We were on a mission from the outset this morning. Despite being self proclaimed sunset people, rather than sunrise folks, we were up well before the sun had even began to show its golden orb above the tree lined horizon. It was 5:55AM when the alarm sounded, and not long after that I was dancing about in the pre-dawn cold, packing up the hoses, while Bec prepared us some breakfast and readied the inside of the van for travel.

With a three hour trip north to get to Darwin, I was still concerned that a site at one of the few pet friendly van parks in town might be hard to come by. One of the catalysts for this trip was our desire to see more of the Northern Territory in general and more specifically to intimately explore Darwin. As we are planning a minimum of three weeks there, not to mention that we are expecting to entertain visitors whilst we are there, therefore to not acquire a suitable site on which to prop the caravan would be an absolutely devastating turn of events, from which our odyssey might never recover. Thus, I was aiming for a 10:00 arrival, endeavouring to get in just as all of the departing parties would be checking out, and before the hoards of new arrivals would be moving in.

With that in mind, we said goodbye to ‘Woody’ and another of the other staff members at Goymarr who we have come to know, and right on 7:00AM turned onto the highway, from which it was a rapid, non-stop, uneventful trip through to Darwin. We had to bypass a few places we’d like to stop at, but since we have to travel south out of Darwin and will therefore be retracing our steps in a few weeks time, we will take it a little slower then. It was with evil delight this morning, that I overtook any other van, camper or motorhome that dared block my passage, as I chortled sinisterly and gloated “Today; Darwin! Tomorrow; The world!” There was no way I was letting any other camper reach Darwin before us, even if it did end up only increasing my chances of obtaining a site by three vans and one motorhome. I also smiled with joy though, as I watched the exodus of southbound vans, imagining that they had all opened up another possible plot for us to snaffle.

It was 10:05AM when we rolled through the gates of our chosen park, to find that we would have our choice of more than a dozen sites. Nooooooooo! I don’t want choice. Just tell me where to park. Now, if the site is no good, it will be my fault. If we have a site allocated and don’t like it, at least we can blame the managers. Why is it all so difficult?

Whilst we knew that where ever we chose to stay in Darwin would be expensive, it was with excruciating pain that I keyed in my PIN number to authorize the $810.00 charge on my credit card, that would provide us with a parking spot for the van for three weeks, with access to water, our own private ensuite bathroom and power. The kicker was that hot water can’t be guaranteed, because it’s an un-boosted solar system, shared between two ensuites, so if the solar panel is dirty, shaded or there is no sun, or we just use too much hot water, there’s no more hot water until the following day. And while we have access to power, we need to watch how many lights we leave on, because the power is charged out separately, to be added to our account when we leave. We might have to live like pensioners and spend all of our free time at the local shops I think. A pair of dark glasses and a white painted tree branch, and we can call the babies guide dogs, so they can enjoy the airconditioned comfort of a shopping mall with us! All that, and this park was still our best option.

With the checking in process completed, we made our way to our nominated site. We were given the key to a particular ensuite site, but advised that if we found an empty site we preferred, it was a simple matter to change things about. As it turned out, the site we had been given looked perfectly suitable, with plenty of shade over the van, but none shadowing the solar panel atop the bathroom roof for the hot water. We decided that this would be our home for the next three weeks, and began the process of backing the van in.

It looked like an interesting position into which to maneuver the van, almost like a narrow drive way, with gutters either side, set on an angle to the access road that meant I had to reverse against my non-preferred passenger side. Scarily, the van slid straight in, with a lot of help courtesy of Bec from outside. We looked like pros. We gave ourselves away before we could congratulate each other too heartily, when we then spent the next half an hour inching the whole rig back and forth within the parking space, trying to get it in that just right position. If we weren’t here for so long, I wouldn’t have concerned myself so much, but for three weeks, I wanted it parked perfectly.

Our amatureness may have been then demonstrated further as we struggled to erect the annex again. It is only our third attempt at plying the canvas, but just when I thought I had this thing figured, it turned to…(I’ll let you fill in the blank). On a flat expanse, I don’t think it would present me with too much trouble, but being that the van is sitting lower than the surrounding ground, putting it up as per the instructions saw the canvas so skewed out of line, that the end walls just wouldn’t stretch to connect to the van. Over an hour later, we finally managed to get the walls lined up into some semblance of a three sided canvas box, only to find that it was kind of difficult to peg it out against the concrete annex pad. Kind of a misnomer really, ‘annex pad’, given that it makes it ever so difficult to successfully erect an annex.

It was 1:00PM by the time the first welcoming ‘psst’ of a cold tinnie being cracked open was heard. Like music to my ears it was, and liquid gold to my taste buds, the cold fluid running easily down my parched throat as we sat back and admired our handiwork from within our extra room. The dogs too, lounged about carelessly, despite every other van having a pet or two in residence. Not only is this park pet friendly, but it is a sister park to the one right next door, sharing facilities. This side allows pets however, while the other doesn’t. It will be good to see how well Alvin and Bethany settle, as they are not exactly well socialised, although they are getting better.

Having joked earlier about hitting the shops, that was exactly what we did this afternoon, although it was purely on an as needs basis, as we needed to restock our larder. It was either that, or live on instant noodles for a couple of days, being that tomorrow is a public holiday that we had forgotten about. Honestly, long weekends are more of a nuisance to us than a blessing.

Returning to the van, and having instantly gotten accustomed to the airconditioned shopping centre, we finally relented, opening our wallets to feed the power meter, switching on the air conditioner. It was an immediate relief, from the powerful heat otherwise pervading the van. Imagine my dismay however, when having run without an issue for several hours, the cool air stopped blowing. Actually, not just the cool air, but all of the air. At the same time, the TV blinked and faded to black, indicating the power we were paying dearly for had failed. I went outside, almost expecting to find a coin slot on the metre and a flashing red sign saying expired. But no, it was just the circuit breaker that had tripped. I flicked it back on to cheers of jubilation from within the van, Bec shouting joyously that she had regained both, a cool flow of air and a picture on the tele.

This didn’t last long though, before we were again pitched into darkness, and I made another trip out to the fuse box to reset the breaker. Twice more, I ventured outside, slamming the door behind me ever harder with each trip as I imagined how I was going to stridently protest to management tomorrow about making me pay for a service we weren’t receiving with any inkling of reliability. For tonight, I was on the verge of taping the circuit breaker switch open so that it couldn’t trip, when I decided to try another power cable first. The power has since been running for a few hours with no further issues. Hmm, maybe the whole problem might have been my dodgied up, home made power cable, but surely not.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.