The road
from just north of Batchelor to Darwin is quite amazing, and I say this as
someone who has travelled over 52,000 of Australian roads, many of them
severely substandard. I have mentioned that this whole area was heavily populated
by Australian and US troops during World War II however that was nearly seventy
years ago. It would seem, from an uniformed point of view, that the Territory
government has been able to secure sufficient funds over the years to keep up
the maintenance on these great military highways. In fact from about fifty
kilometres south of Darwin, the road splits into a dual carriageway. This combined
with the fact that the speed limits are in excess of what you will find around
the rest of the country (at least that we have travelled through) means that everywhere is a
whole lot closer than you might otherwise suppose.
That
last statement may well have something to do with the way that caravan parks
are advertised here around Darwin. There are none right in Darwin, but there
were seven earmarked for our consideration, and none of these actually stated
their distance from Darwin’s CBD. Ten minutes travel was the closest, and
twenty for the others, but with our town map not extensive enough to show how
strung out they were, we were none the wiser. Googling “caravan parks Darwin” brings up a cluster but not much else, and so
I ended up with a rather strange drawing based on that googling, with camp names and
tarrifs and with Tomtom’s help, we made our selection as we closed on the town.
The Oasis which had been recommended to us when we were in Longreach, costing a
mere $33 per night (and less with a Senior discount) is a whole twenty
kilometres out and would be fine if you were settling in for the Season and
just venturing into the centre once or twice a week. But we are planning to
commute on a daily basis to take in all the sights and so proximity was
important. We did the numbers and the fuel savings and in the end settled for
this one which is closest to the city but does cost a flat $39 per day.
We were
told at reception that it was more or less empty and that we could go select
our site; this we liked. The park is not empty but not so full as to make one
feel closed in. We have a very shady site and should be comfortable for the
week, or more should we choose to stay longer. And most importantly, especially
for my husband, we have flawless television reception.
As it
turned out this has been wonderful because no sooner had we tuned in the set,
did we receive Breaking News; a leadership spill in Canberra. So as I write
this, Chris is glued to the television drinking in all the political commentary
as we wait for the results. It is indeed interesting, in fact, nail biting
stuff.
While I
also find this fascinating and you will have by now realised that we are
political animals or at least have been in our more community minded years, I
am delighted to have full internet reception. Today I received a video clip of
our wee Charlie, still days off five years old, who has for some reason started
school prematurely , reading a simple book to his Nana and Grandad. How
thrilling is that!!
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