From Katherine to Darwin

April 25th. ANZAC day to Katherine 512 km

We did not wake up to the ANZAC morning service at Kununurra. 04:22 am. Noel and Neil did. Drove from Kununurra at 0730 am and refuelled at Timber Cross and bought ice cream. Ice cream is expensive here in the heat. Bad boring road in the NT but the speed limit is 130km/hr on bad roads. Should have a maximum of 80 in Sweden. The radii of curvature are for 130 in most cases but still questionable.

_{Stop at highway side for Noel. No ignition repair. We left the sat phone and went on this time.
These highways are limited to 130 k/h for cars and 100 k/h for trucks- The highway is narrow.}

We kept 100-110km/hr. After Victoria River Noel and Helen got problems with the ignition again. They had been standing there for about 10 minutes when we arrived. We had the satellite phone so we handed it over to them if they didn't get the car started. They succeed a couple of times. When they had 15 kilometres left to Katherine, it is no longer possible. They called for a tow truck. At eight o'clock they arrived at the hotel. Peter and Jan were with them all the time while the rest of the gang went here to the hotel. Peter had the warning lights on his car and the portable refrigerator for too long time. This caused his battery to discharge. The tow truck driver's wife had to come with start cables!

Cecilia and Raoul arrived at Katherine tired and hungry. Could check in to the hotel despite the early hour. Around 1500. Took a dip in the pole which was "cold". That is colder than the air. Could be for a while then it got cold. It was comfortable in the heat. A cold pool is a pool with sun protection over. Without the sun protection, the pool gets warm.

April 26th. to Darwin 300 km

Had breakfast just two of us. We decided to go to the museum here in Katherine. Some will go by helicopter and a couple will go riverboat. Raoul drives Noel to the car rental company where he will rent a car. We went to the museum. A pretty enjoyable experience with many stories about people who made impressions and they were real adventurers. Norther Territories is a very harsh place to live in.

The first flying doctor also started here with his flying medical care. His aircraft is at the museum. This doctor was not allowed to join the Royal Flying Doctors, because he flew the plane himself. After a couple of hours at the museum, we felt it was time to have lunch before we started our journey towards Darwin. We found a very nice cafe where we had sourdough bread with avocado and drank delicious coffee.

Today is 4 weeks since we left Brisbane.

Helen and Noel's car was towed to Katherine yesterday and today it was in the workshop and the fault was found to be breakage of the cable insulation on the lead to the ignition coil.

_{Pine Creek open cut gold mine.
Bushfire probably lit by locals or the fire brigade.}

We made a stop in Pine Creek where we went up to a vantage point where you looked over a lake that was once a gold mine. Very beautiful from above. We made a stop at a petrol station and then three Healeys from our group left. So we have a little control over each other.

Just before 5 pm we arrived at the hotel in Darwin and checked in. Raoul didn't feel quite fit for eating out so we went to Woollies and bought some food to eat in the room. It was a quiet evening for us, which felt necessary.

Warm and moist. Unused to the "normal" heat in Darwin we experience it as very hot yet it is not the hot and humid season it is in the beginning of the tourist season. That is the dry and "cool" part of the year.