ADELAIDE RIVER

Dear all,

Tuesday, 4/8/09
Adelaide River is 290 kms north of Katherine. The trip up was so interesting - we had no idea of the huge WWII effort up this way. There are air strips alongside the roads with names like Livingstone, Hughes, Strauss and others. There were half a million troops living in camps along the Stuart Highway in supply camps. There were planes coming and going to/from these air strips and, although the buildings are long gone (they were made out of timber from the trees in the area), you can really see in your mind's eye how busy it must have been. This is history that we didn't learn about in school and it would do the kids of today good to know how close we were to war. There are WWII sites all the way along the highway identifying different army bases, supply units and a lot of army ordinance depots. It must have been dreadfully hot for them to work out in the heat with not much shelter out of the sun or in "the wet" season.

Adelaide River is just a small town with another large Roadhouse and caravan park out the back. It is lovely and green and, although small, the park is gorgeous. The pool is beautiful and the gardens lovely. We watched The Ghan go slowly past us then went for the kilometre walk to the War Memorial Lawn Cemetery. This was a very beautiful yet sad and emotional place to visit. There are hundreds of gravestones here with men as young as 17 and 18 who died in the Japanese raids on Darwin.








The buffalo standing on top of the bar in the photo is in the roadhouse and is the buffalo out of Crocodile Dundee - now he's been stuffed and stands on the "303 Bar" at Adelaide River Caravan Park.


We've caught up with some friends from home (Labrador, Gold Coast) here, Kathy and Rud. It's amazing that we can be all this way in the middle of nowhere, and we run into people we know! They are going to Darwin as well, so we'll probably do a tag along for a while.


Only here 1 night then leave for Darwin in the morning.

Love from us.