Nothing like hitting the road in the tRusty 4X4 and a Tinny in tow and heading out into the great outdoors. Especially when it is a wet and wild April going down and most folk are sensibly tucked away in front of their plasma screens, xboxes, blogs & forums, ebay auctions and other online distractions designed to drain life away with the least amount of resistance or fuss.
This voluntary little excursion took me away from my 'puters for a whole EIGHT NIGHTS. Yup, no kidding. That's EIGHT NIGHTS without reading or posting a single forum message, or making a single ebay bid on something I probably could do without, or even watching the slightest bit of TV "news" (let alone NCIS or House, etc) or having any kind of hands on interaction with the Online World.
Scary stuff indeed.
Let me tell you folks that there IS sunshine, fresh air, stars in the clear and cold night sky, bird flittering through the trees, possums arguing over poorly stored campside rubbish, outrageous fuel prices, good food and wine to be found out of the cities in the Wild Offline World lurking just beyond the freeways and mobile phone range !
In our case, LSCP (that's "Life Style Choices Partner" for those who came in late) and I headed off for a favorite haunt called "Honeymoon Pool" near the Wellington Dam near Collie (in W.A.) for a few nights before braving the School Holiday Rush that was bound to be found at Busselton around 80ish Kms down the road.
Honeymoon Pool was a bit low for water this time around but the night air at our site at "Gelcoat Rapids" was crisp and fresh, the stars bright and the moon even brighter when the rain clouds chose to part now and then, and better than that, the tent was warm and cosy, chocolate copious as too suitable illcoholic pleasures.
Any questions ? Mind your own business ! However, I might mention that because there was no one else around for most of the time we were there, it wasn't all that necessary to keep the tent zipped up either. Hmmmm - if possums in the area start to mate in some strange new position not normally observed of them, it could be a case of them seeing through an open tent things no possum should ever have to know about ! Heh.
So having paid our dues to the "Honeymoon pool" name (and the name of our campsite I guess) we left the wild woods to face a new wilderness ... the holiday seaside town of Busselton during the dreaded school holiday season.
What were we thinking ?
Didn't matter, coz Praise the Makers of Plasma screens, xboxes, and all electronic things designed to make childrens eyes glaze over, Busselton was surprisingly family/school kid free !
We now had access to the Busselton Jetty to scuba dive around, lots of hot water at the not all that busy Kookaburra caravan park to wash our smelly salty bodies with, and walking distance access to plenty of locations that could supply us with Good Food, illcohol, chocolate, and even really good cheese and dirt cheap reading materials at whim.
Had to be a little more careful regarding the tent mind you.
Ok, confession to make ... we weren't TOTALLY isolated from traditional visual entertainment. I'm not talking about the fantastic scuba dive we did on the Busselton Jetty (I'll save that for a later blog entry as hopefully there will be a topical photo or two that relates to the blog entry prior to this one), nor the antics of possums arguing over garbage.
I'm talking about the visual entertainment possible by the Oz rarity called "The Drive-In Theatre". Yup, those places that were everywhere in Oz before VCRs and Drink Driving laws killed them.
Busselton has one. Who cares what was showing, we just had to bed up the 4runner, load up with unhealthy food and the odd coldie, and cuddle up with it backed into a good pozzie with the tailgate down (saves having to clean the windscreen and fumble around a centre-console).
Movie selection wasn't bad. "I am Legend" and "10,000 BC" was an ok double for the price and experience that for a while looked uncertain due to technical issues with my tRusty 4x4 car stereo.
It is missing its antenne - not that I care as I don't actually bother with music or radio when I'm driving. However, the "modern drive-in theatre" kinda needs you to have a functioning radio so you can tune into its movie broadcast soundtrack.
Ooops. Deem much fumbling around in vehicle looking for a coathanger or something to stick in the antenna hole included ! Nup ... all I could find was a 4" nail. I hammered that into the hole with an axe I happened to be carrying (why would you go to a drive-in without one ?) but nup, way too short to be a useful antenna (said the actress to the bishop).
What to do ? Movie about to start and I've got no sound and the neighbours were telling their kids to stay away from the strange guy carrying an axe and bashing the dangerous looking vehicle which had a pretty girl inside who was way too young for him but far too old to be his daughter, etc, etc.
I finally got a couple more of my brain cells back online (too much downtime puts a disturbing number of them into a state of constant slumber and clodness) and thought of another use for the battery jumper leads I carry than the one usually intended for them this side of Egypt or an evening out with one "Cruel and Heartless" of BBBA forum fame.
See piccy below for an example of my sudden spurt of cleverness that got my radio receiving loud and clear just in time for Will Smith to strut his questionable "I am Legend"ness.
I swapped the axe for my skipper's hat and a sign I happened to still have "floating around" in the back of the truck after the scuba dive earlier that day.
Just because I was on Downtime from my precious forums (et al) doesn't mean that I wasn't thinking of y'all !
And here I am back safe and sound and just in time for the official launch of the Oz Big Brother season.
Like the happy snappy says:
regarDS
Posts
