Highway to the Danger Zone

YES, hurrah, I am here! No, my car didn’t blow its radiator, I didn’t get my throat slashed in one of the local towns, and I managed to avoid all kangaroos along the way (didn’t see any live ones, unfortunately… only carcases to swerve in and out of).

I managed to get everything together on Saturday morning and I hit the road at about 8:15am. As I pulled away from 44 Vale St (with half my life in the back-seat behind me) I turned up the stereo and blasted out Kenny Loggins – “Highway to the Danger Zone”… quite appropriate for the circumstances, I thought.

For those that don’t know, I decided to postpone the trip for a week so I could knock over some assessment that I hadn’t been able to do over the past few weeks with everything going on. This means that I’ll finish a week later, but this doesn’t make much difference in the big scheme.

The drive out was fantastic… probably the most fun I’ve had in ages. Nothing better than being on the wide, open road, on a warm day, going somewhere that you’ve never been before. The road out was actually really good (a lot of it seemed fairly new). However, I’m glad my car had cruise control, as I was able to set it to a speed and sit back and enjoy the scenery.

The soundtrack for the trip included The Whitlams, Kisschasy, Josh Pyke, Elton John and even some Billy Joel Greatest Hits III (I found this under the seat… I take it it’s yours Denis!?). However, all this was broken up with several reprises of “Danger Zone”, just to keep in touch with the reality of the situation!

As I headed west of Roma and began getting a bit bored, I decided to test the water on the “Country Courtesy Wave”. This is the wave (and in some cases, a subtle lift of the right-index finger from the steering-wheel) to fellow motorists as they pass by. While the exact meaning of the C.C.W was unbeknown to me, I like to think of it as a way of saying “Well, here we are mate. Looks like you and I are the only specimens of human existence in kilometres. All the best with whatever you’re doing, and I salute you!” (yes, a lot can be said by the raise of a finger!!). Unfortunately, from 3 attempts I only got 1 C.C.W reply… so I’m assuming the others were “city folk”.

When I finally arrived at Bill’s place, I ensured that I spent a few seconds familiarizing myself with his dog, “Trigger”. After initially looking pretty aggressive, he melted into a softy with my first pat and is a really friendly dog. Bill’s place is really good. While small it can house us both pretty well. But when I found out that Bill had Austar and a Playstation 2, I knew we were going to get along just fine!

Sunday was mostly spent with Bill giving me the Grand Tour of Morvania. He showed me the local police station (and the two copper’s homes either side), the Morven International Airport Terminal (a kilometre-long, red, dirt patch), and some of Morven’s trendiest estates (think 3 bedroom house and land going for $45,000). He then took me to the school to meet the teaching principal, who, at 11:30am on a Sunday, was at school marking work (they’re keen out here in the country!).

Bill then took me half-way to ‘Victoria Downs’ (you can probably see it on the map). On the way, on either side of the road were paddocks for sheep. However, these weren’t your typical ‘paddocks’, as these went for as far as your eyes could see. It was the most amazing thing I had seen in a while, actually. I was looking at this HUGE, wide, open, barren land, with no trees (apart from the odd cactus) and only about a dozen sheep (small white dots). But this just went on for kilometres and kilometres disappearing into a hazy blur on the horizon. As I told Bill, it was hard to comprehend just how much space you were looking at with nothing in it! I will have to take some photos of it sometime and post them up, as I don’t think my adjectives really do it justice.

At 2:00pm though, we were required to report for duty at the local shop to move some freezers, so I rolled up my sleeves and put in the hard yards. Together with the shop owners (Bill’s sister and her husband) and a couple of friendly locals, we shifted some freezers and then loaded with ice cream, frozen chickens and the like. We were consequently rewarded for our toil by sipping coffee (and then beer) and eating Tim-tams and scones with jam and cream for the rest of the afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what living in the country is all about!

Morven State School is fantastic. It is definitely more ‘low-key’ than other schools I’ve been in, while still being formal and professional in manner. The kids are ‘triffic’, and definitely better behaved than ‘city kids’. They were all very amused when I had to confess that I had no idea what ‘pig chasing’ actually involved. I’ve since learnt… through detailed, graphic description. ‘Roo shooting’ is another pastime I found I was relatively unfamiliar with, but now am secretly hoping I get a chance to take-part sometime in the next 4 weeks (once I temporarily suspend my attitudes towards animal cruelty!).

Looks like I’ll be taking a few classes on Friday, and building from there over the next week or so. I’ll keep you all updated and try and post again later in the week.