The family next to ours in the caravan park has been travelling for 11 months. They have 3 kids- 10, 8 and 6 years old. We have been here for over a week and hadn’t seen them emerge from their van. Their 4WD hadn’t moved and we were starting to seriously wonder whether something had happened. Perhaps they had flown home because of an emergency.  Perhaps their van had one of those gas leaks you heard about on the Grey Nomad website. Perhaps she left and he didn’t like it…. The stories came thick and fast at night during Happy Hour as our glasses were drained and then topped up again. Of course they would have heard every word our slightly tipsy voices carrying across the park were saying had they been n their van…
Last night we met them. They had taken advantage of the close proximity to Bali and some $40 flights and had a holiday during their holiday. We made small talk, exchanged experiences and then left to go to dinner. Once they was out of sight, we each reached for our phones to check out the flight prices. I imagined us in Bali, soaking up the sun, an absolute bonus to our adventure. Unfortunately, we realised Aaron’s passport had long expired and the flights were actually $1400 return. Our excitement vanished instantly. 
Today is our last day in Darwin. We are all happy to move on and we knew we had to brave the supermarket again to fill the van with food. This is harder than it sounds as the amount of items that we each like to eat differs so much from each other and the space in the van that is available for food is hardly extensive. 
We managed to find a happy medium and returned to the van to make lasagne and a batch of spaghetti bolognaise for the freezer. 
Ray endured another haircut courtesy of our new clippers, the shortest he has ever had. It is now a number 2 all over. I was keen to get out the razor and soap but don’t think he is quite ready – yet. 
One of the kids next door has a couple of stock whips and is a dab hand at cracking them. He offered to let us all have a go so Caleb, Vicki and Ray tried. Caleb finally managed to get a crack noise but it was at the expense of of his ankle. Ouch!
After dinner we decided to all go and empty the caravan toilet cassettes so that they would be empty for our road trip. This amused our neighbor as it is not usually a family event to be shared. The kids were not amused by the “scent” and swore they would bring a peg next time. At least there will be a next time. They were keen as mustard. Strange!