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Day 10 - Elsey, Mataranka to Gunlom, Kakadu
We packed up and left Elsey national park by 9am, getting petrol in Mataranka $1.67 a litre.
Coming into Katherine about 10am there is a lot of traffic. We stopped in Katherine to get some groceries. There are a lot of indigenous people, and cars with caravans. There is a good shopping centre and supermarket. We caught up with phone messages and sent texts before we were out of service again and were back on the road at 11.15.
The road reminds me of the old road to Melbourne, many years ago. Two way traffic, slow vehicles, can't overtake because of a hill, a bend or an oncoming vehicle. There are overtaking lanes about every 20 km.
We turned in to Pine Creek and drove up to the lookout. There used to be mines here. We went back down and had lunch in a park. There was green grass and other travellers did the same. Merv talked to one guy who called in for a couple of nights and had been there 4 weeks. The sign said the van park was full. The town had a nice feel to it.
We turned off the highway here and headed for Kakadu. We stopped at the roadhouse for fuel and there were 2 buses from Bendigo there. It was a school trip. Fuel was $1.789 a litre.
We already have our park pass so into Kakadu we went. We stopped at an Information Centre which was very good, then we were on the road in to Gunlom. We had been talking to a couple who had been in there who said the road was rough. That was an understatement. The road was so corrugated that, with our light trailer, it took us 1 3/4 hours to drive 37km. We were very slow. A lot of vehicles passed us but we didn't want to risk breaking a spring. It was well worth the effort.
There is a big camping area and toilets and showers. We set up camp and wen for a look around. There is a nice day area with green grass and a lovely waterfall.
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