Golf in Karumba

Well this was an experience i wont forget. Yesterday Mike, Ben, Darren and I decided to play a round of golf. Its a 9 hole golf course and if you've read my other blogs you'll know that the greens are made of sand. So we rocked up there all keen and eager to lay into it. Just pay when you've finished they said. So we got some spare clubs out of the back shed and headed for the No.1 tee. It took about 2 mins before we realized that one set of golf clubs were left handed. And 10 minutes for Ben to discover that there was only 1 set of golf clubs that were right handed. So off we went, the 4 of us with one set of clubs. The No.4 iron didnt have a handle so that was out. The No.3 had a great big bend in it. And we only had 1 putter, but dont worry we had 3 No.9 irons. As usual I hit perfectly straight right down the middle, now when i say middle, imagine your in the middle of a desert aiming for the flag you can see in the distance. I swear, without a word of a lie that someone went around the whole course with roundup and sprayed all the grass. There was not one blade of green grass to be seen. The others hit pretty straight too but just not at the flag, ha ha ha. And then you take your first few steps and it hits you. TAHUNA - yep dodging the sheep shit. Only here your dodging the Wallaby shit, ha ha ha. I had to laugh out loud at that one, no one else understood. So in heat that was hitting the 30's we proceeded hole to hole. It only took Mike 3 holes to figure out that he could putt it in one if he made a channel from his ball to the hole with his golf club. By hole No.6 we were buggered, had lost several balls, had no tee's left, had been playing for 2 hours already and to be honest to many beers for such a hot day. They charged us $3 each for our round of golf. And so we all piled in the car and buggered off home. Sometimes life in Karumba is just to bloody hard.

Karumba!!!

Well 12 hours on the bus and we had made it to Karumba. I'll try my best to describe it for you. The main road to Karumba is sometimes 2 lanes and sometimes just a single lane with big dirt strips down the sides so if a road train comes you've got somewhere to pull off the road. Every 150kms you may come across(if you dont blink) the next town. Which usually consists of a petrol pump/shop/cafe. Oh and a toilet block. There are no dead possums on the roads like New Zealand, but are lots of dead kangaroo's instead. And lots of barren land with thousands of termite hills and some of these are huge. Karumba its self, sits on a river which is quite close to the sea. It is in the middle of Croc Country. And i might venture to say is alot bigger than the towns on the main road we passed to get here. Karumba has a Seafood Restaurant(where Mike and I work), a post office/bank, a bakery, a butchery, a supermarket, a pharmacy/beauty shop/furniture shop, a pub, a library, a police house and another bait shop. Oh and there is also Zinifex(a mining company). These are all within about 200mts of each other. Unfortunately the pub is one of the furtherest things from us and just to bloody far to walk to in this heat. So we send Mick down after work (10pm) to get our supplies. But there is a bit to do here, you can take off to the point. This is about a 10 minute drive to the mouth of the river it has another pub there. There is also a recreation centre with a tennis court. And a golf course, let me tell you about the golf course. Tahuna has nothing on this one. Because its so hot, there is not one blade of grass. so you are pretty much playing on dirt/sand. The greens are the best though, before you putt you have to get the rake and smooth out the sand so you have a smooth putting surface, ha ha ha ha ha. In the wet season they say the course changes so instead of playing on sand, you have to play around the great big puddles/lakes that appear on the course. ha ha ha. The temperature here is a steady 30 degrees day in day out. In the evening it cools to a very nice 16, and all the locals get there winter woolly's out. I saw my first kangaroo the other day, it is great. The job is good here and we are both enjoying it very much. I am looking forward to the next adventure which life throws at me. And wonder if its going to be a bit bigger than Karumba, I dont like my chances of it.

Bring on Australia

After leaving the bombs behind i finally managed to make it to Australia. This was going to be different, because i wanted to work around this country. How ever i havent worked for pretty close to 10 months so was in a way not looking forward to it. Brett met me at the airport and as usual was looking and smelling his best. Yum Yum. Amanda looked great and it was so good to see her again. They are so much like family for me, so in a way it was like i had just got home. And the girls, Ella and Macy, what little darlings they are. Macy is so tiny and poor little Ella was just getting over from being sick. Carol came for tea that night, which was a nice surprise. I spent 4 days with Brett and Amanda then i was on the next plane up to Cairns. Yeah!!! Mike was at the airport waiting for me. It was great to see him again, i think i must have nearly squeezed him to death, ha ha ha. So i had made it to Cairns where i would be following the sun thru the top part of oz. So what happens? Yep it rained for the next 4 days. We both spent this time looking for jobs. Oh and at the casino 1 night. And again i lost my $100.00 and so did mike. On Saturday we got the paper and had a look thru for jobs and i rang one about a waitressing position. He said yep, you've got the job, when can you be here? We are in Karumba. WHERE'S KARUMBA??? So not knowing what we were in for Mike and I were off to Karumba to start work. And oh my god, stay tuned for what that is like.