In order to protect the national parks, it is forbidden to stop anywhere to spend the night. We have
to go in the areas created for this purpose.

Those camping are our luxury : toilet, shower, washing machine, and sometime swimming pool...wildlife
waits for us and is part of the spectacle, for the pleasure of Pollux and Titus.
this one likes cookies.

Katherine Gorge :
This site is gorgeous : 13 gorges in a row where meander a calm river at this season. the occasion
is good to inflate our boat et test it. In fact, it more us we test with four people on board. It is
a great day !!
7 o'clock in the morning, we start alone. We will see
the first tourist at 11 o'clock. The pleasure to be alone in those huge gorges.
 
Joy of Titus from the first lights of the sun.
              cormorant in a talk with a kingfisher .


the second gorge is the most impressive, we arrive rapidly.
  
                                    Alone, our echo accompanies us...
               


                     sublime, great, magnificent, extraordinary...the happiness !!!
  
break for lunch
  

 At the end of our journey and after having visited all the beaches
in the gorges, we try to read the boards that stake out the gorges :
            Crocodile nesting area, DO NOT ENTER
Practically, this is only fresh water crocodiles , very shy, but you must not go to see them too near !!!

The heat and the road condition make Australia a country killer of tyres. There are plenty of them
along the roads in the north. We are also victims and explode a tyre at 80 km/h. The truck keep going
straight and stable...
 
Of course, we do not have all the tools compulsory. We are 120 km away from the first city (Katherine).
I leave Nathalie, Pollux and Titus on the edge of the road by 43 degrees and go hitchhiking to bring
what we need. Then, we discover the genteelness and the help of the australian in the outback...
just amazing !!!

  
While I go back from Katherine, helped by manu people, the change of the wheel has advanced.
Jim, boss of the local station (Willeroo station), has come with drinks and ice creams for the kids,
has seen if we have enough water with this heat and has begun to change the wheel.
  
10 tons, it is heavy !!!                            despite the high of the jack, we have to dig
                                                    to put the wheel

In fact, the spare wheel was not in a very good condition, like the other tyres. Before leaving for
long 4WD journey, we decide to change all the tyres.
Unfortunately, we cannot find this kind of tyre in the local shop. We have to wait a whole week to
get them. Jim welcomes us in his station during this time.

Willeroo Station :
  "small" local station, Jim manages 20 000 cows
in a territory as big as a french region. We are really in the cowboys country, where around 20
people live in autarky.
  
                                                                 moving "supermarket"
  
he's nearly got a girlfriend...
  
cattle is brought back to the field
  
Willeroo is one of the last station still using horses to bring back the cows.
  
the modern way to do it is to use the helicopter.
  
                                                                arrival for the cattle
 
waiting the rainy season to see reappear the grass
  
                          Pollux spends a lot of time with Tammy
filling up the tank for the generator by
a road train : this road monster has more than 70 wheels
  
Our parking is ,ear his nest...                     the storms are more and more violent. it is now
he tells us frequently !!!                          too late in the season to go further in Western Australia.
                                                    We have to go in the center of the country, hotter
                                                    but dryer and easier to drive.

                                            by duj