Handrail, handrail and handrails

I reckon that some of my frequent readers are wondering what the bloody hell I’m working at in this town of 3001 residents.

So this is a post, only one, dedicated to my daily work. And its gonna be a short one. I’m up here for three months now, and my activities are handrails, canopies, handrails, concrete slabs, handrails, bollards, handrails, concrete steps, handrails, gates and handrails. So I think you got the picture by now. Happily I can say that the handrails are finished and soon there is another big project coming, building a house. All kind of stuff is weekly arriving with the truck, so it’s a gathering of all kind of stuff in the backyard, gyproc, timber, beams, purlins, etc.

How this all works? Mostly they send a guy up here for three weeks, who’s my slave, oeps, sorry, workmate. It’s sometimes handy to have a third hand, just to hold things or let him do the work while you have a break. We work around 10 at 11 hours a day, seven a week in 42 degrees, so you can imagine that I’m almost looking like a black fellow, only my accent needs a bit of work. After those weeks, they fly my workmate back to Alice or I drive back to capital city to pick up gear and bring another third hand back to Yulara.
And it’s always nice to be back in Alice because work provides me with a hotel and a nice Jacuzzi till I jump back in the truck for a 5 hour long drive to my precious rock.

After digging 137 holes, mixed 6,5 ton of concrete, weld 94 pipe connections, bend 63 pipes in different angles, used 125 liter of yellow paint, I thought I could take it a bit more relax. So the last two weeks, because I worked on my own, no more workmate, I work 9 hours a day, 5 and a half a week till the complete house arrives. And that will be soon.

Gate to the stars

Almost three months in Yulara, time does really flies. I have just a little post on this subject, to let you; my returning readers enjoy the special view I have on my hill.

The house surrounded by a fence is build against a red sand hill. So I decided to put a gate at the backyard (take a look at the little detail I fabricated in the concrete slab) and to disturb the local fauna and flora with my present. I looked for the easiest way up to the hill. Cleaned up all the obstacles that were in the way to my walk up to the stars.

From this moment I have a private path that leads me to spectacular sunsets, sunrises, and star skies, I’m still collecting a 3612 stones to finish the path. There are already a 354 stones placed to guide me along the path. They are really necessary. Try to find your way in the dark down or up the hill, especially after some beverages. It’s only a 63 meters but its quit steep, and everywhere plants, and rolling down the hill is not a pleasant experience.

On the top of the sand hill, there is a really nice flat area to sit down and relax. So I have been there a lot, just watching the surrounding transform buy the sun companioned by the horny devils, snakes and my house mate, Jules the goanna. Together we are forced in silence to see the majestic colours and rock formations that the sand hill gives us.

Even at night its worth being on top, seeing the nightly skyline of Yulara city. The stars! Amazing, really amazing how many stars, movement, shooting stars and unexplained flying objects are up there. Laying in my swag, surrounded by my local friends, we just lay there and have philosophical discussions about our little existence in that never ending universe.
Yep, my gate to the stars, it’s a step to another universe.

Something different now, an old friend came up with a marvellous idea. Thanks Kathleen. She asked if I could put some maps in my blog to point out the places where I have been and where I will be. So I’m looking on the internet, if I can find such a thing, a map of Australia where I can mark all the places and transfer to my web. If anybody of my readers knows of such a thing, please let me know. Even other ideas are welcome to better the quality of my blog. The reason I started this blog, is to inform you about my life and to keep contact. And it has also become a kind of personnel diary.
This blog is made for you and is interactive, every comment, idea, thought, improvement, story, question, opinion, joke, disagreement and story are more than welcome.

Bungabiddy Rockhole

My first exploring as a Yulara resident. This time I reached the dirt tracks immediately. I`m living almost in the middle of nowhere, so to go to another nowhere is quit easy. I had to go west to do some searching, the north east side is back to Alice, and since I lived there the last two years, I had no intention to go back cruising those areas. I travelled also to the south when I picked up my sister in Adelaide, picked up my luggage in Melbourne. Yes, the west was calling. New territory, and west Australia was one of the missing territory or state on my list. So from today I can say that I have put my body in every state in Australia, except Tasmania of course.

Its different than Alice area, more sand and more desolated. Its really the outback over here. Its easy to travel 600k`s without seeing a fellow specie or even a servo. All dirt, sand, bushes, rocks nothing more, pretty boring except the beautiful stretches of nature landscapes, magnificent sunsets, remote untouched waterholes, mind blowing colors, artistic rock formations.
Entering west Australia, I had to find a waterhole, a swim in cool water was absolute necessary after eating dirt for the last 300k`s. So driving around to find a little blue spot marked on the map, is not an easy task. Nowhere signs, nobody around to ask directions. Except camels and snakes escaping from the road when that madman flew by in his red car desperate looking for refreshment. And everywhere dirt tracks , so driving around another 100k`s looking for that track that leads to that refreshing water is an easy thing.

But he , logic is really the most important thing, look around and see where there is a lot of trees and green , waterholes are also situated at rock formations. And yes, there was the track, hidden amount other red dirt , The road, by figure of speaking, leads me to the start of the rock formation, and deep inside those hills was the waterhole waiting.
i provided my self a 5 star camp and ran to the water. Stayed there for a few hours , relaxing in my special noodle seat ( you remember sis) ,the beer floating on the water recovering from a hard days work.
Back to my luxury camp, handy to take some gear from work, provided myself a campfire and good meal.

I stayed two nights , swimming and relaxing. And then back to Yulara. Back eating dirt for the next 300k`s. The only problem was my fuel was running low, I had a jerrycan, but that was only 20 liters, I didn`t expect to drive an extra 100k`s to find that blue spot on the map. After some hot hours I finally saw that precious big touristic rock and knew that i`ll make it. Almost at the last drop I parked Mrs Dee at my new home and had a cool beer relaxing and thinking, next time two jerrycans .