Sunday 17th to Thursday 22nd May 2009
Day 41/46 Recuperating in Katherine.

I don't care about Marg's health, I am dying, I have caught Marg's cold and guess what, I feel bloody awful. By the way, Marg is slowing improving, good, she can care for me, cause I'm not well.

The weather is warming up, my overnight minimum was an absolutely balmy 17c at 7:00am.
I went and had a shower about 7am. Did I tell you that I am dying, cause I am.

First thing this morning, I went and extended our stay here at Katherine by another 4 days, total now of 7 days. As I was feeling bloody awful, I thought that I would do all these things around camp, such as, wash the van, I didn't do anything. We went into town about 10:30am to do some shopping at Woollies, then called into NT Rare Rocks. Around lunchtime, I went and had a sleep, well tried too. Remember, I am not well.

I was having trouble with my Satellite TV this morning, all of a sudden, it would lose transmission and then regain it, very annoying. I think that I have trees all around me and I am trying to point the Dish through the gaps. Tomorrow I will go and visit Johnny's Electronics, opposite Woollies, and buy another extension aerial.

The temperature about 5pm tonight, was 28c. I am sitting in the van with the Air Cond on.

Tomorrow, we plan to do bugger all.

Weatherwise great. Healthwise, we both feel bloody awful.

We did a couple of loads of washing before going into town. Marg wanted to find the Club which has Pokies, so when we are better, we will visit it. Found it, it's called Katherine Country Club, checked it out, has pokies, bistro and cold beer, looks good. Can't wait to give first hand report.

Visited Johnny's Electronics shop, took the Dish in, Johnny checked it all out, everything appears right, problem is me. I told him that I had a cold, He didn't care. Bastard.
Anyway, I bought a 15m extension cable so I can put my Dish away from the trees. That appears to have solved my problem. Marg bought a magnifying light for her rocks, that was a little surprise for me.

Early afternoon, with the air cond on in the van, I had a big nanna nap. If you have forgotten, I have a cold. Marg is having her nanna nap now.
Current weather report as at 4:10pm: Inside van 26.6c outside van 33.6c.

Weatherwise great. Healthwise, we both feel awful. Upgraded from bloody awful to awful.

We did a couple of loads of washing before going into town. We had some shopping to do at Woollies.
About 4:30pm we got ready for our dinner tonight at the Katherine Country Club. Signed in about 5pm, Marg off to the pokies, me to the bar. No VB on tap, so I drank XXXX Gold, it tastes like crap. Another lesson learnt. At 6pm ordered dinner, Marg had a beef schnitzel and I had a chicked parma. Gees, they breed the beef and chicken bloody big in NT, our meals were huge. Marg's beef was about 12" x upto 6" wide, way to big for Marg, she ate about a quarter of it and brought the rest home. My chicken parma was similiar size, but as you know I am a pig, so I ate it all.

The air cond will be on again tonight, it's the only way to sleep.

Weatherwise great. Healthwise, we are feeling better.

I finished washing the van this morning. About lunchtime, I had my first ride since being on this trip. I rode along the sealed bike path along the Katherine River, into town on the west side and back to camp along the east side, about 12kms in total.
About 400 meters into the ride as I am struggling up an incline surrounded by 3 ft high grass, a kangaroo bounded across the path in front of me. An interesting moment.
On the way, back to camp, I checked out the Hot Springs, they looked inviting. I arrived back to camp after approx 40 minutes. I will probably ride the next 2 days.

After lunch, Marg and I went to the Hot Springs, they were beautiful, we spent about 90 minutes in the stream and loved it. We are going back there for the next 2 days.
The air cond will be on again tonight, it's the only way to sleep.

Tomorrow, we plan to do a boat tour of the Katherine Gorge.

Weatherwise great. Healthwise, we are feeling better.

I went for my second ride today, all the way upto the Katherine Hospital, no I didn't need the hospital. A total of 17kms.
We were booked on the 1pm Katherine Gorge boat tour. This was a great relaxing tour, the sights were awesome, I like Gorges filled with water instead of canyons that you walk through. We saw crocodile tracks on the beaches and we saw 2 crocodiles sunning themselves on the waters edge. It was well worth the $56 each.

I finally weaken and drove into town and ordered a beautiful pizza from Nino's pizza and chicken.

Tomorrow, I plan to ride to the RAAF Base and then we are off to the Hot Springs.

Weatherwise great. Healthwise, we are feeling a lot better.

I went for my third ride today, I followed the bikepath along the river, into town, then along the Staurt Hwy to the RAAF base. Only problem was, that I ran out of bike path at the road that goes to the Katherine Airport. A total of 35kms. I met Dean another cyclist who is a Fireman on the RAAF base, nice guy.

Got back to camp and Marg had decided that I could drive her to the Katherine RSL, so she could play the pokies, which I obediently did. While she was playing the pokies I bought the latest map of Australia for our Tomtom GPS. Picked Marg up and filled the mighty Navara up ready for tomorrow's departure to Howard Springs, Darwin. We went to the Hot Springs for about 1.5hours, it is really nice.

Back at camp, I started packing up, ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow we goto Howard Springs, where we are booked for 7 days for starters.