Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 45 - Halls Creek Day 6

A lot hinges on the part for Silver Leader’s Jeep arriving today. We have been here almost a week, and whilst we have been able to bear it with some sightseeing, trips to the pub and the TV, there are places to go and people to see, as they say. Assuming the part is here midday, we are hoping it is installed and we are ready to blast off early in the morning and doo the almost 700 kilometres to Broome in one day. It certainly won’t be in one hit, that would be silly.

700 kilometres will mean a fuel stop somewhere in the middle, as well as possible 2 major breaks to ensure fatigue does not get the better of anyone, especially Forbsy who will do the drive in its entirety alone. There will be more reliance on the UHF banter, potentially looking for camels etc while we drive.

If the part does not arrive, everyone is still going tomorrow, as we need to be in Broome for the upside-down falls trip. The logistics of that are not even worth thinking about, as it involves busses and all-night driving etc. No, the part will come today, it will be installed, it will have been the answer to the problem, and all will be fixed. We certainly don’t need another breakdown in the middle of nowhere, especially given the time it has taken to bring this one to a resolution. One might talk about cheap American rubbish not suitable for purpose, but that’s the purview of Forbsy.

Robyn is up early and working, more questions have come from one of here clients and she is researching the answers. The time zone difference means they work while we sleep and give us things to do from an early time. She has her stuff spread right around the caravan as the research she is doing presently is quite intricate I believe.

The early morning is not quite as hot as it has in previous days, I might go for a walk and leave Robyn to her research. One of the goals of this trip was to lose some weight, but especially with this lay over, and the hotel visits it has meant, with its good food and obligatory libations, the weight situation has taken a hiding this week. Speaking to Silver Leader this morning, he too is having issues connected to the lay over. He is going back to only drinking bottled bear as the tap beer is apparently affecting his top lip with its acid content. The joys of the hotel habituate.

This week will mark the halfway point of the original plan.

By the time I get back from the walk, it’s beginning to get hot. I started by walking past the hotel, yes it is possible without entering, and on to the airfield. There is a local Aviair plane there on its daily hop around the Kimberly. I stop for a while and watch the pre-flight and then the take-off before continuing.

I find the starting spots for the hooning the other night. It must have been youngsters as they were unable to leave any black marks on the bitumen, only able to leave furrows in the dirt beside the road. Two set of these furrows go perfectly straddling a purple plant, without damaging the plants. Environmental car thieves evidently.

In the “back corner” of my walk is a park, devoid of vegetation but having two concrete paths traversing it. As I wonder across, I notice the litter, mainly broken glass is all alcohol related, thinking back, most of the Indigenous people we have seen are barefoot, walking around the town, either they don’t walk here, although this seems to be a thoroughfare to a residential area, or the soles of their feet are harder than mine – significantly harder. At the end of the park I enter into a residential area, where like I could anywhere in Belrose, be accosted by a barking dog, pass residents and say hello and be acknowledged, but this is the “poorer” side of town, and the people seem a little guarded of a silly person simply walking through.

I strike up a conversation with an Indigenous man wearing a hoody. Aren’t you hot in that, no, its still early spring and its not hot yet. Can’t beat logic, the calendar says its spring, in my part of the world that can often be still very cold, and here where the temperature in the wet season can get well into the 40’s, I suppose just into the 30’s is “cold”. He is a pleasant man with a kind disposition on the outside, a woman down the street beckons him in tongue and we part and I continue my walkabout.

A little further along I find a street named Neighbor Street. Surely not, the Americans have been here! But having left the “U” out of the name takes me back to the old Liberal Party slogans of the past where they played on Labor leaving “U” out. Maybe that is a sign of the establishment’s attention to the development and the issues of Halls Creek. Perhaps they have forgotten people make communities not simply infrastructure.

Back towards the highway which brought us to this town, I pass the Yarlivil Arts Centre. There are some great shots to be taken here, and beyond as there are pieces to be seen everywhere. I take special care to ensure I get the plaque adjacent to each one so we can get perspective as to what the artist is trying to say. Cousin Phil will be most interested being a connoisseur of fine Indigenous art.

I come to the Recreation Centre and the gates are open, there are a couple of workers inside the complex watering the grounds. Here again the Council signs are old car bonnets bolted to the fence, one celebrating a Tidy Towns win for the general appearance of the town in 2018. There are also signs celebrating (I assume) the local team (who wear the might Hawthorn colours apparently) as well as Brisbane and Carlton Football Clubs. Brisbane I can understand, perhaps Carlton have a development relationship with the area, in any event they are tagged on the fence in car bonnet perpetuity.

There is more art, both car bonnet and “normal”. Even the butcher, that purveyor of fine beef jerky, has a Thomas Warrigal piece adorning his front wall, depicting Halls Creek and the surrounding communities, Koonjie, Yardgee, Mardiwah Loop, Nicholson Block, Lamboo, Flywell and Red Hill. The linking of the communities with the red dirt personifies this area. Thomas has captured the very essence of the story.

The Bougainvillea and many of the wildflowers are in bloom here, mainly because they water the hell out of them, I suspect, but they are colourful and well worthy of snaps. I have a friend in Sydney who loves to paint, but only paints flowers. By the time I return home I will have enough to keep her going for many a year.

Whilst we have been here, Robyn has shared memories of her first trip to the region and how they pulled into a big roadhouse here in Halls Creek for a rest break and refuelling. It’s funny how the memory is shaped, as I think I have found the roadhouse she remembers, which is nothing spectacular but, there is a sign suggesting they are the Greyhound terminal and sell tickets for the busses. It’s called the Poinciana Roadhouse, and is more a service station on the outside than a roadhouse. Robyn has texted me asking where I am, so rather than venture inside I head back to the caravan.

After lunch Silver Leader gets good news, the part has arrived, and we all feel a little less stressed. While the time here has been restful, it is time to move on. Earlier, Robyn and I had gone to the reception shop and purchased a DVD player, as well as a hair cutting machine and had both of them tested, working and calming us with their use. My hair annoys me, not because of its length but its unruliness once it gets to a certain length, and I can do little about it by seeing my normal hairdresser who is more than 7,000 kilometres back along the track.

I have had goes at self, hair dressing in the past, using my beard trimmer to the hysterical joy of the crowd (Robyn), but the hair clippers are easy to use and do a relatively smooth job (except for the rooster comb), and small areas in the parts I cannot see. My father used to cut our hair when we were kids with hand clippers, thinking cutting hair was akin to shearing sheep, which he was very good at, but it was a tearful, let alone painful experience. My efforts are nowhere near as painful, and if I so myself, personally satisfying.

Robyn, giggling at my efforts, takes the clippers and finishes the job, although later suggests she might need to attack with the scissors just to straighten up some bits around the edges.

The DVD result is just as good. The lady at the reception gave us the full rundown on the where’s and why’s of cheap electrical stock she carries. She sees the stock as consumable rather than log term asset in the making, and urges me to make sure I take it out of the box carefully, because if I cannot make it work, she will refund the purchase price and potentially put it back on the shelf. As I said, there was no need for that as we plugged it in and it played immediately. I had grabbed Goldfinger from the DVD stash, and because it worked immediately, sat down and watched it.

Getting ready for steak night at the hotel brings only stress. The part, which we were told was “in” has evidently been lost in transit. The original “arrived” was based on the courier company’s tracking system. There is much consternation, gnashing of teeth and generally considering the slitting of wrists at this news. Calming down, Robyn takes to writing down the options on a napkin at the table, none of which are overly palatable, particularly inexpensive. Both suggest Forbsy and us leave for Broome tomorrow regardless, an option I can instantly see, does not sit well with Forbsy.

The first, leaves Silver Leader and Rosalie in Halls Creek, hoping they will find the part, and have it installed and the car in a position to resume the trip the day after and a long haul into Broome to make the Upside-down falls trip. If this is unsuccessful, they will follow on the bus and book a cabin in the park at Broome.

The second, and I think the better option, is for them to come with us, hire a campervan in Broome, that allows them to stay in the park at vastly lower rates than getting a cabin and return either by bus or plane or the campervan and collect their vehicle “when” it is finally fixed.

Splitting the group is not the preferred option of Forbsy or I, but Silver Leader is more enamoured with option 1 and I am sure is feeling he is letting us all down – which he isn’t in our view.

So there’s the dilemma for the day. One thing we have not attempted to sort, is what to do with the van. This can be sorted by a call in on our lovely hostess, she has been most gracious with her advice and consideration of the issues. Wandering in, she giggles thinking we are confirming we are leaving in the morning. When we give her the news, she consoles and suggests, you never know what might turn up in the morning, and there are new staff at the Post Office, and it just might be that the part is found on rechecking the records.

Her demeanour is calming to Silver Leader who must have options running around in his head by the dozen at present. I am sure she will do him a good deal, should he have to leave the van for an extended period, and ensure it is secure at the same time.

Big Bang Theory just happens to be on the TV when we retire, and soon after it is finished, we are sound asleep. One way or another we will be driving tomorrow.