The karma bus: Day 305 – Elvis is here!

Mataranka – Katherine
137kms
30°c

This morning there was Barramundi feeding just up the road so Steve dropped Rach and Ella & Occy off and Troy met them down there with the other kids whilst Steve came back to camp to help slow poke (me:) finish packing up camp. By the time we got there they were walking out the front gate and advised that we didn’t miss much, I think Steve would rather be catching them than feeding them anyway!

After that little excursion we set off on our short drive to Katherine where it took us almost as long to find a caravan park that wasn’t charging an arm and a leg but we eventually found Springvale Homestead. What a little gem of a spot this park is, sure it might be a little dusty but for the price we got a shady site, spring water pool and even a resident Elvis – the freshwater Croc!

The pool was the only thing the kiddos were interested in although they were quite taken with Elvis and the snapping turtles living in the billabong that runs through the homestead. The water was lovely and warm, even Rach and I went in with them. Steve set off into Katherine in hope of finding a replacement door handle for the caravan as ours is about to bust off any day now! No joy but his mate Podgy that lives in Darwin is going to pick one up for us and drop if off Saturday when he comes down to visit his son at the airforce base, fingers crossed it hangs on till then?! On returning Steve joined us for a dip before we all headed into the town centre, we were spoilt to have a Woolies in town. I found it to be a very sad place, the local people seemed lost, and my heart broke for the alcoholic sleeping on the pedestrian crossing in the carpark. Ella and Oscar seemed a little frightened by the sight but also showed great compassion and I just felt helpless…

We returned to the homestead and Steve took Ella & Occy for another swim after we were greeted by the sight of Elvis again, a backpacker said she’s been here a week and hadn’t sighted him yet!

Ella and Occy had only just gotten dry and changed out of their cossies when the others returned and Troy kindly added two more to his bunch and set off to the pool. It was nearing dusk when they returned just in time to eat dinner before I took them to the Helipad to enjoy the Astronomy Downunder Show. The show is run, by a couple from Belgrave, Victoria that travel over the winter months doing it. We were given brief explanations on the milky way, clusters and were able to look through their super telescope which was vastly different than my vintage store bargain that couldn’t spot a street light! They showed us different types of clusters, we got to see Saturn with it’s many rings which was amazing but we all agreed our favourite was definitely the moon! It was one of the most spectacular, tranquil things I have ever seen and I could’ve quite easily stared at it all night.