Palm valley

The outback , first time since my arrival in the land of Oz i was going bush. We had to upgrade a fuel storage at the rangers station. Truck was loaded and we hit the road. After a few K’s the tyers were bouncing on the dirt again, the steel on the tray of the truck was bouncing in every direction. What a great feeling. Seeing the dirt road stretch for miles, nothing else to see as wild nature and wildlife. So much to see while the truck was leaving a red dust cloud behind him.

We arrived at palm valley , after a drive of a few hours. The ranger station , a few houses , generator surrounded by ranges. And most important thing , a night bar . A place to have a drink , build bit by bit during years by rangers who came and went. Unbelievable how big the imagination and creativity of people are in places where there are no ikea’s, bunnings or k-mark’s. Chairs made out of car parts taken out of the burned cars of the locals, tables out of parts left over from contractors who did a job there. Interior decoration left behind by nature. The place just felt alive, you could feel the ranger hitting his dumb while trying to nail the door parts together. you could feel the ranger cursing that the door he made didn’t fit in the portal. you could feel the ranger hitting his other dumb trying to force the door into the frame. 

At night , after a days work, the first thing you notice is the silence, no mechanical disturbance during night hours. No cars doing wheelies , no neighbour testing his new bought stereo installation, no guy struggling with his midlife crises testing his new exhaust of his Harley. But the strange thing is after the silence , noises are coming all around you. The gentle breeze trough the bushes, almost like the leaves telling you a secret story. Hidden little creatures singing their love story to you. At distances further away bigger animals occasionally warn there surroundings to shut up , telling them they are sick of hearing the secrets and love stories ,time and time over again.It’s a shame my photographic talents are not so developed , that i can’t share this magnificent view with you. A  view that makes you silent, a view that brings your spiritual side out. 

When you look up in bush at night time, the sky is alive. A living canvas of stars , meteorites, shooting stars and satellites . You can’t stop looking, dreaming , searching for something, maybe a place or life where things were different, maybe a world where violence doesn’t exist. maybe a world where you drive around in a Lamborghini on a highway with unlimited speed, maybe a place where politicians get the same pay as you do and where stealing is really considered as a crime, or maybe , just maybe you are looking for that flying object full of female extra-terrestrials that abduct you and gonna make all your dreams real.

But we had a job to do, the fuel storage had to be upgraded, that’s what we are here for. Not to day or night dream about my fantasies. This is the real world.

The chapel

Work, work, work.
I didn't had the time to acclimatise , Straight to the first big project. Starting to erect the steelwork of a new chapel in Alice. 
It was nice the temperatures were not above the thirties or forties. So i could easily get used to the working hours and the tools again. The first vertical ups and overheads were a disaster . My welding skills definitely needed some practise again. So did my Australian slang. 

And because the change of my physical appearance during the years , i definitely needed some protection against he sun. The top of my head , caused by the absence of my young long blond hair was starting to have a red shiny colour. But being in the land of oz , i had enough choice between different means to protect parts of the body against the burning sun. Hard hats, the old fashion cyclist hats, straw hats who are very useful when you are welding to get rid of the few precious hair spots and of course the real true Australian Akubra hat. My choice was easy , i’m now a proud owner , like many of my aussie compagnions, of a beautiful everlasting ringer hat. 

The hours and days just follow each other up. Waiting till i can move in my unit. But it’s the NT, not today ,not tomorrow ,not tuesdy and not thursdy. I have to say , the days were long and hard, so i didn’t had much time to think about a previous life, to miss my little farm .  But certain things don’t go away no matter how hard you work. The financial pressure is slowly loosing his grip on me, but not seeing my godchild doing the things they do when they start to explore there surroundings and the big world, the meals on a sunday night prepared by my mom after a days labour at the farm together with my dad, the regular meetings with my sis while having a good chat with a few drinks. Those are the things that are engraved in the back of your mind and pop up in your mind in moments when you are standing still. 

So i just keep walking till i fall a sleep. 

Return to Alice

Wauw, time is running double speed.
I returned to Alice a few months back now and i still didn’t had the time to tell a story.
So here we go.

Once upon a time there was a traveller sitting in a plane , waiting till the wheels of the plane touches ground. Waiting to start a different life style , a life style he already experienced before. 
But it was first time to have a break , a time out , a breather. Just having nothing on his mind then the beauty of the landscape and company of an old dear friend. 
It were precious times, walking , laying, drinking , talking and admiring the surroundings and not having the constant pressure of financial and personal thoughts . But he knew those times always come to an end.

The plane touches the ground another time, Alice, home base . With one bag and swag on the back, heading to the work office . A good thing he knew things in Alice always have a way to turn out unexpected. The unit wasn’t ready yet. His home base for the next years was still in process of developing . First things first, a place to sleep, was the priority for the day. A phone call and i could stay at a friends place , bunking with the swag till i could move in the unit . It was nice to catch up again. In a way time has stood still, sitting back on an old wooden table slurping my favourite drink, but time did had an impact on life. Things weren't the same anymore, broken relations, friends were gone and friends were back . It was the same world but with an different interface.
The week just went by, subscriptions everywhere, but all done in a few days , not as in previous experiences in a previous country that it can take up to months and a lot of k’s driving to get official paperwork organized. I forgot that it can be so easy to get the administration of a life official and all done in a few days.

It was good to be back, and it was almost as nature wanted to acclimatise my return. The weather was the same as when i stepped on the plane a few days before. Rainy , grey and chilly only the view of the surroundings was different. A stretch of 500 k’s of pure and untouched nature around you, the company of wildlife during day and night time .
The first weeks were just a period of organizing and moving from one temporally place to another. I was gonna bunk in the garage shed with private facilities at the place from an old bush work comrade , the first bush job that i ever did with, ten years ago. Amazing , the first time i set foot in Australia is been ten years ago. And so much is happened and changed during this decade of my life.

You start wondering if the next decade will have the same unexpected changes as the one before.