Category: June 2018

Sorry it has been so long since I have put an update on the Blog.  We have both been flat out since arriving in Darwin and I will try not to bore you with too many day to day details.

Col found out that in Darwin Companies need to organise their own Work cover through a private Insurance Agency, as opposed to Adelaide where you go through Work Cover SA.  He had tried to do this while at work but it was proving to be way too time consuming, so I said I would give him a hand.  Seriously frustrating process.  I don’t think the insurance agencies are very interested in offering work cover and it was difficult just to get a response and a quote.  There are only a handful of Insurance Agencies that are approved to offer it too, so that limits the options significantly.  I did end up finding someone but it was not an easy process and I am pretty sure it is more expensive than SA as well as a really poor process.

There are some pretty cute birds that live in the Caravan Park, our favourites are the Beach Stone-Curlews, they are very cute.  Col feeds them potato chips which I am pretty sure are not in their diet, but they love it and come back for their nightly feed each night.  Walking almost into the Annex.  They do shreik loudly though during the night, so very cute but not very quiet!

There are also some beautiful Coloured Ibis birds that wander around as well.  On one of my walks nearby I saw quite a few Black Cockatoos with red tails.

Our neighbour Peter saw me struggling to hang up clothes on our clothes line, as it has been put up so only giants can reach it!  He kindly came over to help me fix the clothes line so I can now reach it!  Very appreciative.

I unloaded everything out of the car and into the tent, then took the car down to vacuum out the dirt.  $20 later I actually had back seats again and slightly less orange carpets.  Actually it came up pretty well but those vacuums at the car cleaning places are pretty terrible.  I then headed back to camp and got a bucket of water and tried to wash all the dirt out of the door cavities as you can’t get to this when cleaning the cars with a high pressure cleaner, and when you lift the boot or open the doors there is still red dirt everywhere!  So I washed down the inside of the car and sprayed it with Febreeze and now I hardly recognise my beautiful CX5.  She is relatively sparkly and new again.

I found bargain shelving at Bunnings for the bathroom, only $13!  I then assembled these and unpacked all the toiletries onto the shelves.  I put up the shower caddy and shower curtain and the bathroom is suddenly feeling much better.  It is so nice to be able to unpack stuff and not have to take everything to and from the shower each time.  Not that it bothered me when I was doing it, but funny how you appreciate these little luxuries when you have them.  So many times I would get into the shower and realise I hadn’t packed something that I needed.  Once it was my towel, hahaha.  I dried myself with my flannel that night, you get to be pretty creative.

We have camping shelves that we never use and I got these out and assembled them for the laundry then unpacked our laundry stuff out of the van and into the laundry.  I got out the ‘Jetty’ (my big stargazer chair) and set up our lounge area under the annex.

I also put out our solar lights to charge up.  Col is getting worried about all the permanent things I am getting, but I have assured him we can give them away or bin them at the end of the trip and they wont come with us on the journey.  I just think these small creature comforts make life a little nicer and easier while we are staying in one place for a while.  And well the solar lights are just beautiful and will be coming with us on future trips.  I know that the females in the camping crew would support me in this.

Day 3 went well for Col and he is getting his head around his new role but is definitely feeling the adjustment of being back at work again.  He was invited to go for drinks after work for a farewell show for one of the Project Managers that was leaving.  So col went for a couple of beers before heading home.

Both of us are enjoying getting to know a new city and like the feel of it so far.

After dropping Col off yesterday in town I noticed that there was a big open air car park the next street over from his work.  I mentioned this to him and he drove himself in today and parked his car there.  It costs $5.50 for the whole day parking in Darwin!  Undercover parking is only $7 per day haha – sooooooo different from Adelaide, and Adelaide is so cheap compared to Sydney!  The cost of living does seem to be much better.

I continued working my way through my list of things and one of those was to do the washing.  I went to hang it up on the clothesline at our camp site, but couldn’t reach it.  It is built for giants (which I am definitely not).  I had to get a little stool to stand on and wow it was annoying.  Hanging up a couple of things getting down, moving the stool, getting up.  Good work out but super annoying.  Will need to find a solution for this.

I wanted to put up our tent for storage and Col and I had spoken about possible places for it.  I put up the tent on the grass area in front of our van but only put in the corner pegs until Col gave it the stamp of approval to stay.  I want to get everything out of my car so I can go and clean the inside, but will need to leave it for another day.

The ensuite is just a room with a cement floor, no shower curtain or shelving, so when you have a shower the water goes everywhere.  One of my jobs on my list was to get a shower caddy, shower curtain and shelving for the bathroom.  I also have my top for work but needed to buy some black shorts.  So a chunk of my day was driving around trying to source these things.

Now that people have seen us putting up our annex and making signs that we are staying long term I have had a few people come over and introduce themselves.  There is a very cute older couple opposite us, their names are Helen and Peter, and they are a wealth of information and really go out of their way to make us feel welcome.  We would guess that they are in their 80s but super fit, they go swimming twice a day!  They are from Geelong but have been coming up here for the winter for the past 10 years. It is quite a friendly park with many people coming here for many years or staying here long term.

Col had another good second day at work.  When he saw the placement of the tent he decided to move it.  Glad I only put in the four corner pegs!  The tent was moved onto a cement slab behind the van and roped down, so I can unpack my car into it tomorrow.  The problem using it for a shed is we will have to move everything in it when we want to go away for the weekend.  But at least our cars will finally be clean!  Well as clean as you can get them after taking them through the Kimberley!

The first work day had finally arrived for Col and he put on his shiny new work shoes and off we went in the morning (I am pleased to say he didn’t wear his boardies with them this time).  I dropped him off on day one so he could work out where to park.  I was impressed that even in peak hour here the roads flow really well and it is so good sitting on 70 and 80km all the way into the city.   There were also plenty of parking spots in the city, unlike Adelaide.  He got there early and all went smoothly.

I noticed in the reception area at the caravan park a sign that they were looking for Housekeeping staff at Club Tropical Resort next door so I gave the lady a ring to enquire and she asked me to come over for an interview in the afternoon.  To cut a short story short, I left the interview with my uniform in hand and am starting next Monday.  Casual pay but likely full time hours.  It will be interesting doing a physical job again after sitting in an office for so long.  I am looking forward to that actually.  It is really surprising how much work there is up here.  I am going to have to work some weekends which puts a spanner in the works for going to do the Touristy things, especially now that Col works weekdays, but I can request weekends off when we want to go away.

I have written myself a full ‘To Do’ list for this week and started working my way through the items today.  Overall I had a full and productive day.  Was strange not being with Col as we have been together everyday for the past 6 months.  We have both commented how impressed we are that there hasn’t been much friction in that time and we work together really well.

I went to pick Col up at the end of the day from work and he had a really good first day.  He likes the people and the job is pretty similar to what he was doing working for Health in Adelaide, so overall he is feeling fairly comfortable.  We expected the pace to be a lot slower here as everyone has likely heard that ‘NT’ stands for ‘Not today, Not tomorrow, Not Tuesday, Not Thursday, Next time’ and the list goes on.  But overall on first impressions what we have seen is that people are definitely more relaxed  and less stressed but still productive and efficient.  So it will be interesting to see if this view changes over time.

We took the cars, van and boat to a car wash place to try and give them a good clean.  This took us about 3 hours and a whole lot of money.  And that was just cleaning the outside only!!  That red dirt is so hard to get rid of and the issue is getting in and out of the cars you get covered in it.  This is particularly not good for Col if he is in work clothes.  I have had two permanent red spots on the back of my calves as Col’s car is really high off the ground and I kind of have to slide out of it.  Everytime I do this I wipe off the red dirt from the rock sliders on the side of his car and then walk around with my two orange calves.  Not a great look.

Col and I had a chat and decided that we are happy in the Lee Point Village Resort park and we are going to stay put.  The Receptionist had said that she might move us if we stay for 6 months, so Col and I walked around the park to see if there were any other spots that we would prefer over the one we were on, but we both decided that we liked where we were.  We spoke to Sue at Reception and she gave us the green light to stay where we are.  We got busy working out a  solution for the annex and decided on putting up just two sides at an angle, so they don’t join at the corners.  But it will give us some shade and some space to spread out.   Sue put us here because the cement slab is broken on the space behind us and we are able to use that for my car and the boat.  It is handy having them nearby and not needing to pay more for it.  This is our little camp now for the next 6 months.

 

Today we wanted to do a bit of a drive around to try and get a sense of the layout of Darwin.  We found the local shopping centre which is less than 10 minutes away.   Col wanted to buy new work shoes for his working debut on Monday, so we stopped in to grab the shoes and other supplies.  I couldn’t help myself taking a pic as col was in his boardies with socks and work shoes, not a great look, but a funny photo none the less!  He is a good sport and even posed for me to take my pic.

We also checked out Nightcliff, another suburb of Darwin.  Of course we looked at the boat ramp which is always high on the priority list for us.

I contacted a friend of mine who I worked closely with at Telstra in Adelaide and who now lives in Darwin, Anthony Kaviyani who I nicknamed ‘Angryani’ which has been shortened to ‘Angry’.  He is not actually an angry man, but happened to be on the day that I gave him his nickname and it just stuck.  So Angry asked what we were up to that night and we planned to catch up and go to the casino to watch the Soccer, Australia Vs France.  Angry offered to pick us up and take us for a drive around to see the sights of Darwin and we gratefully accepted the offer.  Unfortunately his partner Kat had another party on that evening so couldn’t join us until later.  They were also both flying out to Adelaide at 2am Sunday morning!!  They are going back for a week and then returning to Darwin.

Col and I have very quickly worked out that everyone is a lead foot in Darwin!  People drive quick.  It helps that all the main roads are 70 or 80km but everyone seems to go quicker than this.  Traffic just flows.  Our first stop was at the Buffalo Creek boat ramp which is just a couple of kilometres from our Caravan Park.  There are salt water crocs here so you have to be very conscious of your proximity to the water!

We stopped in at Angry’s house and learned that in Darwin you can haggle when it comes to renting a property.  His townhouse was advertised for $150 per week more than he offered, and he was successful at getting it for the lower price!  So if you do rent in Darwin, make sure you haggle the rental price.  The property prices have halved in the past few years too, so you can get some really nice properties for very reasonable prices.

We then went to look at the Lock and some properties that a friend of Angry’s rented fully furnished for $400 per week and they were really nice apartments with a sensational view.

Afterwards we headed to the Waterfront for a drink and Angry drove us down the street where Col would be working on Monday so he knew where he was going.  The Waterfront area was awesome, some really nice outdoor restaurants and bars, so nice that it is comfortable sitting outside at night in winter.  From there we headed to the Casino and had a few drinks and watched some of the Australia vs France game, then left to pick up Kat from her party.  We went out to an Indian restaurant for dinner and then to the Darwin Hotel for a drink.  It was a full day and we had a great time.  Really nice to catch up with Angry again and lovely to meet his partner Kat.  We were shattered by the time we got home just after midnight and I felt for Angry and Kat that they had to wait up to catch their flight at 2am.

So the day has finally here for us to arrive in Darwin and start the next chapter of this adventure.  We said our goodbyes to our friends James and Joyce and wished them well on their travels, then started the 4 hour drive to Darwin.  We both commented on how strange it was to see traffic lights and traffic after being away from these for so long!  Back to civilisation.  I can stop waving to every car that I pass on the road now, I wonder how long it will take me to break that habbit!  I was fresh airing everyone initially as I wasn’t usually the driver on long trips.  I have come to understand the responsibility of the car wave when passing other vans and boats, serious business this.

We headed straight for the Lee Point Village Resort caravan park.  This is basically the furthest point in Darwin from the city, but it is close to a shopping centre and some good fishing spots and it also offers reasonably priced ensuite sites.  Nothing is too far away in Darwin, the park is about 17km from Darwin City.  There is a shower and toilet in the ensuite and outside there is a laundry trough and space to put a washing machine, but we will just use the communal laundry for now.  We only booked for a week to make sure we were happy with it before settling in.  First impressions were not that great as it seemed run down and the grass dead.  There are also cement slabs for you table and chairs under the awning, but the slab is too big to allow us to put up our annex.  This was something I had my heart set on, especially if we are staying for 6 months! But I am learning over and over again on this trip not to judge too quickly and to stay a while somewhere to give a place time.  So we will wait out the week and see how we feel.

Because we are waiting to see how we feel about it, we aren’t trying to find a solution to put up the annex or unpacking much until we know we are staying put.  Both our cars, van and boat were looking worse for wear after all the red dirt roads so we agreed to take them somewhere the next day and wash everything down.  Another reason not to unpack much.  It was strange pulling up but not really settling in.

We went for a bit of a walk around to check the place out.  The caravan park is located next door to the ‘Club Tropical Resort’.  There are two pools, one at the caravan park and another one at the resort that we can use.  We decided to go for dinner at the Club Tropical Resort and sat outside to eat.  It was a really lovely evening and felt like a real treat after living frugally for so long.  So we have arrived safe and sound and looking forward to our time in Darwin.

Of course I was back with my walking running buddy, so met Joyce at 8am to go for our morning walk/run.  Let me tell you that 8am was a little too late as it was well on the way to heating up and you really felt it when running.  We had a very cute fan club watching us intently, a herd of young cattle of all different colours.  I wanted to go over to pat one but the minute we walked toward them they ran away.

So Col and I planned a wonderful day out today, we were heading to Katherine Gorge and I had booked us on a canoe tour through the Gorge that goes for the whole afternoon.  This is my sort of thing and I was pretty excited.  Combining being on the water with seeing stunning gorges, I really couldn’t wait.  So off we went, but unfortunately we put into Google ‘Nitmiluk National Park’ where Katherine Gorge is, and off we headed.  We had timed it perfectly…. or so we thought.  Nitmiluk National Park is huge, and unfortunately Google took us to the other end of the park at Edith Falls!  We started to put 2 + 2 together and work out that we were not in the right place and the tensions were going up rapidly in the FJ Cruiser, as the canoe trip was not cheap.  Suddenly we came across a car accident and our attention was diverted.  Three men came piling out of the car as the accident had just happened before we arrived seconds later.  No one was hurt but I cannot believe how they escaped this unscathed!!  Two back tyres had blown and gone bouncing off the car.  It was towing a big trailer with motorbikes in it and ran up a steep embankment on the side of the road.  But somehow they didn’t roll and they all walked out of this vehicle!  Col and I stopped to check they were ok and to offer assistance and all was ok thankfully.

So after making sure everyone was ok we called the Katherine Gorge Tour and let them know we were not going to make it.  The girl was lovely and kindly offered us a voucher to use later this year.  As Katherine is only 320km from Darwin we are happy to come back on a weekend to do the Katherine Gorge.  We are happy not to have lost the money and will book this in another time.

So the new issue was what to do with the afternoon.  We considered going to Edith Falls as we were so close, but we were dressed for a canoe ride and not a hike, so that ruled out that option.  You really don’t want to go hiking in these locations unprepared. We decided on a visit to the Katherine Hot Springs, neither of us was very excited by this idea as we had our hearts set on Katherine Gorge, but we headed there regardless.  I was worried about going into a hot spring when it was already really hot.  Col was not keen on a fake environment where hot water was simply pumped into a pool.  I am pleased to say that we were both wrong and very pleasantly surprised.  It was a beautiful, natural environment and the water was a perfect temperature.  Enough to cool you off, but comfortable to get into the water.  It was also free of charge, again something worth noting when you are travelling with a family or on a low budget.  Katherine Hot Springs is definitely worth a visit.  They are currently upgrading the Hot Springs too, so future visits will be even better.

We then headed back to Manbulloo Station and went for a walk with James and Joyce down to the river on the property.  Such a beautiful spot.  The river was so still and serene at one end and then poured over rocks and became beautiful rapids in front of us.   Loved the contrast.

I loved the reflections of the trees in the water too.

We noticed many small cone shapes in the sand along the bank and Col taught me about ‘Antlions’, a small insect that digs a cone shape hole and waits at the bottom for an unsuspecting ant to stagger in and slide to the bottom where it is attacked.  We picked up some small shells and dropped these into the cone shaped holes, it was hilarious, the Antlions managed to ping the shell up and out of the hole!  It was very funny to watch.  Col tried to dig them up but we didn’t manage to see any, only to watch the interesting antics of the Antlion trying to clear the cone.

 

We stayed in contact with James and Joyce who we met at Giralia.  They were driving across Australia from Exmouth to Queensland and we were happy to be able to line up a place where our journeys overlapped and we could catch up.  They were staying at Manbulloo Station about 12km out of Katherine, so we decided to join them there.  It is a lovely caravan park on a Cattle Station and there is more room than your average caravan park.

They had two ablution blocks, one was the normal male and female toilets and showers and the other one was a unisex shower and toilet block.  The unisex one was the one closest to our van but I never really got used to walking into that one.  I always had a moment of panic when I bumped into a man in the toilets and we both had a brief moment of fear that one of us was in the wrong place.

We drove to Kununurra to pick up my car and boat and did a bit of shopping before we left.  We then drove to Timber Creek which took about 2 and a half hours.  The plan was to camp at a free camp called ‘Policeman’s Lookout’ but when we arrived we found out you couldn’t camp there even though it was on Wiki Camps as a free camp.  We decided to just stay at the Timber Creek Caravan Park and loved it!

When we were checking in at reception the lady told us to hurry down to the creek at the back of the park as they were about to feed the fresh water Crocs and then the Kites.  We quickly parked the van and boat and headed down to watch.  The place was beautiful and the feeding was really interesting.  Fresh water crocs are not aggressive and you can generally swim in an area they in.  They only attack if they are threatened, cornered or stepped on but otherwise they try to keep out of your way and are fairly timid or shy creatures.  Most of the time you would not even know they were there.  I am hesitant putting up the video for this reason as it represents them as aggressive when the Freshies (also called Johnsons) are not the ones to worry about.  Salties on the other hand are very aggressive and you should never swim where they are, nor even stand at the waters edge.

It is amazing how well these Crocs can blend in, even in clear water.  Can you spot the Croc?

It is strange to wind the clock back an hour and a half and be back in the same time zone as our fellow Adelaidians.  Beer ‘O’ Clock came early for us today.  It is also amazing to feel the change in the weather and the increase in humidity.  Everything is so green!

There are hundreds of big bats in the trees around the creek and I can’t believe how loud they are.  Luckily we can’t smell them, but wow they are loud!

After the Croc feeding they did a demonstration of feeding the Kites which was also really amazing.  There were about 10 birds circling during the feeding.  These birds would circle above and the person feeding them would throw meat up into the air and a bird would swoop down and catch it mid flight.  It was spectacular.  I did get a little worried when they asked for volunteers and a group of small children went out to feed the birds.  They weren’t great throwers and one threw the meat over his shoulder towards another small child and the bird swooped in very, very close to the kids to catch the meat.  The kids loved it though.

Kites are an interesting and clever bird, when there is a fire all the critters rush out from their hiding spots to get away from the fire and the Kites maximise this opportunity to feed.  They are so smart that they have even been known to pick up a burning piece of wood and drop it somewhere else to create a fire and force more creatures to run out into the open!  Incredibly graceful and quick.

I would like to acknowledge the Timber Creek Caravan Park for putting on this demonstration at no cost.  So many places on this journey charge exorbitant prices for these types of things.  This was a great show and worth stopping in overnight on your travels if you are in the area.  One of those unexpected surprises that both Col and I really enjoyed.