Sweet sweat

Swimming in Mataranka warm springs
Hello to any loyal readers still bothering to check this sadly neglected blog.

In my last post, I believe I was bemoaning a series of unhappy coincidences that had fallen in my sphere. Well so it went on...

Did I mention that my car battery went flat? Well it did, but appeared to be caused by leaving the boot open overnight. After driving around for an hour or so, the battery was fine, the car started every day for three days, then, when my visitor arrived, we set off about 80 kilometres down the track to visit The Territory Wildlife Park. It was a hot and humid day, but I figured after we'd sweated around the park for a few hours, we'd drive 5 minutes down the road to the beautiful Berry Springs for a long cool swim.

After a couple of hours, we staggered back to the car, hungry, dehydrated and well ready to enjoy a spot of lunch and a swim. But then disaster struck. You guessed it, the battery had gone flat again. We are now a long way from the roadside assistance option, so, begging help from some park rangers, we get a jump start. This of course put paid to any thoughts of stopping down the road for a swim. An hour later, we are back in Darwin, still hot and even more thirsty and hungry.

The first place we stopped for a battery assured us he had the right type of battery and could change it for us. Turned out he could provide the battery but didn't have a licence allowing him to actually put it in the car. "It's easy," he says to me, standing in the blazing sun, I'll give you the tools and you just undo these two nuts and put the new one in place!" "Do I look like a person who can change batteries?" I say. "Where is the closest place I can get someone to do the job." Genius car parts man reluctantly points me across the road. Fortunately the car starts again.

Second car parts place appears to have a fully operational workshop. "You really need to get some other things checked before we replace WHAT @#$%$^&^% ... the rest of this post just disappeared when I posted it. It was really long! Anyway, short version: Third garage fixes the battery but rips me off on the price by about 1/3 extra.

Apart from that I had a great time with my friend. One picture posted above and more to follow if I can manage to get blogger to work anytime before I turn 100!

Life's good here and I hope yours is too.