The lack of Air

---

DAY 344

Another gorgeous Cairns morning dawned and I was up before it was light, well 5.50 is early in anyone’s books, it was just I could settle once I was awake.

After my “Quiet” cup, I felt I just wanted something to occupy my mind and as the trailer has just been dragged over 2000k’s across some harsh dusty terrain, this was going to be the place that I started.

Our trailer, or “Wendy House on Wheels” as we like to call it has a flexible zip on cover, so when its all packed away the “Tent Bit” gets covered over for protection and the red dust sticks to it like bees to a honey pot.

I set about with a bucket of water, some floor cleaning fluid and a scouring pad then cleaning the whole trailer top to bottom, taking off the spare Jerry can, gas bottle and anything else that needed a clean. A couple of hours later it wasn’t looking in too bad a condition.

At around 8.10 I went to see if Caroline wanted a cup of tea, as I did, well why not I had earned one, you can tell the season is changing here in Cairns and we heading towards summer as it feels so close, there just seems to be a lack of air.

Caroline had made an appearance, she had slept well, and I was pleased she had had a little extra and slept in a short while, she was tired and sleep is such a tonic. Almost immediately Caroline had put some clothes into soak before washing, again we have the red dirt fever so our clothes benefit from soaking a lot of it out before putting in the machine.

We sat around and said how wonderful it is being back at Julies house and for which we are truly grateful, an opportunity to get ourselves clean and everything tidy before our onward journey, though we are here for only a short time, it is a place of absolute peace and tranquillity and in this turbulent world we live in these places are hard to find, just the right place to chill out.

Before Julie had left we had spoken about the Cairns area being put on water restrictions, so I wanted to make sure that I could get the right day to water Julies “Rain Forest” garden, looking on the web site it said that gardens could be watered between 5.00am and 9.00am and 5.00pm and 9.00pm odd numbered houses on a Saturday and even numbers on a Sunday and if you were using a hose pipe then you could pretty much use it at your discretion provided it had some sort of trigger system so the water did not run all the time.

We got ready, well to be more exact we put our best thongs on (flip lops) and went in to Cairns CBD as Caroline needed to get some documents printed off then put into the post back to the UK, Julie had told us of a place so we went in and it was all soon done, to our satisfaction.

Our final and important job was to collect Caroline’s contact lenses that she had ordered before we left for Cape York.

With everything out of the way the only thing I wanted to get done was to take the truck to the high pressure jet wash and give it a good once over and get all the beaten and baked on crud removed, then I could give it a good hand wash.

We got back just around lunch time, I certainly was looking forwards to this as a lazy afternoon was what we wanted to have, after a spot of lunch which was the warmed up take away from Friday night, we both sat on the Veranda and vegg’ed out for the afternoon.

Caroline dived in to her Nintendo and I did a bit of blog work. The afternoon just sailed by as it started to cool down I decided to get a bucket of water and some car shampoo and clean the Patrol top to toe out side then I would do the inside tomorrow.

It may seem out of vanity that I keep the truck as clean as we can, well its out of practicality really we don’t want to sit in all the dust and filth that we collected going up to the Cape and it gives me a chance to go around the truck to see if anything is loose or has fallen off, due to the corrugations.

At 4.30 pm Australia time, which is 07.30 UK time I Skyped my dear mum in the UK, she is happy and being well looked after, for which I am thankful. She spoke to us both and her warmth and enthusiasm radiated which was great. We told her about the recent snake encounter which she didn’t like, particularly as she has a phobia with snakes (I am not sure what the phobia is called).

With the call finished we sat and finished talking and I went of and completed the task of cleaning the truck. It was late afternoon, we had some food in the fridge that needed eating but we didn’t want much for tea tonight, so we left it until we were hungry.

Home alone 2 was on the TV and I just love stupid films, it is a classic the “Baddy” never gets away with it, we were discussing McCauley Culkin, it must be weird, being a star so young and by the time he was probably 18, he was a millionaire, had been to rehab the whole rock and roll thing for someone so young.

The film finishes and we do something to eat, the temperature here is still warm and we both feel that we are not that hungry. The heat can take your appetite away, we have the overhead fans spinning above our heads shifting what little air there seems to be.

We sit and watch a 2nd film, X Men, 3 which I have seen before, a really good film to watch but half an hour before the end Caroline falls asleep, she said she was tired so I leave her, she seems to be doing a lot of sleeping this weekend.

Caroline woke briefly so I told her to go to bed, I stayed up to watch the rest of the film, then retired myself.

I know not a very exciting blog entry but that’s all that happened and sorry but no pictures of this fabulous country today.

Goodnight!

---

Comments

[Jodie]

G'day from Invy
Hi guys, just done my weekly catch up of your blog - had a sickie today, 1st one ever at this job! If you want reptile action you need to come and visit. Josh's blue tongue has come out of hibernation and is most social through the day sunning himself under the heat lamp. I know i'm not too keen on the lizard but I did feed him a grape as he was looking hungrily at me, I'm such a sucker!! Glad to see your keen on 'Packed to the Rafters' we never miss an episode in our house, the kids forgot to tape it the other night so we all crowded around the computer to watch it on the website. Very happy happy birthday to you Andy for Wednesday - hope you get to enjoy 20 cups of tea for the day - maybe a sneaky cake as well. Take care and keep enjoying TT's xx