It's very hot over here. We're dripping with sweat and it seems the only way to relieve ourselves from the heat is with water poured over us. I get very cranky and moody with the intense heat. I get even worse when there's heat and flies together. Poor Stewart has been subjected to my moods the last couple of days. I'm doing my best to control it :) and Stew's learning to stay out of the way.
We're heading out of Katherine today, making a start for Darwin. I found a brochure at the last petrol station about the thermal springs in Katherine, so we stopped by to take a dip. The brochure didn't mention the warning about crocodiles! We figured it was safe enough though because there were people everywhere. It was so beautiful, but I couldn't help watching my back in the water in fear of being gobbled by a crocodile ... the only dangerous underwater creature was Stewart!
Katherine Thermal Springs
That's me in the water!
Stewart doing his best 'croc about to attack' impersonation
After being refreshed we had a milkshake (extra malt, extra chocolate) in Katherine city centre as a treat. Walking between the car and the cafe we lost the car keys and spent the next half an hour looking for them. Luckily we found them before the panic set in.
... some nice news: I had an email from the Australian Songwriters Association saying that two of my songs are shortlisted for the Australian Songwriting Competition. One of the songs was 'Green' which is shortlisted in both the 'Open' section and the 'Pop' section and another song I entered, but I can't remember which one : ) So that put an extra spark to my day. Stew had two of his songs shortlisted too. We'll wait and see what happens.
Made it a little past Pine Creek. We stayed in a rest area for the night and then plan to get to a caravan park tomorrow. Stew needs power to finish some jingles and we need to charge a few things.
18 August 2010
The coolest time of the day is about 3am in the morning till about 9 am and then it starts to really heat up. The landscape has changed a lot from Katherine heading to Darwin. It's getting very tropical. Lots of palm trees and small gum trees. Very beautiful, but dry.
This morning I got a big bottle of water and started the day by emptying it over myself in my swimmers. Today we don't have to travel very far. We're heading towards a town called 'Adelaide River' which is only about half an hour from here. Along the way there we noticed there was smoke in the distance, just off the highway. I guess bushfire season is winter up here - maybe the wet season is too wet? As we passed through the smoke we noticed there was bushfire close to the road and it looked a bit out of control. There were hawks flying over the fire, probably feeding on all the insect and animals forced out of their habitat. We took a quick pic and got out of there.
Fires on the way to Darwin
We found this gorgeous campsite called Mt Bundy Station. It's a cattle station a few k's out of the way from Adelaide River. It was like we had stepped into a resort. There was a pool, there were horses everywhere, there were palm trees and there were kangaroos everywhere. Freddy was having a ball (he even found some lyre birds to harrass again), we were nestled under a mango tree. Tropical freedom!
While Stew was in the van working in the heat, I headed off to the pool and stayed there most of the day. I was in heaven until I got bitten by a fly and then bitten by a small spider....luckily they apparently don't have poisonous spiders in the NT, only poisonous snakes.....I don't normally kill flies but I could have killed that one.
A guy's gotta earn a living
19 August 2010
This morning we did our usual ablutions and then headed off to the pool having a fantastic time and then Stew says 'Get out of the pool'....I'm like 'What' and then when I got out I saw a massive spider in the water crawling around the bottom. At that point we didn't know that NT has no poisonous spiders, we thought it could be a funnel web spider....shish! This didn't deter us, we decided after all our gigs in Darwin we'll head back to Mt Bundy Station and stay for a couple of days.
Today we're heading into Darwin first to check out the ABC Radio. We have an interview and live performance there tomorrow and also a show at the City library after that. Then a 4 hour show at the Humpty Doo Hotel out of town...It's going to be a busy day.
We have 7 gigs in 3 days, so I hope we'll have enough time to really see Darwin. It's not really as big as I imagined.
Evening - Tonight we're staying a little bit out of town because there is nowhere to camp in Darwin. The beaches are not swimming beaches, they have box jelly fish, sharks and of course crocodiles so it's life threatening to swim anywhere in Darwin.
So we're in a crammed little caravan park not far away, boxed in like sardines. I get a little bit shitty about that, considering we just came from a beautiful cattle station with lots of space. Freddy has to be tied up and there's rules everywhere. We're here for 3 days ... oh well, they do have a lovely pool though!
Freddy hiding under the car from the heat
I really have to get into the performing zone again for tomorrow. I've had a few days off, so I have to mentally put myself back into it. The show at the library will be a concert style performance, so I have to work on my personality and patter for that type of show, but the most important thing is that I have to be relaxed with the audience.
I have a quote that get's me gee'd up before I perform 'Sing or Die...Gone tomorrow'.
Anyway enough of my jibber jabber...I've gotta get to the pancakes I'm making....You can call them 'Snez's bush cakes'.
That;s golden syrup swirls on the top - Stew calls it 'Cocky's Joy'
xxxx
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