Day 79

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Slept in, didn't wake until 7-50, very late for me. The great part about living and working on the road is the clock, in reality is but an indicator, not a master. Quite a nice morning, some sun, again no warmth in it, but just seeing it instantly makes one feel better about the temperatures up here in the mountains. Pretty casual start to today, one photographic job to do at midday and apart from that, simply come what may. Over a couple of cups of coffee some "guide plans" were hatched for the next couple of weeks, whether they will ever become reality of get "changed on the fly" only the next two weeks will tell!
After chatting most of the morning to a lovely lady named Joan that lives here at the campground, we realised too late what the time was and didn't have time for lunch before going to our one job. This shouldn't of been an issue as on average a take is only around 75 minutes duration, but you can guess it, lovely people yet not organised, ending you being nearly 3 1/2 hrs to complete the tasks at hand. Maybe we do need to watch the clock after all!!! lol With rumbling stomachs we got back to camp, deciding it was then too late for lunch, so instead I made a "pay check" damper ( bush bread). A throw back to the aussie slang of days gone and the transient workers ( swaggies) of this country, when the only time they could afford to have anything but a plain damper was when they got their "check" for their work done, often food vouchers for the local store. A "pay check" damper would then contain a small amount of fruit, often sultanas or raisins as they were the cheapest, Feeling rather self indulgent by this time, I not only added sultana's, but also dried apricots and cinnamon, making the mix a bit wetter than usual result in what is more a heavy cake rather than a fruit bread, and it went down wonderfully with a cup of Chocolate Macadamia filtered coffer, bush style also. That's where I simply make the coffee in a saucepan simmer it very gently for a while, let it settle and pour the liquid off carefully, leaving the sediment that the filter would normally take out behind in the saucepan. Works just as effectively and less waste we leave behind for the planet to have to absorb.
We had never tried coffee this way until we were introduced to it by a lovely lady called Dorothy in Moree who was gracious enough to give us a packet to put to the test. Dorothy is a local aboriginal lady and a lovely, genuine person. We interact with many,many aboriginal people as we move around the country, and 99.9999% of them are simply AWESOME people. Please, in your own travels, take the time to simply say Hi to some, they won't bite, quite on the contrary, you will find out more useful information about an area in 2 minutes from a local than you will from a hundred brochures, gaining a "real" experience in the process. Forget nearly everything you have ever heard about the aboriginal people in the small country towns like Wilcannia and Bourke, the vast majority of it is ancient history, blown totally out of proportion by people that have NEVER even been to the town themselves and perpetuated as fact forever more by others just as ignorant or gullible.
We have had hundreds of truly memorable chats to people of original Australia, please try it for yourself, it is something special to do and see how quickly you are make to feel accepted by them.

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