OH! MY! GOD! I have to admit it - Nikki was right - this is the HOTTEST we have ever been! Because we're in the centre of Australia, the minimum temperature at night is about 35° - but in our small van, where we're tucked about 6 inches from the ceiling, it feels more like 135°. We were so uncomfortable last night that, when we woke up at 2.45am, we almost started crying because we couldn't start driving with the air-con on again for another couple of hours.
We eventually woke up at about 7.30am - and after getting ready and checking that Bruce was still ok, we set off. I don't know how but, when we were switching the air-con on this morning, we accidentally turned it off - meaning the only air that was coming through the vents was warm. All the way to our first stop in Mataranka, Nikki was moaning that she was melting (or something like that) and I have to say - it was hard going. I did try opening the window, but that just made things worse. Luckily on the way into the town, we passed a mechanics and he kindly told us what was wrong. Nikki left a much happier (and cooler) little girl. We did plan on visiting the 'thermal pools', but because of the heat, thought it was a waste of time - if they were 'ice pools' - we'd have been there in a shot! We did stop to look at the biggest Termite mound we have ever seen though!
Around lunchtime we got to the town of Katherine, where we stopped and did some shopping, before eating some lunch in the back of the van. We didn't bother going to the National Park, because we figured we'd stop when we're coming back down on the Greyhound - it'll give us a chance to break up our journey. Instead, we left and just decided that we'd try and get as close to Darwin as we can - so that we don't have much driving to do tomorrow, and we'll have no problems in getting the van back on time.
We eventually stopped this evening in a place called Howard Springs, which is just 23kms outside of Darwin. Along the way we stopped to change places (Nikki has been a great help with the driving) in Pine Creek and then Adelaide River. In Adelaide River, we had a longer break and went to visit the WWII War Cemetery - the last person to visit before us, was from Bath - it said so in the comments book.
After being shown to our patch, we set up the van and then went for a swim - which was brilliant - just what we needed to cool us down after being so hot all day. We were in the pool until well after the sun had set - and even then, the heat dried us off before we'd got back to the van. We then had a Thai green chicken curry for our tea.
Not far now - were almost in Darwin!
Distance travelled today: 562km Distance travelled in total: 2805km
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