Cunnamulla, QLD Australia
Last evening was a typical evening after a day of working at the mine. I had spent the afternoon slicing rough - with some beautiful results and Paul had gone for a long walk in the bush. As the sun was nearing the horizon, Victor, a miner from Yowah, stopped by for a yarn (yarn: Australian for a chat or a story). After talking about various peculiarities of the opal business and mining in southwest Queenland, Victor left and Paul and I drove off to take showers.
Paul and I take showers in a little corrugated iron shed near someones camp by an artesian bore, about 5 miles from my mine. The water is from way down deep so it's always hot and a bit minerally - it has a slight smell, but does not stink. It has some magic combination of minerals in it that do incredible things for achey muscles - it really feels great after working hard all day. Last night, after the sun was down and it was dark, Paul & I were driving to the bore. Sitting in the middle of the dirt road were 2 young kangaroos - not an unusual sight. They were not joeys, but were not full grown. They were in the middle of the road, back to back, one facing the right shoulder of the road, the other facing the left. As we drove up, they darted off the road in a very organized sort of way which looked rather funny. Watching them hopping along we could see another younger one and mom not far from the edge of the road - a typical sight out here. We took our showers and were rejuvenated. Since the hot water is virtually endless, if no other miners are waiting for a shower, it is so nice to just linger and let the hot water run over your neck and shoulders . . . as long as there are not too many spiders too close in the shower. . . yes, you do need to sort of keep one eye open for univited and potentially dangerous shower guests. Last night a very strange and unknown species of bug about 2" long walked along the floor of the shower until I sent a tidal wave, washing him or her away. The night before, a frog hopped between my feet as I was showering. As I mentioned, I do not mind frogs, however seeing them out here can make me a bit cautious since snakes find frogs to be very attractive.
Back to the story . . . we took our showers and were rejuvenated. After our showers, it was dark. The sun had been down for a while and the moon had not yet risen. On the way home, we saw the kangaroos again near the same spot in the dirt road. This time the 4 we had seen were all in the road. My car approached and mom promptly hopped off the road. As often happens with young 'roos in the road on a dark night, they started to hop away, but as they were about to leave the light from my car's spotlights and hop into darkness, they turned back into the light, certainly because it was much easier to see in the light, but that put them back in the path of my car. They at least had the sense to hop away from my car, down the road in the direction I was driving. For probably over a minute, we drove along the dirt road with 3 young kangaroos hopping in front of my 4WD, trying to get away, but wanting to stay in the beam of the headlights.. . . unlikely reindeer in front of something other than Santa's sleigh. I sped up and slowed down and enjoyed watching their hopping technique and them moving from side to side. They were easily cruising at over 40km/hr (you can do the conversion as an exercise - I was a math teacher) - they were only young 'roos and were not going as fast as they could. One by one, they wised up or accidentally turned off the road and out of the way of my car.
Have you read The Trial, by Franz Kafka? (Yes, he wrote The Metamorphosis.) If so, then you will have some appreciation of the vagaries of the similar functioning or lack thereof of the Department of Mines in Queensland and its associated regulations and everchanging forms. . . . more later.
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