Bush , bush and bush.
I went from one place to the other since the time i have been back from high populated and civilized Europe. i stayed most of the time in isolated and remote places. Finke, Napperby, Hearts range and other strange places. No internet and communication, the next little gathering of houses a few hundred k`s away.
What a difference. Seeing sunrises and sunsets. Sleeping at places where my swag could fit. Falling a sleep in my swag while watching the shooting stars on the back of the truck. Start working at first daylight and ending while the sun is already gone. Installing tiny gensets, painting diesel tanks, installing platforms.
The only interaction with life is the hungry camp dogs waiting outside till we are finished eating. Sleeping next to you in hope when you wake up they got something to eat. Time of the never ending sound of a running generator, almost like a lullyby. Constantly
humming and constantly with earplugs . By this time we have invented our own sign language. If you would look from a distance you would think we play baseball in our free time. The movements we do with our hands to explain things, our to get a simple working tool.
But it`s all fun and games being disconnected from the world. Thinking if the world still would excist if we get back on the road. Activating the cell phone a few 100 k`s before you even have connection in the hope the world hasn`t forgot you. Waiting for that sound that you have missed calls and messages. It almost becomes a game to see who has the most missed calls and messages.
It`s a mixed feeling. It`s been good going bush, but it creates a lonely feeling. It`s hard to socialize when you are gone most of the time. Except then with the local dogs that give you all the love they can. You are away with a team of three man max, and you get along, you have too. But when you are back, you get out as quick you can, not to see the same faces again. A love life , i can`t even think how a woman would look like or how to talk . My vocabulary has become one sided and fixed on one thing.
But no worries, it`s all for a good cause.
I` m working on one of those dreams before it`s gone.
Just a normal day at work.
You never know what you end up doing. Driving whole day. Trying to get a big crane 500 k`s further to do a crane lift. A mobile crane wich maximum speed is 70 k`s a hour. I was the one driving the car a few hundred meters in front to warn other cars that there is a wide vehicle approaching.
Roads in the outback are pretty narrow and dangerous, with just two lanes. And with a crane as wide as a one and a half lane, it can cause some problems for other drivers. So my task was to drive in the middle and to push other drivers from the road. I felt like in the movies , playing those chicken games with cars. It`s fun with other cars, but if one of those road trains are approaching, you feel a bit nervous. But i managed with a few heated moments. Happily, there are only one a hour that i had to drive a car from the road.
And you can imagine, a drive of 8 hours at 50 up hill and 70 down hill, It can be pretty boring. And especially if you forget your i-pod with 4000 carefully selected songs. So i probably have seen every bush every tree and every wildlife that there was to see that day. Just thinking , that i had to do it again, driving the crane truck back. Another day seeing the exciting bush on the way back. The same tree, the same bush and the same wildlife with no i-pod. Just lucky that it wasn`t my job.
But all by all, it`s a pretty good job. I earned some priveliges at the company. Beeing on a
bush team has some advantages. It`s almost that you are the elite of the company. But i reckon i`m the only one that sees it that way. We got a workshop of our own, just for three people. Got our freedom to go when we pleased if we are in town. The possibility to say fuck off to the safety officer. So all by all, they just leave us to do our job. No work floor manager that inspects your work to see if you made something like he wants it to.
And if i`m in town, the work can be interesting. making and installing dance pools, fabricating fire bins.
And sadly , this week a college died on the road. Coming from a bush trip , working long days and couldn`t wait to see his love ones in adelaide. Couldn`t wait to have a sleep , but drove straight away another 1500 k`s . And yes, nobody will know, felt a sleep, hit a kangoroo, lost control of vehicle, he never arrived at his love ones. A few days later they found him , somewhere in the bush at the lonely stuart highway. One moment full of dreams and the other moment no more dreams.
So let`s make those dreams real before they are gone.
What a job this has been.
Six months of intense labor, cursing and fucking. The generator is finally installed. A generator that big it can deliver electricity for a town of 3000 people. The only thing that still has to be done is. See if its running and if our team was capable to put a pipe line system in without no leaks.
So back to yulara, a week of preparations before testing. Running electrical cables the size of a big snake. Making the area inaccessible for strangers. We didn’t want to electrocute people to ashes. And yes finally the moment arrived after a 6 months job. Time to push the green button. And yes, nothing happened. The engine stayed dead.
Fuck.
Nothing mechanical was wrong, all the pipes on the correct spot. After a day of searching we found the cause. A non return valve was placed in the wrong way. All right , we fixed that. Again the green button. It`s turning, slowly , to slowly.
Fuck
Another day of finding the reason why its not turning fast enough to kick start the engine.
Not enough air pressure to kick start the engine. So we worked on increasing the air
pressure. The green button. It`s running fast , yes, but no reaction of the engine.
Fuck
So probably a good reason to check the fuel system. A big air bubble in the fuel line. Okay, A whole day trying to bleed the fuel system. Working on a big engine is like working on a car engine, but much bigger, a lot bigger. The air filter is the size of the trunk of the car, and 4 trunks. Let`s give it another try. The green button.
Fuck
Let`s say we had a lot of fucks. But we managed to let the generator running smoothly.
Now it was just a matter of sitting around. Let the engine do the work. It had to be running for a day of two on overcapacity to see of the engine could handle the moments when busy tourist invade the little town.
A time to pay respect to my fish. My little garden of Eden is no more. Nature has taken over my work. It has become a wilderness .Nature doesn`t care about nicely ordened gardens and plants. Some grow and some die, so did my fish.
Time to say goodbye to yulara, again.
I`m certain i`ll meet my rock again.
What a difference. Seeing sunrises and sunsets. Sleeping at places where my swag could fit. Falling a sleep in my swag while watching the shooting stars on the back of the truck. Start working at first daylight and ending while the sun is already gone. Installing tiny gensets, painting diesel tanks, installing platforms.
humming and constantly with earplugs . By this time we have invented our own sign language. If you would look from a distance you would think we play baseball in our free time. The movements we do with our hands to explain things, our to get a simple working tool.
It`s a mixed feeling. It`s been good going bush, but it creates a lonely feeling. It`s hard to socialize when you are gone most of the time. Except then with the local dogs that give you all the love they can. You are away with a team of three man max, and you get along, you have too. But when you are back, you get out as quick you can, not to see the same faces again. A love life , i can`t even think how a woman would look like or how to talk . My vocabulary has become one sided and fixed on one thing.
