Aus Day 26 - A Change of Van and Air Conditioned Luxury

Friday 15th October   Aus Day 26


Rose this morning at 07.30 with the Van change over ahead. Managed to get mos of my kit stowed away in the suitcases but somehow I have managed to collect a load of stuff which won’t go in the cases so will simply have to transfer that at the depot. Although the temperature is probably only about 28/29 degrees, the humidity must be very high because even without doing very much I am dripping with sweat even though I wipe myself down every few minutes. In fact I have just checked the records on the Internet and the Relative Humidity in Darwin this morning was 90%, that explains a lot.

Booked out from the Tourist Park with the promise to see them again in a week’s time when Eileen arrives. Then drove to the nearest filling station en-route to the Apollo Depot. The Hitop van was booked in without any problem and I then took delivery of 4WD Camper which has an extending roof. Did the usual checks and then signed over huge amounts of money and was on my way by 11.30.

Nothing really to report on the drive down to Katherine other than to say that driving the new van is much more like driving a car except there is no rear view mirror and the wing mirrors are rubbish so, most of the time you have no idea what, if anything, is behind you. Trying to reverse is a bit of a nightmare, as well.

I managed to resist the urge to call in to Adelaide River and Pine Creek to have another look at the railway relics and so arrived in Katherine at about 2.30 pm and went straight to Woolworth's to restock my provisions, remembering to get a few beers at the same time, and then booked into the Caravan Park that I had vacated a few nights ago although I was allocated the site next to the one I had previously. You can see the new van all set up, complete with awning and roof extended in the photo below.

Katherine - Same Scene, Different Van

By now the time was about 16.30 so I prepared for my daily Internet, Skype, fix. However, this time I was able to get set up in air conditioned luxury. Did I not mention that this van also has air conditioning? Brilliant!!!

Checked in with sister Valerie, in Adelaide, as I noticed that she was on-line as I got logged on. Said hello to her and others who happened to be there before switching to my prime reason for the Skype access and that was to call Eileen. I think we are both getting quite excited that it is now less than a week until she joins me.

After our call, I was going to go for a dip in the park pool but remembered that Katherine has the hot springs just outside the caravan park so, decide to risk the crocodiles and check it out. I am glad I did, there is a stream running through the woods at the back of the caravan park with the water, crystal clear and just about body temperature. It was lovely to get into, very refreshing and not a crocodile in sight:

See! - No Crocodiles

Following that It was back to the mundane sorted out my laundry, had yet another salad evening meal and then spent the evening luxuriating in my air conditioned van, bringing my records up to date and planning the route for the next few days, as well as updating this Blog entry, of course. Finally, to end the day, guess who springs up to say, “and so to bed” yes it is that chap Zebedee.