Day 48 Around Katherine

35 degrees today and needless to say - it was sunny and the sky was that clear azure blue.  Fortunately the humidity is not too bad.  After doing our unavoidable duties around the van this morning we headed for town.  Katherine is a lovely country town with one main road through its centre.  It looks prosperous but some locals are saying it is slowly dying, particularly as there are too few jobs for the younger people.  It is also at Katherine that the highway to Western Australia commences, so we will have to come back here after our visit to Darwin.  It is also the drop off point for the Katherine Gorge but more of that tomorrow.

We are staying about 5 km from town and nearby is the Katherine river.  We visited a local swimming area in the river proper and also a hot springs.  The locals reckon their springs are better than Mataranka's, but we'd put them on a par.  

Given we are in the sub tropics you would not be surprised to know that they have mango orchards here and the trees are actually pruned.  Tropical plants abound here too and we have been most impressed by the tropical frangipani.  There are even bigger ones than those we photographed below.  

240514 Katherine River 5 km west of Katherine

240514 Katherine River - low level bridge - which is
under 30m of water in the "Wet"

240514 Katherine River downstream from the bridge

240514 The hot springs at Katherine

240514 swimming in the Katherine hot springs

240514 Katherine hot springs as the water bubbles from below

240514 Tropical frangipani at Katherine

240514 Mango orchard at Katharine

240514 Another mango orchard at Katharine