THURSDAY 28 JULY     PUNGALINA

Today, we worked from 6am to 9.30pm. It was still very dark when I headed for the kitchen tent!

Breakfast was the usual range of tinned fruit, cereals, toast, and I cooked bacon, eggs and tomato.

The men took some Anzac biscuits and buttered date loaf with them, for morning tea.

I made a raspberry shortcake slice – from a packet mix, two pull apart bread loaves flavoured with cheese and herbs.

The men came back to camp for lunch. They had the helicopter in a cleared area beside the airstrip, near where their fuel drums had been put. They used their vehicle to ferry themselves between camp and the airstrip, so they were independent of our transport.

Lunch was chilled carrot soup, then bread pull aparts with choices of cheese spread, ham slices, flavoured tuna – they could make up their own choices. Then there was the raspberry slice and fruit for afters.

After the lunch clean up, I made an apricot jelly, for tomorrow, a cannellini bean spread, and cooked up some eggplant, for nibbles. There was quite a bit of prep to do for tea.

Pre-dinner snacks tonight were salted peanuts, celery pieces stuffed with cream cheese, kabana, some roasted capsicum strips from a jar, and olives.

Tea was sausages in gravy, a mash of potato and parsnip, a bake of tomato and onion, and sauteed strips of zucchini. Dessert was heated Apple Danish ( frozen, came on the last supply truck) and cream.

Sad news today, from boss A, to O. The Piper Chieftain plane, that had flown his group here, was no more. It was written off in a crash in Victoria, on Monday. Apparently a new pilot he had hired was doing his first charter flight, did something wrong, and the plane ran off the runway and into paddocks. The three passengers were shaken but not seriously injured. The pilot was no longer working for the company! But A was sad – he had been really attached to that plane.

O left in the night, to drive out to Wollogorang to meet the supply truck.