Fabulous Scenery

After an early breakfast our coach was on its way south from Darwin to stop first at Adelaide River.

On the way south we learned a lot about the war time activities of this area and how the bitumen road served both as a Southern Access and as an airstrip for war planes. Evidence of those times is still on the sides of the road in the form of rusted 44 gallon drums that were once used as machine gun pits.

The Old Adelaide River Inn is home to a famous film star – the buffalo that appeared in the Crocodile Dundee movies! The buffalo died several years ago but has been “stuffed”and now supervises the happenings in the bar!

Since it was getting warmer and drier, many of us passengers bought ourselves bottles of water. Wanting a “sugar fix” I also bought myself a bottle of iced tea! Mango flavoured, very nice! Our next stop was the beautifully maintained war cemetery.

Here lie the unfortunate people of Darwin who were killed in the air raids on that city by the Japanese. By European standards the casualties were very small but to this remote area of Australia it was a catastrophe to lose over 400 people including 63 civilians.

The sprinklers were busy watering the imaculate lawns and the plantings of shrubs so we visitors had to time our walk among the markers on the ground so that we didn't get drenched too!

From here we made our way to Edith Falls. No one in the group wanted to swim so we enjoyed our sandwiches and juice in the picnic area and wandered around and took photographs.

This really is a beautiful waterhole and picnic area. The lawns are trimmed and the pathways paved so that it is easy to negotiate – which is important since we have two people in our group who are not very agile.

I don't know if I would call it the “best part of the trip” for the day but I certainly took the most photographs at the Katherine Gorge. We sat on a punt and were taken along the waters of the Katherine Gorge. The light was just beautiful and the scenery spectacular. Although I took hundreds of photos I will not share that many!

My final picture is of the canoes for hire, These are only for hire when the rangers are sure there are no esturine crocodiles to cause problems. The trees behind these canoes are weighted down with fruit bats. It is just as well I can't paste the horrible smell that these creatures put out! I thought the combination of the clean and colourful water craft contrasted so well with their backdrop!

AJ