Friday 3 August – Today has been very warm, in fact the temperature here in Darwin today was 31 degrees.  So by the time we set up the van, the perspiration was running freely.  We had a good run from Litchfield, first having a stop at another feature spot in the park, the Magnetic Termite Mounds.  Now as I have mentioned, we have seen some petty tall mounds, but the ones here really took the cake.  One or two were actually over 5 metres tall, so you are really dwarfed by them.

And would you believe – in the first three minutes after leaving the caravan park, we saw our first three specimens of four legged native wildlife that were actually living!! Three cute little wallabies grazing near the roadside.  After that it was just the usual eagles and hawks (or kites, or kestrels) in abundance.

As todays drive was only 117 kms, we stopped for a bit of a petrol fill at Noonaman, then arrived here at the Shady Glen by about a quarter to 12, so we set up, had a sandwich and a cuppa and planned our afternoon activities.

As Grant has to have his blood checked every few weeks while we are away, we decided that Darwin would be as good a place as any to have the first test done.  All it involves is pop into a pathology clinic or hospital, get a finger prick and within two minutes they give you the result, and so long as it is within the recommended boundaries, just continue on as prescribed.  If it is outside these numbers, then Grant has to ring his doctor who will alter the dosage.  Sounds easy, doesn’t it, but remember we are in Darwin!!

Step 1 – Look up the address of the Darwin Hospital on the internet.

Step 2 – Ring the hospital to ascertain where we had to go.  After consulting someone in the hospital, the receptionist told us Grant had to go the emergency department.

Step 3 – Drive to the hospital and go to emergency.

Step 4 – After talking to the triage nurse, they can’t do it – go to pathology in the hospital.

Step 5 – After fifteen or twenty minutes in the room with the pathologist, she decides she can’t do it immediately, but must take blood from Grant’s arm, send it somewhere, and have the result later in the afternoon, as they can only give immediate readings for diabetes and something else I can’t remember.  Told Grant to return to emergency.

Step 6 – Back at emergency Grant is told that they can’t do any more than that either, so go back to pathology.

Step 7 – Back to hospital pathology where Grant has blood extracted, then a lengthy process (probably because the pathologist was Russian) where she contacts whoever gives the verdict, explains in some sort of convoluted detail the situation, gets their phone number for us, then gives them our phone number.  They will ring us in an hour and a half.  Which I must admit they did! 

We left the hospital and made for our first sightseeing visit – to the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre which is on show in a huge hangar, and incidentally is situated about 400 mtrs from our caravan park (which is also just over the road from the Darwin airport).   This is a very interesting set-up, starting with a fifteen minute video of the attack on Darwin on 19 February 1942, then they had fixed displays of lots of wartime memorabilia, photos, wreckage and several types of planes, including a spitfire and a massive B52 bomber.

As we were almost at the end of wandering the display, the phone rang and it was the pathology lab reporting the Grant’s readings were out of the range, then they said they would double check and ring back again in a few minutes.  The upshot was that Grant then had to ring his doctor, who changed his dosage and wants another blood test on Monday.  We had planned to move on on Monday, so we’ll see how early we can get sorted.  But it’s no big deal if we stay another night.

We left the Aviation display just before 5 when it closed, came back, then I did a load of washing, then had cuppas, talked on Skype to Amanda and briefly Samara and Brody, as well as Lisa and Graham and the kids.  Ain’t technology wonderful.

Today we relied heavily on Zola (our navig8r) and she did brilliantly – found the caravan park, then directed us to the hospital, then to the Aviation Centre then back to camp!  She didn’t put a foot wrong.  Perhaps it’s best when I don’t dispute her decisions!