Crossing into the Northern Territory

With only one fixable puncture we eventually made it unharmed to the other side of the Gibb. That wasn’t the end for us however. Traveling this way can become quite addictive. The more remote and the tougher, the better. Fuelled with the confidence we gathered from our previous trips, from this moment on we tried to avoid the main roads as much as possible. To me this was doubley exiting as we could reach places neither of us had been to before.


And so we decided on the Perry Creek road, a wonderful shortcut from Wyndham to Kununurra near the Northern Territory Border, bypassing the direct but monotonous highway. Though scenic, it was also a road that showed us some of the darker realities of Australian remoteness.
On a sandy stretch that was leading up to a (dried up, ha!) waterfall the inevitable happened. Without 4WD we hit a deep and soft spot and bogged the Van. Damn! While we did have some recovery gear, it nevertheless took a good few strenuous hours of digging in the dust and shifting the car inch by inch using nothing but a car jack, a shovel and a ratchet strap. This was our last escapade, at least for a short while.

Litchfield

In a reasonable pace we made it to Katherine, the starting point of some more natural beauty. Here we took a cute little Tourist Drive cruising through the bush land towards one of my favorite national parks: Litchfield.


Here we also regrouped with Aurelie and Gael, visiting the gorgeous waterfalls, termite mounds and the Lost City, a "city" made of spectacular rock formations. It was also here where the Van had developed a new problem. The starter would randomly decide not to work anymore, requiring the occasional push. It wasn’t catastrophic but it did keep us on our toes having to always park on downhill slopes.

However, as magically as this issue started it also disappeared again once we reached Darwin.