MONDAY 30 OCTOBER     NORTH POINT CAMP

Yesterday, work had started on putting the verandas onto the Pod 3 dongas, cleaning the kitchen/diner, and fitting out Pod 2. The hole for the swimming pool was dug. The water pipe from the bore to the village was being laid, in the scrub beside the road.

During today, 8 SPQ’s were moved from RV 1 to RV2, and another 5 arrived directly from down south.

A lot was happening at RV1 now. The kitchen, Pods 2 and 3, the ice room and the first aid room were all areas of work.

John had a trip into Hedland for supplies.

The Acco got another flat tyre.

R was busy on the phone in the morning, trying to track down the errant truck with its load of steel, that had been supposed to be on the road from Darwin yesterday. Truck was still in Darwin. Its driver had spent Saturday night in jail – drunk and disorderly! The Darwin manager bailed him out yesterday – and then he had to sober up before he could drive. R was really steaming! Not only did we not have the steel, but we were a truck short for moving dongas to RV2. Decided I did not want to be within earshot when Brickie finally arrived!

News came through that the first swimming pool had been fabricated – in Alice Springs – and the second was under way. Both pools were expected to be installed in mid November.

In the late afternoon, there was a massive hail and rain storm, with quite strong winds. The building site got really muddy – nasty red mud. The track back to Fly Camp was very wet, with water over the road. There was even a little puddle in the river channel – one small pool. When we got back to camp, after work, found that in the strong winds, the small tarp on our van was torn and the bigger one on the other end was blown off. We took them both down. Inside the van was all dry – lucky really, because we’d left the back window of the van open, under its tarp. There must have been just enough protection….

BB turned up, late in the evening. He had been expected earlier, but had two flat tyres on the Landcruiser, on the way up from RV2, where he’d been to check on progress there.