January 2014

January 2014

Oak Valley, SA

The heat wave through Christmas and New Year continued in January and the heat started to take its toll on the native wild life and our unit soon became an animal recovery shelter!

The community at Oak Valley was still deserted by the mob as they were still in Ceduna, Fowlers Bay or we even heard some were in Adelaide.

We found a native bat (not sure of the species) struck down from the heat and Deb came to the rescue and wearing protective gloves because they do carry diseases and have very sharp teeth as you can see.  

The pic below has him hanging upside down as he recovered ...

Deb managed to re-hydrated him (or her) over a couple of days until he regained his strength and one evening, and then one night he he flew off to join up with his colony!

Another 'guest' was a falcon who too was badly effected by the heat and as we could not have him (or her) inside, the front verandah became an avery. The front verandah has wire mesh and shade cloth all around it so we put some branches in there and water for him so he too could recover.

Here is Thomas holding him whilst Deb tried to get some sugared water into him as he was not drinking.  

I risked life and limb by taking responsibilities for the photos!

Unfortunately, this little fella didn't make it and died a few days later. 

Another sad factor when living in a remote community is just how cruel animals can get when in survival mode.  We knew a couple of the camp dogs were pregnant and close to giving birth so we were doing our best to protect them and harbour them from the other camp dogs where possible.  One of them which we called "Lady" disappeared for a couple of days and we were concerned for her welfare.  One evening, she was spotted coming out from under a shipping container over in our Aged Care area where she had dug a hole to be away from the pack and give birth to her pups.  We were able to fence off the immediate area and provided her with sufficient food and water. One evening when we were topping up her food and water, we noticed she had pushed a couple of pups out of the 'nest' and abandoned them which we promptly rescued.  In all, we were able to rescue four pups and we were never sure how many others she had and or had killed ... which is often the case apparently.

Here are the 4 pups we rescued ...

Unfortunately, a couple of them were in very poor health and died a few days later.  

The good news is that a black one (girl) and a brown one (boy) are both fit and healthy and one of the new nurses at Oak Valley adopted the girl and we have adopted the boy.  We have named him "Grizwold" as he looks like a grizzly bear and growls just like a real one! 

Here is one of the many native finches which was also saved, but this time from drowning!  As water is so scarce, the flocks of hundreds of finches and galahs all fight for what water they can find which is usually the buckets of water we leave out for the camp dogs.  We were always finding drowned finches in their water and sometimes we were able to rescue them, let them dry out in the verandah and then when they were ready, they flew off ... but many died.

Oak Valley has an air strip (I think I have mentioned this before in our Blog) and in early January, we had a Government work crew over there replacing and upgrading the landing lights.  The Government spend approximately $120,000 in the project which would enable night landings which would only be in an emergency with the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service).  

The air strip is a dirt run way and it is fenced off to keep the wild animals, mainly camels, out of the grounds at all times.  Apart form the water tanks, there isn't anything else out there so when the work crew had finished, packed up and left, Thomas and I drove out there at dusk to see what it looked like! (as you do!)

This pic was taken from the end of the runway.  The green lights mark the start of the runway (off into the distance) and when you are on the runway and look back, the other side of these lights are red.  The white lights (off to the left) mark the actual landing strip and the blue lights mark the taxi area and where the planes park.  The white light in the middle is the wind sock (which apparently blew off it's mountings in strong winds a few days later and was found in the scrub outside the air strip grounds!).

Early one morning, SA Water flew out to Oak Valley to do their regular inspections of the remote water bores and the water tanks in the community and their chartered flight landed at the air strip.  

The plane circled the community a few times (which is protocol) to confirm their arrival as the air strip is 18kms away and as no one (Thomas!!) told anyone that a plane was expected, Deb jumped into the Clinic troopy and took off to the air strip.  Only to find when she got there that Thomas was already there greeting them!  The rest of us in the community were left wondering what the hell was going on ... was it an emergency landing? was it an air raid? (well, that's what I thought anyway!).

When they left, Thomas and I went back out to the air strip with them and it was a rare treat to be able to be so close to an aircraft on take off ...

One of the more unusual things out at Oak Valley is the "Oak Valley Fire Department" and here is the sole emergency response unit ...

Never did find out if the pump actually worked or not!

It was an amazing sight to witness a severe thunderstorm roll across the outback and in one day, they had almost half the annual rain fall.  The rain was so intense that it started to flood the main street and surrounding area.

This pic is from out the front of the community office in the main street of Oak Valley looking back down the road towards the only main dirt road used to get through this country ...

Thomas was brave (??) enough to climb up to the top of the community water tower to take these pics over looking the community. He wanted me to go too and I declined as we could still see lightening off in the distance ... and of course my fear of heights had nothing to do with my decision!

Well my time in Oak Valley was now at an end as I had been offered a position in the Maralinga Tjarutja office in Ceduna as the Business Manager reporting directly to the General Manager, Richard Preece.  So before I left Oak Valley, I took some more pics of the camp dogs that had adopted us ...

This is "Betty" ... she has been a great companion for Blade and for Deb.

This is "Missy" or "Miss Scruffy" ... one of my favourites.  

Here is "Missy" and "Simba" play fighting together out the front.

Above is "Dobbie" (from Harry Potter fame) 

This is "Tigger" (Winnie the Pooh fame), he is a roo dog and the new 'Alpha-Male' in the community who was intimidating at first as he can be very aggressive but he turned out to be a great dog and very loyal towards us.

Here is "Tigger" and "Simba" out the front with Blade looking on through the fence.

Here is our Land Cruiser all ready to leave out the front of our unit.

A look down our street!

One of my fondest memories of Oak Valley will be the sunsets.  They were simply breath taking and every night, I would stand out the back and watch the setting sun disappear and it is visions like these that I will never forget!

The drive back to civilisation is a long one as I have mentioned before and it is very difficult to describe how dramatic the scenery is and how much it changes.  Here is another pic taken as I'm on the endless dirt road heading towards Maralinga ...

When I arrived back in Ceduna, I stayed for a week in another caravan park in a unit whilst I got used to going to work!  After the first week, I trekked back to Penong and retrieved the caravan and hauled it back to the same caravan park and set up base camp.  This park was a different park to the one we had originally stayed in, this one had a pool and was on the highway into Ceduna, next to the airport and freight train line, but it was very close to work.

Deb had the opportunity to relieve at the Yalata Health Clinic over the Australia Day long week end and was staying in a nice house there, so I drove the 200+kms over there for the weekend too.

Yalata is another aboriginal community and just off the Eyre Highway which has a Police station and bitumen roads!  It has a larger community than Oak Valley and they have a better health clinic set up there too.

On the drive back to Ceduna, I took the opportunity to finally get these pics.

This old harvester is off the Eyre Highway near a place called Nundroo ...

I'm not sure what type of utes these two wrecks are, but I would love to have a closer look and if I had the skills, restore them into one hot rod!

These are in a farmers paddock and easily seen from off the highway.  

And this pic is typical of the terrain out here on the Eyre Highway between Ceduna and the WA border!

In January, (the Land Cruiser) travelled ... 1,062 kilometres.

Cheapest fuel was in Ceduna, SA where it was $1.619 / litre

Dearest fuel was in Oak Valley, SA where it was $1.800 / litre

So far, we have travelled 15,523 kilometres on our Big Adventure.

December 2013

December 2013

Penong, SA

Penong was our base for a couple of weeks at the start of December as the kids and teachers from Oak Valley school have a camp once a year at Point Sinclair / Cactus Beach which is about 20 kms south of Penong when the weather at Oak Valley is at its peak during summer.

Cactus Beach is a very popular surfing beach and nearby is Port Le Hunte, the location of the school camp.

 

Penong is a very small town on the Nullabor Plain and as it is about 75kms west of Ceduna, the caravan park here is often very quiet … in fact, most nights we were the only guests here!  Apart from the pub and roadhouse, there isn’t much at Penong at all which suited us just fine!

  

Here we are at the Penong Caravan Park where we scored the sheltered annex which provided excellent relief from the sun and wind.

Deb was the medical officer on camp and I was granted permission by the school to be a volunteer for the camp and we chose to stay in the van in Penong and make the 20kms drive rather than sleep in swags at Port Le Hunte.

  

On the dirt road from Penong to Port Le Hunte is the Pink Lake which is adjacent to Lake MacDonnell …

Port Le Hunte is an ideal location as it is very quiet and has great facilities for these kids including a shark net to protect a swimming area, a large shelter and toilets and it was good that some of the adults and parents from the community also made the journey to the cooler seaside. 

Sadly, the shark net was erected in the 1970’s after a young boy was tragically attacked and killed by a shark in port whilst swimming.  The area is dedicated to him and it is a reminder to all of the dangers of the sea.

The pic below is one of Deb’s awesome panoramic shots showing the port, the jetty and the shark net with the kids enjoying the sea in safety.

The white sand dunes in the background are truly spectacular and turned a brilliant white in the afternoon sun ... and they are huge, in fact you can see these dunes from back on the highway as you drive into Penong!

One of the unique features of Port Le Hunte is the ship wreck of the Cecelia which is located to the left of the pic above and at low tide, you can walk around to see it close up as per the pic below …

 

Over three days down here, the kids got to experience firsthand many different aquatic sports with supervision, education and equipment provision from a team of great people and professional instructors from Eyre Peninsula Aquatics.  They provided wet suits, surf boards, flotation devices, canoes, kayaks, snorkeling gear and they even had a wet suit big enough for me to wear!!

Activities were spread out across the days at Port Le Hunte, Caves Beach and at the Blue Lake. 

Here are all the Toyotas lined up at Blue Lake as a storm rolls in …

 

Deb and I had to venture into Ceduna the day the storm rolled in and on the way back to the highway, we stopped at the Pink Lake to watch the lightning strikes and I managed to catch this pic …

Even far more impressive was Deb’s footage of a massive strike which she took on her camera in movie mode.  I used video editing software to find the frames as the strike was less than half a second in real time … 

The kids got to try their hand at surfing at Caves Beach and they all gave it a go …

Wipe Out!

This is 4 year old Celina riding the surf in her own special way …

Even Blade made a new friend on camp …

I had to include the pic below of the clouds above the Pink Lake ...

The school camp was great fun and very well organised and then the kids and teachers headed back to Oak Valley and it was now time for Deb to have a very well earned break.

On their return to Oak Valley, the kids camped at Watson overnight as the “Christmas Train” was due there early the next morning.  The Christmas Train travels across the country and stops in remote areas where Santa hands out presents and a pop star sings songs for them too. This year, the pop star was Rikki Lee Coulter.  We decided that the distance up to Watson was too far so early in the morning so we did not make it this year.

During her 6 week stint in Oak Valley, Deb had the opportunity to manage the Aged Care facility and she did an awesome job resurrecting it from the poor state it was in to something the community was proud to have.  In fact, her efforts were rewarded as the community management based in Ceduna offered her an extension to her initial contract to manage the Aged Care facility for a few months with the aim to maintain the facility at a high standard for the residence.

So we decided that she would accept the offer and Blade and I would return to Oak Valley together after she had had a week off to relax and recharge her batteries.

Whilst we relaxed at the Penong Caravan Park, Thomas Laucke, the Oak Valley Operations Manager came to visit us for a couple of days after he had stalked Rikki Lee at Watson!  It was great to see Thomas again and we all had a great time together.  We went fishing and swimming down at Port Le Hunte and spent most of the time just kicking back and chatting over a few drinks.  Thomas camped in his swag outside the van ... lucky for him it didn't rain!

As I would be returning to Oak Valley with Deb, I was asked if I could manage the community store again over Christmas / New Year so Barb (the store manager) could return to family in Adelaide.  I was also offered work in the community office as well and hopefully to drive the store truck to Ceduna each week to gain some HR truck experience.

As the employment policy in Oak Valley is 6 weeks on, 1 week off, we plan to store the van in Penong instead of in Ceduna and then travel around to the many bays and picturesque coastal areas on our breaks.

This time I got to drive my Land Cruiser up to Oak Valley and thankfully the dirt road had been graded since I had been on it last as my Land Cruiser only has road tyres and not the thicker and wider tread suitable for dirt roads. 

There were a few interesting moments along the way and I managed to take this pic on the dirt road between Maralinga and Oak Valley ...

Deb is some where behind me (eating my dust!) as she drove a community 'troopy' (Land Cruiser Troop Carrier) up from Ceduna.

After a 5 hour drive, all 3 of us arrived safely in Oak Valley ...

As the weather up here was very hot and due to get even hotter over the next couple of months, most of the community had already left Oak Valley and headed towards the coast.  

The heat up here is a very dry heat and the winds are often very hot too which makes life difficult for the native animals and the camp dogs whose owners had basically abandoned them when they left town.

One day, not long after we returned to Oak valley, the mid afternoon temperature was ...

 

And on another day it got even hotter ...

And then a day or so later ... it rained! ...

And a few days later at Christmas ... the heat was back!!

It was so hot that the over night temperature did not drop below 30 degrees!

To brighten up our yard, Deb created an outdoor area next to the carport and we managed to find some plant stands as well as a few foam boxes.  We got some potting mix brought up and she planted some seedlings under the shade cloth.  The wire is needed to keep the dogs out of the yard and away from Blade and Betty.

Deb found this baby lizard in our back yard so we had to release it away from the dogs into the bush.

Just before Christmas, Thomas' teenage kids Gabby and Tristan came up to stay with him in Oak Valley.  They caught the train from Adelaide to Perth and had arranged for the train to stop at Watson as it was not a designated station. So very early one morning, Thomas left and went all the way to Watson to meet his kids.

Christmas 2013 was a quiet time as it was only me, Deb, Thomas, Gabby and Tristan in the community.  We had dinner together on Christmas Eve and then we had Christmas lunch on Christmas Day together and it was definitely a unique Christmas for all of us this year!

There were only 3 aboriginals in the community at Christmas only because they could not leave as their car was broken down and could not be fixed.  A few days after Christmas, Deb and I drove them down to Yalata (another Aboriginal community on the highway) where their family were staying ... a 650 kms round trip and approximately 500 kms on dirt!

On Boxing Day, I got to drive the water truck out to a water bore approximately 50 kms from Oak Valley towards WA and it was so hot during the day that we decided to leave at dawn.

The truck carries around 22,000 litres of water which is pumped from a holding tank at the bore into and out of the truck.  The truck is an old Mack, it has 10 gears and weighs around 40 tonne when fully loaded.  It was very difficult to drive at first as it is very heavy and the gear changes needed make it a real challenge.  Here we are at one of the remote bores filling up with water from the tank which can be seen in the pic below.  SA Water own the tanks and bores including the water infrastructure in Oak Valley but it is the responsibility of the community to cart water from the bores back to Oak Valley. 

We leave some water out for the wild animals when we leave each bore and here is a white dingo that is often seen around the bores.  Water is so scarce out here, especially in summer that even the wild camels have been seen at the water left at the bores.

One of the many challenges Deb has taken on out here is the management of the community or camp dogs.  Unfortunately, when the community left Oak valley and headed to the beaches, they abandon their dogs and let them simply fend for themselves.  So Deb created a dog programme to ensure that, as best she can given that she does not own them, the dogs are fed and watered, have basic flea and worming treatments and she has taken a particular interest in removing ticks from them! It is amazing just how neglected these poor animals are and as they were left to fend for themselves, their pack instincts meant that there are often fights and even deaths between them.

It soon became our routine to drive around the community each evening, throw dog food (which we had to buy at first!) out of the window where the dogs have their own territories, ensure they have sufficient water and generally try to keep them apart as they become very hostile when they fight for food.

We did witness a couple of brutal dogs attacks where a couple of "Alpha Male" dogs killed a couple of other camp dogs so we had to call in the Police from Yalata who drove the 300+ kms up here to shoot and kill them for us.  Luckily, they were able to get permission from their owner who was in Yalata at the time, otherwise they might not have been able to shoot them ... legally!

In the pic below is a fox terrier we rescued from one such attack and he recuperated in our back yard for a few days with Betty (left) and a curious Blade (right) looking on.  We named the fox terrier "Timmy". 

As the dogs had become familiar with the vehicles we used to drive around the community when delivering their food, they soon decided to all follow us all day, every day which was a little concerning at first as many of them were very feral looking and they were very aggressive, but they soon understood that when Deb ... "the new Alpha Dog" was around, they needed to behave or they would be growled at! Trust me when I say that you do not want her to growl at you!

Even thou at feed time they can be aggressive towards each other, we have found that most of the camp dogs are friendly and all want some attention ... which unfortunately is simply not the case when their owners are around.

Over time, we gave each of the dogs a nick name like "Miss Scruffy", "Dumb" and "Dumber", "Dobbie", "Tigger", "Rover", "Simba", "Mrs Timmy", "Muttly", "Roo Girl", "Lady", "Lucky", "Patches" whilst "Bella" and "Toby" live at Christina the Nurse Manager's house and "Betty" lives with us and "Blade".  There are other dogs that we have not named as yet ... but I am sure Deb will name these for her "Doggie Profiles" she has created to manage each of their health with.

Here they are under the community ambulance at our house, in the shade and out of the hot afternoon sun.  They dig holes to find cooler dirt.

New years Eve 2013 was another quiet event, in fact Deb and I were watching a recorded TV series when midnight struck!

Oak Valley is very very dry, dusty and extremely hot, but the wages they pay and the opportunity to learn new skills and experience another world make it bearable.

In December, (the Land Cruiser) travelled ... 2,084 kilometres,

Cheapest fuel was in Port Augusta, SA where it was $1.549 / litre

Dearest fuel was in Ceduna, SA where it was $1.589 / litre

So far, we have travelled 14,461 kilometres which does not include all the travel we have done up to and back from Oak Valley in community vehicles.