On the way to the West I

Blog No. 5

The walk to the upper Edith Falls was very beautiful and we were also among the first to get up there and almost the first in the water - at least Sina and I were the first under the waterfall :-) A beautiful spot on earth - many smaller natural pools, sometimes shallow, sometimes deep. After the descent we continued towards Katherine - but not without stopping at the railway line. Yesterday afternoon a freight train passed by - so for our 'railroader' we parked the car, opened our sunroof and waited for the train with a cold coke :-) After about 1.5 hours it was finally time and a freight train came by - quite long and probably very impressive - a train just for us :-) Then on to Katherine and further into Nitmilug NP. There is exactly one campsite here that can be reached by car. There don't seem to be any shorter walks, so we spontaneously decided to book a boat tour for the next morning - also expensive, but we're only here once :-) The campsite very commercial and at $56 the most expensive we've had so far. The next morning at 6:45 am we met at the river. There was a small breakfast with coffee/tea/cocoa/banana bread and some fruit. We were able to sit right at the front of the boat in the first row and it was really worth it. A huge gorge that the Katherine River has carved into the sandstone (at least 30m high). Beautiful colors and an icy wind greeted us in the gorge. 2h of the most beautiful nature, the river still waking up... After dismantling the tent and replenishing supplies as well as a short visit to the train station, which seemed completely dead, we continued on Victoria Highway heading west. After about 250km there was a roadhouse - actually we wanted to go to Timber Creek, but we all found the house so quaint that we decided to spend the night here - we felt like in an American highway movie. In the evening we treated ourselves to a burger and watched the Aussies using such a roadhouse :-) Typical cowboys - you didn't know what was dirt and what was tan - the face is hard to see under the baseball cap and they loudly get their beer for the evening (everyone their own six pack). Occasionally a road train also passed by and brought something. The drivers of these trains are comparable to our long-distance drivers - so not very spectacular :-) Then on to Judbarra Gregory NP - actually with a few walks - but mainly this NP is designed for 4WD tours. Unfortunately, the road to the hikes was closed, so we were already on the campsite at noon, which was really pure outback - also very nice by the river. But that was too boring for us. We couldn't go hiking much - the bush was too high for that, and the family didn't want to do one of the 4WD tours either - well, on we go. Next stop Black Horse Campsite - as a stopover to get to Keep River National Park. Here we sit with many many other campers, who are on their way to the west of Australia, with almost a full moon. This reminds me of something I absolutely have to report. The kids found out that the ground often sparkles when they have a headlamp on. They examined this further and found that it is spiders. They then told me about their discovery and suddenly I saw that it sparkles all around us!!!! All spider in the grass, in the leaves - that's why I decided not to use a headlamp, because with the flashlight in my hand you can't see the spiders :-)