Same Chores Different City

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DAY 232

It was 6.30am and my alarm had just gone off, there was barely any light outside as the morning had not quite woken up itself, amazingly there was also a thick covering of fog outside, it was lovely and cool, but no time for lazing around in bed this morning, I have a Skype session with my girlfriends, back in England, booked for 7.00am.

Once dressed, I cleaned my teeth to make myself look half presentable, tricky at this time of the morning, put the kettle on, booted up the laptop and while that was booting up (takes ages at the moment), made a cup of tea for Andy and me. Andy took the opportunity to stay in bed a little longer.

I jumped into the truck, where I knew that I could Skype in relative peace and comfort, i.e. not really much danger of disturbing other campers, well they would hear the birds squawking before hearing me. Technical issues at the other end meant that we could not do a proper Skype to Skype call so I did a Skype out, which actually meant that I could speak to each of them one by one and have a proper catch up, it does get a bit tricky when you have a group on the other end all trying to speak at once. It sounded like they were in the next room, the connection was excellent, we chatted for about 40/50 minutes, and then l thought I should let them get on with the party.

Andy was already up and sitting outside by the time my Skype session finished, and finally it was time to get round to having some breakfast, as we had not replaced the bread from when it got mauled by the ants, and as the Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes were gone we had to settle for pancakes and bacon (the last 2 rashers of bacon that is).

It was still fairly foggy, apparently a fog like this is rare in Darwin, they only get fog once or twice a year and unusually it takes a while to burn off this morning, it would usually be clear by 8.30 but today the fog does not clear until at least 10.00am.

The day was starting to get warmer and we had things to do, firstly we were going to sort out another Caravan site at Lee Point, which we had been recommended to. We drove across Darwin to Lee Point and found this caravan park, we wanted to find out what their weekly and monthly rates were, Caroline jumped out of the truck and went in to do some hard bargaining, but came out as she had been told they did not have a weekly or monthly rate, and the day rate they wanted was higher than where we already were, so they can stick that one.

Next on our list of chores, we were off to Bunnings (B&Q equivalent) as I wanted to do some more electrical modifications to the trailer, we went in and got the few parts we needed and came straight out.

Andy had spied a large car was that was opposite so we made a uwee (a U Turn) and we pulled in to the car wash. The Patrol was still covered in red dust from our off road trip up to Twin Falls, its like a dye when it gets wet, and it gets everywhere. With the high pressure hose going full blast we manage to give it a decent clean.

Next job on the list was to get my Camera Lens sorted out, we knew there were a couple of specialist shops in Darwin so we went to investigate. Parking up, great free parking on Saturday! We walked down Smith Street Mall to Camera House and went in.

I explained the problem and the chap looked very concerned explaining that it would have to be sent off and they did not know how long it would take, blah blah blah, I explained that we realised all of that and all I wanted them to do was to send it off to Canon, let me know what was wrong and more importantly how much is it going to cost me?

We also looked at another lens, as I may have to buy one while this one is repaired, but perhaps not really worth doing until we know what’s wrong and how long mine will take to be repaired, if indeed it is repairable. There are a couple of options but we will cross that bridge when it comes to it, as we intend on staying in Darwin for a while I can get away with not having the lens, but I won’t be happy to leave Darwin without taking some photos.

Back at camp we follow a Blue Nissan X-Trail into the campsite, now, the relevance here is that yesterday when we arrived I spied a small teardrop caravan with a familiar set up and said to Andy that it looked like Richard Cordukes, the guy that we met when we first arrived in Tasmania late February. Seeing the Blue X-Trail made me wonder, Andy disagreed so I said we should drive past and check it out.

Sure enough, as we turned into the road, we see Richard locking his car up. We pulled up along side him and I spoke to him, he was absolutely amazed, he remembered were we first met up. He seemed thrilled to see us again and invited us over to dinner tonight; he is also expecting his brother and his brother’s partner.

You may remember from our blog entry, “Night of the Little Fairys”, blog day 109 24rd February, when we first met Richard, he is actually in a wheelchair and has travelled up through the red centre and has been in Darwin for a few weeks and will be here for a while longer, perhaps until the weather improves in the South.

We beetled around camp doing some much needed chores, like the washing up from this mornings breakfast, while I was doing this someone started to ask questions about our site, i.e. do you have power? It transpires that they were hoping that we were going to move in the next couple of days so that they could ask to take over our site. I said “sorry, we are probably going to be here for about a month.” They wandered off, but every time they walk past I feel their eyes burning. We do have a nice site and beautifully shady with the palm trees hanging over us, I am relishing this even more now someone else is interested in it.

Later, I went round to the camp laundry and put another load in the machine, I was lucky enough this time to get the washing on the line, and there was actually some space. I knew that it would not dry tonight as it was too late in the afternoon, despite the heat the humidity was rising and thus the air was too damp, once it gets dark you have no chance of drying washing.

Andy busied himself on the blog and found a few messages had been sent, I think he has successfully managed to guilt trip some of you into sending us messages. Thank you for your lovely messages, they are much appreciated and they do bring a smile to our faces and yes Barbara, Andy says we do want to know those little bits of information like “I went to the bottle bank today” or “I went to the dentist.” Believe it or not those little bits of information that you think are not so important are important to us and you can make it as interesting as we have to make it when we are having a dull day too.

Andy made a Skype call to his Mum and I Skyped my Mum and Dad; just to let them all know that we are safe and well in Darwin. As soon as that was done we wandered round to Richards campsite with our chairs to join Richard and his brother for dinner tonight.

I enjoy a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc, Andy enjoys his cup of tea and we all tuck into a roast lamb with lots of vegetables. Roger and his partner Louise are from Townsville and ask us to pop round and see them when we are in the area, we will be sometime in the coming months especially as I have to see another friend, Heather, who moved over from England last October.

We have a great evening catching up with Richard and his travels since Tasmania, also a pleasure to meet Roger and Louise. The evening passed very quickly and before long the washing up was done and we were heading back to our site for bed, it was nearly 10.00.

It is still a warm night, I am tired as I was up at 6.30 this morning, and it has also been a busy day for us both.

Until tomorrow.

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