Jumping Croc

We did the Jumping Croc cruise on the Adelaide River.  The pic shows one jumping up for a piece of pigs head on a string. Lots of crocodiles in the river, one every 100 metres so the boat crew said.
The dogs went on a long walk then were left in the air conditioned caravan while we did the trip. Gone for about 2.5 hours and we woke them up when we returned.
Last day of competition at the Darwin Royal today. So far we have passed in Rally but failed in Obedience and Agility.
We will be staying in Darwin for a few extra days so we can have a go at 4 trials before we head off either back home or to Perth.

Darwin With Caravan

The caravan is in Darwin. The pic shows it set up on our site in Coolalinga. The annex side is up, the extension at the front is blocking the afternoon sun and the shade cloth at the side protects the fridge and the side from the sun. Much more comfortable than the tent, and the dogs have a big run in the shade behind the dog fence.
The total cost of repairs came to around $5000, including flying up a new spring, replacing failed bushes, re-setting the springs and towing to Threeways where we picked it up. Re-setting the springs was the critical part as the sagging springs caused all the problems in the first place.
The caravan shop here had a tube for the interior light that had blown in Ipswich at half the cost advertised elsewhere, so at least that bit saved us some money :-).
Now we are waiting on getting the air conditioner repaired. It breaks down once a year and decided that Darwin would be  a good place for this year's holiday. I called two air conditioner repairers from the Ibis Aircommand (the manufacturer) web site, but obviously they don't work week ends in Darwin, so we will have to wait until Monday.
Big decisions coming up now. We are due to leave Darwin for Perth on 5th August, but our confidence in the caravan is at an all time low. The man next door came from Perth and said the roads are good. We have to be in Perth for October,  but if the van breaks down again on the North West coast we would not have enough money to repair it. The temptation is to go directly back to Adelaide, get the van thoroughly checked out then dash across the Nullabor for our commitments in Perth.

Darwin Still Sans Caravan

We are still without the caravan, but it has been repaired. Both sets of springs had sagged, reducing the travel on the suspension which in turn put more pressure on the rest of the suspension. The weakest point was the bushes, which is what failed.
We are waiting on a phone call to give us the price and then we can arrange payment. The van is going to be towed to Dunmarra for us, about 700 km south of Darwin, where we will pick it up and return to Darwin.
The trials went well with some very good dogs showing their skills, and a couple of titles too!
We took our dogs to training last night. They have been in Holiday Mode for too long. You can see in the picture, they are enjoying being tourists. The shot was at the top of the Dripstone Cliffs on Casurina Beach.
We did not go on the beach, too hot, marine stingers and crocodiles were the main reasons.

Darwin Sans Caravan

Well we have had all sorts of trouble with the caravan. The springs were replaced in Roma, but we only got as far as Mt Isa before the bushes in the new spring "dissolved" The replacement bushes were in Warwick but would take 3 days to get to Mt Isa. We could not wait that long, so we bought a tent and camp beds, left the van with the suspension shop and carried on to Darwin. The pic show us set up in the Coolalinga caravan park near Darwin.
Hopefully we can get back to Mt Isa to pick up the van and return to Darwin. It means a return trip of about 3000 km and at least 6 days travel, but there is not much choice for us.
I judged the dog trials last night and have more tonight and tomorrow night. They will be keeping us busy. Good to catch up with old friends here in Darwin, but we will be happy to get the caravan back.

Roma

The pic shows the dogs posing in front of the Slab Hut in Roma, Central Queensland. The hut was built from split logs around 1893 to house a family of 11. It is not a lot bigger than our caravan.
We are in Roma because the suspension broke on the caravan and we have to wait for a replacement part to be sent from Melbourne. Hopefully it will arrive soon, but it could be next week before it gets here. The mechanic said it will only take an hour to fit once it gets here. We need to be in Darwin, about 3000 km away by next Friday, so it looks like what was going to be a leisurely trip will become early starts and long daily drives.
Breaking news, the part has arrived and we are going to get it fitted right now.

National Trials in Queensland

We made it to Brisbane for the National Agility Trials. It was a bit of a rush to get here, doing 2000 km in 3.5 days. No problems on the way and we had some good company too.
How did we go? We did not get in the finals, the best Tiffany got was a 13th place in the heats for Masters Agility and 5th place in the Gambler Excellent Class. Hannah did some clear rounds and some with only 1 fault. We were really pleased with the way the dogs worked, but with some of the top dogs doing times half of what we could do, we did not expect to get in the Finals.
Our next destination will be Darwin. We are due there in 10 days time which will allow us a fairly leisurely drive of around 400 km per day with a little time to look around and a day or two sight seeing.