Another morning taking it slowly – felt good. I’ve finally started reading The Millennium Trilogy – I know I’m a little slow on the uptake (especially having watched the Swedish trilogy of films a few times, as well as the Hollywood remake).
We took it easy because we didn’t have any walks that we wanted to do in/around the gorge, and we had no where to go as we are spending the next week in Katherine (I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to get work doing my old job).
Amazingly with all the people I worked with and the rather large amount of time they spent in Katherine, I’d never heard mention of the hot springs in Katherine. I even asked someone once about NT hot springs, and I heard about Douglas Springs (we’ll be going there shortly), and Mataranka (we were there last week). We saw it mentioned in the Katherine tourist brochure, so we went and checked it out.
At first, it was just like Mataranka – shallow creek that had its banks protected with rocks/concrete and filled with tourists (yes, I realise that we too are the same as the other unwashed masses). A little further up the walkway was another, less crowded and nicer looking, pool. Only catch was there were no official ways in – in other words, you had to jump a small fence to get in!
It’s a comfortable median temperature – cool enough to spend an hour or two in, warm enough to spend an hour or two in. I had to drag Risa out after close to two hours.
For quite a while, I’d been following a Czech couple’s plans for their holiday around the world in a Mitsubishi Delica (http://delicajourney.webnode.cz/), including a lap around Australia. I knew they were getting close, so we got in contact. My mobile reception hasn’t been that great, so I didn’t get the message that they were also in Katherine today (I did get the message, but I thought they were going to be here tomorrow – the message was a day late). So, when we finally left the pool and saw their Delica (hard to miss) we couldn’t believe our luck! It was nice to share travel stories with them, especially since they’ve got the same car, and have come from where we’re headed.
Now there wasn’t much else to do other than check in to our hotel and wait for my colleagues to arrive. Oh, and to choose a dinner venue – possibly the most important decision of the working day (spoiler alert – Sunday lamb roast at Katherine Club).
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