The Never Never

Jeannie Gunn wrote a book ‘We of the Never Never’ about her life on an outback cattle station in 1902.  That cattle station was south of Katherine and the book has become something on an Australian classic.  We found the reconstruction of her home, Elsey Station Homestead, and wondered at the hard life that people lived at that time.  Our journey into the town of Katherine took a few hours.  In 1902 it took four days – each way!  We also found the graves of some of the characters mentioned in her book, including her husband Aeneas Gunn and the ‘postman’ affectionately known as ‘The Fizzer’.  Having read the book, we found it fascinating to see the places mentioned.

We reckoned that was sufficient culture on a hot winters’ day so adjourned to the nearby Bitter Springs Thermal Pool and gently soaked in the crystal clear warm water, drifting slowly with the stream as it emerged from an underground spring. 

Overnight camp was at the Mataranka Homestead, and as it was Kim’s birthday we ate at the outdoor restaurant and watched the evening entertainment – Nathan Griggs who, apart from being the world’s faster whip cracker has developed an act around his skill.  His finale with two flaming whips was as unusual as it was spectacular.

The town of Katherine is not large, but it does have a Woolworths (Aussie supermarket for overseas readers).  After a couple of weeks of outback stores where the range is minimal and the prices are staggering, Kim took time out to enjoy perusing the shelves and we stocked up on fresh provisions with only Mike’s famed ability to pack a quart into a pint pot allowing all that needed to be stacked in the fridge to actually go in. 

You’ll recall that we’ve been travelling with our two American friends, Glyn and Chuck in their Defender 110.  Unfortunately Chuck has developed something that he calls a ‘bad back’.  It seems he’s suffering from a trapped nerve that is causing him a great deal of pain, we suspect a great deal more than he’s saying.  Camping in a tent is not ideal and with a bit of probing we’ve collectively found him cabins with proper beds for a couple of nights whilst Glyn and his comprehensive medical kit has provided a supply of pain killers.  As a temporary solution it’s enabled Chuck to get by for a while but he’s managed to arrange a flight to Sydney a couple of days ahead to be with his son and family and so today (Monday 20^th July) we parted whilst Glyn took Chuck to Darwin for his flight.  We wish him well and hope that he can find a remedy to an extremely debilitating condition.  Good luck Chuck, we’ll be thinking of you.  We’re planning on meeting up with Glyn in a day or so and will again travel in convoy for a while.

People visit Katherine to see the gorge, otherwise known in the aboriginal tongue as Nitmiluk, or ‘place of the cicadas’.  Our trip took in two of the gorges, carved out by tens of thousands of years of flooding and weather erosion but we neither heard nor saw a single cicada! 

We did however, see a trap for estuarine crocodiles, but we didn’t see any of those either, although a fresh water croc did pop its head up but decided we weren’t really interesting.

Day turned to night, quickly as it does in the tropics and we enjoyed Kim’s special creation of Gado Gado al la Vin Rouge.  On that note I’ll wish you well and relax before turning in comfortably in our rooftop tent.