27 March 2018 - Day 24 - Darwin to Daly Waters

To hand over the car for servicing I had taken out all the bags from the car. Most of them I put back in late yesterday evening. There were still a few more things to be settled in and hence, after the morning ablution I decided to attend to that. It was still a half hour to 5 am. The car park is reached through a door connecting the residential segment. I opened the door and went out to my car slot and got busy arranging the food stuff and the rest for the day’s travel. When I was finished with it I came back to the door and found it locked. Then I saw the notice on the door which said that the car park would be closed between 11 pm and 5 am every day and that one should go to the reception in case one had to take out the car during that time. But my problem was to get into my room, not to take the car out. There was a card reader at the door, but despite all my desperate attempts it didn’t work. I started banging on the door and still, there was no response at all. At five minutes past five the cleaning guy found me and used his key to let me in. I went to the reception to report that the card reader didn’t work. The guy at the reception matter-of-factly told me that the card reader doesn’t work. I shuddered at that moment to think what my fate would have been had I gone out earlier to the car park than I did! And I didn’t have my mobile phone with me. A wonderful start to the day.

The 20 minute ‘lockout’ eventually did not have much knock-on effect, other than the 20 minute later start from YHA Darwin. The stay had been comfortable. More than half the road for the day I was already familiar with as I had driven on it on the way from Katherine. The 590 km route to Daly Waters went through Katherine. The condition of the road was uniformly good, but the surprise package in the entire Northern Territory visit has been the 130 kph speed limit on its main highways like the Victoria and Stuart Highways. And they are single carriageways almost all through with overtaking lanes at intermittent intervals. All through this expedition I have found excellent parking and 24 hour stopping (where you can rest or camp overnight) facilities provided to ensure that drivers are refreshed and do not drive under fatigued conditions. These places have garbage disposal bins and the 24 hour stopping locations have toilet and shower facilities too.

On the route to Katherine from Darwin there are many airstrips that were used during WWII. These are still preserved and many of them are adjacent to the existing highway. Adelaide River is a historical town between Darwin and Katherine that was settled at the time of the laying of the overland telegraph line and the gold rush in Pine Creek in 1882. After Katherine I passed through the interesting town of Mataranka. What caught my attention is the welcome to the town, which is known as the “Capital Of The Never Never”. Later I came to know that the town was the setting of an autobiographical novel by Jeannie Gunn by the name, “We of the Never, Never”. Mataranka has also another claim to fame. It has the largest manmade termite mound in the world. Travelling in Northern Territory, termite mounds become commonplace as they dot the landscape on either sides of the road. Many of them, reportedly, are man-made.

I reached Hi-Way Inn in Daly Waters before noon. I have a decent room; as in most remote locations, the room tariff is on the higher side. The restaurant had a lot of guests for lunch as the next decent roadhouse is over 150 km away from here. As I was ruminating over the two days in Darwin I recalled the mystery phone call from a private number yesterday. A very Indian sounding voice told me that he was waiting at my door in Sydney with a parcel from my brother, Kevinstone Palmer! He continued to badger me to open the door saying that he had an important parcel. When I told him that I neither stay in Sydney nor do I have a brother called Kevinstone Palmer, the caller asked if my name is Shaun. When I told him that is not my name, he wanted to know my name. I told him that that was none of his business. And I disconnected the call. Weird.