Having seen all of the Litchfield National Park that we wanted to see, we set off towards Katherine where we must pick up the mail.
For a good part of the way the work on new Alice Springs to darwin railway could be seen beside the road. Considering the total length of the line, about 1500 km (1000 miles) and considering that the completion date is mid 2004, there is an awful lot of work to do and relatively little time to do it in. We have been assured that private enterprise is much better at all kinds of work than public works, so we'll be able to judge when the time comes. Of course, it's not really a fair test as private enterprise is using lots of public money in this project.
We stopped for lunch in Pine Creek and parked beside the Water Garden as we had done when we were travelling north. Its amazing how quickly one become familiar with the places one visits.
We decided to camp at Edith Falls which is reputed to be very beautiful and is less than an hours drive from Katherine. It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I find this place quite pleasant, if a little congested as the campground at Elsey National Park was, but I'm sure we'll enjoy our stopover here.
It was very exciting to see two Tawny Frogmouths perched only a couple of metres (6 feet) up a tree in the middle of the park where one could get a really good look at them.