SUNDAY 22 JUNE     ADELS GROVE

I was on reception, John canoes. Lovely 10am start for me, but late finish in the shop. At least, the till balanced – which did not always happen. When it was “out”, one stayed checking it over until the reason for the discrepancy was found – which was most of the time. But with often several people working the till at different times through the day, it could be hard to know who made what error.

We ran out of icy poles and ice creams – due to the forgotten order last week. That meant disappointed campers. Most travellers never stop to think of the logistics of getting supplies in places like this, and so expect us to stock everything they might want – and at city prices!

The helicopter arrived with the Archer family. Mike wife, Sue, is also an expert in the field of fossils, and would participate in the dig. They had a person to supervise their daughters.

The shop and reception work was steady through the day – numbers really building in the camp areas.

Part of the campground. The grove area is at top of photo

The pals helicopter pilot would be available for sightseeing flights over the National Park and surrounding area, in between his morning and afternoon trips down to Riversleigh with the leading paleontologists. He asked if we would publicize/sell these flights at reception – $80 for a 10 minute flight. He intimated that if we did well at the sales, he would do a free flight for us! Definitely motivation, that!

Helicopter on the air strip, refuelling

SATURDAY 21 JUNE     ADELS GROVE

I was on tents, John on amenities/grounds.

John by the laundry and linen store bus

I helped in the kitchen first, doing the clean up from breakfast. Then made up the morning teas for the paleontologists, who mostly arrived around midnight, last night. They had flown in to Mt Isa, then driven up here in hired 4WD vehicles. That made it a late night for the bosses, who had to wait up for their arrival, but did not disturb us.

Today was the backpacker’s day off, which I thought cook was relieved about. Hence the need for my help. I put out the materials needed for sandwich making for the pals’ lunches.

After all that, I went off to do tents – there were only four vacated this morning, so that did not take too long.

Brushing leaves from tent roof – part of the cleaning routine

There was a broken zip in one of the pal’s tents, so I ended up helping the boss sew in a new one.

Then it was back to the kitchen, where I made the pre-dinner savouries for the company tour group – they always had this late afternoon extra that was not available to general guests.

Finally, I stocked the shop – putting out on the shelves some of the supplies that came in yesterday, replenishing the drinks fridge from the stocks in the pantry store, and the like.

I worked from 8am till 6pm, today, with a half hour lunch break. They got their money’s worth today!

A plane flew in parts to repair the Telstra chopper, it was fixed, and they left.

The supply truck that came in yesterday had taken on a broken down vehicle, for transport to Mt Isa, for the RACQ. Its owners were staying in a DBB tent and would go back to Isa with the company tour group, tomorrow.

It would be full on for the next nine or ten days, now.

I still had not managed to get an exact departure date for all of the pals, from their organizer. He might be great with dead bones, but was not so good with live bodies! I just hoped they would be gone on 29th, as he earlier said they might be, and not later – as we had two large tour groups booked in on 30th. I really did not want to think about the tent house keeping at that time!

The leader of the pals – Professor Mike Archer – and his family, would fly in tomorrow on the helicopter that they use for transport to the dig sites, and aerial checking. Not for them the bone rattling “commute” the 40kms or so down to Riversleigh, every day!

Our day off already seemed like a long time ago. I knew the next one was not for ten days.

THURSDAY 19 JUNE     ADELS GROVE

I was on tents. John on amenities/yard work. By the end of the day, he was complaining of sore feet. It was a while since he’d had to walk around so much.

F broke John’s canoe takings record – by 90 cents. There was those strange cent amounts again.

It was a pleasantly paced day for me. There were only two tents to service, clean and wash linen for. I spruced up some other tents – in the back row area – that had not been used to date, this season. They would be needed for the coming palaeontologists visit. I darned a couple of small holes in sheets. Helped B fix the plastic window pane on a tent, by super glueing a piece cut from an old tent, over the hole.

A “Hilton” tent, ready for the next occupants

Managed to get my washing done too, since there wasn’t much tent linen to do.

There had been a card for me in yesterday’s mail bag, from Australia Post. It said they were holding a parcel addressed to me, because it was $3 short on postage. It would be returned to sender if I did not collect it within 5 working days! This seemed rather a contradiction to me – wouldn’t it therefore cost more to return it to sender, than the postage that was owed?

Apart from that theoretical issue, this also posed some practical problems for me. I had no idea who the parcel was from. Nor what it might contain. Or its importance.

I phoned the number given on the card. Much rigmarole ensued. I tried to explain that I was too far from the post office to go in and pay the debt. It was then suggested that I write a cheque and mail it, forthwith. I said that the mail plane only came once a week, a that was yesterday, so by the time my cheque reached the post office, the parcel would have gone.

I had assumed that I was speaking to someone at the Mt Isa Post Office, but it soon became clear that it was to some minion in a large city, who had never been bush and knew nothing of life beyond the metropolis. She refused, initially, to believe that my mail came by plane. Or that anyone could actually be 400kms from a post office! I was accused of trying to pull her leg. I don’t  know if I actually managed to convince her of my reality, but in the end it was agreed that the office lady from the tour company in Isa, could collect the damn thing – after I had faxed an authorization through. Poor K was always having to run messages for Adels !

The parcel in question eventually arrived, via K, with the next company tour group. It turned out to be a bag of mail from home, earlier than per our set routine. House sitter had gotten her weeks out of kilter. As well as her postage rates!

The whole episode on the phone had provided some entertainment for the boss, who was working in the office area at the back of reception, and V, who was on reception, who could hear my end of the conversation, and the increasingly exasperated tone of voice. “Yes, the mail really does come on a plane”  “No, the plane lands on our airstrip…” (I think she thought I was suggesting the letters were dropped out of the plane window, or something!) “It comes in a big bag……”  and so on.

Our staff numbers had been augmented by the arrival of another couple, who would be here for several weeks, over the busy period – they hail from Victoria too – J and D. Also with “old F” – someone’s relative, who would do some odd jobs about the place, mostly canoe repairs, in return for keep. The canoe repairing was almost a full time job in itself.

The weekly supply truck drove in at 7pm. Boss decreed that we’d unload in the morning. The truck had to run its generators all night, of course. It really was noisy. Next morning, there were complaints from tourists, again.

WEDNESDAY 18 JUNE     ADELS GROVE

I was on float again. Spent most of the time on Reception. Worked a straight shift, 7.45am to 5pm.

I got to help make lots of take-out lunches for the big tour group.

John was on canoes again. The men had been keeping tally of their daily takings, to compete against each other for the biggest take. Because of the large tour group, today John took the record amount – $531.40. I was not sure how the 40cents came into it, since every charge was in round dollar amounts!

It was mail plane day. After I knocked off work, before tea, read some of my paper.

As the camping area in the Grove became busier, we had been intruded upon by campers, who ignored the No Access signs, thinking they were welcome to set up amongst the staff rigs. We did have a lovely area, and there were those who were eyeing off the tap we were hooked up to, and even our power leads on the ground. The men had already cut long lengths of bamboo and rigged up an enclosure around the staff encampment. They had put up a sign to deter foot traffic passing through or would-be campers coming in amongst our rigs. Today, they put up more bamboo poles to try to close off all suggestion of entry. It is not that we are totally anti-social, but we do want to be able to relax when off duty, without being disturbed by guests who want to talk, or make noise when we need to sleep.

We hoped the extra barricading worked.

TUESDAY 17 JUNE     ADELS GROVE

Today I was on “float” – i.e. go where needed, through the day.  This was a new roster category, brought in as we got busier. I also had a split shift, with a break in the afternoon, from 3-6pm, then on till late to help with the final dinner prep, dish up and wash up.

Advance bookings had really picked up over the past couple of weeks, since Adels was featured on a couple of travel programs on Qld TV.

There had still been no action on the faulty phone/EFTPOS. B, who had been, very nicely, reporting the issue daily to Telstra, threw a true Irish paddy, and got back onto them again. She was really quite fearsome!

Later in the day, a helicopter arrived, bearing  pilot and Telstra man. But he didn’t bring any parts for repairs! We lent him some super glue to make a temporary repair, but they would have to return at a later time to do a proper repair.

John with Super Glue, so Telstra could make a temporary repair

The chopper landed just outside the entrance gate, instead of using the air strip like everyone else,  and stirred up great clouds of dust that floated over the main building and tent area. We were not impressed.

During my afternoon break, did some letter writing.

There was a big tour group booked in – full sized bus – so tents had to be checked to make sure all was ready for them.

That group size also meant lots of washing up!

John was on canoes.

Getting busier – temts creeping closer in the Grove area

MONDAY 16 JUNE     ADELS GROVE

John was on canoes, with some reservations about how his knee would be, after a day of hauling the canoes about. The person on canoes helps paddlers get the canoe firm on the launching ramp when they come back in, and often helps them push off at the start. As well, they take the canoes to the ramp area, and pull them out after hire, and turn them over to dry out. It is definitely not all sitting about, admiring the view!

The knee survived the day’s work ok.

I was on reception -seemed to be getting quite a bit of this role. It was my favourite.

It was an eventful day.

Boss had to chase the old white bull out of the campground again, last night. We heard some shots, a bit later. Boss M was in a really bad mood this morning – she was really quite fond of the old fellow, and this had been his patch for years. On my way down to the van for my morning break, saw Boss coming in with the bobcat, with the shovel on front. From that, I deduced that the station was minus one old white bull. I felt quite sad, too, but he really was frightening the campers too often.

We had a big camping party booked in for the next few nights. Most of them had arrived by 1pm. They identified themselves, as they arrived, as being part of the group organized by this one lady – who hadn’t yet arrived.

At about 1.30pm, I took a phone call from said lady, asking if I could let the rest of her party know she would be late arriving, because they had gotten “a bit lost” on their way here from Burketown. Her navigator had misread the map and they were at Hells Gate Roadhouse! I couldn’t help myself and replied: “A BIT lost? If I was you, I’d shoot the navigator!”

They had obviously missed the turnoff to the Gregory, about 25kms west of Burketown, but talk about slow to twig! They’d gone at least 170kms west and north west, instead of about 100kms south, had crossed the very noticeable Nicholson River, and passed the turnoff to Doomadgee community. Hardly landmarks that I’d have thought anyone could blink and miss.

So I trekked off down to the campground and delivered the message that they thought they’d be in by about 4pm. That came and went and no sign of them. But there was another phone call, about 4.30pm. They were at Bowthorn, this time. I had to trek back down to the campground with the latest update. I didn’t think the lady who was navigating was very popular, by now.

They eventually arrived at 7pm, after I’d closed up the shop for the day and was about to have dinner. They had tried to take the most direct route on the map – not always the fastest, or easiest to follow. This had fetched them up at Bowthorn, after having a flat tyre along the way, that someone at Bowthorn had fixed for them. At least their group would have plenty to talk about, around the campfire, that night.

Broken line: the intended route; solid line: the way the ladies actually went

(Map from Google Earth)

Mid afternoon, a couple had driven in, in a large motorhome. I had seen it coming down the drive way, but by the time I looked up again from the booking I was doing, realized they had simply stopped it in the middle of the roadway circle that comes past the reception area, and from which the track to the campground leads off. They had left it there and gone walkabout – effectively blocking all other traffic. The huge parking and check in area, only a few metres away, was clearly marked.

I had to explain to subsequent drivers, the need to back up and go to the campground via the “out” route. Not much appreciated by the ones towing vans and trailers!

When the missing couple wandered back, nearly an hour later, I politely asked them to move the motorhome to the marked parking area, before doing any business, so that other campers could get in. It was getting towards the busy time of the afternoon, with campers returning from the National Park, and him blocking the “in” way.

Driver said he thought it was all right there. I pointed out all the signs he’d ignored, and a couple of vehicles having to back up. He then asked, quite nastily, if I wanted him to book in at all? In the tone of one who was conferring a great favour upon us, by his presence. I was becoming rather cross by then, and said “Actually, given your attitude, not really, sir”. Couldn’t help myself – it was just too good an opening.

They then left, no doubt assuming that the Rangers at the National Park would welcome them more gratefully. They would have been in for quite a shock. The Rangers were trying to avoid having to look after campers, this year, and told most comers that their area was full, and to come here! They had reduced the sites to a handful of rather small ones – there were bollards everywhere. There were certainly not motorhome sized sites any more. He probably would not have been able to locate a Ranger anyway – it was a bit of a local joke, these days, that the most endangered and rare species at the Park was a Ranger! Very rarely sighted.

I suspect sir probably just parked in a roadway or carpark somewhere there, for the night, no doubt ignoring No Standing signs there, too.

I found the majority of our guests were great to deal with, but the unpleasant minority certainly left a lasting impression.