That awkward moment when one needs another weekend to get over this weekend!

It has been a pretty full on couple of days, and filled with what most people always said I was never really good at; cooking and cleaning. I’m proving you all wrong, and have about fifteen witnesses to my sincere devotion to domestication. To fill you all in, us Share the Mission volunteers are currently being visited by the man we would refer to as our boss; Mr. James Camden and his cool as partner Lindsey. So we therefore thought it was important to impress him however my urge to have the house spotless was not shared with the boys. To quote Henry; ‘James isn’t going to kill us about having a dirty house. We live in Balgo!’ Yeah, whatever. I ignored him and for the past few days, despite a few weird looks from the boys, I’ve been walking around the house with a cloth and a bucket of water and Domestos, scrubbing at every inch of the place. I even washed our blinds but they came out all wrinkly and even after been ironed look pretty dodgy. Still, I tried and the house looks way cleaner!

Anyway just as well I was so keen on cleaning, because a few days ago Henry decided to invite a few people over and have a bonfire and BBQ night yesterday, probably to show off all our Balgo friends to James and make us seem like the cool kids in town. This ‘few’ people turned out to be a LOT more and we had quite a good crowd. But of course, all the cooking and cleaning duties were left up to me so I spent most of Saturday frantically scrubbing the house and making various condiments to compliment the large amount of sausages we had gathered. I was rather proud with my efforts. As well as the snags we had rice salad, coleslaw, a green salad and two potato bakes which went super quick! And then for desert we had cake, ice cream, custard and plenty of fruit. It really was a feast fit for kings and by all accounts everyone had a good night. The bonfire was amazing; the perfect way to keep warm in a cold night.

Prior to the BBQ and bonfire, we had mass and Sister Alice managed to bully me into reading. Well, not so much bully, but apparently my excuse that I didn’t have my reading glasses wasn’t good enough so I was forced to read a rather short First Reading. It was pretty cool and because I’m a female (surprise surprise) the Church leaders gave me a pretty stole to wear and it was a big honor. But I’m pretty sure no-one was paying attention during anyone’s readings at mass yesterday night as Louise and Roberts cute as daughter Annemarie was walking around with a red jumpsuit and purple boots and managed to get to the Holy Water right at the front of the church and started splashing around. So cute!!!

Today we took James and Lindsey out on all the sightseeing bits of pieces that one should be sure to see if they ever come to Balgo. Brother Rick suggested we take them out to Old Balgo and because Henry wasn’t with us the last time we went, it seemed like a good idea. Only problem was that we needed a guide. Fortunately, we live near Cathy and she was more than keen to show us the way, especially as she had spent a bit of time there in her childhood and proved to be the perfect guide. Only problem was that we couldn’t go until what she described as the ‘community meeting’. None of us had any idea what it was but when we were ready to leave saw her around the oval and went to pick her up. We then realized that it hadn’t yet started so hung around for a bit out of the way but noticed things getting a bit different. The community had lined themselves along the oval in a line, men on one side and women on the other. Michael from Boystown them came over to us and said we weren’t allowed to stand where we were and had to join in so we all rushed over fearing that we were culturally disrespecting their ritual. Cathy told me that we weren’t allowed to look up at the procession of women that began making their way towards us and around chanting as they went. It seemed very formal and serious! Then all the ladies went through the line and shook everyone’s hands and when they got to the end everything kind of just ended! None of us were sure what we had just participated in and didn’t have the guts to ask but it seemed very interesting and was an honor to be a part of.  

Our community gathering

After we had picked Cathy up, gone to her place to get some of her things and of course, grabbed some kids (this time just Naiomi and Delwyn but whenever Cathy goes on a bush trip she usually brings a thousand kids!) we were off! The road was VERY rough and on more than one occasion I bounced high enough to hit my head on the roof which didn’t help the motion sickness I was feeling. We arrived at Old Balgo a lot quicker than last time aided most likely by a more than capable guide. Cathy proved to be more of a tour guide than a navigator and her knowledge was insightful as we just wandered around to her reminiscing aloud about her experiences when she was younger. Cathy is one of those people in Balgo who just knows absolutely everything about everything and a great person to take on a bush trip.

Good old Old Balgo

For some reason, I like taking photos of the Troupie in random places.

It's an adventure car

Delwyn and Naiomi climbing the Church

Good to know that someone spells worse than me

JC, the man himself.

Asked for a mention in the blog and got a picture.

Lucky!

When all of Old Balgo that should be seen was seen (we found the Monastery this time, or as someone called it when they wrote the sign, Monasty) Naiomi and Delwyn convinced us to go to the dam as they wanted to find Bush Turkey eggs. So we went cross country further into The Pound and after an even rougher journey came to the dam. It was a lot less full than the last time I went but thankfully, less ants and flies. We wandered around and ran into Robert, who had taken advantage of the lovely day to steal some quiet time for himself and luckily for Cathy, the only person within 20kms with a lighter. She made some damper while we explored the sights and sounds, me slipping into some mud on more than one occasion (my clumsiness is increasing!) Henry very much regretted bringing fishing lines and hooks as we could see every now and again the clear and smooth surface of the dam been broken by the ripple of a fish. Robert was saying that he is always amazed that even when the dam goes dry, there are still fish in it when it fills again, as well as freshwater muscles which he said were very yummy.

The Dam

Some surrounding scenery

Cathy making tea and damper

After an even rougher drive back where we almost got the troupie stuck in a massive ditch with a flat tire, we arrived back in Balgo, pumped for our afternoon’s exploration to The Pound and the ‘Jesus Cave’. Henry had been down there before with Mary, Warwick and Nola but the rest of us hadn’t so he promised to take us. The ‘Jesus Cave’ probably has a much better name but was named after a nun who used to be out here. It is a hole in the rock with a massive ladder that goes down to a cave with some candles and rosary beads in a corner. Apparently they used to have mass there occasionally, however having mass with hundreds of bugs and many menacing looking spiders does not appeal to me. The cave and the opening gave us a different view and with the setting sun the colours were spectacular and it was super cool to go to.

My amazing photography.

(Actually Henry's. Dammit!)

The long and rickety ladder

View from inside the cave

The alter of sorts

Ladder going up, passing through many nasty spider webs

View from the outside.

Henry broke the photo

From the outside looking into the cave

On the way back Lindsey spotted a massive Blue Tongue Lizard which despite been poked numerous times didn’t move very much however looked cool enough to have as a pet (the guys weren’t keen). Without the clouds, the sunset was kind of average but the breathtaking views offered by The Pound made up for the lack of spectacularity (totally just made up a new word!). The night was finished with a game of Cranium where the STM crew got their butts kicked by the Old Dogs. Oh well, what we lack in Cranium we make up for in awesome!! But after the chaos of the past few days where I literally haven't stopped,I need a weekend to get over the weekend!

He looked like a Ken

I never get sick of The Pound!