Going Native

Life is very different up here now that I am north of anything resembling civilisation as I knew it. When travelling, the only places to stop are basically roadhouses, where you can camp, take a shower, rent a "dog box" room for the night, get diesel and water & buy a scary looking chicken kebab thing on a stick. Freaked out looking backpackers work like slaves for a week or so for cash, mopping out toilets & fending off desperate lonely guys from the stations.  People drive in from all over the place to get internet & mobile phone reception, do their online banking etc, then disappear back into the bush.

You get used to the sound of diesel generators running 24 hours; everyone has to be self-sufficient as there is no such thing as "town water" or electricity - you run off bores and desalination units. There has been a lot of rain lately so the tank at Hamelin Pool is full of sweet delicious rainwater which I guzzle down after weeks of awful water from Geraldton & Esperance. Carnarvon runs off water from the Gascoyne River and it's heavenly so I replace all the awful desal stuff in my tanks & jerries.

Everything is practical. No one cares about things looking "home beautiful"; there's too much to do. Duncan, being one of those all-rounder fix-it types, is in big demand at several roadhouses as well as Hamelin Pool & Carnarvon. Diesel gennies, water pumps and desal units need constant attention, and it's very much a case of doing repairs with whatever you can find lying around - there are no Bunnings out here! When bush blokes find out that I've got cartons of nails, screws & other hardware stuff they practically ransack the bus (that's when they're not busy trying to chat me up - they are so desperate for female company out here it's unbelievable).

Fishing is huge; you see heaps of locals out with handlines, nets, anything. Duncan cooks up our flathead & shark for breakfast, and with all the fish we caught out on the One Mile jetty our freezers are nicely stocked up. I can cast a rod like a pro now and can almost identify various fish, although not correctly.

Anyway, I'm out of Carnarvon tomorrow to head for Coral Bay; Duncan's off back to Hamelin Pool all sad & pining (me too, a bit, but it will be nice to have some solo time to try & recover my senses). He's on a mission to lure me back with a wireless internet satellite system, boat, bus maintenance and a pet camel. We'll see what happens! My mission now is to go north for whale sharks, beach camping and more adventures.