We were tired the other night when we arrived back from Kings Canyon. So we didn’t go shopping, we thought we’d eat leftovers for dinner and cereal for breakfast the next morning.

Well the next morning when I took the cereal bag out of the cupboard, the cereal was not edible. Why? For the second time on this trip, a mouse had found ist way (probably through the battery cable from the engine) into the van and in the dishes cupboard. What happens when the mouse gets in there? We need to get everything out and scrub and soap every plate, mug, cup and plastic container. The thing is, we store the mueesli in the same cupboard, it fits nicely on the side of the cups and plates. Last time we had only dishes in there but our little visitor was so hungry she had munched away at the plastic (bite marks to prove it!), this time she was more lucky, we had a big bag or mueesli in there, she only needed to bite through the plastic bag and help herself to nice and crunchy cereal. She has taste too, found the one whole almond in the bag and took it out for herself.

So we cleaned everything up and thought our problem was solved like it was last time, a one-time visit thing. Well that was disregarding the colony of cute little field mice trooping around the campground at night, who made it in the van again the following evening, found the bread underneath the seat and had a nice midnight snack. And this time there was not only one or two droppings in the now empty cupboard….there was 10-15…..so it was not only one visitor, she had called all her friends and organised a clandestine party in our van!

Again a clean up….and we drove off to the mountains where we camped at a semi-wild place (had dingos yowling and walking 5 meters away from us, cool). Since we had no electricity there we had no fan, which means we could hear all the nightly noises….especially the mice trying to make it to the bread hidden in another cupboard we thought was mouse-proof. Fun fun fun! Laying in bed hearing them run around and not able to do anything about it. Needless to say, the cupboard was not mouse-proof, these beasts are so small they can squeeze themselves into 5mm slits!

By then we figured they were not only night visitors but had actually taken up residence in our van. Probably getting cosy in our clothes or in the folds of the towels…. So back in Alice Springs we called Alice Pest Control and got some baits: you set them up, wait for the mice to eat some and 4 or 5 days later they die. Just wonderful: how exactly are you supposed to know if and when they die and find the corpses?? It’s been 3 days and we still have to do today’s bait check to see if they have taken bites out of them, but we’re secretely hoping they left the car already.

Now we left Alice Springs to go north direction Darwin and stopped inTennant Creek for the night. Popped the roof up, plugged the power in, and went for a much needed swim. Came back to the car….and noticed some ants crawling on the power cable….looked closer….and saw it was actually mass immigration! Hundreds of ants were coming on to the van, walking from the ground on the cable and up on the roof, around the hatch to the other side, to the front of the car and on the windshield rubber. Noooooooooooo! I turned into a mass murderer. At first with kleenex or baby fresh, but then cold bloodedly squishing them with my bare fingers one after the other. Of course we moved the cable so it didn’t touch the ground anymore and they stopped coming, but the harm was already done. We cleaned as best we could and crossed our fingers they’d stay outside of the van. Ha. Ha. Ha. Yeah right. The next morning they had made it into the one mouse-proof cupboard we have and started to invade various cracks and ledges. They are so small they make it anywhere. We bought bug spray at the camping to try and limit the damage and as soon as we got to Katherine stopped to buy new ant traps (Marcel got rid of the old ones the morning before!). And now we’re trying to control they path while waiting for them to eat the poison and bring it back to wherever they chose to build their house. The idiots started to eat the mouse poison too. Double dosis, there you go.

The Red Center of Australia. We will not forget. Got some mouse in Alice Springs and ants in Tennant Creek. Lovely.