From Elliot to Katherine

A look down the main street at Elliot


This is the price per litre at Elliot


As a place, Elliot was not too bad but I really resented the blatant rip-off behavior against tourists and so will do my best to discourage any other campers to stop there. I topped up my tank again when I left Elliot so I didn't need to stop until I reached Katherine

The drive to Katherine was a bit more interesting with more varied landscapes, but all-in-all still relatively monotonous. The road heads mostly north-west but there are parts that go straight north, other sections almost directly west. The point I am about to make is, that the surrounds do present quite differently depending of the direction of the sun relative to myself looking at the landscape.

ppear flat, uninteresting, almost "dead" or should I say lifeless. With the sun coming from either side or from behind me, the trees and hills, even the grass looks much more alive, shadows appear and there is a lot more contrast to set off colours and shades of colours. So, on today's drive I had a mixture of many variants of the above. There was also a lot more traffic heading in the opposite direction.

When I am driving directly into the sun, the colours a

I was also surprised to see WW II remnants, like an army hospital and also an old airfield that was used during that time, all seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Further south there were also, at regular intervalls cattle grids across the road, delineating adjacent properties along the way and to stop cattle straying onto a neighbor's property - each time I drive across one of them I always expect a major jolt for my van, but so far, all I ever got was just a noisy rumble when I cross them at 90kmh.

There is only one time you can make a first impression, they say, my first impression of Katherine is a spacious and clean town with many modern buildings along the street. People are friendly and open. I feel quite welcome here and intend to stay a few days before heading out to Kakadu. Good to see large stores so I can try to re-stock my fridge with things I was not able to get back at Tennant Creek.