Day 16 - Renner Springs to Katherine

Today I took it easy. Got up late, after a cold night with rain, I needed the rest and I am not that much in a hurry anymore.

I had a look at the famous 'Renner Springs' It wasn't really much, I was led to believe that this place is worth a look, so I made a punch to get here. however, the night was terrible, as the camping grounds are just next to the highway, and the noise of the trucks kept waking me up. Not nice, especially when there are thousands of free miles just behind the road house. Why didn't they put the camping there? Beats me.

The 'spring' was just a puddle of dirty water where you can't swim. I should have stopped at the last camping grounds, about 45kms south of here, where the camping was away from the road.



The locals were very friendly though

Then on the way to Katherine, I found lots and lots of termite mounds. These things have been here for donkeys' years, who knows how many zillions are there. In fact we are at war with them, we keep destroying their mounds to make roads and they eat our houses.

I wonder what happen if they claimed the land, as they have been here for more than any human. While I was wondering that, I saw this and I stopped.

The first fella I met was very friendly, he wants to learn our ways and be like all of us. he just wants to fit in. Although he is very slow, he moves about a metre every years or so



I also met this one, he asked me 'Take me to your leader' I was wondering if this is Julia...

And what else would you find on the way, specifically in Larrimah? Well, the Pink Panther of course!

The Pink Panther is in Larrimah

The I found this at the Hi Way Inn. What do you do when you don't have the best beer? well, you can always have the biggest!

A collection of interesting drinks in this place

Waht did I say?

And the keep coming...

No they don't...

Then just about 27km's from Katherine (by the way, the locals read it ending as in 'fine') I found one of the best places so far, I really needed this place. I am talking about Mataranka. Thanks Craig for your suggestion, they are really the best.

This place has a small pool of thermal waters (31 degC) and the water is the cleanest you have ever seen, the water purs from the depths at millions of litres a day, and it comes at the temperature of the basin, which is about 50 to 100 metres down the earth.

Arrived at Elsey National Park, the location of the pool

informationa about the park

What it means is that if you encouter a croc, you should measure it's snout and if the ratio is 4:1, the it's ok, it just might bite you, but if the ratio is 2:4 then you are probably already dead. if this scares you, then you should have never left the big smoke to start with.

Arrived at Katherine, just before it got dark

Got greeted by the locals

Day 15 - Alice Springs to Renner Springs

Day 15 - Alice Springs to Renner Springs

Alice Springs was extremely cold this morning, it was raining and really a sad day. Have to keep moving, I have a flight to take on Sunday from Darwin and there are lots of things to do on the way.




The camping in Alice Springs, very nice and reasonable

The camping however, very nice and with a great tavern next door to it. There was music on the night before; country music. I've never liked country music very much, but this time, I loved it.

There was a funny incident at the tavern. The musician wanted to sing some love songs, so he asked the audience who is in love... there was silence, even though there were many couples, so there I was, sitting on my own writing the post and I put my hand up. He said: 'Great, where is your girl' and I said, she is not here, I am travelling alone. He was surprised and said to all the audience: 'blokes, you should be ashamed of yourselves' And all the women started saying things to their partners, not nice things. Anyway, he asked what song I'd like him to play. I said: 'I've got a friend' from Carol King. He didn't know it. Then I said 'I will always love you' from Whitney Houston. He didn't know that one either. he said that he only knows country songs, so he chose one for me.

Alice Springs, from Anzac Hill.

On the way north, I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (for the third time during this trip), but the sign was so nice that I thought it deserved a photo. do you see the band on the globe?

The sign at the bottom of the globe

Then a bit more north I saw these incredible sculptures that could be seen from the distance. Look at this.

The view from the road, 2 females on the ground and a make up the hill

A closer view

Look at the size of this thing!



Something else that amazed me was that the females were anatomically correct, it is usually normal to see anatomically correct male statues, but have never seen a female one.

Continuing the trip up north, I came across Wycliffe, where they claim is the 'Capital UFO' of Australia. Apparently there are UFO sightings here almost weekly. It all taken with a bit of fun.

The 'aliens' of Waycliffe



Now nobody can say I wasn't here

The shops of course are full of aline paraphernalia

The local press helps maintain the concept

And more from the press

I loved this one

Now, there are actually genuine 'aliens' in this place, there is a crab. yeah a crab! that lives here. Thousands of kilometres to the nearest ocean. this crab buries itself in the mud and so creates a humid environment where it can survive the dry season. It can survive up to a year without water of food. If you want to look it up, it's called the desert crab (Halthuisiana transversa).


And that's it. I pushed it very hard to get to Renner Springs before it got dark. A distance of approx 700km's. Crossed a few Kangaroos on the way, but luckily, none too close.



When I arrived to Renner Springs, I was greeted by the local geese

I did not have internet or mobile signal at Renner Springs, so I am doing yesterday post, today.