More details about my job, especially those bushtrips , who are always different. I have been to many places now, Canteen Creek, Utopia, Willowra, Yulara, Tennant Creek, Ormiston Gorge, Ti Tree, Napperby, Murray Downs, Kings Canyon and more. Most of them are aboriginal communities, some are stations and some are resorts. All have there own story. Some are close to Alice and some takes a whole day to get there. But its always a minimum of 200k`s. Some are reachable on bitumen, and some only on dirt track and permit only.
So, i start to get to know my way around here in the red desert. But still a lot of places to discover in an area bigger than Belgium ,France and Netherlands together.
Its a good thing those jobs, it breaks the boringness of the workshop, and you are able to see places where you never are allowed to go, spend nights in a 4 star resort and restaurant, where i don`t have the money for. Sometimes it`s very basic, especially in aboriginal communities, a donga that falls apart, doing own cooking and dishes after a 12 hour workday in the bloody heat. Sometimes relax, no dishes, no cooking, even your bed is made up for you. And the time you spend on those trips ,everything is payed by the company.
On one of those trips i had that encounter with the flying roof sheet. we were putting up a roof on a big shed and the wind catches the sheet and threw it in the air, direction my poor forehead. Blood was dripping from my forehead, nothing to worry about, a face always bleed like they cut a big piece out of your skin, the only thing were i worried about was, the scar. Imagine going trough life as the new Harry Potter, with a scar in the middle of your forehead in the shape of a symmetric curved line. Happily, the sheet just scrapped some skin away, and didn`t left a print behind of this typical profile.
So, i start to get to know my way around here in the red desert. But still a lot of places to discover in an area bigger than Belgium ,France and Netherlands together.
Its a good thing those jobs, it breaks the boringness of the workshop, and you are able to see places where you never are allowed to go, spend nights in a 4 star resort and restaurant, where i don`t have the money for. Sometimes it`s very basic, especially in aboriginal communities, a donga that falls apart, doing own cooking and dishes after a 12 hour workday in the bloody heat. Sometimes relax, no dishes, no cooking, even your bed is made up for you. And the time you spend on those trips ,everything is payed by the company.
On one of those trips i had that encounter with the flying roof sheet. we were putting up a roof on a big shed and the wind catches the sheet and threw it in the air, direction my poor forehead. Blood was dripping from my forehead, nothing to worry about, a face always bleed like they cut a big piece out of your skin, the only thing were i worried about was, the scar. Imagine going trough life as the new Harry Potter, with a scar in the middle of your forehead in the shape of a symmetric curved line. Happily, the sheet just scrapped some skin away, and didn`t left a print behind of this typical profile. 
We also chased a big bushfire once, we were working one day and in the distance we saw some big smoke, at night time, we saw a red glow in the distance. So 3 guys jumped in the car, 2 in the front, i in the back of the Ute ( car with only 2 seats and a trunk at the back), drove into the bush, take a track to the left, to the right, again to the right, trying to get closer to that red glow. After a hour drive ,we were close to the fire. Amazing beautiful, it was like the sky was on fire, you could see all the colors of the spectrum between red and yellow. And the heat. We enjoyed the spectacle for a few minutes, but it was time to get back. How. We had taken so many turns in our fire chase. And once you drive in the opposite direction of the fire, everything becomes black. No lights and roadsigns are available in the bush. We were in the middle of the outback surrounded by 400 k`s nothing else than bush, and somewhere there is a little community. Damned. So we start driving on good luck and direction, one thing we knew was , the fire should go away from us. Driving to the left, right, right, left, amazing how many little tracks there are in the middle of nowhere, putting out the lights of the car on occasions, to see if we could see a bit of light in the horizon of a little village with some electricity. After a couple of hours driving, we finally saw some lights in the distance, we were on the good track.After another 17 days bushtrip, we decided to stop and visit the waterhole nearby, police waterhole, some 500 K`s away from our workshop. We deserved it, a relax day before heading back. Nice waterhole, and its above the tropic of Capricorn, so it means the water was perfect, even warmer than being out the water. We used the top of our eski as a floating table, filled with some food , and drinks. In my eyes this was better then some swimming pool in a 6 star resort, except maybe the absence of some female diversity. The night was falling, we cooked our self a nice meal on the self made barbie, and went to our swags.
In the middle of the night i woke up abrupt of something that hit my swag. Nothing to worry about , complete normal if you sleep on the ground in the middle of nature. So ,i felt a sleep again, for ten minutes, till i felt the same, but this time different, it was still on my swag. F@#k , i hit it away with my hand, it felt a bit slimy. After that time, it took me a while to get back a sleep, and yes again , something jumped on my swag. This time i took my torch, to see what was happening. And there he sat, my sleep disturbant, a little frog was looking straight into my eyes.
He jumped away , on his way to the water. After that i felt several more jumps on my swag. But i didn`t moved anymore. I was convinced that i probably was sleeping on the frog main way from the bush to the water.
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