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April 7, 2005
A mountain to climb
This morning we up-sticksd (is that a word?) from relative luxury of Frogs Hollow backpackers. Home is now a 25x15ft concrete pad in the Dinah Beach Yacht Club boat parking area for both the pedal boat and ourselves. Its all a little disorientating theincredible heat, having all our bags sitting out in the sun with no respite from the blazing sun. Its pretty basic stuff. The morning was spent rigging up a tarp just to create the simplest of shelter from sun and rain.
This evening we bumped into a couple of tradesman Les and Dave who kindly offered to help push Moksha the two miles from her current storage in the lead shed on Ft. Hill Wharf back to the yacht club. Then the real work begins. Although structurally sound, as far as we can initially tell, shes in a terrible state. The three weeks we have to get her ship-shape again seem all too few.
Much of the gear and the equipment that was stored on two pallets beside Moksha in the storage have been ransacked and the expensive equipment stolen. Its my own fault for being away for so long. Its hard to know without getting into the back of the boat tomorrow (where the rest of the gear is stored) how much of a set-back this is.
Every leg of the expedition is like a mountain to climb, and right now were at the bottom looking up at the objective arriving in Singapore and it seems so very far away! Never have we had so little a support base in any of the staging points the expedition has been in around the world. The simplest things like shelter are turning out to be BIG deals right now. Its actually quite overwhelming what all has to accomplished.
One silver lining is our new neighbour a Scot named Andy. Already he has proved himself to be a star, helping us scrounge the odd piece of timber to create a shelter. Hes perfectly cylindrical, with a limbering gait and caustic whit to boot. This morning when I asking him how long hed been in Australia he told me 36. Well, youve kept your accent pretty well, I remarked. Och aye he replies, Too tight to even give thataway.
If you knew the Scots youd know what he meant.
Posted on April 7, 2005 1:08 PM