Lifestyle choices

Passed by some groups today living life in interesting ways.

The first was the couple running the campsite at Karajini. They were grey nomads, probably early-mid 60s,  doing the round Australia thing. Except they were doing it properly. They were ten years into it, and had been in WA for the last three. Given that they were from Victoria and had done South Australia, I suspect they were about half way round. Their plan was to volunteer their way around, and were doing a three month stint, two days on two days off in Karajini. For their troubles of managing the campground they get free camping and gas, and occasionally some fuel. They also get some perks of accompanying the rangers sometimes when there is a trip on the a remote part of the park. In a previous place at Coral Bay, they manned the information bureau, which was rather more full-time. The chief perk of that job was that the tour operators which advertise out of the “i” would often take them out.

The second couple were young (it’s all relative!), probably about 30. He was a shearer from Esperance, and she, well, she was with him. He considered himself a pretty good shearer, having several times sheared over 300 ewes in a day, and 400 lambs, which I gather I was meant to understand as being pretty good. He sheared around 3 months a year in W.A., and three months a year in the south of England, and as far as I could make out spent the time either holidaying, or getting a variety of work anywhere else in between. Her mum was in the U.K., so any excuse was good enough for a trip there. He’d been shearing for 11 years, and found most other jobs too slow and boring, preferring the hard work and competition of the shearing shed. So whoever said you needed to be a professional and save your pennies to travel the world?

The third, now here comes a sad story. He was an S.E.S. volunteer from Newman, so I’d guess his day job was in the mines. He was called out to a rescue in one of the gorges in Karajini and was drowned when a flash flood came down. The gorges are very narrow and the ground hard, so when it rains, and it can rain hard up here, the water can rise instantly to a raging torrent. He gave his life attempting to save another, and will be remembered always because the Junction Pool has been renamed after him, and also because a Celtic cross has been erected as a memorial. The small shrine has attracted those who show their appreciation by adding to the pile of stones, now quite considerable, at its base.

All different ways to live your life.