TheBanyanTree: The van

[PJMoney]

They said we could pick up the van at 8am - opening time.  We arrived on the
dot imagining that we could go straight in, finalise the payment and collect
the keys.  Instead we found ourselves at the end of a queue.  

It wasn't a long queue - there were only five groups ahead of us - but it
moved very slowly because, as we gathered from the conversations going on
around us, everyone else there was a tourist just off an international
flight.  There were Germans (or maybe Dutch), French (or maybe Belgian),
Spaniards (or maybe Portuguese) and a Japanese couple as well.  We were, in
fact, the only Australians there.  Indeed, apart from the counter staff none
of whom seemed to be speakers of any of these foreign languages, we were the
only native English speakers there.  So processing was slow.  Even with
three counter staff working it took about 3/4 an hour before we'd finalised
all the administrative details.  Then it was time to wait for someone to
show us over the vehicle.

That was a very brief wait.  Colm, a young Irish backpacker with red hair,
freckles and a pleasant brogue soon arrived to take us to a corner of the
yard where sat our upgrade, a 6 berth Maui Merc with onboard shower, wash
basin and dunny.  He showed us what was behind all the myriad little locking
doors on the outside of the van and thereby made the fortunate discovery
that the key to the door of the fresh water tank intake was missing.  He
showed us how to empty the toilet waste container and recharge it with
chemicals, the thought of having to do either of which bothered us both so
much that we avoided using those particular facilities for the whole trip.

I have no idea why we got the upgrade but I was glad of it, and so was Paul,
because it was automatic and therefore I could drive it.  It's not that I
can't drive a manual.  It's that I have some sort of mild neuropathy that
runs in the family and, from time to time, causes what my mother calls "numb
spots".  Unfortunately, before the spots go numb there can be a certain
amount of neuropathic pain involved, particularly if the affected nerve runs
over a joint.  This time it was a nerve running over my left ankle, which is
connected to the left foot, which is the one you have to use to engage and
release a clutch pedal in Australia.  Two weeks previously, when I'd had to
drive my husband's car, I put it into reverse and got such a stab of pain
that I lost concentration and backed straight into another car.  Thank
goodness I was going slowly and there was no real damage done.

So we had the automatic and could share the driving and we also had the
extra space.  The question was; out of three possible beds which would we
choose to sleep in?  There was the one at the back.  During the day, it can
be used as a table.  There was the one in front of the door and opposite the
dunny.  During the day it can become a bench seat.  And there was the one
directly over the driver's cabin.  That's the one that can be left made up
as a bed at all times.  Finding deeply unattractive the idea of bed making
and unmaking, making and unmaking, every single morning and evening, I
naturally plumped for using the overhead one for sleeping.  That way we
could also leave the table as a table at all times and the bench as a bench.
Paul was less certain. 


One thing about the overhead bed is that you must climb up a narrow little
ladder to get into it and, of course, back down the ladder to get out.  But
for Paul the worst thing was that the bed has a very narrow space above it
which becomes even narrower the further forward you go.  He described the
area as "The Tomb" and declared that he could not sleep there if he was
going to be the one at the very front where the ceiling dips down to become
the floor.  So I said, not too grudgingly, "Oh, OK.  I'll sleep there,"
which, I suppose, was only fair since I am smaller than he is.  So it was
settled and, in point of fact, I only banged my head while turning over in
bed four or five times during the week we slept there and never hard enough
to really notice.

Janice