MONDAY 6 JUNE     PUNGALINA

John changed the oil in the camp generator.

This lived in an interesting structure, not far from our van. The walls – about shoulder height – were constructed from mud brick. The roof was a tarp. The door had been fashioned from bark slabs, attached to a frame.

John was somewhat disconcerted to find the shed skin of a snake on the floor beside the genset. He hoped it was a temporary resident at the time of the skin shedding. But obviously, we would now need to be aware, whenever dealing with the genset.

O had asked if I could put on a lunch at the camp, before friend left again.

I set up the lunch table outside on the grass, in the shade.

I served gazpacho soup – chilled soup was so suitable for the warm days there. After that were plates of salad, hard boiled eggs, tinned ham. Then a platter of paw paw, and some cheese. We all ate together. She was very pleasant and easy to talk with. I think we all enjoyed the meal.

Later in the afternoon, I faxed the next truck orders to Mt Isa. These were big orders. Just after that truck delivery, we were expecting boss A’s arrival, with a full party of guests, so these orders would be the supplies for them. I was conscious of the need to make a great impression with them.

The Woolworths order ran to two pages on the computer spreadsheet that John had set up! It included items like dips, assorted cheese varieties, smoked salmon, 6 tubs of butter, 4 loaves of bread, after dinner mints, assorted dry biscuit packets, various types of Twinings tea bags, 18 bake-at-home dinner rolls, various tins of fruit.

The green grocery order was substantial, including 3 pineapples, 3 rockmelons, 2 honeydew melons, 6 dozen eggs, 5 kilos of onions, 10 kilos potatoes, 4 kilos tomatoes, ditto zucchini, 10 capsicums, 24 oranges, and so on.

After all that, went back to the camp and cleaned up after the lunch.

John had finished making a sign for the little beach area he’d named Red Claw Beach, due to the remnants of water monitor meals, and had put up the sign. it looked good.