THURSDAY 7 JUNE     TENNANT CREEK

The wind was still quite strong. It made the day seem chilly. Perhaps we were experiencing the three weeks or so that pass for winter in Central Australia?

I did our washing. There wasn’t a great deal, but best to keep on top of it when I didn’t know when there would next be access to machines. The ones here were not working properly, but I managed to get something approximating clean, although still dripping wet. Our travel wardrobe leans towards dark clothes for a reason!

We drove to the town centre and did a small shop. We browsed amongst the magazines and books on display at the newsagent/chemist. M bought John a book on building wood fired pizza ovens. This was something he had been talking about constructing at home, for a while now. I was not enthusiastic about the idea and really wished M had not encouraged this particular flight of fancy!

John was away! Planning where it would go, how he would build it – as soon as we got home…..Bad luck about the garden I had growing in the chosen spot.

After lunch, M and John went to the town’s club and practised bowls. I begged off on the grounds of conserving my dodgy heel. It was a lady at this bowls club, in 2000, who had tried to persuade John to stay in town and teach at the TAFE. I was very glad that did not appeal to him at the time – don’t think I would have liked living here. Damn sure I wouldn’t have liked living here!

I defrosted a frozen chook we bought this morning, and then roasted it for our tea, along with a heap of roasted potatoes, pumpkin and parsnips. At night, I had another lengthy phone talk with son, and with daughter in law.  It was not very reassuring. He seemed completely devastated by wife’s actions. They were still sharing a house, though, which he wanted, for the kids, but which made it even harder for him. I considered abandoning the trip and returning home, but decided this would clearly change nothing. Families!