THURSDAY 9 SEPTEMBER     YULARA

In the morning, while John was having computer time, I walked to the main part of the village.

I browsed in the Gallery at Sails in the Desert – the up market accommodation section of the resort. They had an interesting collection of art works.

I sought out information about employment at Yulara. Having spoken with a couple of the check out operators at the supermarket. I knew that there were grey nomads temporarily employed here. I found it an interesting possible option for a future year – there would be a lot worse places to spend some months.

After lunch, it was back to the PO. The brake parts had finally arrived! The parcel had not been sent Express at all – no wonder it took so long.

As we were leaving the car park, had a little collision with another 4WD. It was one of those situations where neither driver was more to blame. We were both reversing to our lefts, out of nose-in parking bays on opposite sides of the access road. Both seemed to have blind spots at the left rear. The result was a little meeting of the two vehicles. No damage to us – the back was rather protected by the spare wheel carrier and the protruding tow hitch. There was a dent in the other vehicle though!

It was too late to try to work on the van today. I extended our stay yet another day. Luckily, at this time of year they could be a bit flexible.

We had been alternately amazed and annoyed with a neighbour behind us, who came in a couple of days ago, with a camper trailer. We couldn’t work out whether he was trying to maximize his space on the rather small site, or merely miscalculated his trailer position. Either way, he pitched the canvas part of the camper over and around the big fire hose and stand that was between the two sites and at the back of our van. Had there been a fire, ready access to the hose would have been difficult.

He really could have pitched much further forward on his site, or to the side, and avoided the fire hose box. As it was, he was certainly close enough to get the full sound from our TV at night – hope he appreciated it! We were not retiring early, either! The sites, although not all that large, were set out so that rigs did not have to be butt up against each other, but offset. Not this guy!

Some campers do incredibly stupid things!