Eruption - 7. Erupt Ch 7

It wasn’t that I didn’t like country music; it was just listening to it for the whole day that was getting me a little annoyed. I remembered to put my mobile on charge before going to bed, so I could listen to some of my music for the next stage of the trip.

The following morning, I was woken up at 4:30 am and after a quick breakfast, we packed up everything, before loading the cattle onto the truck again, and we were on the road by 5.15 am. About three hours later, we slowed and turned right off the Great Central Road, and we entered the Warburton Community, where Mark announced we needed to fuel up the truck and check on the cattle.

While I walked around the truck from a distance to check on the cattle, Mark checked the truck's tyres before starting to pump diesel into the truck's two large fuel tanks. I entered the roadhouse, which was nice and cool, and I ordered two rounds of sandwiches, two cans of drink, and a packet of biscuits, which I paid for and I went to the bathroom before I took a seat in the dining area, and Mark entered shortly after and ordered a hot pie with sauce and a couple of cans of soft drink to take away.

Once we had collected our food supplies, we were back on the road again, and I was informed that we had over 8 hours of driving ahead, as it is the roughest part of the road, so we had to travel a little slower with the cattle on the back.

It was nearly 6 pm when we finally arrived on the outskirts of the town of Laverton, and I was very tired, and looking forward to a hot shower and a good meal before heading to bed. Once we had offloaded and fed the cattle, Mark announced that we would have a pub meal, so he suggested that I shower right away.

I knew that tomorrow would be a long day, as it had been for the past two days; the only difference was that we would be on sealed roads from now on, which would make it a lot more comfortable, with no road corrugations to annoy us all day.

After a huge meal at the pub, we returned to the camp and after a quick check on the cattle we headed to bed, and I fell asleep right away. “If you don’t stay awake and get up and pack right away, I will leave you behind,” I heard Mark say to me, and I jumped out of my swag, rolled it up and packed it into the side locker of the truck.

Once I had done that and looked around the camp, I noticed that everything had been packed up and stowed away, “What about breakfast?” I asked, “Since I did all of the reloading and packing up of camp, you can grab something when we stop for fuel at Leonora, about half an hour away,” Mark said to me, as he headed for his door and climbed in.

I quickly jumped into the truck, not wanting to be left behind in a small and remote town, I settled in with an empty stomach, hoping that I could find something decent to eat when we stopped for fuel at the next town. When we arrived in Leonora, I did a walk around the truck to check on the cattle, and all seemed to be fine, so I headed inside.

There I found a great selection of meals for breakfast, so I ordered a cup of tea and two bacon and egg toasted sandwiches, I ate the first sandwich and half of my cup of tea before exiting the restaurant, where Mark was finishing with the refuelling, and I walked around the truck once more before climbing up into the truck and settling in for another long journey.

From Leonora, we headed north, and about 1 ½ hours later we turned west where we travelled for two hours to the town of Sandstone, where Mark wanted to stop to check the truck, and I wanted to urgently take a leak as well as check on the cattle.

“How long before we get to our destination?” I asked Mark once we had started again. “About 2 ½ hours to Mount Magnet, and another two hours to Badja Station,” Mark grumbled, as he changed the gears on the truck grinding the gears which made me cringe.

I silently groaned that I still had over four hours before I got out of this truck for good, and I had no plans to do this trip ever again, especially with a truck driver like Mark.

When we finally arrived at Badja Station in the late afternoon, a tall man who looked like Andrew was at the yards waiting for our arrival. “G’day Mark, how was the trip,” the man asked, “Good, no problems at all. Liam, this is the young man your brother sent along to keep an eye on the cattle during the trip, his name is…” Mark said stopping when he forgot my name.

“My name is Carson Newton, I am Jocelyn Abbott’s nephew,” I said as I held out my hand and shook Liam’s firm hand grip. “Nice to meet you, Carson, my brother did call and let me know that you would be travelling down with the truck and asked to put you up for a week and show you around the station,” Liam said.

“I hope that is ok with you, if not I just need to find a way to get to Perth,” I replied, “Don’t worry about it, all is good, You are most welcome on Badja, and I am sure we will find plenty for you to do, just like my brother did,” Liam replied.

Once the cattle were unloaded, Liam sorted out the paperwork with Mark, and I grabbed all of my belongings before he drove off in the truck, I cleaned the water trough and watched the cattle settle in for the night, with a bale of hale already in the yards for them to eat. “Good cattle, no doubt they will look better once you have fattened them up a bit,” I commented.

“Yep, that is the aim of sending them down here, we share in the profits once the cattle are sold, so it is a good partnership that my brother and I have. Now let us get you settled in so you can clean up before dinner,” Liam said, and I followed him towards the homestead.

At the back of the main building, was a row of rooms with a wide front verandah, and I was given the one nearest the middle room, which is a small lounge room, with a television and a bookshelf full of novels and magazines. There are two bedrooms on each side of the lounge, with a bathroom at one end and a laundry at the other.

Once I had showered and changed into fresh clothes, I headed for the homestead worker’s dining room, at the back of the homestead, with a large kitchen located next door. Abbey was a Jillaroo from England, who helped the boss’s wife with all of the cooking, cleaning and washing, and she was always smiling, and happy to meet new people.

The following morning just before 5.30 am, I woke up and washed my face, before dressing and heading over to the dining room for breakfast. “My word, you are a keen one, breakfast isn’t until 6.15 am, so you have over half an hour to go,” Liam’s wife Susan said to me when she saw me enter.

“Oh, sorry, well I will just sit here and wait if that is ok,” I replied, “Not a problem, I will get you a cup of tea to get you started,” Susan said before disappearing into the kitchen.

After breakfast, we headed over to the cattle yards, where the stock from the Northern Territory looked fairly settled, as we sorted them into two groups and let them out into the laneway, before we walked over to the shed, and with a quad bike each we followed the cattle, until they reached the paddock that Liam wanted them in.

Back at the shed, we put the bikes away and climbed into the Ute, and drove over to the homestead, where Susan had a basket waiting for us, containing morning tea and packed lunches, and two thermoses’ with tea in them. Liam informed me that we would be doing the water run for the next five hours, to check tanks, windmills and troughs in several paddocks.

The week on Badja station flew by so fast, I was shocked when it came time for me to leave, and head back to Alice Springs. To get there, Susan would be driving me to the nearest town of Yalgoo, where I would catch the Transwa Bus that would take me west for 90 minutes to the town of Mullewa, before changing buses for the trip south to East Perth terminal, which will be an agonising seven-hour journey.

Arriving just before 8 pm, Aunty Jos had made reservations for me to stay at a hotel in Perth City overnight, before I boarded a flight from Perth to Alice Springs, leaving at 7 am, and arriving at 11.15 am local time. Although I was not too keen on this trip, it would be far better than the journey I had on the cattle truck from Alice Springs to the Station south of Yalgoo, with just people crammed into the back of the vehicle instead of cattle.

Although I had decided to return to Canada to complete my studies, which saddened my Aunt a little, she was pleased to have been able to spend time with me, and I told her that I planned to return to Australia in two years after I had completed all of my studies.

I stayed in Alice Springs for one more week, and in that time, I had two more counselling sessions with young Toby, who was thrilled that he got to see me again, and he opened up a lot more about his bad dreams, of the bad man that used to hurt his Mum.

This time Mum and Dad had arranged for me to travel with Cathay Pacific & Air Canada for the International parts of the trip, and I would have just two stops along the way, the first being with Qantas to Sydney which was just over three hours of travelling.

Once I have passed through Australian Customs and Border Control, I board a flight to Hong Kong, that will take 9 ¼ hours, with a window seat in Business Class, and this is followed by a 15-hour flight from Hong Kong directly to Toronto, with one stop at Vancouver, and I would have the window seat on the same row, as the previous flight for the last leg of the journey.

I was very pleased to finally arrive at Moncton Airport, after a five-hour layover in Toronto, Mum was there to collect me from the airport, and I was easy to pick out, as I was still wearing my Aussie Akubra Hat, and Mum laughed when she saw me, with my great Aussie suntan.

“Looks like the Australia trip did wonders to your skin colour, I like it, especially with your Akubra on,” Mum said to me, as she wrapped me in a tight hug. “Fair go, Mum, I need to breathe,” I said to her, which made her laugh some more before releasing me.

Once I was finally at home, I unpacked, and put all of my dirty clothes from the past three days of travelling into the laundry, before collapsing on my bed and falling asleep.

After three days, I had finally recovered from the jet lag and with another nine days left before I was due to return to University, I sat down with my parents to discuss what my plans were for the next two years.

I announced to my parents, that I had decided to drop out of the psychology course since I had already gained an Associate Diploma in Psychology Counselling, and completed my degree in Geoscience, and that I now wanted to concentrate on my Honours and Masters degrees in Environmental Science, specialising in Geophysics and Volcanology.

Although surprised at my change of direction in my studies, they said they were supportive of what I do, and said that the apartment that I had lived in for the past three years was no longer available so for now I would be living at home. As I was going through all the information to apply to do the two-year Masters in Environmental Science, I thought that maybe I could add a degree in Adult Education to broaden my skills, so I looked into the options for that as well.

What my parents were not aware of, was that I had been keeping in touch with one of the very small numbers of high school friends I had, and his name is Emmanuel Cohen, who has gone on to study at the University of Concordia, where he is studying Applied Linguistics.

In the last two years of high school and more recently in the three years of university studies, I have been meeting with Emmanuel every month. With Emanuel now in Quebec, I have been putting my pilot's licence to good use, as I have been able to charter a plane to travel the 75-minute flight to Quebec, in the late Friday afternoon, and stay till Sunday early afternoon.

As a result of spending time with Emmanuel and the Cohen family, I have been attending the synagogue with them, and since year 11, Emmanuel has been teaching me the Hebrew language, which I now have a good grasp of, which is good, as the Coen family mostly speak in Hebrew at home, and if Emmanuel and I talk on the phone, Emmanuel will often speak in Hebrew, just to get me to keep practising the language.

With all of the travelling that I had been doing between Fredericton and Quebec, my parents announced to me that they were buying me a small aircraft so that I could save a bit of money from the chartering fees, and when they asked me for a recommendation of what type of plane to purchase, I suggested the Twin Otter Seaplane, so that I can take off and land on water, which would also be ideal for when I am working as a scientist.

Although Dad started his mining career in New Brunswick, he now works to the north in Newfoundland, so for the past few years he has only been home for the weekends, and my parents had discussed the option of selling the house and moving closer to his work, but with Kit having already started junior high, they decided against it, so the family still live in Shediac, which is an eastern suburb of Moncton, about 24 kilometres to the east of the city.

It means that I have to travel 200 kilometres each day to University now that I am living at home again, but I don’t mind it too much, as it means I will be able to fly to and from university each day, as the Fredericton Airport is just a 15-minute drive to the university.