Pine Creek

We left Katherine Gorge and headed for the thriving metropolis of Pine Creek. While most people either blink and miss Pine Creek, or stop for petrol because there hasn’t been any for a hundred or more kilometers, we had specifically planned to spend some quality time in Pine Creek. Why you ask? Well, to see the Hooded Parrot of course. If you think I’m kidding, you can in fact purchase post cards of the Hooded Parrot in the petrol station at Pine Creek. Hooded Parrots have put Pine Creek on the map. And, wonderfully, we saw the Hooded Parrots in all of their turquoise-green glory. They really were beautiful birds, and we were fortunate enough to be able to get them in the scope.

We also saw Cockatiels, a tree full of flying foxes (apparently they’re not bats, but they look like enormous owl-sized bats when they fly around at night), Australian Figbird, a couple having some kinky foreplay involving slapping in the front seat of their van, and the scenic Pine Creek sewage ponds. Why did we go to the sewage ponds you might also ask? Why, to see birds of course. At the sewage ponds, we saw Rajah Shelducks, Australasian Pratincole, Black-fronted Dotterels to name just a few.

We decided to celebrate our birding victory with a dinner at the only place in town, the local pub. We found out it was steak night, which sounded excellent. The woman asked us which cut of meat we wanted. Then, she piled them all on a plate, handed it to us, pointed to her right and said, “Grill’s over there.” Well, I guess there’s a first time for everything. I’ve certainly never had the opportunity to cook my own meal at a restaurant before, which is probably why I didn’t do such a great job cooking our steaks. They were good, but definitely on the very pink-red side. The problem was that I’ve never actually cooked a steak before, and so all I could think of was my Uncle Joe’s steak-cooking mantra: sip and flip. Essentially, you just leave the steak on its side long enough for you to take a sip of beer, and then you flip it. I generally like my steak on the rare side, so I thought this might be a good plan for me. Unfortunately, the steaks were a bit thicker than your average steak, so I ended up going back to the grill after a few bites of my steak in an effort to have my steak a little less rare.

Anyways, after our afternoon and morning in Pine Creek, I feel quite confident that I could write the guidebook for the town. I know the best places for exercise, wildlife-viewing, Aussie-style cooking classes, and adult entertainment. Maybe Lonely Planet will let me be the Pine Creek contributor to the next edition of their Australia guidebook…