The Silver Lining

 Boab Caravan Park, Katherine

As you can see from the address, we are still here in Katherine, but no longer parked in the garage. More on that in a minute. 

When the guy knocked on the door to invite us to dinner last night, we'd been joking because they were literally cooking next to us (as mentioned yesterday, some of the staff live in the garage car park), and we could smell the steak sizzling. Mean time Mark was heating up left over spagetti. So of course we said yes to the invitation. 

At the dinner was Jun, two or three friends floating around, Jun's wife, and four kids (Jun's grandkids that he was raising on behalf of his son). They are all from the Phillipine's, and have been in Oz for about 17 years. They love the "simple life" of the Northern Territory (which is interestingly what I believe all of us people travelling around in motorhomes and caravans are looking for), and they find the weather and lifestyle quite similar to the Phillipines. 

Impromptu party at Jun's Garage Car Park

Grandkids enjoying the party!

Jun's wife cooked some amazing pork and beef, and so much of it, and the beer was flowing and the music on. It was an impromptu party! We werent quite sure if all the effort they went to was for us, or whether they would have done it anyway. We sort of got the sense it was for us. 

Unbelievably, even the kids were joining in - by which I mean that Jun allowed the 9 yr old boy to drink a vodka cruiser and the eight year old twins to share one - "they have to learn how to handle booze if they are going to live in Australia" said Jun. A moment that sticks in my mind is when the young boy (two cruisers consumed by this point) informed us that someone up the street had asked him if he was in a gang. He said he wasnt, and they said 'they wouldnt beat him up then'. Egad. A long way from life in Nedlands...

This is the boy, drinking cruisers and sharing shocking stories of life as a Katherine kid

What turned it from a good evening to a great one was when Mark got out his guitar. It turned out that two of the guys - completely self taught - were fantastic players and also had lovely voices. So the guitar was passed back and forth between two of the guys, with each singing a song, often with Jun's wife (who sang beautifully also) joining in. Mark played a few songs as well, which everyone appreciated and added to the vibe. Jun kept joking how they wouldnt fix our van so they we could all party every night!

This guy had an especially lovely voice

 Anyway, we finally crawled off to bed, reassured by the fact they had locked the gate to the garage and had four large dogs (who we made friends with) wandering around. 

This morning, Jun diagnosed the problem with the van as a broken water pump. Bad news - we need to stay at least 3-4 days to get a new one air freighted from Melbourne. Good news - we have managed to crawl the van 500m up the road to a very nice gated caravan park so we can at least just chill out and maybe book some tours while we wait for the part to arrive... 

We have power, water, a toilet,  food, and (because I made poor Mark relocate to a new camp spot this afternoon) shade from the sun. So we have everything we need. The simple life!

Not too hard to put up with