Thank you Euroflush 2000!

Our 10 days in the camper van were over. Returning the camper was quite an experience, and I have to share my comic relief from all the stress.

We got into Darwin – its suburbs and lights hitting us about 50 km out. I dropped off the 3 guys and our bags at the hostel and then headed to drop the camper. Finally finding the rental depot, I first learned that it had to be washed or pay a $300 fine. So off I went to the car wash – I had to use the self-clean wash due to the size, and it took a bit to figure out the automated soap and water dispenser car wash process. Back to the rental shop over an hour later where the boys had come looking for me by now – Mike had ordered me a beer an hour ago!

Next I learned that I had to empty the toilet or the fee was $150! So Pat & I headed to find a public toilet while Kyle went back to Mike - I was hot (it was well over 30 degrees) and tired, and my frustration was at it's limit. We found a public toilet – the Euroflush 2000 – it was a stainless steel cube. There were 3 lights – vacant, occupied and closed. When we walked up, another couple had been waiting but gave up and left. The light said ‘closed’.

We were at a loss on what to do – reading further we read it was programmed to self clean when unoccupied. It was certainly making lots of swishing sounds. Another couple passed and we inquired if they knew anything about these toilets. They just replied "Oh no, I’m not sure you could get out" (or something like that) and wished us luck. The swishing suddenly ended and the ‘vacant’ light came on. We quickly emptied our toilet. The whole time a voice was repeating “Welcome to the Euroflush 2000. Press the button to close and lock the door.” We had entered, but had not pushed the button to close the door. As we were leaving, Pat reached in and pushed the button.

So we left the Euroflush 200 with its door closed, no one in the toilet, and the ‘occupied’ light flashing. So much for the fully automated Euroflush 2000 – Patrick was quite thrilled to have outwitted this rather elaborate and certainly expensive fixture!

This hilarity helped my mood and upon returning to Mike 2 ½ hours after having left him, I enjoyed my beer immensely and got to meet all of his new acquaintances. You can’t leave Mike alone a bar and not expect him to meet a whole new crowd of friends after all!

Pat & Kyle had a very tasty fish & chips then headed to see the Harry Potter movie. Mike & I had a nice dinner as recommended by his new mates, checked out some souvenir shops then returned to catch up on photo editing and diary. And despite my initial introduction to Darwin, I really do like it.

Break 2 Day 5 - Drive to Barrow Creek

We were back on the road (sharing with the road trains as seen here - that's ONE truck) with about 1500 km to drive to our drop off point in Darwin. First, off to Alice to stock up on supplies, we rose and made the boys get up too this time. We pulled into Alice just before noon and started with a visit to the camper rental shop. We had by this time accumulated quite a list of problems with the camper and we wanted to make sure they knew they were pre-existing. Two of the more concerning issues were the 'sticky' door lock and cracked windshield. While they waited for the windshield guy to come check it out, they gave us a loaner rental car to use. I went shopping for groceries with the boys,and Mike stayed back to deal with the camper. Turned out that they swapped vehicles for us, and we were back on the road by about 1:45 - so not much time lost even!

As expected, we filled up regularly with diesel. Not sure what the prices in Canada are at now, but here it is quite painful. We paid as much as $1.80 litre on this trip, with $1.40 being a bargain price in the bigger towns. Diesel is about the same price as regular petrol (or gas for the Canadians). Now that we are back in Mandurah, it's anywhere from about $1.25 to $1.39 a litre - the prices here bounce around just like back in Ontario!

We had phoned ahead to see if we could get a powered site booked at Barrow Creek – but they indicated it was not really necessary to book. We made decent time and pulled into Barrow Creek around 5:00 pm. It was clear to see why pre-booking was not needed - even as roadhouses go, this was not a very luxurious spot to say the least. There was one power pole in the middle of a clearing. We were the only power site users when we arrived, although several more campers did pull in after us. The final sight was quite humorous, camper vans all huddled around the pole in an odd layout.

But fate was on our side is a weird way. As Mike filled the camper, what appeared to be smoke started coming out of the pump and our tank. Turned out the tank was empty (it was probably deisel fumes). They were out of fuel till the next morning. We were only charged $20 for the $25 which showed on the pump - and we were not charged for a campsite since they thought we were staying just for the fuel. Little did they realize we had tried to book a space, and would have stayed anyway!

The place was full of character however which made for lots of material for Mike's favourite pastime - he had fun perusing the grounds. And as in many roadhouses, people for some strange reason like to leave things behind. The 'bar' (actually an extension on the cash register / grocery station) was full of memento's even in this remote station.

None of us slept overly well that night as there were noises all night of banging metal doors. It sounded like the wind, although there did not really seem to be much of one. Perhaps it was the locals up all night…at any rate it was disruptive to the sleep. And given the circumstances, none of us used the shower facilities either (see photo :-)

Back on the road tomorrow to see the Devil's Marbles!

Break 2 Days 1 & 2 - Getting to Uluru

The anticipation at the start of a trip is always much more exciting to experience than to review, but for those interested, I'll start with the back story of getting to Uluru (Ayer's Rock).

Friday brought Mike & Pat home. Mike was exhausted from Country Week since he was on supervisory duties each night until all the students settled down then was up very early to head off to the games. He photoed other Pinjarra teams as well as coaching the girls basketball team, so his days were full. The girls team played very respectably, and all were pleased with their convincing 3rd place finish in a challenging division. Had they scored a single point more in the semi-final they would have been in the grand final - against a team that had met and lost to by a single point. Here are 2 (wow a record!!!) shots of Mike - one after their successful win for 3rd, and another with a fellow teacher / volleyball coach - wearing one of the gifts from the team (he also received an Aussie flag signed by the team and a basketball).

We had a bit of a scramble to get Mike a tripod on Saturday morning as Patrick had left a critical piece behind at Gingin. Mike ended up with a new tripod, which isn't so bad since the old one was about 20 years old and missing some newer features. The scurry had us leave a little later than planned, and we arrived at the airport to extreme crowds - having to park in the 3rd or 4th level of overflow parking. Luckily the airline opened up express lanes for imminent flights and we managed to get checked in just in time for our flight to Alice Springs. No Worries!

Alice itself seemed quite similar to our last visit in 1988. Although definitely bigger, it still had the same character, and the residents were just as friendly. People seem to come here to visit and just never get around to leaving. Many people you speak to have been there for 5, 10 or 15 years and had never really had planned on staying, but they just love it there.

Saturday evening we stayed at a hostel and the hosts very kindly drove us to the 'Overlander Steakhouse'. We are almost positive that this is the same restaurant where we shared a fantastic (for 3 of us at least) meal with Dan & Suz so many years ago (with Dan's infamous miniature buffalo steak :-). Although witchetty grub soup is no longer available, we did share an appetizer plate of Emu (quite good - bit oily), Crocodile (bit fishy), Kangaroo (better than WA roo we thought) and Camel (the least favourite for all of us, but still tasty). We all had beef of varying cuts. The portions were large and the accompaniments superb, however each of the 4 different cuts were a bit disappointing given the reputation of Aussie beef. Apparently the very best cuts now are exported, especially to Japan since they can draw such huge profits. Too bad since the beef we had here last time was superb.

We then headed to Coles to do our groceries for the trip to Uluru in the morning. In the morning Mike & I rose early to go get the camper van while the boys were spoiled with a late lie. Mike managed to drive back to the hostel very smoothly despite the size of the beast. It was a bit older than we had hoped for and showing it's age, but very roomy with a cooktop, microwave, fridge, TV with DVD, 2 indoor tables, toilet/shower/sink, toaster, kettle and running hot & cold water. It was a bit later than we hoped by the time we set off, and it was a long drive, so off we headed to try to catch the sunset at Uluru!

The drive was long, but with a speed limit of 130km per hour, we could travel as fast as we wished (which was NOT 130km in Beast). This area is not full out desert, but covered in sparse scrubby vegetation as you can see by a shot from the window.

The first giant formation you come to is not in fact Uluru, but Mount Conner (859m). It is substantially larger than Uluru (348m), but not as much of an attraction. Uluru is more interesting due to it's changing vision in the light, and it's monolithic presence.

We made it to sunset over Uluru just in time. We ate our dinner watching the subtle colour changes. If you peek through to see the colour of Uluru in our family photo here, you can see the difference of the rock colour from the other photo here.

Then it was off to Yulara to check into our campsite for the night before returning for a true visit to the Rock tomorrow.