Inside Out

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DAY 327

My phone alarm was set for 6.00 this morning, but don’t think for one minute that I am getting out of bed, oh no, that’s Andy’s job! I have another hour, well ok another hour and a bit to be more exact and that of course was only when Andy brought me a cup of tea, old habits die hard!

Andy wanted an early start to get on with finishing up cleaning the house ready for our departure and Julies return. All I really needed to do first thing was strip the bed, get the bed linen in the washing machine, hang that on the line and get the towels in.

Also I had a bad nights sleep so felt quite tired first thing, but once I was up I had no problem in getting on with the chores in hand.

Once the bed linen was in the washing machine, I showered so that I could pack my toiletries up, with that done I made the breakfast, if you could call shoving four slices of bread in the toaster making breakfast that is. Still I made it and it was breakfast!

Things were coming together nicely, Andy had cleaned the bathroom and the loo, then whipped around the floors with the mop, I had 3 loads of washing done so everything was going well. However this of course was not the original plan, we wanted to get our campsite set up by 10.00 this morning but as the Patrol was in the garage (if you read yesterdays blog then you will know all of this), and we had the Nissan “Tilda” complete without the towbar so there was no way that trailer was going anywhere until the Patrol is back with us.

Still everything was going swiftly, eventually we sat down with a cup of tea and managed to read a few pages of our books, just before we went to the airport to pick up Julie I thought perhaps we can just empty the fridge of our food and put it back into our EvaKool Fridge ready to roll, Andy was just washing up the remaining items then fridge light went out, then we realised that all the sockets were out too!

Andy checked the Earth trip and tried to reset it, however it did not reset so there was clearly a problem. We worked out that some water had gone down the back of the kitchen worktop and managed to get into a socket for the dishwasher, thus shorting out the terminals.

Fortunately Andy sorted this out quickly and soon the power was back on, then we dashed out to Cairns Airport to collect Julie. We wanted to put the windows down in the Nissan “Tilda” and neither of us could find the button to operate the window, we then realised that it had a handle that you needed to turn!

The airport is having some work done at the moment so there are roadwork’s around, unfortunately we could not get to where we needed to be to pick up Julie, so we ended up parking and taking a hike to the arrivals terminal, we could see Julie at the baggage reclaim, it was not long before she joined us.

We paid the $3.50 exit fee and were soon on our way back to Bayview. As we went past the Nissan dealer I told Andy that I could see our Patrol sat outside, I think it has been finished, Andy wondered if they had actually started it.

Back at Bayview, Julie is pleased to see her house, more to the point in one piece, I had managed to break two things which is not bad going considering we have been there for 5 weeks.

Julie had asked if we wanted to stay on another night, but we felt that we needed to get on the road (albeit down the road at Coconut Grove Big4) and of course give Julie her house back and let her have her own space, she will be tired after her long journey.

We sat on the veranda and had a cup of tea and chatted but soon a text message from the Nissan Dealer indicated that the Patrol was ready for collection, so Andy and I hopped into the “Tilda” and away we went. On the way to the garage, we stopped at Coconut Grove to check in for the night, really just making sure that we had the boom gate key, the pitch and all the details which meant that we were not under pressure, we could take the trailer down as soon as we were ready.

When we arrived at the garage we waited with abated breath for the bill, we both expected this to set us back a small fortune knowing how many hours was needed to put the wiring problem right and not to mention any additional parts required, but we find a fairly reasonable bill, not only had they kindly “lost” some hours on the bill, they also deducted the amount that we paid them yesterday when they had to reconnect the horn, I wont go back into detail because we have written about it before, but it all stems back to one thing and that is the cruise control that needed to be disconnected due to the over revving of the engine! So we paid the bill of $362.

We jumped in the truck, Andy fired it up and we were away and yes thankfully it all worked, including the horn!

Because all of our plans went astray today, we devised our next strategy on the way back to Bayview. The trailer is all packed and is really in the way of packing the Patrol with the rest of our gear, so once back on the driveway we hooked it up and towed it straight down the road and straight onto our pitch. The tent was soon erected, the flaps opened to let the inside breath, it has been packed up for 5 weeks and the air inside was a bit stale to say the least, but a few hours of airing it will be as good as new again.

Back at Bayview we loaded the truck with the rest of our gear, Julie had the kettle on so we went and sat on the veranda for one last time enjoying a chat and the marvellous surrounds of Julies Rainforest garden.

We have both thoroughly enjoyed our 5 weeks there, a much needed rest, if you could call all of that hiking we have done a rest, but we both reflected that some things were just meant to be and meeting Julie quite by chance at Lake Tineroo early August was just that!

Eventually it was time to go, it was after 5.00 and we needed to finish setting up camp. We said our goodbyes and thanks, promising to call in when we pass back through Cairns in, hopefully, 2/3 weeks time when we return from Cape York.

I feel quite sad to be leaving this part of our adventure, however we have another exciting part of our journey ahead of us, in a way we are both ready to move on again.

Once on site, we finish setting up camp, not much to do as we are almost next door to the camp kitchen, so we just make up the bed for the night, or should I say next I don’t know how many nights, we take our gear out of the truck and sort it out into some sort of order so that we are not too late leaving in the morning. While we were sorting things out a woman stopped to chat, I think she admired our clean Patrol, she said hers was filthy, the strange thing is that she lives where we have friends in Eudlo back on the Sunshine Coast and the friends that they are travelling with have exacty the same camper trailer as ours, she also stopped by for a chat, confirming that she also had bought hers from Jarrod at Camping Country, also mentioning that theirs was looking in a lot better condition than ours, they have had theirs for a little bit longer than us, and have usedd it for a 6 week stint, but of course they have not lived in theirs like we have. There is a bit of a thing over here that the more well used a camper trailer looks the better it is, it has to be covered in dust, built for the job!

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention earlier, when I checked in I found out that tomorrow morning is Pancake morning, and they are free! Well we all know there is no such thing as a free lunch, so what about breakfast eh? What’s the catch? I mentioned it too Andy so all we need to do is turn up at the Garden Pool at 8.00 tomorrow morning with a plate, cutlery and mug for tea.

We sit in the camp kitchen and have a cup of tea, it is busy with everyone cooking tea, we start to write up the blog for today, but we need to reconnect the laptop to the power supply so return to base camp.

Eventually I realise it is 8.00, and the pool closes at 9.00 so I encourage Andy to come for a dip, I checked out the water earlier and found it to be quite warm, well ok not warm but definitely not cold! So off we went.

Success, I am in the pool within about 2 minutes, Andy of course splashes straight in! There are a few kids in the pool, supervised by adults of course. We swim for a while but the hot spa beckons. We sit in the spa and look up at the beautiful night sky, not so good as the sky when we were at Lake Tineroo but the moon is ¾ full and we can see a few stars, the sky is still dusty from the dust storms that hit the coast earlier this week.

I said to Andy “What a perfect way to finish a 5 week holiday, oh but then we are still on holiday, so this is just perfect!”

Time to finish the blog before bedtime, Andy is reading his book, we have a light snack for tea, we didn’t fancy eating a big dinner tonight.

The breeze is just the right temperature tonight we are sitting outside in shorts and t-shirts, it is a really pleasant evening, it must be one of the first evenings in a long time where the night has been warm enough to enjoy sitting outside this late, just a reminder to you that the days can be hot, but the nights can be cold here, especially in Outback Australia!

I am off to clean my teeth now and will go to bed when I get back. Once again climbing the step ladder to get into bed, again going from the Inside of a lovely comfortable house back to Outside life.

Until tomorrow, when the next part of our adventure truly begins when we leave Cairns and head North.

p.s while I am just finishing up here, Andy has sneaked off to bed, exhausted, it will not be long before I am following!

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Photos

Empty
...but not for long, swept out and ready to pack everything away again.

Back from the Garage
raring to go....

Julie
Back from England, we relax over a cup of tea.

Comments

[Darryl and Sarah]

Good luck!
Have a great time on the trek up to Cape York, there are some great crossings which you need to spend time at just 'watching' the action once you've been through yourselves (apparently!)! We made it into and out of the Bungle Bungles! Yay! Have fun and speak to you soon WW x x