Caught in a bush fire, 6th September 2007

Set off about 8am, heading for our next land mark, Larrimah. The guide book says to stop there for sandwiches from a lady's house. They are supposed to be the best in the area. When we got there the house is on the main road and has boards all out the front advertising different things to eat and drink. The lady had a special on today, roast pork and lamb sandwiches on freshly baked bread.
So after one of each to share (which were really nice) we started driving again. A short way ahead we could see lots of smoke. Hannah was driving and around a corner the road was covered in smoke and as we got closer the trees and grass at both sides of the road we on fire. The smoke got thicker and Hannah had to drive quickly in the middle of the road to be able to see anything. The fire was that close I could feel the heat. It last ed for a few seconds and then we were out the other side. It was a bit like that scene in Days of Thunder with Tom Cruise, driving through the smoke on the race track and not knowing what was on the other side. A bit scary.
After that we got to Mataranka, hot springs. It was mid-afternoon so we stop for a swim. After that we decided that we were so close to Katherine we should just drive on. We found a campsite just outside of town, on the road to Katherine gorge, the place we were going to canoe tomorrow. The campsite was nice and as soon as we were booked i, we saw a man we had meet in Alice Springs. His name is Peter, but not Peter Kay our storker. We got the site next to him and had a drink and a chat with him after dinner. We found out he was going to the gorge tomorrow too but he was going on a boat. It was getting late, so we said good night and we headed for bed.