No, we haven’t fallen off the end of the earth, even though
we feel like we are somewhere near the edge, now being at Adels Grove, Lawn
Hill on the outskirts of Lawn Hill National Park.
But we don’t have easily accessible internet or phone access
at the Grove.
So, we will now attempt to update our last few weeks of
activity since our last post.
Susan’s
shoulder has healed quite well after we had been to the physio in Atherton for
two sessions two days running.
Once we returned from Atherton, things quitened down considerably at Bedrock so we were advised the work would be slowing and we decided to leave and chase some other work.
At this time,
we decided to contact Adels Grove as there was another couple working there who
we had become friends with from Emerald as we were working together there.
Subsequently,
Adels Grove had people leaving in the last week of August, one tour guide and
his partner who was doing reception etc. We contacted the owners and discussed what
options there may be available for us. She advised us we could have between two
and six weeks work, with Les being able to continue some tour guiding and Susan
reception. We will also be doing a variety of other work, including some
cleaning, kitchen bar work etc. We decided to give it a go and said we would
have to wait for bub to be born, head home and then back and finish packing.
So, on
Wednesday 15 Aug Tanya and Luke’s bub was born, early hours after a quite long
labour. His name is Jaxtin William, 8.4lbs. he is beautiful of course and they
all doing well. In the mean time we had already booked flights for the Wed
night as we decided to head down anyway.
We spent a
week down home and caught up with most of the family. Had a nice week
especially seeing Jaxtin the next day at the hospital and surprising most of
them as Jodie picked us up from the airport late wed night.
Once we
returned to Mt Surprise we spent the first night back over at the pub and most
of the staff joined us for drinks. We then finished packing Thursday and headed
off Friday morning. We spent one night at a free camp half way between
Normanton and Burke and Wills Roadhouse, then continued on to Adels Grove on
the Saturday via Gregory Downs. The road from Gregory Downs to Adels Grove is
80 klms of dirt road and heaps of dust. We survived that okay, little dust in
the van but plenty outside. Last 15 klms was quite rough as the first section
is maintained by the Century zinc mine and was reasonable, even though you have
to deal with triple road trains on the dirt.
So we went
from this:
To this:
It is
literally an oasis in the middle of nowhere, quite an amazing place.
We thought Mt Surprise was small and basic, well it’s
nothing compared to here, we are it, mail and food deliveries once a week from
Mt Isa. Working 6 days a week at the moment and maybe five when a bit quieter
late Sept, but then school holidays end of Sept and early Oct will pick up
again. Michelle, the owner sat with us on Sunday arvo to discuss things and
already asked if we were interested in coming back next year. Looks like we
will be here till end of first week of Oct, then make our way home for a little
while. See how it all goes from there.
