A Long Day at the Office
I got to go with Dave on his regular Thursday run this week.
We left Katherine at 2:30am, yes, I did say a.m. As in, the morning!
We were towing 3 trailers and had a long way to go.
When we arrived at the Roper Bar Store, after many
stops and drop offs along the way,
we were informed that the road to Ngukkur was
closed to heavy vehicles. This is the same road
Dave had gotten bogged on last week, among countless
other trucks, plus a roll over of a petrol tanker.
So, we ended up having to stay overnight at Roper
to wait for people from Ngukkur to come and pick up
their freight. By this time we were pretty tired and
glad that we would be able to sleep instead of turning
around and driving home that night.
Roper Bar Store is a store out in the middle of nowhere
that services the communities around.
It sells everything you can imagine, at exorbitant prices,
take away food and home cooked meals.
It also has a 'motel' that consists of air conditioned
dongas, toilet/shower blocks, bbq area (which surprisingly,
if you stand in exactly the right spot, you can get
mobile phone reception), a pool, a payphone (I suppose it works),
a kitchenette and dining room with tv (conveniently
propped up by 2 milk crates and a paint tin as the shelf is
obviously not up to the task)
So, Dave and I were well looked after and got a nice
home cooked meal for tea, bacon and egg roll and coffee
for brekky, and even a packed lunch when we left, plus cold drinks.
Not too mention a decent nights sleep of 8 hours!!
That's a whole lot more than usual at home!
Here's a couple of shots of interest.
Taking a fully assembled chemical shed off the trailer
Dave dropping off the mail at a station along the way.
We laugh about doing the mail run in a triple road train.
But, he actually does do the mail run like this.
Dry season is approaching and the dust covers everything.
The trees take on a whole new colour scheme.
Anyway, we arrived home in Katherine, back at the depo at
4:30 pm on Friday. The girls had the house all spic and span
and hadn't missed us at all :)
I missed my piano though. Had to fit a fair bit of playing
in to unwind from the long trip.
And that my friends, is a very shortened version
of another day in Dave's office!
(minus the long waits, frustrations, manoeuvrings
of a road train in small spaces, heat and dust,
air con not working etc etc)
Interesting side note:
Did you know that the Roper River has bull
sharks, crocodiles, sting rays and a rare swordfish
swimming around in it? True, Dave and I actually saw
a shark flopping around on the bank that some locals
had just caught. They swim 140km in from the coast.
Another reason why NOT to swim in the Territory!
If the crocs don't get ya, the sharks will ! Go figure??
So, if you're ever up our way, and you want
an outback Territory experience,
Dave will take you with him for the day.
Just make sure you go prepared for anything!
