This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Author Archives: wendyviney


by Leave a comment

2005 Travels September 10

SATURDAY 10 SEPTEMBER    PUNGALINA

I did some more camp finalizing and John worked on a last tidy up of the vegie garden. O would have a good supply of fresh produce for some time to come!  Provided he took the time to water it, of course.

Resize of 09-10-2005 16 Best Stew Pot

Stew pot left out for the dingo dishwashers to clean up

For the vegie garden to be properly productive for the height of the camp season, as A had hoped, it needed to be sown quite early – earlier than it was this year. John had concluded that the shadecloth of the roof shut out a bit too much light. It was all that O had available at the time, but really should have been a lighter grade. It was makeshift and would have been better delayed and done properly – like ordering the right grade of shade cloth to come on the supply truck. It would have cost more, but would have been a better result for all the time and effort put into it.

It was quite a cloudy day today. With the heat, clouds and some humidity, we could see signs of the start of the build up to the wet season. We reckoned it would not have been all that pleasant here in October, anyway! I seemed to remember that, when we visited in 2003, it was mid-September and it was stinking hot and quite uncomfortable.

Resize of 09-10-2005 23 Sink Hole Sept 2

Late Dry Season, with clouds building again

This was a good time to go!

Not too far away from the house there was a fallen ironwood tree that John was able to cut some pieces off, to take home for wood working. O had already said that he could take a couple of lengths of the milled ironwood timber. I was not sure how John was planning to transport these – ironwood is really heavy stuff.

Resize of 09-10-2005 20 Bowl Material 2

Fallen ironwood

We drove out a little way to take a photo of the sink hole/cave entrance that O had pointed out earlier in the season that we had to be careful of, because it was on dead flat ground, not the usual limestone ridges, and there were no indicators it was there. Not a good thing to drive or walk into. Quite scary, really. O had no idea what was down under there – it had not been explored.

I dropped a rock into the hole – from a prudent distance – but could hear no sound of it landing. Either there was a very soft base down there, or it was very deep.

Resize of 09-10-2005 22 Sink Hole Sept

That’s a hole going deep down to the unknown

Back when O had originally pointed it out, the hole had been well hidden in the long grass. Now that had all dried out, the hole was a bit more obvious.

Resize of 09-10-2005 24 Sink Hole Sept 3

Cave entrance hole lying in wait for the unwary….

 


by Leave a comment

2005 Travels September 9

FRIDAY 9 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

O left very early in the little plane. We heard it go. He had said something yesterday about going out for a medical appointment, somewhere. He would not be back until Sunday. We were not sure where he had gone to.

Resize of 09-10-2005 27 Air Strip Sept

We met the mail plane. I had not needed to order any supplies, so there was only the mail bag. I had parcelled up my last box of library books to send out on the plane.

Resize of 09-09-2005 06 Camp Creek Sept 2

Camp Creek, near the house, in September

I phoned the Tennant Creek newsagent and cancelled the weekly paper.

The two dingo pups were amusing themselves by shredding a piece of paper. I hoped it was nothing that O had wanted to keep! They were definitely showing the ding penchance  for chewing up whatever was available.

Resize of 09-09-2005 13 Little Dings 5

Resize of 09-09-2005 14 Little Dings 6

Things were starting to feel a bit final.


by Leave a comment

2005 Travels September 8

THURSDAY 8 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

I worked all day on doing the inventory.

There was more food left than I was happy about. The last truck order that we’d received had been meant to cater for the group that cancelled. But I was sure that O would be able to use it all. He had already taken back to the house, the large plastic tub of all the dried fruits, nuts and cooking chocolate!

John worked on the vegie garden and tidying up the camp for leaving.

Resize of 09-09-2005 03 Veggy Patch September 3


by Leave a comment

2005 Travels September 7

WEDNESDAY 7 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

Took another day off today. We were being encouraged to take these in this quiet time, as we had built up over 20 days’ wages owed, due to long days with no time off.

Resize of 09-04-2005 05 Misty Sept Morning 3

We decided to leave, if A agreed. Emailed him, saying that we saw little point in us staying, with no real work to do. He did not argue. He was probably pleased to be saved our wages for that extra month or so.

O seemed happy that we were going!

I decided to do a full inventory of all the camp goods and chattels – and foodstuffs remaining – just to leave everything neatly finalized. I would also make a list of things that would be needed for next season, if the camp was to run smoothly. I would be taking home all my own cooking gear that had been in use in the camp kitchen, and that would leave some major gaps in kitchen equipment.

I also decided that, once home, I would prepare lists of menus and recipes used, and ingredients needed, to maybe make things run smoothly if they could not get a cook experienced in these remote conditions.

We did our bird surveys, for the final time, and went out in the canoe on the wetlands to do the last water bird count.

Resize of 08-30-2005 44 Jabiru

We were feeling sad at the prospect of imminent departure – it had come upon us so unexpectedly. But were also pleased to be going back to the world, and getting away from the heat that was building daily. We had been privileged to see the country change, from late Wet Season plumage, through the Dry Season and experience the great transformations that happened.

Resize of 06-03-2005 06 Wet Lands June 3


by Leave a comment

2005 Travels September 6

TUESDAY 6 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

I was up at 7 to do breakfast. Packed a sandwich and cake lunch for the men to take with them.

The group departed about 9am. Their comments:

* thanks for a wonderful stay in a wonderful part of the world. The food was great, the rivers and springs are fantastic in their natural setting and O, John and Wendy are great hosts.

I packed things up as usual, did the washing and tent cleaning and putting them back in order for any unexpected guests.

I tidied up our van annexe area a bit.

Resize of 09-06-2005 01 Annex

The word came from A that the group that was booked in for October for five nights, had cancelled. So we had no more bookings and little prospect, I thought, of any more.

We now began to wonder if we should stay on into October, as we had planned? Had intended to be here for that October booking, then to help O pack up the camp – apart from helping, just to make sure that all was put away clean and in proper order. And that camp gear stayed together, not disappearing to the house!

But with no more guests there was little to do. There was no point in me cooking up any more stocks for the freezers. John still had his vegie garden work and daily watering, but only limited camp upkeep with no expected guests. It felt like we were being paid for no longer full work.

Resize of 09-09-2005 01 Veggy Patch September

Lots of vegies but no guests……

As well, we had been getting some broad hints from O that his lady would be coming back for another visit and he would really like his privacy then.

Our happy hour was pleasant. As the days heated up, the cool of dusk was much appreciated. There was just a crescent moon as we sat out in the clearing.

Resize of 09-06-2005 05 September Sunset 2


by Leave a comment

2005 Travels September 5

MONDAY 5 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

Worked 7am till 9.30pm, though we were at the camp, talking with the guests, till later.

After breakfast – with cooked bacon and eggs – O took the men out sight seeing. I packed a smoko for them of leftover pikelets, and biscuits.

Resize of 09-10-2005 21 Bowl Material 3

I cooked a couple of chicken breasts for cold meat for lunch, and also defrosted some left over roast beef that I’d put away. Defrosted a fruit cake earlier made. I made a batch of cheese scones and tarted up last night’s left over rice, into a rice salad to go on the lunch plates, with hard boiled eggs and the usual salad things.

Guests were in for lunch and I served salad and meat plates. These always look pretty good, if I do say so myself – colourful and generous. There were scones and fruit cake to follow.

They all went out again with O, after lunch.

Resize of 08-31-2005 03 Mystery Shovel August 3

I prepared the steaks for tea and made fruit salad.

I was half expecting O to come back and say they were going out again to watch the sunset from the Escarpment, but he didn’t. I think that, at this end of the season, he was losing his enthusiasm for guests!

After the usual nibblies, tea was brandy pepper steaks with jacket baked potatoes, gingered carrot and zucchini sticks, followed by fruit salad and cream.

After cleanup, we joined the guests around the camp fire. O departed not long after, but we stayed talking with them until they went off to bed.


by Leave a comment

2005 Travels September 4

SUNDAY 4 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

Worked 8 am to 10.30pm.

It was a misty morning again.

Resize of 09-04-2005 01 Spider Web

Resize of 09-04-2005 04 Misty Sept Morning 2

John was finding the camp cleaning up work really hard – mowing and raking. Ever since the trip back from the coast with the Daihatsu, his back had been really sore.

He refuelled Truck. Had only done 248kms, but he was starting to feel concerned that the drums of diesel may be running low – so it was wise to keep our vehicle fairly full.

I cleaned the showers and toilets and checked the tents the men would be using.

Cooked Cornies biscuits, a tiramisu, spicy pikelets. Brought a fish from the house to defrost. Made a pineapple salad.

The guests arrived mid afternoon. O brought them down to camp in the Troopy. They had brought their own beer with them – lots of it! They actually seemed quite under the weather – I think they had been refreshing themselves in flight. The one who was piloting seemed more sober though – as I would hope!

I fed them spicy pikelets for afternoon tea, got them settled in. After their flight – and after their time at Birdsville – they just wanted to laze about for the rest of the day. That suited O, who returned to his work at the house as soon as he had deposited them at camp.

I served the usual pre dinner nibbles, which they actually collected and took back to their tents.

Dinner was threadfin salmon, cooked Asian style, with rice to  which I added peas, spring onion and corn kernels; green salad, pineapple salad, with tiramisu for dessert.

The men had brightened up with their afternoon rest and spent a while sitting round the camp fire after tea. They were nice enough guys, maybe in their 30’s.

After dinner clean up, I hard boiled eggs for tomorrow. Asked O to get out from the house freezer some “fillet” steaks to defrost. Sometimes he remembered such requests, sometimes not. One of the reasons I was missing A’s presence at the house! It was just one of the hiccups to deal with because of the way the fridges and freezers were split between house and camp.

O left the camp fire fairly early and left us to chat with the visitors until they were ready for bed. I thought O really wanted to get back to his house wall building.

Resize of 09-10-2005 07 The Wall

Wall was cement, faced with stone gathered about the property

 


by 1 Comment

2005 Travels September 3

SATURDAY 3 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

Today was officially a day off, but I a little preparation to do for guests who were coming in tomorrow – four men who would have been to the Birdsville Races, flying in from there, scheduled to arrive about 3pm.

Resize of 09-04-2005 03 Spider Web 2

I cooked some eggplant slices, to be part of pre-dinner nibbles. Turned on the fridges, wiped them out, put water containers in to chill. Brought the alcohol stocks down from the house and put those in to chill.

The generator had to be turned on for the fridges, but we turned it off again at bedtime.

We were both upset, John more so. O had been doing some fire break burning of the grass surrounding the house yard. He allowed the flames to burn in under the side fence, by where we had been nurturing the little paw paws. The heat from the fire had withered and killed a lot of the little plants. We had both put so many hours into watering these. O was quite offhand about it – no apologies. Now, we wondered why we had bothered trying to improve the house surrounds.

Resize of 09-09-2005 07 Squeeze Gate

Burnt area where the paw paw trees had been. Squeeze gate – big enough for people, at a squeeze, but not for cows!

 


by Leave a comment

2005 Travels September 2

FRIDAY 2 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

V and F left after a fairly early breakfast. They would be returning to Adels to collect their caravan and then start the drive back home to Griffith.

The mail plane came, so I had the paper to read. The “outside” world had come to seem increasingly distant and almost irrelevant.

Resize of 09-10-2005 17 Cheeky Dings

The house babies

We had enjoyed having friends here. Their visit had been all too short.

Resize of 08-27-2005 09 August Sunset 6


by Leave a comment

2005 Travels September 1

THURSDAY 1 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

Another leisurely start to the day.

After John’s routine chores, we took V and F out to Bubbling Sands for a swim. Much appreciated in the growing heat.

Resize of 06-12-2005 07 Bubbling Sands 4

Resize of 06-12-2005 04 Bubbling Sands

We returned around via Squeaky Trees, to show them the camp area there. There were a number of other places we could have gone, but no one felt like going too far after the long day yesterday.

We visited with O up at the house for a while. He had been busy on the house site. He told us that he had gotten into the habit of working out there at night, when it was cooler. He had rigged up some lights to do so. Putting up the form work for the cement foundation wall was taking time. Then there would be making and pouring the actual cement. That would be huge, as the wall would be quite thick as well as long. Then, he was planning to face the river wards side of the wall with stone.

It looked like the new house would be his focus now, rather than working on planning or opening up new tracks for next season. Apart from his own comfort, he wants a decent house for when his lady  comes to stay – and maybe live, one day? John and I threw around the idea that maybe she would run the safari camp next year?

We just lazed around the camp for the rest of the day, enjoying the peace.