Prelude to Our Next Adventure.

Michael has totally and utterly lost his renovating sense of humour. I am so proud of  both his dogged determination and his achievements with our cranky old building. But working non-stop since last November has taken its toll on his body. A squashed finger on one hand and six stitches in the other hand cramped his style a couple of months ago. A sinus and throat infection whacked him on the knuckles last week. And the plantar warts on his foot, which then blistered and travelled, have been diagnosed as a spider bite from his biopsy. He had the plantar warts originally, then along came a spider to complicate matters. What is it with Michael and spiders? They seem to seek him out for some reason. Maybe it's his "Voodoo" deodorant!

We still have the last forty-five square metres of the East End Gallery to complete. Which will happen in due course. But first of all, we need to get away, recharge our batteries, rest and recuperate in our beloved Goldfields. Because if we stay at home, we'll be sucked into all the jobs we haven't been attending to at the House that Rocks for the last four months...

Our anticipation is building. I have organised our bedding, our food, our utensils, our drugs, the first aid kit and our toiletries. I have scrubbed the cast iron pot in which we cook our damper. I have rinsed and dried the old faithful kettle. We have a growing pile of equipment in the study. The camp table, a new chair for me, a new padded toilet seat (alas poor Yorick, the old one carked it!) and eighty litres of drinking water.  I have unearthed ancient water containers from previous trips which will serve admirably as washing and bucket bath water.

Today, I'm tackling our clothes, the buckets and other sundry tasks. the gazebo has to be located in the shed and dusted of several million spider webs. As does Michael's captain's chair, the spare water containers, which carry an additional fifty litres of water and anything else I can haul out and clean. We have resigned ourselves to the fact we can't go two weeks without washing any clothes, so we'll attend to that in Leonora and maybe in Narrogin at the very end of the trip. Add clothes detergent to the list to take with us.

We'off to the Big Smoke tomorrow to hire a sat phone, buy a new (hopefully waterproof) tarpaulin, shop for last essential items, take Vanessa for her DSP Participation Plan interview at 2 o'clock (oh joy) and hopefully arrive home together before midnight!

Friday, I'm taking a "break" and opening the Gallery. This is when Michael will swing into gear. He is by far the better packer of us both. Methodical, patient and logical, I know that he will find a place for everything in Kermit and the trusty trailer. Including our latest acquisition, Roger the motorbike. Which has caused Michael significant anguish.

Michael has painstakingly spent the last two days modifying the trusty trailer so Roger takes up the minimum amount of room. His perseverance was not rewarded last night when Roger failed to fit into his newly created and carefully welded zone on the right side of the trailer. Michael spat the dummy in disgust and came home. He stank of hot metal, exhaustion and good old fashioned grumpiness. After a night's sleep, he is further determined to outsmart both Roger and the trailer and get them to fit together in an orderly fashion.

Kermit has just returned back from service. He was had a wash, but internally, he is disgusting. Before Michael puts one item into Kermit, his innards will have to be vacuumed and dusted. We will not be putting clean stuff inside a dirty car. Even though at the end of the trip, Kermit, along with us, will look abominable!

I am anxiously waiting the arrival of two cases of wine, one of which will go with us. We have no intention of slumming it in the outback. Our creed is to enjoy ourselves with minimal work. We take dehydrated meals. We are not reliant on power. We try to camp before dark so we can start our fire and use the gas lamp as sparingly as possible. We may not even bother to take the gas stove. And, we'll only put up the gazebo if the weather threatens us. Sleeping on our camp stretcher bed under the stars - with no roof in the way - is beyond description.

So come Monday, we are outta here! The Dynamic Duo of Sancia and Michelle will be looking after the House that Rocks and the East End Gallery. Which we know they will do admirably.

We will most certainly keep everyone posted with our progress (or maybe not...) Tally ho!

Pink Lake, near Bruce Rock

Goldfields Dreaming

Why we go!