Normal service will soon be resumed

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DAY 469


I emerged from the swag in which I had lay cosy and warm, but this morning was D-Day, after looking at the long range weather forecast and numerous phone calls with the canvas specialist based in Fyshwick, today was the day we had organised when the canvas was going on its journey across town and for the first time without its trailer.

It has been about 6 months, well in fact August 2009 when the zip went in the door of the trailer tent, which doesn’t seem to much of a hardship, but it prevented us camping in Lakeland National Park north of Cooktown on the way to Cape York, a popular area for snakes and indeed the National Park leaflets warned that at night you should not go anywhere without a torch, wear long trousers and closed in shoes and at anytime your tent should be zipped up even if you are sitting just outside.

So with this great big gaping hole in our tent you could have easily pushed a cow through let alone a snake. Can you imagine coming back from a long days hike and finding a cow in your bedroom, or even a Snake.?

This made Caroline nervous, the snake aspect not the cow, as the Snake that was specifically mentioned was the “King Brown” otherwise known as the “Mulga”, this bad boy is highly venomous and you don’t want to be sharing your Jim Jams or Tim tams with it.

We have only ever seen a live specimen at the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda near Cairns. It is not just self preservation, but the preservation of all living things, imagine a snake getting too close and Caroline chasing after it, thinking of the hand bag and shoes she was going to harvest from the poor unsuspecting creature.

Anyway I witter on, so the canvas of the Wendy House lay in a big pile on the floor, covered in the damp of the morning, Caroline went to shower and prepare for work whilst I wrestled the canvas on to the roof rack and secured it down with straps.

With our camp set up looking like a shelter for the homeless, we only really had the availability to rustle up some tea and toast and then we got in to the Bat mobile, well the patrol, and took Caroline to work.

As cheeky as it sounds I had organised a day off work in my first week, though I had explained to my employer what I needed to do and why at my interview so at least he was forewarned and ok with it.

Caroline got out at her stop (her office) then I set off for Fishwick with the canvas on the roof.

Just at the stroke on 9.00am I arrived, the time that we had agreed, I climbed on the roof of the patrol and threw the canvas down on to the ground. We carried it inside and I gave the guy my drawing that I had done with our requirements and asked if he thought it would be ready this evening like we had agreed.

He said he would do his very best and to call him in the middle of the afternoon to check, if not, then it would be another night in the swag, which wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Driving back through town I decided to go back to work for a few hours only as I had things to do, and I couldn’t really tidy up our very untidy camp site until we got everything back, so it was a futile equation until we had all the parts. I got into work about Nine Thirty, and worked until two pm when I left in order to close the circle.

The next thing on my agenda was at 3.30 to meet the Managing Director of the Nissan Dealership where we had had the truck serviced the other day, just to sit down and discuss the past billing situation, so after a quick change into trousers and shirt it was off to Belconnen.

Well the meeting went well, he didn’t pull a rabbit out of a hat nor did I expect him to, but was satisfied with his explanation and I found him to be an interesting chap, he looked young and was very dynamic.

After leaving him, I went back to the site, change back into short, thongs and tee shirt to go back across town and pick Caroline up at 5.00pm and then on to pick the canvas up, the fist phase of the work all finished and ready for collection.

Caroline was punctual as usual and we set off for Fyshwick again, stopping to pick up some cash along the way, when we arrived Brendan was waiting for us, the Wendy House was thrown, well wrestled back onto the roof rack, tied down and we sped off.

Back at the campsite we looked at our pitch, it did look a bl**dy mess, something that looked like a heard of elephants had wandered through, but now for the hard part. The canvas was laid out upside down and all the aluminium extrusions were put back in first along with the three cross members in the ceiling.

Well we worked our butts off getting everything back together, and it was hard work, we had to turn the canvas over, lay it on top of the trailer, then I had to crawl inside, lay down, hold a pole up with my feet at try to match the supporting vertical poles, whilst Caroline held the light for me, standing outside with her arm under the canvas, and also passing screw drivers and pipe clips in the process.

The one thing that we had both noticed throughout this whole operation including last night, that a number of people kept walking past our site, then eventually while we were putting it all back together people stopped to talk to us, I think curiosity was getting the better of people by now.

We explained what we were doing and why, one lady even thought that we put a completely new canvas on, I wish we had, she said that she felt sorry for us last night as they could see we slept in the swag, I joked that she was not sorry enough to offer us a bed for the night in their cosy caravan! However this is what the swag is for and plenty of people sleep in them under all sorts of conditions and we were no different to anyone else, it is a bed for the night after all.

By 9.30 most of the tent was back on, certainly enough to give us a bed for the night and we both agreed that we would not have an evening meal as it was too late but were both gagging for a beer, as we had been grafting so hard on this warm evening.

We jumped in the truck and went off to find a bottle shop (Off Licence) to by a carton of beer and when we got back we rustled up a few cheese and crackers, man we lead a rock and roll life style.

We finally took the sleeping bags and blankets out of the swag and made our bed up back in the Wendy house, we were knackered it had been another busy, fun packed day, but at least we had got the zip repaired in the trailer which really needed doing and in the grand scheme of things, with a bit of planning the exercise went as sweet as a nut.

This week has been crazy we have been, go go go all week and it’s been flat out in fact probably just like a normal week that we would have had in England, still normality can resume now.

I climbed into bed whilst Caroline did a few emails but I was asleep by the time she climbed into bed which was probably only 5 minutes later.

So until tomorrow hopefully when normal service will be resumed.

KJ

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Photos

Putting it all back together
The Wendy House repaired and its all going back together.

Canvas on the roof rack
Standing on the roofrack, getting the canvas off

Joint Effort
Zipping the awning to the Wendy House, now that was a hard job.

Comments

[TT's]

Hi
Hi guys good to see you haven't dropped off the face of the earth!! Bet not to many "office people" can say they just stepped out of their swag before heading to work. Sounds very rock ' n' roll - Beer, cheese and swag. Have a fab week Travelin Trueys