We had a good run from Timber Creek through to Katherine, leaving by 8.30am.  We stopped at Victoria River Roadhouse for morning tea.  This stop was just a bit better than Sandfire Roadhouse re the coffee!  We hadn’t organised coffee in the morning, as we thought we would check out the 1991 Victoria River flood level marking in the bar and give the roadhouse a little business.  What a let down! It cost us $3.00 and we had to make our own coffee!  And we purchased a toasted sandwich each!  When we stopped, Dennis had the music rockin in his car.  “Better than Macca on Sunday morning” so he said.  But it wasn’t when we had taken off and he had a flat battery.  Fortunately too, John managed to get us before we were out on the highway and going over the bridge.

John and I walked down to the bridge to get some photos of the Victoria River.  Not much water in the river, but a very pretty spot with a large area maintained as the caravan park.  It would be an easy walk down to the old crossing to fish for that elusive barra!  But no mobile reception, so that means no Wifi.  Couldn’t stay here for long I don’t think.  But then I guess I could do digital scrapbooking!!  The backdrop of the ranges in this area are very beautiful.

We had lunch in a rest area about 40 kms from Katherine and I mentioned to the others that I had taken a large piece of marinated beef from the freezer and as we hadn’t had a roast since we left home, tonight was the night.  So Pete cooked the meat in the weber while we enjoyed watching the Eagles have a win on Sunday afternoon.  Dorothy and Margaret organised the vegetables  and we dined with the tablecloths and candles once again.  This time I found some real candles tucked away from previous travels.   

The candles and the set tables created discussion with a couple from Gippsland, as they came back from listening to the happy hour music.  So much so, the lady named Heather came back just as we had finished main course and asked if she could take a photo for us.  We were delighted for her to do that and in return I went back with her to take a photo of her husband Peter and the friends they were dining with.  So we chatted for a bit, as you do!  We concluded our evening together with a game of Rummykub.  The boys won the first game, but we only had tiles totaling four left.  The girls won the second game, but the boys sure had a lot more than four in total left!  So one game all, the challenge is on for the next game.

On Monday morning Peter was off early to find a tyre business to get his tyre fixed.  He had picked up a screw somewhere and he suggested to Dennis that he should get his battery looked at and probably purchase a new one here in Katherine.  But Dennis was sure it was just because he had left the key on at Victoria River.

When Peter was checking the caravan park address etc to make our bookings, as we wanted to stay at the same one as we did in 2014, he found that the managers of the Riverview Tourist Park are Craig and Wendy Batten.  They were both working when we booked in, so we were able to make ourselves known to each other.  We chatted with them on a number of occasions during our stay.  They have been at the park four years, there is no relationship between the two Batten families, but the namesake was a good enough reason to take a photo of the ‘Batten Boys’ before we left on Wednesday morning.  Hopefully they will call and see us one day in Geraldton.  They have a brand new Retreat caravan on the park that has not been used yet.  Since coming to manage the park, one son has married and they have had two grandchildren born and another due in September.  No wonder Wendy is getting itchy feet to get back south to their two sons and the grandies.  Particularly seeing there is a granddaughter to spoil.

Whilst Peter was out on Monday morning, he picked up a couple of tourist brochures from the Visitor Centre.  The ‘Katherine Outback Experience’ was advertised in one.  I made a phone call and found out times and cost and then checked with the others, to see if they would like to go.  We were looking to do something different in Katherine.  All were keen, so we booked for Tuesday morning at 9.30am.  The car was booked into Katherine Toyota for a service and that was the reason we wanted to stay at the Riverview Tourist Park.  It is within walking distance of the Toyota dealership and of course the Hot Springs are just a 400 metre walk out the back gate. 

The ‘Katherine Outback Experience’ was a great show and far better than we probably envisaged.   When I was booking with Annabel, she asked where we were from.  When I told her, her next question was “Did I know Nick and Jane Bailey”?  Of course the answer was ‘Yes”!  Annabel said "Nick and Jane had just gone back from being up here for a few weeks".  I asked if Annabel had lived in Geraldton and was told Nick and Jane are her godparents and the parents friendship goes back to when Nick was a stockie in Pinjarra. 

Well……..When we got to the 'Outback Experience' and Tom and Annabel commenced by telling us a little about themselves, we found out the following.  Tom Curtain was born in Victoria and when he was one the family returned to the family property in Kingaroy Queensland.  He has four bothers and completed a three-year degree in Applied Science at the University of Queensland (specializing in beef cattle production), before he travelled to the Northern Territory in 2001.  He always wanted to work on a station in the north of Australia, but that was not what his parents wanted for him, particularly his Mum.  Tom has always had a love of music and played a number of instruments, so once he had his university bit of paper he said “Here Mum you can put that on the wall, I’m off to the station country”!

So he worked on stations, played his guitar at caravan parks in the Territory and was encouraged to start his own show combining his music talents with his love and ability to work with animals.  Tom demonstrated how he goes about breaking in horses and training cattle dogs.  He said every show is different, because they never know what the horse is going to do.  He sung a few songs and Annabel did her little bit in the show as well and proudly told us that Tom had won two Golden Guitar Awards at the 2018 Tamworth Music Festival.  The two golden guitars were on display.  Annabel has brought her marketing skills to the 'Outback Experience' and together they are obviously doing very well.

What also came our during the show is the story of how Tom and Annabel met and the fact that they had married just two weeks ago.  So that was why Nick and Jane had been in Katherine.  When we were talking with Tom and Annabelle after the show, Tom told us that the reason the property looked so spicko, was because Nick had cleaned up every palm frond that was lying around the place and more.  In fact Tom said “They were just about at the stage of having to hide the chain saw from Nick”!

And yes….Annabel is a child of the well known McLarty family of Pinjarra. I actually think Annabel is probably a descendant of Lady McLarty who was a CWA of WA State President between the years of  1953 - 1955.  Annabel  told us she is one of triplets and later I found out she has an older sister and the triplets were two girls and a boy.  Her Dad picked Tom up on the side of the road one day and brought him home.  They laughed together during the show about this fact and wonder whether Dad has regretted picking up Tom.  Being a horsie man and having had stations, we feel sure he hasn’t regretted it.  But his daughter gave up her urban job in local government town planning, four years ago to come to Katherine.  The show has been operating for five years.  Annabel is a very attractive and capable young woman and has no regrets about giving up the cocktail dresses and the stilettos for a life in the outback at Katherine.  We all agreed the show was just that bit more special because they shared their personal life stories. There is no doubt that Tom is a brilliant horseman, has a gift to work with animals and is a talented musician.

We were a while leaving the ‘Katherine Outback Experience’ as we wanted to say goodbye to Annabel.  She was busy seeing the Ghan passengers onto their bus and why wouldn’t she be.  These tourists had doubled the number attending the show.  Peter had purchased two of Tom’s CD’s and we’d made ourselves known to Tom when he had signed them for us.  He mentioned to us that he had been at  Chapman Valley last year and done a show at the showgrounds.  They do travel with their animals to various locations in Australia during the wet season.  Dorothy and I remembered Karen McKay telling us about the show, but of course we hadn’t gone!  The funds from one of the CD’s purchased by Peter is to help raise awareness of bullying.  A 14 year old girl took her life because she was afraid to speak out.  

I have taken this information from the web.....Dolly was from a property outside Tom’s hometown of Katherine NT, so the singer-songwriter wanted to raise awareness of the devasting impacts that bullying leaves behind. He wrote the song with Garth Porter, who donated his studio and time to produce the track in Sydney with fellow award-winning country music artist, Sara Storer.  “Living out here, you think you are quite removed from anything like this, so to have a beautiful young girl that you’ve seen grow up, take her life and then a family ripped apart, is just devastating. Tom organised two schools in Western Australia (where he was touring at the time) – Pinjarra Primary School and Pinjarra Senior High School – to be involved in the film clip and audio recording of the track. All proceeds from the single will go directly to 'Dolly's Dream', an organisation established by her family and friends in her memory that will work to create positive change and help prevent the lives of other children being lost, and act as a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves.

By the time we were ready to leave there was only two cars left and guess what!  Dennis had left his key on and the battery was flat again.  Just had to take a photo when the young donkey, that has the run of the place, came to see what was going on.  A chap from Wongan Hills got us going and the next stop for Dennis was a battery place.

The rest of the day was taken up with shopping, a dip in the Hot Springs and listening to the music in the park once again.  The music on Monday night was fantastic.  It was the first time Craig and Wendy had actually paid an entertainer. ‘Lilly and the Drums’ entertained for over two hours and many people enjoying the music got up to dance like us.  Oh dear!  If only Dorothy and I could have remembered the line dance ‘Ex’s and Oh’s’ we would have been able to put on a show!  But we did do a few locks and heel toes!  It was Wendy Batten that encouraged Dorothy and I to dance on the driveway with the assistant managers Robyn and Neville.  Robyn and Neville love their rock and roll and no doubt Gary and Julie would have been up there showing them a thing or two if they had been here!  Great three nights in Katherine.