Dropping Like Flies

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I have to say this typing this is starting to sound a little repetitive, but Friday was upon us and once again we were to be heading out of town for a weekend with our friends, a long weekend in Western Australia and as always we like to take advantage and make the most of them.When we were returning from our Christmas break at Esperance we stopped for a night at a great free camp spot called Pumphries Bridge, it is about 25 Kilometres from the nearest town of Pingelly, (pronounced Pin-Jelly) and we had promised ourselves that we would return as it’s only a couples of hours from Perth.

This week had gone in a blink of an eye, Peter and Leigh stayed with us for a couple of nights as they are just about to start a house sit and as our trip out of town was heading our way it was just easier for them to pack up early and stay with us.

It was our 4 wheel drive club AGM on the Thursday night and we needed to be there, to shorten a very long story I volunteered for the position of Vice President and Andy B took the position of El Presidentee, so if we mess it up we will do it in a meteoric fashion, we didn’t have much opposition (well non in fact) as nobody else put their hand up at all and in order to continue running the club must have a president and vice president to continue as per the constitution.

Caroline and I escaped from work early and so did Peter and Leigh, we all converged back at the house around the same time, the first job for Peter and I was to pull both the camper trailers out of the shed, where they are being kept and we needed to top up with non drinking water in Roobie.

For the second week running when we went in to the shed and found a snake, and for the second week running Peter had to deal with it for us, it was a baby dugite, and before you all say aah, they pack the same punch in venom delivery as an adult.

With the house all locked up we hit the road heading East, with a fairly short journey in front of us.

Andy and Karen had left an hour before we did and we gave them a call just to tell them we had left and what time to expect us, they were about fifteen minutes from the destination, so would soon be setting up camp.

Our journey was uneventful but pretty all the same, the familiar scenery of the wheatbelt region of W.A.

We pulled up at Pumphries Bridge at about 6.30 and it didn’t take us long to set up, I have to say the Kimberley Karavan is about the easiest thing to set up that we have owned.

We soon took our seats under the gazeebo, Karen had done dinner for us all, we had kebabs, lamb souvlaki, tabouli, and salad all dressed in garlic sauce, and served on a corn flour tortilla, it was yum.

It had been a busy day and after a good dinner it was time for bed, we had all the windows open so the cool evening air could waft over us.

We woke to a beautiful morning, and heard everyone outside, but poor Peter had been up all night, leaking from both ends, that’s all we shall say on the matter, he didn’t look at all well and off he went back to bed.

We had breakfast and I had a couple of jobs I wanted to do as I had just not had time to do them at home, I was excited as we had just purchased a new HF radio that needed installing in the truck and I need to change our existing antenna from the old to the new as the original one was waiting to be given to the guy that I had sold it to so I set about taking the Codan antenna off the landcruiser.

As soon as this easy task was done we decided to take a run into Narrogin a smallish town about 50k’s away, and Leigh wanted to get the very sick Peter something from the chemist.

The run into Pingelly was simple and soon Leigh had what she needed for Peter then shot back to camp to deliver the goods to the now very green Peter, then off we shot to Narrogin we knew that the window of opportunity would be small as most shops and cafes in small country towns close at lunch time on a Saturday.

We sat in a cafe and had coffee, the day was lazy and Karen and Leigh needed to go to the supermarket, so Caroline and I headed back to camp and we would meet the others back there, when we got back poor peter was looking an unearthly shade of green and very forlorn.

Caroline and I had agreed that we would do a full turkey dinner on the Saturday night as we had not got around to eating the turkey roll we had purchased for Christmas and it had been kept in the freezer awaiting a suitable time when it would be eaten, we had asked Andy if we could do it on their Weber BBQ and it was all arranged that this would happen.

Before the BBQ was put on to warm, the girls noticed that it was covered in ants and they needed to be dealt with so a rigorous cleaning exercise took place, we could not afford for any ants to remain on the barbecue and cook with the turkey.

Eventually the turkey was put on a low heat to cook slowly whilst we prepared the vegetables to compliment it. We had a good meal and a good evening.

Next day (Sunday) was the first day of March and as I looked out of the window in Roobie I could see Peter wandering about, so I got up to see how he was, he said he felt better.

When everyone was up and breakfasted, they decided that they were going to take a drive around the area, I didn’t want to go as I just wanted to have an easy day and potter around with the things that I wanted to do, so Caroline, Peter, Leigh, Karen and Andy went off whilst I stayed at camp and mooched around.

I just wanted to do my stuff that I had not had chance to do, those little jobs that just drive you mad if you leave them and I had definitely left them to long.

I finally got what I wanted done by 2.15 and just made myself a cup of tea, grabbed the lap top and intended on sitting in the shade under the awning and typing some of the blog, just as my bum cheeks made contact with the canvas seat I heard a vehicle coming our way so took a look out and saw two occupants looking at me, the driver said good day mate and I thought to myself who the hell is that, only to realise that it was Trevor and Peta who had come down to spend the evening with us from the Toyota Landcruiser Club and of course they brought their dog Dodge.

I explained that the gang had been out all day and that Peter was feeling pretty ill but they said it wasn’t a worry and thy would set up for the night and spend some time with us, which was great.

Caroline and the others arrived back at about just after 3.00pm.

In the week I had cooked a shepherd’s pie, froze it and brought it with us, so the plan tonight was again to put the BBQ on and heat it up.

The shepherd’s pie heated nicely but it took a little longer than expected but we got there, unfortunately before we got to dinner Leigh had become ill and went to bed.

Peter was feeling slightly better so made an effort to eat a little bit of my pie and I had made it especially for him as it had my very best spring onion mash potato top, fortunately as Trev and Peta had arrived they to made up the eating numbers.

Again we were not late to bed and we crawled under the doona, it was a hot night, but we were tired so sleep came easily.

We awoke to another beautiful day, we were disappointed that we would have to be going home today, as it was work tomorrow, I saw Karen up and went over for a chat and got more bad news, Andy Bayley was now down feeling crook.

We had only been here three days and we had three people down with a tummy bug, poor Andy B he didn’t look well and they had to pack up their gear, fortunately Peter was feeling slightly better so we all set about packing the Gazebo up for Andy and Keren which was only fair as we had all used it.

With everyone packed up we pulled out first at about ten thirty with a short hour and a half hop home, it was an easy drive and we arrived about midday and and after a short rest, got Roobie away and ready for another trip.

I was popping Imodium like they were smarties as I had no intention of getting ill, unfortunately that was not the end of the saga as Caroline went down with it on Tuesday night and was quite unwell so I had 3 excellent nights in the spare room, I banished Caroline from even crossing the threshold in to my room and as I complete this blog on Monday 9^th March I had no illness.

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Photos

Dropping Like Flies
The old post office at Wickepin

Dropping Like Flies
Roobie set up at Pumphries Bridge

Dropping Like Flies
Peter and Leigh's Land Cruiser

Dropping Like Flies
The Gazebo where all the fun was

Dropping Like Flies
Leigh doing Breakfast

Dropping Like Flies
Dodge and his bowl

Dropping Like Flies
Doesn't vry one stand in their drinking bowl

Dropping Like Flies
Roobie

Dropping Like Flies
Wickepin Railway station

Dropping Like Flies
The Dam at Dryandra