Feeling a little stranded...

Oh hey, I didn’t expect to see you here.

Earlier in the blog I mentioned a girl in Primary C called Sheralie. Well she told the class on Tuesday that she was leaving on Wednesday to go live with her mum up north somewhere which I was pretty sad about because she’s always good fun (I hear all these horror stories from Steph about how bad she is in the afternoons which I find a little funny) but when Wednesday came around, she was back at school. Apparently she didn’t want to leave yet so her departure was postponed until Friday. So then Friday came along and she was pretty upset as were we and we had a big morning of songs and games and a last minute planned class photo which we all laminated and signed before giving our final goodbyes.

Then about 2 hours later as Primary C came out to the pool, Sheralie was one of the 1^st to the gate. Apparently the plane couldn’t leave so she’s now here until Wednesday.

This past Friday night, dinner at the brother’s house was put back to 7pm so that before hand we could head to the area outside the store to the Blue Light Disco run by the police for the kids. It was pretty much like your standard school dances with the boys and girls very much keeping to their own groups. However, a definite difference was the fact that on the dance floor, it was the boys not holding back at all with their dance moves while the girls stood off shyly. But then once they built up some confidence, they made their way to the dance floor and busted out what was a little disturbing considering it was girls probably aged 4-10 doing their own imitations of Christina Aguilera since the only dancing they see out here is in film clips. 




Me with Simba (left) and Sheralie (right)

 



Some of the boys busting out on the dance floor

 



The girls at the disco

 



Ale and I with Alex and Hazen

 

I know this will be almost impossible for anyone who knew me in the slightest back home to believe, but I actually think I’m becoming a morning person!!! On Saturday morning, everyone was asleep at 7am so went to the parish house to do the Mirli Mirli (parish newsletter) and again, everyone was asleep! So I decided to go for a walk out to the pound. Within the 1^st 5 minutes, a few dogs in a yard started watching me, then started walking over and as soon as one barked, about 5 more doges came out baring their teeth and barking. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone around to see me threaten throwing a big rock and screaming “YAH!!!” but sure enough, they all just turned away and went back to sleep. I now have a rock at each end of that yard I pick up each time I walk past it just in case. It was blowing a gale which was actually really nice because it wasn’t a cold wind but it kept the flies away for most of the hour I was walking.

When I got back, Ale had risen and we had a big breakfast in preparation for the 2^nd addition of the Balgo Test. It was another great day of cricket from 10:30 to 3:30 this time involving a test match and two 15 over ‘one dayers’. Much the same result as last week, we won the test and they won the two shortened games but with a few differences. This time actually got a few wickets (including Ant and Ale which was important for bragging rights), got a few decent totals of 8 and 9 runs so it was a good day for me. The test this time came down to 3 runs in the end which I was shaky about considering I went in to bowl with one good batsmen left and them only 4 runs to get so it was a lot more intense than last weeks. The one dayers however, the 1^st one was a good close game… the second one however wasn’t as pretty considering after batting 1^st in the 1^st game, we were sent out to field for another 15 overs which tired us out to the point of letting them get a total of 74 runs which we went to chase with about 5 minutes break in between only to come up a little short getting all out for 12 after 3 overs.

The wind got a bit of a chill to it later at night so mass was a very quiet one this week with very few people there.

Today, Br Lou and Br Marty asked if we wanted to go for a drive so we quickly gathered our things and set of on the 2 hour drive to Sturt Creek the bumpy ride was cut about 2km short when the dirt beside the road became water, and then the dirt on the road quickly did the same. It was a long straight road we were on and we could see the road was flooded as far as we could see so Brother Lou said it wasn’t worth risking driving through it. We still got out and looked about the place for a while, wading through the water. It looked like a giant Mangrove Eucalypt forest with hundreds on Eucalyptus trees about a meter if not more under water.

On the trips there and back, a big highlight was the wildlife we saw, including 2 packs of kangaroos, one lone bush turkey standing in the middle of the road (not like NSW bush turkeys, they are like a grey, really lanky goose which locals often hunt), one massive Jabiru bird and about 6 packs of wild horses, one which was very happy to let us drive within 5 meters of them without them moving.



The Flood




Continuing the journey on foot.




There's always time for a good bit of tree climbing!





Wild horses on the drive home.

 



My photography skills out the window.

 

One thing about the road being covered is that that road is the only direct road to Broome. So if it is too damaged or still flooded for a few more weeks, firstly, the kids from the Perth school will not be able to get here (or by the sounds of their head teacher, will get car wrecked trying) and also, we won’t be able to drive to Broome to get the car checked up, which I assume will mean no Broome holiday which is a bit of a kick in the pants.

p.s. Next time, I’ll try to keep it a little more brief :)