Monday 13 August – Well Stephanie was right.  We were here at Timber Creek by 12.15 today and had plenty of time to do the things we wanted to do here.  This morning was our earliest departure – we managed to leave the caravan park at 8.45am – a record for us.  The drive here was fairly uneventful, with flat savannah grasslands for quite some distance out of Manbulloo, then it became quite mountainous and beautiful as we got to Victoria River Roadhouse.

Someone has a sense of humour.

 Here, 93 km further west again, we are in quite a good camping area at the back of the Timber Creek Pub.  We are right on Timber Creek, a small arm off the Victoria River, and not too far now from the W.A. border.

Once here we got the van set up, had some lunch, then went to the ‘community’ – the local health centre, which, as the name implies, serves the community of mainly aboriginals.  Here Grant was to have his blood test.  We sat there for about half an hour, as the nurse said they were quite busy at the time.  We were waiting with between four and eight aboriginals – they would wander in, then out again and wait on the verandah.  One was a little aboriginal girl who looked about 8 and sat sideways on the seat as if she was asleep (she wasn’t), a mother and her son who was extremely hyperactive, reached over the counter several times and got various remote controls from the counter with which he tried to get the tv going, an old man who was there about his ears, etc, etc.  I chatted to the young girl sitting next to me who was very pretty, and she has been living in Katherine, has a 10 month old little girl and had come back to stay with Mum because mum lives on her own.  I didn’t like to ask if Dad had died, cos I don’t think your allowed to mention the dead, if he had.  So I had quite a social time.

Grant just had to have another minor adjustment to his medication, and another check in a week.

Once we left the community we went to the museum which is on the site of the original police station, built in 1898, but rebuilt after it was eaten by termites.  The fellow on duty there was a real character and kept us entertained with stories about heaps of experiences the early policemen had in this region.  We spent quite a bit of time there and then came back to camp and had a cuppa before walking to the back of the park to the river where we watched a freshwater crocodile being fed.  In fact I had a go and, though it wasn’t at all interested in having the meat, it eventually took it from the line.  It pulled pretty hard, too, but it didn’t pull me in!

Tomorrow we will go to Kununurra where we will stay for three or maybe four nights as there seems to be lots to see and do from there.