Douglas Daly region

After leaving Megan & Craig, we travelled a whole 90km to Adelaide River. We stopped for morning tea at the Manton Dam and watched fisheries folk restock barramundi into the dam. The fish were 18 months old and quite a good size. The dam was very pretty with water lillies - it was built during the war to serve Darwin but now Darwin’s supply is from the nearby Darwin river dam. Our time at Adelaide River was peaceful and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset whilst chatting to a couple who holidayed at Boort and were friendly with an ex Murrabit couple we know. We continually find it’s a small world!

From there we came to this Douglas Daly park which is very relaxed and best of all, we can use our fire pit. It’s a very popular spot for campers in tents, swags and camper trailers as there are lots of secluded spots along the Daly

river. You do need to watch where you are walking however,  as Darryl, wearing thongs, nearly trod on what we believe to be a venomous black whip snake! That gave us quite a scare and we watched the path very carefully after that! 

We walked up to a lovely spot called The Arches, and a deep pool but neither are recommended as safe swimming spots - such a shame!

It is fortunate that there’s a beautiful swimming pool that’s very croc safe. 

We took what we believed to be a quick jaunt to nearby Crystal Falls - we didn’t reckon on a very rough dirt narrow track - which gave the Ranger a bit of a 4 WD workout! Of course driver and vehicle performed very well. 

The falls were very pretty and worth the trip. 

Along the way we were interested to see farm land with huge hay paddocks and a crop of young watermelons. We haven’t seen much cropping or agriculture in NT as it seems to be mainly cattle grazing. 

 The weather has decidedly changed with cooler mornings and nights and we’re wearing jackets and have our doonas on the bed again. The days however are still beautiful and warm with temperatures about 30. As we head further south, no doubt it will get cooler - we can’t stay up here forever! 

Today we head back to Katherine - it seems we know that town quite well. Dennis has his van booked in to have the brakes looked at - then we’ll be faced with the decision of heading east or south. 

We hope all our readers are well and keeping warm. Until the next blog, love from the happy travellers. ❌❌❌