk National Park, and climbed to see the awesome Nitmiluk Gorge previously known as Katherine Gorge. The gorge is huge and was tiresome to climb (for me, not Shan). You can explore for days but we were happy with seeing a little. On the trek back down we came across hundreds of kangaroos just eating their dinner. One had a little joey in her pouch, it was so cute. Stayed the night in a caravan park as Katherine didn't look too friendly come night fall.
Leaving Katherine in the morning we stopped off for a swim (and a wash) in the 32 degree springs in Mataranka which is the capital of the Never Never country. We stopped off for a beer at Daly Waters Pub which is an old outback pub covered in ID cards, hats and other memorabilia. It was also where Qantas used to stop to refuel en route to Singapore. Then we headed on down to the tourist park at Three Ways where we camped before.
The following morning we started our journey to the Red Centre, driving 510km. We stopped at the geographically oddity that is the Devils Marbles, a series of bolder rock formations which were created hundreds of thousands years ago when lava under the earth pushed the ground up. We climbed on the rocks and posed for odd angled photos before heading on down past the alien capital of Oz, where UFO sightings have been seen- we didn't see any though.
Then we carried on our 512km journey to Alice Springs. Just a few kilometres outside Alice we got a puncture and the tyre was shredded to hell. We fixed it and got a bought a new one. Headed for a camp site and chilled with our new DVDs the series of 'Breaking Bad'. And when I say chilled, it did get down to 1 degree at bed time.
After a long lie- due to the van and outside being so cold we couldn't get out from the dooner, we drove to Anzac Hill where we seen views of Alice Springs and the McDonnell Range, then had a look through the shops and bought a didgeridoo. I have to be honest here, the aboriginals scare me, and I wish they wouldn't cause I'm sure most of them are fine but they look scary and always seem to be shouting and swearing. Had another night in the camp site and headed on out in the morning.
