Sept 9

What a day, the only exciting thing was getting the vehicle and what a fun 'boys toy' it is.  I am pretty impressed with how they kit these vehicles out, even down to a solar powered shower (we will have to rely on a river to get the water to run it I guess).  How they fit a fridge, cooker, table, chairs, cooking utensils, bedding, tents, etc into it I don't know.  They very kindly took out the extra tents and bedding as the vehicle is meant for 5 people and there was no logic is us carrying unnecessary equipment with us, not that there is any room for the extra stuff anyway.

Our home for the next 4 weeks

The only other exciting item purchased was a fishing rod.  I chose a nice cheap one, as the fishing will only be a bit of fun and we will be ditching most of the items we have bought when we get to Alice.  With being female and not in the least bit bothered about asking for help I asked the happy chappy in the store for his advise.  He took one look at my rod and laughed saying where we were going the fish were too big and it would be broken in five minutes.  I thought we would only find wee fish but apparently they get quite big so a stronger rod was found then the lure, weights etc on top.  Ah well, Alan can fish, gut and cook while I paint <g>.

Next it was off to the supermarket for the food supplies - oh how I hate supermarket shopping, but you all know that.  We have seen several Aldi's around so being a Brit and knowing they are often good value we set the SatNav for the nearest Aldi and headed off.  It seemed an awful long way so we reset the SatNav and the next thing we hear is 'drive 400km' - no way, not just for a supermarket.  OK, so we learnt something, there are no Aldi's in Darwin lol, Woolworths will have to do :)  Yes we did remember the toilet rolls before you ask along with a washing line and pegs, tinned and dried stuff etc, tea and coffee and a block of beer.  Mich, each time we have one we will think of you <g>.

Fed up from driving round and the sun starting to set we went for a walk at some park place we found, don't ask the name of it or where it is other than it is in Darwin, we have no idea, did not look on a map for a name, did not care.  It was a pretty wee place and a local haunt going by the energetic people jogging around, dogs, families picnicking etc.

The place we don't know the name of <g>

And evening was just around the corner.

OK what happened next - ummmmm, ah yes food.  We thought we would go to the Mindil Market which is in action on a Thursday night hoping they would sell freshly cooked delights like we found last night down at the wharf.  Found it eventually after a few detours, quick exit without even stopping.  The car park was overflowing and we have had enough of people for today.  Where next, back to the whalf, good plan, well not so good, it was getting late and once again the car park was full.  Now we were really fed up and just wanted out - food, safe, reliable, yep McDonalds and it was just up the road.

Back in our room now, the washing machine is busy upstairs with all our washing, Alan is about to be kicked off the bed to go make a cup of tea and today's adventures have drawn to a close.  Tomorrow morning we need to repack the vehicle properly then we are on our way.  We plan to see if there is anywhere to camp en-route then onto  Kununurra in Western Australia the following day.  I think they have net access so another blog will be on the way.  Night night all.