193 kms / 2 ½ hrs

Victoria River - Katherine

We awoke to smoke this morning as there are a lot of fires around Victoria River. It was pretty thick and smelly. All our clothes, towels and the caravan smell of smoke so we were happy to leave around 8:45am and drive the 190km to Katherine.

Mum and Dad followed us for most of the way but when we were about 50kms out of Katherine they overtook us so they could continue on at 130 kmsph instead of our slow 90/100 kmsph. Then we had a couple of mishaps. The first one was that Josh was busting to do a wee but didn't give us enough notice to pull over so instead he did it in his car seat. Then the second, which was not long after we were nearly taken out by a road train. He was about 1/3 in our lane and as he was trying to correct himself the back trailers were going all over the place. It was luckily a wider road so Rog was able to pull off the road a fair way. Our hearts were pumping for a good 20 mins. We also had to dodge a few kanagroos by the roadside and one jumped across the road in front of us so poor mum and dad were a bit worried as to what was taking us so long.

We also saw two helicopters and horseman droving cattle which was great and luckily we got through before they blocked the road.

We arrived in Katherine around 11:15am and were able to get a site next to mum and dad. We had lunch and then drove to the Hot Springs. We spent a few hours floating in the water and talking to people and caught up with our german friends again. Then Rog had a go swinging off the rope into the water. It was so relaxing as the water is about 32 degrees and its a shaded narrower channel which opens up to a large pool.

Mum & I then went to the tourist information and were hoping to do a quick shop in Woolworths but it turned into a nightmare. We waited in a line at the check-out for an hour so I had to go and move the car and we were very tempted to leave our groceries and go back to the caravan park but then we would have had to do it all over again so we decided to wait. I was talking to a local mum and she said that its normal to wait that long and everyone complains but they won't do anything about it. I think they had about 4 staff on registers.

So we quickly rushed back as it was now after 6pm and Rog cooked ribs for dinner.