Day 33 – Tuesday 19 July 2016 – Darwin

Another night of not so great sleep unfortunately thanks to very noisy bats in the trees above us coupled with me just thinking about “stuff” as I often do.  So I was awake for several hours in the wee hours of the morning and then after going back to bed – not being able to wake up at a reasonable hour.

One of the things I was thinking about was how our budget was tracking.  It’s not so much that I want to keep track of every cent we spend as much as I want to know whether the budget we created was realistic having never done a trip like this before.  And also knowing that it will help us to plan any future trips too.

So I spent most of the morning wading through bank statements and receipts trying to backtrack the past two weeks we hadn’t recorded having been too much in the moment of the holiday.  To my concern we had already spent almost half of our budget.  This fact was only slightly less depressing than the sudden realisation that we are almost halfway through the holiday!!!!!  So the good news is – we’re pretty much on budget.

Relieved about that, I sent Shane off to go through a couple of the local scenic routes that didn’t allow pets – Nature / National Parks etc while I made good use of the time to have a bit of a clean up and re-arrange some things in the van that have been bugging me.  It’s amazing how the organisation of caravan cupboards seem fairly straightforward – that is until you come to use them on a long term basis.   Those little annoying things don’t really get your attention for a weekend away – but have to do it 33 days in a row and you will soon be making other arrangements.

I was just about to re-arrange a cupboard in the kitchen when there it was – that magical music again.  And silly me made the mistake of asking Miss Kitty “Is that the Ice-Cream truck?”  Well….. sometimes one forgets that the human dog of the family has a vocabulary of that of a three year old.  We even have to spell the word NUGGETS in our house otherwise the excitement is beyond control.  Sadly “Ice-Cream” can evoke a very similar reaction.  So I had one frantic dog looking for ice-cream while her not so on-to-it brother Scheppi wondered what all the excitement was about – but what the heck I’ll run around and get excited too.   10 minutes later all was well and the three of us had soft serve to devour although some of us were less messy eating it than others!

I managed to get another row of crochet done on the rug and Shane arrived back having taken a few photos including a woman holding a large snake advising those onlookers that this was some of the “animals” that could be found in the park.  Personally that would have done it for me – but the brave photographer ventured on and got some lovely shots!

Our plan was to try to capture some of the renowned sunset photos off the beaches in Darwin but unfortunately there was a massive cloud of smoke drifting across the water on the horizon which swallowed the sun about 15 minutes before its scheduled setting time so we didn’t get what we had hoped to.  We did however still manage to get some great shots and it certainly offered great promise for a night that isn’t quite so smoke filled.

Given it was now after 7.00pm and 4 people are now quite hungry – we did the honourable thing and bought pizza – although not for the dogs who were quite perplexed at not having been offered a single morsel.  While Shane was in the Pizza shop I had my first Darwin Aboriginal experience – sadly much of the same – drunken, abusive, yelling.  Carrying a huge array of bags and blankets so one would assume they were homeless.  The woman was screaming at the man from across the street and at one point in an effort to cross a major four lane road, almost ended up being hit by a van.  The police arrived and loaded up a man who had appeared out of the vegetation on the roadside and drove off.  In the meantime the woman and another man collected their belongings, crossed the street and off into the dark in another park, not before the woman went through garbage bins on her way past.  Shortly after an elderly man followed them, also very drunk.  About 10 minutes later another couple wandered down the street, also carrying a large number of bags and blankets, also very drunk, also yelling and screaming.  And sadly this was Fannie Bay – one of the more affluent areas of Darwin.

The trip home was an adventure of its own.  Having taken a slightly wrong route to home and ending up too far north we decided to grab a cask of wine and try to navigate home.  Evidently trying to buy wine this late in the night in the city is like trying to get tickets to the Wiggles Adult Concert the day after they go on sale.  The 2 litre / one cask per person rule also applies here in Darwin and they were out until restocking the shelves at 2.00pm tomorrow.  All I can say is that’s it – we are NOT moving to Darwin!  

We were off again and again took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up too far north yet again…….. detoured…….. found the right road………. Shane spotted a bottle shop unfortunately about 50 metres after the turn-in……… did a U-turn to go back but ended up on a road that went for about another 5km before we could again turn back.  I tell you – if they had been out of wine at this one I think we both would have cried.  Off we went again finally getting home around 9.00pm with two dogs who were VERY grateful to finally have their dinner albeit 4 hours late.

Sigh – time for a wine!