Day 158 – 20th June 2018 – Darwin

I unloaded everything out of the car and into the tent, then took the car down to vacuum out the dirt.  $20 later I actually had back seats again and slightly less orange carpets.  Actually it came up pretty well but those vacuums at the car cleaning places are pretty terrible.  I then headed back to camp and got a bucket of water and tried to wash all the dirt out of the door cavities as you can’t get to this when cleaning the cars with a high pressure cleaner, and when you lift the boot or open the doors there is still red dirt everywhere!  So I washed down the inside of the car and sprayed it with Febreeze and now I hardly recognise my beautiful CX5.  She is relatively sparkly and new again.

I found bargain shelving at Bunnings for the bathroom, only $13!  I then assembled these and unpacked all the toiletries onto the shelves.  I put up the shower caddy and shower curtain and the bathroom is suddenly feeling much better.  It is so nice to be able to unpack stuff and not have to take everything to and from the shower each time.  Not that it bothered me when I was doing it, but funny how you appreciate these little luxuries when you have them.  So many times I would get into the shower and realise I hadn’t packed something that I needed.  Once it was my towel, hahaha.  I dried myself with my flannel that night, you get to be pretty creative.

We have camping shelves that we never use and I got these out and assembled them for the laundry then unpacked our laundry stuff out of the van and into the laundry.  I got out the ‘Jetty’ (my big stargazer chair) and set up our lounge area under the annex.

I also put out our solar lights to charge up.  Col is getting worried about all the permanent things I am getting, but I have assured him we can give them away or bin them at the end of the trip and they wont come with us on the journey.  I just think these small creature comforts make life a little nicer and easier while we are staying in one place for a while.  And well the solar lights are just beautiful and will be coming with us on future trips.  I know that the females in the camping crew would support me in this.

Day 3 went well for Col and he is getting his head around his new role but is definitely feeling the adjustment of being back at work again.  He was invited to go for drinks after work for a farewell show for one of the Project Managers that was leaving.  So col went for a couple of beers before heading home.

Both of us are enjoying getting to know a new city and like the feel of it so far.