The wind was still quite strong. It made the day seem chilly. Perhaps we were experiencing the three weeks or so that pass for winter in Central Australia?
I did our washing. There wasn’t a great deal, but best to keep on top of it when I didn’t know when there would next be access to machines. The ones here were not working properly, but I managed to get something approximating clean, although still dripping wet. Our travel wardrobe leans towards dark clothes for a reason!
We drove to the town centre and did a small shop. We browsed amongst the magazines and books on display at the newsagent/chemist. M bought John a book on building wood fired pizza ovens. This was something he had been talking about constructing at home, for a while now. I was not enthusiastic about the idea and really wished M had not encouraged this particular flight of fancy!
John was away! Planning where it would go, how he would build it – as soon as we got home…..Bad luck about the garden I had growing in the chosen spot.
After lunch, M and John went to the town’s club and practised bowls. I begged off on the grounds of conserving my dodgy heel. It was a lady at this bowls club, in 2000, who had tried to persuade John to stay in town and teach at the TAFE. I was very glad that did not appeal to him at the time – don’t think I would have liked living here. Damn sure I wouldn’t have liked living here!
Tough little local bush
I defrosted a frozen chook we bought this morning, and then roasted it for our tea, along with a heap of roasted potatoes, pumpkin and parsnips. At night, I had another lengthy phone talk with son, and with daughter in law. It was not very reassuring. He seemed completely devastated by wife’s actions. They were still sharing a house, though, which he wanted, for the kids, but which made it even harder for him. I considered abandoning the trip and returning home, but decided this would clearly change nothing. Families!
WEDNESDAY 6 JUNE OLD POLICE WATERHOLE TO TENNANT CREEK 240kms
Pack up times seemed to come round too quickly!
We returned to the Stuart Highway over the same route we had come in on.
Near Kurundi, passed the turn off to the Whistle Duck Creek camp area, 24 kms to the south. I’d have liked to go camp there for a couple of days, but the majority – 2 to 1 – was for pressing on north. So, it was on up the Highway, to Tennant Creek.
Holly grevillea
We booked into the Outback Caravan Park, for $26 a night.
This park seemed to have gotten quite “tired” since we were last here. A pity, because it had been a very pleasant place to stay as a base for exploring around Tennant Creek. There were notices up, offering free sites in return for work about the park. I was not sure they would get many takers, because we found that the town as a whole had also gone downhill greatly, so it might not be a great drawcard.
After set up, drove into the centre of town to have a look round. The place seemed dirty, hopeless, sad. Inebriated people were much in evidence, even in the early afternoon. There was now just the one supermarket, a combined pharmacy and newsagent – and four hotels! As well, there were several rather grotty looking take away food places. There were a number of closed shops and businesses.
It had been from the newsagent here that I used to get my weekly newspaper when we were at Pungalina, in 2005, along with supplies from the supermarket, flown in on the weekly mail plane.
As we drove around the town, saw that there was a lot of quite damaged housing – some of it clearly recently built, too – and destroyed to the point of not being habitable. What a waste of resources! This was the sort of place that armchair based, bleeding hearts, who have never ventured far from the big cities, should visit and stay a time in, before making glib pronouncements about white oppression! Now to climb down from the soap box………
Fuelled up Truck – $1.39 cpl.
It was a luxury to have a shower again – and to wash my hair!
Park definitely getting tatty – no mops in the amenities, no hand washing soap at all, washing machines not working well.
Tennant Creek camp
Son had left a message on my phone to call him, which we received when we came back into phone range. So I called him at night. His news was a real bomb shell. He and wife had split up. He was rather vague about why this had happened, but implied it was her wish. They had just sold their house, too.
I certainly didn’t see that one coming! My immediate concern was for the children, aged 1 and 6. Nothing I could do about it, but that didn’t make it any easier to deal with. I was definitely back to real life with a thud, now.
After that news, I really needed a stiff drink, but there was nowhere to get same in town – everything closed at 8pm.
The morning was windy. Clouds were scudding over from the west, but there was more sunshine than yesterday.
The remaining two sets of campers who had been here last night, left, so we were alone again. But later in the day, two more couples came in.
John’s hip was sore, so he had a camp day. I suspected he might have overdone the lifting and toting yesterday, when playing mechanic.
M and I went walking. Headed down to our end of the waterhole, where it petered out enough for us to cross.
Google Earth view of Old Police Waterhole and the ridge we climbed – to the leftThe shallowing end of the waterhole
From there, we bush bashed across to the far ridge, and climbed up onto it, then walked along the top.
Part-way up the ridge. The line of trees marks the Waterhole
There was no particular reason for doing this, except it was there, it was exercise, and we were curious to see what could be seen from there.
Still some way to go….
There were good outlooks from the top, back across to the Waterhole.
Saw a mob of wild horses in the distance. At least we presumed they were wild, but they could have been a mob of station horses, turned out. I think we were quite close to the irregularly shaped Park boundary here.
It was rather hard to find our way down from the ridge again, without back tracking, but we eventually slid and clambered down.
Picking our way down again
Then we angled across to the Old Police Station ruins and back around that end of the Waterhole.
It was a lovely walk, and a great way to finish up our stay here. The only down side was a lot of spinifex scratches and punctures on our arms and legs. Note to self: try not to go walking through spinifex in shorts!
Might look fluffy on top, but it is anything but! Flowering spinifex
Spent a final evening round our fire, after dinner was cooked and dishes done.
The sunsets over the Waterhole had been brilliant.
The morning was cloudy, but it was high cloud. There was a strong breeze – from the S-SE. The day remained quite cool, due to the wind, and remained cloudy. At one stage, I wondered if it might rain? The track back out could be a bit tricky in spots if it got really wet. But, I thought to myself, if the worst happened, this was not a bad place to be marooned for a while.
The track down from the loo….
Most of the morning time was devoted to man-work on a broken down Lexus. Yesterday, it had come up the rough Hatches Creek track from the south. The first we knew of any problem was when a couple of men came to our camp to see if John had a drill. He did. He also had the genset to run it with, so there was a considerable unpack of the back of Truck.
The Lexus was three camps back from us, but people from three other camps ended up involved – us, and two lots who were packed up ready to go, as was the Lexus.
It seemed the tumblers in the ignition slot had collapsed, which meant the steering was locked and the airbag suspension was uneven.
One couple had a sat phone and they managed to get onto the guy’s Toyota dealer, and eventually got almost step by step instructions how to demolish the innards of the steering column. It was really convoluted – there was so much stuff packed in there! Wiring central…..
It took about three hours, and several sat phone calls, but the men finally got it pulled apart, to the point where a screwdriver stuck into something, would allow it to function.
How many men does it take to fix……….
M and I, having a functioning camp, made hot drinks for the others, and eventually I cooked some lunch for all – savoury pikelets.
The woman from the Lexus was not at all well – it was not really made clear what was wrong with her. They were intending, from here, to go north to Barkly Homestead on the Barkly Highway – some 150kms of very rough track. They did not leave here until 2pm. We hoped, for her sake, that they make it through with no more breakdowns. I thought they would have been much safer going out the way we’d come, but the man seemed determined to stick to his original plan. I thought he was ill-advised to do so, particularly given that, of all the guys working on the vehicle fix, he’d seemed to know the least!
After that little demo, they could keep their fancy expensive vehicle – we would stick with the much less sophisticated, but more rugged, Defender!
With not a great deal of the day left, M and John fished in the waterhole. John had caught some crabs and water beetles, overnight, in a net. The fish proved totally not interested, so the crabs were let go, having failed as bait.
While they were thus occupied, I went for a walk – for two hours – down the road to the south of the campground, some of the very rough Frew River Loop Track.
The ranges were low and rocky….
The scenery was interesting and the walk was good exercise. M and John walked out and met me as I was returning. John did not have his Skins on, and his hip was playing up.
The Frew River marked by line of trees
Spent some time at camp admiring the sunset over the waterhole.
The progression of the sunset…….
We had the usual quiet evening by the campfire, and an early night.
I was up early and sat in the sun, writing postcards and my diary, until John surfaced.
After breakfast, we set out to walk around the waterhole, which was quite extensive. Although it is on the Frew River, the channel at either end had dried up, so we were able to walk right round, even though there were no real tracks.
Old Police Waterhole – taken from the “entrance” end of the camp area
The Frew River is probably better described as a series of water holes rather than a river in the traditional sense.
Across the other side of the waterhole from the camp area, we found the ruins – just some rocks and stone heaps – of the original Frew River Homestead, one of a couple of cattle stations in the area, which were abandoned in the late 1800’s, due to poor seasons and troubles with the local aboriginals. For these, the waterholes of the river were important places ,where they spent significant amounts of time, camping and hunting. Obviously, the arrival of a new source of meat was going to end in grief.
There were the remains of the Police Station, built in 1919 at the same spot, but abandoned later, when the tungsten (wolfram) mines at nearby Hatches Creek, begun in 1915, ceased working. Now, there were just some remnants of stone walls.
Continued walking around the waterhole. It took us two hours to complete the circuit – a lovely walk. The low ranges in the near distance were intriguing.
Spinifex in bloom – grevillea tooThe other end of the waterhole. Our camp visible as a small patch of white
During the day, three more lots of campers arrived, but the site nearest us remained empty – it was quite small. Not that we are anti-social, but we hoped it stayed that way! The lot that came in yesterday were leaving tomorrow, so there would be a nice site further back, to tempt any more arrivals. Maybe the place being empty when we arrived was an aberration?
I sat by the waterhole for the afternoon, watching the birds, and sewing. M did crosswords. John retreated into the van to play computer games.
Late afternoon at Old Police Waterhole
We had another pleasant evening by the campfire, and an early night.
SATURDAY 2 JUNE DEVILS MARBLES TO OLD POLICE WATERHOLE 175kms
I was up just after dawn. It was a chilly early morning.
The previous night’s full moon was just going down over the Marbles.
I wandered around, again, taking early morning photos of the sunrise over the rocks. M appeared not long after I went out. John slept in.
Early morning Devils Marbles
We got away from there at 9.15, by which time most of the other overnight campers had departed. We were not famed for early starts – something M just had to put up with!
The turnoff we sought was not far north of the Marbles. It was the dirt road east to Kurundi and Epenarra stations. From near Epenarra, we took the Binns Tracks south for 34kms, and then the track into Old Police Waterhole campground, in the Davenport Ranges National Park.
The road quality over the 160kms (about), was variable. At the start, it was “channelled” into multiple deep ruts by wet weather drivers – tricky driving with the van in tow – but after that, improved. The section south from Epenarra was sandy in parts, and it was rocky for the last 9 kms.
Location of Davenport Ranges National Park, showing our access route via Kurundi
It was a very pretty drive, especially from the highway to the Kurundi area. After that, it was open and flat, for a while.
It was into the afternoon when we arrived at the campground. The low ranges around the Waterhole were not visible until the last few kms.
First impression was that it was worth the effort we’d made to get here.
There was a long waterhole, with lots of grass and shade trees in the camping area, which spread out along one side of the pool. There were about eight fire pits/BBQ ‘s scattered through the camp area, and a couple of the Central Australian style ventilated pit toilets too.
With no other campers present we had the choice of camping sites and set up at a distance from where the track in entered the camp area. There were not really any attractive sites beyond where we were. There was a toilet not too far away, with a track going up a small hill to it. There was a fixed low table and a fireplace.
Camp at Old Police Waterhole
Another couple arrived a while after us, and set up a good distance away, but that was it for the day. Magic solitude!
There was a whistling kite’s nest across the waterhole, with a baby in it. We could hear the kites “talking” to each other in a way that was reminiscent of when we camped by the Cooper Creek at Innamincka.
There were corellas and white-plumed honeyeaters galore – and huge spiders in hanging webs!
M came in here last year, on her way south from Darwin, and camped a couple of nights. She said it was bare and dry then, with much less water in the waterhole.
Old Police Waterhole, by our camp
Now, the holly grevilleas were blossoming, also some wattle species, and the spinifex was blooming. On the way in, we’d seen some bloodwood trees in flower.
This area is, biologically, the divide between Central and Northern Australia, so there is much diversity.
John and I had not been here before, though it had been on the “one day” list for ages.
Now, seeing it, we decided to stay an extra three nights – four in all. Park fees cost us $6.60 a night – $3.30 each.
After setting up camp for an extended time, we just sat around, admiring the outlook over the waterhole, and enjoying the general peacefulness of the place.
We cooked dinner on the BBQ plate provided on the fireplace.
Not his best angle!
It was great to be able to sit round a campfire again. The night was pretty cool though! It was so quiet, with just the bush noises from the occasional night bird, insects and frogs. It is getting increasingly hard to find these really peaceful, solitary, places.
FRIDAY 1 JUNE ALICE SPRINGS TO DEVILS MARBLES 405kms
So now it is officially winter. That seems such an artificial designation in parts north.
It felt so good to be leaving town, and heading bush again. John didn’t get anywhere near the amount of bowls he’d intended – certainly not enough to justify the time spent here.
Today, it was straight north on the Stuart Highway.
An initial slight climb for some 20kms, brought us to the highest point on the Stuart Highway – about 792m above sea level. Downhill all the way north now ………. with a few slight local variations!
Marker at the highest point on the Stuart Highway
Crossed the Tropic of Capricorn a bit further north of Alice Springs. This landmark is easy to overlook here, because it is part of a rest area.
Tropic of Capricorn Rest Area
Back in the tropics again! That really makes me happy.
The 400kms drive north was varied enough to maintain interest. Often, there were low ranges or lines of hills in the distance. There tended not to be too many dead straight sections, either. So the route was not a boring one, despite having driven it before.
We found that Wauchope had the best fuel price, by a long way, in that stretch north of Alice. $1.65cpl. Had previously fuelled up at Barrow Creek – $1.74cpl. We needed to keep the tank topped up as much as possible because of tomorrow’s planned deviation.
I was conscious of this Barrow Creek roadhouse having attained notoriety by being the place that British backpacker Joanne Lees was taken to when rescued after the possible murder of her boyfriend in 2001. That all remained somewhat of a mystery, despite a man having been convicted and jailed.
A little further north we would pass the spot where this event occurred, but of course there was no marker to show where it was.
Arrived at the camping area at the Devils Marbles just after 3pm. It was already quite crowded, but we were able to slot in together to a camp spot, albeit much closer to the very smelly long drop toilet, than we would have liked!
Devils Marbles camp area – best to get here early in the day!
The fees for tonight’s stay were $6.60.
Campers were confined by barriers to the designated area -which was sensible in an area like this. Otherwise, like ants, they would have over run the whole place.
By about 4pm, the later arrivals were cruising the camp area, destined not only to miss out on any halfway decent spot for the night, but any spot at all! This was not a place at which to arrive later in the day.
There were some low tables as well as the rather unpleasant toilets.
After the usual basic set up for an overnight stay, we went walking, spending a couple of hours wandering around and between the Marbles rock formations.
Gravelled paths wound through the spinifex.
There were some small gum trees and shrubbery growing, in places. Some of the shrubs had fruit on them which, us being woefully deficient in identifying much of the native flora, we could only guess was a native plum?
Was this a native plum?
The Devils Marbles were originally formed as molten granite intrusions up through weaknesses like cracks, into overlying sandstone, where the granite cooled. Over time, the sandstone has eroded away, leaving the blobs of granite as the feature we see today.
The granite formations were fascinating- many varied shapes and configurations, and balancing rocks – all of them begging to be photographed!
There were some interesting contrasts, too, with the red rocks and the vegetation growing around them.
The rock formations were spread out over a fair sized area – it took a while to follow the paths that wind all through the spread.
There was a smaller section of Marbles across the other side of the access road. It did not seem that quite so many of the visitors bothered to walk that far, but we did, and were rewarded by the sight of some interesting split rocks.
Probably one of those photos everyone takes!
There were a couple of small rock pools on sections of the flatter, sheet like rock that occurred in parts.
The aboriginal story explaining this feature is that an ancient Dreamtime ancestor walked through here, making a hair-string belt as he went. He dropped clumps of the material along the way and these became the rock shapes. To be truthful, what came to my irreverent mind was an ancient enormous wombat-like mythical creature, wandering about, leaving his droppings to become stones!
The sunset was brilliant.
Received a text message from son – from Darwin! Obviously, he was on business with the Darwin branch of the motorhome company he worked for.
Back to the shops…..the Skins were in! Bloody expensive for what was, basically, a set of stretchy long johns!
Decided to – finally – do something “touristy”. It was not easy to find something we had not previously done. Not to be misunderstood – places like Simpsons Gap and Standley Chasm are excellent, and should be visited by travellers to the Centre. But once seen, they become the places where the crowds are, and we wanted different.
John donned his new Skins, to see if they lessened the pain in his hip.
Drove out Larapinta Drive and then Namatjira Drive and, within the Owen Springs Reserve, turned north along a track that took us to a parking area, from whence we could walk to Birthday Creek Waterhole.
This Reserve, formerly Owen Springs cattle station, had only been open to the public since 2003, so was not yet widely known about. It straddled Namatjira Drive, with the larger portion stretching from that to Larapinta Drive. Basically it encloses a section of the Hugh River – at this time of year really a series of waterholes.
We thought about trying to tackle the 4WD section between the Drives, but decided on a walk instead – some exercise!
We parked up then walked along the Birthday Creek Waterhole Track, following the Hugh River.
This was “quietly” typical Central Australia – meaning it wasn’t the dramatic country of much of the Western Mc Donnell Ranges. Great clumps of grasses grew at the sides of waterholes along the river, where pools remained from the last decent flows, which could have been years rather than months ago.
Hugh River
The local river red gums, so often featured in art works of the Centre, with their white trunks, were ever-present.
Central Australian red gums
It was really pleasant walking on mostly flat terrain, a bit sandy underfoot, at times.
About ninety minutes walking brought us to Birthday Waterhole – the best part of 10kms from the vehicles.
Birthday Waterhole
Birthday Waterhole was worth the walk, in a low key sort of way. The outcropping rocks in the water were decorated with long white streaks – indicative of the birds that had rested there, possibly fish-hunting cormorants.
We ate our packed lunch there, overlooking the water.
John and I then retraced our way back to Truck. That was far enough for us, probably about an 18km walk. But M opted to walk on further, for another hour, to reach Hugh Gorge, which she reported, later, was a lovely small gorge, but similar to the others along the range.
We returned to town to do a final stock up of supplies, for what could be another extgended period between supermarkets. Refuelled again at Woolworths – the price had gone up to $1.42 cpl.
M arrived back at the caravan park about the time we got back from the shopping.
We all felt as though our spirits had been lifted by the walk today.
John thought the discomfort in his hip was somewhat eased by the Skins.
It was 1 degree again, through the night. Brrr some more!
I woke with a headache and feeling generally out of sorts, due to poor sleep.
We drove into town where I collected the new battery for my camera, which had arrived in. That was good service. But it was a costly item!
Bought the weekend papers – great to have them again. Had another Subway lunch.
Then it was off to bowls in the afternoon. A local man and I beat John and M. John did not play well – I have yet to be convinced that these new bowls suit him. In a minor stroke of genius, I offered him the use of mine, for tomorrow, and I would stay at camp with my sore foot…..
Thinking he was doing the cook a favour, after her hard day at bowls, and because he really loves take away chicken, John went and bought Red Rooster chicken meals for tea. Mine did not look at all well cooked, but – for the sake of peace – I ate it.
We watched some TV for a while. The dreaded Imparja, with its nightly entreaty to children to brush teeth before going to bed.
Yamba the honey ant (Imparja)
I was missing the bush and the nightly campfires!
SUNDAY 27 MAY ALICE SPRINGS
In the morning, I had a major stomach upset. Knew I shouldn’t have eaten that chook! Spent most of the morning haunting the amenities block…..
John and M went to bowls after lunch. John did use my bowls and apparently played better with them.
I downloaded camera cards to the lap top and sorted and named them. It was the first chance I’d had to really look at what I’d taken over the past few weeks. I was pleased – think I’d taken some good photos, to date.
In the afternoon, there was an audience gathering by a tree near our van. There was a juvenile channel-bill cuckoo there, causing much interest, because it was way out of its supposed range and season and hence a novelty in Central Australia. Because it was a cuckoo, we wondered whether its unsuspecting surrogate parents migrated to this area, and it came with them? Normally, these birds are only present in northern Australia in the Wet Season – they are also locally called Storm Birds, for that reason. So this was one very lost bird!
I made Zucchini Slice for tea, for the bowlers, using the electric frypan as an oven. It took a couple of hours to cook, but turned out alright. I had a little soup, only!
MONDAY 28 MAY ALICE SPRINGS
I was still feeling poorly, this morning, but improved a bit later in the day.
I read, and did embroidery for much of the day. My foot was also still a bit sore.
John and M walked into town, intending to get some exercise, and to buy a piece of roasting pork for dinner. They both had a craving for same. I was distinctly uninterested in things food, right now!
Attractive, pink topped local grass
There was a good walking/bike path from out here, through the Heavitree Gap and into town. They were away for ages, most of the afternoon in fact. It turned out that, as they were walking on the path through the Gap, a lady tourist from this caravan park, came off her bicycle. She broke her ankle – quite badly. John and M (both with First Aid training) dealt with her, called the ambulance and waited with her. Guess that was going to drastically affect her holiday!
It was a long walk anyway, even without that delay. So, by the time they returned, it was too late to cook the piece of pork they brought back. It was the last thing I felt like, anyway. No – make that second last, after chicken! I cooked them some fried rice and I had some soup.
I had an early night – hadn’t been a great couple of days.
It was quite humid and much warmer than the previous nights. Then, it unexpectedly teemed rain, for about twenty minutes, and there was some thunder. It was quite pleasant, at night, cosily tucked up, listening to the rain on the roof.
My leg ached a lot through the night.
TUESDAY 29 MAY ALICE SPRINGS
After breakfast, drove into town again. Although there are some brilliant tourist attractions in Alice Springs, ranging from historic items through to wildlife, we had already visited these on previous stays, as had M. We had also done all the main day walk attractions, like Simpsons Gap. So this period was rather tedious. We were here so John could play bowls, but there were not many days when there was bowls happening!
Alice Springs camp
Decided that there were several aboriginal art galleries that would be interesting to look through. We avoided the very touristy oriented outlets that stocked lots of cheap artifacts and works of unacknowledged origin.
We ended up spending a couple of hours at the Mbantua Gallery, which had excellent displays, both of collected works and works for sale. The items were varied and – we thought – very reasonably priced. Found much to interest us there, but we were really strong and resisted making any purchases, for once. However, lived vicariously, helping M choose a work on canvas to buy.
This Gallery had just released for sale a couple of works by the same Litchfield lady whose works we had bought a number of, last year. There were no prices on them, though. I thought it was reassuring that they had acquired them in the first place.
In a nod to the really cold nights, I went to KMart and bought some track pants – utilitarian ones, not trendy!
John decided to buy a set of Skins, such as sports people had recently taking to wearing, to see if they would ease the aching hip that really needed replacing. The man at the sports store was really helpful in discussing what John needed, but would have to get John’s Medium size in – might be in tomorrow? However, we knew the NT of old, and figured that could mean any time from tomorrow (unlikely) to several days hence – or more.
John and I lazed around camp for the rest of the day. M went off to look at a couple of places she had not been to before.
WEDNESDAY 30 MAY ALICE SPRINGS
It was 1 degree last night. Brrr….
Back to the shops. The Skins had not arrived. There’s a surprise!
I found a fabric/patchwork shop, called “Polkadot”, that stocked some really interesting aboriginal design fabrics. Bought a length of one design that really appealed – to be put away at home against the day when I actually get around to learning how to do patchwork and quilting.
We extended our stay by another day, to wait for the Skins. Considered ourselves fortunate that we could extend on the same sites.
John washed Truck and the van. That took much of the afternoon.
The plus side of the cold Central Australian nights at this time of year is beautiful sunny days.
John spent time downloading emails and dealing with them. It had been a while so this took some time.
I phoned son’s home and connected with daughter in law. Hadn’t been able to get through to either of them last night and wondered briefly if all was well. So it was a relief to speak to her today. I really wanted to find out if grandsons’s parcel, sent from Broken Hill, had arrived. Yes, it had been delivered.
M and I hit the park laundry, early on. We both had loads of grotty clothes bearing some of the Old Ghan Track with them.
After breakfast, drove back into the town centre. M needed to try to track a parcel she’d sent to a friend that had not arrived at its destination, so it was to the PO for her. Later in the day, friend phoned: parcel found. The postie had put it in the meter box!
We drove out to the Head Office of the construction company we’d recently worked for. I met in person several of the people who had only been names on emails, or phone voices, whilst I was Site Clerk over in the Pilbara. It was good to meet up in person. Big Boss was there and we had a chat – mostly about the aftermath of the destructive Cyclone George. Obviously, enquiries were ongoing about that and he said some of the company’s staff had already been questioned. I wondered to myself if we would become embroiled in that, seeing as we were on site virtually throughout the project? BB said that Village 1 was being rebuilt, by a different company. He was adamant that the place had been supposed to be evacuated in the event of a cyclone, and that was why no cyclone shelter had been included in the original plans. He also mentioned that there was a video circulating on the internet, showing men at the camp having a drunken cyclone party – with the walls shaking behind them. It was pleasant to catch up again, even under these rather subdued circumstances.
We had been having issues with the working of the CB radio for much of the trip to date. It was useful to be able to communicate with M, as we were driving, on that. We went to the outlet of the firm that did the comms at the Villages. The boss, who we’d worked with there, was out, so we didn’t get to see him but John bought a new aerial, to see if that fixed the problem.
Neither of them scores well on the parking scale!
Our mail was in. John went to collect it, whilst I went to the public toilet nearby. An unpleasant experience, despite the 50c charge to users: the money did not appear to go into cleaning and upkeep!
We all had a Subway lunch, then John insisted that we all go and practice bowls. That made my Achilles start complaining again. John did not do well with his almost new, bright orange bowls. He did better for a few ends after I persuaded him to use mine, light though they were and several sizes smaller. M was rather erratic. She had not been playing the game for long at all.
Fuelled up Truck at Woolworth’s fuel outlet – $1.39 cpl. That did not hurt so much!
There was nothing of note in the mail bag, except for notification that I would receive the $1500 superannuation bonus payment this year. Due to recent Budget measures, that would be doubled. All very good!
I cooked fish for tea – of the frozen packet variety. M and John went off to buy chips to go with that.
There was a flurry then, because John could not find the mobile phone. He had taken it when he went to the PO this morning, but couldn’t remember what he’d done with it after that. There was much hunting, high and low. I had visions of a massive bill being racked up by some opportunist! Eventually, M prevailed upon St Anthony, the patron saint of lost items, and John found the errant item – in his bowls bag! He got very grumpy after all that. I guess we did give him a hard time about it! Glasses, keys, wallet, phone – what next?
It was a really cold night, so I went to bed very early. My heel was very painful through the night, and its matching knee joined the party. Eventually I had to get up and take pain killers.
This Adventurous Age 