Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 44 - Halls Creek Day 5

Still here. The part required for Silver Leader’s Jeep, is nowhere to be seen. It was suggested it would arrive Sunday afternoon, but it got lost in the translation somewhat. Here for the courier company meant Derby, only 500 kilometres away. It is now expected to be here late tomorrow afternoon and we will then make the dash to Broome, some 700 kilometres in one day to make our upside-down falls flights on 20th , some 4 days hence.

Cutting it fine but neither Forbsy, Robyn or I could in all honesty let Silver Leader and Rosalie head out into what is possibly the longest legs of desolation on this trip between here and Broome. We would never forgive ourselves if they were to break down again in the middle of this leg without the ability to have us to help.

We wander to the reception area and pay for another 2 days in this park. Back to the van its time to do something, for Robyn that means work on her major project bringing a new product to market and for me, toying with videos of sunsets which once I finish, I post of Facebook. Instantly there are ooh’s and ahh’s. and I am happy I have given it a decent go.

Not much happening today, we attempt to get the TV fully working, to date we have only got TV proper. There is not a real lot on the box during the day even here in the top end, so I want to see if I can put on a DVD. No joy initially, everything seems to be working and I have chosen the HDI option, which I believe is attached to the internal sound system (and DVD player) in the van, but so far, no signal.

Forbsy comes and lends his meagre electronic knowledge to the issue – no success. Silver Leader does the same – same result. Looks like there will be no DVD in this van this holiday. We call the service department of the van sales yard 4 times without success, and even resort to a text, with the same result. Robyn jokes that we might have to purchase a cheap DVD to watch any of the large number of DVD’s we have brought with us. Just to check the HDMI port is working on the TV unit I plug my computer into it and there is no issue, so I do not understand what the problem is.

At 3.30pm I suggest to Forbsy and Silver Leader that Zena Warrior Princess, Hercules, the Legendary Journeys and Pokémon has me wanting to get out of the van. Given the hotel is only a street corner away, AND its pizza and pasta night, there is only one solution. Robyn needs no more incentive that to be told there is the chance for a cold on to pack up her computer and be ready, but by the time she is ready the others are at our front door and ready to go.

Like I said its pizza and pasta night, so after the first round we decide to order so we are done and dusted and back in our vans, not too late. Its about 5.30pm when we order our dinner, wedges and loaded fries for entrée and a selection of pizzas, garlic prawn and tandoori chicken. The entrees come quickly, and we attack that with another round of drinks.

The sunset, although we cannot see it directly, I can see its effects. I go for a walk to see if I can snap a picture or two of the sunsets. I am in luck, I can just get a few snaps of the sunset over the fence and I take quite a few, playing with the lighting to enhance the colours of the time.

I get back to the table and Silver Leader and Rosalie’s main courses, pizzas like ours are delivered and they are tucking in. For a while we sit and watch them eat as we all troll Facebook, often showing each other interesting posts. But soon a while seems to become an eternity and Robyn is getting impatient, she has worked hard all day and she is mentally drained. WE enquire of the bar where our pizzas might be and they go for a look to the kitchen.

Minutes pass and no answer to our question, Robyn again goes for a walk but this time she has adopted the teapot position, which I know all too well, she is not amused. After what seems an eternity, a waitress comes by apologising, but the ordering system between the bar and the kitchen has gone down and they are now moving around the beer garden, retaking orders, and not in the order they originally done.

We re-order and go back to waiting. Because the orders are now out of sequence (we seemed to be halfway down the page), we would not expect our meals anytime soon. Robyn is singularly not impressed, and vents on the waitress. By the time we get our pizzas, its nearly 2 hours after we ordered, and instead of eating at the table we get the waitress to transfer dinner to a takeaway box and return to the van, when we leave, Forbsy is only just getting his pizza. He is going to stay at the hotel and eat, rather than join us back in the park.

Tomorrow again we will still be here, and although not sure what we might get up to but we will do something, be it in the van or wandering around the countryside.