Gismo Queen and her King

Day 20 - Tomato Island to Katherine

We have completed half of the Savannah Way!! For years, Greg and I have often looked at the sign in Cairns that says left turn, Broome via the Savannah Way; and have often said we should do that one day. Well, we have now done almost the full half (Cairns to Katherine, as we joined it at Undara, a couple of hours from Cairns). We wouldn't call it Highway 1 (even though it is!) given the road conditions we have seen but it has certainly been an experience.

This morning was a lovely morning at Tomato Island, except for the keen fisherman who were launching their boats at sunrise. We had coffee and the last of the Lorella Springs bread before packing up and being on the road by 9am. We had 45 kilometres of dirt into Roper Bar (which was actually off the road, so we missed it) and then another 40 until the bitumen. Thankfully, there was a rest area (a novelty - we haven't seen one of them for ages!) 100m before the bitumen started where we pulled in for morning tea, to pump up the tyres before we were off again. The 180km into Mataranka was single lane bitumen so I still had to be on the lookout for oncoming traffic as that involved moving one side of tyres onto the dirt. We arrived in Mataranka by lunchtime and marvelled at civilisation! We got some fuel, lunch and were back on the Stuart Highway for the last 100km into Katherine.

The joy of smooth, wide bitumen! With a 130km speed limit! That freaked me slightly but I stuck to my 90km/hr and we arrived in Katherine an hour later. Straight to the tourist information centre for the dump point, and then out to the caravan park where I very excitedly got to see my best friend again! Two and a half months after we waved them off at our house on the first night of their big caravan trip, and they have travelled across the country and all through WA, and then we went up the centre of the eastern states - we have met up in Katherine. Together, we will now travel Darwin, Litchfield, Kakadu and down through the Centre. It is so exciting, and so wonderful to see Lisa and her family (complete with hand drawn welcome pictures from a very excited Kobi) and we are really looking forward to the next stage of our trip.

posted by Tracey @ 8:43 pm