The Day That The Sky Turned To Blood!

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DAY 320

As we mentioned yesterday, we had an easy day as we were out walking on Monday, however today the truck is in for a service, so nothing much is going to happen today either.

As thoughtful as Andy is, he got up early and took the truck down to the Nissan dealer and left me in bed. Well there was no point in me going too as I could not do anything and Nissan would be dropping him off using the courtesy bus service.

At some point shortly after 8.00 a cup of tea appeared by my bedside, Andy was back and thus the beginning of another lazy day.

After breakfast and a shower I busied myself by just having a tidy up in the kitchen, then brushed and mopped the floor but I could hear my new book calling me and so was the hammock! So with my chores done, cup of tea and book in hand I retreated to the veranda where the hammock was dutifully waiting for me.

I now check the hammock every time I use it now after the bewildered Gecko incident, so it has made me wary of what other things may like to sit in it while vacated. Once happy that there is nothing in there with any more than 2 legs, I am happy.

Oh this is bliss, the hammock swings happily with momentum gained from the struggle to get into it, I just enjoy the moment and then when finally the swinging stops I manage to grab my book and bring my cup of tea nearer. I no longer feel guilty for taking advantage of this luxury.

Andy is on the sofa at the other end of the veranda, he has started to read “Diamonds and Dust” again by Sheryl McCorry. He feels that he will now have a better appreciation of the book now that we have come through the Kimberley’s and understand more about the terrain and the distances from civilisation.

Eventually it is lunchtime, Andy makes us a sandwich each, we both make an effort to do something else for a while, I actually get time to read other peoples blogs, so made a big effort to read Gary and Linda’s blog, who incidentally are reading ours on a regular basis and although they are back at home in Canada now, their blog is available to read and I have been meaning to read it since they joined us earlier this year. You can see what they got up to on their trip to Australia by following: www.mytb.org/ThePass

Eventually however I succumb back to the confines of the hammock, which I will dearly miss when we are back on the road again, once again I pick up my Nora Roberts book and indulge in a good story.

A text message pings on the mobile, Andy says the truck is ready for collection, it is 2.00, so he phones the garage and asks for a lift in to collect, they oblige and ten minutes later we are sitting in a nice air conditioned VW minibus after having abandoned a cup of tea, our books and lazy afternoon.

The good news is that the service does not cost us any more than we expected, we challenged them on the cost when we went in to book it, they said it would be about $330, Andy did not like the word “about” and said I want to know exactly so they said exactly $330 and that’s exactly what we paid. Despite wanting the tyres rotated and re balanced (to ensure even wear) but they could not do that as the machine had broken, however they have disconnected the troublesome cruise control, which hopefully solves the problem of the engine over revving. Well the cruise control was not troublesome but there is clearly a software conflict so the disconnection was crucial until we can have the problem properly investigated.

We head out on the road, Andy seems happy with the truck, all is in order and sounds ok, so we get back to Bayview and resume our relaxation positions.

I only started my new book yesterday and I have finished the first of two stories, which I was saving for the trip up to Cape York, but never mind I am sure I wont have time to read on the next leg of the journey.

Because today has been so lazy we had to do our walk to the top of the road again, it is quite humid at the moment, but that must not deter us! We join the seemingly masses of people who are wandering past on a mission, on the walk up we pass a few people already on the way down and on our way down we pass a few people on the way up. This walk is very popular!!

On the news tonight we find out that a huge dust storm has swamped Sydney, the last time we saw Sydney it was beautiful bright blue cloudless skies and endless sunshine, but not today, the sky has turned to blood, or so the news reporter has said, you can barely see the Opera House from the other side of the harbour and the people interviewed for the news item all said that they thought it was the end of the world.

This apparently is the worst dust storm in 70 years and in fact it covered Brisbane too! Caused by the severe droughts, the wind picked up an estimated 8 million tonnes of dust from Western New South Wales. However the dust is heading North and we are told it is due in Cairns tomorrow, so we have something to look forward to, Not! Tomorrow is the day that we are booked onto the Kuranda Scenic Railway, it sounds like it may not be very scenic after all.

Also in the news, two male Pythons were captured from Yorkeys Knob Boat Club, these Pythons moved into the abandoned Boat Club about 5 years ago but now it is to be renovated and the Pythons need moving. With the two male pythons captured they are now looking for “Mummy”, she is a whopping 7.1 meters in length and is apparently capable of crushing and eating an adult.

Two young chaps from Australian Venom Zoo at Kuranda captured the Pythons and apparently the larger male python actually lifted one of the guys while he was trying to capture it. Don’t worry though, the pythons will all be relocated back into the wild when “Mummy” is captured, so you wont catch me heading into that area any time soon after their release!!

Andy cooks up a great dinner again tonight, left over curry, with rice, always a good meal.

We watch some TV, Andy’s sister Jane calls us for a quick chat on Skype, but it is soon bedtime and we don’t want a late night as we need to be up early tomorrow for our day out.

Until tomorrow as long as “Mummy” doesn’t get us…..yikes!

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Photos

Swing Fever
Caroline had difficulty in shifting her lazy butt out of this today!