We experimented again last night, with the cost saving exercise of turning the air conditioner off overnight. This time, as well as making sure all of the windows were open, we had the added advantage of being able to run our newly acquired and power savvy electric fan. Faced to thrust a stream of fresh air across the bed, we found it just the thing, waking up during the night cold enough to compel me to slide under the covers rather than lying atop them as I have the last few nights.

The dogs however, not privy to the jet stream that was pulsing through the bedroom area, both ended up on the bed with us, clever enough to take advantage of the situation, as opposed to sweating it out on their own beds.

When we did eventually awake, bright and refreshed after a lovely nights rest, our day started slowly, and never really progressed out of first gear. We hadn’t actually planned anything for this morning, so we spent time doing a bit of housework. Washing, cleaning and generally tidying up. Well that was Becs morning.

I on the other hand managed to unpack my push bike from the back of ‘The Beast’, put it together, pump the tyres up, before carefully locking it up against the back bumper bar of the van. Surely you didn’t really expect me to have gone for a ride in the heat of the day, did you? Maybe one day though, now that it’s ready to ride.

With that done, I caught up with our next door neighbors, a couple of fellow Victorians who unlike many of the other cliquey residents, were happy to stand about having a chat. They’ve been on the road for nearly 12 months, working here and there as needed to supplement their savings. Now that sounds appealing, if only I could find a job for Bec to do while we’re travelling!

It was already after 2:30PM when we finally decided to head out, with nothing more than a vague plan of what we wanted to accomplish. So we made our way to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, where there were a couple of displays I was eagerly anticipating.

Welcome to the Museum.

Sweetheart, the 5.1 metre crocodile is one of the local residents. This once massive beast was guilty of attacking the boats of numerous anglers, before an attempt was made to relocate him. The relocation failed when he got tangled and drowned. His body now rests here on display at the museum. A scary thought it was, that such a wicked, evil looking creature could still be found inhabiting the nearby waterways.

A travelling exhibition of mostly Australiana paintings by some of the masters was also on display, which was an enjoyable bonus. Especially seeing some of Frederick McCubbins original artwork I’ve previously only been able to see as cheap prints in Two Dollar Shops.

My main motivation for visiting the museum though, was the much lauded Cyclone Tracy exhibition. Telling the chilling story of the 1974 cyclone that ripped through Darwin, causing untold devastation, I couldn’t imagine what the Darwin residents must have gone through at the time. There was a series of aerial photographs taken of the same areas, before the cyclone, just afterwards and then 20 years on. It was creepy to see the magnitude of the damage, pictured only days after Tracy spiraled through central Darwin, then amazing to see the extent of the regeneration in the intervening 20 years. As well as the photographs and material displays, there was a tiny, darkened sound booth, which plays a looped recording made whilst Cyclone Tracy was raging, to give you an idea of what it would be like to endure such a tempest. Even knowing that the sun was shining just outside the door, the experience is enough to send a chill up your spine.

For the grand price of nothing, to browse through the displays, the museum was always going to be a worthwhile addition to our itinerary. I have to say though, even if there had been an entry charge, it would have been an enjoyable way to send an hour of or so.

A beautiful beach right near the museum, only hampered by…

…the possible dangers.

Our next stop was the big Casuarina Shopping Centre again. We needed to restock our rapidly dwindling supply of dog food, and we had found that Big W had Alvins preferred flavor on sale. What should have been a quick 10 minute in and out commando raid, to pick up a few dozen cans, turned into a hard fought battle. There was no dog food on the shelf, and whilst I didn’t witness it, Bec tells me it was like pulling teeth, to first of get someone to acknowledge her presence at the enquiries counter, and then to actually get them to release their last two slabs of food into our custody.

Even once we had paid up for them, we were left to try and find the customer pick up door, with only the vaguest of directions to its location on the outside of the centre. It ended up taking us a phone call to find it, having missed the postage stamp sized sign attesting to its whereabouts, hidden covertly behind a semitrailer.

It was already past 5:00PM when we finally made our way back to the van, at least in possession of enough dog food to see us through another 3 and a bit weeks or so. We were in a bit of a hurry though, because we actually had some plans for this evening. We were going to drop in on the dogs to give them a feed, before driving out to Palmerston to take in their version of a night market.

Our plans went astray though, when we entered the van to find that one of the babies had been sick, throwing up all over the bed. It was actually only a small bit, but had been sitting long enough to soak through almost every layer of bedding. Now, you will have noticed that I haven’t mentioned our laundry schedule for a few weeks, but it comes to the fore in this story, as the bedding had only been changed and washed yesterday. So it was on fresh clean bedding that one of our lovely little babies had decided to turn out the contents of their stomach, leaving a peculiar wet circle that was almost the colour of a high visibility yellow safety vest.

Therefore, rather than leaving them alone again and risking the chance of another vomitus episode seeing us sleeping on a bare mattress, we decided to stay in for the rest of the evening. Not only that, but we now had a pile of bedding littered across the floor of the van that would need feeding through the washing machine.

So, that was our Friday night. How was yours?

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