Day 40 – Tuesday 26 July 2016 – Darwin - Katherine

The freezer woes continued this morning with the temperature still only down to -11.  The strange thing was that on opening the lid and checking the food, it seemed frozen.  I thought the best gauge was the ice-cream which wasn't, as I had feared, squishy.  So we aren't sure if there is an issue with the thermostat or just the display.

It wasn't the quickest getaway we've had this morning, but we were finally on the road by 9.30am delayed slightly because one of our caravan tyres was bugged....

This dude was hanging on for dear life as we pulled out of the site.  Despite me travelling at walking pace he held on for two streets before deciding this ride was a bit of a headspin and jumping off into the bushes.

We were both very sad to be turning left onto the Stuart Highway as we've thoroughly enjoyed our time in Darwin and were very lucky to have such amazing weather during our stay.  We are determined not to think of this point as heading home as we still have 5 weeks of holidays left and I'm sure there are still lots of adventures and memorable moments for us to take in during that time.

We didn't have to get far out of Darwin before we saw our first abandoned car.  Most of these cars have windows smashed and are usually less their tyres/wheels.  Although generally speaking the ride of choice is somewhat newer than this particular one.

I was so keen to go stand by one of the big ant hills as perspective for how big they really are, but they were either too far off the road or a car was too close behind to pull over.  Shane snapped another photo out the window.

Our first stop was at Pine Creek and as luck would have it - LUNCH TIME.  So we headed to Mayse's for another Pork Roll and Gravy.  Sorry Mayse - the crackle wasn't as good this time, but those rolls are absolutely amazing!  While we were in Pine Creek we also took a quick look at the railway display.

Onward to Katherine by mid afternoon and set up.  We didn't luck out with those nice grass sites we had on the way up, but we have shade most of the day from the large trees in the park.  We decided after dinner that we would take the dogs for a bit of a walk around the park.  Bad mistake!  Thinking Kitty had walked through a pile of old leaves and grass in the dark we headed back to camp and spent the next 20 minutes brushing and pulling said foliage from her coat.  Not such a fun end to the evening......

But wait - not the only disaster for the day - I discovered when we pulled in to the park at Katherine, in my concern for the freezer not performing to its best, I had neglected to change the caravan fridge over to power and it seems the caravan battery is on the way out and the fridge and freezer had not been working.  So out went most of the food and we had to go shopping to replace what we needed and will now have to look into the issue with the battery.....  And to think when the computer and hairdryer died - I actually asked myself what would be the third thing, since things always seem to come in threes with us lately!