THURSDAY 6 – SUNDAY 9 JULY     LITCHFIELD

The days went by mostly as usual. I phoned John most evenings, to check what was happening at home.

One afternoon, a couple of the Park rangers came in for a coffee. In the back of the ute they had a metre long saltie croc all trussed up. It had come out of one of the traps in the Wangi Falls plunge pool! As the pool had been opened for swimming a couple of weeks ago, they were not broadcasting this particular find! It was destined for relocation to a croc farm.

On M’s day off this week, she arranged to go with one of the Rangers out the 4WD tracks to the Lost City rock formations, and to Blyth Homestead and possibly on to the falls beyond. These tracks  were still officially closed, due to mud and the heights of some of the stream crossings. They got to the Lost City, and then around to Blyth Homestead but could not get much further due to the height of the Reynolds River. It was great that she got to do some extra sight seeing like this. Most of her explorations to date have been solo, because of our days off not matching.

The Lost City rock formations are tall columns of sandstone that look like they really belong in some ancient Mayan ot Aztec civilization.

When we had visited them, in 1993, we’d been impressed by these remote sentinels.  It had been worth the effort of traversing the rough 4WD track to get in to see them.

Blyth Homestead was the remains of an outstation built in 1928 and used until the 1960’s. There was also an old tin mine nearby.

John had found that our tenant and neighbour had done a good job of cleaning up the house. We owed them both, big time! D’s husband was there, when John got home. John said he was getting on alright with the man, who was quite elderly. John felt sorry for him and suspected it might not be the first time he’d had to step in to retrieve a problem caused by his ex-wife. Between them, they got her belongings packed up, to be delivered, along with her car, to her daughter’s place down on the Peninsula.

After spending some time with the man, John was prepared to have him remain in the house until our sitters arrived. The ex-husband had indicated it would suit him. So John did not have to remain there until 20th. He enlisted son’s help to arrange a flight back.

On Sunday, I worked as usual, through until 4.30pm, going without a lunch break. Then I knocked off, changed, and drove to Darwin – using the longer, sealed main road, just in case of a breakdown.

I refuelled again at Coolalinga – $1.37cpl and 291kms.

Drove to the airport. I went to the Essence restaurant at the airport resort, and had dinner – an eggplant pizza, which was really yummy. Then I sat round at the airport, reading and waiting. John’s flight was delayed by a few hours and did not arrive until 2am.

Nothing ever happens quite as it should, in the NT!