Absolutely ages since the last update. And the only faults I can find
is my lack of writing prowess and most importantly the lack of
internet. Seriously, for a first world country Australian countryside
is terrible in that regards. They are trying to get it in check by
introducing a government funded thing called NBN which is more in
line of what we have in Western Europe, but they are ways away.
Still, the internet I'm tapping in to at the moment is the Hamilton
Library which is free, fast and all around acceptable (joking, it's
brilliant once you learn to live with scraps of kilobytes).
Anyway, since my last
update was seeing me being back in Alice Springs waiting for any more
jobs to come along I can write from there onwards. I had three job
possibility's running and I wanted to take no more in case all of
them suddenly wanted me to work for them. All three froze up. As
stated before, Frostys was failed due to conspicuous amounts of water
deciding to come down from above. I got another possible job with a
driller at Brunette Downs which was more likely to work than Frosty,
but he rung up after one month when I had already moved on so that
was out, too. The last I had heard from Murray was that his rig was
out somewhere in the bush. Non-working due to the rain getting that
stuck out there. Even the Todd river was running straight through
Alice Springs, a thing that apparently doesn't happen that much. Had
to cross it with the road underwater and then there are always scare
stories of crocodiles managing to get washed down here with the rain.
After being holed up in
Alice for another few days, no cash coming in I decided enough was
enough and I was going to leave the centre. Heading north was not
really and option, as the rains season had started and sometimes even
the main road to Darwin gets flooded and cut off. As there are only
two roads out of Alice I headed back down south to Victoria. Red had
offered me his place as a base and as I had more job possibility's
down there than in the middle or north, that is where I went. Most I
have ever driven actually. Left Alice at 10AM and reached Reds twenty
four hours later. 2100Km in 24 hours, three near kangaroo misses, a
couple of dingos, one hour sleep outside Port Augusta and a dead owl
later I had made it. Found the road for 2000km no problem as there is
only really the one main one, but the last 100km I had to pull maps
out.
The next couple of
weeks where spent back at Reds. Enjoying New Years Eve in Portland
and getting used to summer weather down south, which wasn't as severe
as the Red Centre, but still hot. Did rather a lot of fishing and
enjoyed a few late nights down the rivers doing just that. Helped
Barton out a few times with his Bore down here and got some water for
the dry spell stricken farmers in West Victoria. Some have had it so
bad they have had to sell all their livestock due to lack of water. A
fire was spotted just a couple of kilometres away from Tahara, too.
Red and Katherine where in Ballarat at the time and if it had
encroached on the farmhouse his mum and me would have had to get out.
As it was I could see the smoke rising from the hill Reds farm is on
and watched heaps of trucks and two planes come in to drop thousands
of litres of water on to the flames. Nothing bad further happened, as
the CFA got it under control fast, but it was still the first
threatening fire I had seen like that.
In that time I also got
my conformation for another year down under. Took them long enough,
just over two months, but I had been told that Australian officials
sort of freeze up in January, due to the large amounts of holiday.
Had a few visits to
farm conventions and watching a footy match in the MCG with just over
70 000 people present. What an atmosphere.
I garnered myself a job
with one of Reds mates, who is a hay contractor and does a regular
job up north near Katherine, where I will be heading at the beginning
of April. Off to the subtropics then.
Here is to not get
eaten by a croc, bitten by a snake, killed by a drop-bear “grins”,
stung by a box jelly, attacked by an emu, camel, kangaroo, etc. You
get the picture. Everyday live in Australia, still a fun time which I
am not regretting.
