Back to Darwin and Beyond

Heading into Darwin we had to get the chassis of the Kedron welded up. The A-frame had cracks where it joined onto the main chassis. We very soon got the reputation of “He broke a Kedron!” We had heard of a Trakmaster who’s A-frame had broken off from the chassis on the road we were on going into Towns River, so I thought we had better check ours out in that area, and Kedron confirmed when they saw the phots of it “You had better get that welded.”

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 So weld it we did.  The services in Darwin are second to none and they guy who welded it works on road-trains and he did a super welding job on it. He assures us it won't break again.

Our accommodation in Darwin was excellent, at the caravan storage place Jayne had found. It was nearly in the centre of Darwin, a really handy location. And only $25 / night of the two of us, which is a steal when the caravan parks in Darwin are charging $45 to $60 / night.  It was really nice and also was an adjustment place for horses, so we were camped right next to the stables, which was actually quite pleasant, listening to the horses all night.

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Our flight from Darwin to Sydney wasn’t without problems. We were due at the airport at around 1pm for a 2pm flight. The taxi from our Caravan Park was over 45 minutes late. We were hot and stressed to say the least.

They loaded us onto the plane about 30 minutes late, we then sat in the plane for just on an hour, to hear the announcement that the plane won't be departing as planned due to the high winds in Sydney, and is now scheduled to depart at 1am!

Qantas said they were unable to offer us accommodation due to the Darwin Cup (a Horse Race) being held that weekend and everything was booked solid. They offered us a meal in the airport.

We then were told that accommodation had been found for us at the Rydges Airport Resort, a nice place. And this included dinner. OK, sounding better. Over dinner we got the news that they flight was further delayed until 9am in the morning, Saturday. A much more social time to fly than 1am, but it meant we wouldn’t be at home for our scheduled dinner party on Saturday night.

Jayne went snow skiing with the kids for the week while I stayed home alone and worked. No rest for the wicked I guess. We were both sick at the same time though, those Sydney germs got to me at the doctors surgery when I was getting my adductor longus looked at, and then again at the chemist’s. Everyone in Sydney was sick, it’s crazy, why live there in winter? I thoughtfully passed this onto Jayne I guess. So she was down the snow feeling worse for wear.

We flew back to Darwin in a sort of shell shocked state, got to our van and had to relocate it from the storage area to the camping area. We met all the guys who were there from before we left. They had stayed put the whole time. Hmmm, I guess we’re still not into the relaxation part of being grey nomads yet.

So we headed off the next day towards Katherine and stayed at a free camp along the way. To say we were both absolutely exhausted would be an understatement.

We headed to Timber Creek where we are now, it’s a nice camping spot next to the Victoria River. Tomorrow we’re off into Western Australia and a 1.5 hour time difference from here. We’ll be camped at Lake Argyle for a few nights, so this is our last night for a week or so where we have phone and internet service. Our next post will be from Broome. We can't wait!

We can't wait to get to Broome and the Dampier Peninsular, it’s the destination of this trip. We’ll be in this area for many weeks.

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