Time is the Enemy.
Chapter 4
The time has come, the Walrus said, and it was time, time for Robert to get on the road, to stop procrastinating, and make a start on his bucket list. But he was procrastinating, he kept thinking of things that needed doing, a repair to the car, a spare part that might be needed, not to put too fine of a point on it, he was scared.
Everything was so much harder now, and not just decision making, Robert found it hard to do things that only a small time ago were easy things to do. Old age was catching up on Robert and it was catching fast, things like washing the car were no longer a simple thing, yes he could do it, but everything hurt after woods, his back, his knees, just everything.
Robert found himself wondering if it was a good idea to embark on a long road trip, all alone, at his time of life. May be it was too late for Robert, just maybe, he had missed the bus, what if he got sick on the road, way out in the outback, what then?
The facts of life were, that everything was ready, the car was in good working order, it was packed with everything he might need, tools, spare parts, camping gear, anything and everything that he might need in an emergency.
Robert made himself a cup of tea and then went out and sat on his veranda, he looked out over his garden and tried to think logically, his garden was in great condition, the daisy’s were in full flower, putting on a great display. As he sat there, the Willy Wag Tail that lived in his garden landed on the hand rail, like Willy Wag Tail do, it constantly moved around wiggling its tail. Robert looked at it and smiled, it always made him smile, he couldn’t help it, it always seemed to be so happy.
As he sat there watching the Willy Wag Tail, Robert remembered something an old friend had said to him, this old friend was a great traveller and when asked about the possibility of getting sick while on a road trip he said, “does it really matter where you are when you drop dead, in your own bed or in a Motel bed, your still dead.”
The Willy Wag Tail took flight, it court a flying insect in mid air before continuing on towards a nearby tree. Robert watched it fly away and thought to himself, ‘may be its time for me to fly away.’
For no real reason, a quotation popped into Robert’s mind, ‘nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be overcome first.’ Robert could not remember who said it but with that quotation ringing in his head, Robert said out loud, “it’s time.”
The next day Robert worked his way through a list of things that needed to be done before he could start his bucket list. He packed the car with all those, ‘day to day things’, food, clothes and the like, he filled the car with petrol and did a final check, just to make sure the car was ready. Then there were all the house related things, he contacted the garden maintenance man, who would be looking after the garden as well as keeping an eye on the house, he also spoke to his neighbours, who would also keep an eye on the house. He organized for all his bills, electrical, rates and the like, to be sent to his e-mail address and he re-directed his mail to an old friend.
By the end of the day, Robert was ready, he had crossed everything off his list, and he was ready to start his bucket list, he had no excuse now.
It’s time, it’s time, said Gough Whitlam during the election campaign that he won and like then, it was time for Robert to make a change, it was time to set out on his bucket list adventure. So the next morning Robert walked out of his front door for the last time in what would be a long time, he locked the door and walked to the car.
The car started without any problems, the big V8 just sat there idling while Robert entered the first via point into the Sat Nav. Robert had no intention of driving from one place to another on major roads, what would be the point of that? No, he was going to travel via back roads, get off the beaten track, see the real country side.
The first movie filming location on Roberts bucket list was Bonnie Doon, where the holiday house from the film, ‘The Castle’ is located, both in the real world and in the Movie. It is now a bed and breakfast, so Robert used the internet to book it for a few nights, but that was over a week away.
Heading south out of Sydney, Robert was making for Braidwood, the first part of the day was on main roads, but after about a hundred kilometres, give or take a few kilometres, he turned off the main road. After a few more kilometres this road turned into a dirt road, and would stay that way for many kilometres, as it passed through mostly farm land, but with some areas being scrubby bush land.
There is something peaceful about driving an old classic car along a dirt road, the sound of the stones hitting the underside of the car, the taste of the dust that finds its way into everything. It made Robert feel at peace, like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. It also had its dangers, Robert had to keep his wits about him as every now and then, there were cattle on the road as well as Kangaroos.
Robert was planning to record the road trip and bucket list on video, as well as with still pictures. He also planned to write daily reports which he would be posting on Face Book with the still pictures, the video would be up loaded to, You Tube, every few days. To that end he had installed some cameras into the car, there was one on the dash board pointing at him, there was another next to it, pointing through the windscreen and a third one mounted to the passenger seat head rest, it was also pointing through the windscreen. Extra sound was recorded via a microphone clipped to his shirt, recording to a sound recorder, which was velcroed to the centre consol.
Robert had been turning the cameras on and off from the start of the day, but as he drove along the dirt road he started talking to the camera, the camera located on the dash board, pointed at him.
“Welcome to day one of my bucket list, epic road trip to visit filming location of Australian movies. Over the coming months, or however long it takes, I will be travelling around the country looking at filming location on a diverse group of movies. I’m on my way to Bonnie Doon and I guess you all know what movie that will be,” said Robert.
Robert felt a bit silly talking to the camera, and why document the trip in the first place, but by making videos of the trip and writing daily reports, it would add to the adventure as well as give him something to do and think about. Keeping busy is one of those things that could help Robert deal with the problem of thinking too much. Thinking too much is one of life’s problems for people as they get older, thinking too much about things medical is not a healthy thing. Some medical research shows that people who think too much about medical problem go on to develop medical problems.
The big Falcon lumbered along over the dirt road covering the kilometres with ease, while Robert found himself day dreaming about what might have been, if he had taken a different path. What if he had married and had kids, or travelled around the world, or may be, he might have become a movie star. His day dream started to drift into fantasy, but all of a sudden the real world brought him back to reality, in the form of a cow in the middle of the road. Robert jumped on the brakes, the car slid sideways and came to a stop, the cow just looked at Robert as if to say, “what do you think you are you doing?” Robert pushed the gear stick into first gear and drove off drove off down the road, he thought to himself, ‘that was lucky’.
A few kilometres further down the road, Robert pulled into a small town call, ‘Nerriga’, it was just after twelve, mid day, and he was feeling a bit hungry, so this seemed like a good place for lunch. There is not much to Nerriga, may be two or three houses, but this is Australia, so it does have a Pub. Robert stopped outside the Pub and wondered in, it was very much, the country Pub, but the important thing was, they served lunches.
After ordering a steak and chip, Robert found a seat, which was not hard as the place was just about empty, and sat down with an orange juice. The only other person in the Pub walked over to Robert and asked, “is that your car? He was about Roberts age, he was bald and he looked like he had lived life.
“Yes,” replied Robert.
“I use to own one of them, way back when they were new,” said the man, as he put his hand out and added, “my name is Rodger”.
Robert shook his hand and asked, “was it any good?”
“No, it was a pile of shit,” replied Rodger as he sat down with Robert.
“Oh really,” said Robert, who paused for a moment before continuing, “I have not owned it long, what are their problems?”
“They handle like a wet newspaper, mate, and rust, you just got to look at them and they rust,” replied Rodger.
“Oh I see,” said Robert.
“But they did have some good points,” said Rodger.
“Oh what are they?” asked Robert.
“The back seat, mate, their got a big back seat, my eldest son was conceived in the back seat of one of them,” replied Rodger.
The bar tender walked over with Robert’s steak and chips and placed it on the table.
“Thank you,” said Robert.
“They do a good steak and chips here, you will enjoy that,” said Rodger.
“I’m sure I will,” replied Robert, as he started eating.
“Where are you headed?” asked Rodger.
“Braidwood today,” replied Robert, he then added, “but I’m heading to Bonnie Doon.”
“That’s in Victoria,” said Rodger, who paused to think for a few moments, while Robert continued eating, Rodger then continued, “I’ve never been to Victoria.”
“Neither have I,” replied Robert.
Someone walked into the Pub and Rodger waved at him before getting up and saying, “good on yer mate,” as he walked away.
Robert finished his meal and orange juice, he then sat there for a while, just taking in the atmosphere. After a while he got to his feet, waved at Rodger and walked out of the Pub to his car.
The road from Nerriga to Braidwood was all bitumen but it was still slow going as the road was narrow and winding, but there was little traffic to worry about. The country side looked windswept, there were sheep grazing in the paddocks but it felt like a harsh environment, the sort of place that would be hot in summer and cold in winter.
Robert felt like he was in the middle of nowhere as he drove through the afternoon, there were few houses to be seen, only two cars went the other way, and he did not catch up to any other cars. He was less than a day’s drive from Sydney so what would it be like as he gets further away.
About mid afternoon Robert pulled over to take a break, to stretch his legs, he walked around the car a few times, took a picture of the car and ate a few biscuits. He had pulled over at what was once a gravel dump, way back when the road was first built, it was near a creek which was flowing quite quickly. There was a duck swimming in the shallows where the water was still, it was catching insects in the water. Robert found it peaceful, standing there watching nature at work, he could off stayed there watching the duck for hours, but time was passing so he got on his way.
Arrived in Braidwood in the late afternoon, Robert didn’t take long to find a Motel. Motels were something Robert was going to have to get use to as they would be his home for some time. Choosing a Motel is a bit of an art, Robert could not rely on the star system as from past experience, the star system made little sense. One three star Motel might be like a glorified fibro shed with a bed Noah used, while another three star Motel might be a modern brick building with everything that opens and shuts.
Braidwood only had a few Motels and the one Robert chose, seemed alright, it had everything that you would expect. Food would be the other thing Robert was going to have deal with during this trip, he could not live on take away food for months, so he would have to find places that sold good food. This was not something Robert had given much thought to, but he was now. Braidwood proved to only have a few, ‘takeaway’, places that did not impress Robert, so it was Pub food for the second time that day.
After a meal of chicken and chips, Robert headed back to his Motel room, he was tired from driving all day, but he still had things to do. He removed the cameras from the car and down loaded the video to his lap top, he did not do anything else with it. He planned to edit all the video on rest days, days when he did not travel, he was hoping to stay in one place every now and then, just to recharge his batteries as it were.
The other thing he had to do was write a daily report, covering the events of the day and upload it to Face Book. Robert had no trouble doing this, he found he had a hidden talent, writing the story of his day just poured out of him. He uploaded it plus a picture of the poor old Falcon parked on the side of the road to Face Book, and with that Robert’s day was finished.
It had been a long day but a day that Robert had enjoyed, if this was how the days would be during Robert’s bucket list adventure, then all would be well.
The next day was fine and sunny and Robert was keen to get on with the day, he left the Motel just before eight but he needed to fill the car with petrol. The big V8 Ford needed lots of petrol so the first job each day would be filling the car with petrol and then again during the day, around lunch time. Fuel anxiety would become a good friend of Roberts as the trip progressed, not so much first thing in the mornings but finding fuel part way through the day would become an ongoing problem.
Robert had pulled up well after his first day on the road, he was feeling a bit tired and he had plenty of pain coming from his knees and back, but nothing out of the ordinary. He had pain in his knees and back all the time so nothing new there, a day driving had not made thing worse so Robert saw that as a good thing.
Leaving Braidwood behind him, Robert drove south towards Cann River, he would travel through Araluen, Moruya and Steeple Flat during the day. The roads would be, in some cases main roads but in other cases minor roads, but all would be bitumen, no dirt roads on this day.
A few kilometres out of Braidwood, Robert turned onto the Araluen road, this would take him to Moruya, it was a quite road, with little traffic, any traffic he did come by were locals, driving four wheel drives. It felt like he was well and truly in the outback, but of course he wasn’t, he was only a day or so from Sydney.
Robert turn the cameras on and did his daily talk to the camera, he just chatted away about the day, and the trip so far, as well as what he expected from this bucket list adventure.
The big Ford lumbered along making short work of the kilometres, while for Robert the kilometres were an eye opener, so many sheep, paddocks full of them. Robert pulled up every now and then, just to stretch his legs and to wake himself up. He would take a few pictures every time he stopped, so that he would have a pictorial history of his trip.
Stopping at Moruya for lunch, Robert had trouble finding somewhere to buy lunch, there were a number of, ‘takeaway’, stores and cafes, but they were all very modern. They only sold healthy food, what Robert called, ‘rabbit food’, even the bakery only sold food that Robert would not eat. Not only was the food healthy, but the people who worked in the shops, well and truly looked down their noses at Robert, when he asked for a meat pie, it was like he was making an improper suggestion.
In one store, Robert asked, “do you have fish and chips?”
“No,” replied the shop assistant, with a look of horror on her face.
Looking at the menu on the wall Robert saw a marinated chicken meal, so he asked, “do you do the chicken meal, not marinated?”
“No,” replied the shop assistant, this time all three shop assistance looked at him on horror. He thought, by their glairs that they were about to ask him to leave the shop so he got out of there before they did.
Eventually Robert gave up on lunch, so he filled the car with petrol and continued his journey, but as he was driving out of town he spotted a well known chicken fast food outlet. He drove in, parked the car and went in, and purchased two pieces of chicken and some chips, but even here the modern world would not leave him alone. They would not take cash, this was something that went against his principles, under normal circumstances he would of just, walked out, but he was hungry so he had to compromise.
Sitting in his car eating his chicken and chips, Robert thought about how some words should never be used in front of small children or mixed company and compromise is one of them. Sensible, practical and economical are the other words that should never be used in polite company, or more importantly, you should never live your life by, sensibly, practically, or economically, well not if you want to live life. And as far as compromise goes, the less said about that, the better.
As Robert continued driving towards Steeple Flat and Cann River he turned the cameras on, and looked at the camera on the dash board and said, “getting old involves, not just getting old, but getting out of step with the modern world. Things that are part of your core being, things that you believe completely, are no longer fashionable, it’s very disconcerting.”
Robert left the cameras recording until their batteries went flat, just to capture some interesting video.
About thirty km’s or so, give or take, outside Cann River, Robert saw a sign, it read, ‘Welcome to Victoria’.
Robert had never been to Victoria before, in fact he had never been south of Canberra so Victoria was very much a first. He was getting into a routine on arriving into a town, at the end of each day, he would find a Motel, eat Pub food, write his daily report, and up load it to Face Book, and down load video to his lap top.
Cann River is a small town, made up of a few houses, a Pub, a Motel and a service station. Robert booked into the Motel, and then with no other option he went to the Pub for something to eat, it was looking like Pub food would be what Robert would live on during this bucket list adventure.
After his meal of steak and chips, Robert was sitting on a bar stool next to the Pub window, the Pub was busy with about ten patrons, some looked like farmers, some looked like tradies, while others, looked like they spent a lot of time in the Pub. Some were drinking, some were eating, and some were playing pool, it was typical night in a Pub, something you would see in Pubs every night across the country.
Robert was looking out the window at the main street of Cann River, nothing was happening, just the occasional car going by, there were a number of cars parked outside the Pub, mostly four wheel drives and tradie utes.
A woman’s voice, from behind Robert said, “I have not seen you around here before.”
Robert turned to see a woman, may be in her forties, standing behind him, he must off had a puzzled look on his face, as she said again, “I have not seen you around here before.”
“I’m just passing through, I’m on a road trip,” replied Robert.
“My names Mandy,” said the woman.
“Robert, my names Robert,” replied Robert.
“Where are you headed?” asked Mandy.
“Bonnie Doon,” replied Robert.
“That’s where they filmed The Castle,” said Mandy.
“I know, that’s why I going, I’m on a bucket list road trip, visiting the filming locations of Australian movies,” replied Robert.
“Where have you been so far?” asked Mandy.
“I’ve only been on the road for few days, Bonnie Doon is my first location on my list,” replied Robert.
“How long is your list,” asked Mandy.
“Twelve locations,” replied Robert.
“How long is that going to take you?” asked Mandy.
“There’s no time limit, a fair few months I expect,” replied Robert.
A voice called out from across the other side of the Pub, “hey, Mandy, get over hear I want you.”
Mandy smiled and said, “it sounds like someone wants me, might see you later.” She walked of in the direction of the voice, Robert watched her walk away, she had a swagger to her walk, it was the sort of walk that court men’s attention.
Leaving the Pub Robert walked the short distance to the Motel, and as he did a four wheel drive pulling a car trailer drove into the Motel, it had a Ford Escort on the trailer, it was a rally car.
Car rallies were something that interested Robert, he did not know much about rallies and he had never been to one. But he always liked the idea of going to one and sometimes during a quiet moment, he would fanaticise about driving in a car rally. Like a lot of thing in Robert’s life, he never did anything about it, he never even looked in to what was involved.
As Robert walked pasted the four wheel drive, the driver got out and Robert asked, “on your way to a rally, mate?”
“Yer, the biggest historic rally in the country,” replied the driver.
“Where’s it on?” asked Robert.
“Lake Entrance, this weekend,” said the driver.
“Good luck,” replied Robert, as he walked towards his Motel room.
Once in his room, Robert turned his lap top on, opened up the internet and searched for, ‘historic rally, Lakes Entrance.’
Lots of information came up, start location, spectator points, service park location, as Robert read through the information, he decided to spend the next few days checking out car rallying.
Like arriving in town, departing from towns, was starting to become a routine for Robert, first up, he would reinstall the cameras into the car, he would then book out of the Motel, fill the car with petrol, and program the sat nav with the days route. This day was no different, he programmed the Sat Nav to take him to Lakes Entrance, via Cap Connran, Marlo, Orbost and Nowa Nowa and then drove out of town.
For the first part of the day, Robert followed the Monaro Highway then around the fifty kilometre mark he turned onto a minor road which would take him to Cape Connran. It was nice to get of the main road, to get away from the traffic, the trucks, and caravans, to be able to relax a bit.
Robert turned the cameras on and recorded his daily video report, he talked about his plans to spectate at a car rally as well as the topic he seemed to talk about every day, ageing. Getting old was always on Roberts mind, even when he didn’t think about ageing, his pain would remind him all about it.
There was nothing at Cap Connran, if it was not for the sign that said, ‘Cap Connran,’ Robert would not have known he had driven through it. The road followed the coast for many kilometres, Robert could not see the ocean but he could smell it. Looking at the Sat Nav, the coast was only a few hundred meters to his left, and the vegetation was very costal, scrubby grasses and bushes growing in sand.
It was getting close to lunch time as Robert pulled into Marlo and even though Marlo is quite a large place, there is a fair few houses there, but is not much else, on the other hand, this is Australia, so there is a Pub.
Pub food for lunch again, before continuing to follow the coast line, the fuel light came on just outside Orbost, but there was no service stations in Orbost. Driving with one eye on the fuel gauge, Robert continued towards Nowa Nowa, which was not that far down the road. With the fuel gauge on empty and the red fuel light still on, Robert pulled into the only service station in Nowa Nowa.
Robert now knew, that he could get at least thirty km’s out of the car, once the red fuel light comes on, which would be good to know as far as the rest of the trip was concerned. He filled the car with petrol, which cost a pretty penny as it was all but empty, plus fuel tends to cost more in small regional centres.
Lakes Entrance was not that far along the road and it was just what Robert had expected, a tourist, ocean side holiday town, it had a welcoming feel to it that made Robert feel relaxed. There were plenty of Motels to choose from, but with the rally in town, most turned out to be fully booked. It took some time for Robert to find a room, it wasn’t till the tenth Motel before he succeeded, and then only because someone had cancelled.
Like the Motels, the Pubs were busy as well, the first one Robert tried was full, but he had more success on his second attempt. He did not hang about long, once he had finished his meal he headed back to the Motel, driving past the park where the rally would be starting the next day.
The next day dawned fine and sunny, Robert should off been heading to Bonnie Doon, but he had decided to spend the next three days spectating at a car rally. In fact, the biggest historic rally in the country, or so he had been told. Robert was looking forward to finding out all about car rallies. He had looked the event up on the internet, which had informed him, that there were one hundred and five entries, made up of all sorts of cars, mostly made in the sixties and seventies.
Robert headed to the start location, which was a park on the water front, this was also the service park, where the cars would be repaired if needed throughout the day. The scale of the event soon become apparent, as he had to park some distance from the park and walk the rest of the way. There were rally cars everywhere, all types, all colours and all ages. Walking up and down the rows of rally cars, it was obvious that these were not just your average car, they were specially prepared for the event.
There were a number of Ford Escorts, a car that Robert had a soft spot for, they were just one of those cars, they were cool. Robert remembered watching a TV show called the ‘Professionals’ back in time and one of the characters drove a Ford Escort, his young self thought it was, ‘so cool’.
Robert found an information stand, where he was given some spectator instructions, which directed him out to the forests around Lake Entrance where the rally would be taking place, it also out lined where to park and safety rules. The instructions took some interpreting, at first they read like a foreign language, for example.
13.4 km TL. SP. Metung Rd
16.6 km TR. SP. Cunningham Rd
Park on left.
But after a bit of study, Robert worked it out, TL. meant, turn left, TR. meant, turn right, SP. meant, sign post, and so on.
Robert had to guess the distances as the big old Ford’s speedo was in miles, this proved to be easy enough, even though he did over shot one of the turns, and had to do a ‘U’ turn. The road into the spectator point was dirt and only one lane, it was more of a track then a road and finding somewhere to pull off the road to park was not easy. Robert was a bit early arriving at the spectator point so he managed to find somewhere to park, that wasn’t too far away.
The spectator point was located at a ‘T’ junction, the competitors would be arriving into the ‘T’ junction and then turning right at ninety degrees. Plastic fencing was erected to indicate where you could stand, Robert found a place he thought would give him a good view of the action. The first car was not due for just on half an hour so while he waited he sat on an old log. More and more spectators arrived, some were well prepared, bringing their own chairs and many of them had cameras, both still and video.
Robert did not know what to expect, he had seen rallying on TV but this was the real thing, it was like the difference between watching a music video and going to a rock concert.
The sound of the first car could be heard some time before it arrived, an official blow a whistle just before the first car came into view. It was a Datsun 180B, its engine was revving as the driver changed down a gear, it swerved one way, then back the other, then with the car sideways it rounded the corner and accelerated away in a cloud of dust.
Robert could not believe the skill of the driver, the car looked totally out of control yet it wasn’t, it was like controlled chaos, like a work of art, poetry in motion.
The second car arrived two minutes later and went around the corner in a similar way to the first, but as each car went by, Robert could see how different driver skill levels and car preparation impacted on how well they drove around the corner. Some cars arrived at the corner to fast and the cars, just did not turn, they would go straight on, running off the road, some would get around the corner, but others would end up well of the road and would have to back up, before continuing.
Other cars would get so sideways that they would spin around and disappear into a dust cloud and then after lots of engine revving would appear out of the dust travelling the wrong way. By the time the eightieth car arrived they were taking the corner with less gusto, just driving around without all the sliding and revving.
Most of the spectators had started drifting away while the tail ends where going past, but Robert had stayed till the last car had gone by. He walked back to his car, there was a note on the windscreen, which read,
Hi, Are you interested in selling your car?
There was a phone number on the note, but Robert was not interested so he just through it on the passenger seat. Even though he had only owned the big Ford for a short time, he had already formed and attachment to it, so selling it was not something he was thinking about.
Robert drove back into town, to the service park, it was a hive of activity, there were rally cars everywhere, some were jacked up being worked on, some were damaged from crashes, others had mechanical damage, and some were loaded onto car trailers as the damage was not repairable in the allotted time. Robert walked around the service park taking it all in, he could not believe what work was being done, one car was having it’s front suspension replaced, another was having it’s diff removed. One car had been rolled and it was being hit with a large hammer in an effort to make it driveable, its windscreen had broken so they were gaffer taping another one in place.
Finding a fast food vendor just outside the park, Robert purchased a sausage sandwich and sat on a park bench. As he ate his sandwich, he watched all the activity and wondered why he had not found this sport before now. He would love to have a go at rallying, but like so much in his life, it had passed him by, it was too late now.
As you get older you heir a lot of propaganda, mostly from people that should know better, saying things like,
‘Get out there and enjoy life,’ or ‘you never too old,’
You’re never too old! Of course you’re too old, Robert could no more drive a rally car at speed than he could run a marathon. He would be hard pressed getting into a rally car and if he did manage to get in, well, he would never get out. The state emergency service would need their, ‘jaws of life’ to cut the roll cage before Robert could have any chance of getting out of a rally car.
It was too late in the day and Robert was way too tied to go out to the second spectator point so he headed back to his Motel room. He walked through the door, lay on the bed, with the intent of giving his knees a rest, only to fall asleep. By the time he woke, it was time to get something to eat, so he walked the few hundred meters down the road to the Pub.
‘Pub food again’, he thought to himself as he walked through the Pub’s front door. It well and truly looked like Pub food would be what he would be living on for the duration of this trip.
Robert ordered some chicken and chips, as well as an orange juice, he then found a seat and waited. The Pub was busy but not to the overcrowded point, it looked to Robert that most of the patrons were in town for the rally.
As he sat there a woman came over to his table and asked, “can I sit here?”
“Yes, off course,” replied Robert, thinking it odd as there were plenty of empty table around the Pub. She was around Roberts age, and looked like she had lived life, her hair was long and red, but with tinges of grey starting to show. She had a look about her, a look that Robert found interesting.
“Sorry if I am crowding you, it’s just if I sit here it will look like I’m with you and no one will hit on me,” said the woman.
“Glad to be of service,” replied Robert, he looked at her for a moment and then added, “I would off thought that life’s experience would of taught you how to deal with being hit on.”
“It has, but after a long day on the road, well, I just don’t feel up to playing the game,” said the woman.
“I can understand that,” replied Robert, he paused for a long moment, thinking that he should not ask, but he could not help himself, “but at our age I would off thought, being hit on was a thing of the past.”
The woman smiled, a broad smile, and then said, “it has gotten worse the older I get.”
“Arr, your pulling my leg,” replied Robert
“No, I’m not, the older men get, the more brazen they get,” said the woman.
A waitress arrived with Roberts meal, he pointed at himself so that she knew it was for him.
“Thanks,” said Robert to the waitress.
“How do you know, that I want hit on you?” asked Robert.
“You don’t look the type,” replied the woman.
“I don’t know if that is an insult or a complement,” said Robert as he started eating his meal, he looked at her for a moment before adding, what type am I?”
“Your old fashioned,” said the woman.
“Do you require me to maintain a pretence that we are together by chatting?” asked Robert.
“A small amount of chat would be helpful,” replied the woman.
The waitress arrived with the woman’s meal and placed it on the table.
“Thanks,” said the woman to the waitress.
“Did you know that the Muscovy duck is a native of Mexico?” asked Robert.
“No I didn’t, but as I have never heard of a Muscovy duck, so I’m not surprised that I didn’t know that,” replied the woman.
“Well, there you go, a piece of information that might come in handy one day,” said Robert.
“Do you know who said?” ‘I disagree with everything you say, but I will defend to the death, your right to say it,’ asked the woman.
“Voltaire,” replied Robert.
“How did you know that, nobody knows that,” said the woman.
“Just one of those useless pieces of information that’s in my head,” replied Robert, he paused for a moment before adding, “do you know why cows stand with their bums to the wind?”
“No idea,” said the woman, she looked at Robert for a moment, as if she expected him to tell her, before asking, “why do cows stand with their bums to the wind?
“No idea,” replied Robert, he smiled at her and then added, “I thought you might know.”
“Why did you think I would know that?” asked the woman.
“You have that, ‘rural’, look to you,” replied Robert.
“I’ll take that as a complement,” said the woman.
“That’s good because that’s how it was meant.” Replied Robert.
Robert finished his meal and put his knife and fork across his plate, he looked at the woman and said, “my names Robert.”
The woman continued eating her last few chips, before saying, “my name is Gail.”
“Well Gail,” said Robert, as he drank the last of his orange juice, and put his glass down, he then continued, “I guess this is goodbye, it’s been fun pretending to have dinner together, we should pretend again some time.”
“For a moment there, I thought you were going to hit on me,” replied Gail.
“As they say in old westons, that will be the day,” said Robert.
“I don’t know if that’s a complement or an insult,” replied Gail.
“I’ll see you along the road,” said Robert as he stood up and walked towards the door.
“See you along the road,” replied Gail.
Once back at the Motel, Robert went through his daily routine of down loading video and writing his daily report for face book before the bed beckoned.
The next day Robert headed out into the forest to spectate again, this point was located on a hair pin bend, the rally cars approached at speed, and most cars attempted a hand brake turn. The competitors would turn into the corner, then pull the hand brake on, once the car started to slide, they then accelerated, braking traction on the rear wheel, accentuating the slid.
When it worked, it was a site to be seen, the cars would get through the corner in one seamless motion, with lots of noise, dust and stones flying. But when it didn’t, the cars would end up off the road, or facing the wrong way, or the engine would stall, but this did not stop, just about everyone trying it, even though only a few managed to get it right.
One competitor, who did not attempt a hand brake turn, but performed a three point turn instead, got a lot of stick from the crowd. Cat calls from the crowd, calls like, “have a go you mug,” or, “where did you get your licence, in a corn flakes box,” echoed around the spectator point.
It’s part of the Australian way of life, to try, whether you succeed or fail, doesn’t really matter, trying gains a lot of respect, but not trying, well that is un-Australian and that results in ridicule.
The field was reduced by this point as about twenty cars had dropped out of the event due to crashes and mechanical failures. Robert waited till the last car had passed through the spectator point before driving to the second point, which was a good half hour away. The big old Ford was perhaps not the best car to be driving around on narrow bush tracks, not so much because it was a big car, it handled the tracks just fine. But the problem was, turning around, it required a wider part of the track and even then it would take a five or six point turn to get around, luckily it was power steered.
The second spectator point was located about twenty kilometres from the first, it was just off a main road, so presented no real problems for Robert to find somewhere to park. The spectator point was at a turn left of a well made dirt road, onto a bit of a track, there were two turn lefts, the first one was not really a road. It looked like people had been taking a short cut over the years and with lots of use it had become a road. The road sign was located at the second turn which was about fifty meters further along the road.
As competitors arrived at the intersection, some took the first turn, some took the second turn and others got confused and did not know what to do. All in all it made for an interesting point to watch the cars as each competitor dealt with which turn to take in their own way.
Staying till the last car had gone through Robert returned to his car to find another note under the windscreen wiper, it read.
‘Are you interested in selling your car?’
Robert was not interested, so he just through the note onto the passenger seat. It did make him think though, if the big old Ford was a popular car, well, maybe he should do something to make it harder to steel. As he drove back to town he thought about it and decided that as soon as he could he would take it to an Auto Electrician and get a battery isolation switch fitted, and may be an ignition isolation switch as well.
Once back in town, Robert stopped at the service park, there were broken rally car everywhere, with people trying to fix them. Some were beyond fixing and some were being held together with tire down straps and gaffer tape.
After watching competitors trying to repair their cars for a while, Robert purchased some, ‘takeaway’, and headed back to his Motel, he was exhausted, covered in dust, and needed to just sit for a while.
The next day was the last day of the rally and it was a short day, all over by lunch time, all over bar the shouting, as they say, with just the one spectator point only a few kilometres out of town, in the end only half the cars finished and a lot of them showed the signs of wear and tear.
Robert had enjoyed spectating at the rally but it was tinged with regret, as he would love to have a go at rallying, but he knew he couldn’t.
Coming to terms with not been able to do things anymore was something Robert was struggling with, in some ways, he thought it might be better to not go to things, like the rally, as it only served to, ‘rub his nose in it’, it was like someone saying, “here look at this, it’s fun, but you can’t do it,” and then laughing.
After lunch Robert court up on video down loading and just spent some time recharging after a busy few days.
The next day with the rally all over it was time to head towards Bonnie Doon, and the first item on his bucket list, the filming location for the movie, The Castle. Bonnie Doon would take Robert, a good seven hours to get too, mostly on bitumen road, but there were some kilometres of dirt road, his route took him through Dargo, King Valley and Tolmie.
Other than a sign saying, ‘Dargo’, there was nothing at Dargo, and not long after, the road became dirt, it was good dirt, all be it, a bit narrow. Robert enjoyed this part of the trip, as he drove through farming country, there was next to no traffic, and it felt like he was well away from everything. The road eventually turned back into bitumen, and not long after that, he turned onto a road that could best be described as a main road, not a highway, just more of a main road than the road he had spent much of the morning on.
Like Dargo, there was nothing but a sign at King Valley, not even a few houses, so Robert pressed on towards the next town, which the Sat Nav said was, Whitfield. The big Ford was in need of a drink, and Robert was a bit on the hungry side as well, so he hoped that there would be something at Whitfield. And something there was, but not much, a garage come general store and a few houses.
Robert filled the car with fuel, and purchased the only thing available to eat, and that was a good old fashioned meat pie, which turned out to be very nice, in fact he bought another one, and washed it down with an orange juice. He did not take much of a break, just enough time to fill the car and eat the pies.
The big old Ford lumbered along, eating up the kilometres with ease, while Robert had the sound system turned up to the max, playing music from the 60’s and 70’s. The afternoon passed quickly as Robert drove through town after town, arriving at Bonnie Doon in the late afternoon.
The holiday house used for the filming of the movie, ‘The Castle’, is now a Bed and Breakfast. Robert had booked it for three days, as he planned to take a bit of a break from driving to recharge his batteries.
Bonnie Doon is located on the shores of Lake Eildon and turned out to be a lot smaller than Robert had expected, it had two garages and a small Motel, but no Pub, no general store.
Robert found the Bed and Breakfast without any problem, it was somewhat appropriately called Serenity. It was furnished in the style of the film which was a nice touch, Robert straight away felt relaxed, as it had that sort of, ‘lived it’, feel to it.
Serenity was more than, Bed and Breakfast, they supplied dinner as well, but not lunch, so Robert would have to get, ‘takeaway’, from one of the garages for lunch each day. Unfortunately dinner was what Robert called, ‘a save the world meal’, otherwise known as, ‘rabbit food’, with something Robert did not eat or even recognise. Instead he drove the short distance to one of the garages and purchased some, ‘takeaway’.
Serenity had a TV, and DVD player, plus a DVD of the movie, ‘The Castle’, so that night, Robert watched the movie. He had not seen, ‘The Castle’, in some years, but it was a film he had seen many time. It is a classic Australian film, a film with heart, what Robert called, a nice film. Watching ‘The Castle’, gave Robert a warm sort of feeling, it made him feel upbeat and positive about life. Just the tonic he needed to recharge his batteries.
The next day Robert spent the morning editing video that he had recorded since starting out on this adventure. After a, ‘takeaway’, lunch he headed back down the road to Mansfield to purchase some food to get him through the next few days. Serenity had a basic kitchen so he could cook his own food, so he purchased basic food like, bread, peanut butter, salon, eggs and frozen chips. It may not be a great diet but it would have to do.
Robert used the next few days to finish editing all the videos, he ended up with seven videos covering his trip so far, he uploaded them to You Tube, with different release dates. End result was that one video would go live every three days.
With Roberts time at Bonnie Doon coming to an end, Robert gave some thought to his next destination, his next bucket list item, the filming location of the movie, ‘Mad Max’.
Copy Right Jim Pope 2025
www.youtube.com@jimpope9410