Towns River, Mataranka and Katherine

Our last stop in the wonderfully remote and peaceful Limmen National Park was Towns River, a much larger river than most in Limmen. We camped just steps from the edge on a rock platform and marvelled at the sunrise and the resident crocodile. Russ caught a queen fish on a garfish that he netted and was the hero of the campsite - fish catching has decreased due to the temperature drop, the poor wet season and maybe because the fishing spots are getting fished out!!

Yes, that's a croc in the photo below - he just cruised up the river and then disappeared below the water.

 

As often happens, we just came across a lagoon with loads of birds - very pleased to see loads of white necked herons poking around in the water and hanging out in the dead trees and a family of brolgas with a youngish one too (the one in front is the young one).

We decided not to go into Tomato Island because you have to have a boat to go fishing there, apparently, and in any case it was such a pleasure to even consider driving on bitumen that we were tempted towards Mataranka and the highway!

We camped in Elsey National Park near Mataranka and swam in the Roper River there and woke to  10 degree C in the morning. The beautiful clean warm waters of Mataranka and Bitter Springs were a great antidote after all the dust of Limmen, and we then headed up to Katherine. Finding out that the 4 week NT school holidays had just started, meaning that all camp sites would be full and busy was a shock. Oh dear!! After trudging around Katherine to find the Northern Land Council and National Parks offices, to find out that the road Coburg Peninsula was so dire they wanted to talk us out of going there, was another blow.

We pushed on to Katherine Gorge national park campground which was sadly snarled up with parked vehicles waiting to check in... welcome back to civilisation!!