Tinadal Air Force Base

August 31

Let the journey begin……..

We’d planned an easy leg basically to stretch our wheels and insure all was right with the trailer, the pack and us. We called in briefly to the Good Guys to pickup two vital components we were missing for our journey. The first was a GPS navigator. We had done some basic research and the TomTom 720 seemed to be the one favored by people we had spoken to. Our mate Dave went through the sales blurb for us and quoted a price. Significantly higher them an ex-demo behind the counter. We took the ex-demo and saved heaps. The second item was a 12v TV. Dave had a NEC 17” Wide Screen, with built-in DVD and HD tuner. This sounded perfect so we threw it in the car and then got back on the road. It wasn’t long before the TomTom paid for it self, as there had been an accident on the Stuart Hwy around Howard Springs. Traffic was diverted and we ended up back of Howard Springs somewhere and not knowing how to rejoin the highway. We turned TomTom on and within moments we were heading back to the highway. So began a long relationship between TomTom and Sally.
Our next stop was in Katherine where we stopped to buy a third necessity. We stopped at Johnny’s Electronics as Mike had learnt was popular with nomads for the sale of satellite TV receivers. We had decided to buy one so we could keep up with Spicks and Specks throughout our journey. I suspected Sally was keen on not missing The Bill. All this gave me something to play with out bush when there was little else to do.
Then we continued to the Tindal Air Force Base just south of Katherine. We had been invited to stay with Steve and Sue Maley ex-pat territorians that had been in Victoria for a few years and had recently moved to Katherine with the RAAF. We stayed for dinner and drinks and our camper trailer stayed nicely folded up as we enjoyed the comforts of home on our first night on the road.

Thanks heaps Steve, Sue and Kelsey.