Half-lap Day 50: Darwin

The temperature got down to 21 degrees over night and I actually felt cool for the first time in weeks! (It warmed up again during the day - although perhaps the humidity was less than it has been).

We had decided, with everyone being so exhausted, that it made sense to stay for one more day in Darwin, and to use the time to relax and recover and to finish cleaning out the car, sorting some of our stuff and so on. We had a lovely relaxed morning, eating breakfast, playing with the chickens and rabbit and guinea pig, chatting to our hosts, colouring in, playing games.

I went back to work on the car, pulling everything out of the back half, finding more missing things and figuring out how to best rearrange our stuff. The kids and Tony headed over to the pool, and I joined them when I got too hot. I had a quick dip (so lovely to be able to cool down like that) then read my book while Tony got us all some sandwiches for lunch.

In the afternoon LiAM and I sorted out all the food tubs, then I did the clothes then worked on finishing off the car, getting stuff back in there or assigning it to the rubbish or the trailer. Tony and Caitlin went for a bike ride to the Humpty Doo shops to get some sausages for tea, then the kids and I went for another swim while Tony cooked tea.

Back at the tent I pulled the mattress off the bed and repacked the back of the trailer – I put some of our warm clothes in there rather than having them in the car, and I was also able to repack some of the items that had just been floating around in the car or trailer without having a specific spot – it’s like I’ve finished off the packing that didn’t quite happen at the last minute before we left home. All those oh-just-throw-them-in-a-bag-and-shove-it-somewhere-they’ll-fit things now have a home.

We had steamed puddings for dessert for our last night in Darwin, and everyone agreed that they were very glad we’d stayed the extra day, we all feel more ready to leave now. We possum-proofed our outside area (the possum has been getting more game every night, and last night was sitting in our washing up tub with the dirty dishes, as well as rummaging through our food bags while we were sitting right next to them!) – although we left one (unopened) box of cereal out and he woke me up later, he’d eaten through the cardboard and was trying to get through the plastic bag) then went inside, away from the mosquitoes. I read Brisingr while the kids played on their iPads, I fell asleep fairly quickly and they kept playing until they had had enough.

Half-lap Day 47: Darwin

An animal disturbed me in the night – we’d left the bread tub out again so it was probably a possum. I got up to put the tub away and make sure everything else was safe, then couldn’t get back to sleep aain until it was nearly light. Tony got up with Millie and let me have a bit of a sleep in – I didn’t get up til nearly 8.30, very unusual for me.

I did some stuff on the computer, the kids did colouring in and played with LiAM’s presents, then we skyped with my sister and her son – finally had enough internet strength and a time when we were both available, we’d wanted to talk all week since Millie’s birthday. Very cool to talk to them, and her little one was so thrilled to see LiAM, he kept asking for him whenever LiAM went out of the screen.

Today was definitely billed as a rest day after such a busy week. We hung around the tent, LiAM talked to a friend on the phone and then I did as well, the kids played games and we all recharged a bit. In the afternoon Tony took the kids in the pool, and I joined them after a while. It was so nice in the cool water and it’s such a pretty pool to swim in, with a waterfall at one end and beautiful coloured stones. Our hosts turned the waterfall on and the kids loved it. They played with balls and played dolphins and sharks and spent most of the afternoon hanging out in the pool. My eye started to irritate me when I was in the pool and for the rest of the day it was watering and quite sore and looked rather red. I read my book for a while then had a cuppa with our host, had a bit more of a swim and then came back to the tent to start cleaning out the car.

I pulled everything out of the middle row and found lots of things that had gone missing. I worked for a while then Tony needed the car to go and get supplies for dinner, so I went back over and watched the kids in the pool. Tony came back and started cooking pizzas for us and our hosts, in their kitchen, and I finished off the section of the car I was cleaning (the rest will wait for another day). I found (not in the car) LiAM’s missing birthday present so we gave that to him – a cube-bot, a wooden robot shaped toy with articulated parts, he folds into many different shapes including a cube.

The 10 of us ate Tony’s awesome pizzas in their dining room and it was a really fun evening. All the kids were telling jokes and seemed to have a similar sense of humour. LiAM had his cubebot, Millie brought over her birthday crocodile (Shimmer) and the other kids (who are all teenagers) brought out some of their stuffed toys and there were some wild games happening. Great conversation and laughs and a lot of fun. After dinner the dad and our kids went hunting for geckos and green tree frogs and found several of each. The kids were walking around with frogs on their shirts for a while. We cleaned up and came back to the tent and once the frogs had all been returned we went to bed and read Brisingr.