WEDNESDAY 16 JULY     ADELS GROVE

John on canoes, me on reception.

We had another go at solving the missing money problem from yesterday, and found the mistake was mine! I’d counted two lots of banded up $20 notes as $200, instead of $400. Never did find the missing voucher, though.

It was a busy day. I had to take the Troopy and drive to the National Park, to take a lunch to the pilot of a fly-in group that had earlier been taken there. The cook had forgotten to cater for him when she did the lunches for his group members.

Finding one pilot at the Park was like finding a needle in a haystack! But eventually he turned up at the canoe hire station.

Whilst waiting around, I talked to the owner of a Trakmaster caravan there. Have to admit that I was in no hurry to go back.

It was really nice to drive to the National Park – I had forgotten how lovely the scenery was, on the way down there. It was the first time I’d driven there, this year. But the road was pretty poor, although the Troopy handled better on it than I was expecting. From experience with the Hilux we used to own, I was not a fan of Toyota steering!

John’s “Office” was so lovely!

John at the office…….

I came back from the Park behind a sodding Victorian arrogant driver who would not let me pass, whilst he tootled along at 40kmh. I was not confident enough, in the Troopy, to really push the issue.

The sick kid was still vomiting, and dehydrated now. There were more phone calls to the Flying Doc, and the boss had to give another injection. The mother fainted! The parents decided to drive to Mt Isa, rather than have an air evacuation. I suspect they did not have ambulance or health cover. So they left. We hoped all went well for them.

It was mail plane day and there was the expected bag of mail from home. The house sitter’s letter was the most interesting item in it.

TUESDAY 15 JULY    ADELS GROVE

V and F left to go back to NSW for the family business, for a while.

I was on reception, John on amenities/grounds.

It was a much quieter day, today. The school holiday crowds have thinned out a bit. I did some work on entering up advance bookings for 2004.

At the after close counting, the register was out by $200 and we were missing an EFTPOS voucher. The baby probably chewed that up – he was into everything! Didn’t know whether the money error was J, the boss or me – we had all done some front desk work through the day.

Late in the afternoon, there was some drama because of a camper’s child that seemed to have gastro or similar. Staff were put on standby in case the airstrip had to be prepared for a night time evacuation. The Flying Doc instructed the boss to inject the child with stuff from the RFDS Medical Chest, and wait and see – and the condition seemed to settle down, somewhat.

MONDAY 14 JULY     ADELS GROVE

I was on tent housekeeping. It was a pretty even day, work wise – not too much pressure, such as one got when there were maybe twenty or more tents to be done.

Lawn Hill Creek by the tents – mid-winter

I even managed to get our washing done – it had been neglected for too long. We were starting to get to the stage of fishing used uniform shirts out of the washing basket and applying the sniff test to see which was least offensive!

John was on canoes, so an enjoyable day for him.

The work roster for this week was rewritten, because of coming absences. It put me on reception more – so I was pleased about that. J does better on tents than on the front desk. John landed four days in a row on canoes, so he too was happy.

But our day off was moved from Wednesday to Sunday, which meant we would be nine days on without a break.

SUNDAY 13 JULY     ADELS GROVE

There was an empty place where M’s tent was – and some sore heads!

M set off back to Mt Isa with the returning company tour group. From there, in her hired 4WD, she planned to do a circuit, up to Burketown, across to Normanton, then on a big loop back to Mt Isa. Then she would fly back to Melbourne and go back to work.

There were a lot of tents to clean today. V found four broken zips on tents, so there was some drama over that. Fortunately, I was on reception! John was on amenities/grounds.

I found some more errors in the booking books.

The bosses got back at 8pm, bringing with them R’s old mum, for a stay, and a carer who would mind the baby for the next three weeks. Her presence would make things easier.

SATURDAY 12 JULY     ADELS GROVE

I was on reception, John on amenities/yard.

In the morning, while it was still quiet, A and I checked all the Wilderness Challenge booking blocks for the rest of the season. We found one error – a two-night block in August had been entered as only one night.

After tea, we had a bit of a party down at our camp, to farewell M. Nine of us, including M – all the staff that were currently here. There was much wine and port, cheese, biscuits, crisps and so on. Everyone put in something, and we raided the shop for almost out of date stock – on A’s say so.

We tried hard to persuade M to stay on and work for another couple of weeks. She nearly wavered – had a really great time here. I think that if she hadn’t had a hire 4WD arranged and paid for in Mt Isa, she would have given in.

A very good night was had by all!

FRIDAY 11 JULY     ADELS GROVE

P left at 8am, to continue on his way to Melbourne. I was pretty sure he enjoyed his stay.

I was on tent housework; John was on rubbish and donkey fires, wood chopping and so on. M pottered about during the day, helping both of us with our jobs. Much appreciated.

John working in the vegetable garden

I already liked the calm, quiet and competent management style of A.

We would be short-staffed, from about the middle of next week. V and F had to go to NSW to see a very sick grand son. B and M had to be in Mt Isa for medical matters that had arisen for them. I was not looking forward to that – it was such a busy period, too. Pity M wasn’t staying longer!

There was a bit of a stuff up today. There was a Wilderness Challenge group of fifteen  expected, but they hadn’t shown up by late afternoon. We were getting concerned they may have broken down somewhere remote. But then, a check of the paperwork showed that V had pencilled in the block booking on the wrong day. I had then, later on, when the list of actual guest names came through, entered the names in the appropriate tent spaces, without checking that the block entry was actually in the correct place. Cook was fairly calm about the surplus food already prepared! Some creative juggling of bookings was then required to fit the group into the correct place.

When I first started on the reception work, this year, I wondered why all bookings were entered in pencil, which smudged and became hard to read. By now, having become an expert in re-arranging arrangements, I understood.