Advertisement
Published: October 23rd 2010
Hi all, added a map this time so you can see where I have been so far in Australia, plus also added some pickies Yuka who I met on the train (last blog) sent me.
After leaving Alice and catching The Ghan to Darwin I was met by Dennis and Mary at the station. Oh forgot to mention the Alice Springs hostel was evacuated at one in the morning on my last night there, when the fire alarm went off!
Also the train stopped at Katherine on the way to Darwin, where we could go for a choice of short tours.
I went on a canoeing trip where we were driven by bus from the train station to the gorge park and then canoed up the river to the main gorge and back again. Was very tiring but amazing views and a nice swim and saw some more kangaroos close up. Then back to the train and on to Darwin.
Mary and Dennis live about 8km from a small town called Batchelor (population approx 650), about an hour drive south of Darwin. They have a 40 acre plot that they bought many years ago and
have retired and moved here and are building a house here. They have two cats and Paddy the three legged dog!
We had found each other on the helpx website and in return for board and lodging I am helping Dennis with work around the house they are building. The main structure of the house is built and the downstairs has been completed internally leaving the upstairs to be completed.
They have also put up some outbuildings including the container I am sleeping in, sharing with Anthony who is Dennis's apprentice. Sounds naff sleeping in a container! but is actually ok, has air conditioning, a fridge, tv/dvd and a playstation! It is also well sealed so no bugs!
As I arrived on a Friday the next day we went for a drive into the nearbye Lichfield National Park, where we saw large termite nests, magnetic termite nests and visited Florence waterfalls for a swim.
The magnetic termites are cool, they build them facing directly magnetic North/South and move side to side throughout the day to keep to the coolest spot. They look like gravestones and there were hundreds of them.
The first week here I helped unload a large lorry container from Dennis's trailer, unload the trailer, tidy up the large garage and helped fit the interior wall panels, ceiling panels and lay roofing insulation.
Dennis is a very experienced guy having been in the army as a sapper (construction and demolition), worked on building the M1, worked for CAT driving and servicing all sorts of large construction vehicles, worked on large construction projects and run (with Mary) his own business Red Centre Tiles in Alice.
As such not only does he have loads of stories to tell but knows a lot about building and tiling. He is originally from Belfast and Mary from Nottingham in England, both having moved out to Australia many years ago. Mary is an accountant and as such deals with all the money and purchasing side of the business, as even though they have retired and sold their business in Alice they still do private jobs for people.
It appears to be difficult to get good tradesman out here.
Dennis is a workaholic and always seems to be doing something to keep himself busy. We start work each
weekday around 0730 and finish around 4 depending what we have been doing.
The guys are experienced and quite quick at what they do so I have been labouring for them and assisting them depending what job is being done, bit like a builders bitch!lol
Had a shock early one morning, waking up to go to the loo, heard a noise and then saw a kangaroo right in front of me! Talking of wildlife, being here in the outback we see cattle wandering across the plot, kangaroos hopping around everywhere, wild pigs, cane toads, lots of birdlife and massive fruit bats in the evenings.
One of the main reasons, other than being right next to the untouched Rum Jungle, is that there is an old unused mango orchard next door, so the animals all come for the unpicked fruit which is currently in season. One of the neighbours also has a running mango farm where we go visit them occassionally, they only have about three weeks to pick the mangoes before they go off.
We often hear mangoes falling off at night as the bats eat them, then the pigs, cattle and
kangaroos come and eat the ones on the floor.
Have not seen any spiders or snakes yet though but I am sure they are there! We often walk along next door and pick mangoes off for ourselves, which are very nice eaten cold out of the fridge. Talking of food, Mary cooks us nice meals in the evening both varied and healthy, with sandwiches or pies for lunch.
Dennis has lots of toys like a JCB, ten ton truck, trailers, two utes and loads of various building supplies. They are having a swimming pool delivered soon too, which Dennis needs to dig the hole for.
The second week here I went with Dennis and Ant to do a small local private job, a bathroom to be repaired and retiled after a leak. Mmmm I wonder how many of us dont have our bathrooms properly waterproofed or dont know?!
In the evenings I spend my time doing some reading but mainly watching dvds or playing playstation with Ant. It is spring here and the wet season is due, this period is normally known as the "build up" where the days can be very
hot and humid, in the thirties temperature wise and often in the seventies to nineties for humidity.
However the wet season has come early with regular downpours, usually late afternoon, not every day but can be very heavy but nice as it cools down! By November they will have floods and cyclones, in fact they are predicting a bad year for cyclones this year, luckily I would have left by then!
The work has been interesting and strangely a pleasant change from sightseeing and bumming around! May sound strange but you can have to much sightseeing and chilling. Some of the highlights of my travels have been to live a different style of life in various countries.
On my last friday here we went down the road to Mary and Dennis friends the Stuarts at their mango farm, where we had a few beers, some mango wine and some barramundi and chips.
While we were there some pig hunters from Darwin dropped by, knowing that there are wild pigs around. The pigs are feral as not native to the country and go round wrecking irrigation pipes etc when they go rooting around
in the mud.
They asked if I wanted to go with them and of course I could not refuse the opportunity. Ant and I jumped into one of the utes and went with with them, actually to Dennis's plot!, parked up and headed into the mango trees. There is one smaller dog, a seeker I suppose, that runs off and finds a pig, they track it with gps!
When one has been found the other dogs (4 in this case) are released quickly followed by the "hunters". The dogs pin the pig down and then a hunter will put a knife through the pigs heart. It all happened so quickly, saw the dogs released, heard the pig then by time I got there it was dead, a large boar.
I managed to walk into a low hanging branch and bang my head! doh! Ant and I were making sure we stayed behind the hunters as the pigs can be very dangerous! Later Ant fell out of the ute!
The guys set off further and within 20 minutes found an even larger boar, again swiftly killed and then thrown into the back of
one of the utes, after which we went back and collected the other one. One of the guys does this for a living, selling the pigs to crocodile farms near Darwin.
We headed back to the Stewarts mango farm and looked for some more pigs, no luck at first so Ant and I stayed witht the ute, finishing our beers! We then went to pick the guys up who had caught a female pig alive which they put into a pig pen in the next door farm, as payment for hunting on their land I suppose.
They left a piece of pig for Dennis to feed the dog, again as a thanks, it was still warm! Dennis would be dropping me into Darwin some time over the weekend.
After seeing Darwin I was planning originally to travel down the west coast next, however with the wet season coming which can cause road flooding between darwin and the west, plus I think I have seen enough beaches etc etc and so have decided to head straight to Perth in the South west corner.
So when I leave here I will see some sights
in Darwin, then head back down the ghan to Adelaide and then the Indian Pacific to Perth. It may be the longest way but its cheaper than flying and i quite enjoy travelling on the train!
I have found another helpx host in Rockingham, a seaside town just south of Perth, so after a few days looking around I will go there for two weeks. The weather looks better down that way being a bit cooler but sunny. the host has a swimming pool and only wants 4 hours work done each day, working on the 4 acre gardens and to repair the house guttering.
Strange to think only 2 months left of my travels, though I am looking forward to coming home but not quite ready to come just yet! Hope you all still missing me and remember me!lol
Sorry to hear the news about pompey!? Lets hope it gets sorted out for the better, especially as they had recently returned to winning ways on pitch.
Larf
Advertisement
Tot: 0.055s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 14; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0218s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
wendy
non-member comment
pompey
Hi Mark just to let you know Pomey are now safe and have 800 thousand from FA so should be able to re-build the team, althought they won again this week now 16th in tables I think. My son Ian still goes every week to watch them although he says at the beginning it was embarrassing wtching the game but they have improved now Nugent scored one of the goals this week.·Lets hope they keep winning Grant now managing West Ham are well at the bottom of premier league, at this moment Dave is downstairs watching Man U and Stoke , bloody lovely Sundays now, football live from one p.m./ to last match at 7 p.m. GREAT (not ). Looking forward to having you back, although your new tenant ( Dominic ) is very nice.