Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 82 - Saturday July 30th 2016 - Kununurra, Western Australia to Katherine, Northern Territory

Well the good (ish) news is that Trev is feeling a little better not great, but well enough to travel and he even managed to eat some breakfast (a jam roll, the thought of milk was not doing it for him). We were on the road by 08:30 which is what we were aiming for but first it was into town to fill up the van with petrol and then head off to the coffee shop for Jonathan for a skinny flat white.

With our essentials complete we headed back to the Highway and one road that would take us all the way to Katherine. The journey was due to take us about five hours and we would also cross state borders between Western Australia and the Northern Territory. What was incredible though and it really gives you a sense of just how big Australia is, is that we would also be driving through a time zone. As we crossed the border between WA and NT we lost an hour and a half.

So it was Jonathan behind the wheel for the first part of the drive with Trev

not feeling too great.And our first stop of any significance was at that very border. Now normally when we have crossed a border before there are polite signs about not bringing fruit or sometimes alcohol in between states of aboriginal areas but here there was a full on border station, stopping all the travellers heading into Western Australia. Interestingly there was no control on the way that we were heading, but we certainly where not complaining about that, it made our journey a lot easier. We stopped and took a couple of pictures of the Northern Territory sign that jumped straight back in the van and headed on down the never ending road.

There really was nothing to see, it was all bush as far as the eye could see, sometimes you would drive past a huge cattle station but that was it. This stretch of drive was not winning any awards for scenery I’m afraid.

Things didn’t really change until about two hours outside of Katherine where we passed through some quite impressive canyons for a short time and the road went from the predictable straight line to something more resembling the twists and turns of the yellow brick road but that’s in a very different Oz!

Now we have actually been to Katherine before and we both remember it all for bad reasons but for the sake of the amount of driving we have done we decided that it was the best stop that made sense to the distances we have to cover so here we are heading back. So what happened the last time we were here then? Well Jonathans bike pedal fell off and he had to cycle for about four miles with one foot but by far the worse was the aborigines passing out at the petrol station from sniffing the fumes of the pumps as we tried to fill up our last camper van. That was not a nice experience and one we intended to try and not repeat.

The camp site we arrived at late afternoon was actually well away from the town so we just headed straight there and hooked the van up, there was nothing that we really needed from town and with two nights left in our home on wheels what we really need to be doing is using things up not getting more in.

So with our time difference we were set up with the van by half four and after a quick drink Jonathan went over and put what should be the last washing load into wash and dry (Trev thinks that I am obsessed with washing and he thinks I actually enjoy it…..no no no!)

We sat outside the van whilst we could before the bugs move in for the night, relaxing in the wonderful early evening temperature.

Bizarrely this campsite seemed to be free of bugs and we could have effectively stayed out all night but we didn’t. Instead we retreated into the van, opened another bottle of wine and got the iPad’s out again.

I know, it’s the same old same, but that’s the thing about van life, when there is nothing but silence around you from all the fellow grey brigade campers the last thigs that you can start doing is having a party on the grass. So earphones in it was and model neighbours we were, the penultimate night in micro van….bless her.