and the camper went BANG!

sun 26.9.2010
We've had some camper issues. In Darwin we had problems when the camper kinda went BANG as J.T. was winding it up. For three hours, in the dark and humidity inside the collapsed camper J.T. worked on trying to fix it. Apparently some parts were used to rebuild the winch system which weren't quite strong enough, so he did a macgyver and replaced something with some other bits from somewhere. He got that sorted out and we stayed three wonderful, hot, sticky nights in Darwin. I loved it (except for the mozzies) but J.T. wasn't too keen. Anyway, eventually it was time to pack up and head to Kakadu. I had high hopes for Kakadu, but I knew J.T. wasn't too keen, so I kept quiet for the whole time we were planning the trip, in case he changed his mind about staying three nights. Luckily, he decided he liked what he saw. We arrived in Jabiru with high hopes for our stay there, paid for a site and parked ourselves near the pool and in quick walking distance to the amenities (did I mention we have four small children?) It was lovely and warm, but nowhere near as sticky as Darwin and I suggested the girls and I head to the pool area to check it out while J.T. set up the camper. As we lounged by the pool, me feeding M and H, E and C dangling their toes in the water, I called J.T. on the phone (because it was at least a 20 sec walk to talk to him in person) and said "How's it going?" and he said "Very, very bad. We've snapped a cable." "Well," I said "that sux."
Now, here I must explain something about J.T. Everything that goes wrong is a disaster. I'm not 100% sure if that's because it is, or he just over-reacts. The thing is that "stuff" that happens generally turns out ok, so I don't tend to panic when things don't go as planned. But it's hard to stay positive when the person who's diagnosing problems says it's most definitely the end of the world as you know it.  What usually happens is that just as I think there's no hope that the car will ever go again/we'll never have a working dishwasher/we won't be able to afford mortgage repayments, J.T. suddenly says "I fixed it!" and I'm left with a stomach ulcer. So this is why I tried to stay calm and hope for the best.
I rang reception and explained our problem. They said to try the local servo, which also had a mechanical workshop attached and generally carried lots of hardware-type items. It was a saturday and the girl behind the counter at the servo said they would probably have it in the workshop, but they weren't open until monday. Great, thanks. We headed towards the Jabiru Industrial Area, but nothing was open. Just as we were driving out, we spied a 4wd coming out of one of the gates. I pulled up in front of him to block his path and put on my saddest I-have-nowhere-to-sleep-and-four-tired-children face and explained our predicament. He told us to follow him to the local abandoned car yard. He pointed us to a hole in the fence and J.T. climbed through. While he searched the car I fed M, tried to keep H, E and C hydrated, fed and quiet and then saw something in the grass. "J.T!" I called "There's a thingo here in the grass, covered in cable!" He came over and made some noises about "antenna tower mumble mumble worth a fortune mumble mumble grumble" and started to assess the cable for camper-worthiness. We asked our helpful tour guide - who had retired to his lodgings behind the yard - and he said to take whatever we could get, as it had been lying in the grass for years. He gave us directions to the local tip and said there was metal piled separately and we may be lucky and find something there. And that's how we found ourselves, in a few short hours from the poolside to the dump on our tropical holiday. We didn't end up finding anything at the tip, but on our way back to the caravan park we found another antenna tower on the side of the road and found even more salvageable cable. We got back to the campsite and J.T. commenced work. He eventually fixed it. The kids were lying on the ground outside and I had managed to cook them some dinner with the portable gas stove, so we all fell into our beds and tried to tell ourselves it was all part of the adventure. Why can't well behaved children, hidden treasure and a working camper be part of the adventure? The good news is, that J.T, myself and the girls all loved Kakadu once we had somewhere to sleep.