1
As a big beneficiary from Eddie's on-going research I had been able to explore
many places in Austrlaia so far.
We booked a cottage inside Capertee NP for 5 days.
I memorized this unfamiliar name of Capertee by repeatedly telling people that I was going during
Christmas time.
I had not had a clear idea actually where it was then.
It's westnorth way from Sydney after Blue Mountains between Lithgow and Mudgee.
End of my work in 2018 was Friday, the 21st of December.
I had two imminent occasions I had to come to terms with which made my mind distracted
from the up-coming big change due in one month thankfully.
Still I felt a little numbed with all sorts of end of year festive mood.
Suze came back home from Hawaii for good on the 22nd of December.
She cleared her three bags fairly well before the end of the next day.
Next two days I cooked lots of her favorite food and stored in the fridge.
2
On the Christmas day we left home around 10 am.
The sun was mercilessly hot already under the cloudless blue sky.
Expecting over 30 degrees celius.
According to weather forecast it would be extremely hot obove 35 degrees celius during 5 days.
So we thought we could really relax at the cottage during day time.
Without doing much of physical activities.
Maybe we could read books.
Maybe we could do morning walks when it's cooler.
I packed my skipping rope as well just in case.
The closest town from where we stay would be around one hour's drive inclusive
8 km's unpaved road.
I tried to cram as many food items as possible to survive 5 days without extra grocery shopping.
I alwasys hated this packing and carrying too many things part but a trip like this
necessarily involved taking lots of things with us.
Eddie never minded carrying lots of craps in the car.
It's only me who disliked too many hassels and complexities.
3.
Heavy traffic got better around Mt Victoria after Blackheath and Janolan Cave.
Scenery changed from familiar to foregin and new.
Less busy, more rustic and suddenly it got a feeling of remoteness.
We stopped at a petrol station around midday just before Lithgow.
By then it got steamed hot inside the car which was unbearable almost already.
A chubby woman was smoking in front of one of toiletts which were
extremely filthy and smelly.
After toilett we tried to find out anything which could make us refreshed from the shop but
as usual couldn't find anything good for good reason.
Eddie decided to fill up the gas tank just in case and I was waiting in a queue behind a man
in order to pay inside the shop.
Suddenly the woman at the counter sensed a car (our car) moved from the petrol pump
without paying(??) and efficiently get a male staff to go and check the suspicous car(our car).
I didn't know what was happening until this stupid woman mentioned our car rego number.
When I realzied it I blurted out to her it's our car and I was there obviously to pay for
the petrol we already pumped in.
She wasn't waivered at all with her mal behaviour and bid me a merry Christmas
after I paid.
I found it extremely ridiculous and offensive.
Suddenly the area we headed lost its appeal due to this stupid woman's behaviour.
4.
We arrived at our destination at 2:30pm and it was even hotter there.
Everything looked too dry and dusty.
Our car was covered with yellowish dirt already.
Looks like we were the only ones staying there on the Christmas day.
No one else.
Except birds and kangaroos or wallabies.
The cottage seemed simple and functional which was good enough especially
with the airconditioner.
Eddie had a long nap that day after shower before dinner.
It must have been a yearly storage of stress and tiredness.
5.
Early morning we went out for a walk.
We were stunned that the temperature outside dropped dramatically.
I was even feeling cold with long pants and long sleeved tops.
We walked along the dirt road, passed the camp site where there was no one.
Only one facility existing there was a non-flush toilett.
Capertee River was completely dried up.
Even though it's refreshingly cool, it's painful to look at the dried dirt paths.
Kangaroos were hopping around nonchalantly.
Temperature was rapidly increasing as day progressed.
Day time we were sitting under the airconditioner and relaxing doing not much
as we expected.
Suze was studying for her assignment.
But from time to time she was impatient with the situation.
Young people couldn't do very well without internet these days.
I had a book I wanted to finish.
This book was given to me from an elderly lady and I wanted to show her that I read it
which meant it was not chosen by my interest.
I made myself busy cooking and fixing meals but first 2 days we consumed food I cooked
and brought from home.
One of good things about staying at a holiday house was that I didn't need to tydy up or clean
too much.
We regretted that we didn't bring any movies and finished only one movie DVD provided there.
Eddie turned on the local community radio from time to time.
It was operated by locals and the music was typically old country style one.
Suze was mockingly copying their non-professional down to earth way of talking
and commenting their music selections unapprovingly.
I liked some of the music which I used to listen to a long time ago though.
From the kitchen window views toward green bushes were very comforting in spite of hot scortching
tormentful weather there while we were staying.
But other than that everything seemed too dry and too dusty.
Too much.
Rain water from reserved tank was tarnished colored and all the time lukewarm.
I was even worried if water would ran out.
I was very hesitant to use a washing machine so I didn't wash first couple of days.
I tried to collect recycled items in separated bags and brought them back home
as it was a remote area for the sake of environment.
It didn't say anything about sorting out garbage though.
Once again I realized we made too many wasted items and ridiculously huge amount of plastic
items had to be thrown away.
Whenever I went out for hanging out clothes or skipping on the only non dusty place near the porch
the hot air choked me almost always.
The high dried temperature almost burned my skins.
From the second day a car came for the homestead accomodation next to us and several cars
for camping.
It was worriesome to look at those people camping outside where it stayed overheated until later night
and there was no water resourse available around.
We went out to take a walk to the Lookout in the evening which took 2 hours in return.
It was still uncomfortably hot and bright around 7 and 8 pm.
Some of campers drove people on the dried dirt road to the Lookout and I hated them cos they made dustclouds which
splashed to us.
It was not a pleasant walk but I thought it would be real nice on a cooler day with the view.
It was unbelievably good after a shower we could cool down in front of the airconditioning.
Temperature stayed hot and humid even until after 9pm.
I didn't even want to think about those people at the camp site.
How could they possibly survive without any shower under the impossible temperature after the sweaty 2 hour walk?
6
After 3 days of experiencing tiring hot temperature and uncomfortable bed Suze wanted to come home.
Most probably due to lack of connection to outer world.
It was indeed tiring to experience ultimate hot weather.
With basic limited amenities.
However it was at the same time very relaxing doing not much away from home
and away from technology and human society.
This kind of doing not much holiday was very new and first for us.
After 2 more days as planned in there made us really appreciate our home once again.