Week 15 Weekly Blog 02/09/2021- 08/09/2021

Last week saw us have a bit of fun in Darwin before Allan started working. Read on below for what adventures we got up to in week 15 of Allan and I exploring Oz.

Day 99

I went to the gym while Allan had a sleep-in this morning after getting home late from work last night. Once Allan was awake, caffeinated and we had both had breakfast, we went for a swim in the pool and chilled out at camp for the rest of the morning. Allan got ready for work then left for his shift from 3pm to close. I chilled out at camp, completed an online course I had started earlier in the year but had not yet finished, went for a walk, went to the gym, then because it was still 30ish degrees Celsius at 6pm, I went for a swim in the pool. Had a shower, cooked and ate tea, then went to bed.

Day 100

Today was Allan’s first day off since starting work. We heard Naomi and Lee leave early as they had booked a tour at Matt Wright’s Top End Safari Camp. I went to the gym and let Allan sleep-in. Sue messaged us to see if we could catch up with them this morning. Today will be their last full day in Darwin before they continue their travels to Katherine with the hope of getting their permits approved to enter and travel around Arnhem Land. We went to their caravan park just down the road and met them at the café. We caught up for a couple of hours, then said goodbye probably until we are both in SA. We went back to our caravan park, had brunch then decided to go to Woolworths and buy a roast to cook on the Baby Q for tea. Back at camp, we put the roast lamb we bought at Woolworths on the Baby Q and made G&T’s and played Monopoly Deal while the roast cooked. We had just finished cooking the meat when Naomi and Lee got back from their tour, so we invited them over for tea. We ate tea, then sat up talking before having an early night.

Day 101

We woke up early, Allan was working a late today and had a wedding to cater, so we had the morning together. It was very hot and humid last night and there was no air flow, and I had the worst night’s sleep since leaving Adelaide, so I said to Allan that we are going to buy a fan today. Once caffeinated and fed, we went to BCF and bought a rechargeable fan. Once that was ticked off the list, we went to the waterfront and went for a swim in the beach swimming enclosure. It was quite weird because it was obviously man-made and it kind of reminded me of the swimming lake in Naracoorte, but was right next to the ocean, just enclosed. The Darwin Pride Festival was on, which we had a quick suss at before heading back to the caravan park. We had lunch and Allan got ready for work as he had a 3pm until close shift again. Allan left for work, and I stayed at the park. I went to the gym, went swimming, did some odd jobs around camp, went swimming again, cooked and ate tea, then watched a movie before going to bed. I heard Allan come home at about 1:30am but fell back to sleep. The fan worked wonders and kept us both cool overnight.

Day 102

I woke early, went for a walk around the park, then woke Allan up, because he had to start getting ready for his day shift today, which was rough after only finishing work at 1:30am earlier this morning. I drove Allan to work so I could have the car today. After dropping Allan off, I left the car in the car park and walked from the Sailing Club to Mindil Beach, which was about a 3km round trip. I followed a paved path along the beach, but not on the beach and it was a lovely walk, a bit humid so I was sweating badly within 10minutes of walking. At Mindil Beach there was the Lions Club Beer Can Regatta, which was not yet busy, I suspect because a few people would be doing breakfast with their dad’s as it was Father’s Day today. I didn’t stay at the Beer Can Regatta long, because I still had to walk back to the car, and I was sweating bullets at this stage. Once back at the car, I drove back to the caravan park, had some food, then went for a swim in the pool. I did some washing, then chilled out by the pool reading. I was meant to go out for tea with Cass, a friend from school, but we postponed because she forgot it was Father’s Day and she had something else planned. At 5pm, I went to pick Allan up from work, but then forgot that he didn’t finish until 6pm. I got to his work, and he had knocked off early, as they were overstaffed and not very busy. We stayed at the Sailing Club and had a few drinks while watching the sunset. We ended up leaving before sunset, because the cloud cover meant there wasn’t going to be an amazing sunset tonight. We had tea, played Monopoly Deal, then went to bed early.

Day 103

We woke up and had coffee. Allan had a 3pm to close shift for work today, so we had the morning to explore Darwin. Allan decided he wanted to go out for breakfast, so we decided to go to Laneway Café. It was very busy, but we managed to get a table without booking. Allan ordered pulled pork eggs benedict and I ordered a breakfast burger. The meals were huge and delicious. We then decided to go to the Botanical Gardens and walked around there for the rest of the morning and into early afternoon. There were statues of dinosaurs and a large crocodile, there were boab trees, a waterfall, a community fruit and vegetable garden and we saw a cane toad. We stopped at the children’s playground, because we saw a cool tree fort on the way back to the car. We climbed up onto the tree fort, which was a bit sketchy, but also was fun. There was a swing, which Allan couldn’t resist having a swing on. I had to drag Allan off the playground. We got back to the caravan park and Allan got ready for work, then left. I chilled out at the caravan park, put some washing on, went to the gym, hung the washing on the line and went swimming before chilling out at camp. I was then asked by 2 kids (Arnya and Will who I was introduced to by Naomi and Lee) if I would like to go swimming with them and I decided “why not?”. I went swimming with them and they convinced me to go back to their camp after and play “Greed” which I had never heard of before. It was a great game which I enjoyed, but that might have been because I won. I left the family to their devices and went back to my camp to cook and eat tea before going to bed. I was very tired and didn’t hear Allan come home.

Day 104

I woke early and had decided to go to the gym at the caravan park. I got to the gym but was told I wasn’t allowed into the gym for another 30minutes, as they were putting pesticide poison in there. I went back to camp and Allan was awake, so we had coffee and breakfast and chilled out at camp. We discussed buying a boat, because we don’t want to go to WA without one, because we both feel we would miss out on a lot if we didn’t have one. We are thinking just a small 3.5-3.7m tinny that would either fit on top of the camper or the car. We decided to go for a drive around Darwin and go to shops that sell boats. We spoke to one of the boat dealers and he said that due to supply and demand we would be waiting 3-4years for a new boat and so our best bet would be to go Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace and find a good second-hand one. We went back to camp a little deflated, but Allan spent the next two hours before work looking up second-hand boats for sale on Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace. Allan left for work, and I stayed at camp. I did some washing, went for a swim, went to the gym, then was asked by Will to go swimming with he and his family, so I went swimming again. I had a shower and was about to cook tea when Will rode his bike past and asked me if I wanted to play Monopoly Deal with them. I went over to their campsite, and they decided it was too late to play Monopoly Deal and we could play Uno instead. I won the game of Uno, then said goodbye. I cooked and ate tea and went to bed. I heard Allan come home at abut 12:30am which I thought was quite late for a Tuesday night. I fell straight back to sleep.

Day 105

I had made plans with Cass to catch up for breakfast. Allan woke up just before I left and declined the offer to come to breakfast. I later found out that he had an altercation with a local at work last night and had to call the police which is why he was home late last night. I met Cass and her partner Andrew at Ray’s in the city. I haven’t seen Cass for about 3-4years and I had never met Andrew, so it was great to catch up. I had a loaded croissant which had 2 poached eggs with hollandaise, spinach, beetroot relish and grilled halloumi. It was huge, but a tasty breakfast with some of my favourite foods. I went back to the caravan park to a very tired Allan. We decided to go to Big W to get another pair of work shorts for him. We went back to the caravan park and chilled out. At 12:15pm, I went and donated plasma. It was my 150th donation today, so I got a pin, and they took a photo of me to post on their social media. After clearing out the Lifeblood snack bar I went back to the caravan park with just enough time to give Allan the car before he needed to leave for work. He said to me “it gets boring sitting here by yourself, doesn’t it?” I looked at him and said, “I do that every day when you are at work”. He left for work, I chilled out at camp, cooked a curry and a satay chicken, had a chat with my sister and got up to date with writing out the blog. Will came screaming past on his bike and asked if I wanted to come over to his camp site and play Uno. We played 2 games of Uno, then I said goodbye. I had a shower, ate dinner, did the dishes, then watched a movie in bed before falling asleep.

This week Allan had a few shifts at work which meant we didn’t do much exploring around Darwin, and I decided it was too hard to find a job, because I don’t have a car. Stay tuned for next week’s adventures around Darwin.