Dobra dan from Darwin,

I checked out relatively late from the motel, as I needed to wait ’til 9:00 to see if either of the two computer shops in town could supply me with a suitable replacement AC power adapter for my laptop. After provisioning at Brumbys, I did indeed manage to obtain an adapter at the second shop I visited.

I then headed north-west along the Stuart Highway, and just short of Pine Creek took a 30 km detour south-west to the Umbrawarra Gorge. This is a much smaller, less touristy, affair than the Katherine Gorge; there was only one other car there besides (and beside) mine. I had a very late (11:30am) morning coffee in the 5 car “parking area”, then took a short 1km walk to the start of the gorge proper:

On the other side of Pine Creek, I detoured off the Stuart Highway again, following a gravel road called the Goldfields Way, rejoining the Highway some 80 km later, near Hayes Creek, where I had late lunch.

Further north, I had intended detouring through the Litchfield National Park, and visiting some of the many waterfalls, but as I wasn’t making as good a time as I had expected, I decided not to. I’m now planning to backtrack south and do it tomorrow morning. Tomorrow’s destination is only 250km, to the east, so I should have plenty of time to fit it in.

Today’s temperatures were much the same as yesterday’s. I was in my motel room by 3:45. The Guest Compendium says “Wireless Internet Service is available throughout the resort”. Guess what? Not in my bloody room, in a far corner of the complex, it isn’t!!

Here’s the route on Google Maps:

Cheers,
Julian