Back at The Woolshed

We have now returned back to Jondaryan, a long drive back over the goat tracks and highways of Queensland and the N.T. It was a 7,000km "side" trip but it was worth it to catch up with Stuart and Alex.

Like everyone else we have seen lots of road kill on our travels but by far the worst we have seen was on the way back, a three trailer road train full of cattle had ran off the road and overturned, not sure how the driver was but sure was a lot of wasted steaks lining the roadside.

 

Apart from one night in a caravan park at Mt Isa we free camped the rest of the way home and found a couple of real good ones, one even had grass and no RED DUST.

 

We soon got back back into the groove here at the Woolshed but on Saturday night it all came unstuck when Lucille decided to try and upstage Sue and her medical problems...she was talking to horses that were outside our van and as she moved away tripped over the annexe guy rope and fell over and landed on the point of her right elbow and managed to brake both her main bones in her forearm, this was 9.30pm rang the nearest Hospital and they advised an ambulance which we got and eventually they  arrived and administered some morphine, much to the relief of Lucille as she was in extreme agony, so a long night at the hospital followed, the x rays showed one bone badly fractured and the other broken and moved so they put Lucille in the land of the nod and reset the bone and put on a temporary cast, we finally got out of there about noon on Sunday.

 

Back to see the bone Doc tomorrow to organise when they will operate as they still have to put some pins in, hopefully it will be Wednesday or Thursday. At the moment she is pretty comfortable thanks to the mix of painkillers that she is taking.

 

Sooo that makes me the cook and bottle washer, personal hygiene controller and dresser/undresser, so far we are coping ok and of course Lucille being Lucille she is already starting to do some things, her left hand writing is not real flash though.

 

Things are very busy here at Jondaryan as the Jackie Howe Festival and Golden Shears Competition is on this weekend, most of the staff reckon Lucille has gone a bit over board just to get out of working at the weekend.

 

Anyway more updates will follow in due course

More Happy Snaps

Kalkaringi!!!!

G'day everyone, hope you are all well, we have been here at Kalkaringi now for a week and its been great to catch up with Stuart and his girlfriend Alex, the weather is nice, high 20's to low 30's most days but cool overnight which makes sleeping much better, not that sleeping is easy mind you with most nights mobs of dogs roaming the streets and fighting and barking non stop for hours and their owners don't seem to notice and every house has at least 3 or 4 dogs plus cats, they are a real menace but look out if you harm any of them, then it's "payback" time!

Did I tell you the weather is nice (although the wind is blowing hard most days) and it's good to be spending time with the kids, oh and the rivers and fishing holes are just beautiful, we have had picnics on the river banks and did lots of fishing but so far no luck.

On our way here we mostly free camped along the way but did have a few days stop over at Mt Isa and Katherine where we met up with Stuart and Alex, they had been in Melbourne for a week with sixteen school kids and a few other teachers and flew back to Darwin then drove their school bus down to Katherine, had a night there and then home to Kalkaringi last Monday with us following along, the roads pretty good, turned south off the Victoria Highway onto the Buntine, dual lane till we got to Top Springs, didn't see any springs but there was a roadhouse/pub and diesel for $2.20!
The next 170k's was single lane and pretty ordinary but the scenery was very good and in places we could see for miles, light scrub and grass everywhere, this is cattle country at it best.

We did not expect to much of Kalkaringi and we were not dissappointed, lots of dust, lots of rubbish everywhere, lots of unkept houses and as mentioned earlier, dogs on the roads, there is one shop that sells basis supplies and fuel, $2.30 here, a Health Centre, School, Arts Centre, Police Station, Council Chambers and Depot, Solar operated Power Station, Airport for light arcraft (a one way ticket to Katherine is $2,000.00) and a "Club" that opens nightly at 5.00pm, dress code is shorts, shirt and thongs, you have to sign in and you must have at least $20 in your pocket, we went last Friday, it was quite busy as it was "pay" day, no children are allowed in so they play outside the fence and keep yelling to mum to by them some tucker which if they are successful is duly tossed over the fence to them, the battle for food for kids here is a real problem especially in school holidays, on school days they are fed if they attend classes, a pretty good insentive to go.

Apart from dogs there is also mobs of wild donkeys and horses wandering all over the place, Lucille heard a disturbance one night and as Lucille does went to investigate and several brumbies wandering around our van so they were duly evicted to the street.

A few k's North of Kalkaringi is another community called Daguragu, we went for one drive there, won't bother going back

On Saturday we celebrated Christmas big brunch and hot evening meal of pork, ham vegies and all the trimmings followed by plum pudding and various other deserts, we had a great day.

So back to the highlights of the place, catching up with our family, Christmas Celebrations and our river bank picnics.