WEDNESDAY 1 JUNE     PUNGALINA

Today was the first day of winter, down south. It had certainly become much milder, up here.

I faxed the weekly order to the supermarket in Tennant Creek. It was mostly fruit – apples, oranges, grapefruit and bananas, and vegies – potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, capsicums. I also needed some tinned fruits – had to go lightly on these because of weight, cheese, and O’s usual blocks of chocolate.

The camping party arrived just after lunch. Because O was away, it fell to John to meet them, go through the formalities about camping on the property – which meant no wandering about the place at will, need to use non-barbed hooks for fishing, and the like. They were people who knew O, or knew friends of his. When we asked for their camping fees, the response was that they would sort that out with O, later. Turned out they did not pay for the week here, but offered O the use of a Sunshine Coast house, instead. That might be great for O, but did not add anything to the property’s balance sheet!

John  then led them down to the Bluff camp. He reported back that they seemed suitably impressed with it.

We hoped they would stay put at their camp and not be tempted to go off exploring tracks. The last thing we needed were lost campers!

John checked the stored alcohol supplies, in O’s garage area, to see if any more would be needed from Mt Isa, on the next truck. He was astounded to discover that white ants had built a mud tunnel up the side of the slab of gin and tonic tins, and had actually eaten into most of the cans, draining them. Alcoholic termites! Who would have thought! He decided to keep the cans just as they were, as proof, and stacked the rest of the supply up off the floor, to deter future raids.

O had previously told us that termites had eaten through the rubber of his grader tyres, when it had stood unused for some months. Those were awfully thick tyres, too. I’d felt some concern about our caravan wheels, and kept watch for any signs of crawlies.