Day 21 – Monday 9 August 2021 – 543km

We had breakfast & packed up camp in the thick dust of the camp. I had to keep shaking the dust out of my shoes, it was that fine and plentiful. We left around 9am and headed south towards Katherine where we refuelled and bought some bread, plus, most importantly, completed our travel declaration for Queensland. Phone & internet access in the Northern Territory is only found around the major towns and they are few and far between.

Our next stop is at Mataranka, around 90km down the road. We turn in towards Bitter Springs and are relieved to find that the National Park gates are open this time, the crocodile must have been caught. Bitter Springs are absolutely beautiful, the water is crystal clear and in the natural setting, with trees all round. The water is amazingly nice to swim in, 34C and again we chat to fellow travellers. One couple were from Chile, she had a Hungarian father. Another couple, he was Finnish & she was Cambodian, but their child had Hungarian god parents, amazing. One lot came from Victoria the other from South Australia. We are meeting up with people from every state & even a few from overseas. Australia is a truly multicultural society. After we got out we felt a little cool. The air temp was 34C, how is that? We sat & had lunch on the elevated pool viewing platform before we hit the road again.

On the road again and we put some distance south, lots of caravans & tourists heading north plus a gaggle of trucks with explosives plus about four or five wide loads carrying army tanks. We stop at Dunmarra for a refuel & a leg stretch. We have a little over half a tank of fuel, but out here, you don’t know where you can get fuel from, so we play it safe and make sure we are carrying plenty of fuel.  We keep driving past Elliot and towards Renner Springs when the shadows start to lengthen and we look for somewhere to pull over for the night.  We find an old road works area & pull in there, no-one else around. We pull in as far off the road as we can & tuck in behind some trees.

Dinner on the BBQ is marinated chicken with fried potatoes plus a nice salad. The sunset is spectacular plus the view from our Karavan is like an Albert Namitjura watercolour, it is stunning. As night falls the stars stretch from horizon to horizon, it is so dark here and the numbers of stars are endless. Another great day.