TOD Tour 2.0 Day 46 - Katherine Museum, The Low Level Crossing, Marksie's Camptucker

Birthdays on the road are always a bit odd. There are none of the routines one is used to. To make
matters more complicated, my birthday, which I have always shared with my Dad, became lonely this year with his passing last November. Having shared the day with him for 62 years, it was a very empty feeling when the day dawned.

This didn’t stop Sue from making sure it was a great day for me.

The first treat was breakfast at the Gorge Cafe at Nitmiluk NP, out on the balcony which towers over the Katherine River. Bacon and eggs and coffee were a very good start and a second coffee and brownie back inside the Cafe, in the necessary comfort of the air conditioning, was a logical next step. We were driven inside less by the heat and more by the racket from the cleaners phone, being used as musical accompaniment to his work by blaring out Euro techno funk.

Returning back to our digs, I took a FaceTime call from grandchildren and their parents, another video call from our eldest and his new family and an “old fashioned” call from my dear octogenarian Aunt, who has been calling me on my birthday for as long as I can remember. Joy is my father’s sister, so this year, the call had a special poignancy for both of us.

Before lunch we went to the Katherine Museum, which features an extensive collection of First World War memorabilia and some excellent videos on past floods in Katherine. Katherine features a very high bridge over which the Stuart Highway - the only road between Darwin and Adelaide - passes 18 metres above the Katherine River. In 1998, the floods peaked at 22 metres and the impossible was achieved, the submersion of the high bridge.

In a hanger outside, a description of the main characters who have featured in Katherine’s history is provided on large boards which also feature excellent portraits. This was a really effective display. In the centre of this large space is one of the original Royal Flying Doctor aircraft. I think I’d want to be pretty crook before they carried me onto one of them!

I missed some of the displays because a good mate from Tamworth, Lindsay Henderson, rang me to offer greetings and salutations appropriate for the day. As usual, we rabitted on about music and a host of problems besetting the world that my absence has prevented us from solving in our weekly coffee sessions.

We continued into town and went to the Low Level Crossing Nature Reserve, which is as it sounds, a weir which forms the other crossing over the Katherine River. It is the original crossing point and was the course the Stuart Highway used to take. It’s now a delightful series of shallow river pools which the locals used to cool off on hot days and to catch some fish. Local Aboriginal families were the dominant customers and the kids, in particular, were have a great deal of fun.

Meanwhile, at the fence line separating the carpark and the slopping bank down to the river, signs warning of estuarine or saltwater crocodiles were displayed prominently in several places. We didn’t swim.

Back at the digs, I spent an hour on admin tasks, my least favourite part of being on the road, regardless of its absolute necessity and also did some further MacGyvering on the ignition system of the gas part of our three way fridge.

Our evening was spent at Marksies Camptucker Night. The food was outstanding and featured bush herbs and spices and bush tucker. They went to so much trouble to cater for our food intolerances and those of another younger couple from England. Dining under the stars, with most of the tucker and drinks made from things found out in the scrubs was a special way to end my birthday. There was even a specially made gluten-free chocolate cake for the birthday boy.

Click for today's photos

Unfortunately, the yarn telling left a little to be desired, with Marksie spending too much time crowing about how unique he is and not enough showing it.

However, that didn’t detract from a good birthday.