Getting on the Road

We arrived at the Paravista Motel around 1:30am. The management had left our key in the mailbox. After a few hours of sleep we caught up on our laundry, left our luggage, and headed out to pick up the campervan. We returned to the motel, picked up our luggage, and had a long conversation with the proprietor. He had been a bouncer and is now a corporate counselor. All about the Uninformed Subconscious and Auditory Visual and Kinaesthetic types. The most helpful innkeeper I’ve ever met. He told us where to go shopping for the things we needed, including a replacement CamelBak nipple: ours had somehow come off. It was $14. I also got a domesticiPad SIM card which seems like a better deal (4GB for $30) for data than our AT&T international data roaming plans, assuming we can find enough Vodafone (in Nauiyu all we see is Telstra).

He also said that he had had to get an airport issued last minute visa to go to the United States a few months ago, because the US also now requires pre-issued visas of everyone, even rich white people.

The Australians are nothing if not rich, but tan. The campgrounds here cost as much as a Formule1 or Motel 6 in the Northern world.

After a nice dinner in downtown Darwin (Indonesian steam-table food), we headed to our first campground nearby, where we learned that the office closed at 7pm. Some guy took us to a site anyway, and we settled in for a warm night.