Monday 23rd August - Katherine to Elsey National Park

We took our time sorting out the Land Rover and getting ourselves ready for the next three weeks as we prepared to cross the Gulf of Carpentaria and head up to Cape York, and didn’t leave the campsite until midday.  We were filling with diesel in Katherine when an old looking Series 40 Land Cruiser pulled up behind and the driver came over for a chat.  Hugh, the driver of the Toyota, explained that his vehicle was actually one of 249 built for the Australian army in 1995 for use in the Top End as a stop gap until they could sort out logistic support for their fleet of Land Rovers, and had lots of questions about our Camel.  We ended up having lunch together at the local McDonalds (our fast food fix and we wanted to use their free wi-fi), along with Hugh’s French friend who was riding shotgun for their trip down to Alice Springs to attend a gathering at the National Road Transport Hall of Fame (they were part of a 50 strong convoy of ex-military vehicles).

Later in the afternoon the warm waters of Bitter Springs in Elsey National Park at Mataranka, 100km south back down the Stuart Highway from Katherine, soothed our arching shoulders after our strenuous canoeing yesterday.  The water emerges from a natural aquifer at 34^oC and is the perfect temperature for a relaxing soak, not too hot and not too cold, and you can let the current gently carry you downstream through the lush tropical vegetation.  

Finally remembering to take our swimming goggles, we spotted small turtles darting around underwater as we drifted along, with the dappled late afternoon sun sending shafts of light through the crystal clear waters.

Annoyingly we had to fit a spare tyre before leaving Katherine as one of our rear tyres was flat, which, upon investigation when we reached the Elsey National Park campground at 12 Mile Yards, was due to the tyre fitters in Darwin leaving a small (1x2cm) label on the inside of the tyre which had rubbed a hole in the inner tube.  Before fitting I’d checked the tyres didn’t have any large product labels on as I’d heard of this problem, but I must have missed the little one.  The worry now is that the other new tyres may also have the same labels, with it only being a matter of time before their inner tubes are punctured.  Do we wait and see if they fail, or do we remove the tyres and check?  We decided to sleep on it as it was getting late and we were hungry, so we repaired the puncture and refitted the tyre. SPOT