Bombay Nights

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Bombay Nights

Days to Citizenship 6

My fingers can barely type this blog, they feel very stiff right now, along with the rest of me, it is a super hot day and I am sat in the shade of a tree, the occasional gust of wind blows some cool air through which is a welcome relief. So what’s with the fingers then? I will come on to that a little later.

The end of the week is in sight it’s Thursday and Andy has got me out of bed at 5.30 so that I can be in the office for 6.30, not because I wanted to be in the office at 6.30 but because Andy wanted to drop the truck off at the garage to have a new exhausted fitted – I will let him tell you about that, but now it has been fitted the new pipe does sound good!

A lady in my office tells me that her son is heading away on a scout camping trip this weekend, Andy asks where he is camping and she tells us, “oh no, that’s exactly where we are headed this week”. She chuckles and says that there will be about 300 scouts there this weekend.

Our Thursday evening was not only spent having quick gin and tonic at the Wig and Pen in Civic to bid farewell to a colleague who is moving to Melbourne, we race home to pack up our trusty truck for our weekend away.
When I say, “pack the truck” let me tell you where we are with it, the plan is not to rob “Peter to pay Paul” or not pinch the stuff out of our kitchen draws in the flat, as we want the truck to be stand alone, which has all its own equipment, so all we have to put in, is our bedding if we decide we need it and the food we need to take.

Friday morning dawns, the sun streams through the back bedroom window, oh well actually it wasn’t quite like that dawn was barely breaking as I noticed that Andy had brought me a cup of tea 10 minutes earlier than usual, there is a message in there somewhere but it might just take me 10 minutes to figure that one out!

As it is Friday it is dress down day and in quicker than usual time we are dressed in jeans and thongs and we head to the office with our last little bit of gear to go into the truck, we are not coming back here tonight we are just heading off straight after work.

It’s 3.45 and I get a phone call from Andy (his office is across the road from mine) “When do you want to leave?” “By 4.30!” I quickly replied, “but give me a call at twenty five past four, just in case!”

I race through the final bit of important stuff before saying to myself – “enough, the rest can wait until Monday”, I raced outside to wait for Andy to drive over and pick me up!

A short stop for a top up on some additional food supplies and we are away, I have programmed the sat nav and I have Camps 5 out on my lap. I know where we are headed and I know roughly how to get there, but I wanted to use the sat nav as a bit of a guide, sadly it does not have any off road tracks on it so I could not be 100% certain so stuck to the road that I knew.

We are down to Uriarra crossing and instead of turning left toward the Brindabellas we head straight on and within seconds we hit the dirt and we are on Mountain Creek Road which is a nice back road up to Wee Jasper.

This weekend we are meeting up with a few of the members from the ACT 4wd club for a Jaffle iron cook off and cocktail weekend. We are assured that there is a beautiful spot just South of Wee Jasper that is on the edge of the Goodradigbee river.

As the sun is slowly going down stunning views are revealed through the valleys and in amongst mountain ranges, driving up through this part of the country is stunning, steep winding roads and the lush green valley’s meander below us, the willow trees are huge and drape nicely into the cooling waters of the rivers that run through them.

We come into Wee Jasper and find ourselves impressed by the beautiful old wooden bridge into the “town”, we slowly drive across and admire the views either side the Goodradigbee river to the left and the Burrinjuck Dam to the right. The village shop is sadly closed but up for sale, it’s just opposite the pub which says it is open 7 days and then just to the right on the gate it says “Closed Mon –Tues”.

We drive through, take the Tumut road and 4 kilometres later we head into the Billy Grace Reserve, we stop at the Rangers Hut for a quick chat – she comes out to greet us and tells us where to find the rest of our club, but also remind us that there is about 300 scouts due to camp there this weekend– not what we needed reminding of that’s for sure, but she assures us that we are nicely tucked away down on the edge of the river.

We drive through Sarah’s playground, Scouts have arrived in abundance and are excitedly setting up their camps, obviously from different troops around the region, they are in small groups. Hmmm, I also think that some Possums may have been here recently, quite possibly just pootling around.

We find the group, they are mostly all pitched up, but it turns out that we were not too far behind them, we soon have the swag out, the bed made and the awnings pulled out on the truck, we find ourselves very quickly sat with the group enjoying a cool beer on this beautiful warm night, the sun has not quite disappeared but it will be soon.

After happy hour we all disperse to get on with cooking dinner, Andy and I knocked up a chilli, fairly quick and easy and we re-join the others while we all ate. Unfortunately we are not allowed to have a camp fire, there is a fire ban already, I am not an expert in these matters, but wonder why a ban is in place when everything is lush green and there is still a lot of water around, but with the temperature set to soar over the weekend and the possibility of wind then it could be a bad mix. I would also hazard a guess that after the devastating fires of Black Saturday that people are nervous and I cannot say that I blame them really.

This will have a bad effect for our Jaffle iron cook off, we may have to compromise, but where there is a will there is a way.

Sometime after 10.00 we both slid into the comfort of our swag it is a bright night with a ¾ moon but I could still make out the stars, well I guess by the time I take my contact lens out they are just fuzzy blobs in the sky.

Sleep comes easily tonight, we are toasty warm and a nice breeze just skims the top of the mosquito net above us, it is just perfect.

I awoke at 6.30 and thought that I would not get up, way too early and we were comfy, you could tell that there was a heavy dew, but we could see that the sun was already going to come up, there was not a single cloud in the sky.

Breakfast consisted of a bacon sandwich with melted swiss cheese and washed down with a chai latte (not exactly roughing it!), we sat with the rest of the group and chatted. It was decided to do a walk, perhaps the one down the river that takes us into the town of Wee Jasper, that sounds better than the one that goes up the hill.

So a short while later we head off, Andy stays back at camp to relax, he wants to read and do nothing really. I am thinking this is going to be a nice little meander down by the river, but it soon becomes evident that this is one of Les’ nice little meanders which is something entirely different to the one I had in mind. I should know this by know, Les does not do anything by half measures and there is no such thing as a short gentle walk in Les’ world.

We find ourselves wading through the long grass, stinging nettles, thistles, the river bank, over fences, through fences, under low branches and finally the river broke into two and we were at a turning point – do we go back or shall we find a way round?

I was tempted to wade through the short stretch up to the other side, but Bob quickly tested the mud and found it was so soft that we would have been 2 inches in water and knee deep in mud.

Eventually Les appeared from above us, he found a way through and directed everyone in that direction, back through the long grass, brambles, rocks etc.

I missed a great photo opportunity as Sandra was going through a fence that was held apart, but it was a barbed wire fence and the back of her shorts got caught, struggling to maintain her balance without grabbing hold of the barbed wire, there was a moment when I thought she would go flying and end up losing her shorts! Thankfully Sandra’s blushes were spared, fortunately Kim went to the rescue, and unhooked her before any further tragedy could be bestowed.

We could see the lovely wooden bridge by the town, but we still had a way to go, it seemed like we had traipsed through someone’s back yard, we figured that we would be safe in a group, but made haste up the track, and a dog joined us, thinking perhaps that we were going to take it to work suddenly started to round up the sheep. This was not good, but Jeff talked to the dog and got it to stop and leave the sheep alone.

The last bit of our journey was on the bitumen, we see a very dead brown snake in the road, it wasn’t pleasant, finding the pub and went in. We each ordered drinks, a snack, ice lollies etc. the poor lady must have been overwhelmed by the sudden rush of people, all 13 of us, but we all took it slowly as she worked out who was having what.

We rested and ate a light lunch, but it was time to head back, the sun would be hot by now, it is after midday and there was a decision to take the bitumen back rather than go the way we came, it would be easier and more straightforward but it would be hotter so we all topped up on water and hit the road.

It did not seem such a long journey back, it was hot and we worked out that we probably have done about 10kilometres all up, perhaps a little more by the time we followed the river and put a great deal of effort in over the obstacles in our way. I make a note to myself “when Les says that there is a good walk somewhere, be prepared!”

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Photos

Making up out bed
Caroline finalising the bed details

3 Dog night
Jeff and Sandra's new setup

Down by the river
The Goodradigbee River

Cockatoo's
Sheltering