Chapter VI - Bights, Adelaide, Macca and Puppy Napped!
Then it was on the road again, the camp sites were not as pleasant across the Nullarbor, rather sparse and without facilities but mostly they had some wonderful Kangaroo smells!
And then there where the interesting views from the area around The Bight! It was a bit scary as there was a very strong wind blowing and Annie tied us to the sign so that we couldn’t accidentally fall or run over the edge while we were playing, then she went right out near the edge and lay down to take a photo of the drop. We were hoping we would see some Whales but the last ones for the season had already been and gone, which was a bit sad, oh well, maybe next time.
On we traveled, now in South Australia. There were quite a few long stretches of nothing much too see, but we did find one nice spot to stay in Ceduna where again Annie enjoyed a rather tasty seafood meal at the local pub! Annie is always very good about saving us a small, sometimes very small taste. We also caught up on a bit of housework in the HoW here.
Annie would have liked to have done a trip down Eyre Peninsula but time was getting away from us so that trip will have to be done a bit later.
On our way across the top of Eyre Peninsula we stopped at a little town in the bush, miles from any water at all but they had a Jetty! Strange, thought Annie as she went off to read the story board. It seems that the local shire chairperson and the publican were enjoying a quiet ale one day, as you do, when they got talking about how to attract more visitors. They reckoned that Ceduna and the other towns over that way get a lot of visitors and wondered what all these towns had that they didn’t. They decided, after much deliberation, and probably a few more ales, it was a jetty.
Apparently the fact that they were a good 100 klms from any water and didn’t really need a jetty didn’t come into the equation or had escaped their notice in some way! So a few of the local blokes got together and built one! Complete with a boat and all the other ‘jetty’ trimmings. Annie likes this sort of ‘left of centre’ thinking.
A bit further on we came to Kimba where the locals have provided the weary traveler and his/her dog/s with a lovely free roadside overnight spot, just a short stroll from the main street. We enjoyed this spot and we really enjoyed the local bush walk, in fact we enjoyed it so much, we did it twice. It was totally different in the evening than in the morning, different smells and animals too.
Our next stop was Port Augusta, where we stayed just long enough to fuel up and have morning tea and a run for Carlin and I then we pushed on towards Adelaide. We got almost as far as Two Wells when Annie decided to head into town the next day instead. The free camp that was meant to be here at a spot just past Two Wells wasn’t available any more, so it was not a peaceful night at all.
We stayed with Mary and David who have rather lovely Golden Retrievers and a rather grouchy Aussie Terrier, who bossed me around no end; in fact I have to say I was more than a little scared of her. They also have a doggie door, which quite fascinated me. Whilst staying with our friends Mary took us to her Wednesday morning obedience session, when Mary went off to take her class Annie and I joined in. I rather enjoyed myself and Annie was very pleased with me as I had done quite well – in fact I was as good as the other dogs in the class, and I had never done a class before!
Leaving Mary and David’s we headed for a place called Lamaroo, a country town in SA. It was a little bit out of our way but that bloke called Macca who we listen to on Sunday mornings on the radio was doing his show so we went to listen to him live! It was such fun too! We thought he was rather funny as he seemed to be so disorganised but still got the programme done!
From Lamaroo to Tailem Bend, Meningie, through the Coorong and we camped for the night at a place called Kingston South East – the silly people in SA have not one but two places called Kingston, this one and another way up on the Murray River! A little short in the imagination department I think.
Mount Gambier was next, Annie has trialed dogs in Mount Gambier and knew of a great place to run us, and we had our lunch there too. After that it was on towards Geelong via Casterton and Hamilton. Casterton was where I had my puppy shots and we went to visit the vet but she wasn’t open, phew!
Annie decided she didn’t really want to just roll up at our holiday house quite late at night so we had a last camp at a town oval with a big sign welcoming travelers to camp there. We had just settled down for the night when our peace was shattered – the local tennis club met on Wednesday nights and you guessed it, this was Wednesday night!
The next morning we drove down into Geelong and found our holiday home. To say that Annie was a little disappointed would be something of an understatement. It was a mess and Annie decided that when Mary Rose said she thought it was ‘ok’ she must have been on drugs at the time.
Carlin and I quite liked having our own little garden and we loved all the parks around the place where we could run and sniff our local neighbors.
Annie found someone in the Park who would make our annex really nice for us, so we made plans to move up to Mary Roses’ house for a week. Annie packed what we needed into our H.o.W and we drove to the supermarket nearby to pick up some milk and bread to take up with us, Annie parked the van and told us she would not be long so we were not concerned.
The next thing we knew someone strange broke into our little home, it was a ‘he’ but we didn’t know him at all....Carlin and I were very frightened, where was our special person? What had this ‘he’ done with our Annie?
He drove us to the park we had been having our runs in, and started throwing stuff out of the H.o.W; he unclipped our harnesses and turned us out of the van so he could go through the stuff in the back. Carlin was very, very scared and shuffled under the van to hide. I didn’t know what to do, but it was our park, so I thought I would just have a quick wiz around in case Annie was hiding somewhere. After a few laps I could not find her so I went and lay down close to the van, the ‘he’ had gone but Carlin was still too scared to come out.
We lost track of how long we waited but eventually a very nice man in a white car with stripes and blue lights came and spoke to us and shortly after another similar car bought Annie to us! Oh what joy, we were all so pleased to be together again!
Annie was very upset, shaking and crying, as she had been looking for us all over and was fearing the worst. As it happened things were a bit crook, as the nasty ‘he’ had taken off with Annie’s’ bag and purse and mobile phone and all our photographs of our new friends we had made on our trip and all sort of other treasures too.
It took us all a few days to get over this big fright and get stuff sorted out again, but we did and at least none of us were hurt....Carlin and I still like Annie to talk to us when she gets into the H.o.W, just so as we know it is her.
We definitely did not like being puppy-napped and really feel sad for all those poor dogs that it happens to, especially when they don’t find they’re people again. After a while Annie got a part time job, of an evening, working with her old friends at Medibank Private and we got the work done on the annex.
We spent a few days down in Gippsland catching up with our friends Connie and John and Dash and Razor the Labradors.
Once it was finished it looked rather good – all white and bright. Annie hopes to have the caravan taken away soon and have the space built in with a proper cabin.
Geelong is quite a handy place to be. There are lots of places to go for walks and drives, lots of coffee bars and shops too. There is a Dog Club not far away, but they are so busy we could not join straight away.
Just after Christmas 2006 we heard that Bob had been ill again, he had lost more toes and had not been out of the house for over 3 days. Annie decided that we should go back and stay with him for a bit. She was a little concerned about traveling in all that heat up through the middle but we set off in mid January, it was a bit warm up to about Coober Pedy. We pulled in to an off road overnight spot just short of Coober Pedy, we had checked out 2 of these spots already but they were not nice, but this one looked ok.
There was a caravan already there so we went to say ‘hallo’ as one does in these situations. The people had 2 little poodles with them so our people all got chatting and as it turned out the poodles’ special people were from Lakes Entrance, do obedience and agility and are great friends of our friend Maud (Ashman) so we had a rather long happy few hours!
But then it rained and rained and rained, in fact we had some rather deep crossings to contend with, at one of these crossings, which was deeper than the others, we got Carlin out of the H.o.W and threw the retrieving dummy into the water, then told him to ‘fetch’ so as we could see how deep the water was! Labradors are good for that sort of thing, they should come with little white markers up their legs so it is easier to decide how deep the water is, I have decided.
At Alice Springs we got a call from Connie in Gippsland wanting to know how we were managing in the terrible heat (they were melting in 40+ in Traralgon), it seemed rather odd to say that we were a little cool as it was raining and low 20’s where we were!
We had another 2 overnight camps after Alice Springs, arriving in Darwin on the 20th of January. Things in Darwin were just about the same as when we left over 6 months earlier; Annie got a job with the Government again, this time at the MVR and only part time to begin with.
We have met a few new doggie friends; we have also joined Freds Pass Dog Club. I am hoping to be in my first ever trial at the end of April. Annie is pleased with me and all is well in my little Whippet world.
We heard from Lulu (my Mum) and Natalie (my first special person) the other day, she has some lovely baby hairy mammoths (GSD’s), we even saw pictures of them, they do look rather nice, I think I could entice one or two to play with me if I were there!
It’s Easter now, Annie sent Easter wishes to some of her friends including Jan (my friend Gypsy’s special person) and she too has returned to Darwin for a bit! We are all meeting up on the beach on Wednesday morning!