Day off - not off day

Fried fish and tapioka with miti, or coconut salad for those not in the know, for dinner. Yum, what a treat after spending all morning down the beach with the family fishing, and when I say fishing I mean fishing, this place is so untouched that as soon as your line hits the water the hits, and big hits, are on. This is the third time I've been there, and the fishing stays the same. Last time I was there on a low out going tide, and today on near full in coming tide, the kids all caught a fish each of some variety like ogo or baracuda, saqa or golden trevally, kawakawa or cod, saku or long tom, kawago or yellow emperor, and the finale was qio or shark.

Great day, away from work and having fun with the kids, doing what dad likes to do, well they love it too. So we have enough fish for the next week, now back to work for the next few days and then go hunting for a kangaroo or wild pig, that in the lovo or ground oven would be nice, mmm can taste it already. It's good when you work on your lonesome, and you are on top of things, you can do lots of fun stuff especially around here, absolutely untouched country, from the coast of the treacherous gulf of Carpentaria to about 260 kilometres inland to Cape Crawford and the surrounds as in the southern lost city, the Rosie River, Limmen River, and as far up as the Roper River. This country is how it was in the beginning, the last Australian frontier, and we absolutely love it. Well bed time for a big day on the job tomorrow... Good reading.

First comes bait

Helping hands

Dinner

Finale of the day

Kamica's catch

Serau's catch

Evander's catch

Never boring around here

It was so good to put the delicate technical tools away. Woke up this morning to my Aussie kids' breaky with the children, and was ready to start moving the second container in to place when a hissing sound started coming out from the fridge motor. Fa...fa... far out! Here we go again. I pulled the fridge out, luckily I installed it so I knew exactly how to pull it out in 5 minutes... The little cooling coil that has a sucking fan on it was all clogged, yes easy, clean that and it should be all good - wishful thinking - well it needed a clean anyway, and with the roads we've been driving on, no wonder! Now the sound was coming from the rectifier intermittently. I put the multi meter on the voltage out point, the reading was 27.9 volts, then the sound would come on and the voltage would drop to 23.9, it sounds like it's coming out of a capacitor, well I think so anyways... I'm no fridge mechanic. The fridge is still working, but I have ordered a new rectifier for peace of mind, and if it blows up before I get the new one I will go 24 volts direct from my battery bank, probably be the smart thing to do... Hey but I'm not smart!
Now back to the job: two containers 25 meters apart, which I must move, to have them 6 meters apart, square, raised, level, and ready to be converted into a dwelling with a patio in the middle, etc. I love this cause I only have a jack, few pieces of timber, a chain, as many logs as I need (I only have to cut them), the Triton, and myself, oh and the wonder woman my wife: when in trouble or need help, call mum... I don't know what I would do without her, thank you Lord for my inspiration, I love her. Ha! Still feels like puppy love too... OK that's enough, beer time, always nice after a hard days work, bye.

Ready to go

Makeshift tracks

So close yet so far

Use what's there

Snake sounding rectifier

Beer time

Quiet time, at last

And it has come to pass that TV has arrived to Pandanus Ridge, via the big bird in the sky, satellite. We received the black box today. Hang on! Why are most boxes called black box, I'm going to paint this one red and call it a red box... Anyway, on setting it up I could not find the signal from the satellite, after two hours of trying, readjusting the dish, moving location, resetting angle degrees, still not working, so I pulled apart the satellite signal finder, and there was the problem. The connection for the coax cord in from the dish was broken at the solder on the circuit board, bingo, fixed that and away we went.

The kids got to watch their ABC kids channel 22, we get to choose from 109 channels from all over the country...  Now I can get to watch the 6 o'clock bad news and the footy, and mum could get some time off from the kids when they are watching their programs, I hope! Magic, things are looking good, job's looking good, and the future's looking good, around here anyway, as I have just scored a major deal on a new industry for the area... Tooooo goood and like the locals say, "deadly", and will only get better. Keep smiling people, enjoy.

Fine tuning

Jack of all trades, master of none

Happy days

And the supplies arrived, so I got to go into town, the big smoke with 3 shops, 110 kilometres away. I was rather stressed when I got to the Pandion depot all because I didn't bring an esky knowing I had lots of cold dairy and poultry goods, and not only that, there were two pallets sitting there for me, not including the freezer stuff. Uh - oh I need a trailer! So where do I get one from? And there was Frank my Saibai Islander brother, and I must say that since we got here he has helped me when ever I needed help. What a man, thanks my brother. Now I got a trailer and an esky from this good Samaritan, and started on the road back to camp. We were down to our last ten litres of drinking water so I wanted to get back asap... All good, beeping the horn on the way in and got there to everyone happy and waiting for something for themselves knowing I went to town. They are the little things I live for and I must say I love the question mark look on the kids' faces: "What's there for us?" The kids are happy, the wife's happy, I got my two yellow xxxx boxes and happy, and to top it off we had vonu for dinner. What a day, night, life... Good night.

Half unloaded and half to go

Welcoming sight in the bush

Choc-a-block

Overflow

Dad's treat

Camp problems

Dingoes are trying to show us, or my dog rather, that this is their territory. In the last few days we have been hearing them just on dark, and last night when I got back from a sea hunt at about 8.30 pm, the kids were asleep, the wife had just gone to bed and I was getting something to eat, when I heard Jiniba fighting. I ran outside, grabbed my bush spear and headed towards the fighting. From about 15 meters away I could see Jiniba was really telling them, "I'm the boss here now so stay away". The dingo ran off and Jiniba came to me like a champ that he is. This happened two more times before I fell asleep only to wake up to the kids running into my room yelling: "Ta, Ta, the dingo is there!" I got up and grabbed the phone for some photos, Jiniba was sizing the big male up, and without any exchange of words he walked towards the bus with his head down. Then I realized what was going on; one came into site, drew Jiniba towards him, then backup arrived out of the bushes, more dingos.... Now I think Jiniba knows who's the boss around these bushes.

I did some work, then went bush with the kids, and there were dingo puppy prints every where, along with what looked like water buffalo prints. Tried to track the puppies to no avail so we came back to camp and had ice cream... what a treat out here! Tomorrow I'll pick up supplies for the next two weeks, and hopefully the foundation will be down and the structure up before the next supply run.... Oh and my airbags should be here, or I will be forced to remove one from the lazy wheel and fit it on the drive wheel, lock off the hose and gently Bentley it to town... Ha ha, get out of the sand first! I do have a plan...........  

Kids learning tracking from master tracker

Back to my roots

Follow that track! 

Pack attack

Caught off the beach while vonu was gutted

5 days and counting

Who said airbags can't blow up, while trying to dig out of a sand pit... **€£₩$ and what a bang it was! On the bright side the kids got sounds of fire works without smoke, and dad just got a headache. 5 days on, still in the sand, and now with a blown airbag - what a life, absolutely love it, never a dull moment. I had just got camp set up with all the comforts, as in tap water with 10 bar pressure, washing machine, kids shed school, toilets, and, and...

Today I was to move the Phantom out of the way as to start what I came here to do, and start on the foundation, but to no avail, so I've just been working on removing the airbag, getting part numbers and ringing around looking for the part... So relaxing... Maybe start on the building work tomorrow and every day after that till the part gets here, and according to our calculation, if it is sent from Queensland it will take three weeks, not too long, just hope it doesn't rain because if it does I'm in trouble of all sorts. Oh well, like Darren Hinch says, "such is life". Man I need a drink, I really need one. Catch ya.

- D -

Gone with a bang

Town pressure anywhere

Bush plumbing

Always need a school

From little things, big joys grow

We have had such a productive day in the wilderness, setting up camp and sorting out what goes where. There's no running water in the camp as the bore is dry, but we drove out to another bore to fill a water tank. 'Fill up' we didn't, as the trailer wouldn't have been able to take the full weight of the water tank, but we've got enough for now, and we can always drive back for a re-fill...

Another win: my husband connected a water pump - found amongst all the rubbish - from the water tank to our bus and the washing machine, so I DIDN'T HAVE TO HAND WASH ALL OUR DIRTY LAUNDRY! I started it though, washing the all important socks and jocks first, until he stopped me, and promised the washing machine would be going soon. And so it did, in the middle of nowhere, spinning around as it should, and I thought this was half a miracle. A miracle with some help from my husband, water pump and a genny (I'd like to call her the genie from now on...). Life is good, we've got the best of both worlds. We are living in the solitude of our own bush camp with everything we need. It is these little things in life that we have grown to appreciate: water, clean air, well functioning laundry service... You get the drift. Nothing in life should be taken for granted!

- M -

He came for a little drive...

...to gain a BIG bone.

I started off by doing a little handwashing...

...and all of a sudden it had escalated into a full blown operation to get the washing machine going. Starting from filling the water tank, of course...

...to connecting the water pump...

...having running water...

...and a running washing machine.  

Soon there were clothes lines everywhere! Thank you technology, thank you my clever husband.

Dig in, dig out

Pandanus Ridge, we are here. And what a trip: clearing the road in places, dodging trees, digging our way out of sand... That wasn't easy, and I'm still stuck in the sand, in the middle of the track at the Ridge. I will pull out the 9 tonne winch in the morning, that should help, or so I hope... The bus weighs 23 tonnes, I wonder what is the pulling weight? Well I guess these hiccups all come with the terrain, definitely not a place for double decker buses, unless it's the Phantom and the crazy family...

Hero might come in handy in running 110 kilometres for help if the winch and my bush made track won't work, but I'm confident it will though. Wife got a bit of anxiety after she saw the little dirt track and the first dig, but she's holding it together pretty good I must say. Kids wouldn't change it for anything, taking photos of wildlife while dad was happily digging for 2 hours straight on rock hard compact sand, and mum trying not to show how worried she was. Dad buggered for now, got to charge the batteries up tonight to do it all again in the morning... Just keeping the dream alive, and loving it..... Sometimes hard love. Well need to charge the batteries now, good night.

Tomorrow's job

Not for the faint hearted, sandy sandy...

Beautifully dangerous

Making way

Bump on the road

Digging our way in

Two hours later, nearly there

Day 1: Kids' wildlife photography

Mobile playgroup

There's a fantastic initiative in Katherine region, where a playgroup travels thousands of kilometres to reach remote communities and cattle stations. All in all they cover over 760 000 square kilometres! We were lucky enough to be in Borroloola when K.I.C.S.' (Katherine Isolated Childrens Service) 4x4 arrived, towing along a trailer full of fun! And the free morning tea wasn't too bad either, thinks mum...

Although our children have a small number of toys each (dad thinks even that's too much), we don't carry a lot of art and craft supplies in the bus. Therefore, attending a playgroup or a local homeschooling group is always like a party for us; the children go crazy with glue, glitter, playdough, and whatever else is on offer. And the two early childhood educators from K.I.C.S. were fun, bubbly and energetic - something a tired old mum most days is not... 

After the children had done enough craft activities, there was a great variety of toys and musical instruments to play with. The youngest ones were keen to ride bikes and scooters around too; this playgroup had it all. When living in remote areas, shopping for kids' toys is not always easy - local stores are often expensive, and shopping online for larger items is not an option either due to freight costs. As to our children, if they are  not climbing trees, reading books or drawing, the library and playgroup here offer lots of things to do. We will be going again if we happen to be around when the playgroup returns! 

The craft table was everyone's favourite, and K.I.C.S. trailer was full of surprises.

This boy can't resist the wheels.

Toys galore.

And it's all education...

...education...

...education.