Kokomo

From Mary River we returned briefly to Darwin to catch the bus south. The accommodation was like Christmas Eve, and we ended up camped on a gravel driveway at the back of a lower preference hostel amongst the whole cast from Bondi Tsunami. We had dinner as the sun set at the Mindel Beach Markets and had a fortuitous meeting with Tim and Mel, an SPC connection, who were staying at a swanky hotel in the CBD with room to share! So we waded throught the crowd at the hostel and packed up our tent to the bewilderment of our Japanese neighbours, wandered to the hotel in the balmy Darwin evening and retired to a couple of XXXX and a few rounds of 500.



Katherine was as I remembered it though the townsfolk have installed loudspeakers at regular intervals along the main strip, pumping out easy listening favourites like 'Take it Easy' and 'Kokomo'. Completely incongruous with the dusty scene of roadtrains, gray nomads and scatterings of Aboriginals whose volume is something that takes me time to get used to.



We got a bus to the Gorge and camped in our 'couples tent' amongst the Winnebagos, schoolgroups and vans. People love a chat at these parks. We hired a double canoe and paddled to the second gorge. A large croc trap on one bank caused me some quiet concern. We saw one medium freshy on the return paddle. Paddling together, like dancing, is difficult for us as it only works if one leads and the other follows. I ended up getting Lisa to just sit and I paddled. The photo shows Lisa at the base of the second gorge, and yes, she's gorgeous: