While in Darwin

Darwin:

• Dinner on the wharf
• Dinner at Nightcliffe
• Mindill Beach Markets
• Leanyer Water Park
• NT Wildlife Park
• Great Librarys
• Palmerston Community Christmas Carols
• Darwin Carols by Candlelight
• NT Museum
• Trailer Boat Club
• Wave Pool

Into Darwin

Packed up and left beloved Litchfield Park and headed for Darwin. We stopped in Bachelor to catch up with the police. Sounds like the friends of the dead guy were looked after which made me happy. He said that I’ll probably hear from the detective in Darwin who is handling the case in the next day or so. We settled on a van park, set up the van and went for a drive. We dined on the wharf – fish and chips – beautiful atmosphere, looking (and sitting) out over the water, some easy listening live music playing and a cold beer! The boys saved some of their chips to throw to the barra that were swimming around the pilons.

Litchfield Day 6

Man, did I enjoy a rumbo last night! Yesterday afternoon was something I had hoped I never, ever had to do. The Asian guy I mentioned, I had found his friend that he was looking for, lying face down in about maybe 12 foot of water. If I wasn’t wearing goggles, I wouldn’t have been looking below the surface and wouldn’t have seen him. Who knows how long he had been there. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, it just was the last thing I expected to see. He was too still and too close to the bottom to be just diving and since he didn’t respond when I kicked water at him, I knew this wasn’t good. I told the boys to swim back and get mum to use the emergency call phone. Oscar tells me that I said “Ahh, this isn’t good!” I dove down, grabbed his arm and dragged him to the surface. My years of first-aid and lifesaving training kicked in and I was giving him EAR as I swam him back to shore. As people worked out what I was doing, they started rushing over to help lift him from the water and start CPR. Jeannie had seen us doing something funny, finally realised what was happening and ran – using her months of running training – to raise the alarm. From then on it was a bit of a circus. The rangers arrived first, then the police and eventually the ambulance. This place is really quite remote even though it’s about 100km from Darwin, so it takes quite a while for the services to travel in. The poor guy is pronounced dead after over an hour of efforts to revive him. Even though everyone did do the best they could, I felt he was too far gone before I even dived to bring him up. Still, you have to give him a fighting chance to pull through. I feel extremely sorry for his friends that were travelling with him. It would be a terrible thing for them, especially in a foreign country, and now they have to return home and explain to his family what happened. I’m also worried what the boys make of all this. Oscar is pumping us with lots of questions. Many are the same and he knows the answers. I guess he’s still wanting to hear it all again, still trying to understand this event that has happened. Alex is questioning a little and listening a lot to what we say to Oscar. I think he is understanding more than Oscar though still unsure about it all.

We had a quiet morning in our campsite, said goodbye to our neighbours who are headed for Darwin. They heard on the radio that he was 29 and from Taiwan. We did some maths, had lunch. The Rangers called by to see that we were ok. They weren’t able to tell us too much except that the friends of the ‘dead guy’ had been looked after. They also said they have a counselling service should we want any assistance. They thanked us again. We decided to head out for the afternoon to Greenant Creek and falls. The first half was a nice walk through lush tropical vegetation. The rest wasn’t too great and the falls were nothing great by Litchfield standards. We also stopped at the lookout for Tolmer falls which looked very nice. We headed back early for showers and dinner. Will pack up tomorrow and head to Darwin via Bachelor. Will stop there and check with the police about what’s happening. They’ll probably want an official statement from me for the coroner.

The long swim

Since Alex had done quite well and finished another maths unit yesterday, we had the morning off and went swimming in the Wangi Falls plunge pool. The boys have made friends with the two kids camping next to us and have a wonderful time playing together in the water. I am still so impressed at the boys confidence with their swimming! We eventually felt peckish and wondered back up for lunch. We took our time as it was sooo hot – 39^o, did a few chores. We spent probably two hours looking at whether to go driving and check out the last few places to see or just stay here. Eventually went back to the plunge pool. I enjoyed a quiet read while Jeannie and the boys played in the water. Soon Jeannie came up and said the boys wanted me to swim with them to the little falls with the small pool up in the rock. So I went down and set off with the boys. We were half way across and standing on the sandbar when some Asian guy asked to borrow my goggles cause he was looking for his friend who had his. I thought this was a bit weird but let him use them. We waited while he swam around for a while and about 5 minutes later, he bought them back. He still seemed distracted, seemed as though he hadn’t found what he was looking for. The boys and I headed off again but didn’t go too far before we had to turn around and head back. I had found a dead body lying on the bottom and had to take it to shore.

Van

• After we set up in Canberra, the water line from the pump to the tap is leaking in the first section from the pump at a connector. I pulled the plastic line apart, cut about an inch from the end and rejoined it. Still leaking, so went to Jayco dealer in Canberra and bought a new connector. He also gave me some clips to add to the connectors to ensure they stay engaged. Solved the problem, no more leak.
• The first night out of Melbourne, the water tap on the sink is leaking. Undid the complete tap assembly from the bench. Found a washer buckled. Re-installed the tap assembly with the washer straightened. Seems to have made the tap quite firm on the bench now and fixed the leak.
• The front bed seemed to be becoming wetter along the leading edge of the van. We knew the front seal had a gap of up to 15mm and had covered it with a tarp when driving through rain. However, with driving through so many wet days coming into Adelaide it seems the tarp isn’t doing the job, so removed an alignment plate along the front of the roof, adjusted the angle of the plate then re-installed the plate. The front edge of the roof is now straight and in line with the body of the van and the seal seems to now be engaged when the roof is down. It seems to have fixed the water/dust problem with the leading edge of the van. Should probably do the trailing edge of the roof too – it has about a 10mm gap.
• In the Flinders ranges, we used our hot water system on gas for the first time. Not long after starting it, there was a burning plastic smell. On inspection, I found the system temperature/pressure relief valve line which runs through to under the van is resting against the gas burner. The water now being released by the valve is dripping on the burner instead of being carried through to under the van. Why it was installed like that…
• When cooking with the electric hot plate on our first night at Arkaroola, there was another funny burning smell for a while, thought it might be something burning off the hot plate since we haven’t used it for nearly two weeks - that night, went to collect hot water from the system, no water would flow from the tap. Turns out the shower hose had found a way to push up under the hot plate and had melted through – sealing it off. When I was able to have a closer look at the two melted hoses, I found enough slack in the drain hose from the T/P relief valve that I could just cut out the melted part and re-join it. After taking out the slack, the pipe no longer rests against the gas burner – 1 problem fixed. Was able to replace the melted shower hose with another flexible shower hose from a hardware store – 2 problems fixed.
• The extremely poor condition of the Merenie Loop road claimed a height adjusting bolt from one of our drop down legs. Ended up buying a complete new leg in Alice Springs for $130.
• Removed the sink tap and installed a mixer tap. Also piped up the hot water so we now have hot water at the sink too – yippee!

Lake Hart

Yes!!! On the road again!!! As we left the van park, we were faced with a big decision to make – turn right and head North up the centre or turn left and head South and then West. Quick decision – we made the right turn! After all, we wanted to get away from the cold down this part of the country so North it was!

We decided to stop at Woomera for lunch and find out a bit more about this classified area. It was like a ghost town – not sure but it seems that is normal these days. We enquired about going on to Roxby Downs and doing a tour of the Olympic Dam site. However, there aren’t many tour times available and they are booked out way in advance so sadly, we decide to give it a miss and continue up the Stuart Hi-way. We found a nice park area with some bird aviaries. We stopped past the museum and looked at some of the old experimental rockets and other craft on display outside. The museum was closed so we weren’t able to learn too much more about this once fascinating place.

We headed off and decided that we’d stop at a road side rest area for the night at Lake Hart. As we pulled into the parking area, the view of the salt lake was just stunning! We started to set up and prepare dinner just as the sun was beginning to set and wow – the sunset was just amazing! The water in the lake was just a perfect mirror – it was awesome! After dinner, the kids were in bed and we were chatting with an old guy who was heading in the opposite direction. I noticed this green light down closer to the lake than us. About half an hour later, we heard this thundering noise slowly building and approaching, then a metal screeching noise then a white light starting to appear through the scrub further up around the lake. It’s about now that we realised that it was a train coming toward us and then I realised what the green light was – a signal light! When I looked hard up toward the train, I was able to see another green light up there too. This was the main North-South railway line that The Ghan travels on. This was just a goods train, but it was quite a surprise to see a train going past between us and the lake! We hadn’t seen any signs of a railway line when we pulled up. We also still hadn’t ventured down to the lake shore for a look either. Will definitely go for a look before we head off tomorrow.

Back to Port Augusta

Packed up and headed back into Port Augusta. Will stay for a few days, check mail, do some school work, fix the spare tyre, shopping, blah blah, blah. Basically get ready to head off again as soon as we can!

Warren Gorge – Day 3

Cool and overcast today so we decide to do the walk within the park. We took our wet weather jackets and ended up using them. It didn’t rain too much or for too long thankfully. The track was beautiful and so lush after what we had seen for the past couple of weeks. We found a visitors book at the top and further round found a great spot for a snack. We saw a few wallabies along the way and also spotted some rare yellow footed rock wallabies back in the gorge itself. That was just a fantastic walk!

Warren Gorge – Day 2

Did a bit of school work this morning which was good. Had a lazy afternoon doing a bit of reading, relaxing in the sun and bike riding with the boys. Late afternoon we decided to do the local recommended tourist drive. Unfortunately, about 5km into the 30km trip, the road was closed at the Buckaringa Lookout. The main point of interest was the gorge toward the other end of the drive and the other road closure was just past the gorge, so we headed back a little disappointed to have missed seeing Buckaringa Gorge. The view from the lookout was nice though.

Warren Gorge – Day 1

A great day to just stop, unwind and relax! We did do some school work and watched some council workers come and go, and one guy driving around in a front end loader. He was having a bit of fun, then came over and said we could have the dead wood he’d been knocking out of the trees as firewood. Fantastic – we enjoyed a few good campfires thanks!