Gator separation

We briefly said goodbye to our trusty Gator Caravan today. It was quite the ordeal. Not in any anxiety sense, just the logistics.
The first order of business was to extract sufficient camping equipment from the van for a two week tent camping trip into Arnhem Land.
Next, and who knew How hard it would be to complete a few online activities. To investigate and book accomodation for Xmas near Perth (Margaret River, Fremantle, and Leeuwin Nat Park) was so tedious because of the epically slow internet. How does anyone up here work online?
There is no such thing as “quickly duck into Woolies for some things for dinner”. The queue for self service was about 10, the express lane was about 25 people (don’t they know the meaning of express?). The area around the checkouts was a dodgem car park of elderly Nomads with overflowing trolleys.
The saddest task was waiting until 2pm for the bottle shop to open. Not so sad in itself, but the queuing at a closed door with 25 other people felt a little bizarre. There are some big social issues with alcohol up here so we must respect these measures. Our details are recorded at every bottle-shop. Police stationed at every outlet challenge people about where they are intending to drink their purchase and they do refuse service if they are not satisfied with the answer.
Eventually we quit Katherine and started our 739k trek up the Central Arnhem Road toward Nhulunbuy. Very dusty, very red, very corrugated, very popular with Road Trains (we just stop, let them pass, wait for the dust to settle and move on). With such a late start we only travelled 165k to a free camp at Flying Fox Creek which is reasonably grassed clearing with a fast flowing, clear and sandy bottomed creek. Not sure about the croc status here, but we managed a quick dip to wash away the dust of the road.
Writing this post in the quiet by the fire with a big sky.Read more