Poms 1- Convicts 1

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DAY 279


The day starts with bright sunlight streaming through the mosquito netting, I get out of bed to go and wash and get ready for the morning. This morning part of Darryl and Sarah’s plan was to move on, however when I wandered over, Darryl kindly made a cup of tea, we find out that they have decided to stay another day, yippee! We have been having such a laugh with them it would be a shame to split up the team so soon, so a relaxing day around camp was in order.

At 8.00 Sarah and I wandered down to reception to find out if we can book in again, we are fortunate the two sites we have are free so we are booked in for another night. Andy and I may need to stay a further night as we need to change some of our forward plans but we will cross that bridge when it comes.

We see on the notice board that there is a Mystery Tour at 5.00 this evening, interesting, we decide to chat to the guys about it and see if they are interested, it could be a bit of fun. Back at camp the guys agree so we get ready for the day and on our way out we pop into the reception to book our place on the bus, the only fee is a donation to the staff fund.

The first objective of the day was to have a nice relaxing walk along the creek so after a breakfast of toast and marmite we kitted ourselves up and away we went, following the railway line down to the creek, we walked along the track (no need to worry about this as the only train that comes through is the Savannah Lander once a week).

We are soon down on the creek edge, I tell everybody to keep their eyes peeled a keen eye can pick out shiny objects, especially if water is running over them to make them glisten, bearing in mind some of the route we are walking over dry sandy creek beds that are in full flow during the wet season, as this is Elizabeth creek, the creeks further up full of Topaz are bound to wash down here.

We have to walk through some long grass, we need to be cautious because of snakes in the long grass so as soon as we can we drop back onto the edge of the creek, a question arose about crocodile activity but we don’t think crocs are in this creek and I do believe we would have been warned by the campsite before taking the walk.

We hear a noise on the track and think that a train is coming, we all stop to look but over the very old railway bridge we see a Toyota Landcruiser that has specially adapted wheels in order to drive down the track, they must be doing maintenance ready for the Savannah Lander to come through tomorrow.

A short while later I see Darryl with a stick he seems to be sifting through the sandy creek bed, then he’s on his hands and knees and looking very carefully at the ground, I do believe he is hooked on fossicking, it is like an addiction once you start, you think just a few more minutes and so on. Shortly after we are all sifting through the sand, well all of us except Andy that is, he is over this fossicking malarkey, until I put him through it again.

During the walk, we start to discuss poetry and the thing about Bedrock Village is that the loo’s have poems on the back of the doors, written by people who have obviously stayed here and are well experienced campers or caravaners.

Sarah threw the Wallaby Wanderers Gauntlet on the ground in front of Kangaroo Jack and stated ““We should write a poem and read it out to each other at dinner tonight.” Kangaroo Jack picked up that gauntlet and an agreement was reached to write the poem for any subject, however a word to be decided by each team had to be incorporated in the poem somewhere. No problem what a great challenge, Andy is soon on the case and asks for a pen to write down some ideas.

We decide that we have walked enough and should head back to camp for some relaxation by the swimming pool that is relaxation and blogging I should say. So back at camp we have a cup of tea, grab everything we need and head for the pool.

We set up the laptops in the camp kitchen, both Sarah and I have plenty of blog work to catch up on, we have been having too much fun so time has slipped away and the blog is slightly behind along with photo downloads. Not to mention we have now given ourselves extra work by having a poem each to write, I thought this was a holiday?

We were soon tapping away, Darryl and Andy had by now evacuated to the swimming pool, Andy took his usual approach and dived straight in, Darryl took the approach that I usually do and got in very carefully, this water is cold and I must say a lot colder than some of the natural pools we have swum in.

After his swim Andy and I take the laptop to sit by the pool in the shade, there is work to be done, it has to be well thought out as the Wallaby Wanderers provide stiff competition. The thoughts are flowing, not that it is easy but it is easier than I thought it would be, the last time I wrote a poem I was as school!

We sat and toiled worked out words that rhymed, it all had to fit with the Aussie trip, we chatted and laughed and hoped that Darryl and Sarah could not hear us plot, however we soon joined them back in the camp kitchen, Sarah was still tapping away at the keyboard.

With Andy and Darryl at the food helm again, we enjoyed a lunch of fried spam sandwiches, but not just any old Spam sandwich these sandwiches had a special addition of a fried egg, yummy.

While they were making lunch I see that they are chatting to Steve, the snake expert that happens to work here at Bedrock. The guys make him a fried Spam sandwich, Andy asks me to look out for the snake photos so that Steve can identify our finds. I rummage through the blog to find the Python that we saw way back on the Nullarbor and the two snakes that we saw recently. Soon the results are in Steve confirms the snake on the Nullarbor is a Carpet Python, the yellow snake that we found leaving Cape Crawford a week or so ago is a Tree Snake and the dead snake that we photographed on the road up toward Mt Garnet recently is in fact a Taipan. The Taipan is in fact the worlds No 1most venomous snake (on land) and can kill in minutes, the longest recorded time to death is one hour so recognition and early treatment is vital for survival.

To think that we were wandering around the creek this morning, scary thought that these things are so close to us really, it serves as a reminder that they are there and every snake needs to be treated with respect.

We had decided on a word to be given to each team to incorporate into the poem, we chose “Reticulated” and we were given “Inter Planetarium”. Although the poems were written we now had to work it in. No problem with that challenge, something immediately sprung to mind and soon it was written.

Sarah and I packed up and headed for a well deserved dip in the pool, Sarah was straight in, I took a short while to get in, not as long as usual, this water is cold but a cool off in the water was needed on this hot day of hard blogging and poetry writing.

Fifteen minutes, a few laps and a chat later we were out, it was time to get ready for the Mystery Tour. But before that Sarah and I sat down to go through the rocks and split down the remainder of what we fossicked for yesterday, there were two particularly nice pieces of quartz that I picked up, I had one of the remaining pieces of Topaz and Sarah took the other remaining piece of Topaz, we will need to wait about 4 weeks or so before we will receive the Topaz that is being cut for us.

We wait for the bus at reception, there is quite a crowd of people here, we were the first and only four people when we signed on at reception earlier, now it seems that half the park is going on the tour. We are allocated a bus, there are two buses and they are both full, we chose not to take any alcohol with us, but people were getting on the bus with stubbies holders containing beer and coolers containing wine, two ladies even had wine glasses in hand, now I am game on for a glass of wine, but taking it on the bus in a glass with the potential of spillage, hmm, scary thought.

Well a trip around Mount Surprise should take all of two minutes, the bus leaves at 5.00 so we should be back by 2 minutes past, but let me tell you, Mount Surprise is full of surprises, as we tour around the small locality we see lots of sights that you would otherwise miss, including the chap that flies to work in his helicopter everyday (he musters cattle), we see the garage where he keeps both (yes I did say both) of his helicopters. We see Mount Surprise, the airstrip that lies along side it, the local sports club and the local school, amongst many other sights, we even go through the car wash, the only free car wash in Australia, but sadly it is not working, perhaps we broke it yesterday when we went through.

The thing that stands out the most is outside the local school, an update on the Ashes is written up clearly stating: POMS 1 - Convicts 1. We all have a good laugh.

Back at Bedrock we jump off the bus, just as Sarah and I start to wander off to take some photos a helicopter can be heard, we soon see a helicopter bank steeply around the caravan park, we are surprised to see that it is landing here just as it sets down next to the mini golf, the dust flies up everywhere, the people walking past are covered. Darryl commented that he is glad he wasn’t barbecuing dinner otherwise that would be ruined and all those lovely caravans that were nice and clean after coming through the car wash are now all dusty again, never mind another good excuse to go through, if it is working that is.

We all stand and watch who gets out, the pilot ties down the blades, we don’t see a celebrity but whoever it is gets out and greets the owner of the campsite, about 3 minutes later a young boy appears, he looks very pale and makes a cross across his chest, he looks relieved to be out of the helicopter.

Sarah and I get our photos and make our way back to camp, Darryl and Andy are sat outside the caravan looking very comfy, none of us are too hungry at the moment so dinner is not yet an option.

Sarah and I busy ourselves blogging, I write yesterdays blog “I want a dirty day out please”, the only thing is that at some point during my writing I downed 2 glasses of wine and I have no idea what I am writing and especially after writing the poem this afternoon I am wondering if I am writing the blog in rhyme, probably not, but Andy confirms that it is the biggest blog after I announce some 2700 words, so apologies if you have had to wade through loads of drivel!!

The time came to read the poetry that we came up with earlier, Wallaby Wanderers won the coin throw so Sarah went first, a box of tissues handy just in case. With a certain amount of Grace Sarah read with filled up eyes, we laughed until we split our sides.

It was my turn on the podium to read our contribution, I thought Sarah and Darryl had written a terrific piece of poetry and hoped that ours would be up to scratch. I read and we all laughed until tears filled our eyes. Bedrock Bush Poetry

It is always a sad moment when someone you meet on this journey moves on, but we have so much in common with Darryl and Sarah that we will particularly miss them on our journey moving forward, we have only known them for a matter of days but it feels like years.

We all decide that we are hungry the poetry has worked up an appetite, so the curry is soon heating up and the rice is cooking, we are eating the left over Pork Vindaloo that Andy cooked up at Lake Tinaroo (I am rhyming again!!).

Wow it was hot, hot, hot as if the caravan was not hot enough we are hotter still. The guys sat and chatted about stuff while Sarah and I did the serious blogging work and set out what format we would publish the poetry, so we will publish each others, soon Andy stood up it was time for bed we are all shattered. We realised that our friend, we now know as Molly the Black Labrador (we think) was sleeping outside the caravan, she stood up when we realised and accepted a pat from us all, she was pleased to see us, but was she really waiting for a bone? Lets just hope that she doesn’t want the leftover Pork Vindaloo, otherwise she may be jet propelled.

Another exciting day bloggers, goodnight!

ps to catch up on with things from Darryl and Sarah's point of view:

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Photos

Poms 1 Convicts 1
All this for the Ashes

Happy Ramblers
Well its better than Fossicking anyday !!

The Old Line
Only the Savannah Lander Uses this line know

The Bedrock Bus
Yes driven by Fred Flintstone

Nice Choppa !!
Sarah Poses by the
Bell Jet Ranger