This Adventurous Age

December 27, 2021
by wendyviney 1 Comment

2011 Travels February 7

MONDAY FEBRUARY 7 DARWIN

I had a great night’s sleep. The bed was king size and it was so wonderful to be able to spread out. It had already started me thinking about changing our bed at home to a king sized one. The room temperature was conducive to sleeping and when I’d wandered out onto the balcony, before bed, to have a look, the night seemed almost cool.

John got dressed and went down to the Sunset Restaurant for breakfast. I could lounge around in nightclothes for a while as I’d ordered two slices of bread to toast, from the room service menu. There was a toaster provided in the room. But my two bread slices cost $8.50. John’s breakfast – all he could eat, from a great variety – wasn’t much more expensive than mine.

I texted son and mentioned the breakfast experience. From his prior experience of working in hotel management, he texted back, in capitals: NEVER, EVER, EAT BREAKFAST IN HOTELS.

The Tour Tub bus, for which we had all day get on/get off vouchers from Great Southern Rail, phoned to say they’d altered their schedule to a standard guided tour. I said we didn’t want that – the man seemed miffed. But there was a world of difference between making up one’s own schedule of sights to see, and for how long, and being herded into a tour that someone else dictates.

In view of this, I phoned Thrifty to see if we could get our hire car a day early; no problems doing so. Not the busy season in Darwin so not that much demand, I guessed.

It was already obvious that a number of tourist attractions were not open during this part of the Wet. Fortunately, we’d already spent plenty of time in Darwin in the dry time of year, so were not disappointed by closures. But any visitor coming here for the first time at this time of year would have to be prepared for a limited choice of attractions.

We went to the Casino and joined their Action Club. This gave us some “free” money to use in the place. Since we were confident of our ability to be disciplined in the Casino environment, I saw no issues with availing ourselves of offered freebies.

Caught a taxi to the Thrifty depot. The paperwork for the hire car took ages to finalize – mainly because John was being obtuse and asking the staff questions to which I already knew the answers – because I’d read all the information beforehand and he hadn’t bothered.

We were upgraded to a Mitsubishi Lancer, which was great. It did take John a little while to get the hang of driving it – more modern than anything he’d driven before, and very different to our 1996 Defender and 1986 Barina!

Out of the controlled environment of the hotel, it was hot and extremely humid.

We went to the NT Museum, had a coffee at the cafe there, then browsed in the establishment.

There was a feature exhibition of the music group AC/DC history and memorabilia. It was really interesting, including letters from Bon Scott, who had died at age 33, that made it clear he was heavily into booze and drugs.

Another interesting display featured fossils and reconstructed skeleton models of some prehistoric critters.

I made sure John also saw the stuffed form of Sweetheart – the very large crocodile who made himself unpopular attacking outboard motors on fishing dinghies at a popular fishing location. Over five metres long, he accidentally died after being trapped for relocation.

Another must-do at the museum was the Cyclone Tracey exhibit. This was an extensive display. Particularly memorable was the experience that replicates the darkness, wind noise and general clattering and banging that those who lived through the cyclone in 1974 would have known. It was scary, even though we knew it wasn’t “real”.

There was much debate going on in Darwin, at the moment over whether Cyclone Tracey or Cyclone Yasi was bigger. NT people seemed indignant that Tracey might be overshadowed!

I always enjoyed the art gallery section here, featuring an extensive collection of various forms of aboriginal art.

By now it was well and truly late lunch time. Went to the nearby Nightcliff shops. John didn’t want anything, having had such a huge breakfast, but I was really hungry. John was getting tired and impatient, so I grabbed a bread roll from Brumbys, but didn’t stop to eat it because John didn’t want to linger. So we did a quick shop at the nearby Woolworths – coffee, milk (the long life milk in our room was awful), bottled water. John bought Coca Cola. I wanted to get fruit but John didn’t want to go there. Then he decided to do a big alcohol buy up: wine, scotch, Jim Beam, rum! I’d have preferred food.

Back to our room, where John had a sleep and I read.

I’d tried to phone old boss, P, this morning, but the mobile number he left was wrong, and there was no answer at the number of the office he maintained in Darwin. A former student of our school was now a lawyer in Darwin who had a lot of contact with P, so I phoned and left a message at the law office. P rang me while John was asleep, wanting to arrange dinner at Bogarts, an eatery at Parap. We agreed on Wed evening. Old student M and his wife would be there too. P would pick us up here at 7pm.

We went down to eat dinner at the Sunset Restaurant, which offered 20% off their meals Monday to Wednesday. It was a seafood buffet. Lots of choice, and delicious food. I was super hungry, having only had a couple of bites of a bread roll since my toast this morning. I wrapped some wedges of camembert in a serviette and took them back to our room for later.

John watched TV. I read, wrote up diary.

So far, the anticipated spectacular lightning displays had not eventuated, much to John’s disappointment. Plenty of dramatic cloudy skies but that was it.

December 21, 2021
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2011 Travels February 6

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 6 TO DARWIN

An early start was needed. There was packing to finalize with last minute items.

Breakfast was only a coffee for me – I was a little apprehensive, mostly about the drive to the airport. There was a time when traffic in Melbourne on a Sunday morning was really light, but no more.

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 2pm and we were to have our baggage checked in by 1.15 at the latest. I had printed off our paperwork at home, which made it easier at the airport.

My little car was deposited at Jetport Parking at 11am, their bus had us at the airport at 11.15. All quite seamless. Baggage for our Jetstar flight was not being accepted until midday, so we sat and read the Sunday Age.

Our combined baggage weighed in at 40.3kg, but no fuss was made about the surplus .3. My share of it was 17kg; in our family I am the economical packer!

Going through the security check was the usual three-ring circus act that we’d experienced in 2006-7. John had to take off his belt and shoes – and try to hold his trousers up. His metal hips set off alerts. Whilst waiting for him to get through, I scored an explosives check – a new experience for me. How conceivable was it that a would-be terrorist would come in the guise of a 65 year old grandmother with a somewhat bumbling partner?

Bought lunch. I had a herbed pizza roll, John had the same with cheese and a container of chips. We both had coffees – the best part of the meal, by far.

Our plane was late arriving from wherever, by 30 minutes, so we left Melbourne 20 minutes later than scheduled, but arrived in Darwin on time, at 4.50 CST – so the flight lasted four hours.

I had paid extra when booking the flight, for seats with extra leg room, by the emergency exit. They did have lots of space, but no window to look out of. I was annoyed that this fact was not made clear in the booking blurb. As it happened, we travelled over thick cloud all the way – more Yasi aftermath – so wouldn’t have seen much. Another annoyance was that I could have taken a bottle of water on board with me, despite all the prior information suggesting otherwise.

The flight was smoother than I’d expected, given the prevailing weather conditions across the continent. The staff were pleasant. The refreshments that were served were eminently forgettable.

Our plane was continuing on to Ho Chi Minh City, so baggage came off quickly.

Once out of the terminal, we were hit by a wave of hot and steamy air. with that hard-to-define but pleasant smell that I associated with Darwin. John was somewhat taken aback by how thick the humid air seemed. I had been here before in the Wet Season, but he hadn’t, so it was new for him. It felt like the temperature was around 30 degrees and the humidity well up the scale.

A taxi conveyed us to our chosen accommodation at Sky City – the hotel associated with the Casino, but one with frontage to Fannie Bay and the Timor Sea – and hopefully where John would see his storm displays. We were allocated Room 307, which gave us an outlook to the ocean view, to the Star City groomed lawns leading to the beach, and also a glimpse of the pool.

The hotel had a series of inner open air atriums, so that from the lift lobby, we walked internal balconies to get to our room, past tall palm trees and other tropical vegetation growing in the central atrium. That was a great effect – one did not feel shut in, like in normal hotel corridors.

**The central atrium that gave access to our room**

Our room was pleasant without being ultra luxurious: big enough, clean, but there was only one armchair. The balcony was tiny. We could stand out on it to look at the view, but it was not big enough to sit out on in any comfort.

A message was waiting when I turned my phone back on, from my former boss, who had just arrived in Darwin – where he spent a lot of time, and had a base. He was suggesting we might catch up for tea. We were not in the mood for group socializing, so I ignored it.

After unpacking and settling in, we went to the Dragon Court Chinese restaurant in the hotel, for dinner. The meal was lovely. John had a duck dish, I had crispy pork belly and we shared fried rice. Indulged in a bottle of crouchen reisling. John – whose mindset was still anchored in frugal caravan travel – was a bit uptight at the overall cost of the meal, especially as the bottle of wine was $34. But it was our first night and thus warranted a little celebration in style, I thought.

Went and looked at the Casino part of the establishment, and briefly played the poker machines, giving ourselves a $10 cap each, and both taking a small profit, rather than ploughing it back into the machines.

We did not stay up late – it had been a long day – and our bodies were still operating on Melbourne time anyway.

December 21, 2021
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2011 Travels February 5

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 5

We were woken early by a phone call cancelling the bowls scheduled for John today.

Melbourne was flooded in places. Our pool had overflowed, as had the gutters on John’s shed.

**Gotta be able to catch those, somehow…..**

When John came back from unblocking the shed gutters – absolutely drenched – he went off to shower and change, inadvertently leaving his glasses where Birdy dog could access them. I spotted her with the neatly folded up spectacles in her mouth, and managed to retrieve them. The earpieces were a bit chewed, the frame a bit bent, and a lens had popped out. I found that on the lounge floor and John managed to put it back.

After lunch, took Birdy to the kennels for her stay away. We had to take a very round about route to get there as the police had blocked off a number of flooded roads.

At the kennels, a staff person took our girl away quickly – there were no prolonged farewells. She trotted off happily without a backward glance! We left her favourite blanket and toys for her. It was arranged that she should have training in coming when called, and obeying the instruction to “drop it”! Both greatly needed skills she had so far resisted acquiring.

I felt very sad on the drive home, and rather guilty at leaving her and just hoped she would adjust with no fretting. Troublesome though she was, at times, we both loved her dearly.

Was time to get serious about packing the brand new suitcases we’d bought for this trip. It had been a couple of decades since I had needed a suitcase for travel – soft bags and backpacks had been appropriate until now. Suitcase technology had certainly changed in the interim. Wheels….

We used our bathroom scales to check our baggage weight. We could each have 20kg. Mine seemed comfortably under that. John’s appeared to weigh over it, but he decided that the scales were wrong. We needed to include a smaller, soft luggage bag, for the train; there would not be room in our compartment for the two cases.

Friend M visited us later in the day. I gave her the perishables from our fridge. She was in the process of having her Troopy converted into a pop-top camper, which she hoped would make it more comfortable and convenient and do away with the need for some sort of separate “living” arrangement, like the tent she had last year. She was having some issues to do with changing the registration and insurances, though.

At night, despite our excitement, the house felt wrong, with no dog keeping us company.

December 19, 2021
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2011 Travels

BEFORE FEBRUARY 5…..

After his health problems of recent times, John decided it was time to get serious about some of his “bucket list” items. A couple of these could be bundled together: to travel on the Ghan train, and to spend time in Darwin in the storm season – because he wanted to see the spectacular lightning displays there at that time.

To my later chagrin, I have to admit that I was not really keen on the idea of travel on the Ghan. Back in Uni days, had done a couple of trips between Adelaide and Melbourne on the Overland train, sitting up in seats all night, and had not enjoyed that. But The Ghan was something John really wanted to do, so I went along with the idea.

I’d worked out a trip that would see us, in February, fly to Darwin, spend some time there, then travel on the Ghan to Adelaide, from which we would fly back to Melbourne. An initial idea, of driving one way and putting the vehicle on the train one way, did not work out. Truck was over the height limit for the train. John said my Barina car was too small and uncomfortable for distance travel – and it was not air conditioned.

I had attempted to make a booking for the Ghan online, but kept getting stuck in one of those endless loops of no progress and much frustration. Eventually phoned Great Southern Rail direct. It turned out that the online glitch was a very fortunate one, because GSR offered me a package deal that worked out much cheaper: our rail travel, five nights accommodation in Darwin at a venue of our choice, and a day pass on the Darwin Explorer bus. All for less than I would have paid for our rail fares alone, had I managed to book them online!

I built the rest of the plan around the Ghan trip dates, and booked our flights; arranged car hire in Darwin and parking of my car near Melbourne Airport; accommodation in Adelaide, Kakadu National Park, and a second stay in Darwin, for after we returned from a jaunt to Kakadu.

Birdy dog was booked into kennels, which we had visited and inspected first. They also offered some behavioural training – an attractive proposition!

As our February 6 departure date was approaching, we watched with awe and trepidation as Category 5 Cyclone Yasi approached the north Qld coast. Apart from its impact on places there that we had visited and loved, there was the possibility that it might behave as previous cyclones in those parts had – continue west, re-form over the Gulf, then hammer the Top End. That could impact our travel plans. In the event, it made landfall further south than originally predicted and dissipated across SW Qld.

The tail end of Yasi did, however, feed into a low pressure trough that brought a deluge to Melbourne on 4-5 Feb.

December 16, 2021
by wendyviney 2 Comments

2010 Travels The rest of 2010

THE REST OF 2010

John completed the rest of the six month trial on the new anti-clotting drug, with no apparent adverse effects. But then, trial period completed, it was back onto warfarin, with the accompanying weekly blood tests and see-sawing INR readings.

A while later, the trial drug was approved for use for a different condition, and our GP managed to obtain supplies of it for John to take, replacing the warfarin. Eventually, a couple of different drugs containing the trial substance were approved and put on the PBS list, and John moved to taking one of those.

The puppy came home. The little female we had chosen had been the runt of the litter, but was so lovable – initially! She had some of the blue heeler markings of her heeler cross stumpy tail cattle dog mother – the tan eyebrows and facial marking, and paws. But she had a partial tail only.

We called her Birdy, just to confuse people!

Until now, I had not known anything about the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog – or even that such a breed existed. But some research revealed that the breed was developed in Qld in the 1800’s, from a mix of ancestry similar to our blue and red heeler cattle dogs, but also a naturally bob-tailed dog used in stock herding work in some English markets, and probably some dingo. Those involved were seeking a dog with great cattle working instincts but also the stamina to work in the outback conditions. A “proper” stumpy is either mottled red, or mottled blue/black, but not a combination. A pure bred one does not have the brown facial markings and feet of the blue heeler breed. Our pup was definitely a mix of heeler and stumpy.

The breed fell out of favour for decades and almost disappeared, but some enthusiasts bred up the line again, and had the breed officially recognised as distinct, with listed breed characteristics. So, a pure-bred stumpy is either blue-black mottled, or red-white mottled. They do not have the facial markings of the heelers. They have a naturally occurring stump tail no more than 4 inches long.

Birdy proved to be a very determined little lady. She did not like being shut in the laundry at night, and her crying kept us awake. Bit like having a new baby! Toilet training was not a concept she fully grasped, for a long time. She proved to be an inveterate chewer, not only of her toys, but also of anything with a wooden corner – like skirting boards! But she was very lovable and clearly trying to do the right thing – just having difficulty figuring out what that was. We eventually concluded that, being the runt, she may have been a bit brain damaged at birth.

Taking her for her daily walks at the Lilydale Lake was good for our fitness.

In September, John turned 70. I put on a pizza party for some of his surviving siblings, all older than him. The Bendigo family came down for a weekend, and grandson stayed on for a week of the school holidays.

Grandson and Birdy adored each other. Because of her scatty ways, he called her “mad dog”. She was very different to the two docile whippets he had at home!

Late in the year, after five month old Birdy had been neutered, it was time to see how she adapted to caravan life. She had already demonstrated that car travel was quite acceptable, and she behaved alright when she encountered other people and dogs on her walks.

With M, we went to a caravan park at Cowes, on Phillip Island, for three nights. Set up on a site that was a good distance from other campers.

We did some sightseeing and a lot of walking. Introduced Birdy to the beach. She took to the waves – literally. But made herself sick trying to bite the waves and thus taking in lots of salt water.

However the trip was not a great success. Birdy had no sense of boundaries. As far as she was concerned, anyone she could see or hear from the van was an intruder and she barked and growled accordingly. At night she spent a lot of time – in the van – barking and growling at noises only she could hear.

We concluded that we would have to be pretty cautious about travel with her, because we didn’t trust that she wouldn’t have a go at other campers if they came too close. Could just hope that, as she matured, and with more practice, she would settle down.

Birdy was definitely a two speed dog – either full tilt into running, digging, chewing…..or dead to the world.

**Any gardens we didn’t want excavated had to be fenced….**

And so ended 2010.

December 14, 2021
by wendyviney 1 Comment

2010 Travels May 22

SATURDAY MAY 22 BENDIGO TO HOME 225kms

In the morning, I went with daughter and grandson to the central shopping area.

While we were away, John tried to set up the new TV/DVD player they’d bought, so the record function would work for them. He wasn’t sure he’d managed it though.

After an early lunch, we went off with them to watch grandson play soccer, parking Truck and van near the soccer ground. It was only the third game the kid had played, and he didn’t seem to have much idea about it. Actually, none of the little players did!

After that, we parted from the family, and headed for home. Again, it was familiar and routine. The countryside was lovely and green. There was noticeably more regrowth in the bushfire ravaged sections across the Dividing Range.

We arrived home at 4.30pm. Got the basic unpacking done.

Bought a cooked chook from the local shop for John’s tea. I couldn’t be bothered foraging for myself, so had some of the chicken. It was quite nice and we didn’t have any ill effects after.

It had been great to get away for a break, but was also good to be home, where there was a bit more space – and I can get away from the background TV.

Tomorrow, we would go to select our new puppy, though she wouldn’t be ready to come home for a few more weeks yet. That was such an exciting prospect.

On Monday, John would be off to see the folks at the ECRU unit again. He had managed this trip so much better than we had expected. It was probably good for him to have distractions from the state of his lungs and general health.

I wondered, though, when and where the next adventure would be? The events of earlier this year had demonstrated that we could no longer automatically count on being able to tackle an extended trip, every year.

TRIP STATISTICS 2010

* away for 32 nights

* accommodation cost $690.30 out of pocket

* accommodation discounts $15.70

* towed van 3520 kms

***********

December 13, 2021
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2010 Travels May 21

FRIDAY MAY 21 GOL GOL TO BENDIGO 410kms

We were up at 8am, away at 9.30.

It was a routine drive, done so many times before, to Bendigo.

Fuelled at Sea Lake. Lunch was at a rest area near Culgoa – a pleasant spot, but very littered. There were very few locusts about now. The cold weather must have accounted for them.

Reached Bendigo right on school finishing time. Had just finished backing into the driveway, when daughter and grandson arrived home.

I’d had our mail re-directed here, for the trip duration, to save having to ask a favour of the flat tenant. Grandson had been responsible for collecting it from the box and storing it. John paid him $20 for doing this, then tried to work out what his daily rate of pay had been. The kid was a bit young, yet, for that sort of maths.

Daughter was concerned to hear that helping with her resume had inadvertently led to John “breaking” his laptop.

Fish and chips for tea, which we bought.

December 12, 2021
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2010 Travels May 20

THURSDAY MAY 20 GOL GOL

I got up at 8.30am.

M had already gone from her site. She was off to Swan Hill, further along the Murray, today. Friends were doing a house sit there and she would spend a few days with them. I felt a bit lonely!

Today was to be a lay day for us, to give John a rest from two long days of driving. Even though I took a turn at the wheel when he needed a nap, he still did the bulk of the driving – his choice.

The impatient man from yesterday was equally impatient this morning, hitching up to move on. He would not be a delight to travel with, for sure.

After John got going, we drove back across the river, into Mildura.

At the Information Centre, I collected a number of up-to-date booklets about Victorian regions. It looked, now, that our travels would be confined closer to home, for at least the short term, so I needed such material.

Needed a quick supermarket visit to get food for tonight.

It was then John’s choice to visit Woodsies Gem Shop, where we spent some time browsing. The very comprehensive displays were interesting. I managed to buy a pair of turquoise earrings – my birth stone. I will be able to remember this trip by the assorted earring purchases!

We had a Subway lunch. I was used to the bacon in my usual order being microwaved before being put in the sub. Here, it went in raw – and was still raw after the roll had been toasted. Not nice at all.

Back across the river but turned left, towards Wentworth and thus to Orange World. This is quite a slick citrus marketing outlet, much more so than the more common roadside stalls in these parts. I bought a bag of oranges for each of my offspring plus one for ourselves, a bag of mandarins ditto, and some grapefruit for us. John’s impulse buy was a citrus peeler – rather a clever gadget.

For most of the rest of the afternoon relaxed back at camp, though we did summon up enough energy to go walking along the road that parallels the river, again, for a little exercise.

**Gol Gol area. Caravan park beside Punt Road. Prime river side real estate….(Zoom)**

Chicken schnitzels for tea, with some salad.

December 11, 2021
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2010 Travels May 19

WEDNESDAY MAY 19 PETERBOROUGH TO GOL GOL 435kms

We gave our remaining fruit and vegie stocks to the caravan park lady, knowing that we would be reaching the fruit fly exclusion zone of the irrigated regions along the Murray River today.

It was a pleasant day, sunny, just warm enough.

We were travelling a familiar route, interesting enough though. I still could not make up my mind what I really thought of the long march of wind farm towers that dominated the ridge lines as we travelled along the western side of the low ranges. There seemed to be more of these every time we came this way. They do have an eerie kind of beauty.

Had a coffee break at the punt area at Morgan, just as we had a few weeks ago.

Refuelled and ate lunch at Renmark. Again, John wanted to continue on. So I phoned the caravan park at Gol Gol and booked us into an ensuite site – a touch of extra comfort for our last camp of the trip.

We traversed the rather monotonous stretch between Renmark and Mildura. Crossed the Murray into NSW and went on to Gol Gol, some nine or ten kms from Mildura.

Our site at Rivergardens Caravan Park at Gol Gol cost $27 a night. M had an ordinary site, some distance from us. Our site was on the small side, the access road in front of it was narrow, and it took some backing and forwarding to get us into it. We could not stay hitched up. It was not a particularly attractive site, just gravel.

The site to our left was a corner one. We had just about finished out setting up when a larger caravan than ours arrived by that site. The man stopped to look at it, then drove around the loop road past us, in order to approach his site from the back and drive through onto it. He was clearly in a foul mood which we could tell from his comments and expression, was not improved upon viewing his site. He drove far too fast around the loop road, charged onto his site – and clipped the security light post, taking off a van mudguard and scraping the van side down the post. It made a really loud noise. His lady, who was standing watching, didn’t say a thing. We tried to look as if we really were not paying any attention!

The man got out of his 4WD, began to unhitch, then – when he went around the other side – looked at the van damage and said “When did that happen?”. Maybe he was deaf as well as bad tempered. It really was quite a mess – but what a clown! We avoided any interaction with him, though I felt rather sorry for the lady.

With M, went for a walk along the road near the park, past a lot of very substantial homes that had frontage to the Murray River. As did our caravan park – but its river frontage, and views, were occupied by cabins, not van sites.

We did note in our walk, that there were some much nicer, grassed sites on the other side of the park – but they were not en-suite.

We had our happy hour by our van, with M, talking over highlights of our trip. It certainly had gone by really quickly.

Tea was chicken noodle soup, with added creamed corn, ham and egg.

December 9, 2021
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2010 Travels May 18

TUESDAY MAY 18 PORT LINCOLN TO PETERBOROUGH 475kms

The alarm went off at 7am. There was a heavy fog outside – a real pea-souper. M’s tent was very wet. We did not hurry breakfast and our pack up, knowing that she’d be delayed. Left the park at 9am.

It was a pretty drive, along the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula. As we’d told ourselves on earlier trips, some day soon we must return and really take our time down this section, exploring the small places.

We had a coffee break at Cowell, and a lunch stop at Whyalla, in a sort of park, overlooking a wetlands development. That was a pleasant place for the break.

Fuelled up at Port Augusta, as we had done so many times before, over the years since 1993.

John was feeling fit enough to continue on to Peterborough, rather than stay a night here.

We suggested that M lead the way through the uphill, winding Horrocks Pass. Usually she preferred to follow – at a good distance – but we knew our rig would be slower than the Troopy through here.

Just after reaching the top of the Pass, a whooshing noise was to be heard. It was immediately obvious that a tyre on Truck was going down. John thought it was maybe a valve issue – related to having let down the tyres at Coffin Bay. Fortunately, there was adequate room to pull over and change the wheel. In one sense the fates were on our side – it could have been quite tricky if we’d had to change the wheel part way up the Horrocks Pass climb.

Meanwhile, M was waiting for us in Wilmington….. and waiting….. Our CB’s wouldn’t connect, due to hills and distance. Eventually, we were able to exchange text messages, and we caught up to her in Wilmington.

Then, about 30kms short of Peterborough, M radioed us, from behind, that it was her turn for a flat tyre! The passenger side rear one, just like ours had been. We managed a U-turn and went back to help her change the wheel.

So, we were considerably later than intended when we reached Peterborough. It was almost dark.

We got adjacent sites, for $26, and did a basic set up only. M put up the roof tarp that would give her a bit of shelter while she cooked her tea at the back of the Troopy.

Tea was Mongolian lamb – with help from a packet mix – and rice.

All were tired after the long and eventful day, and went early to bed. It was a freezing cold night.