This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.


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2006 Travels August 11

FRIDAY 11 AUGUST     DARWIN

Back into town where I wanted to check out a couple of aboriginal art galleries.

The first of these was a let-down, both in terms of the type of offering  and the prices set. We were not tempted by anything.

I was much more impressed at the Framed Gallery. Unfortunately, could not afford any of the several works that I liked. But bought a pair of earrings – silver Lightning Man figures – for $112. That was a lot for earrings, but I love the Lightning Man legend as depicted at the Nourlangie  rock art site in Kakadu, so just could not resist these. I was sure no one else I meet at home would  have anything like them.

We returned the little Colt, which had been great to zip around town in, and got Truck back. Whatever else one can say about the Defender, it definitely does not zip in city traffic! Just hoped  it really was  finally fixed.

Went out again for tea. Funny that I could not get too enthusiastic about cooking, myself!

Went to Yots Greek Restaurant, at the Cullen Bay Marina. This had been recommended by M’s friend who lived at the Marina, and she came too. Although the food was very pleasant, it was expensive – $120 for the two of us!

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Cullen Bay Marina and surrounding apartment buildings


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2006 Travels August 10

THURSDAY 10 AUGUST     DARWIN

Today was our wedding anniversary – 15 years. The time had gone quickly, but we had packed a lot into it.

M’s Troopy was booked in for a service in the morning, so we collected her from the service centre, almost right in the centre of town. Then went to breakfast at the Cool Spot. M had not been there before.

From there, it was on to the Darwin Bowls Club, where we did three hours of practice. In my case, it was sorely needed.

Lunch was at the Casuarina shopping centre food court – but with restraint, in anticipation of this evening.

Took M back to pick up the Troopy.

Went to Mindil Beach Markets, at about 4pm. Our idea was to get in and get parked before the crowds that would come for the sunset,  but it was already starting to get busy. Wandered about, checking out stalls. Did not see anything that I was tempted to buy.

Eventually, we bought from the many and varied food stalls, for tea. Now there we found  many tempting offerings, unlike the general stalls!

We sat on the beach and watched the sun go down – as one does at Mindil Beach.

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The sunset did not disappoint. A couple of passing small boats added to the scenes.

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It was about 8pm when we headed back to the van.

Decided that I find the Mindil Markets just a bit too crowded and frenetic for my taste, these days.


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2006 Travels August 9

WEDNESDAY 9 AUGUST     DARWIN

We  left early, to take Truck to Landrover, for a new assessment and eventual fix. We were lent a little Mitsubishi Colt for the duration – no charge for this, since they hadn’t fixed the clutch problem  last time. We appreciated that.

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Hidden Valley site – our en-suite building at back, complete with our own clothes line

M was going to do her own thing this morning, while we did assorted mundane things. I think washing figured large on her agenda.

After leaving Truck, we went to the Cool Spot for breakfast. It was really pleasant – almost decadent – sitting on the veranda, in the morning’s warmth, looking out over the sea.

We went to Casuarina shops. I found a place that could cut my hair, with little waiting, at a reasonable price. The cut was adequate.

We found an  optometrist where John had his eyes tested. Two new pairs of glasses would be needed – one for normal use and one for close up work, as per usual. He ordered these – they would be ready for collection on Friday week. We knew we would be here until at least then, because the Rumble in the Jungle Bowls event was not until 19th.

Went back to the van for lunch, after doing a grocery shop.

In the afternoon, we all drove into the city centre. Took Tiger Brennan Drive, which we could get onto easily, not far from the caravan park. This was the closest thing Darwin had to a freeway and allowed traffic to avoid the heap of traffic lights and slower going of the Stuart Highway.

Darwin was still small enough to be able to get a parking spot not too far from the central Mall.

I wanted to stroll the Mall, looking at the tourist oriented shops, with a view to getting Xmas presents for the family. There was no shortage of places to look at, though the merchandise was pretty repetitive.

Bought two rubbery crocodiles, some 25cm long, for my two grandchildren. I remember my son having one, as a little boy – could not remember where it came from. He loved it and had to have “Fierce” at bedtimes. I hoped the two I bought today might become as loved.

John bought a polo shirt with a Darwin logo, and me a T shirt with a small, stitched logo. We bought a couple of stubby holders, and two somewhat risque souvenirs for son and my brother.

M did some similar shopping for her family members.

We walked around some of the central streets, just browsing.

At a shop called House of Pearls, John bought me a pair of pearl earrings that I liked. They were dangly ones, with several tiny pinky coloured pearls – freshwater mussel ones? – on long wires. Rather “different” , for $50.

After a sojourn back at the van, we all drove back to town, to the Stokes Hill Wharf, for a very nice seafood dinner. The set up there was that a number of hawker style food outlets had been set up in one of the former shipping buildings. Seafood predominated in  both Asian and Australian establishments. The procedure was that one bought their food, then found a spot at one of the tables outside, on the wharf apron, and ate, overlooking the sea. Very relaxed, cool, enjoyable,  and very pretty at night.

It had been a day of being tourists, which was very pleasant to do. We were able to enjoy Darwin, without a heap of business to see to and without having to head out of town on a long drive at the end of the day.


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2006 Travels August 8

TUESDAY 8 AUGUST   LITCHFIELD TO DARWIN   170kms

Packed up, hitched up.

Went up to the cafe to say goodbyes. Boss 1 and B had still not returned from Darwin. There had been no acknowledgement from him at all – no thanks, goodbyes, or anything. At least we parted on good terms from boss 2.

So – goodbye to the Monsoon Cafe. It would be a while before I would eat hamburgers or mango cheesecake again!

Goodbye to Litchfield – wonderful area. Hoped we would return – but as tourists!

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We took the sealed roads back to Darwin. Called in at Batchelor to check that there was no final mail for us.

We passed a couple of the day tripper buses heading out to the attractions of Litchfield, and lunch at the cafe.

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There seemed to still be lots of tourist traffic on the roads.

Went into our pre-booked en-suite site at Hidden Valley Tourist Park, booking in for two weeks. It cost $35 a night, but the seventh night was free.

M appeared, soon after we pulled onto site. She’d spent a few nights with her friend at her Cullen Bay apartment.

We did a full set up. The site was not huge, but the en-suite was very pleasant. It was a very practical design for this environment, with plenty of air circulation, and metal door structures, instead of wood.

M was on an ordinary powered site, some distance away. I told her to use our bathroom if she wished, rather than the shared amenities block.

We had happy hour at our site, catching up on our respective happenings of the past few days, and discussing what we might do now.

First item on the agenda was to get Truck fixed – hopefully, properly this time.


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2006 Travels August 2 – 7

WEDNESDAY 2 TO MONDAY 7 AUGUST     LITCHFIELD

Well, my grand solution for the cafe did not work out so well. H had resigned!

I came on duty on Monday morning, to find all hell had broken loose. Yesterday, Boss 1 was in one of his worse moods, and had prowled around the kitchen, being negative and difficult. Showing his true colours, for the first time, to H.

This morning, H started at 7.30. Boss was checking everything out. He found a little – almost microscopic – piece of slimy capsicum, in prepared salad, and promptly threw the whole large container of same in the bin. With words. That was the last straw for H, who had not had a comfortable day yesterday. She said she would serve out a week’s notice, but would not work with boss 1, only with me or boss 2, or on her own.

I had lasted months – she did not even manage a few days! The nice man she thought she knew was not the reality.

I think the three of us probably did not do anyone a service, by putting up with the crap dished out by the boss. Just led him to think everyone would be as immune to him as we were. Not everyone could just find him pathetic and rather amusing, and not take him personally, the way we did. Several times, John had challenged some of his more outrageous instructions, and stood up to him, saying if boss didn’t like it, he could sack him – and of course, that did not happen.

Boss now had to try to smooth things over, because he really wanted D to do the building work. It looked like D would stay long enough to do that, and H would just veg out at their camper, once her week’s notice was up.

I just hoped this would not affect Boss 2’s holiday plans. But not to the extent that I was prepared to reverse our decision to leave!

About 8.30am on Wednesday morning, in the aftermath of all that, H was in the kitchen with me, in tears over the issues with boss. He had been in such a bad mood that he’d stormed out of the kitchen and promptly had a confrontation with B. So she was in the office corner of the cafe, sobbing her heart out. I was slicing up a particularly strong batch of onions, so had tears streaming down my face. A customer came into the cafe. Despite my tears, I was the only non-upset person around, so I went out to serve him. He could hear two sobbing ladies, and there was I with eyes streaming. He looked very alarmed. I said  “It’s OK, it’s only onions!”. Not sure what he really thought, but he ordered his coffee and went and sat outside, away from the drama. I made the coffee, wiped my eyes and took it out to him.

So things were a bit strained. I did not even try to talk H around – because boss 1 really was horrible to work for – and she was less tolerant of idiots than I was. Anyway, the problem was not of my making!

Thursday was M’s last day. She finished with no fanfare. Friday, she packed up camp and headed off to Darwin, to stay with her friend there. She took our mail to post there.

Eventually, things got lighter, because on Friday, Boss 1 and B headed off to Darwin as usual, for the weekend. That left John and Boss 2 to run the bus group lunch area, and H and me in the kitchen. I was grateful that H was working out her notice. Being solo in the kitchen through the busy weekend lunch period was not something I would have enjoyed!

D, whose original trade was as a mechanic, and who knew Landrovers really well, reckoned our ongoing clutch problem was with the master cylinder. He gave John the name of a good place in Brisbane to source Landrover parts.

When there was time, we had to do all the necessary paperwork arrangements with boss 2, for pay finalization, group certificate issue, and the like.

On Monday, the afternoon was fairly quiet. With H still on deck, boss 2 said we could finish at 3pm and do some packing up of our camp. Much appreciated.

I was quite looking forward to a change of scene, and going back to being tourists. Our three months here had been  – well, interesting would be one way of putting it. And I had loved our camp by the creek.

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2006 Travels August 1

TUESDAY 1 AUGUST     LITCHFIELD

Day off. H was officially working in the cafe. Her first solo day. She was a much more experienced cook than me, so should have not had any issues.

We commenced the packing up and organization for our departure – in amongst doing the washing, cleaning the van and generally relaxing.

In the shop section that was part of the cafe, I did some browsing amongst the unmounted canvas art works that were for sale – done by a local indigenous lady that Boss 1 knew. I’d had my eye on some of these for a while. Brolgas featured prominently. I thought the prices set were fair. Canvas sizes ranged from fairly large, down to about 40x20cms. Bought a large brolga depiction for us, and several small ones destined to be Xmas presents for the offspring. John could mount or frame them. That accounted for at least a week of my wages!

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2006 Travels July 26 – 31

WEDNESDAY 26 TO MONDAY 31 JULY      LITCHFIELD

This was what passed for a fairly routine period here. For four of the six days, I did not get any time to have lunch. 5.15pm was the earliest I finished, 6pm the latest.

The bus group lunch numbers were consistently high, as was the drop-in trade. This really was quite a good business, at least in the Dry season.

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Cafe customers consistently asked if we did chips. Whilst, as cook, I was pleased that we didn’t, it was a definite gap in the offering. A reason for not doing it was the power that an electric fryer would need – not compatible with the power generator here.

Boss 2 was talking of buying a shipping container  and converting it to a living unit for he and wife. She only came out here for occasional weekend visits, having daughters attending school in Darwin. His caravan was old and rather grotty, so having better accommodation here might result in her spending more time, and maybe even full time when the girls are independent.

Late one afternoon, there was a nankeen night heron standing around, in the staff shower! Just kind of paddling in the water from someone’s shower.

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Nankeen Night Heron

Sunday afternoon, H and D arrived and settled their camper by the creek, a bit upstream from us. John showed them around the place and they talked with Boss 2 for a while. Then, late in the day, Boss 1 arrived back from Darwin and they talked with him, especially about the building work that D could do. If he is fully occupied with construction, not sure who is going to look after the grounds upkeep, or help B with the bus group lunches and clean up – in the absence of John and M.

Monday H shadowed me and I tried to teach her as much of the routines of the cafe, as I could. Boss 1 set her husband to work.


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2006 Travels July 20 -24

THURSDAY 20 JULY TO MONDAY 24 JULY     LITCHFIELD

On Thursday, boss 1 ordered John to clean out the grease trap outside the kitchen – by plunging his bare hands into it and hauling out all the accumulated gunk. John refused to do it, if he could not use tools and gloves to do the job. Boss berated John for being squeamish, but backed himself into a corner by doing so, because he then had to do it himself, that way. It was an absolutely revolting job.

After that, it was a usual sort of weekend period.

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Told the bosses we were going to leave. Did not tell boss 1 the real reason – that we could not work continuously with him – but did hint at that to the other boss. The latter was not happy, of course – well, neither of them were, though boss 1 wouldn’t show it. But we had already lasted a couple of months longer than any other employees they’d ever had, a telling fact in itself.

However, I had also managed to present them with a solution to the cook problem, for the time boss 2 was planning to be away. I had been in touch by email with H, who I had worked with at Adels in earlier times. She and husband D had been travelling in WA and were now not too far away from here. They were interested in topping up their funds. They knew the place and the men from working nearby last year – it was H who put us on to this job in the first place. So, they were prepared to come and replace us.

I only had one reservation about this arrangement. Felt that H did not know the real boss 1 – she had told us he was a charming man – and it would be a real surprise for her, if he revealed the self we had been working with. Could only hope he would control himself, in the light of really needing the help.

Boss 1 was really happy with the solution and substitution. He knew of D’s abilities from last year and said he would get him to help build some needed structures. In particular, he wanted to fit a coolroom container outside, opening through the window wall of the kitchen, so there would be no more need for the daily trek to fetch goods from the school down the road. This modification would, however, reduce the already limited bench and prep space. Not my problem!

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M would leave a few days before us, planning to meet up with friends who were travelling up that way, before catching up with us again in Darwin, where we planned to go after here.

French John, one of the WOOFERS, who had been here for some time, was leaving at the weekend. On his last night, a group partied on in the cafe, after closing time, to farewell him – led by boss 2. The other boss was in Darwin, but due back next day. M went to the party for a while, but then left them to it. We had been too tired to go at all.

When M turned up to work next morning, she found a body out on the lawn! French John! It gave her a big fright. He was out cold, but still breathing. She managed to slightly rouse him and help him over to his tent at the safari camp, to finish sleeping off his indulgences.

Then, she found chaos in the cafe. They had apparently been playing indoor cricket – with fruit, mostly oranges, which had not proved to be very durable cricket balls.  Red wine had somehow been spilled on some of the window curtains. She cleaned up, and washed the curtains. Later, she thought up an excuse for B as to why she’d suddenly decided to wash curtains.

By the time I started work, the cafe was pretty much back in order again. But boss 2 was very late turning up to work and was not a happy man – he had a huge hangover.

Monday night J and M went to Batchelor to bowls. John took some letters I’d written, to mail there. He put 20 litres of fuel in Truck, in Batchelor, at $1.56cpl.

At bowls, M and John committed themselves – and maybe me – to play in the Rum Jungle bowls team at an annual grudge match against Humpty Doo, called the Rumble in the Jungle! It would be held at Humpty Doo in August or September. So that kind of committed us to staying in the area until then.


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2006 Travels July 19

WEDNESDAY 19 JULY     LITCHFIELD

Another day off, for us, though M had to work.

I did some chores in the morning. Fitted in my washing between M doing the camp and cafe washing, and B doing theirs,  in the one and only machine. Cleaned the van.

After lunch, headed off to explore another new walk – Greenant Creek and Tjaetaba Falls – a return walk of nearly 3kms. Just a stroll, in the overall scheme of things!

This time, we drove back to the east, past the Wangi Falls turn off. Greenant Creek was between that and the Tolmer Falls turnoff.

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The lush little valley of Greenant Creek

The walking track followed the small Greenant Creek –  lushly vegetated, green, cool and pretty. Most of our way, we could hear the creek burbling along.

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Eventually came to the lookout point where we could gaze out over the top of Tjaetaba Falls.

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We lingered for a while there, then retraced our steps back to Truck and thence to camp, to laze away what was left of the afternoon.