Lady Annie camp, Australia
February and March, 2005
The RC rig
Running the bug gauntlet
It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of bugs. Because in North Australia the bug situation borders on ridiculous. Sitting around at twilight having a beer, you get quite used to having various types of bugs flying into you with light paff paff sounds as they roll off your legs and hit the ground. Grasshoppers in a rainbow of colours (my best friend, an orange, blue and yellow one who liked to perch on the ketchup bottle), huge stick insects that would nonchalantly crawl up your legs with the most magical iridescent wings, moths the size of my hand, locusts with terrifying blood red maws (I don’t like locusts) and of course, mosquitoes (which were actually kind of outnumbered). One night, as I was gratefully gulping down a cold beer a miniature bat actually flew into my thigh. A bat! It was crazy out there.
A friendly grasshopper on my toe
Bugs!
The beer diet
Never have I lost weight as quickly as when I partook in the beer diet. Sue, the cook, was on an angry rampage, and thus did not feel predisposed to cooking edible food. Besides, the sort of food the drillers define as edible isn’t really something I’m interested in (read meat and three veg). And we are talking withered slabs of meat and frozen veg. Most evenings I didn’t feel particularly hungry (beer is a food right?). In the mornings I certainly didn’t feel hungry (read hangover). Lunch was a simple affair mainly focusing on salad (not keen on last night’s withered meat slab). The result… 3 weeks = 5kg. I highly recommend it. Easiest diet to follow ever.
All you need for the beer diet
Falling in love with Henry
Henry was my one true love. He used to watch me while I was in the shower. Sometimes when I woke up in the morning I would find him peering up at me from the toilet bowl. He was very, very green.
My great love, Henry
Driving manual and failing
My friend Steve was kind enough (and brave enough) to try and teach me to drive manual. What followed was a bumpy ride along dirt tracks, many many stalls, an unhappy hi-lux and a hi-lux that ran out of gas halfway up a hill. It was pretty hilarious though as can probably be gleaned from the movie below.
An embarrassing attempt at manual
The best compliment of my life
It was pretty late. There had been multiple beers. In fact, we had built a rather large beer can tower (oh the skill!). I was hanging out with Mervin, Desmond and Godfrey (I kid you not… those were actually their names! Best drilling trio ever). Godfrey turned to me and slurred, “Yew know what Verity, yer ya own bird.” It really was one of the nicest things anyone’s said to me. I like to think it’s true.
What a glorious beer tower
Don’t forget to check out Part I!
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haha, Your photos reminded me of the beers I got. I just brought a lot beers today for my Lake George cabin trip for this long weekend. Is everywhere has that much bugs or just certain area in Australia?
Oooh… long weekend cabin trip with beer. Sounds perfect. Hope you have a fantastic time!
Not everywhere has that many bugs thank goodness. In Sydney there are quite a few but nothing like that! Places up North have a lot more, especially in particular seasons. The blowflies can be pretty grim in a lot of places in the outback all over Australia. The worst I have found is in South Australia actually… lots of flies. There are definitely more bugs in Australia than Sweden though
Hahah thank you, we did have a good time. Gettign up for sunrise was tough but the photos are worth it. I think flies are okay, they may be annoying but less scarier then spider. On my Lake George Trip I saw two spider and I was screaming my lung out.. haha
Ugh… spiders are so so gross. I really hate them. It’s nice in Sweden that there aren’t many. Although they have lots of ticks and in some ways they are more gross than spiders… and carry horrible diseases. I hate ticks
I hate ticks too, I even hate bedbugs. Those suck your blood out. Well I think I only liked silk worm. I had this science project when I was a kid for a whole semester to observe how silk worm lived. So I had 7 of them in my house and I play with them and even naming them… I don’t think I’ll do that now haha.