Tête en bas

This trip is an mix of new discoveries and coming back to place I already knew, and I really enjoy that.

Jaab and Louise came back from their little trip. They liked the swag experience. Liked less the mosquito visiting them during the night. Till now, we didn’t have any mosquito problem. Hope this is going to last!

We tell us good bye one more time. Could be for good this time, but that’s still hard to believe. We’re still having the same program, almost at the same speed. So we’ll probably meet them again.

We were planing to stop in Pine Creek to buy the last lettuce, but today is a public holiday. Australian love public holidays, and they always have good reason to have them. Few weeks ago, it was Alice Springs show. Two weeks ago, it was Katherine show. You’ve guess well, today it’s a public holiday because of Darwin Show.

THe bad news is not really that we will be limited with the food, but more that we’re going to arrive in Douglas Hot Springs during a long week end. As it was already the case when I came here for the first time. I would love to see this place quiet…

It won’t happen this time. It took us a little while to finally find a spot as the campground seems completely full. But we manage to sneak between a few cars, in order to find a place just for us.

We are waking up the next day by the guy who’s checking if we’ve paid the campground. We have -oops- forget one more time. Hripsimé starts her day with her daily yoga practice, while I’m doing a little bit of staff, without much enthusiasm. The last few days had not been really positive, yet I don’t know why.

After a good breakfast, we go for a little visit of the hot spring. Other reason to be disappointed: the water is to hot. Hotter, I think, that the last time I was there. We didn’t even want to swim, as it’s not comfortable. Instead, we just follow the river downstream for a little while, and stop in the sun. Nap time.

The day keeps on going on the same slow and quiet pace, not doing anything. It’s a total luck that I see Jaap and Louise car as they arrive to the springs. They found a place to park the bus, and they’re just coming to enjoy the water. We talk a little bit, before adding an other good bye to all the previous one. Hripsimé and I just finish diner, before going to bed. We still decide to give the hot spring a last try, but they are still to hot. Shame.

We decide to leave on the next morning. The group beside us -a dozen of person- starts unbuilding there camp (table, tent, shower, fabric….) before we even wake up. When we finally leave, they are finishing there job. We had the time to relax, Hripsimé practiced her yoga, we had a long breakfast, we talked, I rolled the swag… I’m trying to understand. On a three days weeks end, they need half a day to dismount everything. They probably need the same amount of time to set up everything. Maybe even more. Of course, there’s the traffic to go back to Darwin, so they have to leave early in the afternoon on sunday. They also had to put all the thing in the car, and they still have to empty the car. Altogether, there 3 days week end was probably 2 days of preparation, and 1 day and a half relaxing, resting, and enjoying. Doesn’t sounds like a good deal for me…

We’re back on the road, heading north, planning to stop at Adelaide River to buy some more food. But on the way, we stop first at a small waterfall that was on the way.

Back on the road, we drive for 15 ams, before we spot the Spirit of Curiosity parked on the side of the road. Easy to spot. We decide, of course, to stop to say “hi”. “Hi” that last all evening. Shops are close in Adelaide River too anyway, so we’ll just wait until the next day to go to Litchfield National Park.