DAY 40 27 JULY COX RIVER TO TOWNS RIVER
I can’t actually remember Cox River but from there it was a straight forward run through increasingly dusty conditions to the Towns River. As the road left the hills and rolled across the coastal plain it got less stoney which was good but more sandy which meant more corrugations and dust and more walking.
Wheewww! Hard day of exceptionally dusty road. Much pushing, even I got a bit cranky. And it was warm.
It was a short day, only about 60 kms but when we got to Towns River and Brian asked if I (as the one suffering most from the heat) wanted to stop here there were no dissenting voices when I said I did want to stop. We were all about done and it was only 13:30.
Towns River was memorable because as we pulled in (very early about 2pm because I was knackered and the others didn’t demure) a passing driver gave Chris O’B a mandarin (tsatsuma) for each of us for toughing it out! Very nice gesture.
In camp I tried fishing (unsuccessfully) only to be told that the fishwere only biting on the change of tide at 13:00 and 01:00!
Saw a small (2m) crocodile (salty?) at the crossing close to where we,and a couple of Darwin families, were swimming.
Wheewww! Hard day of exceptionally dusty road. Much pushing, even I got a bit cranky. And it was warm.
It was a short day, only about 60 kms but when we got to Towns River and Brian asked if I (as the one suffering most from the heat) wanted to stop here there were no dissenting voices when I said I did want to stop. We were all about done and it was only 13:30.
After setting up camp and paying into the National Parks honour box ($5 each for the night) I tried fishing with Dianna the Huntress’ lure but no joy. Even the ladies next to me couldn’t replicate the earlier success of another in their party – the trick apparently is to fish on the running tide when the water is churned up.
After that it was a kilometre walk back to the crossing for a swim. There were a couple of families from Darwin there throwing their young kids in for a dip even though there were 1-2 metre long juvenile crocs in the water just downstream of the crossing. ‘It’s OK, the crocs don’t eat in the dry season’.
And then to bed.