Day 4 - Aussie Road Crew

Late last night Bec Hance was attending to one of the Roadies who had a suspected snake bite. Anita sent me across with the snake bite bandage I bought at the first aid course I did a couple of months ago. Bec's other job is paramedic. I helped load the patient into a friend's Landcruiser as that would be faster transport than calling an ambulance.

The bite turned out to be from a poisonous centipede. I found a September 2020 report on the ABC news site of two people being admitted to Longreach Hospital with suspected snake bites within 10 minutes of each other - one from Longreach and the other from Ilfracombe. Both were found to have been bitten by these poisonous centipedes.

The pain is apparently excruciating so our Roadie had three local injections into her foot and spent the night in hospital. We have noticed her friends are back wearing shoes or boots instead of thongs!

My snake bite bandage was returned this evening and it came in handy as a toy to keep Little Fancy occupied while Bec was selling merchandise. 


Today we drove from Ilfracombe to Barcaldine where most of us were breathalysed as we reached the outskirts of town. Some speculated the Barcaldine police had been told of our ladies champagne afternoon and the blokes gathering at the Wellshot Hotel. Fortunately none of our group was over the limit, but at least one driver may have inadvertently been lucky by taking a different route.

We bought take away lunches from the Satisfaction Bakery and ate them in the Bushtracker away from flies. The road from Barcaldine to Blackall is sealed and appears to be in good condition but it was a bumpy ride. The dashcam was turned off and on again after the Toyota was serviced, resetting it to factory settings which include beeping every time there is a bump in the road. Add that job to my growing list!

There was a long wait to get to our site in the Blackall Caravan Park with more than 50 vehicles on this tour. We were served very good hamburgers cooked by Beccy Cole and crew, then treated to a Bec Hance concert. Bec and Little Fancy are leaving our tour for a couple of nights as Bec is performing at a festival in Boondooma, nearly 900kms away. Pete will stay with ARC with their little dog Boofy.





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