Darwin 2022

We are in Darwin and have been here 5 days! The time has flown we have been getting about a bit mostly getting massages, chiro treatment etc ready to play Bowls! Only some of us are fit! The weather forecasters are telling us the Top End is experiencing a very unusual cold spell that may last another week. How unlucky are we again! Temps are down to 15 overnight and we are ‘only’ getting to A sunny 29 during the day. It is not ideal but BB is coping really well, sleeping in most days until the temp gets to around a more comfortable 20.
Just to bring our trip up to speed I will go back to what has happened since we left the ‘free truck stop’ on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere.
It was 8.00am and everyone else ‘EXCEPT BB and yours truly’ had packed up, their motors running ready to travel the 50km to Dunmarra Roadhouse. BB and I told them “what is the rush” ?#? It was raining, the Kotz’s were our pilots and the distance was made in record time. :-) Ha ha when we got there they all jumped out the cars to get to the loo ‘busting” following our roadside camp experience with no toilet facilities! :-) ha ha so much for their ‘bravo “ of well we dig a hole” it had rained non stop all night and was still raining as we left so the ground red, soft and muddy, so getting wet must have been the problem! Unfortunately it did not go as well for me, I ended up being constipated for days and traumatised after our next camp :-) Will explain a bit more later. The Dunmarra Roadhouse not only had toilets they had coffee, egg and bacon rolls and they are ‘renown’ for their homemade Vanilla Slices. Needless to say, when we left the Vanilla Slice cabinet was totally empty!
Daly Waters just another 60 km up the road we arrived there around lunch time. Quirky place Caravan Park, hotel, fuel pumps and a few friendly farm animals floating around. A gold mine for it’s owner as distances meant most had to stop to buy fuel it was buzzing with people, and yet it was in the middle of nowhere. Lots and lots of random junk creates a unique atmosphere so people like us visit from all over the country. We managed to get sites in one of their three ‘Caravan Park’ come paddocks, it was impossible to estimate how many caravans, motorhomes, buses and tents were there and they kept coming for the rest of the day.
Apart from the car and motor bike display which were awesome, as for everything else if it belongs at the ‘Dump’ you will find it here at Daly Waters. Broken machinery, bits of helicoptors outside and in the bar and outdoor areas thousands of business cards, stickers and signs and every size and colour of bra’s for interest of the men waiting on a Beer. The Men’s toilet urinals were handcrafted beer kegs so I am told, picture attached. BB found the Crocodile enclosure which had a very’ low’ fence he insisted I sit on the edge for a photo near “snappy Kevin” the Croc. We all spent the afternoon drinking and listening to live music until the old bloke singing started to lose his voice it was then we decided, we had had enough! Queues were almost out the door to order meals and none of the others were keen to stay so back to the van in the paddock and I prepared a gourmet meal of egg and baked beans on toast for BB. Only one tin left now, and BB thought I had bought too many, luckily we still have a few tins of Aldi Spaghetti in the cupboard for the one nighters.
All night it rained, and next morning the paddock we were in was now a muddy lake. Kotzy was up early and led the way anxious to get us all to Katherine for Territory Day keen to shop for a ‘few’ very essential items not available anywhere else. All Caravan Parks in Katherine itself were booked, we ended up staying at a Farm style Caravan Park 10kms out of town with way too many vans for the facilities they had available. The Toilet Shower facilities were very ordinary again! An old transportable Unisex facility with four toilets and four showers in one corridor. The walls were short and so were the doors, basically the toilets were made for short people. BB had the first experience he came back to the van horrified, as despite my advice to always carry toilet paper he reckons he did check?# mmmm I am thinking maybe? but on pulling the roll there was only 6inches of tissue left no second roll!! He had to do a crab walk out of one toilet into the next one to get more paper ha ha and they were unisex!! I laughed my head off, so I went to the loo very prepared and armed with paper however just as I was checking the loo I hear heavy footsteps the door opens to my right and I look down and see a very hairy shin with knarly feet in thongs, I sat down hoping he was only going to do a number one. Within seconds the door on my left side opens and same thing big feet and then the grunts and groans and sounds begin it came from both sides. Call me precious but I could not stay there and lost it ha ha Jo had the opposite problem whilst having a Shower being taller than me she reckons it was disconcerting seeing a ‘tall’ mans heading bobbing about in the next shower to her ha ha Apart from all that the Park did set off a few Fireworks which we watched from the road whilst having a beer. We travelled onto Adelaide River the following morning and stayed at the Showgrounds. Great little Park with an outdoor Bar and Eating area so we had tea together.Next stop Darwin!Read more