Katherine
Katherine with about 3000 inhabitants was 150 km away. Once we had arrived there we treated ourselves with a double room at a motel. Despite being one of the bigger cities of the Northern Territories Katherine didn’t have to offer too much in terms of entertainment (is the outback after all mate). However two kilometers outside of town were some hot springs. The springs were in a nice tropical setting and we relaxed there for the better part of the afternoon. As the outside temperature was so hot it was at times hard to say which one was hotter the water in the springs or the outside temperature.After an excellent pork steak for dinner we indulged ourselves for the first
time with Australian TV. The advertisements deserved a special mentioning as they ranged from heavy machinery spare parts to cattle seamen (no joke) – so basically everything that is needed in the outback.
The next day
we visited Katherine Gorge which is about 30 km outside the city. With
over 40 degree it was almost unbearable hot and in addition the short
track we wanted to hike was closed. As the river cruises in the gorge
were a bit expensive we headed back to the city. After settling down in
Coco’s Backpackers (perhaps it’s owned by Coco Channel) we fled the heat
(which by this point in time was grilling our brains) and decided to
watch a movie. The movie “ARGO”
was at least as good as the very
nicely chilled cinema. The rest of the afternoon was killed by going
again to the hot springs. For dinner we had beef pies (apparently a real
Australian specialty we have been told).