Nai-publish: 22.09.2017
In the small town of Katherine, we also had to visit the tire dealer. One of our rear tires was losing air. We had tried to figure out what was wrong with it using soapy water at the campground, and we had a suspicion. The tire dealer confirmed that our rim was leaking, possibly broken. So we had our rim transferred from the spare wheel to the new tire. The spare wheel now has a hose in the tire (like a bicycle).
Otherwise, we wanted to get out of Katherine as soon as possible. It was just hot, even at night it was unbearable. In the 'city center' there is a supermarket, many gas stations, and a liquor shop. The liquor shop was even guarded by the police, as there is a lot of alcohol and drug crime by the indigenous people in the city. We were approached by an indigenous woman in front of the supermarket, she wanted all sorts of things from us. So we gave her the shopping cart (worth $2).
Then we drove leisurely 490 km west to Keep River National Park. A beautiful 'small' national park just before the border with Western Australia. Before falling asleep, we were unsettled by a glowing red horizon while stargazing. A few kilometers further, there was a bushfire. After talking to the other campers (Australians), we went back to the tent. They said it was fine and that it wasn't windy.