Thursday 10th June - Kununurra - Katherine Gorge 555KM (350 miles)
Hit the road for a long journey to Katherine and 8am - about 20 minutes later we gained an hour and a half in time as we crossed into the Northen Territory . We came accross some bush fires on the way - some were burning right next to us on the roadside. Today we had our own music to drive along to which was great with no radio pick-up in most places. Made it to Katherine Gorge park about 6pm and parked up on the roadside for the night. Spoke to Derek's Mum on the phone for a good while before heading back to make the tea. Next thing a park ranger pulls up and tells us it's illegal to park for the night in a national park anywhere else than an official campsite. So we drive 2 minutes round the corner to the place where we made the phonecall from. Here's it was a virtual animal sanctuary where we spotted lots of frogs, sat next to small kangaroos who are very nosy and had our ears barraged by the squawks of flying black foxes (aka bats). Every so often you get a whiff of the distinctive bat smell - not the nicest aroma in the world! Another clear night which is fantastic for sky and star gazing

Friday 11th June - Katherine Gorge - Litchfield national park 362KM (226 miles)
Awakened to the sound of bickering bats once again - we're not sure when they sleep exactly . A quick walk up to view Katherine Gorge on foot - steep climb but nice views - before heading back to the town of Katherine. Made quick journey to a couple of shops before buying ourselves an authentic digeridoo ('didj') and a boomerang. We bought the didj from a shop called Coco's and Coco himself could not have been more helpful to us whilst browsing. He must've given us at least $20 worth of bubble wrap and tape before we posted it - total cost inc P&P was 120 pounds. Not bad really. We decided to give Kakadu park a miss in favour of Litchfield instead. Made it to our camp site by 6pm. The road today was by far the most twisty and bendy route we've taken to date. Sue was very pleased to hear a couple of Tears for Fears songs on the radio this evening whilst Derek was very amused to hear of the girl camped beside us planning to cycle all the way back to Perth from Darwin!