I suggested to Chris last night that we set the alarm; he assured me it would be quite unnecessary. Tony had said that he would not be over until 9 or 10 am; we would be long up by then.
I woke to the sound of women’s voices this morning, probably the two young backpackers camping in tiny pup-tents with their partners right next to us. (Wouldn't you just hate to travel like that!) I rose out of bed and checked the clock on the microwave; 9.11 am. Obviously faulty. I checked the bedside clock. Same. OMG, as they say! We had never slept so late! I remember that when we first retired after many years of highly disciplined hard working years, we said there would still have to be rules and structure to our lives or we would fall into sloth, an abhorrent state of affairs. One of these new rules would be that we would be out of bed by 8 am at the very latest. This rule has slipped a little sometimes, however we have never slept beyond that pumpkin hour, until this morning.
There was much scurrying about and fortunately we could see Tony’s cabin door from our site. Chris was still shovelling in his cornflakes and my face was still devoid its normal smidgen of war paint, when he arrived with his car at the door. Hopefully he didn't realise we had been up for only twenty minutes when he entered our little house! The new charger was soon installed, whirring away and we were back to normal. Tony had remarked on the absence of a vent near that battery compartment, and on thinking about it and the fact that the circuit board had burnt out and no fuse had cut the rest of the system out, there could have been far worse damage. We might have even burnt to death! But then my husband would say that was a bit too dramatic even for blog followers.
Tony installed an extra fuse along the circuit to avoid that problem if they were to be a repeat performance with this new unit. And Chris decided to drill a few holes in the wooden cover and the outer wall of the caravan to facilitate ventilation, hence the trip across to Camec in Welshpool this afternoon. We had popped into a caravan place in Midland this morning, spotted from the highway however despite their large yard, they do not have a retail outlet for caravan accessories but were happy to recommend Camec, calling them the “Bunnings” of caravans.
It was in Camec’s store we were accosted by a couple who have recently bought their first caravan and are heading out for their own big Australian Adventure taking a whole four months to do it. They were keen for tips, never having travelled like this at all. Their naivety and caution did remind me a little of our own, however we had ventured out into the wild on wheels from time to time prior to our fulltime adventure. Our conversation was brought to a halt when the very friendly staff came looking for them with the product they had requested. We wished them luck and joy and safe travelling. It is as much as anyone can do.
On the highway we were overtaken by a canvas covered ute, on the rear of
which was written a message in the dust: “I love NZ & Marmite”. We were
most amused by that, particularly the reference to the Marmite. It made me feel
quite homesick …. for Marmite, which is still not available in Australia even
though production in the earthquake stricken Christchurch has resumed. I guess
it will take years to restock and then will Marmite lovers have learned to
accept a second best spread?
The sun will soon set and we will have achieved very little as far as further exploration however maintenance must always take priority, and today has been such a day.
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