1998
Lionel the Landcruiser
and Tap-Tap go Walkabout

Homeward bound?
Day 19
Darwin - Alice Springs

Hi Everyone

I think this is day 20, but I've sort of lost count! We left Darwin yesterday and it is Friday 17 July. At present we are going flop by the pool at a campsite in Kununurra - rather nice 'cos it is hot and we had rather a full day yesterday and had to camp at the side of the road because Katherine was full - again! What is it about Katherine - don't they want us to stay there? This is twice now we've been told 'no room at the inn' (or camp site) - which is one more than a very famous biblical character, so maybe we are involved in something big!

A late night swim. Hild, Stewart, Kirrily and Rob at Marrakai Appartments.

So, you will be wondering what has been going on since you last heard from us. We pretty much left things hanging from when we hit Darwin and were joined by Kirrily and Stewart for the conference. Well, as far as conferences go it was OK, Rob gave his talk Monday, Kirrily hers on Wednesday. Lunches at the conference were not particularly inspiring and the water had a very strange smell - reminiscent of TCP if you ask me - but the cocktail party at Parliament House and the conference dinner were good fun so it came out even.

Meanwhile, what was I up to? You may well ask. I had been looking forward to my shower for such a long time that I was a bit miffed when Hild ran out of change and had to stop. The little man wouldn't change a $50 note so that was that I'm afraid, but Hild promised me another one - nice and long when we get back to Perth. Then she tried to find someone to have a look at my electrics. First off we went to the Toyota dealership place but they didn't have any spare time so we went across the road to a nice man called Daniel who used to work for Toyota but now had his own place.

And when Daniel had a look he found that it was actually the new battery that was no good! Fancy that - the new battery just installed when I had my service was a dud and all along I'd been relying on my little auxiliary battery for everything. Well, I was flabbergasted - and so was Daniel, who very kindly spent a lot of his time getting the local dealership to come out and see that the battery was faulty so we could have another one under warranty. This took a few calls and also getting Liz to go to our flat in Perth and fax us through the receipt for the one we had just bought. Bit of a hassle, but at least it saved us $150 for a new one. Daniel also fitted a new solenoid to switch between batteries so now all my electrics are working beautifully and I start like a dream.

Sunrise over Darwin.

Then he had a look at my heater, 'cos we had been having a few problems getting it to turn off - in fact it wouldn't turn off, which wasn't too bad when it was colder in Alice Springs, but was unpleasant now we were having 35 degree days. Apparently it is a known problem with my model as there is a valve which controls the flow of the engine coolant and runs it through the heater to warm the car. The problem was that a replacement couldn't be found in Darwin and on order he couldn't be sure when it would arrive! Some time on Thursday was the best he could promise and we were supposed to be leaving after the conference was over at lunchtime!

So that is where I spent the next couple of days, sitting in Daniel's yard with bits of me hanging out. A break certainly, but I could have used a more relaxing time. As it happens, the part came fairly early on Thursday so Daniel fitted it and bled all the air from the system (and filled me up with a very nice flavour of coolant - strawberry he said, but I was more inclined to think it was raspberry) and got me all ready to go - when my clutch wouldn't work! Oh no, what was going on - if it wasn't one thing it was another.

So, another bit of work revealed that my master cylinder was leaking and I had lost my clutch fluid! Now I was not pleased about this because I had specifically asked for my clutch to be looked at during the service I had before we started the trip. Now both the battery they fitted was a dud AND the supposedly checked and OK'd clutch cylinder was stuffed. At least we found out there was a problem somewhere where it could be sorted quickly - just an hour to redo the seals and bleed the fluid system and I was ready to go.

Rob and Hild were very relieved when they came to get me Thursday lunchtime, 'cos I was all fit and raring to get back on the road again. But first we went to see Wendy and Nick - friends of ours from Perth who had recently moved up to Darwin and who had just had a new baby. Turns out they had a car just like me a few years ago in Perth - called Bertha. Wish I'd known her - she sounded like a fun gal, maybe I'll look here up when we get home so we can swap some engine oil!

After that it was back onto the open road and down to Katherine. It was just dark when we got there, but we didn't think it would be a problem as we were planning to stop at a campsite for the night - only we'd done it again - Rodeo time in Katherine and there wasn't so much as a corner left in any of the campsites or a room at any of the hotels. Even worse was the fact that everyone was walking round in Cowboy hats, Cowboy shirts and Cowboy boots! I bet they were saying things like 'get along liddle dogey' as well but we couldn't hear thankfully 'cos I was keeping my revs up and drowning them out.

So, what to do. Our only option was to carry on driving and see what turned up. On the map, there was a rest stop marked about 20 k out of town which we thought maybe we could stop at. But after passing a couple of truck-stops which specifically said no camping, there were some roadworks and a big detour around a bridge under repair so we missed it and ended up stopping at another rest stop about 50 k out. There were already about 4 or 5 campers there (camper vans and trailer tents) so we picked ourselves a bit of a spot and chucked the tent up. As it was already nearly 9 and the other campers had their lights out, we just threw a blanket on the floor of the tent and the sleeping bags on that and didn't bother with the air bed or Conan at all. We were also pretty tired so we just crashed straight out.

Now for day 20....