Katherine.

After leaving Litchfield we headed down the Stuart Highway again for Katherine. The van started making a funny noise and then we realised that we were overheating a bit. We were only a few kilometres from Pine Creek so managed to get to the garage where we discovered that the van was leaking water a bit. One of the hoses had gone. Managed to get as far as Katherine and so another saga begins…..

It turned out that a water hose had a hole in it probably done when the gearbox was fitted. So we wandered around Katherine looking for anywhere that sold spares and there were a few. Unfortunately they did not have he hose we wanted in stock and it would have to be ordered from Adelaide and airfreighted up (for a large fee). We were promised that it would arrive the following day. It didn’t. Apparently someone decided that it would be quicker to put it on a truck rather than a plane and surprise surprise it wasn’t. After the saga of the gearbox we were prepared for this set back but still threatened the guy in the store with violence if it didn’t arrive the next day. In Australia NT doesn’t stand for Northern Territory but for Not Today, Not Tomorrow, and I thought the Spanish were bad!
Still as promised it did turn the following day and repairs were done. As it happened Graeme and Hazel were also having more dramas with their VW but they turned up on site just as Graham had finished the repairs so to celebrate we went out for a beer or two.