It's getting final
Oct. 26th, 2005 03:49 pmTook my crates into Nexus today to go on a truck back to Perth. Now the guy there had quoted me "around $60" for 2 crates and maybe a cardboard box. I e-mailed and was quoted "around $80" for the 3 crates and the box. I got charged a little less than $50 all up - nice.
Last night Stu had the crackpot idea of going onto the plains to look for grass owl. Nevermind the fact that grass owl haven't been reported there for over a year and we have no spotlights! So anyway, we went out, I got a lungful of dust again (we'd gone out the morning the day before - and got about a hundred yellow chats so it was very successful).
We drove all the way out to Kidneybean. We drove off the track. Stu proceeded to do a lot of turns and figure eights that made me rather disoriented. So I reassured myself.
- He CAN'T be dumb enough to so deliberatley get us lost out here, he's gotta know where he is.
- He was a scout.
- He was a scout, in Africa (useful when driving around cows that like to take on cars, Stu is used to elephants).
- He's generally the adventure type and knows what to do in the wilderness.
- I know Mars is vaguely to the east and Pleaides is northish.
- We have the satellite phone. I can stretch out and sleep on the backseat till morning.
It got to a point where even Stu was scratching his head and wondering where the track out was. I was thinking, even if we do find a track who knows if it's the right one? This is a claypan, there aren't really any distinguishing features. After a while he jumped out of the car with a torch and had a run around. Then came back declaring he should have trusted his instincts and drove out to a track not very far away - it was the right one.
No grass owls (but who knows what those birds fluttering off in our peripheral vision were?) We did get 5 red-capped plovers on the claypan, which was just weird.
Last night Stu had the crackpot idea of going onto the plains to look for grass owl. Nevermind the fact that grass owl haven't been reported there for over a year and we have no spotlights! So anyway, we went out, I got a lungful of dust again (we'd gone out the morning the day before - and got about a hundred yellow chats so it was very successful).
We drove all the way out to Kidneybean. We drove off the track. Stu proceeded to do a lot of turns and figure eights that made me rather disoriented. So I reassured myself.
- He CAN'T be dumb enough to so deliberatley get us lost out here, he's gotta know where he is.
- He was a scout.
- He was a scout, in Africa (useful when driving around cows that like to take on cars, Stu is used to elephants).
- He's generally the adventure type and knows what to do in the wilderness.
- I know Mars is vaguely to the east and Pleaides is northish.
- We have the satellite phone. I can stretch out and sleep on the backseat till morning.
It got to a point where even Stu was scratching his head and wondering where the track out was. I was thinking, even if we do find a track who knows if it's the right one? This is a claypan, there aren't really any distinguishing features. After a while he jumped out of the car with a torch and had a run around. Then came back declaring he should have trusted his instincts and drove out to a track not very far away - it was the right one.
No grass owls (but who knows what those birds fluttering off in our peripheral vision were?) We did get 5 red-capped plovers on the claypan, which was just weird.