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September 24, 2001
Overland Australia - Update 51
September 24, 2001
Day 63
Rabbit Flat Roadhouse on the Tanami Track
From Josh:
During the trip we have met a number of different people. One man we met back in Yuendumu was named Frank. Frank appeared as a laid-back, bare-foot, bush redneck; we soon realized that he was actually as far from being a bush redneck as one can get. He could have entertained the group for hours; unfortunately we met him just before we were ready to leave.
Frank told us that he and an owner of the most remote roadhouse in Australia 420 kms away on the Tanami Track (Bruce at Rabbit Flat Roadhouse), have a 10 year tradition of writing abusive letters to one another and sending them in the most ridiculous ways - for example aeroplane letter drops. One time when Frank attempted to deliver a letter via helicopter the chopper didn’t even have a chance to land. Bruce came out and told the pilot to ‘nick off’ because of all the dust being kicked up by the rotor blades.
I was asked to deliver a letter to Bruce from Frank. Being the type of person I am I gladly accepted the mission. We arrived at Rabbit Flat this morning at around 10.30-11.00am. Bruce was still in bed. I was told to come back in 45minues. I came back and his son said he would be up in about half an hour – “Come back then” I was told.
Just as well we had planned on staying for a while. When he finally came to see me he noticed that Todd was filming the whole episode. Not liking media he asked as politely as he could for us to turn off the camera, “It’s *#@$ impolite to film a man without *#@$ permission.” We turned the camera off and I explained that I had a letter from Frank. He said “that will just be another *#@$ letter telling me to ‘Get Stuffed’.” I told him I knew nothing. He glanced down the letter before turned it for me to read. “I told you so”, he said triumphantly. Sure enough it read the following…
Dear Bruce,
GET STUFFED!!
Love Frank
XXXXXXX
Bruce then walked away without another word. No thank you or anything else. That was the end of my first day with Tanami Bicycle Couriers.
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Posted on September 24, 2001 1:57 PM