Darwin, NT

15 June 2012

June 01st, 2nd, 3rd.

So as I said in the previous entry, Claire had one tiny taste of an oyster last night. I really thought her iodine allergy would be okay… Pretty much as soon as her head hit the pillow, she got up and left her dinner on the grass outside the tent. An hour later, whoops there goes dessert too. By morning, she’d slept less than a couple of hours and the rosebush outside the tent had fresh fertilizer… I don’t know who said oyster were an aphrodisiac, he should be shot.

First stop of the day, Tollgroup, who used to be called Perkins ; they’re the shipping company who’s going to take Troopy across the Coral Sea to Dili. To ship a car across, here’s what you need : a Carnet de Passage (I believe I’ve explained what this is, in the “Trip Planning” section last February. A Carnet de Passage en Douane is like a passport for the car. All the countries we intend to cross are listed in this little booklet, and the value of the car including its equipment determines the price of this passport) ; a couple of forms and two thousand dollars.

So, the Carnet has been taken care of a few months ago, all we have to do is fill up the two forms, giving an estimate of the value of the things we’re bringing across. Easy peasy.

Once that’s done, next stop is the clinic to book Claire’s vaccines. Since she only recently agreed to come along, she needs her vaccines to be done before we go, which is in two weeks. I also had my last two injections for rabies and encephalitis done, so I’m all good now.

Next stop, travel agencies to get our flight tickets to Dili organized as well. Gee the day is too short.

One last thing on our mind : the tent. That’s going to be THE debate for the next few days. Let me explain. In 2008 I bought off eBay a second hand tent for my Oodnadatta expedition. Four years later, after the Simpson desert, and my little sister borrowing it for a couple of weeks, the tent is now on its way out. It leaks (that much I found out in NSW in Feb), most of the zippers are broken and you can see the sun shining through most of the nylon. It’s been good but it’s time to get a new one. So, three options :

First, sleep in the car. The car was meant to accommodate one person, therefore we’d have to make some arrangement to get two people lying down, but then there is the fridge in the way.
Second option, buy a new “ground” tent, possibly canvas rather than nylon, to withstand cold weather countries. I specify “ground” tent as the third option is a rooftop tent. It was invented in South Africa for safaris etc to be safe from the lions and other cats. It’s a tent which unfolds from the roof of the car, so you sleep two meters off the ground. Pretty cool and our best option, except we’d have to get rid of the existing roofrack which won’t fit for a tent. And the fact it costs over a grand.

Decisions, decisions.

Saturday, back in town at the tourist information center, we basically have one question : where can we go camping and/or bushcamping in a quiet place, please ? The caravan park we’re at is possibly the worst we’ve had. Every tent and caravan are packed and squashed onto each other, with virtually no “private space” in between. People pass through “your” spot, regardless of the time of day or night. Not to mention the fact it’s next to the airport so each airbus passing feels like it’s going to land in the swimming pool.

On our way out of the city, the shredded tyre (come on, readers, remember we shredded a tyre on the Gary Junction ? you’re with me ?) is replaced. A quick inspection from the mechanic tells us we’ve had the wrong tyre pressure all along. I can’t quite remember when I decided to follow the wrong advice (Jeff, I really should have listened to you instead) but the result speaks for itself : when we could have had 80.000k out of one set of tyres, we’ll be lucky if we make 40.000k. Shit !

Another lesson learned I suppose. Off to the north tip of the peninsula for some much needed peace and quiet. Well, wrong again. It’s a fishing place. This only means one thing for the locals : let’s go fishing, then come back to our camp spot and play loud music all night. This reminds me of Port Lincoln…

On the way in, since the GPS had no clue where we went, we tested Troopy on a 45 degree angle. Hopefully Claire caught it on video, but let me tell you it’s pretty impressive. Low gear, diff-lock engaged, pedal to the metal, and up she goes ! When you can only see the sky through the windscreen, you know you’re going up, I promise you. Of course, Troopy makes it as we were still on the Stuart Highway. This truck still impresses me.

Sunday morning, another bad news : secondary battery is flat. I’m sure Pete told me the battery could last up to three days without the engine running, so we need to investigate this. Of course we’re in the middle of nowhere so we can only guess here. Turn off the fridge, remove all fuses from the fuse box and turn one device after another to see which one leaks.

Distance to-day: 548km, total: 19348km.

June 04th.

The battery is still down so we’ve unplugged the fridge, the interior lighting system, both UHF radios and all cigarette lighter sockets. It’s only a short drive to Darwin so there is no way the alternator will recharge the battery. Warm beer tonight again I guess. We drop off the forms at Toll for the shipping and head straight to the cybercafe to continue our paperwork.

Camping equipment, gas stove, flight tickets, blog, photos, videos, email, organize some sleeping arrangement in Timor next week, etc etc.
At night, we catch up with Pauline, Perrine and Nicolas, our three mates from Kakadu. It’s a superb sunset tonight on Mindill Beach. I haven’t seen such a red sky since Ilot Signal in 2009.

Distance today: 100km, total: 19448km.

June 5th.

Time to call Jeff : mate, what the f** is wrong with the battery ? Well he says, it’s quite normal don’t panic : an alternator will never have enough “oompf” (his words) to keep up with the combined demand of the fridge, spotlights, UHF etc. so every so often you need to deep-charge it with a 25amp charger, which you can either buy for 300bux or leave the battery in a garage somewhere for an overnight charge.

Right. Makes sense. I wish I’d known this sooner but okay, it makes a lot of sense. We go back to the travel doctors to get yet some more injection into Claire, then spend the rest of the day on the Internet trying to answer all our questions. We need a list of all camping places and 4wd places to get a quote on a rooftop tent, buy a gas stove and get a battery place.

Distance today: 39km, total: 19487km.

June 6th & 7th.

This next two days, we must focus on three things : the tent, the battery and the gas stove.

So, after much consideration, many shops, many different advices, we opt for a cast iron gas stove. The other options were either a cheap stove like the one we had before (nothing wrong with these two burners gas stove but they’re not really made for two years of constant use) or a dearer dual fuel stove, which would have been good if it wasn’t for the fact we’d have to carry unleaded petrol, etc etc. So cast iron it is, this means a solid stove, which fits into one of the drawers, is very cost efficient since gas is cheaper and more economical than unleaded, and we’ve double checked : you can buy LPG in Asia. Plus it costs only 75dollars.

Gas stove is sorted, off to the 4wd places to get quotes for the rooftop tent (okay, here’s a link to what a rooftop tent looks like). None of the “big players” give us a good dead under the 1500AUD mark. They also all confirm : you need to get rid of your current Rhino Rack roofrack. Okay, back to Jeff, can you get a better deal, mate ? Maybe he says, leave it with me I’ll call you back.

Okay, that’s sorted, we can drop the battery off at a garage and get back in town for yet more Internet, and book our flights to Dili.

(PS : I guess you can pick up the fast rhythm of the past few days by now.)

Distance to-day: 121km, total: 19606km.

June 08th.

All morning spent on the Internet to write on the blog, then off to pick up the battery. Except the battery is dead, so we need to replace it. One good news in all of this, it’s under 12 months old so under warranty still. Yes, but the battery dealer needs the original invoice. Okay, let’s call Jeff so he can email it. Ah, Jeff’s not in at the moment says Pete over the phone, I’ll ask him when he gets back.
Two hours later, Jeff still hasn’t sent the invoice, normal he says, Pete forgot to mention it to me, he says. Okay can you email it please ? Yep, right away, I’ve got your email.

While this is been sent away, we run to the airport to get to a Qantas desk to get Claire’s ticket from Sydney to Noumea changed. It turns out the Qantas desk at the airport can’t do it, we need to do it over the phone, with the Noumea travel agency. Great, so we wasted valuable time. It’s 4:25PM in Darwin, meaning 4:55PM in Melbourne, today is Friday and this WE is long WE, Queen’s birthday. Still no email, Jeff can you please fax it ? Yep, on its way.

4:45PM in Darwin, Melbourne is closed, luckily the fax did go through, the battery is indeed under warranty therefore changed for free, just before close of business.

Off to Litchfield National Park for the WE, since it’s a long WE here as well, everything will be closed until Tuesday, we might as well do something.

We arrive late at the park, the bushfires glow in the forest alongside the road and give an orange eery look to the place. It’s beautiful, it looks like sunset, only in the bush.
Since it’s 9PM on a Friday night before a long WE, the camping ground is packed so we can’t pitch the tent up, we decide to sleep in the car instead. We had to test if we could fit anyways, since we’re still undecided on the tent question. (You know, ground tent, rooftop tent or rearrange the car. Come on, do you even read this blog ?)

Distance today: 224km, total: 19832km.

June 09th, 10th, 11th.

Well, as much as I loved sleeping on my own in the car, since I had a thick mattress; when there’s two of us, we can’t use that mattress, so we slept on a thin foam mat. This meant our backs hurt like we’re 90. We can fit in the car easy, both of us, but if we do take that option, we need a mattress for Claire, the thickness of mine. Unfortunately, this would not do for when my sister joins me in Thailand, or when my mate, Fred, joins me in Malaysia. Good plan B for when it rains too hard or we’re too tired or we need to sleep in a city, but this can’t do for long term.

Back to the matter at hands, Litchfield National Park. Situated some 1.5h south of Darwin, the park is covers 1500 square km and is mostly rockholes, waterfalls and plunge pools alongside a couple of rivers. Basically, half a dozen spots where you can enjoy the nice cool waters while you swim under massive waterfalls.

First rockhole is called Buley, next to Florence waterfalls. Beautiful river flowing down a few cascades, then the actual falls roaring down a plunge pool. It’s so nice to swim in this, the sun shines through the falls, the water is cold but just nice for a swim. Perfect.

One thing though, this is our tenth or twentieth national park or bushwalk, we haven’t seen anywhere a map properly drawn. Call me stupid but to me, a map should at the very least have a scale and the orientation, preferably with north up. So, where a scale breifly tells us the next view point is merely 30m away, the path takes us for a 1.5km walk to a waterfall overlooking an Aboriginal sacred site. So I guess I shouldn’t have done this walk barefoot either…

To access our campsite for tonight, we take a 4wd only track and reach the quiet spot of Tjaynera Falls. The place is remote, calm, small enough for ten cars at the most and 4wd only, meaning a lot less people.
So quiet in fact, we decide to stay here for the next two days.

Speaking with our next door neighbors, we learn valuable information. First, to keep the battery charged to its max, we really need solar panel. A 120v panel will keep the battery topped up non stop, provided there is sun of course, and costs about 300AUD.
Second lesson, a rooftop tent really is what we need : it’s high up the ground, meaning we can sleep in damp or rocky areas, it’s quick to mount so we can arrive late at night at a spot, it’s easy to install on the car, and it actually costs only 1000AUD if you buy it online. There is a catch though : when your tent is up, you’re immobile. So make sure you don’t need to drive around after the tent is mounted.

Since we have a day to spend here, we empty out the car, and make some rearrangements to the storage system. Two hours later, we’ve saved a lot of room and it all makes a lot more sense.

Monday morning, back to Darwin after yet another two rockholes and we’re heading back to Darwin for our last week in Australia. The road through the Cox Peninsula Road is unsealed and dusty. My mind wanders behind the wheels as this is the last corrugated road I’ll be doing in Australia for a long while. I doubt I will find anywhere else such a sight : red dust and eucalyptus trees, this really is Australia.

Distance to-day: 258km, total: 20090km.

June 12th, 13th, 14th.

We’ll be spending our last three days in Darwin getting the shipping organised. This means cleaning up the car inside out, getting hold of the carnet, and buying a tent. Either a rooftop or a ground tent.

So, Tuesday : car-wash. It’s hard for Claire to believe it, but Troopy is actually…white ! It actually looks wrong when it’s clean, almost out of place. Troopy should be rugged, tough, dirty. Now it looks like any other 4wd in the big cities, the one that never see mud.
Anyways, it took us all day to clean it up, from the mud outside, to the dust inside.
Tonight, we’re visiting Thor and Bridgid. I met then in Ceduna just before entering the Nullarbor, we had exchanged our details and promised to catch up in Darwin.

What a great evening we had, such a friendly couple. We only met each other once but it’s like old friends. It really feels like home.

Today, technically, we should have had our carnet in our hands, and get the car organised for the ship. Bad news, the carnet is still in Melbourne. Someone made a mistake and got the dates wrong. Instead of the 14th, they wrote down the 24th of June. We’re 48h away from flying out of Australia and still have no idea whether the car will actually be allowed overseas. But our hosts make sure we forget our worries for the night. Thank you guys.

Wednesday, chasing up day ! It’s time to buy a tent, even a second hand one, as there is no way we can get a rooftop tent organised in time. For more than one reason actually. First well 24h to ship a tent from wherever the manufacturers are is too short, second there are none in stock in Darwin, thirdly we haven’t sold our roofrack, and last but not least, we’re broke. So, a second hand ground tent from Cash and Carry for 125bux will do for now.
While we’re organizing the sleeping arrangements, we run to AANT where the carnet was meant to arrive, and organize an express courier. I can’t thank enough the nice desk lady who’s been so helpful with chasing up the carnet. It has left Melbourne in the morning so it should be here tomorrow round lunchtime.

First night in our new tent, and last night in the caravan park. Well the tent is not as good as the old one, though it’s obviously going to keep us dry, it seems there is a lot more ventilation meaning a lot cooler in cold weather countries. Oh well, by then we should have our rooftop one…. hopefully.

Thursday, last day. Pack up, and go. Thor and Bridgid have so kindly offered us a bed for our last night, even to drive us to the airport in the morning. So kind. We quickly leave the caravan park and head to town to pick up the bloody Carnet, drop off the car at the shipping yard and go to Thor’s.

Think again ! The Carnet is on its way but not there yet, it’s 2PM and the shipping yard closes at 3PM. One hour to get everything done. One hour too short anyways since we learn the carnet won’t be here until tomorrow, after we’ve departed for Dili.

This means Thor, kind as he is, will have to pick up the carnet, drop the car off, get everything stamped and packed, then mail us the carnet to Dili. What a responsibility, and what a risk as well. If anything goes wrong, we’ll be stuck in Timor and the car stuck in Australia… Still, I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to thank our hosts

It’s 11PM, in six hours we’ll be at the airport, in ten hours we’ll be in Dili, and won’t know until Monday if everything went fine. I can’t tell you how stressed I am for my last night in Australia…

Distance to-day: 121km, total: 20211km.