Katherine Day 2

06/06/2010

Today we are driving around to see a few sights in Katherine other than the locals and went to have a look at Springvale homestead onto Low Level and then out to the museum. At Springvale the place was built around 1890 and has been kept in its original form. Trees have been planted for the birth of children around that time and these same trees are still here, they are South African Rain Trees. They are huge lumpy trees with masses of leaves that rain moisture in the evening. We came across other old trees which we were told were African Mahogany trees, these things are over 100 years old.

We couldn't help but notice the heat 42 degrees with high humidity, it was a dash and flash for photos to get back to the car.

Through Low Level which is an old one lane bridge west of the current road bridge which must have serviced the traffic heading to Darwin many years ago and onto the museum. The museum was the original airport which was bombed by the Japanese; parts of the old runway are still there. It was typical of most old museums which I love and Trice hates but I managed to drag her around for some time. During our tour we were shown a documentary of the 1998 flood and it just confirmed the tenacity of this town, I was growing to like the place to which Trice said “You have got to be kidding!”

We raced back to our van to get dressed up as tonight we are off to have dinner with ‘Marksie’, the Bush Tucker Man.

A bit of spit and polish, a bit of wine in the bag and off we going to meet up with Marksie at the museum grounds at his bush tucker camp site. We were met by a family from Darwin, a young couple from the USA and another young couple from the Netherlands. The camp fires were

glowing and Marksie met us with a real bushy greeting. Between serving jungle juice and meals Marksie told yarns all night. He served up an entree of Kangaroo marinated in a secret sauce, Camel sausages, barramundi and damper. This was followed up with a main of lamb, beef, peas and pumpkin seasoned with bush herbs. Dessert was a traditional billy tea and damper scones. It was a very entertaining evening and the food was delicious.