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Published: August 15th 2009
Variety Club of Australia
At Mount Suprise on route to Lawn Hill, this is not a large dog but a car covered in carpet !!DAY 281
The last time I looked at my watch it was 6.40 and it was now 7.30! Moving day again, so we need to get up and get on with things.
I suggested that we have cereal for breakfast, but they were still in the trailer and as were packing up neither of us could be bothered to retrieve them from the trailer so the easiest thing to do was boiled eggs. It would not be too long before I regretted that decision.
We sat down to eat, the day was already hot, we both had a cup of tea on the go, the eggs looked and tasted fine, unusually they had not cracked in the boiling water though so when I took them out they were intact (If I was at home I would put vinegar in the water to help stop them cracking).
Anyway, we tucked into breakfast, but not long after eating I said to Andy “I feel a bit nauseous, in fact I think I am going to be….” I could not even finish my sentence I clamped my hand over my mouth and did a dash to the ladies;
Road Train Petrol Tanker
This bloke said he lived in his truck, as he was constantly on the road, never going home as he didn't have one. I was thankful that we were pitched right next to the amenities block, this does not happen too often, we can be a fair walk away, thankfully being so close I made it in time, crashing through the door, crashed into a cubicle and not to put too fine a detail on it, my breakfast and I parted company swiftly.
My apologies to anyone else who was in the loo at the time, they may have been knocked down in the rush, thank goodness the cubicles were not all taken.
This was not a good start to the day, I felt awful after that, but we had no choice now other than pack up and move to our new location of Undara for a few nights. Andy did say that it could have been worse; I could have given the bad egg to him.
I did my best to help pack up but I think I was particularly useless, once we were packed we showered, hooked up the Patrol and hit the road, thanking Jo and Joe for a great stay while we were on the way out.
Ordinarily I am in the habit of typing
Free Car Wash
Our Favourite Free car wash. the blog while Andy drives, however today is not the day to be tackling that task as one false move may incur another involuntary reaction, we only have about 50 kilometres to go before we would be pitching camp again anyway so typing can be done this afternoon.
We stopped at the local grocery store, now when I say grocery store don’t think I am talking of the Woolworths or Asda selection of groceries, these stores have basic necessities so we stocked up on bread, milk, bacon (no eggs!! Don’t even mention eggs!!) and a packet of mints, thought they would help.
While standing in the queue at the counter I see a very tall guy standing there wearing overalls, he was wearing an ID badge that said “Jar Head” I looked at him and thought about the film, I think it is his mere size that gave him this nickname as he was not bad looking, the ID also had “Variety Club Bash”, I recalled when we were at Lawn Hill, they told us that they had 500 people staying soon, incorporating Leo Sayer (remember him?), all in the aid of raising money for the charity. Outside
there was a hive of activity as there were vehicles waiting around, people were drinking coffee and chatting in this ordinarily quiet part of town (well the only part of town really) went through Mount Surprise.
Once we were on the road again, well, after using the car wash again, we did see several more cars rigged out for this bash.
In a short while we were checking in at Undara, Dagmar was behind reception and instantly recognised and greeted us with her great smile and enthusiasm. We checked in, Dagmar handed over the map, information on the walks, the bistro etc and before long we were driving round to our campsite, we were able to have the one that we chose for our original campsite booking so we were pleased about that.
Before we got serious about pegging the tent down, we needed to do some alterations, of late the tent has not been hanging right, it looked decidedly wonky and there was a sag over our heads when we were in bed, so we needed to do something to remove the sag.
Andy released all the poles to slacken the strain, got the tape
measure out and started to fiddle with them, but to no avail we could not get this tent looking right and that sag was still there. We stood inside looking around and pondered and one thing gave away the true problem, there is a pocket stitched to the inside should be to the left hand side of the pole, well it wasn’t it had passed through to the right hand side of the pole.
I looked down the edges of the tent where it attaches to the trailer and realised that the whole tent had been sliding forwards thus a large section of the tent was hanging out too far at the back (I am sure corrugations have not helped here). So the only course of action was to try and shift the tent back to its original position, so carefully we worked the tent back into position, it is almost where it should be.
Problem solved, as soon as the poles were put back to where they should be, we could see straight away that the wonky shape had gone and the sag had completely disappeared, thus when we go to bed we wont have the tent hanging over our faces.
Then I find Andy looking at my with a serious face and said, “you know we are going to put the awning up?” “Yes, I know, we are here for 4 days it is hot and sunny and the one thing we need is shade.” Just in case I have not mentioned it, I am sure that I have, I hate putting the awning up, probably like most wives on this camping circuit, it takes time, Andy also likes it to be absolutely perfectly set up, he reckons that’s the boy scout in him.
It is hot, about 40 degree’s, I am not feeling particularly great, but the awning goes up, once it is done then we can rest. So a while later it is all done, I looked at the Kimberley Camper in beside us, they arrived just before we did yet their tent and awning is up already, but we did have to make those alterations so it did delay our usual speedy set up.
It is still hot, I don’t fancy any lunch but manage to eat a couple of bits of toast, but the plan for the afternoon includes some relaxation, there is no need to dash around and do anything today as we are here for a few days. I actually have a sleep, which is most unlike me to sleep in the afternoon. Once I am up, Andy decides to make a cup of tea, I am off tea as well today so opt for a sweet black coffee instead, much better. I also realise that I am addicted to Sudoku, I don’t know how many games I have got through on the Nintendo, but also each time I break the previous time record for completing it.
Late in the afternoon, it is starting to cool off a bit now to a nice comfortable temperature, Andy noticed that there is an ants nest in the middle of our campsite, but they are behaving a bit bizarre, the ants were running out of the hole and no more than a few inches away they would turn and run back in again. They did this for a while and we don’t know why.
The Australian Magpies are also hanging around looking expectant at us; I noticed one earlier when I had a lie down was on the table picking the crumbs off a plate. Australian Magpies seem to be quite large birds, they are nice to watch and they do have the loveliest song.
Dinner was light and consisted of noodles, with nothing else, Andy had some with Tuna, I could not face eating anything else. We should be eating the Kangaroo that Darryl and Sarah gave us, but there was no way I was going to eat anything like that, not today anyway.
We had been told that if we wanted to do some stargazing then we should go to the campfire this evening as there is someone going to take us through the Southern Hemisphere, so just before 8.00 we wandered down to the camp fire, there were a few people there already and the fire was blazing.
Once we were all gathered Malcolm walked us up to a rocky escarpment, it was darker there, away from the artificial light around camp and the bonfire, where we all (most of us) found a nice comfy spot to sit at, as comfy as you are going to get on a rock anyway. Malcolm discusses the stars, starting with the good old Southern Cross and the two pointers, he points out using a powerful beam more constellations including an aboriginal one of an Emu that runs through the Milky Way, he had a really good comprehension of the night sky so he was good to listen to and managed to answer everyone’s question.
It is so clear and very black the stars are just so much more visible due to the lack of light pollution. The Astronomy software Stellarium has helped our understanding of the Southern Hemisphere night sky, it has made us more familiar with what we expect to see in what direction.
We get back to camp after having a great night sky experience and get the cards out for a couple of hands and a beer. The birds have long since gone to bed and all is quiet, except for the odd howl which may be a Dingo and other faint spurious noises, even the crickets have stopped
We climb in to bed, the night is warm and we have the large flap open above our heads, we can see the stars and Jupiter exactly above us.
About half an our later we are both still awake which is unusual for Andy, I am sure sometimes he is asleep before he gets in to bed, but this time I can still get a sensible conversation out of him. We hear a pad, pad, pad and excitedly look out of the mozzie flap (which now has no sag!) and see a small Rufus Betong hop by, they are marsupials, and are the size of a smallish dog, with feet like a Kangaroo but with a softer more rounded face and shorter rounded ears (bit like Andy really!)
The thought of eggs right now is still very off putting, I think I will be off eggs for a while, so just don’t talk about them.
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Sharon, Tim & Wade Blyton
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Happy Anniversary for Tuesday guys
Have been keeping in touch with your stories, still great reading. You are having a wonderful adventure by the sounds of it. Have a great day on Tuesday for your Anniversary. Wade will be 12 on Tuesday as well. All the "Best".