V8's at Hidden Valley

It’s V8 weekend in Darwin so we have another week off cricket. Tina got some tickets form work for Friday which is the practice day. V8’s really aren’t my scene but at least we can say we went. We can certainly hear them OK for the rest of the weekend at the van Park.

Queens Birthday

It’s the Queen’s birthday long weekend and it’s the longest I have had off from work for 8 months. We head off at 2:00PM and drive out to Litchfield park to camp at Florence falls. We try a couple of camp spots that are full but find a great spot overlooking the valley.
We have spaghetti Bolognese in a tin and listen to Carlton loose to Nth Melbourne and I even loose at cards. Beer is nice and cold and we drink a bottle of Moscata which is yummy.
We eventually get up have some breakfast and hit the road, first stop the Lost city which we went to in one of Brian’s Tojo’s about 7 years ago. The road seems better and it’s a little greener than I remember. Off to all the water falls but most are closed still, obviously haven’t found all the Salties yet. Back to camp and we go for a walk to Blueys Waterhole for a swim its a good walk and we are hot and bothered by the time we get there. Its coolish but refreshing and packed with people. I left the Camera battery on the charger so back to camp before we head down to Florence falls for another swim. It’s pretty packed and people a climbing up to the top of the falls and jumping, our beers are empty so we head back, its chicken casserole and rice on the campfire. It’s quite warm today and it’s only just starting to cool down now the sun has set. I really miss being on the road and this really brings it home how much you miss it. But you know what, you need money to travel so you have to work as well.




We awake to another beautiful smoke filled sunrise, we pack up quickly and hit the road to Dundee. It’s quite a long drive and there is plenty of Wildlife on the road, Eagles, Hawke’s, Wallabies, Dingo’s and even Jabiru’s. Now there is a bird you don’t want to run into. We were just waiting to see the Croc walking across the road and we would have seen it all. Its a good 2 hours to get to Dundee Brian, Jan rob and his crew aren’t quite as ready as we expect. So its eskies ice bait and don;t forget the beer and we are off. We pay our $20 fee for the tractor man and loads us into the water and we are off as usual Rob waits for no one and he is off. It’s a fairly quite day at the start With the odd fish before Jan catches a huge Lemon Shark the same one she always catches. We pick up some nice cod and snapper and then Jan lands another big Jewie. Dylan Robs grandson catches a big one to so it is a good day. As usual it is a feast of food that night.

Tojo Timing belt light

Although we replaced the timing belt some time ago of course the light came on at 300k . This is the first car I have even owned still running at 300k and I reckon we got another 300k to go. So I look up the good old Google to see how to reset it. Fairly clear remove the plug and reset it. Well an hour later with the dash apart and the speedo cluster out I can’t see it anywhere. Then all of a sudden I see it right next to the trip reset button well F#%k me I just took the dash apart and all I needed to do was remove the rubber and push the button. Well there you go hey, never to old to make a fool of yourself.

Winter arrives at Darwin

Another month is gone, and its been 8 months of working now unbelievable hey. For all those who thought we were bums here we are working still. The weather is just great now and we don’t even have to have the air con on at all anymore. The mornings are beautiful and the temperature is getting down to 20 overnight. How it changes so quickly and the skies are now filled with the smoke from the dry season burn off. It is a strange feeling to see massive plumbs of smoke and not being worried, you just drive by them and ignore them.