Day 70 / 2025 - Katherine to Adelaide River

After 8 days in Katherine it was time to move on and head north again. From the Big 4 caravan Park near the Low Level reserve we headed left onto Zimin Drive then left again onto the Stuart Hwy. The Hwy seemed quite busy this day as we always seemed to have a stream of vehicles behind us. 

Our next stop was Pine Creek. We have been through here before but never really stopped overnight. Since we weren't in any rush we decided to camp for a few nights at Pussycat Flats as it had a lot of positive reviews on Wiki Camps. You could choose between powered ($30 pn) and non-powered ($18 pn). The powered sites were near the main building and structured with lines marking out the sites which were close together or un-powered you can just camp anywhere in a large grass paddock with plenty of room, we chose un-powered. The caravan park is the old no longer used racecourse. There is  bar there which is still use and is open during the dry season from 4pm to about 7pm were visitors and locals can come to have a drink. The orginal name for this area was Pussy Flats but due to PC ediquite it was renamed Pussycat Flats. The orginal name came from when this area was a staging point and rest area for Afgan Camelleers. The story goes the local girls use to come out to this location and be able to drink and enjoy the company of the regular visitors.

 We did take a drive into the town centre to have a look at the tourist attractions. There is a railway museum with an old steam loco and carridges on display which you can wander through. Next door is a park with old gold ming machinery used durring Pine Creek's gold mining era. We also took a drive up the Lookout which overlooks the old open pit gold mine. We finished off with a Mango Smoothie at Mayses Cafe which is part of the Pine Creek hotel. There is also the leaping Lizard hotel which looked quite busy during the lunch and afternoon session.

After a 3 night stay at Pine Creek we moved on to our next destination Adelaide River. This was another 100 odd Km heading north. We did have to make a brief stop for an oversize police escorted vehicle transporting a house south along the Stuart Hwy before arriving in Adelaide River. Our plan was to stay at the Racecourse/Showgrounds, presenting to the office we found it closed with a sign on the door advising please choose a site then come and see us later. After a small discussion we picked 2 sites about halfway down on the right hand side. We decided we would pay for 2 days then have an option of a third day if we wanted as this was another first in best dressed facility. During an evening walk we found a bar down the other end of the grounds serving meals and drinks. We checked on opening times thinking we could go tomorrow but found out this was the last night and wouldn't open again until after we left which made the decision for us. We chose burgers which were actually quite nice especially for only $15.00 each.

 Next day we went for a drive out to Mt Bundy station to check out alternative accomodation for our return trip back from Darwin as we were told it was quite nice. We then visited the World War 2 Cemetery where servicemen and civilians were killed during attacks on Australian soil. There were many from the initial Feb 1942 bombing of Darwin harbour as well as other later attacks. Darwin alone was bombed 64 times by the Japanese during the war. The cemetery gardens were immaculately kept with ongoing mowing, edging and general garden maintenance. From there we went for a walk through the main part of town ending up at the Shell station for a coffee, chips and cake. While the coffee & chips were good the cake was bloody awful with the bun stale and the cream tasting like water even though it was well inside its best before date.