Darwin has exited their lockdown, but Katherine has extended by a day to give more time for test results to come in. That means we can progress with our holiday!
Kakadu has been very special. Magnificent and ancient. I’m glad we were forced to stay longer, the slowness of the last few days gave me time to recharge and connect better with the place.
Today we are off to Litchfield for one night before going to Darwin. So many people have raised my expectations about Litchfield that I’m nervous of being disappointed.
We refuel at Batchelor and on our way into the park an huge plume of black smoke leaps up about a kilometre ahead of us. We have been growing a used to the constant burning that the NT has offered us, but this is different to the light grey of a meandering fire. I pull off the road and we watch for a few minutes as the smoke billows upwards. Then we drive back to the petrol station.
I ask them about the fire (which they can’t see directly) and they tell me that all the burning has been done for the season and there’s nothing for a fire to burn. With such a confident response I decide not to argue, but I don’t think it’s smart to continue to the campground.
We call our Darwin hotel and extend our stay to tonight and head there instead.
On the drive up a series of firefighters zoom by us in the opposite direction. We refresh the fires guidance a few times, watching it progress from a warning to an alert we feel justified in our decision [Anna: I later heard that while the campgrounds were safe, the park was a smoky mess…no thanks].
Maybe we’ll see Litchfield another time!
