Now day 36. Still no results. Had not even a chicken bone thrown at me. Some notes from a couple of days ago, below: Friday. 1710. Day 34...... Parked about 10 kilometres west of my target. This is the closest I have come to getting anything at all of it. How close remains to be seen. But the scenario is this. Im parked near the edge of a dry line which has been moving west. There was quite interesting storm build-up moving quickly west but that now seems to be breaking up. So theres a chance there might be room for the sun right on sunset which is just short of two hours away. Counter to that is very high level but very very thin cloud beyond the cumulus build-up. A good sunset is possible, but we will wait and see.... Its amazing how activity, even if none eventuates, improves the mood. It gives you something to do. Something else beyond what I have been doing to stimulate the senses. The challenge about all this however stays the same. It is about endurance and holding it all together until the dam wall finally breaks. When the sun and the weather and the sky all come together to produce something amazing. This is testing me now almost as much as any of my survival walks. Physically and mentally. Id gone into town this morning to get supplies and just to chill out in an environment where I had the phone and internet to play with. Where I could buy an ice-cream. Where I could get things done. I was enjoying it, but it was then abruptly terminated when I looked to the western sky and saw significant build-up for the first time in many days. Possibly a week. It is at this point that it gets challenging again. Your energy levels are very low. Youre feeling very fatigued and washed out. But you then have to do the long drive quickly and earlier than you had banked upon, so your short period of recuperation is all of a sudden shot to pieces because youve got to get there in case something happens. 60 kilometres along the gravel to the turn-off, and then a further 130 kilometres in along a vehicle smashing tyre destroying track. Any benefit you had gotten from the rest is shot to bits. Id tried to get an extended period - ie, eight and a half hours - of sleep last night. Went to bed at 2000. Was asleep straight away. Woke up at 2330 and struggled after that. Awake at regular intervals until the alarm went off at 0430. Dud sunrise again and was on the track heading to town at 0540. Its about a two hour drive into town. While in town the first priority, after refuelling and checking the weather outlook, was to try and get mobile communications sorted out. Where Im camped is on the absolute outer extremities of range, and then only on occasional mornings early, and occasionally in the evenings. And then you have to point the vehicle the right way and position it metre perfect. You pick up emails on the phone probably every second day, but the signal is not sufficiently strong that I can trigger the personal hotspot and get the emails onto the computer to make it easy to respond. Theres no surfing the net out here. If Im not getting emails at my camp on the phone, and not getting even phone signal, its a 65 kilometre drive to another location to get more reliable signal. So first stop this morning was the auto-sparky. He was excellent. A top bloke. Checked the antenna wiring and did a bit of soldering - nearly an hours work - for nothing. Said I would send him a book. He gave me a couple of solutions that might help the communications problem. First option was a a coil to sit inside the aerial - I think its called an aerial booster. The second was a mobile booster. Both significantly improve the signal strength. If I can sort this problem it will make a massive difference. Not just now, but for the future. It will cut back on the need to use the satellite phone as well which costs north of two dollars a minute. It will make life so much easier meaning that I can have data and voice communications and therefore work even in the baking sun. At the moment Im just passing time, conjuring up business ideas, while cooking in the baking sun. Ive also been really well looked after by a girl at one of the morning camps about a hundred kilometres from where I am camped. Shes been very generous in giving me access to their purified water out there. The water quality is far superior to the tap in town and much more drinkable. 1940. Cloud broke off. Sunset a dud. Just finished 45 minute drive along car wrecking corrugations back to camp.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 05:02:29 +0000
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