Now Open Under New Wife

We had planned to spend the night in Katherine and go canoeing up Katherine Gorge, but when we arrived at the hotel in Katherine, we found out they hadn't opened the gorge to canoeing yet, after the recent floods. So, we thought we'd take a 3 day detour to the border of Western Australia to visit a park there, and hopefully go canoeing when we got back. The drive to WA is more than 500 km and there are only two stops along the way. One is the township of Timber Creek (described as the region's main center with a population of... 70) and the other is the Victoria River Roadhouse... which is the typical rural Australian roadside oasis, with a pub, restaurant, store, hotel, campground, and gas station all together in one place. Since the roadhouse was closest, and it was already after 5pm, we decided to head there, though it was a race to get there safely before they stopped serving dinner at 8pm. We were venturing out into some of the most remote territory we've ever driven through, so we drove slowly once it got dark. Good thing we did... we came around a bend to find two enormous Brahman bulls in the middle of the road, who merely stared at us, unmoving, until we drove around them.

Anyway, this picture was taken the next morning, where we found their sign most amusing.



There is our wee little rental car parked in front of our room. It had this annoying habit of losing power when the tank was full... we'd be driving down the highway at full speed and it would start to chug, like it was choking. This was a little nerve-wracking at first, but once we recognized the pattern, we just chalked it up to "character".




Our room was a little sad. Actually, it doesn't look so bad in the picture, and it was clean, but what you can't see is all the water damage in the corner, the peeling linoleum, the scary disintegrating shower caddy, and the shower head coming straight out of the wall, with no shower pan, and a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor, effectively turning the entire bathroom into your shower and ensuring that every inch of the floor will get wet. This arrangement of shower is not uncommon, but at least in Australia (as opposed to Europe), there is usually a curtain to contain the spray somewhat.