Australian Summer

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.