MBW is messing with me.
If you cast your mind back one week, MBW moved “cleaning day” from Thursday to Wednesday.
Today – Tuesday – MBW decided it was cleaning day again. Not Thursday. Not Wednesday.
Tuesday.
What is the world coming to when you don’t even know for sure what day is cleaning day?
There is some logic to that which I will explain shortly, but it doesn’t mean I like it 🙁
But MBWs mate Jack Reacher says “clean and wash when you can.”
So we did.
So the bed was stripped and everything went into the park’s washing machine along with 6 x $1.00 coins to make the magic happen. All of the smalls went into Percy’s little washing machine and got hung out under our awning.
Percy’s washing machine can handle the little stuff – a couple of T-shirts or shorts – but it will struggle with sheets and towels … and cleaning day would literally take all day.
The place where we are staying has 2 amenities blocks, each with about 8 shower/toilet combos. One at each end of the park.
That is about 16 shower/toilet combos for a park with only 30 sites, and most people now only use their own shower in their own van. That’s what MBW does. She is a bit of a shower snob.
But not me. I like to venture out and use the amenities block.
Last night I went to the amenities block at one end of the park and had an underwhelming shower. The water was only tepid. Not making that mistake again!
This morning I went to the block at the other end of the park and had a lovely, long hot shower, so I was feeling a bit more positive about the world. Scrubbed clean and glowing pink.
Breakfast and ablutions over, I did the dishes while MBW did the washing.
The washing was done and hung out, and Percy was cleaned out and looking spick and span, and so we went out exploring Karumba.
Not that there is much to explore.
There are two parts to Karumba. The township itself, and Karumba Point where we are staying. The two are about 10km apart, so you have to drive from one part of Karumba to the other.
But once you are where you want to be, everything is walking distance.
You just have to orient yourself by looking for certain landmarks … like the house with the boat.
Except everyone has a boat. Everyone!
Some people have several boats. Some people seem to have a large boat, and a small boat. And some boats are as big as houses.
And some boats have clearly not been anywhere (and are clearly not going anywhere) for a very looooong time.
They have two boat ramps for a township with a population of about 500 people, and both are constantly full.
If you were a marine mechanic in Karumba, you’ve got a job for life.
There were a couple of things that we wanted to do this morning. We wanted to go and look at the Barramundi Discovery Centre (BDC), and get some groceries.
And we also needed to finalise our plans for tomorrow (Wednesday) and the next week or so.
The BDC was free entry (two of my favourite words) and we went in and had a poke around for an hour or so. All very interesting information and displays about the history of Karumba, the fishing industry here, crocodiles, and of course … barramundi.
They have all of these tanks out the back that – I assume – are where they breed barramundi. You can pay $25 to feed the barramundi, but personally I’d prefer to pay $25 to eat barramundi.
Here is a fun fact. Most barramundi are born male, and at about 5 years of age they spawn and then turn into a female.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“I want to be a girl.”
We purchased some postcards for our favourite little people and posted them, then groceries were purchased from the reasonably priced Friendly Grocer (rather than the very unreasonably priced Spar, just down the road).
Back to Percy for lunch.
And we noticed that all of our neighbours have packed up and moved out. I wonder if we did something to offend them? Or if they know something that we don’t know?
And the afternoon was just a blur of nothingness, I have to confess.
I’m getting into a bad habit of having an afternoon nap … and I’m going to have to break that habit sometime soon. It’s not that I’m tired, I’m just that … well, I can.
I did some emails using the patchy and unreliable 4G coverage here and we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air.
Tonight, after looking at all of those barramundi splashing about at the BDC, we decided that we would go out and eat one. We walked from Percy up to the point and decided to eat at the Sunset Pub rather than get takeaway from the place across the street.
Both places got good reviews, but I always get nervous when a takeaway joint has no customers at meal time. The Sunset Pub was overflowing with people, to the point that we had to scramble to get a table.
The views were amazing. The company was 10/10. The ambience was excellent. The sunset was mind-blowing.
The food was just OK. Sorry Sunset Pub.
It is really very dark around the caravan park. I should get into the habit of taking a torch with me.
I did a quick walk up to the amenities block after we got home from dinner, and on the way back – in the dark – there was some movement in my peripheral vision. Maybe a child? Or a short person? (Is it politically correct to say “dwarf”?)
I couldn’t really see what it was until I got closer.
A kangaroo. Hopping up the dirt road of the caravan park.
Tomorrow we are doing an all day trip on the Gulflander. That is an historic (heritage?) QR train that runs from Normanton to Croyden on Wednesdays, and back on Thursdays. We will be going down to Croyden tomorrow and then catching the bus back late in the afternoon.
Should be a nice day.
And that’s why we needed to shift cleaning day.
Then on Thursday we start heading off towards Cairns.
That’s about it for today. Lucky you don’t pay a subscription for this blog, because you’d be asking for your money back after another slow news day like today.
But it’s OK to have a slow day occasionally. We need to catch-up after a few really long days driving.
Ciao
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