Weekly roundup - Week 4

Here we are at Sunday at the end of Week 4 on  the road.  Time is passing very quickly and it is amazing to think we have been travelling for a month now.  We have spent this week in Darwin - there is so much to see and do here - and we have enjoyed being in one camp spot for more than just a few nights.  Another mixed week this week.
Last Sunday after our last post we visited the Mindil Beach Markets.  What an amazing experience.  It leaves any market down our way for dead.  We really enjoyed ourselves and immersed ourselves in the music and the atmosphere on offer as the sun went down over the sea behind us.  We had dinner there with all of us tasting and sampling food from all different cultures.  A really great night out.  Not so great coming home when I took my eyes off the road for just a moment and before I knew it, Mal was on the exit ramp off the Stuart Highway heading for the north west suburbs of Darwin!  Our GPS system that is only 3 years old now died suddenly and permanently earlier that day and I did not have a good map of Darwin on board.  I managed to get us back to the highway in the dark, mapless while the girls sniggered in the back seat as I hurled colourful comments at Mal which is a useless exercise when it comes to navigation - he just has no inbuilt radar system for global positioning.  I decided we needed a new GPS in a dark moment on the way back to base if  only to give me a break from navigating!
Monday - The day started with a trip into town to the Toyota dealer.  Might as well have stayed in bed really.  Replacing clips on a flange seems to be more trouble than skinning a croc up here and the guys who work in the place wouldn't even come out to look at the car - they just said we needed to replace the entire flange.  Total cost $500 ish.  If looks could kill, the salesman would have been a pile of chopped liver as of 9.30am on Monday morning.  We gaff taped it and that's how it will stay till the car is serviced when it is due (around Perth we think).  We left the chopped liver behind and went into town to Crocosaurus Cove - an very impressive croc park in the middle of the main street in Darwin.  the kids loved it and had a go at feeding baby salties with a feeding pole and then swam in a pool with them behind a sheet of perspex.

Tuesday - A bright new  morning like every other morning/day here.  Sun, sun and more sun, no clouds and a hint of a breeze.  It is usually 25 degrees by 10am.  Blissful.  We took the girls to Crocodylus Park and saw massive crocs lying about and being fed massive chops and steaks that would feed an entire family for a month in one go.  They had a little zoo there so we lunched there in the grounds with our usual picnic.  In the afternoon we headed to the Darwin Hospital to have Rachel's plaster taken off.  The casualty area has to be seen to be believed.  Lots of Aboriginals sitting around looking quite well except that most of  them are very drunk by 2.30 in the afternoon.  The guy at the desk checked us in and told us that it would be a 5 -6 hour wait as all the local folk had to be seen first and although there wasn't much wrong with them, it was hot outside and in the afternoons they often wandered in for some attention to bunions on toes, head lice and other such ailments to escape the afternoon heat.  We would have to be the only white people in there except the nursing staff.  I explained that I would happily go to a GP to have the cast removed and was happy to pay the costs incurred to save the 6 hour wait.  They gave us a sheet of numbers to call and I called the Darwin Private Hospital, explained the problem and they offered me an appointment at 3.20 with their physio department to remove the cast that day!  I had a letter from the orthopaedic surgeon back at home who put the cast on (thanks a million Maurizio - the letter opened doors that saved us a lot of waiting and frustration) and within an hour, the cast was off, and the bill of $15.50 was paid in full!!  Rachel was a little teary and worried about whether it was really fixed but we had her thinking of other things and busy so she wasn't thinking too much about it.

Wednesday saw us head out to Humpty Doo to the Adelaide River for a cruise to see jumping crocodiles.  Closest I have ever been to a saltwater crocodiles mouth and closest I ever wish to be.  We also visited Fogg Dam to walk over the Dam wall but there was a huge 5.5m saltie there so we drove over instead!  In the heat of the afternoon we went to the free waterpark at Leanyer - great fun for the kids on the waterslides and waterpark equipment there and after this visit Rachel was convinced her arm was 100% better.

Thursday was a great day too with a visit to Indo Pacific Marine to see a closed reef system in action and we had a guided talk/tour through the centre by the man who designed and built the centre.  It was very interesting with lots to see.  The afternoon was spent lazing over the road at the Wave Lagoon pool in rubber rings in the wave pool.  Yes folks, Jane was in the water again!!  When you get out of the (warm) water here, the (warm) breeze blows over you and you dry and your hair dries in 30 minutes you never feel cold at all.  It's so great to enjoy the water and feel warm. 

Friday - a very big day with an early start to travel an hour down south to the Northern Territory Wildlife Park.  What a great facility.  We walked our feet off that day (about 6kms all up) and saw so much of the wildlife that is natural to NT.  Mal got to hand feed whiprays and the free flight raptor show was particularly impressive.  We were there all day and very pretty whacked when we got back to camp.

Saturday saw us at the Parap Markets (had to post some things home to Dad!) and I am now the proud  owner of another pair of Happy pants (or hippy pants).  They are awesome and I fit in here with the local population without a problem.  I might just move here.......
Which brings us to today, Sunday - Mal's fishing day!  Mal was up early and away up the road to catch us a Barra for tea.  Hmm.  I have just returned from the supermarket with dinner supplies.......you can read between the lines.  Very disappointing with nothing on the line at all.  We will continue to put the line in when ever it is safe for as long as we are out here near water and fish.

We are now the owners of a portable solar panel!  We decided to lash out and get one so we can be completely self sufficient and not need to be in camp sites with power poles. We used it yesterday to power our fridge during the day and are very happy with the power it throws out.

So, the good,the bad and the ugly for this week - the good would be the intensly beautiful landscape at Fogg Dam wetlands.  Birds and birds and birds - and water lillies.  Just stunning.
The bad would be the lack of Barramundi on Mal's fishing line. He is a broken man this afternoon......
The ugly - a toss up between waking up to a failing power line that was arcing over the top of the trailer - fairly spectacular, similar to fireworks but somewhat dangerous when your house is below it - but unlike others, the power cut for the day to replace it did not worry us as we calmly plugged in our solar panel and watched the grey nomads panic about their fridges and freezers and their air con units. OR, maybe it was the Toyota salesman - Mal was not impressed.......

Tomorrow we are on the move towards Kakadu.  We are all pretty relaxed now and enjoying each day as it comes.  I love that I can wander to the bathroom at 7am in just a t shirt and shorts and when I get there the overhead fans are on to move the air and when I get out of the shower the breeze from the fans doesn't make me cold as I dress at my leisure.  Then as I eat breakfast, my hair dries in the breeze and I am still not cold!  I love it!  There is less formal school work happening but so much informal learning happening for the girls that I am not very worried about it.  The other day in the car, Rachel wanted to know about numbers that were very big (we were estimating populations of towns at the time) and she asked whether there are any numbers as big as infinity.  We talked about big numbers and about never ending numbers and that led to a discussion on 22/7, or pi.  Eloise has been set some work by her teacher Mrs Johnson on fractions so I have to confess that she now knows all about 22/7 but hasn't done anything on 1/2, 1/4 or 1/3!  Sorry Mrs J.  She told us last night as she went to sleep that she does not like Darwin because it is very hot- she said "Mum, do you know what the temperature is at the moment.  I think it must be pi hot".  Jeannette - I promise to get to halves and quarters next week......

We haven't met any Dream Stealers this week - score is still Crawford's 2, Dream Stealers nil.