We arrived at an aboriginal arts center. We
had never seen an aboriginal before. An old, old man was working on his art
piece, and Barb just naturally befriended him, talking his ear off. He was
patient with us for a while, a nice old man. Finally, though, he just got up
and disappeared.
Heading on south, we began to meet road trains.
These were big trucks pulling three, four, or more big trailers, usually filled
with cattle, some double-deckers. The farther they were into the outback, the
more trailers they were allowed to pull. The first time I met one on the road,
weaving back and forth like a snake, I started looking for a good place to
leave the road. There was none. In some places, we traveled 100 kilometers
without meeting anyone.
We passed a yard sale. Barbara just never
can pass one up in another country, she just has to see what their old stuff
looks like. When we walked around the corner of the house, a big animal made a
run at Barbara. She bolted for the car. Finally, the lady convinced her it was
a pet. It was an alpaca, like a llama. It just loved to lay its head on
Barbara's shoulder, and make a contented, purring sound. Barbara bought a
small, delicate teapot with roses on it, and actually made it back home with
it. I bought a weird thing that, I found out later, is a chinese idol or God or something, I'm not sure what.
Back home, I pulled it out to show a
friend who had just been a missionary in China, and she ran away screaming. I
don't know what all the fuss is about, it has been a totally well behaved weird
thing in my closet for years now.
We
went on, but stopped quickly when a large lizard with a head on each end
crawled out into the road in front of us. Looking more closely, one head proved
to be fake. I guess the fake head is used to convince predators it's boldly
facing it while actually running away. Not a bad idea.
We had trouble finding lodging that night.
Seems it was Labor Day in Australia, and everything was packed up. We finally
found a bar with a huge room filled with beds upstairs, so we had it to
ourselves. They had beds in there for 20 or so. They advertised free “sizzlers”
with a room or bed rental. Well, this was their “super bowl” night, and the
fans in the bar were already drunk and rowdy. I didn't even want to go into the
bar, I've never been much on honky tonks. But, Barbara was not about to miss
out on our sizzler, (hot dog) so we went in. We sat in a back corner. I could
see right off that the drunks were hanging on every play on the TV, and we
would have to stand between them and the TV to get our sizzlers. I was ready to
go hungry, and I was beginning to see that the “ Dunnahoe nerve” was beginning
to turn on me. Barb just marched up there, blocked the drunks off, and demanded
our sizzlers. I just hung back, and tried to look like I wasn't with her.
Someday, that “Dunnahoe nerve” is going to be the death of me!
The next day, as we moved on south, (I
thought my life was about to go south on me last night.) and the country was
beautiful. Green hills, full of sheep. Purple flowers covered many fields, as
far as you could see. We drove past a gas station with lots of people standing
around a huge ram. Barb jumped out to get a picture. The huge ram made a run at
her. Once again, she bolted for the car. There's some things her “Dunnahoe
nerve” just does not cover. Turned out, just another pet.
We drove through the beautiful Blue
Mountains, skirted the edge of Sydney, and headed on south. A sheep station advertised home stays, so we
went for it. Early the next morning, the sheep rancher said he was rounding up
all the sheep to “mark the lambs.” Well, that involves cutting a piece of skin
off just below the tail, so that its bodily functions would not mat up there,
and attract flies that laid dangerous worms. His daughter, twelve or so, hated
that day, but she had to help. They needed
the whole family. Barbara took her aside and gave her the old “I was a
farm girl too, and sometimes, you just do what you gotta do” talk. Of course,
marking lambs is different from chopping cotton. Those weeds didn't scream when
you cut parts off. But, it did help.
I was put in the back of the pickup with
the dogs, Barb in the cab with the humans. He just drove around the flock,
giving a special whistle for each dog and each task assigned to him, and in
short order the sheep were all penned. One of the dogs was very independent. He
never acted on the first whistle, it took two to get him into action. But he
was so good once he was in action, the sheep man tolerated him making his
statement.
The Station had a huge water tank on one
corner of each building, and every drop of water they used was rainwater from
those tanks. Well water was salty. It did not rain very often.
No comments:
Post a Comment