Hay 11 October 2009

Left Turlee Station and headed back along the bone shaker road to Balranald. The locals say it is a good road but we didn’t feel the same in our truck! Filled up with water and snacked on lunch in town. Heather met a lovely man who was surprisingly spruce 81 years old. He chatted openly about his life and proudly told about his achievements. He said he was NSW’s first Aboriginal JP and after many interesting life experiences he was now a magistrate in Mildura and sorting out lots of issues relating to drink and drugs! He told me he gets a laugh when roadside police ask him when he had his last drink and he tells them that he has never even tasted alcohol! He said they do not believe him. He tells of horse breaking, stock work, being an overseerer, a buck jumper in shows including Walgett in the 1940s. His traditional Aboriginal family lived on an island 5kms from town. With the changes to the river this island has disappeared. He gave her his card with a black cockatoo, which is his totem.
Headed off along the Hay Plain and camped at the Sandy Point Camp again. Beautiful weather for an evening BBQ by the river with all the white cockatoos settling along the banks! Summer coming at last and we were into summer clothes at last. Next we will be complaining about heat! We discovered a hole in one of our grey water pipes. This would have happened on the rough dirt road. Peter was able to temporarily fix it until we get home. Problems are rarely too much trouble for us and are quickly resolved. We seem to have lots of alternatives in this big home away from home!