War of the Washing World

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DAY 233

We awoke at around 6.30 it is not quite light yet; the morning feels refreshing after the humidity of last night.

Shortly after the kettle is on and our day has started, I pop over to the laundry to check on the washing, as I had left it on the line yesterday, it was still damp so I left it hanging, it probably would not take too long as soon as the day heats up.

Later checking the laundry, I found some of it missing, however someone had taken it off the line and it was carefully folded up in the laundry, not quite complete with pegs as some of them were missing, I would not mind, but that means the remainder of my washing is now inter dispersed with washing belonging to other people. Actually the thought that someone is obviously feeling my clothes to see if they are dry does not appeal.

There is another pile of washing next to mine that someone has also removed, there is a notice up in the laundry, saying that someone has lost a blue sheet for a double bed and would whoever has it please return it to the laundry.

I look at the washing line and find the remainder of my washing, fortunately now all dry, however while I am in the laundry just folding and sorting it out a woman wanders in and looks in one of the machines, she is puzzled and looks at me to ask if I have seen anyone take the washing out of the machine, I said not, but she tells me that her washing is missing. I said perhaps she should check the line, “perhaps someone hung it up for you”, although I doubted that very much, I am not convinced that I would hang up someone else’s washing, it is bad enough having to do our own. I have no idea if her washing eventually turned up, but it did not look like it was on the line.

It becomes clear that there are not enough washing lines and I realise how easy it is for someone to walk off with your washing because other people have mixed it up with someone else’s because they take it off the line to make room for their own.

This becomes even clearer when I find a notice up on the mirror in the ladies asking someone to return a missing T-Shirt that had been removed from the washing line!

Now the concept is that you can usually take wet washing out of a machine if it has been left, no point in leaving a machine not being used, but it is kept together as it has come out of the same machine, (and you can leave a bag on the top which helps) but I am not comfortable with other people removing your washing from the line, I have not had a problem up until now, but I think here I am not taking any more chances, I will dry my washing by our trailer so that I at least know where it all is.

I cannot believe that I have written so much about a pile of washing, I must think of something else to keep me occupied like read another book!!

Well we sit around for a while, but we have things to do, one of them being to go to the office and check in for another 7 days. Then a trip to Woolworths to stock up on groceries so we pop down to Coolalinga, which we passed on the way in.

We did not do a big shop, except that we both needed shampoo, conditioner, shower gel etc so we had a hefty bill at the checkout, but it was stuff that was necessary. We also bought a freshly roasted chicken and some fresh bread rolls so we had a delicious lunch.

I busied myself putting our freshly laundered clothes away and sorting out the washing. I see Andy is talking to a couple of people that are camped opposite, I join them to find out the exciting news that they had a snake in their camp last night, both Andy and my eyes light up when we hear the news, Jennifer and Aaron tell us that it may have come from our direction (we were out last night so did not see anything).

It sounds as if it is a python although that is not confirmed, I have been told that King Browns may frequent this part of the country, so until we see anything we cannot confirm, they know where the snake lives and it is believed to be a Python, that is good news although they can still deliver a nasty bite, but we do not think that they deliver any venom.

We find that Jennifer and Aaron are stuck in Darwin waiting for an engine for their ute. They had already spent some time in Darwin and on their way out to Katherine when an engine problem occurred, they felt it wise to return to Darwin where costs and parts availability might be easier, however they are now waiting for a new engine to be delivered and fitted so that they can get on their way towards the East Coast, they too are taking some time out to travel, they come from Sydney.

They asked us if we wanted to come out to the pub with them in Humpty Doo to see some live music, we declined as we still had some things to do and to be honest we wanted to relax a bit this evening.

Not long after they left they returned saying that it was not as good as they hoped, it was a blues music night, Andy would have hated that and the pub was very much for local people, so they had a quick drink and then came back to camp.

Andy and I had a quiet night, we caught up on the blog and all in all had quite a pleasant evening, it was a humid one, but it is lovely to be warm after some of the cold nights that we have had on this journey.

We don’t see any sign of a snake, although we keep an eye out and finally at 10.00 we go to bed.

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