Day 96

Day 96 Mataranka

Well we are back on line now, sorry about the delay but I came back from Bali with a bit of a bug that laid me low on the 31^st and into the 1^st but I think the worst is over. We got back from Bali at 3 am on the 31^st after 6 days in Bali with our favourite daughter, Tia. I am doing a special blog edition for this trip. The flight home was fine, we left Bali at 10:50 and had wheel chair assist. We used the new terminal there and it is a big change from the old one, there is room and carpets and airconditioning that works, but no ramps to the planes yet. We had to go down some stairs, into the bus and out to the plane and up the stairs into the plane. We had delayed our time to get to the gate as Tia was with us waiting for her plane that left 2 hours after ours and we left her with a new friend chatting away, who

with the locals watching the sun go down

was also taking a late flight. Tia later said that she had no problems and found her own way to the gate, even though she had red carpet. Jetstar booked us into row 2 just like on the way over but some old duck was in our seats. It reminded me of our flight in Vietnam when this lady pushed into Angela’s seat and we got the stewardess to turf her out. Because I have wheel chair assist, we got the three seats to ourselves, bliss.

We read and slept the 2 ½ hour flight home but when we landed we were asked to stay in our seats. The door opened and in walked 2 Aust Federal Police Officers. We had missed all the action and excitement. From what we gathered, this lady was asked to belt her child up for landing and she said no because she was sleeping and it all went down hill from there for her with a lot of bad language. The police escorted her and her kids and her partner off the plane. We of course got off last and they brought a wheel chair for me and off we went, first to the Duty Free then on to customs and immigration and out in no time. We got to the front area and thanked the lady for her help and asked where we left the wheel chair and she said basically anywhere in the hall. We had parked our car in the General Aviation parking when we got there and had used a number to ask for a shuttle to the terminal as it is about 1km or so away, but there were no signs at the terminal to do the reverse. Decision made, I took all the bags on my lap, hugged the duty free and off we set down the road in the wheel chair. We made it all the way down and loaded up Trude with us and the chair and then went back to the terminal to drop it off.

After that we adjourned to the Ridges Hotel as they had a break fast starting at 4 am and we could not get in to the caravan park until about 7 so a leisurely breakfast was had and we drove over to the caravan park, hitched up Girt and plonked her back on our site and went to bed. I was not feeling all that energetic and slept the day away and the night, although we did manage to go to the Casino for tea. The following day I was not too bright with stomach cramps but they seemed to have eased now but I am still tired.

Saying goodnight to Tony and Julie

Tony and Julie Snelling

The best part of the 1^st was when we caught up again with our friends Tony and Julie Snelling. These are very special people to us and although we had seen them before we left for Bali, we wanted to see them again. They took us down to Cullen Bay to watch the sun go down and have fish and chips. It was so reminiscent of the times we used to go down to the Falcon Bay Beach with the Gadekes, something Maureen and I are going to re-instate when we get back. The breeze was gentle and the temperature was perfect. It was a great way to finish our stay at Darwin. We are going to miss them, but they say they are coming down in January, so maybe we can repay them when we are in Busselton.

We packed up this morning, not a long job as we had not unpacked from when we went to Bali, so we hit the road about 10:30 with 3 things to do, get my drugs, buy some Mangos and get some gas. We thought we would have to take Girt and Trude through a shopping centre to get a chemist, something I was not too enthusiastic about but 1 km down the road, there was a discount chemist and we got the prescriptions filled and it was about half the cost of back home. We hit the road and there was the Mango Man, so that was sorted and a servo was just there as well so all was sweet. We had intended to go to a station stay, which was only 90km

Girt and Trude at Adelaide River pit stop

Girt and Trude at Katherine Pit stop

away, but once I was going I said we may as well go through to Mataranka, some 400kms away and Maureen agreed so that is what we did. We had to make a couple of pit stops for me, but I wont go into that in detail.

We got to Mataranka about 6pm and setup Girt. Our plan is to stay overnight, go to the pools tomorrow and then head on down to Daly Waters Pub.