Sitting here under a shady tree where the van is parked for a couple of nights while we take in some sights around Darwin, and get ready for our trek West. In a way this seems like the end of phase 1, as we have spent the last couple of days doing "housekeeping" type things, in readiness for the next phase.
At Humpty Doo we parked the van on the property of family of family, Kim & Teagan Pope, who made us very welcome and gave us the benefit of their local knowledge to get a couple of jobs done on the car & van. The car's necessary scheduled service was duly completed on Tuesday morning, although it did necessitate Trevor walking back 3 1/2kms from the mechanics, and then both of us walking back in the heat to pick it up. But we needed the exercise, so it wasn't a problem.
While at the Humpty Doo shops I took the opportunity to get a haircut, and am now sporting an extremely short but oh so cool (as in temperature cool) new "do". Annie Lennox's short cut pales into insignificance when you see what mine looks like. But amazingly Trevor likes it, which is a real bonus for me !! I figured it would save hat hair at least & money too, as I won't need another haircut anytime soon :-)
We enjoyed an evening at the Howard Springs pub for a lovely meal with Kim, Teagan and their two lovely kids, Toby & Bronte, and set off after lunch yesterday for Darwin itself. A brief visit to the Casuarina shopping centre, where we indulged in our first Coffee Club coffee in a long time, while we had some new tyres fitted to the vehicle.
We chose a van park reasonably close to the City, which also happens to be at the end of the
darwin Airport runway. They, by the way, don't have the nighttime flight curfew that Adelaide has, so we were treated to regular take-offs & touch-downs during the course of the night. No matter, it is a central spot so who cares?
I have to admit to having a bit of a "moment" this morning. The nearby ladies toilets were closed for cleaning when I required the use of the abovementioned, so was told to go to the next lot. Well apart from having to walk almost in to Darwin to find them, I passed by the Mens sign, and entered at the other end of the building. Was surprised to find quite a line of showers before I came to the toilet stalls.
Having completed my task, I was washing my hands, when I suddenly spotted a large stainless steel construction with moth balls in the bottom of it - daylight dawned and I beat a hasty retreat before being spotted, hopefully, by any other occupants. Needless to say the Ladies block was across the road.
Was my face red ? You better believe it - however I now know how to recognise where I am should it ever happen again. Can you get prayer for the spirit of embarrassment?
This afternoon we will take a drive out to satellite city Palmerston, just 'cos we can, and then this evening will go to the Mindil Beach markets. Nice. As we speak Trev is visiting the Darwin Military Museum & the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre. Woohoo !! I'd much rather talk to you :-)
We leave Darwin Saturday morning to head West. So more later.
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