Oceania: Day 28: 7-31-94: The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round

Undoubtedly, this was the most uneventful day of the tour -- a 12 hour bus ride. Surprisingly, however, I found it neither boring nor uncomfortable. I caught up in my journal, read a little more of A Time to Kill ("Time to Kill" was more like it), slept and watched 3 videos (a documentary on kangaroos, Kindergarten Cop [basically my life, without all the muscles] and a documentary on native Australian animals -- koalas, roos, platypuses, crocodiles, echinos, Tasmanian Tigers [now extinct], etc.). I also joined in a few more bus games, including "TV Themes" (Chris and I joined forces to form CHRIS2 [Chris squared], and we were the winning team, correctly identifying 33 of 36 tunes) and "World Trivia" [everyone wrote down an interesting question about his/her home country and quizzed everyone else].

We also made several stops along the way. Chief among them were the Daly Waters Pub, the oldest bar in the Northern Territory (and one of the oldest in all of Australia) and Mataranka Thermal Pools, natural hot springs with an average annual temperature of 34-degrees Celsius.

Finally, at 6:30 p.m., we arrived at the Frontier Hotel in Katherine. For once, we had first class accommodations: every room came equipped with real beds, TV, phone, refrigerator, microwave, sofa, chairs, table and bathroom (with a shower). The hotel even had laundry facilities. The previous night's swag was but a cold, hard memory. I was in Heaven!

I took a shower, washed some desperately needed laundry, pigged out at the buffet and chatted with Sharon and Rachel over a frothy Powers Ale (one of several new brews I had tried on my trip -- the others being Victorian Bitter [VB] and Strongbow Cider [Draught and Dry]). When my eyes began to droop, I headed back to my room and snuggled into my warm and cozy queen-sized bed (the only down side was I had to share it with Peter).