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Published: February 1st 2010
DAY 450
Sunday today, the last day of January, 450 days from the start of our adventure and 450 days away from what we knew to be our home.
The weather is funny at the moment, its not this or that, we went to bed last night and it was really hot, but waking up this morning I had to pull the blanket on as it was just a little bit chilly.
The Wendy house is all set up in order to make our lives as comfortable as possible, things like the toaster, we have a light in the annexe and a light set up in the tent, as we are on power then we have electricity at our disposal so can get all of our batteries recharged etc. The food bin which normally stays inside the trailer is now in the annexe giving us easy access but over the next few weeks we expect to have a sort out of some of our gear so that we can get rid of anything that is no longer required such as a mountain of paperwork (it always catches you no matter where you are!)
We are still unable to get Internet access as we are still awaiting the arrival of our replacement Telstra dongle, so we are going to have to find a hot spot again today so that we can catch up online, we are behind on blogs.
This harks back to when we started the trip when we were using places like MacDonalds for internet access, as at the time Maccy D’s had just rolled out a program Australia wide, may be even world wide to give their restaurants, loosely speaking free WiFi, and as we have said before, credit where credit is due, the system worked very well.
We drove in to town and found the MacDonalds which we had used back in January last year, hang on there I am just going to have a look on our travel spread sheet as I am not sure about that.
Sorry about that it was the 14th February last year, Valentines Day, well since then the place had had a full refurbishment and was much better than it was last time, it is bigger, the refurb layout has made it that the tables are larger and better laid out and there is mains power at each table for computer access. A giant TV screen adorns the corner of the room.
Well done MacDonalds, everyone wants to blame you for our obese society, but we think, it should be hats off to MacDonalds for seeing the light, anyway eating burgers and fries is not compulsory.
We sat down with a small skinny latte and booted up the laptop, you do have to go through all their sign on protocol but that isn’t too much agro to start with.
Unfortunately we were 3 blog’s behind, plus the missing blog “Eating around Australia” which I happen to think is one of the best we have done for a while, was still trying to load and had been so for 3 days, so smarty pants Caroline, said we should moved it to saved then republish it, which we did and it instantly published.
All in all within the hour we had loaded 4 blog’s, which was great and brought us completely up to date.
Trying to log in to our e-mails was a different story, for some reason which we think could be possibly a firewall on the MacDonalds site, we are still unable to read our emails so hopefully there is nothing pressing.
We wrap up what we are doing and have a short hop into the city centre as Caroline needs to pick up some final bits and pieces for work this week.
The spare wheel had been taken off the roof rack this morning so at least we can get the truck in the multi story carpark, which makes our parking in town so much easier.
With shopping list in hand we go around the shopping centre, Caroline needs a hair dryer, a hair cut, and a couple of other blouses for work, still she has been without a hair dryer for about 14 Months so she has done quite well, but I am dutifully informed that it is now a vital piece of equipment in looking the part for work.
With new hair dryer in the basket, we go around looking for a hairdressers that will do her hair “right now” as I am very fussy about things I tell her that the ones who will do it with the hour for 28 bucks are going to give you a crap hair cut that you wont be happy with and if you just waited until next Saturday and booked an appointment then you will get something so much better and you will be pleased with it, it may cost more but you get what you pay for and as I am sure that Caroline is trying to look her best for work then it has to be done, in the outback it has not really mattered.
We have a spot of lunch in town, only as we are juggling to keep things fresh so decide that this is the best option, we opt on an Indian meal so that we can have something light tonight as we are off to the cinema.
We get back to camp at about 2.30 and settle for the afternoon, it is baking hot by now and I say to Caroline that we ought to go and buy a pedestal fan to mount in the trailer to keep us cool, she agrees and we put that on the list of things to do.
I purchased a heavier poundage line for the fishing rod (being ever hopeful), so whilst we were sitting enjoying the afternoon, I decided to re rig the fishing rod as required and with the help of Caroline manage to get all the 10lb line off the reel and put the 25lb line on.
For someone who has never fished before, I definitely needed Caroline’s assistance.
Caroline was desperate for a swim and asked if I was going to partake, it was a bit overcast by now so we thought it would be nice.
I went straight in but Caroline insisted on her usual approach she gingerly walked dow the steps, saying that it was cooler than yesterday, but it was not long before she just plunged in and swam, the water was lovely when you got used to the temperature.
So after a shower, we dressed had a light tea and we were soon off to the cinema to see Bran Nue Dae, the Australian film about a young Aboriginal boy called Willie Johnson, I have been looking forward to seeing it since it was advertised as it looked like our kind of film.
The film has Geoffrey Rush as the priest Father Benedict, he was just amazing, we sat in awe of this wonderful film that was so funny and it was full of music that made you want to dance with them (no we didn’t).
The best thing about it was seeing the places that we have been lucky enough to visit on our travels, the first shot in the film was at the beautiful little church at Beagle Bay. We were lucky enough to see this when we visited with the Truman family whilst up at Middle Lagoon and Cape Leveque, the film was set in 1969, so we wondered if the road from Perth to Broome back then was all dirt (its all bitumen now), very red Kimberley dirt just like the road up to Cape Leveque which is where we think some of it was filmed.
The film was great, well worth watching and a really feel good type of film, we came out of the cinema again with such a warm fuzzy feeling about this film and the temperature outside was really balmy and pleasant, just a perfect evening.
To end our pretty perfect day and as it was still fairly early we dropped into the golden arches grab a sit in coffee and just to try and check our emails and that was it for today, the tennis was on in the big tv in the corner, plenty of people were sat around watching it and there were plenty of people sat around on their laptops taking advantage of the WiFi.
We got back to the trailer, and had a quick hand of cards, we did not want to be too late for bed as it is Monday tomorrow and Caroline has her first full week at work ahead of her.
So we will say good night until tomorrow.
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Jo Trouble
Jo McCarthy
With ya on that one
Hi Caroline & Andy, I'm with you on the wifi source, I've been using them myself :-) Looking forward to the photos of fish - no cheating now ;-)