Australia is an amazing country when it comes to natural beauty and wonders FREE for the enjoyment.  I am thinking of the abundance of public access thermal pools and hot springs around our country.   It’s simply heaven to relax in a palm fringed thermal pool or hot springs. 

The story us gray nomads like to spin is that for every two hours you have spent in a thermal pool you become two years younger.  You leave home in autumn, head for the warmth and the thermal pools and return home in springtime, a teenager.     These travels certainly renew and invigorate my man , he is having his swim right now  as I write and look after Katherine River and removing any salt water crocodiles found there as they migrate into the area during the wet season.  

Salt water crocodiles are now abundant in the waterways of Kakadu to the east and the Kimberly to the west of here and the Gulf country to the north.  The current policy in Katherine is to remove any salt water crocodiles that migrate to this area so they can try to keep the waterways safe for locals and tourists. The fishing with a hope of catching a barramundi from the Katherine river banks is as popular, as is sitting around in groups in the pleasantly tepid water sharing travel stories, swimming and walking along the banks of this beautiful river. 

There are of course warning signs that fresh water crocodiles are present and that the salt water dangerous to human’s crocodile may be present but given the crowds that use the hot springs and the fact that any crock would be seen in the pristine clear water and crossing the bank from the river, the Katherine hot springs would be one of the safest natural swimming spots in the country.

Take a refreshing dip in Katherine Hot Springs. These natural thermal springs are situated on the banks of the Katherine River, within the Katherine township, and comprise of a series of clear pools framed by native vegetation. Relax and enjoy swimming in the pools, which are complemented by picnic grounds and scenic walking and bike riding tracks. 

There is a steep circular walk up the hillside from the springs, one track takes you past the gap in the earth where the spring emerges forming it's flowing stream downward to the landscaped area set aside for swimming, this is a pretty and interesting walk, the other track, takes you alongside the Katherine River, where I've seen locals  catch a barramundi with nothing more than a hook on a bit of sting on a stick. The view of the river from the top is just beautiful. 

I stay at the River view caravan park, mainly because of it's proximity at the top of this walk, to the hot springs and because they have dog friendly sites.

I've swum with these same six children now, in the Katherine hot springs, for three days, they are starting to get to know me, one even jumped on me for a piggy back, and yes their lack of sophistication might be refreshing to me and I can understand it was a bit off putting to some, though I suspect racism was at play more than not wanting to swim near children when  many seniors who came to the pool in bathers, took one look at these children playing in the water, looked disappointed even annoyed and walked away.  There is room for a hundred people in these springs so I felt this unreasonable and was glad the child like innocence of these children did not make them aware of the snub.  There is plenty of room for all in the Katherine Springs, 6 children in one area still leaves 90% of the springs area child free.

Myself I thought they were nice kids :-). I've enjoyed their company and well I was amused, not offended when one young girl, said to me 'Hello'. "Hello", I replied back to her with a beaming smile, :-), LOL, to which I received the obviously not intended rudely, more a genuine enquiry,’You have buck teeth, why don't you get them straitened'.    Well LOL, :-), I grinned again, and noted how perfectly straight and gleaming white the six of these children's teeth were and wondered how much of that perfection was corrective dentistry as I could just imagine them overhearing a dentist in a clinic telling one of their family, ‘you have buck teeth, we will fix that’, children do mimic adults and I doubt that the dentist in the clinic consider that comment rude, so I certainly did not find this young girl’s enquiry, rude, though I could imagine my own grandchildren being taken to task for such a comment and probably rightly so as it would be so out of place a thing to say, in sophisticated suburban Melbourne.

Anyhow in the relaxed, unsophisticated setting of the pool and realizing these children had grown up free of some of the inhibitions suburbia places on children these days,  I was more amused.

I pondered on how most of our children in sophisticated parts of the country have so much of their childhood playfulness and open honesty, taken away from them before they have outgrown childhood.  Yes I know we are all eager to teach them how to conform and have manners and fit in well, I would have urged my own young children to think carefully of others feelings before speaking out so ...well...truthfully, J, my teeth are a little bucked.  J, Great powers of observation that girl will ‘go far’.  I did enjoy watching these children be so unrestrained and happy open and honest and well...child like.

I also wondered how much was natural, the perfection of teeth fitting in the mouth that comes more easily when blood lines are not excessively mixed, as with me with my big North of England teeth from  my father's side not quite fitting in my short stocky Scottish from my mum's side, face.  Mum’s parents were dentists and she said that mixed races were an corrective dentist’s financial dream.  The slight staining of being in my 60's and a few gaps to the back of my mouth when i smile and  I was aware that beside their broad grinning full teeth display of perfection, my teeth must look very in need of their dental clinic make over.   I thought it best not to explain that of the two sets of dentures I have with me, these 'buck teeth' as she called them were my straightest and best set.

I find such lack of 'put on' formality, frankly refreshing, I prefer to see active children than children sitting over computer games and surely diving into the springs has to beat pretend sports on Wii whatever it’s called, for children.  Tomorrow before i go to the springs I will make sure I give me pearlies’ a very thorough clean. J, Never too old to be reminded to take a little more care, things like teeth do get noticed.

Yesterday in these same  hot sprigs I overheard  a school teacher telling people that these same children, her students, live 35 to a three bedroom house because the family has such a sense of 'community', they desire to live this closely together and t isn't because the parents do not care for the children, it's a lifestyle choice they have made.   It was as refreshing as the swim to hear her talk and express understanding and even admiration for another’s culturally different lifestyle.

Jul 16, 2008, 11:37am »
The waterfall pool is where I swam against the current for 45 minutes this morning in a pile of effervescent bubbles, LOL, trying to not let the waterfall entering the pool, push me down stream nor grab me in it's pull and duck me under water, LOL, I won, this time, sometimes you can get caught into it's pull.Wow, it was a work out.  Then I took the high walk back from the hot springs, along the spring itself, the part not safe to swim in,  to look at the place where the spring emerges from the ground through a crack in the earths rocky crust above the underground inland sea.

A glimpse of the Katherine River from high up on the embankment, it's a steep walk down to the Katherine Hot Springs, LOL, steeper walk back, get me a tad out of breath, great 10 mins each way exercise at a bisque pace.

The first entry point to the Katherine hot springs showing the wheel chair entry ramp and the gentle current quite area where the gray nomads gather and exchange travel talk around the edges of the warm water and usually complain that the water is only warm not hot. LOL, but for exercisers like me, the water is a perfect temperature.

 I usually enter at the seniors end, swim downstream to above the waterfall, climb out and then get back in at the rapids pool at the base of the small falls. I do some formal exercise routines, many of them variations of ballet bar work, while holding on to a rail I always add these formal exercises to every session I do in water. This up stream against the current work out must be fantastic for my arms and chest , I did mention yesterday that my lung congestion issues were near gone , well this has to be the best ever workout for lungs and in the humid steamy atmosphere of a warm natural mineral spa, how healthy is that? . LOL, nature is a wonderful healer when we use her resources.

LOL, I would love to go see the physician who told me about five years ago, he thought I needed a heart lung transplant and I would challenge him to an upstream, against the rapids swim.

The other thing that neither Reg nor I understand is how come our arm movements in the water do not cause us pain the following day when so many other things we do cause us arthritis pain. LOL,

Can you tell I love the water , ? I am tired after that effort but not as much as I was yesterday and I worked harder today, the water does make me stronger :-).